Categories Of ArtWorks

Famous Art Historians have categorized Paintings into 7 Categories/Types... They are Religious, Mythology, Portraits, Genre, Still Life, Landscape and Historical.

RELIGIOUS
The paintings based on Religion are famous in the West especially the paintings painted during the Renaissance period which has a lot of contents. During Renaissance, the wealthy who could afford to hire an artist pay them to produce religious based artworks.

Isenheim Altarpiece, by Matthias Grunewald in 1506-1515 (1046 × 902)

The paintings themselves are not necessarily to be of religious subject matter, but they usually express or reveal something of the grandeur and misery of the human spirit.

Religious paintings are mostly associated with the life of Church. They depict the stories told and the images described in the religious stories.

these are examples of such paintings :-

Magi, in 1854 (400 × 300)

Crucifixion, by Jacapo Tintoretto in 1563 (4096 × 1755)

MYTHOLOGY

A myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind came to be in their present form.

Mythological paintings are where the paintings show the relationship between human culture and the environment.

Started during the early Renaissance Period. Highly observed in the early centuries in Greek Sculptures.

Among the best-known subjects of Italian artists are Botticelli's “Birth of Venus”.

Herbet Jame Draper's Painting, (901 × 1100)          The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Boticelli (399 × 258)

The Triumph of Neptune, by Nicolas Poussin

Hercuse and Omfala, by Francois Boucher in 1735

PORTRAITS

A painting/photograph/sculpture of a person, where the face and expressions are focused.

Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci (800 × 1143)

 

Represents the mood and personality of the person.

 Hans Makart, (1979 × 2529)

Zass Andrew Pavlovich, (1304 × 1474)

Often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.

 Rembrandt, (1112 × 1400)

GENRE

Term for a category of forms of art based on some set of stylistic criteria.

  The Palais Royal, by Camille Desmoulins (2243 × 2888)

 Genre painting is where the main subject features human figures with no specific identity.

 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1600 × 1063)

Many genre paintings are scenes from common life particularly portraying the lower class.

STILL LIFE


Work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects.

Still life paintings, (particularly before 1700), often contained religious symbolism relating to the objects. Some modern still life employs three-dimensional mixed media, and uses found objects, photography, and computer graphics.

LANDSCAPE

Comprises the visible features of an area of Land. For example, mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, ponds, sea, vegetation, buildings, and weather.

HISTORICAL

A painting that illustrates the discovery, collection, organization, or presentation of the past events.

 Rape of the Sabines, by Fransisco Pradilla

Artists mostly depict events specifically to paintings of scenes from secular history. The moments are grabbed and visualized.

 The Third May, by Fransisco De Goya

Judith Slaying Holofernes, by Artemisia Gentileschi in 1620

Emperor Qin's Terra Cotta Army

Emperor Qin’s Terra Cotta Army was constructed by 700,000 laborers who were ordered to do so by the Qin Dynasty’s first emperor, Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi sometime between 210 to 209 BC. 

According to a local historian known as Sima Qian who was there from the beginning of the construction of Terra Cotta until the end, the construction started in 246BC when Emperor Qin was just 13 year old. The necropolis was found by local formers while digging water well in Lintong district, Xi’an, Shaanxi on Mount Lishan in 1974. The founding was dug out and kept in close ever since.

The pits in the necropolis are 230m long going 1.5km to the east, each about 7m deep. The warrior statues are of actual human height, measuring 5.7ft on average. They vary according to the roles of the warriors. For example, the high ranked generals are slightly taller than the low ranked army.

The warriors were made of yellow clay which was mainly composed of silicon oxide, aluminium oxide and ferric oxide. The same clay was used as the emperor’s eve tile. The earth soil was used for wall of pits.

There are many elements that can be noticed in this artwork. Real swords and armor were found attached to the warriors. Traces of chromium oxide show that the armors were coated to avoid rusting.

Also can be seen, each and every warrior has different faces and expressions. Faded colours found on the statues indicate presence of paintings. Mainly, the art work has the earth tone. The composition only involves brown, yellow ochre and grey. The shadow and light during day and night time gives orange and black colour for the contrast. There are all together 8000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses. All these characters have the characteristics of ancient war. There were all arranged in only vertical and horizontal lines and rows just like an army base ready for war.

