Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech was born on May 11, 1904 at 8:45 in the morning.  He grew up near the French border in a Spanish town called Figueres, but spent his summer in the seaside village of Cadaques, where his parents built his first studio.  His father was a wealthy notary and he afforded Dali an education at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, Spain.  His talent was recognized early on, and he even held a solo art show in Barcelona in 1925.  Three years later, a few of his paintings (Basket of Bread, below) were exhibited at the Carnegie International Exhibition, and he joined a surrealist group of artists, including Andre Breton.

He met Gala Eduard (pictured together, below) in 1929 while she was visiting Cadaques with her husband, and she became his lover and inspiration.  They later married and moved to Port Liligat.

Right after completing his most famous painting, Persistence of Memory (below), he was expelled from the surrealist group in 1934.  He began experimenting with art that depicted science and religion. He escaped Europe during WWII, and had his first major exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in 1942.


After his surrealist period had passed, he painted 19 large canvases with major historical, religious, or scientific scenes--many of which are in American Art Museums today.  Pictured below is the Sacrament of the Last Supper (left) and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
 
After many solo, international exhibits, Dali's health began to fail in 1982 when his wife, Gala, died.  Although they had an unusual relationship (he enjoyed the company of other young girls, and she allegedly served him a poisoned cocktail once), he lost his will to live after her passing.  Some historians believe he may have had a few attempted suicides in his final years. Ultimately, he was burned in a house fire, and had undergone surgery for a pacemaker by 1986.  He spent the majority of the rest of his life alone in his apartment until his death on January 23, 1989. He produced over 1,500 paintings during his life.

I chose Dali for my blog post because I love how he used all types of mediums, painting sizes, and inspirations.  Additionally, I enjoy how real each piece of the painting is without the painting being realistic.  For instance, in Persistence of Memory, the clock looks exactly like a melted clock should look, but there would never be a time or place where melted clocks would appear in real life.  To me, his paintings are very representative for how Dali thinks of the subject.  This is interesting, since he spent a majority of his career focusing on painting unconscious thoughts and feelings (see the second photo below).  I am not familiar with art critiques or artists in general, but Dali seems to portray the meaning of his paintings clearer than other artists that I looked up in this blog project.  Similarly, the fact that he was expelled from his surrealist group and continued to paint and create art is amazing to me.  Not only do I enjoy his art, but I enjoy his life story and reading about who he was as a person.  He was beyond passionate about art and enjoying life. He was once quoted, "every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali!"


Melancholy, Atomic, Uranic Idyll
Eccentric Genius The Temptation of St. Anthony
The Lugubrious Game

http://cultura.studionews24.com/dali-genio-e-follia-in-scena-a-roma/
http://www.salvadordali.com/biography/
http://artanddesigninspiration.com/salvador-dali-eccentric-genus/
https://artglob.wordpress.com/2011/06/13/salvador-dalis-guide-to-making-art/

Giorgi Sisauri by Gvantsa (Vivian) Ivanishvili

Giorgi Sisauri is a contemporary graphic designer, artist, poet, novel writer, and calligraph in various scripts (such as Georgian, Slavic, Latin, Arabic, Greek, etc.). He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, on February 10 of 1996.  He grew up surrounded by artists, including his own father, uncle, and sister. He himself considers art to be a major part of his life and even himself, his own being. In one of his interviews, he affirmed that  as soon as he discovered his love for calligraphy, it "transformed into a part of [his] life." Sisauri first developed his unique drawing style at the age of 12, when he suddenly began drawing by using his own unique techniques. Although he went to a regular Georgian public middle school and high school, he unofficially attended art classes at the National Art Academy of Tbilisi for three years, between the ages of 15 and 18. In 2009, at the age of 13, Sisauri organized his first personal exhibition. In 2012, at the age of 16, he published his first two books. In 2013, he published one more book and had another exhibition of his works (including both drawings and calligraphic artworks) at the Georgian National Center of Calligraphy. His artworks were noticed by several art critics, including French art critics from the Louvre, who called him a virtuoso and insisted that he should consider receiving a college education in France, at the Art Academy of Paris. However, Sisauri could not find a sponsor and applied to Georgian universities instead. Between 2010 and 2015, he participated in the national Georgian calligraphy contest "Georgian Calligraphy" and obtained the first place five times in a row. Sisauri graduated from Tbilisi's 55th public high school in 2014 and became a college student at the National Art Academy of Tbilisi, where he is currently enrolled as a sophomore. 

