ART F200X

The American Revolution was a hard fought war on both sides. It was a defining moment for enlightenment not just in America but around the world. Art was less about showing new styles an innovation, and more about what the art can mean to the people that see it. That's not to say other eras were not also trying to mean something to people, it definitely was. Much of the art that deals with the American Revolution was commissioned by governments or officials, to spark some type of feeling in the people. There were also personal commissions, usually meant to commemorate something important to a smaller group of people, such as an army battalion or family. The first painting displayed is  George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait) by Gilbert Stuart. It was painted in America in 1796, and commissioned by Senator William Binghamas as a gift for William Petty, Lord Shelburne, the first Marquess of Lansdowne. It is a life sized portrait of George Washington painted on canvas. This painti...

  History Lady Elizabeth Delmé and her Children , was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in Titchfield Abbey, Hampshire between 1777 and 1780. It is a portrait painted for the sitter's husband, Peter Delmé. It is currently held in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Aesthetic I personally am not incredibly drawn to this piece as a whole. What pulls my attention to this painting is how visually appealing the art is in some places, and how bland it is in others. First let's focus on the appealing parts. First I really enjoy the texture of the sitter and the dog. The way that the dogs hair curls the detail of some hairs being a lighter gray than those around it, give the dog a shaggy yet soft feel. I know, just by looking at the dog, exactly how it felt in real life. The sitters face also has this pail color to it, compared to her neck, and shows that she has a powdered face. My favorite part of this painting is the  drapery laying on the sitter. It has a bea...

  History The Triumph of the Virtues , also known as  Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue , was painted by Andrea Mantegna in 1502 and is currently located in the Musée du Louvre of Paris. It was the second painting Isabella d'Este's studiolo, the first painting being  Parnassus.  Aesthetic This painting shows the scene of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, chasing off the Vices out of a marsh. The Vices are depicted as deformed beings with medieval scrolls identifying which Vice they are. Among the named Vices are also mythical beings such as the centaur, commonly used as symbolism for lust or sexual violence, that is kidnapping goddess Diana. In the sky are the three virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, watching from above in a cloud, and to the left of Minerva is an olive tree that resembles a human woman. I believe that this piece is quite appealing, mostly due to the amount of story telling that is present in the painting. In this on...