Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.com 

The History of Western Art

By Peter Whitfield 

Narrated by Sebastian Comberti

PETER WHITFIELD

Peter Whitfield offers a whirlwind

tour of “The History of Western Art”.  He begins with cave paintings and ends with performance art by an “artist” locked in a library with a wild animal.  The distressing thought is that “art is anything you can get away with.”

In slightly more than five hours of narration, a listener traverses 30,000 years (some say 40,000 years) of art history.  Whitfield is a poet and critic.  “The History of Art” is an intelligent introduction to a mystifying, fascinating, and intimidating subject.

The journey begins with France’s Neolithic Lascaux cave paintings created between 18000

CAVE PAINTING (LASCAUX CAVE IN FRANCE)

and 10000 b.c. (Youtube tour of Lascaux caves: http://youtu.be/UnSq0c7jM-A ) This is among the earliest known records of representational art.  Whitfield jumps from the Stone Age to Egyptian art (3100 b.c.) that focuses on the afterlife.  Twenty six hundred years after the pyramids, art flourishes in the Minoan civilization of Crete, off the coast of Greece. One looks at some Minoan wall paintings and cannot help being reminded of Egyptian art.  The slender figures are reminiscent of images on ancient Egyptian frescos. Wall paintings of human forms jumping over bull’s horns at the Knossos ruins in Crete show another form of representational art. (Youtube video of the reconstruction of Knossos: http://youtu.be/4XJd88cTRsU).

BULL LEAPING FRESCO AT KNOSSOS RUINS IN CRETE (GREEK ISLAND KNOWN AS THE CRADLE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION)

Whitfield describes the growth of architectural art with Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns of Greece that provide balance and proportion to monuments like the Parthenon in Athens. (Youtube video of Athen’s Acropolis:http://youtu.be/xP-FsX0QW88.)

ÎÄ»¯Ö®Â㺵ØÀíÈËÎľ°¹Û±ÚÖ½¾«Ñ¡ µÚÁù¼­
PARTHENON IN ATHENS

COLOSSEUM IN ROME

Rome picks up where Greece leaves off but Rome’s art perfects realism in representational art.

The arch is a Roman contribution to architecture.  Coliseums are built to stage athletic events and Christian persecutions.  (Youtube video of the Roman Colosseum construction and use: http://youtu.be/OOylD1KC6kc . )  Statues of great leaders are sculpted in idealized forms reminiscent of ancient Greece.

ROMAN STATUE OF APOLLO

ST. SERNIN, TOLOUSE, FRANCE

The next leap in Whitfield’s  history is to the Middle Ages.

Architecturally, cathedrals are designed to shock and awe observers with an “other worldly” vision of God and heaven.  (Youtube video tour of Notre Dame in Paris: http://youtu.be/O61ng_QqC4I.)

St. Sernin and Notre Dame illustrate how architectural design moves from the practical construction characteristics of a Roman aqueduct to an ethereal and spiritual experience of a multi-chambered, high ceiling cathedral.

The early Renaissance peeks through the Middle Ages with Cimabue and Giotto creations.  Rather than stick figure symbols of saints, common in the Middle Ages, Cimabue and Giotto create more realistic and emotive human forms.  (Youtube video of Giotto’s works: http://youtu.be/O61ng_QqC4I.)

GIOTTO’S-CRUCIFIXION (1310)

DONATELLO’S DAVID

DA VINCI’S VITRUVIAN MAN

The Early Renaissance (1400s) arrives with Brunelleschi, and Donatello.  The classic art forms of Greece and Rome are re-discovered.  Human figures become more classic, ideally formed but more natural looking.  Da Vinci begins detailing human anatomy.  (Youtube history of Da Vinci: http://youtu.be/Pir_H7kf_JU. ) The High Renaissance (1500s) reaches a pinnacle with Michelangelo.  Whitfield wonders–if Girogio Vassari, the first art historian, believes Michelangelo reaches the pinnacle of art, what artist could improve on the achievement. (Youtube history of Michelangelo: http://youtu.be/t9owI8k7x1E.)

MICHAELANGELO’S DAVID (1501-04)

COSIMO de’ MEDICI (1389-1464)

MICHELANGELO’S TOMB FOR LORENZO de’ MEDICI

Whitfield digresses with an explanation of why the art Renaissance begins in Italy.  He notes that the Renaissance flourishes in Italy because of the rise of Nobles and a secular class; particularly Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici in Italy.  But, also the Roman Catholic church which uses its wealth to support promising artists.  Popes offer a “canvas” for great art with cathedral building and beautifully maintained landscapes.