All of Sisauri's drawings are abstract and black-and-white, created with black ink. His main source of inspiration is his strong faith in God and in the presence of God in everything that surrounds us. He designates his artworks as "unreal realities," (which can also be translated as "surreal realities") and claims that art should depict what cannot be seen in the physical world. According to him, "unreal realities" are things that we can not perceive throughout normal, material mediums, but that exist within the depth of the human mind and simply need to be remembered. 

Please find below some of his major artworks: 

Sources: 

1. Cited interview: axaliganatleba.ge

2. Artist's background: sangu.edu.ge 

3. Calligraphy contests: Wikipedia

4. Other: YouTube 

Jacques-Louis David by Jenny Bai

Jacques-Louis David is known as the artistic leader of his time during a period of political, social, and cultural unrest and transformation in France. His career as a painter spanned across five decades, during which he witnessed and was influential in the French Revolution and France’s subsequent changes in governmental organization. His experiences can be seen in his art, which depict various historical events in which he was present. David played an important role in the development of “modern” art in the 1800s, so much so that Delacroix called him “the father of the entire modern school in painting and sculpture.”

Background

Brief Biography

Jacques-Louis David was born in Paris on August 30, 1748, to parents Louise-Maurice David and marie-Genevieve Buron. After an education at the Franciscan monastery of Picpus and Collège de Neauvais and Collège des Quatre Nations, David became the student of Joseph-Marie Vien and attended the Royal Acadmy of Painting and Sculpture. He competed for the Prix de Rome in 1771 and was awarded second place. He did not win first or second place for the next two years, but won on his fourth attempt in 1774. David rose to prominence in the 1780s and was a staunch supporter of the French Revolution and Republic. When Napoleon came into power, he appointed David as First Painter. When Napoleon fell from power, David, along with many of the Revolutionaries that had voted for the execution of Louis XVI, was exiled to Brussels. In Brussels, David spent the last decade of his life experimenting in subjects and styles of classical antiquity influences.

Styles and Techniques

Jacque-Louis David’s work combined classical antiquity with contemporary scenes of the French Revolution. According to Delacroix, the seemingly contradictory nature of David’s work was also its strength, “a singular combination of realism dn the ideal.” David identified major figures of the French Revolution with the heroes and gods of the classical world and he combined art and politics in his works.

David’s paintings are primarily done on canvas with oil paints. However, he also completed works with other media and techniques, including ink, etching, chalk, and engravings. For his major works such as The Sabine Women and The Coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame, David completed numerous study drawings using graphite. His work primarily focused on figures, and he usually studied poses using models dressed in clothes and jewelry befitting of the subject’s societal rank. 

Works

Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau on His Deathbed, 1793, engraving

Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau on His Deathbed, 1793, student charcoal drawing

Peletier de Saint-Fargeau on His Deathbed was David's first martyr portrait.

Le Peletier was formerly a marquis and member of the judiciary nobility. During the French Revolution, Philippe de Pâris, a former member of the king's guard and staunch loyalist sought to kill the Duke of Orléans, whom he believed was a traiter for supporting the king's execution. Pâris failed to find the Duke, but instead found Le Peletier, who admitted that he had voted for the king's execution. Pâris killed him, and the revolutionaries subsequently viewed him as a martyr. Jacque-Louis David organized the funeral ceremony, where Le Peletier's body was displayed with the top half uncovered. David subsequently completed an engraving and painting of the scene. The painting was believed to be destroyed by royalists and the engraving had been torn. However, a student's charcoal drawing of the painting is still preserved. 

Reminiscent of classical antiquity, David's engraving emphasizes the beauty of the uncovered figure and likened Le Peletier to Greco-Roman heroism. Because the work as an etching, series of narrowly-spaced lines and cross-hatching are used to convey shadows and depth. As one can see from the charcoal drawing, a sword of Paris is depicted above the point of the wound, decorated with the fleur-de-lis, a symbol of the royalists. The sword also pierces through a paper on which is written "Je vote la mort du tyrant" (I vote for the death of the tyrant). 

The Sabine Women, 1799, oil on canvas

Study Drawing for The Sabine Women, ca 1795-1796, graphite

The Sabine Women was David's great aesthetic manifesto painting; he spent 5 years on it. The painting's dimensions are very large--3.85 x 5.22 meters. 

