Essays on Pigments

Introduction

The Minoan Civilization was the forerunner of the ancient Greek culture which emerged from the island of Crete. The island of Crete was isolated from the rest of the Greek mainland by the Sea of Crete to the north and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The island with its mountainous rugged terrain and white sand coastal areas proved to be a great spot for international affairs and trade routes especially for the European, Africa, and Asia Minor merchants. Because of its isolated landscape, many scholars have proposed the existence of cultural interactions between Cretan civilization and those ...

Liver is the largest ‘gland’ of the digestive system. It is located right under the dome of the diaphragm, coated by the capsule. It is distinguished the liver’s convex upper surface adjacent to the diaphragm, and a lower, downwardly facing and in contact with the back and abdominal organs. On the part of the upper surface of the liver it can be seen its right and left lobes, the boundary of which is the crescent liver ligament. To the lower surface of the right lobe there is a gallbladder, close to the deep groove of the liver there ...

The shift towards the Modernist Period from the decadence of the Baroque happened as a result of the outrage and disapproval towards lavishness in creating works of art, a trend once dominant and fashionable amongst the wealthy circles. What emerged as a result of this isolation was a new artistic movement that focused more on inspiring awe and sublime rather than theatrical presentation of the iconography. The term Modernist period has been debated throughout the centuries by the scholars since this period holds accountable of the changes in government and the people’s way of thinking. In this genre ...

The history of the Modern Art dates back in the 19th century and continued in the mid-20th century, a time marked by rapid industrialization and commercialization such that the old hierarchical order of the nobilities that originated way back in the Middle Ages collapsed and in turn the growth of the ‘bourgeoisie’ spearheaded the modernization by changing the society on the following aspects: philosophy, government, and culture. The changing societies and perceptions contributed to the increase for the demand in visual arts; in turn, these visual arts also evolved from religious to the highly secular themes that reflect the ...

Surfaces in visual arts evolve according to the technology present in a particular time. Surface in art is defined by the sense of touch which is either rough or smooth. Materials also contribute to the visual texture of the arts; for instance, the medieval paintings are done using variety of materials such as mosaics, vellum, and regular wall paintings or frescoes. The surfaces of a mosaic artwork is rough due to the raised pebbles making the texture rough, vellum was an animal based material used for scrolls and books, an animal skin is rough, therefore, vellum paintings also tend ...

Modernism created Post-Modernism and the emergence of these two influential art movements created a lasting impact on the artists’ perception of iconography. The history concerning modernism dates back in the Renaissance period since the majority of the artists at that time explored various kinds of iconography such as painting mythological creatures, portraiture, and humanism which contrasts the iconography of the Medieval period. But the lasting effects of the modern period were felt in the early 19th century up to the early phase of the 20th century. The concept of Modernism meant an improvisation of the existing artistic trend by ...

The Holy Forest is a collection of abstract paintings created by the American artist Stephen Westfall inspired by Robin Blaser’s book Holy Forest. The artist’s adherence to minimalism is what makes the painting truly remarkable and its vivid colors make it noticeable even from a far distance. Westfall was born in 1953 in New York; as a beginning artist, he studied the works of Modernist masters specializing in abstract design. In addition, Westfall also served as an assistant at Rutgers School of Visual Arts. Throughout his career as a painter, he cites the influence of Henri Matisse ...

Shomei Tomatsu’s black and white untitled photograph attempts to tell the audience the horrific repercussions of the Second World War II especially on the human life. On this picture, the photographer depicted a man emerging from the shadows, his face covered with wrinkled skin the rest of his face was hidden from plain sight but from the looks of his face, the audience can tell how great the damage brought by the atomic bomb blast on his face. The nuclear attack which destroyed nearly half of his face managed to create a large keloid scar on the right ...

