Compare and contrast art history Essays - Art Genres, Painting

The two works of art that you need to compare and contrast are in textbook on the following pages: page 756 (Book D), Landscape with Cattle and Peasants and page 812 (Book E), The Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Cattle and Peasants, 1629 -produced tons of landscapes, no Bibilical matter, connection to dutch painting, typical Claude landscape,seems random, but has formality to it, foreground triangles leading into background triangles leading into water, cows chilling, people in conversation, almost exclusively at sunrise or sunset, golden light filter through landscape. Trees frame picture Lorrain's walks and explorations around the countryside of Rome provided the main inspiration for some of his most famous landscape paintings. He was fascinated with portraying nature accurately and playing with the fall of light on his subjects and scenes. Lorrain is most noted for not letting nature be sacrificed to any historical scenes being portrayed in his artwork. He believed that myths and historic events could be depicted and yet still be made beautiful and enhanced by their powerful natural surroundings. Even though this specific painting does not convey an important event, the awe-inspiring landscape is still the focus and enhances and almost beautifies the mundane task taking place in the foreground Description[edit] The first impression that the painting creates is of an enormous deep-red sunset over a stormy sea, an indication of an approaching typhoon.[3] Upon closer inspection one can discern a ship sailing off into the distance. The masts of the ship are red, matching the blood-red colour of the sky and the sickly copper colour of the water, which serves to blur the lines between various objects in the painting.[2] The ship's sails are also not unfurled, revealing that the ship is preparing for the typhoon. In the foreground can be seen a number of bodies floating in the water; their dark skin and chained hands and feet indicate that they are slaves, thrown overboard from the ship. Looking even more carefully, one can see fish and sea monsters swimming in the water, possibly preparing to eat the slaves, and sea gulls circling overhead above the chaos. Consistent with Turner's emphasis on colour in many of his other works, the painting's central focus is on the interactions of various colours. Few defined brush strokes appear in the painting, and objects, colours, and figures become indistinct. Rather, objects are defined by their colours in the painting, and some objects (like the bodies of the slaves and the incoming storm) have no real border at all, being solely defined by the contrast with the pigments around them. The most prominent colours are the red of the sunset which encroaches into the water and ship as well, and the maroon of the bodies and hands of the slaves.[2] Style and interpretation[edit] Turners emphasis on colour rather than design is typical of many Romantic works of the time. The indistinct shapes and the pervasiveness of the sunset's blood-red colour serve to convey a focus on nature and illustrate the idea that nature is superior to man. Other colours in the painting, such as the cool blue of the ocean and the black caps of the water, bring the ocean's hues to life and give the viewer a sense of the true emotions of the natural world. The fact that the figures in the painting are depicted as minuscule and that even the ship is shunted to the background in favour of the water and the sun further serve to decrease the emphasis on humanity and transfer it to nature.[2] By placing the emphasis on nature rather than on figures or objects, Turner evokes the concept of the sublime, coined by Edmund Burke. The idea of the sublime is of the utter powerlessness and terror of humanity in the face of nature; by dramatising the strength of the waves and sun, Turner uses The Slave Ship to perfectly encapsulate Burke's definition of the term. Turner's decision to paint the work with a series of quick, frenzied brush strokes rather than carefully defined lines adds to the intensity of the painting, serving to make the viewer feel even more overwhelmed.[2] Though the painting's size is relatively small compared