Upon his completion of the painting, David organized a private exhibition wherein he charged an admissions fee in order to reimburse himself for the supplies and time spent on the painting. When he exhibited the painting, he used a large mirror to demonstrate the perfection of the work. Critics noted that even in its reverse image, the perspective, drawing, and colors were flawless. The mirror technique had been used by artists since the Renaissance to make adjustments and corrections as they painted; the reverse image could reveal imperfections in light and color, weaknesses in drawing an perspective, lack of harmony and balance in the placement of objects in space, etc. 

The painting depicts Sabine women and their children between Roman and Sabine warriors. A woman, dressed in white, stands with arms outstretched to a Roman soldier on the right and Sabine soldier on the left. The painting seems to deliver a political message, which is characteristic of David's style of combining politics and art. The woman in white plays a conciliatory role in the painting, calling for pardon and peace between warring brothers.

David completed many study drawings in preparation for his final work. He used graphite to observe and explore the figure and placements of his subjects. As one can see from the study drawing, David paid close attention to the lines and compositions of his subjects, noting details such as muscles and physiology. The squares, drawn in with graphite, likely served as guidelines for proportions and subject placement. Noticeably, there was no shading in his study drawings for the Sabine Women painting; he used mostly lines to convey form and structure.

The Coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame, 1805-1807, oil on canvas

Study Drawing for The Coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame, ca late 18th to early 19th century, black pencil and graphite

When Napoelon came into power as Emperor of the French, David became the Emperor’s First Painter. Napoelon ordered four paintings of the coronation festivities, one of which was the above painting. 

On December 2, 1804, the day of the Coronation, a whole gallery was reserved for David in Notre-Dame. David sketched individual figures and crowd scenes with the help of his pupil, Rouget. His first sketch was of Napoleon placing the crown of Charlemagne on his own head. However, David and Napoleon’s wife, Josephine, eventually convinced him that the image of him crowning his wife was more flattering. Napoleon’s mother was actually absent from the ceremony, but David painted her face from life. Louis, the third Bonaparte brother, was unhappy with his place in the painting, and though others agreed with Louis, David refused to change it. As David explained in a letter, every aspect of a painting is calculated, and changing one figure could consequentially affect the entire composition. 

In his painting, David used liberal amounts of gold, silver, and red to convey the grandeur of the occasion. As with his Sabine Women painting, David completed numerous study drawings in preparation for the final work. He continued the use of squares, presumably as guidelines for proportions and subject placement, but also incorporates shading to convey light and darkness.

I selected David as the subject of my research for a number of reasons. I really enjoy artwork from the Neoclassical era, which was strongly influenced by classical antiquity and Greco-Roman themes. Additionally, I think art that depicts historical events is very interesting because it offers visual access to times when photographs were unavailable. While browsing through Neoclassical artists, I came across David’s works and noticed that his subject matter included both Neoclassical and historical themes, an interesting combination.

Sources

Johnson, Dorothy. Jacque-Louis David: New Perspectives. Newark: U of Delaware, 2006. Print.

Monneret, Sophie. David and Neo-classicism. Paris: Terrail, 1999. Print.

Gontar, Cybele. "Neoclassicism." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-.

Yayoi Kusama, By Adam Weber

Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 to a middle-class conservative family in Japan. Since childhood, Kusama suffered from deep psychological issues, the most prominent of which were frequent hallucinations and thoughts of suicide. In order to escape her persistent suicidal thoughts, she turned to art. Kusama once said, “If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago.”¹ Throughout her career, Kusama has used her work to portray her troubling hallucinations. Though Kusama’s early work contains features of the typical Japanese art, such as watercolor on paper, her later pieces drastically diverge from her Japanese schooling. When Kusama moved to the United States, a stylistic shift is apparent in her work: Kusama adapted to the avant garde art movement typical in New York, and began to paint her famous Infinity Nets, large-scale canvas paintings which required careful planning and consisted mostly of monochromatic colors. Kusama later moved back to Japan, where she has voluntarily lived in an insane asylum since 1977. Her later work largely deals with installation pieces centered on the use of polka dots. Kusama has distinguished herself from artists of time by incorporating various themes in her work, including feminism, minimalism, and pop art, among others.² I chose to write my bibliography on Yayoi Kusama because I am deeply fascinated by her precarious mental state as an inspiration for her work. Art is not just a hobby or a career for Yayoi Kusama: it is a survival mechanism. The following works will take us through three important phases of Kusama’s life and career: her early work in Japan, her New York City-based work with Infinity Nets, and lastly, her more recent experimentation with installation pieces  and polka dots in Japan. 

