Art Articles

Art Articles

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The Four Continents, an allegory

The Four Continents, an allegory

Article by Jimena Escoto

Since the beginning artists have tried to represent those things which are abstract by transforming them into persons, thus allegories. We see rivers, mountains, feelings, and many other things acquire human forms with personalities. One of my favorite allegories is the “Four continents”, i.e. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America (Oceania haven’t been totally discovered, and those islands who were known weren’t considered as a different continent yet). During the seventeenth century, with the discovery of the American continent, artists were inspired to depict this “new” continent with its companions. The question is, how do you represent them? They’re not exactly abstract, as they do have a shape and location, but painters wouldn’t design just another map, would they?

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Vasari and his legacy

Vasari and his legacy

Article by Jimena Escoto

The society and the educational system of today prepare us to be specialists. Either you are a doctor, or a mathematician, or an artist. Hardly, though not impossible, you’ll find someone with more than one college degree, especially in different areas of knowledge. However, in the 16th century, this was not the case; as a matter of fact, if you were dedicated only to one specialty, you were kind of average and not interesting at all. During the Renaissance, we find architects who also painted and sculpted masterpieces, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. They were complete artists. We can say that Giorgio Vasari belongs to that exclusive group, he was a painter, architect, art historian and a writer.

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Leda, the swans and the Italian Renaissance

Leda, the swans and the Italian Renaissance

Article by Jimena Escoto

It is well known that the Renaissance was a period of rediscovery of classical culture. As a result, artists started depicting mythological scenes, even though they never forgot Christian themes. With this new liberty and excitement to create, subjects that were formerly censured flourished. One particular theme that I have noticed frequently used in Italian Renaissance is that of Leda and the swans. One of the major subjects during this time was eroticism, of which Leda’s story belongs to.

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The Medici and the Renaissance artists

The Medici and the Renaissance artists

Article by Jimena Escoto

The Renaissance must have been a wonderful time to live in, if you were wealthy, of course. And to live in Florence at that time meant two things. The first one was that everybody knew who the Medicis were; and the second one, the streets were full of artists, architects, sculptors in hopes that the Medicis would commission them an artwork. Indeed, the Medicis were big fans of fine art and they spent as much as they wanted in expensive masterpieces of any kind.

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The Life of Michelangelo

The Life of Michelangelo

Article by Rachael Concessio You may have never picked up a paintbrush before and know next to nothing about fine art. However, the name Michelangelo is not lost on you. To this day, he remains one of the greatest artists produced by the Renaissance movement. In this article, I am taking an in-depth look at Michelangelo’s life and art career….

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Through the eyes of the Old Masters – Alexander the Great

Through the eyes of the Old Masters – Alexander the Great

Article by Jimena Escoto

So few personalities of the history of humanity have transcended as much as Alexander the Great has. He lived 2,300 ago and he still is one of the greatest conquerors ever. His empire went from Macedonia and Greece to the Indus valley. His life is full of amazing stories that get mixed with mythology. As a matter of fact, this issue about the Greeks telling their story with gods and fantastic creatures make, on the one hand, hard to believe some events, but, on the other, makes it very interesting and fun. Nonetheless, his story served as inspiration for major works of art since he was alive. In this article, I will be focusing on the old Masters and a few representations of Alexander’s incredible life.

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The Suffering Artist – Worn Out by Vincent Van Gogh

The Suffering Artist - Worn Out by Vincent Van Gogh

Article by Anders E. Johnson

From the collection of Van Gogh’s earlier works, the drawing Worn Out, completed in 1882, resonates the earnestness of the beloved artist Vincent Van Gogh.

We are confronted with a sketch of a Dutch farmer peasant. Drawn with pencil on paper, Van Gogh employed light strokes of graphite as well as bold lines to define the edges of the chair and the farmer’s pants. Crosshatching is also visible throughout the piece, giving a sense of texture, especially as seen on the dirt floor surface and the clothes. The entire composition is structured vertically with the main element being the man centered in the foreground in a rectangular fashion.

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Daydreamer – Required Reading by Carl Larsson

Daydreamer – Required Reading by Carl Larsson

Article by Anders E. Johnson

We are onlookers to a window of another age. A time when things were simpler, as some might argue, and when life still held that ‘old-world charm’ and fuzzy-warm sentiment. Yet although nowadays we may have more advanced technologies which better our life and we can no longer relate to the asperous day-to-day living of Scandinavia during the early 20th century; we, however, nonetheless still possess the same human spirit which our ancestors have felt just the same as we.

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