Category: Q1

Art 3/Artist Spotlights

You will be introduced to selected works of art and artists as they relate to the curriculum. In your sketchbook:
1. Complete a thumbnail sketch of the work
2. Document the #, heading, and credit line
3. Review all provided resources - take notes
4. Answer the questions completely and with specificity; complete sentences should reveal the question (write legibly or type/print)

Entries started in class must be completed as homework by the same day/next week

MORE ART HISTORY!

#4 Another Old Master - DUE Nov. 5

10/29/2018

Access the Art 3 student websites in order to review the AWARENESS POSTS (AS#3) that were created about the old masters whose is being copied (due 10/29/18).

Domenico Ghirlandaio: Elizabeth
Leonardo da Vinci: Ria and Natalie
Albrecht Dürer: Alex
Raphael: Shreya, Rylan, and Helen
Parmigianino: Raina
Tiepolo: Ada
François Boucher: Lucy, Amelia, and Maya
Eugene Delacroix: Julianne
Mary Cassatt: Genisus

Choose an Old Master to study by creating an Artist Spotlight entry in your sketchbook (this is AS #4). Follow the standard directions, including answering the provided questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, notes taken, personal reflection, and additional research as needed. Make sure to consider how this information is relevant to your current work and practice.

#3 Your Old Master - DUE Oct. 29

10/15/2018

NOTE: this is a WS assignment

For Artist Spotlight #3, please create an AWARENESS POST (on your website) about the old master whose work you are copying (click this link to access the full directions).

Once posted, classmates will be assigned an artist(s) to investigate using the standard sketchbook "Artist Spotlight format," including answers to the questions you have asked.

#2 Donatello (1386 - 1466)

10/1/2018

Full name: Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi
Fun fact: Donatello was an apprentice to Lorenzo Ghiberti

David (front and rear view)
c. 1440
bronze
158 cm (approx. 5' 2")
Museo Nazionale de Bargello
Florence. Italy

FIRST unsupported standing bronze statue cast during the Renaissance.
FIRST of three famous Davids sculpted during the Renaissance: #2) the more conventional bronze by Andrea del Verrochio (1475); #3) the famous statue of David by Michelangelo (1501-4).
Another famous version includes the Baroque statue by Bernini (1624) (remember the qualities of Baroque art? You can clearly see them in Bernini's statues, yes?)(Reminds you of the transformation of Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic statues, yes?)
Based on the Biblical story of David, the young, Jewish fighter killed the Philistine giant, Goliath, in single combat and armed only with a sling and a few pebbles = Allegorical reference to the Republic of Florence.
Iconography: 1) Sword of Goliath in his right hand, 2) Rock in other hand, 3) Foot on Goliath's severed head

Statues of "David" by Donatello (1440), Michelangelo (1501-4) and Bernini (1624)

Any study of the "Old Masters" begins in the Italian Renaissance. Your drawing project is designed to help you better understand this critical time period - because understanding the context of the times will help you make a better drawing. It is in this era that the definition of art - and role of the artist - begins to change significantly. This change is critical to the continued evolution of art. Do you know what these specific changes were?

AFTER CAREFULLY REVIEWING THE RESOURCES ASSIGNED ABOVE: Answer the following questions completely and with specificity to the provided resources, notes taken, personal reflection, and additional research as needed. Make sure to consider how this information is relevant to your current work and practice.

We have gone back in history a bit with Donatello... compare the birth/death dates of Donatello with Raphael, who you just studied, in order to put their lives into perspective within the period known as the Italian Renaissance.
Why is Donatello considered to be such an important artist?
The video covered a lot of ground. What did you know, what did you not know, what did you find to be of particular significance?
Review the vocabulary list your were given - are you able to add to any of the definitions based on the information provided here...? Do it!

