The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius: Foreunner of Romanticism

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, Pierre-Jacques Volaire, 1777

Pre-romanticism paintings like Volaire’s, The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, displays images of sublimity through light, colors and movement. These Sublime images directly display the wildness and the magnitude of nature. While other artists of the pre-romanticism movement use sublimity none use sublimity quite like Volaire does. Volaire’s paintings are unique because they feature dynamic paintings of volcanoes, movement, and feature brilliant colors which are aesthetically different from his peers of the mid 18th century and his paintings are a forerunner to the Romantic movement.

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, painted in 1777 by Pierre-Jacques Volaire. The time that this painting was painted makes this work a part of pre-romantic movement. Romanticism is the period between classicism and impressionism. The brush strokes in romanticism became less looser and less precise. (“Pre-Romanticism, 2013). Therefore Romanticism is as Charles Baudelaire describes,

“Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling." (“Charles Baudelaire Quotes,” 2015).

While the term romanticism looks like it would focus on scenes of love, romantic artists of this time focused on glorification. This glorification of scenes is meant to cause intense emotion, such as in Volaire’s piece, The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, is supposed to leave you with in awe at the eruption of a volcano and glorifies the complex concepts of heroism, survival, despair, (Richards, 2015). Specific details in the people’s faces convey to the onlooker that the situation they are is dire one. Such as the group of women on the side of the bridge closest to the ship, their faces are contorted in such a way that conveys pain, sorrow, and fear. The artist emphasizes survival and heroism by using light and darkness to highlight specific heroic elements. The artist highlights running coach horses in the foreground with light from a torch. Also a Kingly statue is highlighted in the light of the explosion. This figure is not turned to face the entrance of the bridge but is faced in the direction of the volcano. This Kingly figure looks as though he is awe of the scene he is looking upon. This is glorifies that even a king, (symbolistically the greatest of all us,) is in awe of nature’s majesty.

Mt. Vesuvius

Romanticism focuses on current events. Volaire uses both of these in his paintings. During the time when, The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was painted the actual Mt. Vesuvius was very active and erupted frequently. (Ball, 2015) Mt. Vesuvius would have been a current to everyone in Europe and the Mediterranean. It would have been natural to have been interested in volcanoes and paint them; And volcanoes became the focus of many of Volaire’s paintings. It would have been like someone in Portland painting rain. Volaire’s piece would have been like an 18th century ABC news for the people of Europe who saw his paintings. People who look at this painting often feel like they might be standing on a higher ridge watching people fleeing from buildings being consumed by red-hot fiery lava. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius would have let the people of the 18th century see the chaos of volcanoes and the glory and ferocity of nature.

Looking towards the East Window by J. M. W. Turner

The Notion that nature is terrifying is important to Volaire’s work and romanticism. While Volaire is technically a part of the pre-romantic movement, his paintings helped define romantic themes. The picturesque movement before the romantic movement, (mid eighteenth century,) consisted mostly of serene scenes of nature. Picturesque is derived from the Italian pittoresco meaning “from a picture,” and depicted simple and serene scenes of nature. Volaire made art history when he painted of volcanoes. Paintings of volcanoes convey excitement that you might not find in the picturesque paintings. (“American Scenery,” 2015)Volaire’s volcano scenes illustrate people in the act of running from raging volcanoes, hills on fire, and the sky ablaze with ash and spouts of lava. Comparing picturesque paintings like Looking towards the East Window by J. M. W. Turner (1794) and The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius or any other of Volaire’s paintings would be like comparing a golf game to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment.)

Another important part of Volaire’s piece is sublimity. Provided that Sublimity is considered to also be a part of the romantic movement, the word sublime means awe inspiring or impressive. And sublimity in art is meant to take scenes and certain aspect in nature and emphasize the magnificence and the magnitude of that scene and artists who practiced sublimity attempted to give the same feeling in the painting when you experience sublime in nature. (Hayfield, 2009)

“ To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt.” -Eleanor Catton

Sublimity is often achieved by perspective, or by drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point. (Hayfield, 2009) Volaire in The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius executes sublimity by making the volcano a large focus and making the people in the foreground almost miniscule. The moon is also drawn very small compared to the volcano. The moon being a small dot of light compared to large volcano making a lot of light provides a contrast to the volcano. Using both of these techniques, Volaire emphasizes the grandeur of nature and makes humanity look insignificant to the majesty of nature.

