blog #3: Ch. 19 Renaissance Art in the 15th century Italy

Throughout Chapter 19, I tried relating to each of the works of art, but couldn't. Many were architecture pieces or had a religious story behind it. In terms of visual aspects though, strangely.. Disney princesses had often come to my mind!

1) ~Annuciation North Corridor--pg. 639-- reminds me of Cinderella, how the fairy godmother, like a needed angel (Gabriel), had come to Cinderella (Mary) when she was all by herself in complete distraught
2) ~Camera Picta--pg. 646-- Beauty & the Beast! there was stunning architecture, espescially the celings w/ the elegant chandeliers & angelic cherubs playing around in the clouds, displayed in the movie during the oh-so romantic scene
3) ~& last but not least... Birth of Venus--pg. 651-- can you guess it? the Little Mermaid! Ariel- my favorite disney princess. How she comes out of a shell...& pretty much is nude like Venus herself
4) & though not a disney princess, Donatello's "David" statue reminds me of Peter Pan. To me it evokes a sense of rebellion & youthful boyhoodness. He fearlessly defeated Goliath as Peter Pan's naive, bold approach to fighting Captain Hook. & the hat has a similarity as well.

But in a more detailed & personal sense, the Primavera or Spring, circa 1482, by Sandro Botticelli (pg. 650) stood out to me. "Botticelli was exposed to a philosophy of beauty & produced secular paintings of mythological (mythology- i find very interesting) subjects inspired by ancient works & by contemporary Neoplatonic thought, including Primavera"

This I find to be a very beautiful & fairytale-like magical tempera painting on wood. It evokes a sense of mystery since it takes place in a dark forest.. yet the airyness of the dresses, the lightness of the way the subjects carry themselves, the colors of the flowers, and their brightness contrast to the darkness leaving a well balanced harmonious play of light & dark/ good & bad

"The theme suggests love & fertility in marriage & provides in the image of Venus a model of the ideal women. Venus is silhouetted & framed by an arching view through the trees."
Adding to the theme of marriage & love, this image reminded me of weddings!
I have been to a lot of weddings in my lifetime (19 years)...I think a lot of Vietnamese families do...& though most of the weddings i've been to are not NEARLY as romantic & beautiful as this image provokes, they still provide the same basics: the gorgeously dressed bride, flower girl, petals on the ground, the arching & centering of the bride...

Flora- the Roman goddess of flowers & fertility (on the right side, in a flower printed dress) represents the flower girl
the cupid- very associated w/ Valentine's day & love.. (Venus's son) represents overall love, the feeling weddings evoke in general
& just the whole mise en scene (term used in film- meaning composition of the image) has a whimsical, playful, romantic feel (except for Zephyr- the greenish wind god on the very right- which could represent creppy guys today chasing after girls who run away from them)

The Three graces on the left of Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thaleia, represent joy, beauty & festivity. There are also certain qualities/characteristics in the 21st century that people often say emulates the 'ideal' girl. It still might be joy, beauty & festivity to some perspectives, or polite, humble, and multiple talent to others. It varies depending on culture, generation & person. In Vietnamese culture, there are four: behavior (the way you carry yourself), how you speak, gracefullness, and cooking and cleaning ability.
This is actually, i think, seen as the "standard" of ideal girl qualities. If I ask my dad, cousin or aunt who were all raised in Vietnam, they know about these...we don't have that in America. thankfully
I don't really follow them, I'm a complete klutz! i guess I do help around the house, can sortaish cook and am polite, but I don't believe anyone should have to conform themselves to other's views on what is the epitome of 'perfect'.
Everyone should have a different, and more importantly.. their own, idea of what is 'ideal'. My vision of what's seen as 'ideal', not a reflection upon myself..though i wish it was.. are: a vivid, intruiging uniqueness, multiple talents (including ability to sing & play an instrument), athlecticism (in @ least one sport), an insightful & intellectual voice, and the ability to kick guys' butts in any arena that guys are superior in! (even if it's video games)

on a different note. the Three Graces dancing in sheer, translucent 'dresses' also remind me of my 2 sisters & me! Mostly by the fact that there's three of them. I'm the middle daughter & we're all 2 years apart (haha my dad wanted boys & got THREE girls instead)
And though, my sisters & I would never dress like that (like our dad would ever let! or that we ever would) or dance like that (it's the 21st century..that would be pretty interesting)...there's a special bond & magic between any sisterhood! (blood related or not) The symbolism of 3 girls have been repeated throughout time & used worldwide.. bringing to the mind different things depending on how one associates them with

blog #2: Unicorns- 15th century and Harry Potter & Tapestries/Embroidery

In Chapter 18: 15th century Art in Northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula, there was an art piece called Unicorn Found at the Fountain. It is part of the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries series and made of wool, silk and silver threads. The unicorn is a symbol of the Incarnartion of Christ and a metaphor of romantic love. As still today, paintings, tapestries, practically all works of art have symbollism and deeper meaning. In the 15th century, when the Christian religion was popular, religious hidden symbols were common. Now days, for individual works of art, it tends to be more personal- within the artists' own unique perspective.