#1 Raphael (1483 - 1520)

9/24/2018

Full name: Raffaello Sanzio (or Santi) da Urbino

Read and take notes:

(adapted from https://www.raphaelsanzio.org/biography.html)

Raphael was one of the finest draftsmen in the history of Western art, and used drawings extensively to plan his compositions.
Raphael's art marks "a shift of resources away from production to research and development".
When a final composition was achieved, scaled-up full-size cartoons were often made, which were then pricked with a pin and "pounced" with a bag of soot to leave dotted lines on the surface as a guide.
Most Raphael drawings are rather precise—even initial sketches with naked outline figures are carefully drawn, and later working drawings often have a high degree of finish, with shading and sometimes highlights in white.
He was one of the last artists to use metalpoint (literally a sharp pointed piece of sliver or another metal) extensively, although he also made superb use of the freer medium of red or black chalk.
In his final years he was one of the first artists to use female models for preparatory drawings—male pupils ("garzoni") were normally used for studies of both sexes

Additional biographical information - read and take notes:
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1818.html#biography

Watch, listen, and take notes:

This is a collection of Raphael's drawings - just look; pay attention to subject, composition, line quality, gesture, mark-making, and modeling of form.

Raphael was the younger contemporary of both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo... compare the birth/death dates of these three artists and put this relationship into perspective.
Artists respond to what is happening around them... 1) What ground-breaking work of Leonardo da Vinci caught Raphael's eye in 1504? 2) What subsequent inspirations hit him in 1508?
The terms cartoon, metalpoint, humanism (humanist), and fresco were used in the assigned readings. If you can define these terms on your own, please do so on the Renaissance/Old Master vocabulary handout you were given. If not, look up the definitions. Then, read through the remaining vocabulary on the handout and define only the terms that you already know (write in your own words/leave the unknown words alone for now).

The Artist Spotlight Series

9/10/2018

What WAS Art? What IS Art? WHY is Art? What WILL Art Become....? HOW will YOUR art compare?

By now you are fully aware.... Art and art history are inextricably linked... This series will take you through selected periods of art history and will allow you to consider how and why art has changed over the years. This investigation may help you to answer the questions above, although you'll likely change and refine your answers throughout the year. As you consider the life, times, and innovations of each artist, think also about how this knowledge can affect the art that YOU will make.

Reminders:

The thumbnail sketches associated with these sketchbook entries will serve as opportunities to draw every day but they are separate from your "Daily Drawings."
A thumbnail sketch is small and quickly done BUT it should still be completed with effort and observation. Pay attention to contours, shapes, proportion, composition, etc. This type of observation helps you to better understand the work of art and how the artist may have approached their work.
Pay special attention to the ways that art has changed over the years - but perhaps you'll also notice similarities... what drives ALL artists?
We will only scratch the surface - art history is HUGE and it keeps growing. Take any opportunity to be curious about things that we are not able to cover in this course. AND don't forget what you learned in Art 1 and Art 2.

Remember...? The Art 1 Artist Spotlight series covered Prehistory, Ancient Greece, the Italian Renaissance, and a brief conversation about Modernism and the artists who broke the traditional molds. This hop-skip-jump approach offered the ability for beginning art students to reflect on what art is, why art looks the way it does, how art reflects and changes with cultural norms and shifts, and who some of the major players were.

Remember...? The Art 2 Artist Spotlight series started with a survey of Still Life painting before moving on to Baroque figurative painting, Photorealism, a review of Pop Art, and an Intro. to Neo-Pop and other contemporary modes of art production. The artists and styles/media/processes studied in Art 2 further supported the goals from Art 1 but with an added focus on new ideas and challenging media.

SO.... for Art 3, we want to build on this conversation. While European art will still be studied, we will shift our focus to America, which for a very long time did not have the influence in the art world as Europe did. There are obvious reasons why... but it took until the 1940s before New York City would rival Paris as a power player in the art world. So we want to talk about that fact and to understand that shift and what it meant for ART in general... and what it means for YOU.

Additionally, we will try to maintain a global focus while also discussing artists and time periods that may get overlooked and/or are directly related to class projects.

PLEASE NOTE: As an Art 3 student, you will also be charged with selecting and researching your own Artist Spotlights, as related to the current project and to be posted on your website.

To get us started, let's review:

Watch the video below
Take notes to document a general timeline of art history and any other important/interesting facts, bits of information, thoughts, etc.
Write a reflective response, which may include some or all of the following:

What did you already know - what information was review from Art 1 or 2 or other courses?
What information was totally new to you - what would you like to investigate further?
What are your thoughts on the content of this video - did the info. help to support or challenge your previous ideas about art?
Any other connections or reactions.

The 2 videos below are also really good to remind ourselves about the importance of art and the development of art history....

The video below is best watched in VR...otherwise, use a smart phone and physically move it around or use the track pad/mouse on a computer.