“A Flower”, 1952  

            

In 1952, while living in Japan, Kusama completed “A Flower” using watercolor, a common Japanese medium. Kusama uses black ink on off-white paper, which as we will see, stands in stark contrast to her later use of vibrant, psychedelic colors. The object resembles a flower with a clearly defined stem on the bottom half of the paper and the petals on the top half. In the forefront of the work, Kusama uses thick, dark brush strokes to capture the viewer’s attention. She uses finer strokes in the background, giving the work a three-dimensional appearance.

From this early work, the powerful influence of Kusama’s hallucinations is apparent. One characteristic of hallucinations is the coming to life of everyday objects, such as a flower, often in terrifying fashion. Looking closely at this piece, top part of the flower bears striking resemblance to an eye, while the stem of the flower resembles the torso of a human body. At the bottom of the work, Kusama includes two thick brush strokes that simulate human legs and two more on the upper-middle portion to represent arms. The thick brush strokes falling away from the eyeball-shaped object in the center appear to be strands of human hair. The title of the work is quite ironic. When most people think of “a flower,” they picture a typical, colorful, harmless object with stem and petals. They might associate it with tranquility or beauty. However, Kusama’s portrayal of “A Flower” gives the viewer a terrifying display of her deeply troubled mind.

As an art student in Japan, Kusama’s schooling was largely influenced by the Nihonga style of painting.³ Developed in Japan, Nihonga painting emphasizes the use of simple, pale colors painted onto “Washi,” traditional Japanese paper. While Nihonga paintings can have multiple colors, many are characterized by grey and black tones.⁴  “A Flower” clearly follows the Nihonga format, suggesting that this traditional Japanese style influenced Kusama’s early work. In 1957, however, Kusama leaves Japan for the United States, as she claimed to be frustrated with the constraining nature of traditional Japanese methods.⁵ Her physical departure from also signified her departure from the Nihonga influence, as her later works employ an entirely different style.

“Pacific Ocean”, 1960

Kusama arrived in New York City in 1958 and quickly took notice to the growing trend of action paintings. Looking back upon her experiences, Kusama said, “Around that time, it was flooded with action paintings. Everyone jumped at this style and this type of painting easily sold at a high price. However, I believed it is important for me to create unique art that comes only from within myself, in order to establish my life as an artist. Therefore, I introduced my painting: Infinity Nets, in which the inclination is the complete opposite to these action painters.”⁶ “Pacific Ocean,” which was painted in 1960 with oil on canvas, serves as a prime example of Kusama’s Infinity Nets. This work is characterized by pattern, repetition, and extremely close attention to detail. The painting consists of small, closely painted circles. Just like her early work in Japan, Kusama’s hallucinations once again inspired “Pacific Ocean” and other Infinity Nets.  The repetition and detail of the small, simple objects throughout a large canvas can be described as obsessive compulsive. Kusama used her infinity nets as a means to convey and possibly escape her disturbing hallucinations. She once said, “My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvases I was covering with them. They began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe.”⁷

Kusama’s Infinity Nets do not fit the mold of any one particular artistic style. Rather, Kusama distinguishes herself by her ability to transition back and forth between different styles. After all, she left Japan because her disdain for the idea of rigidity and boundaries constraining her stylistic choices. “Pacific Ocean” touches upon the abstract impressionism movement, which was centered in New York from the end of World War II into the mid-1960s. While Kusama did rebel against the idea of “action painting,” as noted earlier, her exquisite attention to detail and small brush strokes suggest at least some degree of conformity to the New York City-based movement. Kusama’s repetition of simple, defined shapes in “Pacific Ocean” and other Infinity Net works displays certain aspects of minimalism, another popular movement at this time. Minimalism became popular in New York during the early 1960s, just around the time when Kusama was painting “Pacific Ocean” and other Infinity Nets.⁸  Donald Judd, a distinguished minimalist artist described his counterpart, “Yayoi Kusama is an original painter. The expression transcends the question of whether it is Oriental or American. Although it is something of both, certainly of such Americans as Rothko, Still and Newman, it is not at all a synthesis and is thoroughly independent.”⁹