Symbollism is pretty much universal! It is seen everywhere even if we may not realize it. (movies, logos, books, flags) In the tapestry above, the unicorn captured by the Virgin mary represents Christ. The animals represent certain qualities that are still used today. (Dogs- fidelity, lions-power) In the medieval bestiary- which is an encyclopedia of real & imaginary animals, an unicorn's horn was believed to be an antidote for poison.
After i read this, I thought of Harry Potter! In Harry Potter, unicorns blood, like medieval beliefs of unicorn's horn, were believed to provide magical powers. In the Harry Potter novel , when one drinks the blood of a unicorn, though it helps keep one alive, whoever drank it, will live a half-life, a cursed life. I remember a quite vivid scene in the movie, where Harry is in the forest at night & finds a dead unicorn. The only one who would risk living a cursed life is one who is at utter desperation to stay alive- Voldemort.


As for the actual technique of tapestries, I found to be quite interesting; soo different from the usual artworks. Tapestries -made by threads & people who sew together the image- are very common in Vietnam. I've never been to Vietnam before, but I've seen many framed art pieces, that surprisingly are made from THREAD! I even have one of pink & white flowers hanging on the living room wall. My aunt has one of a scenary by the water with boats, sunset & people wearing the traditional sun hats. (& the straw houses that are in the water held up by wooden sticks- don't know what they are called) Being a Vietnamese girl myself, reading about the tapestries was quite personal, since it was something I could reflect upon. I grew up wearing silk pajamas with images of peacocks or a princess playing a harp sewed upon it. My mom has told me that these embroidery art pieces (the framed artworks, not sure about the pjs) are sewed by HAND! These creators must have some serious sewing skills and patience, which I could never acquire. 15th century or even now, to make art by a single thread one at a time, requires patience, hard work, and most importantly, the desire to create such a piece.
made of thread, purely by handmade sewing
http://vietnameseartwork.com/itemList.aspx?GroupID=25

Blog #1: 3 pictures that represent me

Hi, I'm Diana...Welcome to my blog! :)


This is my 2nd art class with Cynthia Reiss. i took art 1a during January, winter 09 & am on to continue the journey through art history with art 1b. It's ironic that i'm taking an online class, for my dad hates for me to be online so i sneak my laptop upstairs, haha



I feel like I can relate to Juliet in the photograph above in the classic film Romeo & Juliet. This is NOT because I fall easily crazy, helplessly head over heels in love, far from it actually, but with how she looks here. Sorry guys, No.. I don't have major clevage. :p



I don't resemble anything like her besides the dark hair & pale skin... but how her eyes glaze up to the sky, daydreaming off into the distance and she positions her chin onto her hand, it reminds me of myself. I, like juliet, love having a balcony! When the weather isn't freezing or my neighbor isn't out smoking, I love to lean upon it, take in the breeze and enjoy the view. (not much of a direct front view, but the far off sides are great)


Part of me, is my dreamy side. It's the side of me that smiles over small things, melts when watching movies and feels heartbreak when others are.
I can be quite the romantic, DEF a dreamer, and like juliet in this photo, somewhat innocent. At least that's what people tell me...well..for a girl of 19 that is.




Many of you girls may have probably already seen this.

It's the Vera Wang Princess perfume advertisement! (Found in many magazines) When I first saw this, I S2ed it! I love the juxtaposition of Camilla Belle swinging on a tree branch (a very tomboy 'unladylike' thing to do) yet wearing a stunning dress and princess crown! It spoke very true: Born to rule. Which is the message girls should be getting. I love the idea of swinging on chandeliers. My more realistic version would be jumping on beds. monkey bars just doesn't do it. I think this picture brings out my playful, whimsical, carefree side. It's the unconventional, break of the norm actions that one takes part in, that makes you who you are.


& though I've never swung on chandeliers upon tree branches in a gorgeous gown only lucky girls get the chance to own, if there was ever a possibilty the dress miraculously appeared with stable chandeliers upon an extraordinary tree, I wouldn't miss it for the world.


This abstract figure (illustration or painting) of Geogia O'Keefe's Red Canna flower (which i saw in the art 1a txtbk) i think, does a wonderful representation of a Red Canna flower. This abstraction (transformation of visible forms into patterns that suggest the original form) of the Red Canna isn't so non-representational (artistic representation so abstracted that it is removed from natural world appearance) that you can't tell it's a flower, but the petals are exaggerated and color intensified! The content (substance of an art work) of O'Keefe's Red Canna didn't aim at perfection. O'Keefe's idealized (representation of an object as the artist thinks it should be rather than it appears in nature) paintings, were conveyed in a personal sense.. through the way she saw the beauty of nature and not in a typical 'ideal' of having a classical (synonym for perfection) style. (form & content) Though I'm not exactly a patron (person or group who commisions or supports a work of art) of O'keefe's, she did a truly wonderful job on portraying feeling and flow to exude from this painting.

Though I love and appriciate cool colors, (I often wear them too..baby blue is my favorite!) I find myself as more of a warm hued girl..& this painting def exudes the warm fiery colors just blooming out. When I first saw this painting, many things I love came to mind: fashion (flow of summer silky dresses), sunset, volcanoes, the grand canyon (which i've never been to)...it has a sensuous vibe that strikes out. & the openess of the bloom represents me being very open. I'm also very open-minded, I try to give everything a chance..they don't all always work out, but it's worth trying. I like to think I'm a passionate person, which the reds display.. the yellows- sunshine, glowing, happy, part of my personality, and the cooler lavender petal strips portray the calm (i'm pratically always calm) and subtle side of me.
When it comes to abstract art line, movement & color, I'm much more of a flowy, fade in, out, & meld together kind of girl...rather than edgy, geometrical, straight lines, black & white. I don't see everything in black & white...there's depth, different colors, & everything in between.



*xox Diana :)

PS: looking foward to reading your blogs