ASSIGNMENT 1. GALLERY VISIT
INGER MEWBURN
WILL CHOI, 9964088F
23/01/2004

18th CENTURY EUROPEAN ART EXHIBITION


Nicolas Regnier, Flemish 1591-1667, Hero and Leander,
C1626, oil on canvas.

The subject of this painting is drawn from a fable of late antiquity. Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos. Each night Leander would swim across the Hellespont to see her. One night a storm extinguished the light by which Hero guided Leander through the water to her and he drowned. Regnier depicts her dramatic lamentation over the limp, lifeless body of Leander.

Regnier once did this painting in somber colors and manipulated the sources of lighting for dramatic effect. The combination of colors in Hero's costume - striking burnt orange, the particular shade of pink, the blue of the belt, and beige - are typically Bolognese. The figures and facial types are also reminiscent of the work of the Bolognese master Guido Reni.

The matter attract me in this painting is the strong contrast of how Regnier use colors and set up the lighting. The foreground is very bright, which can jut the subject of the paint. Middle ground and back ground are using black and dark gray, which made viewer’s eye directly land on the subject at the first glance. Also the contrast gives a sense of feeling that there is a spot light or a sun light land on the main element. At the back ground there is a bit of lighting effect, to me it balanced whole painting (front and back), also that bit of light helps the viewer emotionally drown into the painting (I mean some how it helps viewers to feel the sadness and hopeless of Hero).

Another interesting point of the painting is Regnier had used some bright color such like orange and very light pink to decorate the main element (the foreground). I suppose it made the painting more interesting visually (not monotonous on color issue).

I assume in this painting Leander and Hero are the main element. Because of:
o they are in such bright color
o they took most of the space in the painting
o they have a lot of details
o they been set up in foreground, and most close to viewers




Bernardo Bellotto, Italian 1721-1780, Ruins of The Forum, Rome
C1743, oil on canvas.


For this painting I suppose the main element is the three columns. Bernardo use fairly dark and gray tone to express the ruins of the forum. The painting successfully gives a sense of the city is getting old and soon will die out. He uses darker tone at the foreground, then the color getting lighter and lighter from middle ground to back ground. By using different contrast he successfully set up different layers for the painting, and use the layers brings out the sense of depth in the painting. The thing attract me here is the way he shows the depth is quite different with other paintings. Normally the foregrounds are brighter than the back grounds, but Bernardo did opposite way, by doing this the viewer will feels standing in a shadow to look at the forum, which is the painting actually have four different layers of depth. The last one (sense of feeling from viewer) is invisible.

The light source for this painting is actually behind viewer I suppose. Because Bernardo set the darkest layer at the right bottom corner of the painting, which is visually the most close point to the viewers.

For this painting I think Bernardo was focus on the three columns as a main element. Because of:
o been set up in foreground, close to center of the painting
o close to viewers
o took fairly big space
o have a sense of they are one individual element (not connecting to other elements in the painting)



INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION


Pierre Soulages, French, 1919-1967, Untitled
Oil on canvas.

I suppose the interesting point of this painting is I don’t know what it is, or I should say I don’t know what Soulages trying to say or express in this painting. I assume that is his intention to let viewer look at the painting and use their imagination to imagine other things they think is related, so every viewer can have a different sense of feeling and understanding of the painting.

I chose this painting is because of the simplicity. There are only two colors on the painting, blue and black. Why Soulages arranged them in this way??!! I don’t know and also I can’t figure it out, but that’s why it is interesting. You can have many different guesses of it.

I suppose the blue is the main element for the painting, because:
. blue sits in the center of the painting
. it took 80% of the entire space
. blue is brighter than black, it is more attract people’s eyes








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