“The Passing Winter”, 2005

In 1973, Kusama returned to Japan after persistent troubles with her mental health and crippling financial difficulties. Despite voluntarily living in an insane asylum since 1977, Kusama has continued to produce innovative and meaningful pieces of art through which she shares her unique life experiences. Her later work has become characterized by installation pieces and the widespread use of polka dots. In many ways, the installation art of Kusama represents an expansion of her Infinity Nets into larger, three-dimensional objects. “The Passing Winter” (2005) consists of a room walled with mirrors and covered in polka dots. The effect of the mirrors makes the room look infinite, which served as a major theme of Kusama’s art and as a justification for her extensive use of polka dots. According to Kusama, “a polka-dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka-dots become movement ... Polka dots are a way to infinity.”¹⁰  The concept of infinity in the works of Kusama ties back to her experiences with hallucinations. The artist’s depiction of this idea of infinity, whether on a canvas or in a small room, allows the viewer to glance into the seemingly infinite corridors of Kusama’s psyche.

“The Passing Winter” was completed over 50 years after Kusama’s “A Flower” and the stylistic progression is more than apparent. The use of vibrant and psychedelic colors in “The Passing Winter” marks a complete transition from the more conservative use of colors in Kusama’s Nihonga-influenced works. Additionally, Kusama’s use of polka dots touches upon certain aspects of feminism, as she often used polka dots in a provocative or sexually suggestive way on the nude female body. While we do not necessarily see this in “The Passing Winter,” it was a significant aspect of many of Kusama’s works involving the use of polka dots. It is also important to note that Kusama's works, especially those involving polka dots, influenced the Pop Art movement and artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. One very important characteristic of Pop Art is irony, and Kusama's use of polka dots encompasses this. Bright colored polka dots give off the impression of playfulness and even childlike innocence. However, Kusama's works convey a much more disturbing message.

Looking at the progression of Kusama's works, we observe a conspicuous shift in her stylistic influences. While her early works were characterized by the traditional Japanese Nihonga style, her later pieces encompass the characteristics of abstract impressionism, minimalism, and even feminism, more common to Western art. Notwithstanding her stylistic diversity, one common theme has always defined Kusama's works: the impact of her hallucinations and the use of art to combat her adverse psychological conditions. The influence of the artist's hallucinations is apparent in all three works presented here, as well as in many others completed throughout Kusama's illustrious career. 

           

Endnotes:

    1.     “Artnet.com Magazine Features – Kusama Speaks.” Artnet.com Magazine Features – Kusama Speaks. N.p., n.d.          Web. 11 Dec. 2012.

    2.     "Pacific Ocean by Yayoi Kusama." My Favorite Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

    3.     "Yayoi Kusama - Gagosian Gallery." Yayoi Kusama - Gagosian Gallery. Gagosian Gallery, n.d. Web. 28 Feb.               2016.

    4.     "What Is "Nihonga"－Japanese Painting." What Is "Nihonga"－Japanese Painting. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

    5.     Pilling, David. "The World According to Yayoi Kusama - FT.com." Financial Times. The Financial Times Ltd., 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

    6.     The Struggle and Travel of My Soul, Geijutsu Seikatsu, 1975

    7.     "Parallel Reality: Yayoi Kusama." Sotheby's. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

    8.     "Minimalism Movement, Artists and Major Works." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

    9.     Donald Judd, “Reviews and Previews: New Names This Month- Yayoi Kusama.” Artnews 58, No. 6, October, 1989, p.     17

  10.  Kusama, Yayoi (1978), Manhattan jisatsu misui joshuhan [Manhattan Suicide Addict], Tokyo: Kosakusha, (extract)    reproduced in Hoptman, Yayoi Kusama, et al., p. 124

Leonardo da Vinci_Chris Lee

Leonardo da Vinci

Born as an illegitimate child in 1452 in a small town within the province of Florence, Leonardo Da Vinci would, by the end of his life, come to be known as the quintessential “Renaissance man”—that is, an educated individual who excelled at a variety of intellectual fields, ranging from painting, music, and drawing to physics, mathematics, cartography, and invention. While Da Vinci is remembered most prominently today for world-famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, it was his prolific work as a draftsman and meticulous drawer that characterized the endless creativity and inventive prowess of his mind. He filled numerous journals with study sketches that served either to lay the groundwork for a larger painting or to mark the blueprints for inventions and contraptions that amazed the world with their ingenuity.  

