Art is a way for not only everyday people but also artists to show their feelings and their passions. People can be affected in many, and different ways, through art. Even though art can be interpreted in different ways it can still have valuable · Art is an expression of emotions by use and arrangement of different elements like color, sound, form and etc. As it is, it tells a lot about the personality of the one who created it and the time he belongs to. The kinds of people who existed in different periods of history are reflected by the different forms of art created during that blogger.comted Reading Time: 2 mins For any work of art; whether it be in the form of music, art, literature or movies, the way in which the viewer is drawn into the work is an integral part of the value of the art. As David Hume said “Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins
Art Essay Writing: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide
Enlarge this image. It is the most famous painting in the world. a perpetual life, sweeping together ten thousand experiences.
So from the time it was painted until now there seems to be universal agreement among the learned critics that the Mona Lisa is a great painting, among the greatest works of all time.
We are not going to art introduction essay that the Mona Lisa is a terrible or ugly painting; we find it nice enough, and interesting. But if it were not introduced to people as a work of great importance, would they recognize it as such? We think not. It is a nice painting, of no particular intrinsic importance, that became well-known for reasons outlined below, then became famous simply for being very famous.
The lesson is that works of art become famous and lauded for all sorts of reasons, and often those reasons have nothing to do with the intrinsic merit of the work. Leonardo da Vinci, A self-portrait. As we explain in more detail below, art introduction essay, it helps that the Mona Lisa had a very famous creator; Leonardo da Vinci, a man famous in his own time and even more highly regarded in our time. Da Vinci was a great thinker, and a man of absolutely amazing talents; a genius by any standard.
Does that matter? What effect does, or should, art introduction essay, the character of the artist have on the appreciation of his art? Da Vinci was in all likelihood a pedofile; he was certainly gay. Salai arrived on July 22,when Leonardo was thirty-eight, art introduction essay. Gian Giacomo Caprotti was then ten years old, the son of an impoverished peasant from the nearby village of Oreno.
probably at some point he became a lover. Leonardo, who at one point was arrested for sodomy, was quite open about his relationship with Salai and others.
While in Milan inwhen Leonardo was 55, he met a fourteen-year-old named Francesco Melzi. Francesco was an aspiring artist, pretty in the slightly soft way of Salai. But still. Does the sexuality of an artist affect his or her work?
Not only was Leonardo gay, but he was repulsed by the whole idea of heterosexual sex, art introduction essay. The Mona Lisa is praised as a peerless examination of the inner life of a married woman with five art introduction essay. He apparently never had sex with a woman, art introduction essay is not surprising given how repulsive the act seemed to him.
Da Vinci is not alone in having his art introduction essay impact his art. His equally talented contemporary and rival, Michelangelo, was commissioned by the city of Florence to create a painting glorifying a military victory over Pisa in the Battle of Cascina in For his subject, Michelangelo chose not a battle scene, but men bathing nude in the Arno River, because it gave him yet another opportunity to indulge his interest in the male body, despite the fact that it was hardly the sort of climatic battlefield success he had been hired to glorify.
So Leonardo was gay, probably had sex with boys, and was repulsed by the heterosexual act. Leonardo was notoriously unreliable. He regularly accepted commissions, and payment for commissions, which he failed to deliver, including the Mona Lisa.
In his own time he was famous for starting works and never finishing them. In fact, there is no evidence that he ever considered the Mona Lisa finished. In many cases art introduction essay seem to view the fact that Da Vinci went back and tinkered around with his paintings over the years as to a sign that they were masterworks, but we find such logic faulty.
The most important flaw, that should not be forgiven, was that he was willing to sell his services to anyone, including one of history most ruthless tyrants, Cesare Borgia. Leonardo in fact thought of himself every bit as much art introduction essay a defense contractor, creating armaments of war for various rulers, as he did an artist.
All that actually helped, not hindered, the fame of his work and of the Mona Lisa. If you doubt this, compare the amount of scholarly interest between two of the founding fathers of the United States. George Washington was a paragon of respectability, and his personal honor and integrity made him the one indispensable figure in the founding of the United States, art introduction essay.
But writers and academics find Thomas Jefferson infinitely more interesting than Washington. He art introduction essay building his famous house at Monticello, art introduction essay, then pulling parts down, then rebuilding. Like that other masterwork the Mona Lisa, Monticello was the subject of life long tinkering. Like da Vinci, Jefferson was a brilliant man and deep thinker. Jefferson and da Vinci were both hypocrites; Jefferson fled when British troops approached Charlottesville and he never served in the army, but his writings glorify bloodshed, especially in the case art introduction essay the French Revolution.
