Louvre Museum Exhibit

Art Appreciation 1

By

James Call

• The tour of the museum will be through 5 pieces that depict religious and or historical themes in paint.

• All pieces are examples of Realistic Art.

• I will focus on two elements– Focal points– Relative Size and Linear Perspective

The West Façade of the Louvre by Philibert Louis Debucourt during

the Age of Enlightenment

Louvre Facade

A nice way to start the tour of the Louvre is with a portrait of the museum itself.

Focal PointThe cool blue of the sky next to the dark roof

and the warm orange and brown tones of the Louvre really make the building stand out.

The angular lines of the building further draw the eye.

Louvre Facade

• Linear perspective– The painting gives the perspective that the

building moves away from the right to the left of the painting.

– One way it achieves this is through texture gradient. The right side of the picture is in much sharper focus with the details fading to the left as if the building is moving away.

– Brightness gradient is also used as the colors lessen as they move to the left.

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Caliari 1562-1563

The Wedding Feast at Cana

• This painting is massive. It is 6.77 meters high and 9.94 meters wide. That is over 22 feet tall and over 32.5 feet wide. It weighs over 1.5 tons.

• The size makes it somewhat difficult to view on a computer screen.

• Perspective– The buildings on either side of the picture seem to

move inward. This is a good example of one point perspective.

The Wedding Feast at Cana

• This painting includes over 130 individual party goers.

• Focal Point– Christ is in the center of the frame with the railing

directly behind him to create space between him and those behind.

– He wears a red shirt with a blue sash. This combination of the warm red with the cool blue draws the eye.

– The linear walls also narrow towards the center of the painting.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix

Liberty Leading the People

• This painting is on pg. 20 of our Textbook, Understanding Art Ninth Edition

• This painting is also large. It is over 8.5 feet tall and almost 11 feet wide.– Focal Point

• Female Liberty virtually pops off of the painting.• The red of the flag, the light color of her bare skin

and the white cloud surrounding her all draw the eye strongly to her.

Liberty Leading the People

• Perspective– This is another good example of texture

gradient.– The detail in the painting decreases creating

the illusion of distance and providing a sense of three dimension.

Portrait of Lisa Gheradini by Leonardo da Vinci

Portrait of Lisa Gheradini Leonardo da Vinci

• We are obviously more familiar with this painting as the Mona Lisa.– Focal Point

• Mona Lisa seems to be the closest thing to the viewer and occupies a huge portion of the painting. Her scale creates a sharp focal point.

• The bright color of the bare skin on her face and neck also draw the eye.

Detail of Portrait of Lisa Gheradini Leonardo da Vinci

Portrait of Lisa Gheradini Leonardo da Vinci

• I was unaware of the detail of the background of this painting.

• Proportion– Clearly the proportion is off. Mona Lisa stands

out as so large against her background.

• Perspective– Da Vinci also uses textural gradient to provide

perspective as demonstrated in the detail image.

The Coronation of the Virgin by Guido di Pietro

The Coronation of the Virgin by Guido di Pietro

• This image is of Christ crowning Mary in heaven.

• Focal Point– Psychological lines are drawn to Christ and

Mary as every head in the painting is pointed at them.

– A screen is behind them creating space and visual quiet compared to the chaos of bodies throughout the rest of the frame.

The Coronation of the Virgin by Guido di Pietro

• Perspective– The height of the people as they move away

from the bottom of the painting increases creating the perception of depth as if they are standing on a hill behind the people on the lower part of the painting.

– The size of the people decrease creating a linear perspective.

LouvreI find myself drawn to realistic and historical art. I found these images

personally enjoyable as well as good examples of some of the principles we have been studying.

I would place the Wedding Feast at Cana on the wall opposite the entrance to the room. It is so large that it draws you in.

The Mona Lisa would stand alone on a large wall to allow the largest number of people to view it.

The West Façade of the Louvre would hang on the wall at the entrance to the room as the first piece one sees to set the stage.

The Coronation of the Virgin and Lady Liberty would stand side by side as two examples of the historical power of women.