The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490)

Perhaps Da Vinci’s most recognizable drawing, the Vitruvian Man is so-named because its study of human corporeal proportions is based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius—who held that the physical figure of man served as the foundational vessel by which one could interpret the order and proportions of natural and architectural structures. Da Vinci’s study came at a time when Renaissance intellectuals were becoming increasingly fascinated with the complexities of the human body, especially as a lens through which to view and understand the natural and supernatural world. Under what is often referred to as the macrocosm-microcosm paradigm, many Renaissance thinkers believed that the systematic order of the earth mirrored the systematic order of the heavens. Thus, by probing deeply into the internal intricacies of the human corpus, one could conceivably better understand the workings of God’s creation and thereby better understand God himself.

In the drawing itself, Da Vinci makes extensive use of symmetry and proportions, noting in the text below the image a series of proportions that characterize the typical human body, such as one’s wingspan being equal to one’s height and the distance between one’s knee and foot being equal to one fourth of one’s height. Da Vinci’s inventive use of lines, squares, and circles conveys his sensitivity to the proportions of the body and also how it can tell us about the structural beauty of natural and architectural structures as well. Perhaps this served as a precursor to many of the inventions that he would draw in the future.

The Annunciation (1472-1475)

This painting was one of Da Vinci’s earliest major works, composed during the time when he was apprenticed in the studio of the Florentine artist Verrocchio. It depicts one of the most pivotal scenes in the Bible, during which the archangel Gabriel delivers a message to the Virgin Mary that she will give birth to the Son of God without having yet known a man. Such motifs were rather popular throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods of painting. The composition is quite large in terms of horizontal length, as if to emphasize the respectful distance kept between the angel and the Virgin. This, along with the white lily that Gabriel is holding, perhaps conveys the significance of Mary’s purity.

Moreover, it is worth noting that Mary had been reading before Gabriel’s arrival. Often, such iconography of the Virgin with a Book points to the Biblical notion of God being manifested as the Word. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, the phrase “the Word became Flesh” is used to describe the Incarnation of Christ from spirit into the body of a man. Perhaps Da Vinci harbored a similar aim in his art, to strive to render his paintings and drawings as flesh by embodying the beauty of the human experience.

 

Virgin of the Rocks

(Louvre version on left, 1483-1486) (London National Gallery on right, 1495-1508)

Da Vinci painted two versions of this work, with the shared motif of the Virgin Mary with the infant John the Baptist and the infant Jesus. The faces of the people in this painting are prime examples of Da Vinci’s technique of sfumato, or the blurring of lines such that delineations on one’s body appear not sharp and distinct but rather cloudy and muddled. This is the style for which the Mona Lisa would also be highly praised as a work painted by a master.

(The Last Supper, 1494-1499, sketches from notebook above)

This painting, one of Da Vinci’s most recognizable, portrays Jesus and his disciples during the Last Supper before his crucifixion. The painting makes extensive use of light and dark contrast, as well as lines converging onto the center, in order to highlight Jesus as the central figure in the foreground of this work. There is a great amount of activity found in the other people in the painting as well, however. Da Vinci spent a great deal of time on each disciple, as evidenced by the many sketches he included with each of the disciples identified by name. The expressions on each of their faces convey a particular expression, with Judas acting aloof and surprised and with John appearing to swoon in an almost feminine manner, for instance.

I chose to research da Vinci because his versatility and extensive accomplishments in fields of all kinds demonstrates the spirit of the Renaissance into which he was born. The incorporation of all kinds of scientific and artistic knowledge into mediums of visual art make for a combination of creativity that proves to be peerless even to this day.

Bibliography

Lester, Toby. Da Vinci’s Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and how Leonardo Created the World in

His Own Image. New York: Free Press, 2012. Print.

Marani, Pietro C. and Maria Theresa Fiorio. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: The

Design of the World. Milano, Italy: Skira Editore, 2015. Print.

Shlain, Leonard. Leonardo’s Brain: Understanding Da Vinci’s Creative Genius. Guilford,

CT: Lyons Press, 2014 Print.

Suh, H. Anna. Leonardo’s Notebooks: Writing and Art of the Great Master. New York:

Black Dog and Levanthal, 2013. Print.