DURER SELF PORTRAIT 1500

However, Whitfield acknowledges that Renaissance art also flourishes, though slightly later, in France and Germany with Durer, Bruegel, Bosch, and Jan van Eyck.  (Youtube video of Albrecht Durer’s work: http://youtu.be/3uBSzOHT87w . ) Whitfield believes the two art movements rose independently. He notes that less skin is shown in northern artist’s work which suggests an independent renaissance of classic art. (One wonders if skin exposure is simply because of climate difference.)

Curiously, Whitfield suggests after the Renaissance, art is classified by its decade rather than categories like Classic, Romanesque, Gothic, etc., but ironically Whitfield continues to give future art works categories.  Whitfield’s next category is Mannerism.

EL GRECO (THE HOLY TRINITY 1577-1579)

Mannerism moves away from perfect forms and begins to trick the eye of the observer.  Distortion is used to elicit reaction in the observer.  Artists break the rules of perfect human form.  Tintoretto and El Greco are two of the better known rule breakers in the mid-1500s. (Youtube video of El Greco Paintings: http://youtu.be/dhj93Qq1fVM.)

REMBRANDT (THE NIGHT WATCH)

Next is the Baroque period of art with Rembrandt (Youtube video of Rembrandt works: http://youtu.be/ekpSExdM3Zk)  and Carravaggio (Youtube video of Carravagiggio works:http://youtu.be/WXwbhssHTKk ).  One begins to see a softening of image but with more attention to light and color that enriches the appearance of the painter’s subject.  Some argue that religion becomes more important in art of this period because of the burgeoning rift between Catholics and Protestants.

CARAVAGGIO (JUDITH BEHEADING HOLFERNES)

The age of revolution is Whitfield’s next era of art history.  Romanticism plays out in the French and American revolutions.  Imagination becomes an important element of art. Delacroix, and Turner romanticized war in their paintings.

EUGENE DELACROIX (LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE 1830)

JOSEPH TURNER PAINTING (BURNING)

Whitfield jumps to Impressionism which seems right when one looks at Turner’s paintings which seem somewhat impressionistic even though they pre-date Impressionism.  The effect of light becomes a preeminent concern of artists like

CLAUDE MONET (IMPRESSION, SUNRISE 1872)

VAN GOGH (THE POTATO EATERS, 1885)

Monet, Renoir, and Degas.  This leads to the category of Post-Impressionism that dislikes artist’s over-emphasis on light.  They return to importance of subject without abandoning the importance of light.  The new leaders are Van Gogh, and Cezanne. (Youtube video of Van Gogh self portraits: http://youtu.be/O5tKG39G6Qk.)

PAUL CEZANNE (STILL LIFE WITH CURTAIN AND FLOWERED PITCHER, 1895)

KANDINSKY (LANDSCAPE WITH TWO POPLARS, 1912)

BRAQUE (VIOLIN AND CANDLESTICK, 1910)

Moving into the 20^th century, Whitfield picks Matisse and Kandinsky as representatives of Expressionism.  (Youtube video of Kandinsky’s works: http://youtu.be/H62BRsqEruE. ) Abstraction becomes more and more prevalent with Cubism, and Futurism led by Braque and Picasso.  Then there is the jump to dreams with Dada and Surrealism,

GIORGIO de CHIRICO (LOVE SONG, 1914)

practiced by Dali, Magritte, and de Chirico.  (Youtube video of de Chirico’s works: http://youtu.be/D3GjVlnQm1A. ) Whitfield notes that Dali’s self-promotional exhibitionism turns off many of his contemporaries.  Other Surrealist artists are internally motivated by their imagination without outward concern for acceptance or rejection by the public.

JACKSON POLLOCK (BIRTH NAME PAUL JACKSON POLLOCK 1912-1956)

Finally, Whitfield notes that abstract art breaks with representation with artists like Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, and Warhol.  (Youtube video narrated by Jackson Pollock descibing how he works: http://youtu.be/CrVE-WQBcYQ. ) Art represents itself, not as an image of something else but as an unrepresentative image, a thing unto itself.  Art becomes what an artist and observer is moved by.