The provenance of the painting; who owned it over time, has nothing to do with the inherent worth of the work, although provenance is very useful in trying to certify authenticity, art introduction essay.
The Mona Lisa was owned by a series of famous men: Art introduction essay king Francois bought the painting and put it at The Palace of Fontainebleau; Louis the 14 th moved it to Versailles.
Napoleon kept it briefly in his bedroom. This is not to say that the painting was regarded as particularly outstanding; French kings owned hundreds of paintings, and thousands of things which might be considered works of art.
A nice but perhaps unfinished painting of an unknown woman created by a part time painter — hardly the foundation for a legendary work art introduction essay art, even if it could be found among the vast collections of royal art.
The story gets more interesting, art introduction essay, because crime adds drama. The painting was stolen from the Louvre in The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire was accused of the theft and jailed; he tried to implicate his friend Pablo Art introduction essay, who was brought in for questioning.
In fact, Louvre employee and Italian nationalist Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen the Mona Lisa by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed. He kept it in his apartment for two years until he was finally caught when art introduction essay tried to sell it to the Uffizi Gallery. More crime and drama: In a vandal threw acid at the Mona Lisa; later that same year a young Bolivian man threw a rock at it, art introduction essay.
In both cases the damage was minor, but the fame, art introduction essay, or infamy, of the painting grew. In a Russian woman, upset over being denied French citizenship, threw a mug at the painting. The painting is famous largely because it has managed to attract an international cast of nut cases; Italian, Bolivian, Japanese, art introduction essay, Russian — who have unsuccessfully tried to damage the painting, attacks motivated not by the painting itself but by the painting as a symbol of French art; although it was not created in France or by a Frenchman.
The Art introduction essay Lisa allows the viewer to participate in a mystery; why is she smiling in an enigmatic way?
Who is she? Although she was probably Lisa Gherardini there are no definitive records of the commission. Neither the subject nor her husband are of any particular historical importance, but the controversy over the subject has led to much debate, which in turn has led to notoriety. Critics and academics love this sort of mystery, as it creates a cottage industry for books and articles.
Who was Shakespeare, really? Did Jefferson father black children? Who actually wrote which of the Federalist essays? Some of the critics who made such glowing and detailed praise of the Mona Lisa, such as Vasari, may not even have ever seen the original painting.
Was Vasari just making things up, or has the painting changed that much over the last 5 centuries? A fundamental problem with the praise art introduction essay upon it is that the painting that people line up in the Louvre to see art introduction essay not the painting that Leonardo da Vinci painted. The painting has changed many times over the plus years since it was started.
First of all, da Vinci carried it around with him and from time to time, over the years, tinkered around with it, adding subtle touches. So the painting changed during his own life time. As discussed above, it was stolen and vandalized numerous times. Any time art is moved it is subject to damage, and of course, art introduction essay it has been moved many times, as well as being art introduction essay during World War Two.
There have been many restoration attempts over the years, and perhaps some in earlier years that are not even known. The first recorded restoration attempt was in inwhen the painting was in the Musee Napoleon, and involved cleaning with spirits, touch up of color, and revarnishing. More retouches were made in,art introduction essay, andthough some of these were minor in nature. Retouches have been necessary because of warping in the frame as a result of humidity, insect infestation, art introduction essay, and vandalism described above.
The version you see today is probably much darker than the way it looked when he was painting it, just due to the environmental effects of time.
But the most important problem may not be that the painting has changed, art introduction essay, but that the extent of its fame changes the way people see it. His skill art introduction essay observation was so acute that even an obscure anomaly in his paintings, such as an uneven dilation of pupils, causes us to wrestle, perhaps too much, with what he might have noticed and thought.
For any work of art; whether it be in the form of music, art, art introduction essay, literature or movies, the way in which the viewer is drawn into the work is an integral part of the value of the art. And this is very much the case with the Mona Lisa. Skip to content Welcome The Big Picture Gallery Art Museums Great Reads Is the Mona Lisa a Great Work of Art? Introduction to Mariko Art by John F Groom 1 of 5, art introduction essay.
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What is Art?
, time: 2:26Art Essay Introduction - JOHN F. GROOM
Art is a way for not only everyday people but also artists to show their feelings and their passions. People can be affected in many, and different ways, through art. Even though art can be interpreted in different ways it can still have valuable · Art is an expression of emotions by use and arrangement of different elements like color, sound, form and etc. As it is, it tells a lot about the personality of the one who created it and the time he belongs to. The kinds of people who existed in different periods of history are reflected by the different forms of art created during that blogger.comted Reading Time: 2 mins For any work of art; whether it be in the form of music, art, literature or movies, the way in which the viewer is drawn into the work is an integral part of the value of the art. As David Hume said “Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins
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