Module 9 Video Reviews

1.) Key Concepts - The Great Wave

• The artist’s name is Katsushika Hokusai, known for The Great Wave
• Hokusai writes in his journal that “I started sketching everything around me at age 6 "He wanted to live a long, fulfilling life to about age 110, “every line that he paints would come to life” at this point
• At near the end of his life, he chose the medium of painting
• One of his end of life paintings was entitled “Woodcutter”, based on a Noh play that an “imperial emissary was sent to find the spring of eternal life”, the woodcutter shows the emissary the way
• The “Fisherman” is another one of these paintings, there is an ancient Chinese story about a woodcutter and a fisherman meeting up together to discuss the meaning of life. 
• Spacial depth is created with the peaks in the back of the “Woodcutter”
• The “Fisherman” is surrounded by ocean, a blank upper portion of the painting 
• With Hokusai’s age, you can tell he had a hard time holding the brush still at age 90 but it gives both paintings character
• Hokusai has a common theme of naturalistic movement in his paintings and he has a great ability to create texture

2.) How does the video relate to the text?

The reading “Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa” focused on The Great Wave solely. Perspective was important in Hokusai’s paintings because they were mostly parts of nature like the sea, mountains, and peaks. At the white top of the great wave, a diagonal line is meant to draw the viewer’s eyes to the peak of the mountain top.

3.) The video took time to explain parts of Hokusai’s personal life which I found important in understanding both the “Fisherman” and the “Woodcutter” better. It was thorough and understandable.

1.) Key Concept - Early Photography

• Daguerreotypes, created by Louise Jacques-Mande Daguerre were “completely faithful depictions of nature” and swept France by storm.
• News of the invention spread around the world fast
• Americans were attracted to the new Daguerrotypes because people from all walks of life could afford to have their portraits made
• The Daguerrotype plate was made of copper faced with silver, the plate is faced silver side up on an adjustable block 
• The plate has to be polished before the exposure process, polishing in the same direction improves viewing of the highly reflective surface
• In the dark, in about 15 to 45 seconds the iodine fumes react with the silver, coating the plate with silver iodide this process gets repeated with bromide or quick stuff.
• The loaded plate holder is put into the camera making it accessible for the exposure, to do this you would have to remove the lens cap, the times were long and uncomfortable. (20 seconds)

How does the video relate to the text?
The reading goes through the same process as the video did, a famous photograph with the new technique, calotype, was shown by William Henry Fox Talbot, The Open Door from 1844 is “salted print paper from paper negative”. Talbot’s method revealed immense detail never been done before. The collodion technique was also a new type of photography, “..this process involved fixing a substance known as gun cotton onto a glass plate, allowing for an even shorter exposure time (3–5 minutes), as well as a clearer image”. This took longer than the daguerreotype.

3.) The video explained the whole process and really showed how much of a long process photography was compared to now. As someone who loves photography, I found the video really interesting because there has been a whole evolution in the art of photography from then to now.

Key Concepts - Death of Marat

• Jacques-Louis David “The Death of Marat”, 1793, painted during the French Revolution, this painting has a history with it in that France was changing around it. David commemorates a hero of the Revolution.
• David joined the Jacobin club early in the Revolution, these people were violent and considered radical revolutionaries. 
• David and Robespierre became close, he even voted in the beheading of King Louis XVI
• The Revolutionary government asked him to produce a series of three images that would make Revolutionary martyrs heroic. 
• There was a shift from religious martyrs to political martyrs.
• The painting is inspired by the acts of Charlotte Corday, a woman who believed in the monarchy, went to see Marat and tricked him by murdering him in his bathtub.
• The juxtaposition between the important foreground and the completely blank background, that almost didn’t look finished, draws your attention to the foreground.  

2.) How does this video relate to the text?
The text analyzes the meaning behind the painting as did the video. Charlotte Corday’s letter is mentioned, the Jacobins are mentioned, and the timing was mentioned in being “the height of the Reign of Terror” in 1793. The martyr change is mentioned from religious to political, David’s pieces introduced this.

3.) The video was really good at explaining the historical background that led to Jaques-Louis David creating this painting. It also explained who Jean Marat was as the main muse for this painting, that was pretty important to know.

