ILLUSTRATION B
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“complete inversion…of pictorial elements”: *
The following 3 artworks are content heavy. That is the focus is on content, form is legacy, given; the content was prescribed by his patron, the church, the king or the city.
LEFT- The Annunciation with St. Margaret & St. Ansanus
1333, by the Italian Gothic artists Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, a wooden triptych painted in tempera and gold, with a central panel having double size. Martini's masterwork, an outstanding works of Gothic painting, painted for a side altar in the Siena Cathedral.
RIGHT--Wilton diptych,
1395. for Richard II of England, kneeling before the Virgin & Child, he is presented to them by John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor & Edmund the Martyr. The figures face each other & interact by gaze and gesture. It is in International Gothic style (form). The king is Richard as he & the angels wear badges of his livery, the White Hart. Christ reaches towards him in benediction & towards the pennant held by an angel, and significantly placed between them. It is the symbol of Richard's kingship, the Kingdom of England. The message is religious as well as political: Richard is chosen & blessed by God to be king of England.
Holy Trinity
fresco, 1427, Masaccio, Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. The Holy Spirit is seen in the form of a dove, above the crucified Jesus. The sacred family & 2 donors stand above a skeleton lying on a sarcophagus. An inscription in the wall above the skeleton reads: "I once was what now you are and what I am, you shall yet be.” The skeleton is a reference to Adam, whose sin brought humans to death and a reminder to viewers that their time on earth is transitory. Only through faith in the Trinity, is death overcome.
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A painter of the Quattrocento (1400s), Masaccio combines styles of the late Middle Ages, notably International Gothic with early Renaissance. Content remains the governing principle but Masaccio stands out NOT because of content but rather his skill at imitating nature, recreating lifelike figures & movements as well as a convincing sense of 3D. He employed nudes and foreshortenings in his figures.
His concern for form is illustrated here with the focus on perspective lines. This is the earliest surviving painting to use systematic linear perspective (possibly with the assistance of Brunelleschi). Masaccio first produced a rough drawing with perspective lines on the wall. This was covered with fresh plaster for making the fresco. He then inserted a nail at the vanishing point (under the base of the cross), attached strings to it, which he then pressed into the plaster.
Spring ends with the growing interest in Form. Legacy forms such as perspective, anatomy are maintained, new forms emerge. Experimentation is allowed. Content remains though often as a medium rather than the message.
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The late Renaissance (1600) begins a transition. Content becomes less important, the exploration of form is growing. The 2 works below, Titian and Giorgione, stand firmly in the Renaissance tradition, interest in new forms, atmospheric perspective, anatomic accuracy, detail – the content is however problematic, allegorical, to be supplied by the interpreter. The art is beautiful in the 16th century sense, but its content is no longer obvious, it is open to interpretation.
LEFT--The Three Philosophers
oil painting on canvas, Giorgione (one of his last), 1509, commissioned by Venetian noble Taddeo Contarini, a merchant interested in the occult & alchemy; it shows 3 philosophers – one young, one middle-aged, one old. Various interpretations have been put forward, none conclusively. The figures are allegorical: an old bearded man (a Greek philosopher?); an Arab philosopher; a sitting young man, enclosed within a natural landscape. In the background is a village with some mountains, the latter marked by a blue area whose meaning is unknown. The young man is observing a cave, measuring it with some instruments.
LEFT--Sacred and Profane Love
oil painting by Titian, 1514 (early in his career); commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio, secretary to the Venetian Council of Ten, celebrating his marriage For the first decade of the 16th century Titian worked with Giorgione; they have remarkably similar styles. Both men were also breaking away from strictly content based objectives towards more focus on form. Content is now a medium for the exploration of form. The title of the painting first recorded in 1693 may not represent the original concept at all. Like The Tempest & the Three Philosophers. the intended meaning of the painting including the identity of the central figures remain in dispute. Many theories: no consensus. Titian explored form and colour; he established colour, not line, as the major determinant in painting. He applied colours of paint paste-like in patches, alongside each other, using loose & sweeping brush strokes, bringing out the light & colour in equal measure at the same time. He also experimented with composition. He abandons the vertical or horizontal line, instead employing strong diagonals to focus our attention; he groups figures in a circular, ascending structure. He also includes visual suggestions of movement, breaking free of the static elements of other High Renaissance composition. His works have a new dynamism in the movements of people.
The great Summer of the Faustian Culture, the Baroque age, begins to fade into Autumn, and with this form begins to displace content, exploration & experiment replace legacy & tradition. The signs of this displacement are evident in the middle 19th century. The Civilization-Winter period sees content overwhelmed by the artist’s primary interest in form.
Rain, Steam and Speed- The Great Western Railway
1844 by JMW Turner, manifests a sensibility to warm colours, a new informal composition & interest in modern reality, all to be at the heart of Impressionism. He was an English Romantic, 'the painter of light', because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes & seascapes.
He anticipated in his latest works is the Impressionist style, where forms are dissolved in coloured atmospheres. For Turner content is simply a mechanism to explore his main concern- light & colour.
These 2 painting were produced as Spengler was writing Decline. It is Winter. Content is negligible, form is all consuming.
LEFT--Windows Open Simultaneously (First Part, Third Motif)
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oil on canvas, 1912, Delaunay (1885- 1941) French, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for strong colours & geometric shapes; later works even more abstract. The only content notable is the provision of a title. The use of legacy forms like perspective is abandoned (completed); experimentation, rather than the exception, is the rule.
RIGHT--The Yellow Curtain
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1915, Matisse, using Fauvist colour and drawing this comes very close to pure abstraction. Originally title Composition (draws attention to its abstract quality). The artist explained that the painting represents a view from a curtained window in his home at Issy-les-Moulineaux, including the blue glass canopy that covered the front door.
