Wednesday, November 25, 2015 0 comments

A Timeline of Beauty

         
French art is a reflection of Parisian history and its beauty is based upon one’s perspective. Much of the art reflects major events or a time period in France. In order to completely understand the meaning of art you must know two major aspects of a majority of the art that came out of france: the time period and metaphors attached to those time periods. For example, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica”, at first glance, looks like a pile of jumbled shapes and no direct meaning. However, if you know the time period you would know its the same time period of the Spanish civil war and was painted at an anti-war standpoint. Another form of French art that depicted the time period was the architecture. Before the seminar I had not quite realized how everything was in a cycle of recycling. Artists basically took previous ideas from the past and renewed them into a modernized version. The time periods were: Romanesque, Gothic, The Renaissance, Romanticism, and the Industrial Revolution. For instance, the Romanesque time period got its architecture from the Roman times just slightly more detailed; the gothic time period was an updated version of of the Romanesque. The renaissance was incorporated several looks of that of the Romans and Greeks. I must say my most intriguing topic was the Renaissance. Its time period had the most culturally diverse aspects incorporated into one time period.

            The renaissance was dedicated to new ideas such as humanism, exploration, architecture, decor, and realistic art. Each aspect of the Renaissance had either a philosophy or were directly attached to political affair. Humanism promoted the idea of scientific inquiries and philosophies that would later determine the way the government was ran. Exploration expanded the borders of France’s land through conquest of discovered lands in the “New World”. The architecture was used in extravagant buildings of the political leaders, wealthy and political buildings, such as the Palace of Versailles. Decor, like ornate furniture, showed status of the elite because it was not often that a person of poverty owned such a rare form of furniture with such beautiful designs. Lastly, realistic art appeared during the renaissance time period. The renaissance reflected a lot of religion which directly impacted how the government was ran. Paintings incorporated multiple pious symbols such as Jesus with his adventures and angels reaching out to mortals.

            The walk I would love to participate in is Versailles. Versailles is a big part of the renaissance period. It has an abundance of radiant art pieces in and outside of the palace. Even though I would not be able to see the inside, I could still see the intricate gardens on the exterior. The gardens are a prime example of an aristocratic society. They show a level of status because in order to to be able to have something so painstaking to design and get put together built you must have quite a bit of money. King Louis XIV wanted something to symbolize his prominence and status in the society that he looked over. Being a person of enormous interest into political subjects such as these, seeing the Palace of Versailles would be a huge eye opener and leave a permanent impact on anyone who was blessed enough to see it in person. I mean besides, who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by beautiful gardens smelling the various flowers.It may make people actually want to spend time with nature not new age electronics

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gebuert_vun_der_Venus_vum_Sandro_Botticelli.jpg



(Pablo Picasso 1937)





 Destyni   
0 comments

The Role of Art

              In today’s seminar on French art, we reviewed several aspect of art, from where it is found to its connection to history. A big part of Paris is its architecture, there are two fascinating styles, romanesque and gothic architecture. While the styles of these two types overlap, there are clear distinctions. Romanesque architecture has cathedrals with outlines of the cross, gothic architecture follows the same model however expands it with its common signature of gargoyles, pointed arches, flying buttress, vaulted ceilings and more.  The walking tour of the Notre Dame and Gothic Paris is perfect to see the elements that make up Gothic architecture. Architecture in Paris seems to gather a lot of attention, it was intriguing to learn why it is important and relevant. Art is used to help understand what was occurring at the time. For example, Romanticism was extremely popular during the Industrial Revolution due to people being tired of the polluted city. People focused their art on more nature and happier times. This seminar increased my excitement for Paris, it would be great to see the city in the eyes of the artists and to connect art to the history of the city. Art is all connected to the time period, it would be fascinating to learn the history in another way besides a textbook.Who knew that art was so interconnected in several aspects of a single city?

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa.jpg)/Musée du Louvre
Ana Martin

0 comments

French Art Seminar

            During Saturday’s seminar French Art was discussed. Unfortunately I was not able to attend this seminar but I did do my own research on the different periods of French Art and found that my favorite out of each one was realism. Realism paintings are ones that are said to capture contemporary life. The reason I like this style of art the most is because even though it is supposed to be the embodiment of what life is, it is really what the artist perceives it to be. That pretty much means how we see life may not be how others see it and in realism art you get a clear idea of what that artist thinks life is or what life is like. I find it fascinating how much you can learn about someone you’ve never met just from their artwork.

            Based on how I feel about artwork I believe that the “Louvre Italian Masters” is one of the best fit tours for me. It is a tour especially geared toward admiring artwork. I know it is a cliche but art really does speak to me and just the thought of maybe being able to see some of the greatest artworks ever created excites me. Each time we learn something new about France makes going all the more worthwhile.


Description: https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gif


            Now, I know this is a blog about French Art, but I would like to take a quick detour and just say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of Paris who are experience the loss and turmoil of the recent terrorist attack. Given that America has also had citizens lose their lives due to terrorism we can truly say it is never something you forget. So with that being said I pray for the families who experienced the loss of a loved one and I pray that no more lives will be lost.


Nyeri Mallory
 
;