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Micheline's Blog

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Micheline's Blog

Daily Archives: April 19, 2012

Chiaroscuro, or dark & light

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ Comments Off on Chiaroscuro, or dark & light

Tags

Barbizon School, Berlin, Charles Jacque, Giovanni Baglione, Golden Helmet, Golden ratio, Marie, Rembrandt

Chiaroscuro

The Man with the Golden Helmet

The Man with the Golden Helmet, by Rembrandt von Rijn (15 July 1606 – 15 July 1606), housed in the Berlin National Museum  

In my post on Barbizon school artist, Charles Jacque, I mentioned not only the Golden section in a rather cavalier fashion, but I also mentioned chiaroscuro somewhat off-handedly. 

Rembrandt Harmenszoon von Rijn’s “Man with the Golden Helmet,” 1560-1665, housed in the Berlin National Museum, is a good example of the use of chiaroscuro or dark and light.  It is also a good example of the use of the Golden section.

According to Wikipedia “[c]hiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance as drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper’s base tone towards light using white gouache, and towards dark using ink, bodycolour (a color that lasts) or watercolour.

By and large, we no longer use coloured paper.  We use pale, usually white, paper.  However, the above description is particularly interesting in that it gives the impression that the light area has been dug out of darkness.  In the case of Charles Jacque‘s Marie, the dark areas are carved out of a white background. It is a process akin to making a cameo, or the reverse.

Let us return to Wikipedia to read that “[t]hese in turn drew on traditions in illuminated manuscripts, going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on purple-dyed vellum (from vélin or calfskin).”

However, more simply defined, chiaroscuro refers to the contrast between light areas and dark areas, as in Charles Jacque’s “Marie.”  Marie seems to emerge, as though dug out from the white background.  In most drawings and coloured paintings, the pale area seems nearer than the dark area. However, if only one part of the painting is lit (see El Greco), that is the part we see.  
 
                                                    
Sacred and Profane Love, 1602–1603 
Giovanni Baglione (1566 – 30 December 1643)    

El Greco (1541 – 7 April 1614)
Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Company of Ape and Fool
 
19 Mendelssohn Lieder ohne Worte, Op.53 – No. 1. Andante con moto in A flat 
(please click on the title to hear the music)
 
April 19, 2012 
 
 
 
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The Golden Section

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ Comments Off on The Golden Section

Tags

Apostolic Palace, Golden, Golden ratio, Golden Section, Pythagoras, Raphael, School of Athens, Vatican City

The Golden Section

Raphael

In my last post, I mentioned the Golden section without inserting a link.  So, here go.

Students of art and architecture learn about the Greek Golden section. When it is first mentioned, they are intrigued. Have rules been applied to art?  At which point they start seeing the Golden section everywhere.

To the left is a detail from Raphael’s painting of Pythagoras’ “School of Athens” illustrating the Golden section. And the site to which I have linked us provides several other examples.

Most simply expressed a painting or building constructed in the shape of an off-centre crucifix (positioned vertically or horizontally, less the suffering body), utilizes the proportions of the Golden section.

There is nothing wrong with symmetry, the grounds and palace of Versailles being a good example of successful symmetry  Yet, it was very clever of Pythagoras to map out a work of art or architecture according to the Golden section. It does enhance “beauty.”

Perspective: The Vanishing Point

The painting above is a fresco (a wall painting) from which the above detail has been taken.  It illustrates the point de fuite (the vanishing point).  Renaissance artists learned to give depth to their works by creating a vanishing point.  The idea of perspective had entered the world of art.  Yet, in Raphael’s “School of Athens,” our Golden section is also used.  The arches are smaller at the back, conveying the impression of depth, but Raphael’s design also shows the ratio of the Golden Section.  Look carefully.

I leave you at this point, so I can finish a short blog on chiaroscuro.

Renaissance Musical Instruments: Keyboard Instruments / Ricercare Music

(please click on Renaissance to hear the music)
 
© Micheline Walker
19 April 2012
WordPress
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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