Art and Eye

  So often is John Singer Sargent defined by his society portraits which from the late 1870s, gave him international fame, a distinct style and elite client opportunities. The recent exhibition at Tate Britain successfully defined the artist through 'fashion' and his upper-class portraits with their quick, confident brushwork and equally commanding figural depictions. Studied less often, however, are the mural works by Sargent at Boston's public library which took the artist three decades to accomplish. The allegorical figure of the  Synagogue,  a particularly controversial design, seems to have been produced by a different artist entirely. Gone is the elegant pose of  Madame X,  or the sumptuous clothing of Madame Subercaseaux reclining at her pianoforte, or even the engaging, demur stare of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw. Sargent instead portrays an allegory turned in on itself and away from the viewer, swaddled in orientalising, claustrophobic folds.  Sargent's s...

  As the only work remaining of Sienese goldsmith Guccio di Mannaia, the chalice he created for Pope Nicholas IV in the late thirteenth century is an incredibly important work of art. Not only does it highlight the rich, opulent nature of papal commissions, but it proves the talent of Sienese goldsmiths and their resulting influence on painters and sculptors of the period. The chalice is innovative in shape and form, but it is striking first and foremost through the use of gold. It is an object that deserves to be viewed in the flesh, because of its reflective and therefore mimetic potential – like a bronze sculpture it is activated by light and should be experienced in the round as a three-dimensional, highly decorated art object. Its complicated design features an almost architectonic base, star-like as it spills out towards the viewer. The base builds up into the stem of the chalice which is decorated with an array of enamelled plaques featuring saints, prophets, angels and furt...

  Even today the genre of still life is considered to be of lesser status and de Heem is one of many practitioners who disappears behind history painters or portraitists, because of the works he created. Yet he was a key painter of the Dutch Golden Age and gained valuable commissions beyond Utrecht, where he was born. According to Sam Segal, his portrait of William III of England, for instance, was sold for 2000 guilders which was among the highest price ever paid for a seventeenth century Dutch work of art. In this painting for royalty, de Heem combined the genres of portrait and still life to create an original, successful artwork steeped in symbolism and befitting of a monarchical representation. The works he produced later in life from the 1650s onward then extended his reputation, where he depicted a variety of flora, fauna, fruits and utensils against minimalist backgrounds to reflect the market trends of his day. Broadly speaking, de Heem’s works can be divided into two cate...

  An outdoor setting with two figures confronts the viewer in Frederick Carl Frieseke's Impressionistic work of 1912. Yet, as the title suggests, the protagonist is in fact the orange and purple parasol that shades the seated figure. Almost like the sun itself, it encompasses the top third of the painting, allowing Frieseke to exploit the quick brushwork of Impressionism further, now in reds, oranges and purples. The detail on the parasol is indistinguishable – perhaps dancing figures, or flora and fauna motifs – engaging the eye to piece together an image of their liking. Its thin material is illuminated by the sun above, heightening its yellow glow to evoke a divine aura, almost halo-like above the seated figure. The parasol also gives the slightest hint at three-dimensionality in a broadly flat canvas, its circularity curving over the top of the figures to push the woman back who stands ‘behind’ its huge diameter. She seems to be preparing to put her own parasol up, however the ...

As a three-dimensional, life size monument, the sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia TIesnasa is immediately an eye-catching object. Now situated in the British Museum, it forms the paramount piece of the Etruscan collection. Both effigy, tomb and the skeleton within have been valuable for wider research on Etruscan artistic styles and methods, as well as the role of elite women in the society of Chiusi where the figure in question was originally from and buried. Though its paint work still remains, the tomb monument would have been more heavily decorated in its original form, now offering mere glimpses of the skilled hand of the artist(s) who designed and produced the structure. The maker was aware of the multiple functions of the tomb, not just for housing the dead but allowing the body to be recognisable in the afterlife and producing an accessible portrait for memorialisation, all tied together through the creation of an architectonic, three-dimensional structure that commanded the tomb ...

  An endless line of men that tug the rope of a small boat soon disappear into murky, burning red waters beyond. Colour is fantastical, mystical and otherworldly, producing an atmosphere far from reality. This is the Symbolist work of Marianne von Werefkin, part of the German Expressionists that worked in Munich from the 1910s. A movement so often dominated by the male names of the time – Kandinsky especially – Werefkin was a vital participant, expanding the range of art produced and displayed, complementing her work with art theory and written sources, as well as creating her own Salon upon her arrival in Munich. It is easy to get lost in biography with a piece such as this. Wasted, human potential seems to be at the heart of this work, signalled by the endless line of men pushing forward towards the edge of the picture plane. There is a sense of struggle and a universality to the suffering through the portrayal of faceless men in similar blue tones. Looking at the date produced o...