Art and Eye

  It is difficult for the eye to settle in the busy scene concocted by Durer, based on the story found in the Book of Revelations. The Whore of Babylon occupies the right hand side of the work, accompanied by her many headed monster, facing off against a crowd of onlookers, and being attacked from the heavens above. Despite the monochromatic colour range of the print, shading and varying levels of detail successfully capture the drama and action of the scene, whilst showing off Durer's printmaking abilities which defined the discipline for centuries to come.  Each tuft of grass, each fallen rock, each puffing cloud, are all exceptionally detailed by Durer. In woodcuts, there is only linear and horizontal shading, not cross-hatching as would be found in etching or engraving, but this does not limit the artist's hand in his Apocalypse series. Figures are crammed together on the left-hand side of the work - a crowd of onlookers balancing the many headed monster accompanying the W...

  Bernini, in an early work, depicts three generations escaping the burning siege of Troy, as they appear in the epic Aeneid, by Virgil. Carrying his father on his left shoulder, the hero Aeneas leads his younger son, Ascanius, who shelters behind him. Drawing on sculptural precedent from Michelangelo and Giambologna, the strong verticals, coupled with the emotional intent of the work, mark it as a sculpture which shapes the early oeuvre of Bernini, who would go on to stamp his authority across the Italian Baroque.  There is nothing to indicate the burning city of Troy in Bernini's work, sacked by the Greeks in the Aeneid , yet there is intent, movement and drama throughout the sculpture, as was typical of Baroque works. Despite its ability to be viewed in the round, movement is best felt by a viewer who faces the sculpture from the front, as all three figures are visible from this angle, head on. Although this was a feature which was criticised at the time, it enables all thr...

  With a dark bedrock at the base of the piece, leading up to a green, almost translucent horizon at the top, Sean Scully presents his Landline Green White as a collection of parallel lines of colour. As if mapping out the layers of earth up towards the heavens, this series was inspired by the Irish landscape, and evokes the Abstract Expressionists working primarily in New York during the 1960s and 1970s. Despite its simplistic formal qualities and restricted colour palette, Scully still invites a viewer to question the meaning of his monumental painting, whilst using interesting materials to flex his capabilities as an artist, and show the range of oils in only six blocks of colour.  Using aluminium as a ground, Scully instantly takes Abstract Expressionism a stage further through technique, adding a modernist undercurrent to this well-known artistic movement. Giving a shininess to the palette, the aluminium also betrays the painted strokes of Scully's hand, distinct in the u...

  Pietro Lorenzetti created his emotionally charged Deposition from the Cross for the south transept of the Lower Church at Assisi. It is a space which likely brought together all the great early Renaissance artists - Cimabue, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Giotto and Simone Martini. However, this depiction of Christ's contorted, heavy, elongated, emaciated form being lowered from the cross above, is surely one of the most memorable frescoes in the space. Not only have the pressed together faces of mother and son subsequently become symbolic of Lorenzetti's oeuvre  itself, but the fresco brings together a sense of naturalism as perpetuated by Giotto, and an intense emotionality that would have surely inspired the devotional onlookers of the fourteenth century.  Sitting within the wider narrative of Christ's life, Lorenzetti's Deposition is arranged towards the left hand side of the south transept, yet the faces of Christ and his mother still remain at the painting'...

  Whistler constructs a world of hedonism, perfectly appropriate for his Peacock Room, in which this painting was originally placed. Depicting a full-length figure, decadently dressed in a sumptuous kimono flowing down her elegant, elongated frame, the artist captures the movements of Aestheticism and art for art's sake popular during the mid nineteenth century, alongside an interest in 'exotic' far Eastern cultures which lead to the rise of Japonisme in artistic depictions.  Currently, the work hangs above the fireplace in the Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington. However, originally it sat in London, in a space which Whistler constructed with the help of Thomas Jeckyll, for the mansion owned by shipping magnate Frederick Leyland. However, Whistler's artistic eye dominated the project, and as costs rose and designs became more gold, sumptuous and elaborate, Leyland was increasingly irritable in correspondence, famously telling Whistler that he would b...

  With Baroque drama, expressive light and shade, alongside a contorted figure crammed into the picture frame, Guercino successfully captures the desperation of Elijah, stretching out his dark purple cloth to catch the food which falls from ravens above him. Based on the lesser known Old Testament narrative, the artist concentrates on the study of an ageing figure to convey his hunger and failing strength, against the fading blue lighting and cool stream below.  The monumental canvas gifts the viewer with a life-size representation of Elijah, whist enabling Guercino to show off the power of foreshortening - with his right knee jutting out towards a viewer, Elijah seems almost to fall out of the canvas towards us, toppling forward and bearing down on us to enhance that monumentality. This also suggests Guercino's debt to Caravaggio when constructing his Baroque canvases, and the torn red sleeve to reveal Elijah's white undershirt was yet another favoured motif of the Cavaraggis...