Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) - Francisco Goya

Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828) was court painter to the Spanish Crown and a major influence in the use of the Romantic approach.  The Romantic style or Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement in the 18th Century that used intense emotion such as apprehension, horror, and awe when confronting the sublime(in nature).  While employed by the Spanish Crown, Goya painted portraits of Joseph Bonaparte, Charles IV of Spain, and documented the Peninsular war in a series of prints known as the Desastres de la Guerra (Disasters of War)c 1810-1820. The Peninsular War was a military conflict with Great Britain and Spain against France for control of the Iberian Peninsula.  Through his works he became a commentator and chronicler of his era. The subversive imaginative element in his art, as well as his bold handling of paint, provided a model for the work of artists of later generations, notably Manet, Picasso and Francis Bacon.(from Wikipedia) 
 
In his painting, Witches' Sabbath c 1798 (oil on canvas), Goya confronts Spain's' onset of superstition and corruption prevalent in the rural parts of the country.  In the work, he displays a group women (young and old), witches, with one holding a child, and the other a corpse, surrounding a goat with large horns under a night sky with a crescent moon and bats. Some of the women are presenting a child to the Devil as a rite of initiation.  The skeletons of two children and a three infant corpses dangling from a spike are horror inducing, it implies the goat, the Devil, feeds physically and spiritually upon the infants and children.  Goya displays witchcraft as being  a mockery to the Roman Catholicism and this scene of superstition is said to have taken place in the rural parts of Spain and Goya, as a member of the court, wanted to make a persuasive statement regarding this type of falsehood.

Goya revisits this notion in The Black Paintings: Witches' Sabbath c 1821-23 (mural), where the goat, in black, is presented again as the Devil, and he sits in front of a group of woman as if he is speaking.  In both paintings, the Romantic style derives its intensity from the horrifying appearance of the "goat", the witches, and the infant corpses,  and leads the audience into the need to act and stop such a bizarre falsehood from occurring.

 

The Fall of the Damned by Peter Paul Reubens

Peter Paul Reubens (1577 - 1640) was a prolific Flemish painter with a majority of his subjects being mostly religious and mythological with some portraits and landscapes; his works exhibit a very strong adherence to the Baroque artistic style. The baroque style, in art, uses over exaggerated motion, and clear interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, and exuberance, and grandeur(Wikipedia). Also, the use of dramatic lighting and dark(chiaroscuro) is used to influence the expressed tension and drama.  This style as expressed by Reubens, is clearly seen in the Fall of the Damned(The Fall of the Rebel Angels) circa 1620.

In the Fall of the Damned, at the top of the painting, the Archangel Michael is flowing into a beam of light shining downward, and is forcing the rebel angels down out of heaven.  As the light streams downward, a pillar of bodies forms showing rebel angels pulling other souls down with them.  Women are being shown in various phases of pleasure and torture after giving into sin, and men's flesh are being pulled off.  At the bottom, the painting becomes darker and the souls are more deformed and grotesque.  It depicts parts of the Book of Revelation, 12:7-9,  "Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it."

The main appeal of  the work is the amount of life one can sense emanating from the painting.  The one lone solitary angel forces the mass of fallen souls downward in to the pit.  The change of color from light to a scarlet red then to dark, creates a flow and motion that the senses can follow.  "The real content of the artist's paintings, whether religious or secular, is the purposeful humans will that makes its own way through a solitary combat with the universe.  It enlivens all that is around it, and subordinates all parts of the work to the expression of this basic idea."  Varshavskaya, Maria; Yegorova, Xenia (2014-03-10). Peter Paul Rubens (Best of...) (Kindle Location 392). Parkstone International. Kindle Edition.


 

Fall of the Damned



Women, who have given in to sin, are being pulled away by rebel angels

The Little Street by Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675) was a Dutch painter that captured the quite and hidden lives around the town of Delft, Netherlands, his home town.  The subjects for the majority of his paintings were female workers in various settings like rooms, inns, brothels, and kitchens.  There was nothing extraordinary about Vermeer's choice for certain paintings but what makes each piece stands out is the amount detail, color, and realistic presentation with expressed irregularities.  This quality of style can be evidenced in The Milkmaid (c. 1658) and The Little Street (c. 1658).

In The Milkmaid, a woman is pouring milk into a ceramic bowl with a basket of baked bread and pieces of pulled apart bread near the bowl. The circular bread in the bowl is pitted and dented.  One can see the white centers and brown crest of the pulled apart bread.  The milk is shown falling into the bowl.  The woman's focus on the pouring is clearly expressed with sleeves rolled up, with two hands handling the pitcher, a daily chore.  The color of each object in the painting seems natural with a real illusion of being real with weight.

