Fine Tuning: Guitar and Violin

FIne Tuning
Picasso, Guitar and Violin, 1912

Fine Tuning
By NATALIE BEYER


As I write my last blog post of my Junior year in Renaissance Art History late on a Friday night, I would like to thank all the wonderful people I have been able to work with this year in this class. I have learned much, and have much more to learn. I think that this painting might reflect my year in Art History. Abstract, colorful, and strange. At first glance, it seems like a mess of shapes and colors, but really there's more to it. Put together is supposedly a guitar and a violin, and just like my year in this class, all the miscellaneous information that I have learned in the class adds up to something meaningful. 

Picasso, whose full name has actually twenty three words in it, originated in Spain. When he was born, he was so darn small that his midwife thought he was a stillborn. His uncle would come to his saving on that occasion. Picasso completed his first painting at just the age of nine and was known not to be the best student, frequently given detentions. As he got older, he progressed into being a co-founder of the style of Cubism - paintings or works made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and later, collages. He experienced different periods of art which included the rose period, the blue period, each of which he used a theme of blue or rose in his paintings.  

His earlier paintings, before he got into the Cubism style were not so abstract. When viewing one of his early paintings, one can see what he was actually trying to paint instead of using one's imagination. The Guitar and Violin that he painted in 1912 looks nothing like a guitar and violin. (Definition of a Violin: a bowed stringed instrument having four strings that range from G to E having a shallow body, shoulders at right angles to the neck, a fingerboard without frets, and a curved bridge) The violin is played in the treble clef, just like how a guitar and piano are. However, bits and pieces from each instrument in this painting are sprawled out throughout the painting. The scroll from the violin is in the top right corner, the strings from the guitar are in the left-middle of the painting and so is the body of the guitar. 
  • 7:00 AM

Fine Tuning: Nostalgia in Slow Motion

FIne Tuning
 Rafal Olbiński, Nostalgia in Slow Motion, 1945
Fine Tuning
By NATALIE BEYER

Similar to René Magritte, Rafal Olbiński paints in the style of Surrealism - producing incongruous imagery or effects in art through unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations. When asked to describe his artwork, he describes is as "poetic surrealism" and says his influences are "everybody." He takes everyday objects and turns them into different worlds, allowing the viewer to only imagine what goes through Olbiński's head when he paints.

Rafal Olbiński was born in Poland in 1943 and he migrated the United States in 1981 after finishing schooling at the architectural school at Warshaw University of Technology in Poland. For his works, he has won over 150 awards including Gold and Silver Medals from the Art Directors Club of New York, Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles, and the Big Crit 2000 award by Critique Magazine in San Fransisco. Even the President of the Republic of Poland awarded Oldiński the highest award in the field pf arts, the gold medal, "Gloria Artis."

In his painting of Nostalgia in Slow Motion, he features a woman's soft face in the strings of a golden harp. (Definition of a Harp: a plucked stringed instrument consisting of a resonator, an arched or angled neck that may be supported by a post, and string of graded length that are perpendicular to the soundboard). If a person were to play the harp, they would play off of the treble clef, a clef placing the note "G" above the middle note "C" on the second-lowest line of the staff. A purple orchid accents the yellow in the harp that contrasts the white clouds and light blue sky in the background. This woman however, is just a random woman that Olbiński decided to paint, and just like most of his other paintings, his subjects are people he finds off the street. I like to think that he called this painting Nostalgia in Slow Motion because the woman in the harp used to play, and is remembering her past, letting her hair flow in the wind.
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Fine Tuning: The Musicians

Caravaggio
Caravaggio, The Musicians, 1595
Fine Tuning
By NATALIE BEYER

Do these boys want to be together, practicing their instruments? Do they look as though they are having a good time? I would say "no" for the sole fact that the boredom washing over their faces looks like they've been sitting through a two-hour ACT prep class late on a Monday night. 

However, many of Caravaggio's subjects show true emotion instead of the bliss that other artists placed on their subjects' faces. His style allowed for a darker setting, with little to no light source and in many of his paintings, he would leave space pitch black. He brought a new level of emotion and intensity to the table for artists at the time, and many criticized him for painting in such a way. He would paint grotesque images such as decapitations and violent struggles. Caravaggio would paint from life instead of drawing and planning what he was going to paint first, and artists at the time saw this as bizarre and against the grain. He, like many struggling artists in Italy, faced problems with patrons, and even had a bad temper.

Unable to control himself, he was known for brawling and even was accused of killing multiple people while in Italy. He gambled and got in trouble with the authorities, eventually getting himself exiled multiple times, each time returning to the thing he loved the most - painting. Caravaggio never married and had no known children. Art Historians today are not completely sure the sexuality of Caravaggio, but many argue that because of the homoeroticism in his paintings could hint to his homosexuality.

Getting to this painting in particular, The Musicians feature a lute and a tiny violin. (Definition of a Lute: a stringed instrument having a large pear-shaped body, a vaulted back, a fretted fingerboard, and a head with tuning pegs which is often angled backward from the neck). By pressing your fingers on the strings at different parts of the finger board, the player shortens or lengthens the length of the desired string the is vibrating, like a guitar, producing higher and lower pitches or notes. The boy in the middle of this painting seems to be tuning his lute while his friend looks at the sheet music. The boredom on their faces shows just how interested they are in playing instruments.
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Fine Tuning: The Mandolin Player

Anselm Feuerbach
Anselm Feuerbach, The Mandolin Player, 1865
Fine Tuning
By NATALIE BEYER

Anselm Feuerbach realized his artistic talents just at the age of fifteen when he left his family to go to the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts in Germany. He wanted to be a painter, like the "old masters." But to be like the "old masters" he traveled to Munich, Antwerp, and then Paris. All of these places however, did not satisfy him. With a scholarship from Baden's Grand Duchy, he makes his way over to Italy where he will pursue his talents for seventeen years. In Italy, he finds other German artists just like him who want to be lie the "old masters" and even a model that fits his exact beauty standards for a woman. 

However, just like the the great artists that he looks up to and admires, he has trouble with clients and money. With too many commissions coming in all at once, disputes over what his art his supposed to look like with his clients, and even the separation with his lover - Anna Risi - happens. 

In the year of 1860, at the age of thirty-one, Anselm Feuerbach met Anna Risi. Nicknamed "Nanna," she will act as a muse and mistress to Feuerbach for four years. But before Anna first encounters Feuerbach however, she had stood as a model for numerous nineteenth century artists. Her most painted pose is her sitting and gazing softly over her right shoulder. Her long dark hair and sculpted nose are her most notable features. The softness of her hands and facial expression give reason for why Feuerbach called her "Nanna" and over the next four years, he will paint her twenty-eight different times out of sheer fascination for her. 

In this painting in particular, "Nanna"poses in her most painted position holding a mandolin. (Definition of a Mandolin: a musical instrument of the lute family that has a usually pear-shaped body and fretted neck and four to six pairs of strings). Just like a guitar, the player can lengthen or shorten the desired string to produced different pitches or notes. The most common clef of the mandolin is the Treble clef just like the violin or piano. This painting of Nanna is one of the last portraits he painted of her, around the time he was having difficulties with clients and financial issues. Because of these tensions happening in his life, the viewer can feel the tension of both Feuerbach and Nanna, both of them knowing that their lives together was coming to an end soon.
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