Monday 9 April 2012

H is for History of Art

H

I've written a little before about my dawning love affair with painting.  In due time, I took an A level in History of Art and went on to do a degree in the subject at the University of Warwick.

It was, as everyone warned me, completely useless as a job qualification.  Much like a BA in English, it opens doors to not very much.  This is unfair.  Any academically rigorous degree should really carry the same weight as they tend to hone the same skills.  Whinging aside, I don't regret my degree choice at all.  In fact, I adored it.

People are often quite confused about History of Art as a subject.  It suffers from being seen as a soft option, requiring an ability to draw and little mental rigour.  Neither is true.  While I know some art historians who can paint and draw (often very well), it is far from compulsory.  What I find less forgiveable is the pitying looks I get when I reveal that my degree is in this supposedly soft option subject.

Consider this for a moment.  If analytical skills are required, you could do a lot worse than consult an art historian.  Most of us have spent long hours analysing very small samples in a lot of detail.  Take a look at this:

Detail of the Adoration of the Magi by Giotto.  Part of the cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel

Note that from this detail you can tell an enormous amount.   The figures are solidly placed in space and have depth to them.  The shading and colour take advantage of fresco (wet paint on three layers of plaster - sinking in and giving a virtually indestructable painted surface.  Only applicable in dry climates).  Giotto may not have seen a real camel, but he knows enough about anatomy to create something believeable.  Notice how the halos are in slight perspective.  Look at the solid anatomy in the figure of that reaching man.

The artist is living in a time and place where curiosity and innovation are encouraged.  He's living in a world where stories matter and painting is the main medium for that.  He's living in a place where fresco survives well and he's been given carte blanche to create a story cycle.  We know this must be so from the arrangement of the figures and from the style and colour of the painting.  It is part of something much larger.

That something larger is  a whole chapel.  This chapel:

Scrovegni Chapel facing the altar

This is a building commissioned by the very wealthy Enrico Scrovegni.  Enrico and his whole family were money lenders.  At the time, usury was a deadly sin and the chapel is a plea for absolution for the sins of the father, as well a pre-emptive plea on the part of Enrico himself.  It tells the whole story of Christ and the Virgin Mary in a series of panels running down both walls. The whole astonishing building was completed in around 1305 and has survived intact ever since.  Even when Padua was bombed in the war,  the chapel somehow survived untouched.

In 1305, the artistic tradition was still firmly rooted in Byzantine art.  Cimabue and Duccio were evolving the style from the extreme formality of the icon to something warmer and more approachable, but Giotto (one of Cimabue's pupils) brought about a complete revolution.  It is possibly fair to say that without Giotto there would have been no Renaissance.

Take a look at the Cimabue altarpiece below and while you can see the very strong Byzantine influence in the gold background, the elongated anatomy and the relative sizes of the figures, there is a real sense of humanity in the relationship between the mother and child.  There is even a slight sense of depth emerging, rather than the Byzantine focus on surface decoration.

Cimabue's Maesta


Returning now to the Scrovegni Chapel, there is a fascinating Last Judgement on the wall opposite the altar.

Last Judgement in the Scrovegni Chapel

Ugh.  So annoyed I can't find bigger images, particularly of the last one.

What you're seeing here is the crossover moment in western artistic tradition.  That Last Judgement is formal and Byzantine in construction (note Christ in the mandorla and the linear representation of the souls of the dead.  Note as well the geometric arrangement of the risen Christ above the crucifixion at the bottom.  Also Byzantine is the size difference between Christ and everyone else.  He's bigger, so he must be more important. 

But ...  look closer:


Despite the gold background, flat decorated halo and the large size, this Christ is a solid body in space.  He is definitely sitting on that throne, not pasted across it (as Cimabue's Madonna is doing).  The drapery follows his body and gives definition to the shape of the limbs, adding to the illusion of solidity.  Here is where the path branches.

Art History is entirely about how people percieve the world in different places and at different times.  Look closely at those paintings and a whole way of seeing opens up.  I've never got over the shock of it.

17 comments:

  1. I love art and wish I could paint well. It speaks to me on so many levels. Whenever I get to a big city these days, I arrange to go to an art gallery.

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    1. Finding a good coffee shop and a good museum and/or art gallery will always make me happy to be in a place. Ideally, all three should be open and within about 200 yards of each other.

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  2. I suppose, putting it in a much simplified way, it's like looking at those 3D posters - once your eye has got the trick of it, everything comes into focus, revealing the hidden image.

    Thank you for the Art lesson, Amanda - I'm going to be looking with fresh eyes... maybe cock-eyed, but fresh ones.

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    1. That's a very good analogy, Mark. My favourite period is early Renaissance where you do have to understand the language of iconography to get the most out of it. Once that clicks into place, you do see it all quite differently.

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  3. My B.A. was in Philosophy but I went back to school as an adult and took several art history classes. Sadly, I can only afford to take them at the junior college level. Both disciplines involve a great deal of analytical thinking and I think my degree did help me in obtaining jobs at a higher level. This is a wonderfully informative post.

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    1. Always wanted to study Philosophy, but at this point I'll probably have to settle for reading about it. I'm so glad you found this post helpful. Thank you!

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  4. I took my first art history class in college and fell in love with it. I took a number of others after that and, to this day, I remember so much of what I learned. Hmm, maybe I ought to take some more... :)

    Happy A-Z!

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  5. I miniored in Global Media Studies aka Film, and I loved it because we did something similar, just with film. Plus, I took classes on superheros and cyborgs. That was awesome.

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    1. Now that's a course I wish I could do. It sounds fantastic.

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  6. Really enjoyed that post. Your reference to the qualification not opening doors reminded me of the song from Avenue Q called "What do you do with a BA in English?"

    As for my taste in art, personal favourites of mine are Klimt, Mondrian and Seurat.

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    1. Direct quote :D I should have known you'd pick that one up.

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  7. "I never went to MIT. Notre Dame. Art history major."

    "Art?"

    "HISTORY. It's reputable."

    - Mr and Mrs Smith

    I am grateful to my art history prof for teaching how to look at art.

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    1. Nice quote :)

      I was terrorised into taking it by an inspirational teacher at my school. "You will not be so silly, this is your subject, you simply don't know it yet."

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  8. Hi Amanda .. how amazing - and I love the photos - Wikipedia doesn't have these or show what an amazing place the Chapel is .. Incredible ..

    .. and thanks for talking us through some of the concepts and ideas that you look for - I can certainly see some of them.

    I agree the degree should hold as much water as any other .. as long as rigour in the curriculum is encouraged .. I don't have one - but I'd like to do one one day ..

    Cheers for now - Hilary

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  9. Hilary - I got a message notification of your comment, but it isn't showing up, which is annoying. Thank you for the kind words. I enjoyed writing it.

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  10. Interesting stuff! Art history was always one of my favorite subjects in University, especially Medieval.

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