1.) Key Concepts - Manet

• “A Bar at the Folies Bergere” by Edouard Manet the painting showcases a woman standing at a bar, this bar is in the middle of a cafe-concert type venue.
• The painting straight forward reveals a lot, the woman is in front of a mirror and you can tell this because her reflection is showcased behind her. 
• The gaze is clearly a Manet painting because it is so direct, but also rather unreadable.
• The brushwork is mentioned as being “open”, loose visible strokes of paint that do not create clear contours. 
• On part of Manet, there is a creation of distortion with the reflection of the side. 
• You can read this painting, understand your relationship as a viewer when looking at this piece.
• With this painting, you can categorize the classes of the people shown with certainty based on their appearance alone.
• At the time, a woman at a bar would be seen as someone with sexual availability. 
• The closeness of the man in the painting is odd considering the slab of marble put between the woman and man.

2.) How does this video relate to the text?

The text explains that with modern society features are a given, capitalism, urban culture (shown in this painting), technological advances, secularism, optimism was shown. This painting has a city-like bustling energy with it. In the reflection behind the woman, you can see people close together enjoying the show that is being presented. People moving from farms to cities is showcased as just the population of people in this room seems to be a large amount. 

3.) The video explained the perspective of the painting well, it put the viewer in the correct spot. The people in the video explained what could’ve been going on in France at the time, urbanization, which showed the painting had a modern appeal to it.

1.) Key Concepts - Delacroix

• Eugene Delacroix, “Liberty Leading the People, 1830
• Romanticism
• Large paintings were reserved for history paintings, according to the rules of the Academy
• This is a contemporary subject, the outcome of the revolution is not sure, there are people fighting on the streets of Paris. The Notre Dame is in the back.
• Liberty is personified in this painting as the woman in front, her breasts being visible is a nod to antiquity, to the birth of democracy dating back to ancient Greece.
• Liberty is calling the men in the painting to climb over the barricade, to continue their fight, even more aggressively.
• In the foreground, you see a man wearing a shirt with no jacket, you can tell he is a member of the lower class, he has a pin in his hat expressing that he has revolutionary sympathies.
• All classes are coming together in this painting 
• Delacroix contrived a classicizing pyramid, to organize the figures creating a sense of order.

2.) How does the video relate to the text?
The complex painting is broken down by its rapid-fire brushwork, human emotion, and subtle use of color. The text mentions Ancient Greece as did the video, Marianne’s breasts being exposed are mentioned in both, she is democracy and liberty personified, leading these men. The class distinctions are broken down in both, the man who is a member of the lower class with the pin in his hat, and the man in the top hat show that Delacroix’s message was to unite the classes in working against the aristocracy.

3.) The video focused on each person in the painting well and what they contribute, even the men who were dead on the bottom of the canvas. The history behind the French Revolution reveals what the people died for. I think this painting is so well done technically because of its arrangement.

1.) Key Concepts - Monet

• It was said that Monet only had 7 minutes with one single canvas due to the change in light of the landscapes he focused on.
• Monet had a hypersensitivity to the effects of light on the outcome of his paintings.
• The poplar trees painted were right near his house. He painted them from a small rowboat.
• His goal with this painting was to create the atmosphere and the sun’s light rather than what he knew of the poplar trees.
• The optical experience at the moment was what Monet enjoyed about art. Nature became shapes and colors.

2.) How does the video relate to the text?
Impressionists were artists who used color and light depiction as the guiding principles in the creation of their paintings. Like Monet, the reading mentioned that “they painted outdoors to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked”, all impressionists worked like this, resulting in colorful paintings with meaningful brushstrokes.

3.) The video got right to the point of why Claude Monet painted what he did, and the techniques he used to capture what he saw optically. The painting was broken down well because it is a simple painting anyways, he painted trees outside his house.

1.) Key Concepts - Cassatt

• Mary Cassatt, “The Child’s Bath” 1893 oil on canvas
• The tactile parts of the painting emphasize the gentle message being conveyed by a mother and daughter.
• The mother’s mouth is slightly open, she could be telling her a story or something reassuring.
• Their attention is so focused on each other which is one of the noticeable things about this painting
• As a viewer, we are drawn into the experience.

2.) How the videos relate to the text?
The painting is really realistic in the way that you can see a mother and daughter relationship conveyed through the sense of touch.

3.) The video analyzed the painting and its reasoning well, it is true that mother and daughter relationships are not conveyed a lot in art, and the video picking this piece to analyze was smart due to the lack of this type of art.