The Modern period from the late 19th to the early phase of the 20th century served as the catalyst for the beginning of avant-garde works of different artists whose works isolated their styles from the rest of the artistic movements that emerged in the previous eras. These new designs spearheaded the development of the comic book art wherein the iconography of the subjects attempted to portray the real world yet in an animated way without closely resembling the reality. The artists who popularized these method includes Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Larry Rivers each of the defined the early ...

I and my friend James wanted to find out the absorption capacity of different color pigments mixed in water, when exposed to the infra-red radiation. Our hypothesis was the dark color pigment, on being subjected to infra-red radiation, would absorb more energy and will show up in the form of difference in temperature obtained before and after the exposure. Our experiment was influenced by some of the experiences in daily life. First observation was the preference of the light color clothes in hot day, as the light color reflects the sunlight and absorbs the little, preventing the body from ...

Abstract

Color and texture are important attributes related to vegetable quality. The objective of this study was to determine the changes in quality characteristics, caused by cooking time, and pH (alkali and acid addition) in some vegetables. Four different vegetables — carrots, spinach, red cabbage and cauliflower — were analyzed for changes in color and texture associated to time of boiling, the effect of alkali (baking soda), and the effect of acid (vinegar and cream of tartar). Samples of each vegetable were prepared and treated for five minutes. Color change was measured visually and using the L*a*b* technique. Color and ...

The art of Japan during the Edo period were highly influenced by the Zen Buddhism; most of the paintings have Chinese influences since most of them were done using paintbrush and rendered on silk scrolls. The most prolific Japanese painter known to paint beautiful landscapes was Ogata Korin whose painting iconography is well-known throughout the world because of the delicateness in portraying the images found in the environment especially the flowers and animals. One particular artwork he made during the Edo period was the Red and White Plum Blossoms dated in the 18th century was a diptych makeshift wooden ...

Wabi (侘)1 refers to the ‘rustic beauty’ and this pertains to the things that have the ability retain the elegant charm despite the flaws or imperfections present on its surface. The Kanji character for wabi symbolizes ‘isolation’ through visual perspective; an object that is marred yet, it was because of the marred quality of the object that makes it beautiful and appealing even to the discerning eyes of the viewer. On the other hand, the character for sabi (寂)2 pertains to the intrinsic meanings of the object, such as its history. In this way, the concept of sabi can ...

Bierstadt used light and shadow in a masterly fashion, which made his painting an extremely dramatic. Incredible contrasts reveal magnificent natural environment and its immense beauty made Bierstadt’s pictures popular. The viewer can easily determine three spaces of the artwork: The foreground is the nearest area to the viewer on the right part of the picture. This part shows a hunting scene of the Indians pursuing deer with horses and dogs. Still nearer on the right the mountain spring is visible, next to which a carcass of deer and some human items were left. At some distance three ...

The Expecting Mother (fig. 1 and 2) were glass prints painted in 1985 by an unknown artist. The woman featured in this picture is seated cross-legged, head bowed down and appears to be in serene meditation concerning her pregnancy state. The woman was portrayed through simple lines but the contours created by the chiaroscuro of opposing pigments such as yellow, green, and orange made it possible to portray the actual figure of the woman despite the unrealistic image. The background was muted and this emphasized more the concentration of the viewer’s eye directly on the woman’s image. ...

Introduction

The Ottoman Empire was one of the world’s largest empires with history dates back to the Islamic medieval period from the 10th to 11th centuries. The main religion of the Ottoman Empire was Islam and most of their architecture and art was based on the religion as well. The beautiful buildings that exist today were the relics of the old Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was originally founded in 1299 by the tribe who distinguished themselves as Oghus Turks under the rule of King Osman I. Ottoman empire stretched from the mainland Turkey and controlled various countries in ...

Sarah Anne Johnson’s photography exhibit embodies the tranquil landscapes, beautiful color contrasts, kaleidoscope colors, and unworldly setting. The majority of her prints still retain the realistic aspect of her subjects. For example, photograph titled Adventure created in 2015 consists of polychromatic pigments of light violet, green, and golden yellow but these colors are implied and blurred. The Yellow Dinosaur which is a man-made swimming pool within the forest. The colors in this photo are polychrome which gives it depth and realistic appearance despite being a photograph. Another image from the collection called Pink Forest was a photograph combined ...