Volaire’s work attests to how color affects our emotions. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius uses rich colors such as oranges, yellows, whites and reds to illustrate the color of the magma, however the picture does not simply illustrate a volcano. Colors like oranges and reds are directly tied to emotion.

“In general, colors comprised of longer wavelengths, like red, are more stimulating to the nervous system than the colors of shorter wavelengths, like green and blue (Graham, 2000; Mahnke, 1993). Psychiatric wards in the earlier part of the twentieth century stumbled on this phenomenon accidentally, when patients who had been deprived of the color red (which was, at that time, believed to induce madness) obtained bits of red string. They became more animated, increased their activity and work output, and demanded more red items (Emery, 1929; Lukins & Sherman, 1941)...most researchers reason that different colors hold different associations for people, triggering memories and emotions...color variety is psychologically most beneficial. It is not just that one color is better than another for a specific purpose, that one may be considered psychologically exciting or another calming, but a variety of visual stimulation and change in atmosphere is required in establishing a sound milieu.” (Withrow, 2004)

Volaire uses this “color variety” to establish a sound milieu, (balance of environment,) within his own painting. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, creates balance of nature with the scene of the moonlit bay and the volcano. The brilliance and excitement of the volcano are illustrated with bright colors such as red and oranges while the bay scene of the same painting uses blacks and greys to create a stark contrast of tranquility to the volcano. The yin and yang balance that Volaire creates within the painting shows his artistic brilliance. He not only can paint picturesque moonlight bays, but he can extrapolate and make the painting dynamic and beautiful by also illustrating the ferocity of a volcano of nature next to the serene bay. Having multiple scenes within one painting creates profundity and the eyes of onlookers spend more time looking at the painting; they first look at individual part and then they look at how each part fits within each other.

"John the Baptist" 

Volaire uses color to create movement. In art this technique is called Sfumato, or the gradation of light and shadow in oil paintings. Leonardo Da Vinci originally used this technique in paintings like John the Baptist, to transition the eye from one part of the painting. Sfumato Sfumato helps the artist tell a story in his painting, giving the onlooker a place to start and a natural progression of places to go. (Sfumato, 2015) In The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, the onlookers eyes is first drawn to the oranges and bright colors of the volcano; then your eye follows other warm colors in painting in the village, the hillside, and then to fleeing wayfarers. Then they are drawn to the cooler light that is given off by the light of the moon and then the eye remains in the darker parts of the painting such as in the details of the ship or the shore.

Volaire’s genius made for beautiful paintings that still inspire viewers today. Using sublimity Volaire’s pre romantic paintings defined and paved the way for future romantic painters such as Thomas Hill or J. M. W. Turner. Volaire’s uniqueness extended past his fascination of volcanoes, but to all of the techniques he used, such as sfumato, color variety, and balance. Modern people often think that we have in some way conquered nature with our concrete jungles; however The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius teaches it’s viewers the beauty, ferocity, magnificence of nature and shows us how insignificant the plights of man are compared to the rest of the universe.

Works Cited

"American Scenery." Blantonmuseum.org. Blantonmuseum.org. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <https://blantonmuseum.org/files/american_scenery/sublime_guide.pdf>.

"Art History and Artists." History: Romanticism Art for Kids. Technological Solutions, Inc., 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ducksters.com/history/art/romanticism.php>.

Ball, Jessica. "Mount Vesuvius - Italy." Geology.com. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://geology.com/volcanoes/vesuvius/>.

"Charles Baudelaire Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_baudelaire.html>.

Hayfield, Debbie. "Aesthetics Of The Sublime: The Romantic Artist In A. S. Byatt's The Shadow Of The Sun." Romanticism 15.1 (2009): 75-84. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

"Eleanor Catton Quotes." Eleanor Catton Quotes (Author of The Luminaries). Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Phillip M. Richards. "The Romantic and Symbolist Sublime: A Review Essay." Callaloo 38.1 (2015): 186-201. Project MUSE. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

"Pre-Romanticism." Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press, 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100343500?print>.