Studies by archeologist and historians show that the construction of the Terra Cotta warriors started from heads, arms, legs and the torsos separately before assembling them together. Once complete with body, actual armors and weapons were attached to them to give a more realistic appearance. It was also told that Emperor Qin strictly said that no faces should look alike, and thus, 8 different molds were used to create the heads and clay was used to make facial expressions. Once complete, colour lacquer or colour gloss was used to paint them.

After the necropolis was dug out, robbers stole some of the weapons and the climate had faded the colours.

There are 4 pits all together, each pit with different contents. The first pit has 8000 figures. They were believed to be noblemen as the 11 corridors and the wideness imitates the palace hallway. The wooden ceiling is covered with reed meets and layers of clay which makes them water proof. The second pit consists of chariots and military guards. It’s called the cavalry and infantry units. Whereas the third pit, is known as the command post. It consists of high ranking generals, officers and war chariots. However, the fourth pit was left empty. It is unknown whether it was left empty intentionally, incomplete or they went missing.

Viewing the whole art work, to me, it makes me think about the thousands of millions of sacrifices for the country by the people during ancient war. Their strategic arrangement illustrates their strong will and discipline. After reading up, the art work demonstrates how much power Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi for such huge monumental undertaking at the age of 13. To Emperor Qin, he wanted the Terra Cotta Empire to control the resources of the newly formed China and to main the empire in his afterlife which is a great success myth logically.

The art work is imitative as the objects imitate the First Qin Dynasty warriors, their trend and style that were obviously seen in the clothing, weapons, armors and hairstyle. 

Also, the arrangement of the warriors imitates the ancient war time strategic positioning. The artwork also serves its function by reminding the people of the Qin dynasty’s strength and power to the world and to future generation.

Emperor Qin’s intention in building such necropolis is to rule China even in his afterlife and to main the empire.

When the artwork was under construction, it was aimed to the whole world, mainly to the Chinese and future emperors and other conquerors after 250BC. Now, Terra Cotta Empire is being viewed and studied by archeologists, geographers, historians and also art students.

There are no one left out from being an audient here, only limitations. Since it has 3D value, and it is situated in China, it is pretty difficult for viewers to have a clear understanding of each statue. However, even that has been simplified as 120 objects and 20 terra cotta warriors were displayed in an exhibition called “The First Emperor : China’s Terracotta Army” started in the British Museum, London in 2007, followed by California, Atlanta, South Ana, Washington DC, and Australia.

The First Assignment

A Couple Of Simple Questions Were Asked To Be Answered On This Blog...

What would I Want from this course (Bachelor of Degree in ARTS Graphic Design and Multimedia)? That was the first question. It took me some to time to think about it. End up getting a few different ones. Chose one from it, and it would be that I would like to learn designing my own arts in a professional way. A well-known artist I would like to be, famous for my creative and attractive artworks.

And what would I be in another 5 years? Most probably graduated, working in a very small designing firm, where my own ideas would be worked on and published, and maybe, working on my part-time Masters. In 10 years time? Working in a slightly bigger firm, with a salary of atleast RM5000.00. Probably married, with one or two kids. In another 20 years time? Managing my own designing firm, an advertising company probably...also helping on movie editting, etc.

History of Art and Design...What would I want to get from this class? Definitely to learn how artworks came about. Learning the CORE, always helps, I belief.

Finally, is this subject necessary? I think, it is... Well of course, I thought it wasn't important until my Drawing 1 Lecturer asked our class, "who created paper, and how?"... That's how important it is. Not just for exam sake, History is always necessary in every homo sapiens' lives...

-End-

HiSToRY eVeRYWHeRe...!!

I believe... You can find history everywhere... I used to wonder, what does History got to do with Graphic Design and Multimedia, a degree course i've just started a couple of weeks ago... I have a subject called History of Art and Design. History, a subject that I have always hated to the max, I find it interesting now... Well of course, i can't grasp anything much from the first class, but the syllabus, courseworks, and course structure seems interesting n definatly am looking forward to it...
**Creating this blog was one of our tasks to complete by next class.
Not only in a seperate subject called History teaches History, but also every subjects one could ever learn. In science, we are thaught about who came up with all the findings, which of course made our life miserable to be learnt. Geography, Bio, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Acoounts, Designing, English, Other foreign Languages, and etc, make no difference....!!
Nyways, i'm totally looking forward to experince Dr.Ray's lecture next Monday (UTAR, PJ, Malaysia). Will update soon. Cheows..!! =)