Today, the name James Welling is famous due to his skill in photography. However, it turns out that this finest American photographer did not really have a background on photography. A native of Hartford, Connecticut, he was born in 1951 and spent a lot of his childhood near the border of Simsbury. His interest in art was honed in 1963; together with his friend, Julie Post, he pursued to become an artist. By 1965, he enrolled in one of Hartford’s finest arts schools, the Wadsworth Atheneum where he began his first attempt in painting using watercolor pigments as ...

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. It is a term given to a series of diseases in which the cells within human body grow at an abnormal rate, thereby damaging healthy tissues . While normal cells grow and die at a specific rate according to the requirements of human body, the growth of cells is extreme when compared to the death of cells in cancerous patients. Such an abnormal growth in turn leads to tumors, which consist of a huge mass of tissues. However, in patients suffering with cancer related to the blood, there ...

It has been a well-known fact that prostitution has been one of the oldest professions in the history for women. This profession does not only apply to specific women from another culture but rather this covers the lives of the women throughout the world. From the medieval times up to the late 19th century, prostitution became the booming industry reserved for women with no formal education, no family, and worst no dowry to gain a potential husband. Throughout their lives, women who worked as prostitutes had hard lives and often in poverty. Only very few of these women had ...

The goal of this essay is to provide artwork analysis of three contemporary paintings such as Whitney’s Cold Moon Dancer, Sheehan’s I Never Planned to Have You Here, and Dugas’ Wake. These three works of art exemplifies the influences of modernism due to the fact that artists explored different artistic styles in order to portray their subjects from a different perspective. From that point, the resulting paintings were brave, bolder, and revolutionary in a sense that these works broke the traditional art forms of either ‘humanizing’ or illustrating realistic and religious figures. For instance, Whitney’s Cold ...

The Ivy Bridge Devonshire (see fig. 1) was an oil painting created by the famous English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner from 1814 to 1815. The term ‘scenery porn’ aptly describes the artist’s magnificent use of lines as decorative element to create wonderful landscapes. The colors were mostly earth tones with chiaroscuro was highly executed, creating an unworldly appearance that illustrates the peaceful life of the common people in the early 19th century England. The painting shows a young man wearing a beret hat, running across the bridge towards the carriage probably echoing shouts to halt the carriage ...

Picture out: an abstract figure of a woman wearing a long white veil covering her face; her many hands holding various weapons. Her pose is ready to assault anyone who dares mock her strength. The body is grotesque and heavily mutilated; the chest is ripped open, while the thighs and legs somehow reflect the reality, the feet are made up of wiggly cords connected to each other. Another miniature image of a woman on the left, dressed in white yet bare starting from the hips up to the legs. Her face is still semi-covered with thin strips of red ...

BIOGRAPHY

Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez was a prolific Spanish Baroque painter who was born in 1599. The waning age of the Late Renaissance became the turning point for the rise of a new art movement so flamboyant and grotesque in its dramatic effects; it would be later known as the Baroque period. A native of Seville, he began painting at a tender age of 20 and one of his works was The Water Carrier of Seville, an evidence of his superb skill in painting intense and dramatic realism. The young genius had demonstrated his absolute talent and mastery ...

Fabritius (1622-1654) was probably one of the most accomplished Dutch painters ever lived to create a replica following the Rembrandt style in painting. The painting is now in the custody of the LACMA Museum in Los Angeles where it has been valued as one of the valuable paintings from the 17th century. The theme of the painting is domestic farm life and several artistic devices were used in the painting. The cows and sheep for instance denote an overlapping of figures mainly to emphasize the narrow space of the surroundings; it is also possible that the artist had tried ...