"The Essential Vermeer Glossary: Q - Z." Glossary of Art Terms. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Smith, Laura. "Beautiful, Sublime." Beautiful, Sublime. 2003. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/beautifulsublime.htm>.

"Sfumato." Oil Painting Technique. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/painting/sfumato.htm>.

"Sublimity." The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sublimity>.

Withrow, R. L. (2004). The use of color in art therapy. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 43(1), 33-40. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212449318?accountid=12725

Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Industry and Nature through Maelstrom by Roxy Paine

Maelstrom 
Image by: Ciro Miguel

Beautiful paintings can leap off of a page, but sculpture can create a real, tangible object that beautifully replicates cultures and beliefs. Roxy Paine’s Maelstrom illustrates this beautifully. Maelstrom’s dendroids, created from stainless steel hollow tubes, form a 130-foot-long sculpture (Volk). These industrial pipes create a connected web thin enough that most adults can walk through yet thick enough to make it a daunting task. Paine’s dendroids represent artificial nature—natural forms rendered with unnatural materials. These natural synthetic representations reflect how human beings view nature vs. urbanization.

These dendroid forms clearly imitate a leafless, deciduous tree, but rather than calling them trees, he named them “dendroids.” Dendroid sounds mechanical, robotic, and much more intricate than “tree.” This new title spruces up the sculpture and adds a new level of intrigue to Maelstrom. When asked about the name for his silvery sculpture, Paine said, “I wanted to illuminate the complex, constant collisions among dendritic structures, man made circulatory systems, buildings and factories (David).” This new title highlights relationship between each of these.

Similarly, calling his creation Maelstrom creates a sense of a powerful, torrential whirlpool. Now, instead of depicting multiple knocked over trees, Maelstrom creates a feeling of impending disaster. After just adding this title, the sculpture becomes a juxtaposition of creation--the natural regeneration of plants and ecosystems--and destruction--the forest destroyed by a massive storm. Discussing his sculpture, the artist said,

by: Chris Gladis

“I think in these more recent works, of which Maelstrom is an example, I’m really throwing those restraints away; I’m pushing outward on those boundaries and this language that’s set up, and I’m just less interested in restraint right now.” (Rosenbaum-Kranson)

Paine's lustrous creation depicts the unbridled power of nature and industry, and displays the results of these two together.

When viewing from the inside and from a distance, Maelstrom becomes two completely different structures. Viewing from Central Park, this sculpture would appear to be a web of connected, shiny pieces and parts (Volk). It would appear as a network of silver veins and arteries, an above ground macro-view of fungal mycelia, a tree destroyed by a storm, or anything the imagination can formulate. Paine’s clearly tree-like structure lays on its side instead of being erect, some cataclysm having knocked it out of the ground through extreme force. This choice of posture conveys a sense of the weight of industry knocking the tree down. The view creates an image of a brilliant disaster. While all of these many facets evoke images of the natural world, Paine has crafted his dendroids out of industrial metal, relating his entire piece, and its natural beauty, to industry. The earth grows large oak trees, beautiful flowers, and vast ecosystems while human beings build large skyscrapers, concrete jungles, and impressive monuments.

Maelstrom is comprised of many small, but important dimensions. From its center, the metal pipes construct a labyrinth-like formation. Up close, the branches and trunks are awkwardly curved, dented, and scratched. It’s painstakingly apparent that the parts were welded together to create the massive steel structure standing on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Volk). Parts of the piece are thick, like tree trunks, while in others are so thin that they’re no thicker than a toothpick (David). These strategic deformities take a perfect looking, fallen tree and make it more realistic. In some places, the artist left the markings that denote the weight and size of the pipes used in the sculpture (Rosenbaum-Kranson). A real, living tree doesn’t look perfect but instead has grooves, misshapen branches, and many other unappealing features. For this zoomed-in view, Paine takes those natural blemishes and makes them industrial by using scratches and dents. He means to connect his very beautiful, cold sculpture with the living, natural world.

Viewers walking through Maelstrom 
Image by: Rob Zand

Paine’s sculpture overlooks Central Park, New York City (Volk). Its massive size functions as a means to draw the eyes of onlookers, capturing the attention of those living in one of the most well-known urbanized areas in the world. The inhabitants of enormous cities such as these could easily feel detached from the nature. For those who may go days without seeing grass, a sculpture like Maelstrom has the capacity to act as a powerful reminder of nature’s importance and the beauty that it provides. In a similar way, the beautifully crafted silvery form shows that, like much of the impressive architecture found in cities, industry can create beautiful structures.

Maelstrom’s many pieces and parts lend it the opportunity to make multiple claims describing the relationship between the environment and people’s urbanization and industrialization. The steel tree could tell one viewer that as a species, human beings have begun to overcome the environment through urbanization and resource consumption. It could say to another, industrial materials have the ability to create beautiful works of art, as displayed through architecture. To a third person, the maze-like structure causes them to reflect on the destructive, yet wondrous powers of industry and the natural world. The truly beautiful part of this sculpture is not that it makes a statement but that it begins a discussion, welcoming any and all perspectives. Its prodigious size and gnarled, interesting shape demands attention that leads to a greater awareness of how human beings live alongside the environment.

Neuron 
Image by: Anneheathen

There are many more dendroid installations, also created by Paine. Just some of the others include, Imposter, Conjoined, Inversion, Graft, Neuron, and Askew. These sister sculptures exist in locations across three continents. Imposter stands alone, surrounded by a forest of living trees, its steel structure masquerading as one of them. Conjoined is two dendroids standing at the same height, their branches almost magnetically connected at their tips. Inversion takes the form of an upside down tree. Neuron is a silver ball with branching structures stemming from its center and flowing out in all directions. Each of these sculptures contribute to this idea that nature and urbanization are connected. (Gupta et al.)

None of Paine’s dendroid exhibits have any concrete meaning, just as he intended it. In an interview with Museo Magazine, Paine identified himself as a Robert Gober fan (Ewington). The Art Monthly Australia Journal described Gober in these terms:

“...he looks at everyday life in America and sees it skewed; and he invites us to follow him into his work without promising any straight answers.” (Ewington)

Paine never assigns just one meaning to any of his sculptures, instead he invites his viewers to, literally come inside his sculpture and form their own thoughts and ideas about it. His sculptures create an awareness and a new style of thinking that, without his dendroid reminders, would never enter the minds of many people today.

Paine’s dendroid series--while mostly up for interpretation--does convey one definite idea, that in many ways nature and industry share many similarities. Industry is a version of nature processed by human beings. People shape natural materials for their needs and this usage has been increasing in recent decades. Paine does not claim this as a good or bad thing, but rather reflects the importance of human awareness concerning these topics. In today's world industry and urbanization thrive. Where sculptures were once created with marble or other types of stone they are able to be made with metal (Bradley). With mass relocation into cities, the importance of the environment and industry has increased in art and other social media outlets. Paine attempts to remind these city dwellers of the beauty of nature and industry and that they both should be met with admiration.

This unique dendroid series, namely Maelstrom, offers its viewers some serious food for thought. Its many convoluted pieces create a web that displays the connection between urbanization and nature in a way that asks more questions than it answers. Through its myriad of both beautiful and intellectual ideas, it inspires each viewer to draw their own conclusions about natural and industrial relationships.




Citations


Bradley, Mark. “The Importance of Colour on Ancient Marble Sculpture.” Art History, 32:

(2009) 427–457. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2009.00666.x.


David. "Roxy Paine’s ‘Askew’ Dendroid at NCMA." New Raleigh. N.p., 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 09

Nov. 2015.

Ewington, Julie. “Robert Gober’s ‘The Heart Is Not a Metaphor.’” Art Monthly Australia (May

2015): 14-17. Print.

Gupta, Kevin, Boesky, Marianne. “Roxy Paine.” N.p. N.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

Rosenbaum-Kranson, Sarah. “Roxy Paine.” Museo Magazine (2009). Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Volk, Gregory. "Roxy Paine." Art in America. N.p., 10 Oct. 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

Art Analysis of Winslow Homer's Weaning the Calf

Picture by JR P

Obviously, Winslow Homer falls into the naturalist artists, for all of his paintings relate to nature and the natural world, but he also falls into the realism category. Homer dealt with the social issues of black emancipation in his painting Weaning the Calf, while maintaining a belief that the supreme elite value the effort of wartime heroes. Homer painted exactly what was happening in the world around him through his whole career, but because of his background of being an illustrator at a local magazine he was able to gain the ability to impact his audience in a positively bias way. He does this through how he painted the young slave under a shadow, so that it was not evident that he was actually an African American. This gave American’s hope for the future nation and that one day we unite again, becoming once again the almighty country. Homer used this skill of providing an optimistic perspective in all of his paintings, which helped his career, because he was producing these images during one of the nation’s worse times, the Civil War.

After growing up in rural Cambridge, Homer became a commercial printmaker in Boston and then moved to New York, where he studied oil painting in 1861. Directly after he finished this class, he was sent to Virginia to become an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly, where he used this new skill for the majority of his career. (Weinberg) During the time he was in Virginia, he was assigned to create images that depicted the Civil War and give hope to the people that the nation would join together again and become the great America once again. He painted Weaning the Calf during this time period, where he used oil on a canvas to show a young boy taking a calf away from it’s mother, while two other boys watch. Homer also used the skill of lighting in this painting where he portrayed the ideas of sunlight and shadows over the objects in the image. At first glace, this painting looks like a game that the boys made up and a bet to see who would have to deal with the calf, while the other two look on with laughter. Looking deeper into this image, the boy weaning the calf dressed in ragged and torn clothing, while the other two boys dressing highly in dress clothes, suspenders, and top hats. Also, the boy does the work with the calf under a huge shadow, so the audience does not see him as their first image. Homer had a reason for painting this image this way and it was because this painting was published in 1875, right after the Civil War ended and the Emancipation Proclamation was enforced, therefore freeing all slaves in the nation. Homer was able to show the audience that the lives of African Americans, after they were legally free from their owners, had changed through this painting. Although, regardless of their legal freedom, they were still not equal to Caucasians in this time.

For almost 20 years, Homer produced illustrations for Harper’s Weekly, which was A Journal of Civilization that published American politics, foreign and domestic, from a New York base station on Alexander Street. Harper’s Weekly distributed magazines over 100,000 to international countries as

Picture by Boston Public Library

well as circulated within America. Research says that it had a consistent readership of at least half a million people. Throughout the 55 years that it was published, there was 75,000 illustrations that were contributed mostly from Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, and Thomas Nast. The images that Harper’s published defined that period of time during America and it also shaped the opinion of the public. This source of production was able to provide a huge impact in five different presidential elections, which was mostly caused by it’s international coverage. (Harper's) Since there was so many people reading the output from this magazine, the information that they published was very important because it shaped the way that American’s thought and acted. Homer’s optimistic style came from this because he was having his paintings published in a widely-known magazine and Homer knew that people need to be reassured about the the nation’s unity. Homer also painted this way because of his belief that the elite value heroic war efforts. (Colbert) The combination of these two values and characteristics of Homer lead to his painting of Weaning the Calf. Homer shows these two value through the painting’s literal and figurative meaning. The black slave is pictured under the shade, which casts a big shadow on the boy while he works to pull the stubborn calf away from it’s mother. Literally, this image pictures a “perfect life” where children played with farm animals and interacted with slaves, gradually accepting them as people instead of slaves. This image allowed American’s to “escape into a fantasy of an ever-happy childhood,” where children were able to except the newly-freed slaves and treat them as normal people, unlike their parents. (Mitchell) But figuratively, the painting represents the weaning of African-Americans from slavery which directly relates the weaning of the calf in the painting from it’s mother. (Magister) Although some sources state that Homer did not intend to represent this figurative meaning, it became a famous painting for how the newly-freed slaves were feeling at this time.

This painting was published during the Reconstruction period of America, where the state of North Carolina and other southern states were in a social revolution. Since slavery was destructed, people who were wealthy either lost their lands because the government liberated their lands because they were not following the new legislation or they abandoned their lands. On the other end, slaves were now looking for a place to start a job and make money and they legally had their freedom, but that was about it. Shortly after the proclamation, newly-freed slaves and very poor whites decided to start a new industry where they would share the land they were cropping, which was called sharecropping. Eventually whites agreed to allow blacks their rights as individuals, but they would not agree to their legal and social equality. (Harper's) The idea that whites accepted blacks as individuals, but not people of equal value as themselves explains the image Weaning the Calf. Homer was able to add the idea that these individuals were physically free from slavery and could interact with whites, but as the painting shows the blacks do not have the same social level as the white boys. This also explains the idea that newly-freed slaves had to find jobs and earn money, which for some blacks meant working for their same owners but this time for a wage.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876, a year after Homer published the painting of

Picture by William Creswell

Weaning the Calf. Mark Twain wrote this book about a young boy who got away from the real world of war times and create his own little pretend life. Tom Sawyer creates relationships with several, happy and youthful friends in a time of panic and horrid. This book relates to Homer’s Weaning the Calf because they both relate to how children do not realize the bigger picture of the real world. (Work) They remain happy and young while the world around them struggles in a war. Weaning the Calf also shows to the audience how big of a change these boys go through and they aren’t even aware of it. This representation explains the boy’s transformation from adolescence to adults right before their eyes. This idea appears again through the calf being pulled away from it’s mother, so that it can learn how to live on it’s own without support. (Wood) At this age, these boys become young adults and will have to make their own opinions, decisions and have their own responsibilities. For example, these boys become old enough that they have to either take care of the farm or find a job to financially support themselves. The representation of the transformation from adolescence to adulthood in this painting added a huge contribution to this time period. Parents change their ways of teaching their children to include not having slaves. These kids learn how to interact with African Americans in a completely new way that they were raised to.

Picture by Irina

Weaning the Calf has also been related to another one of Homer’s paintings called Snap the Whip. Being one of Homer’s best-known pictures, scholars suggest that these two paintings serve as companions for one another. (Work) Snap the Whip was painted in 1872 and shows young school boys playing a game outside their schoolhouse. The boys in this image look a lot like the boys in Weaning the Calf that watch the black boy wean the calf. The boys in both pictures portray themselves as young and innocent, while also representing freedom through their bare feet and the boys turning from boys into men through the hats and suspenders. In Snap the Whip, Homer painted the boys playing a game where they all hold hands and pull, sort of like tug-a-war, on each other. This game also represents what the nation was going through during the war and how unity still exists. (Smith) This painting directly relates to Weaning the Calf because they both represent the post-Civil War problems and how the nation reminisces on the happiness that was before the war and also how the nation changes into a completely different country.

When first looking at a painting, you only see the literal meaning of a painting and not the figurative meaning, history, or background of the artist. All of these characteristics determine the true analysis of the painting. Homer was able to combine nature and “real” images in his paintings, while still giving an optimistic perspective to the audience and value heroic war efforts. Homer exhibited this skill in Weaning the Calf by giving the people of America hope that the nation will reunite and regardless of the huge differences from the Civil War.

Sources

Colbert, Charles. "Winslow Homer, Reluctant Modern." JSTOR. The University of Chicago Press, 2003. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/382161>.

"Harper's Weekly: 1857-1912." Alexander Street. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://alexanderstreet.com/products/harpers-weekly-1857-1912>.

Magister, Senex. "Winslow Homer." Winslow Homer. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://hoocher.com/Winslow_Homer/Winslow_Homer.htm>.

Mitchell, Paul. "Winslow Homer (1836-1910): Poet of the Sea." World Socialist Web Site. 3 Apr. 2006. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/04/homr-a03.html>.

Smith, Jeanette. "A Garden in Nassau: Winslow Homer." JAMA Network. 28 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1733693>.

"War's End and Reconstruction." The North Carolina Civil War Experience. North Carolina Historic Sites. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://civilwarexperience.ncdcr.gov/narrative/narrative-4.htm>.

Weinberg, H. Barbara. “Winslow Homer (1836-1910)”. In Helibrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-.http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/homr/hd_homr.htm (October 2004)

Wood, Peter. "Peter H. Wood on Revisiting Winslow Homer." 'Harvard University Press Blog' 10 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2010/11/peter-h-wood-revisiting-winslow-homer.html>.

"Work of Art: Weaning the Calf." ArtNC. Web. 16 Nov. 2015. <http://artnc.org/works-of-art/weaning-calf>.

An Analysis of Fiercely the red sun descending/Burned his way along the heavens

By: Dualmodem Bytton

In the years 1875-1876, Thomas Moran created his piece, “Fiercely the red sun descending/Burned his way along the heavens”. This spectacular, captivating image uses a darker color palette accented with intense red hues. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, The Song of Hiawatha, is the source of the title, a title that does not directly comment on the poem but instead reflects a literal interpretation of what Moran visualized when he read line containing that imagery. The image is a dark and rough sea with mountains to the side which are made with use of darker muted colors contrasted by a sun that is a mix of reds, yellows, and oranges, and indeed does illustrate the image of a sun fiercely descending and burning its way along the skies. Moran’s piece is a blend of both the luminist and impressionist movements, in this piece he utilizes various colors and light effects to evoke feelings of power and strength. He fuses the two movements through his choice of landscape which holds a luministic influence and the lack of clarity and perfection in the piece draws from impressionism, pulling from the strengths of each style leads to a hybrid that helped to cross two worlds creating a piece familiar yet invigorating at the same time.

Moran’s choice in palette and lighting helped in creating an image that radiates power and strength. The color choice is all dark and it gives an ominous feel to the piece. Moran illustrates a rough sea that generally indicates danger. The mountains in the background are partially covered by the mish mosh that is the sky. The clouds above create a haze that distorts the mountains as well as the sky itself. Then these dark colors are contrasted by bright hues of oranges and reds that light up the entire left side of the painting (Kennedy).The blended style is very prevalent here as they are styles characterized by the effect of light in nature and Moran draws from both to create this scene. The light here originates from the sun and slowly fades as you reach the right half of the painting. The light adds red accents to the ocean the brighten up the otherwise gloomy area. Another interesting observation is that the side of the painting in which the light hits appears to have a calmer sea. Also the outskirts of the light are the only area that any life is observed. A flock of birds are flying from the dark side to the light. This image while may go unnoticed to some is quite possibly the most powerful commentary on life in the whole piece. That even in the hopelessness and despair, there is always a way brighter future on the horizon. That it is possible to escape the darkness of the past and fly into new horizons. This image pours out strength and power, as if the sun has conquered the danger in the horizon that calms the restless waves. The sky has been scarred and burned in the process leaving the clouds a bright scarlet red that pulls directly from the title and shows how the sun has literally burned its way across the heavens conquering everything in its path.

By: Leo Hidalgo

The luminist and impressionist movements were two very similar yet distinct movements. Both are based on the use of light to flesh out different colors and create strong contrasts thus creating a more noticeable and powerful image. Both styles are also primarily landscapes, the various artists experimented with how to better convey the way in which light affects their world around them. It is all derived from perception. However, besides these two similarities there is not much else in common. Luminism was a style used primarily in the United States and focused on wide, grandiose landscapes that had paid close attention to detail with no noticeable brush strokes ("Luminism | Painting."). Impressionism contained smaller more conservative landscapes that did not emphasize detail and were set apart by there calculated but noticeable brush strokes that embraced human imperfection ("Impressionism | Art."). In "Fiercely the red sun descending/Burned his way along the heavens", Thomas Moran experimented with a blend of these two styles that provided the right amount of innovation to captivate audiences. It holds the characteristics of luminism in that it is a wide spread landscape in which the sky is the main focus (Lubow). The impressionist influence is seen by the lack of perfection, embracing both the free spirit of the human race as well as the chaos within nature. At first glance you can tell exactly what this piece is meant to depict. However, as you examine the piece further the attention to detail is not there. This uses familiar colors and layout in a way that allows your brain to interpret the images without actually seeing them. The water is a mix of dark blues with white accents to give the affect of rough waves, the mountains are more just brown figures in the background and a red explosion next to it. But the cues we receive from the blues allow us to interpret it as water, the shapes in the back resemble that of mountains and the burning what almost seems to be as an explosion is then seen as the sun. Put that all together and you see a widespread piece.

Another primary aspect of this piece that emphasizes its hybrid nature are the brush strokes. Similar to the rest of the painting they lie in this state of ambiguity. It is difficult to interpret whether they are actually there or not. They are strategically placed in various areas of the painting, for example the sky appears to use numerous short brush strokes to create a multitude of layers, starting with the wispy scarlet clouds, then to the deeper orange colored ones that eventually boils down to the center light that all light in the painting originates from. These brush strokes can be interpreted to be a deliberate part of the painting and not to be seen as brush strokes at all, placing it in the luministic category. However, if an individual believes them to merely be brush strokes than the painting falls within the impressionist category (Prodger). Moran was able to set himself apart from other artists by utilizing two similar art styles that offered a fresh spin on what the masses at the time were accustomed to seeing.

By: Brett Jordan

Moran’s style of painting has been compared to that of another painter of his time, J.M.W. Turner. He was a British artist who captured the sublime in nature, in an article within the Washington Post, author Blake Gopnik has said “it’s hard to decide which is more jaw-dropping: the slapdash glory of his technique or the terrible splendor of the scene he’s represented” (Gopnik). The foundation Turners paintings are built off of are a balance in between both his style and the subject he is painting. Many American painters knew of Turner however, any attempts were futile in the recreation of this style, until Moran that was. "Fiercely the red sun descending/Burned his way along the heavens was described as having “all the explosive energy of paint and subject matter of a decent Turner” (Gopnik). Moran was an avid fan of Turner’s work and this piece was created after he had visited England and made detailed studies of Turners works. His ability to recreate a sought after style of an impressionist painter while integrating techniques used almost exclusively in the United States, Moran’s blending of the two worlds created a breathtaking piece never before seen anywhere else in the world.

In conclusion this piece is a masterful blend of similar styles that originated on two different continents. Basing his style off of an artist who had at that point in time never been successfully imitated in any way shape or form was a feat in its own. Moran did not stop there though, he introduced the style that was native to his region and intertwined it into the piece creating a hybrid that offered a fresh new perspective without alienating the current audience. The impressionist and luministic influences are clear and used masterfully, every detail from the color palette used down to the title of the piece. Pulling from a poem that had inspired himself, Moran was able to draw connections to his own life, creating a more intimate connection with his audience. Moran’s layout of the landscape emphasizes the strength of the piece, having it transition from overwhelming intense hues of orange and red to darker blacks and greys gives off a feeling of power. Power that creates an overall commentary on life and the struggles that everyday man goes through. The blending of the two styles helps to bridge the gap between people and show that this is not merely an American issue by a human kind issue. Showing all people that there is hope in the darkness. All in all, Moran succeeded in combining two worlds giving the audience of the time a fresh and invigorating piece similar to what they have seen in the past.

Works Cited 

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Impressionism | Art." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Luminism | Painting." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Gopnik, Blake. "Grinding Out The Grandeur." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 25 July 2002. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Kennedy, Martha, "Review of Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West by Joni Louise Kinsey" (1993). Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. Paper 100

Lubow, Arthur. "The Luminist." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Feb. 2007. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Prodger, Michael. "The Man Who Made Monet: How Impressionism Was Saved from Obscurity." The Guardian. N.p., 21 Feb. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

Unit 4 Mid post

This piece is the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. I chose this piece because has depth. It is a scene between land, sea, and humanity. The artist uses cool colors to make oranges and bright colors of the volcano look more brilliant. The artist also pays a lot of detail in the architecture and the people. The author also uses light quite brilliantly. 

This is the clothing that inspired the clothing. The people are wearing classical 1760 european clothing. This is what people would be wearing in the piece. This style of dress would have directly infleunced the piece.

This is a piece by his teacher, Joesph Vernet. This piece and the eruption of mount Vesuvius have a lot of commonalities. such as the landscape and how moonlight is portrayed. There are also commonalities in the way people are moving in the piece. The ships are also painted in the same style. 

Vesuvius entered a new phase in December 1631, when a major eruption buried many villages under lava flows, killing around 3,000 people. Torrents of boiling water were also ejected, adding to the devastation. Activity thereafter became almost continuous, with relatively severe eruptions occurring in 1660, 1682, 1694, 1698, 1707, 1737, 1760, 1767, 1779, 1794, 1822, 1834, 1839, 1850, 1855, 1861, 1868, 1872, 1906, 1926, 1929, and 1944. This would have meant that Vesuvius would have been a current event in Europe. This probably would have sparked Volaire's interests.

This is the port view of Mt. Vesuvius and this port is the inspiration of the piece. This is where he may have stood watching the volcano erupt.