In The Little Street,  the painting shows an everyday quite scene in Delft with two women working and a child playing in the street. But what stands out, is the red bricks with greyish cement crusting between, the white wash with some browning in various areas, the street with irregular lines, and the natural coloring of the working women.  The painting wills the mind to believe that this is an actual polaroid snap shot.

Sources:

VERMEER, JOHANNES (2012-02-05). Complete Works of Johannes Vermeer (Masters of Art) (Kindle Location 448). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

The Seven Acts of Mercy by Caravaggio

Caravaggio (1571-1610) was an Italian painter with a unique and successful artistic approach of subject matter that encompass both naturalism(realistic presentation) and chiaroscuro (light-dark contrasting) styles.  The convergence of the two styles can be seen in The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) and also in The Seven Acts of Mercy (1607) causing an actual feel of presence from the subject matter in each painting.  In the Calling of Saint Mathew, which describes Jesus asking Matthew to become one of his disciples (Matthew 9:9), each element (window, table, and tax collectors) are presented in a truthfully way and appear real.  Also the use of dark areas, and light areas combined to create the effect of real objects using space (volume).   The beam of light, seems to shine on the faces at the table and cast a shadow with the shudder on the window.  In The Seven Acts of Mercy, Caravaggio combines all seven acts into one presentation.  The seven acts of mercy are:  
       
1. Bury the dead; In the background, two men carry a dead man (of whom only the feet are visible).
2 and 3. Visit the imprisoned, and feed the hungry; On the right, a woman visits an imprisoned man and gives him milk from her breast. This image alludes to the classical story of Roman Charity.
4. Shelter the homeless; A pilgrim (third from left, as identified by the shell in his hat) asks an innkeeper (at far left) for shelter.
5. Clothe the naked; St. Martin of Tours, fourth from the left, has torn his robe in half and given it to the naked beggar in the foreground, recalling the saint's popular legend.
6. Visit the sick; St. Martin greets and comforts the beggar who is a cripple.
7. Refresh the thirsty; Samson (second from the left) drinks water from the jawbone of an ass.  (Source - Wikipedia)

The Seven Acts of Mercy, with Caravaggio directing what we "see", seem to come to life and offer a sense of faith and believability.  Again, characters are drawn in a realistic style with color, and size and in addition, with dark-light contrast to create a natural/real setting.  The source of lighting appears to come from the left side of the painting, which is evidenced by the shadow cast by the angels wings onto the right of building(opposite side of the painting).  Its shines from left to right.  This is accomplished by either leaving certain areas untouched on the canvas and adding/editing media on the canvas.  The angel's arm reaching down, is surrounding by heavily dark painted section. The contrast causes a perceived "lighting" effect and causes the subject matter to display an inferred volume.

Staute of Liberty by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi

Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi (2 August 1834 – 4 October 1904) was a French sculptor widely known for designing and shaping the Statue of Liberty and works of Marquis de Lafayette and George Washington.  The Statue of Liberty, Liberty Enlightening the World, was completed/dedicated at Liberty Island, New York Harbor in 1886.  It is made of hammered sheet copper that is attached to an iron skeleton.  It stands 151 feet tall with a granite pedestal.  As an installation with artistic expression, the Statute of Liberty is Bartholdi attempt to create a physical embodiment of liberty.  Liberty is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as meaning "the quality or state of being free; the power to do as one pleases; freedom from arbitrary control; the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges; and the power of choice".

Bartholdi is able to express the spirit of liberty in several ways.  First, the figure is posed as stepping forward with a set of broken shackles around both feet.  This offers a strong visual clue that the figure is opposing slavery and political oppression.  Secondly, the statue is holding a torch with rays of light from her crown while holding a tablet with the date of Declaration of Independence. One widely known quotation in the Declaration of Independence is: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Lastly, the figure is female.  During the 1800s,  the people of France overthrew the last Bourbon monarch, Charles X, and Louis-Phillipe I Duke of Orleans.  The event is known as the French Revolution of 1830, the July Revolution which inspired Eugene Delacroix, a French painter, to create Liberty Leading the People circa 1830.  The painting shows a goddess figure leading people over dead corpses while holding the French flag.   Delacroix's female figure remains as a symbol of French Revolution and a strong icon of freedom in general as shown further thru Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty.

 

 

 

Sources:

 

Durante, Dianne L. (2012-04-20). The Statue of Liberty: Timeless Art, Political Hot Topic (Forgotten Delights:New York Sculpture) (Kindle Location 91). www.ForgottenDelights.com. Kindle Edition.