CH.3 THEMES

SACRED

POLITICS AND SOCIAL ORDER

Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830

Picasso, Guernica, 1937, 11x25’

STORIES AND HISTORIES

Sassetta, S. Francis Giving His Mantle to a Poor Man and the Vision of the Heavenly City, c.1437

LOOKING OUTWARD: THE HERE AND NOW

Hopper, Gas, 1940

Windward (oil on canvas with photo-transfer, 1963) by Robert Rauschenberg.

Statue of LibertyBald eagle against a rainbowSistine ChapelMichelangelo ceilingSunkist orangesManhattan rooftopsWater towersBuilding facadesConstruction workers

Visual impact of daily life…

• In Windward Rauschenberg combines photographs of the Statue of Liberty with shots of New York house façades, confronting these with images showing the election of the Pope in the Sistine Chapel and crates of oranges. The composition is dominated by the deeply iconic figure of the eagle. In what appears to be a random arrangement, the artist fosters an enigmatic and richly associative dialogue between the various juxtaposed pictorial worlds which defies any attempt at aesthetic categorization.

LOOKING INWARD: HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943

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Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664,

National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection

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Netherlandish Art

• Religious controversy and general unrest dominated society in the Netherlands.

• Catholic Church lost its hold and their commissions lessened, artists increasingly served private patrons.

• artists' new patrons commissioned images of moral lessons and warnings against the deadly sins incorporated into pictures of daily life.

BOSCH, Hieronymus

• Bosch was a Dutch painter who lived in the 15th and 16th centuries (circa 1453 to 1516). Although his work is inspired by medieval art, Bosch was a painter of the Renaissance, contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci.

triptych painting by Hieronymus Bosch:

The Temptation of St. Anthony

Bosch invented a style marked by Caricature and monstrous characters from medieval bestiaries. His work is full of strange and inventive and madness. He is recognized as a precursor of the great surrealist painters of the 20th century.

"The third day of creation", outside panel of Bosch's Garden of Earthly delights

The Earthly Paradise (Garden of Eden)Left wing

Garden of Earthly Delights (Ecclesia's paradise)Central panel

• Fountain of Life with Female Rock (after Fraenger).

• Fountain of Life with Male Rock

• Triumphal Procession around the Water of Life

• Orange Grove

• Gate to the Paradise

• Bird Wedding

• Eulogy of Virility

• Bridal Chamber in Pumpkin

• Along with the fairly obvious representations, however, the carnal life is also alluded to in metaphorical or symbolic terms.

• Strawberries …probably symbolize the unsubstantial quality of fleshly pleasure.

Bridal Chamber in Semen Capsule

• Death Thistle

HellRight wing

Bird-Headed MonsterDetail from right wing

The pink bagpipe in the centre above the tree-man has several connotations: the bagpipe was considered a very aggressive instrument because of the loud sound it makes, and may represent those that play it who are now being punished in this hell. The bagpipe was also a symbol of the male sex organ.

• Christ's Descent into HellStyle of Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlandish, about 1550–60)MMA

Thomas Cole

The Oxbow

1836oil on canvas4 ft. 3 1/2 in. x 6 ft. 4 in.

Monet, Impression Sunrise and Thomas Cole, The Oxbow

Smithson, Spiral Jetty 1970 Great Salt Lake, Utah