At the end, one wonders whether art is entering a new dark age where the value of art is degraded by technology that makes too much of medium as message.  Art needs to be more than a transaction between willing seller and buyer.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.com 

Lives of the Artists

By Giorgio Vasari 

Narrated by Nadia May

GIORGIO VASARI (1511-1574)

The word modern depends on a writer’s place in history.  To Giorgio Vasari, in the art world, modern begins with Cimabue and rises to a pinnacle of modern art with da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Titian.

TRAVEL WITH VASARI-PART 1:http://www.youtube.com/embed/pq6Wqe61_v4” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Vasari sees art as a reflection of nature in the designs of man.  He envisions art movements as cycles in history based on human understanding  of nature.  Vasari suggests that ancient Greeks and Romans were first to see nature as the inspiration for great art.  Vasari believes that inspiration diminishes over time in eras of art history.  He argues that geniuses of the art world are born at different times in history.  Vasari believes these geniuses return to nature as their inspiration for art.

CIMABUE (1240-1302)

GIOTTO (1267-1337)

“Lives of the Artists” credits modern art to Cimabue and Giotto with what is seen in nature as their inspiration.  Vasari argues that Cimabue and Giotto break away from the symbolic form of Byzantine design to re-awaken the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting. In “Lives of the Artists” Vasari chronicles the rise of 16^th century “modern” art.

CIMABUE:http://www.youtube.com/embed/dpsEXM1JjhE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>iframe>

RAPHAEL’S PORTRAIT OF POPE JULIUS II

COSIMO de’ MEDICI (1389-1464)

There are three forces that create an art renaissance in Vasari’s history.  One is the church; two is aristocratic wealth; and the third is artistic genius.  Vasari orchestrates these three forces in the lives of artists that become household names in the art world.  With sponsorship from Popes (Pope Julius II, Pius II, Sixtus IV, Alexander VI) and aristocrats (Medici family of Florence, Sforza family of Milan), art is seeded in the 13^th century and blooms in the 15^th and 16^th.

CIMABUE’S CRUCIFIX (1287-1288)

Vasari sees art’s transition from Byzantine symbolism to the reality of nature in Cimabue’s Crucifix.  The Crucifix depicts The Virgin and John the Evangelist with forlorn faces at each side of Christ’s hands as nailed to the cross. Christ hangs from the cross with closed eyes–once living; now dying.  Nature resurrects itself in the form of Jesus; no longer just a symbol, but an anguished human form. Giotto’s painting, “Crucifixion”, carries Cimabue’s  depiction of suffering Jesus one step closer to what mankind sees in nature.

THE MAGNIFICENT GIOTTO:http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZBTtjDMBIbk” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

DANTE ALIGHIERI PAINTED BY GIOTTO (14TH CENTURY)

The transition from symbol to naturalism pushes forward with Giotto’s painting of Dante Alighieri and, even more obviously, in da Vinci’s “Jerome in the Wilderness”.

DA VINCI’S-JEROME IN THE WILDERNESS (1480)

LEONARDO DA VINCI–UNIVERSAL GENIUS VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/embed/Pir_H7kf_JU” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Visari infers that Michelangelo, though considerably younger than da Vinci, does not care for the great inventor because he fails to finish his works and dabbles in too many fields of work without becoming an expert in any.

VIDEO OF MICHELANGELO’S SISTINE CHAPEL PAINTING:http://www.youtube.com/embed/7Oxh1hnxW_A” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

MICHELANGELO DETAIL-THE CREATION OF ADAM-SISTINE CHAPEL (1511)

MICHELANGELO’S PLAN FOR ST. PETER’S BASILICA

Vasari shows Michelangelo to be a great sculptor first but reminds one of the beauty and sublimity of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel’ paintings and his architectural prowess

ST. PETER’S BASILICA

MICHELANGELO’S TOMB FOR LORENZO de’ MEDICI

with Lorenz de’ Medici’s tomb and design management of St. Peter’s Basilica.

MICHAELANGELO’S DAVID (1501-04)

Nearing the end of Vasari’s history, Michelangelo admires Titian’s work for its sensual beauty while criticizing Titian’s drawing experience.

The beauty and sensuality of “Venus of Urbino” argues both agreement and disagreement with Michelangelo’s purported opinion of Titian’s work.  “Venus of Urbino” is a spectacular work of art; only a master of drawing would dare criticize Titian’s drawing prowess.

TITIAN PAINTINGS:http://www.youtube.com/embed/jk5DOy_13hw” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Vasari’s book is a fascinating examination of a great era of art by an artist that actually met Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti.