1566, oil on wood
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
"'THE CENSUS AT BETHLEHEM'". Google Cultural Institute, https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/exhibit/zQKyGcrY3z1hKQ.
The Census at Bethlehem (also known as The Numbering at Bethlehem) by Pieter Bruegel is a part of the collection of Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium as Bruegel was Flemish renaissance artist. The painting can be seen in great detail through Google Cultural Institute, which is very handy because, similarly to Bosch, Pieter Bruegel includes a lot of details and a diverse number of actions going on. Because of that the viewer may be looking at a painting for a long time and still find something new that one could not notice at first sight. The overall composition is calm, with perfect balance between warm and cold colors as a part of snow-covered Flemish village is portrayed. Among the rich picture of the regular landscape from the high point of view, the title of the painting tells the viewer that there are Joseph and Mary, who with a need to register, came to the city of David, called Bethlehem (Luke 2, 1-5). That is why most of the people in the village stand in front of tax-gatherer's office. In such crowd it is easy to loose a carpenter and a woman on a donkey with a blue cover wrapped around her.
However, it is only a small part of the painting, there are a lot of actions, as every figure on the painting is engaged into some sort of activity, children play by themselves on frozen water, while grown ups struggle to pass icy surfaces as fast as they can without falling, some people are working, loading carts or killing a pig right in front of the viewer, there are also snowball fights, man putting on his skates, even chickens pecking the grain and wild free birds in the background near the castle ruins. Everything else seems to be covered in snow, which is depicted masterfully, with many layers and shades. There is a diagonal line that stretches through all the painting, giving it a sense of perspective and guiding viewer’s eye to the setting winter sun.
Gustave Courbet - The Painter's Studio
1855, oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay
"Gustave Courbet The Artist's Studio". Musee-Orsay.Fr, 2006, http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=851&L=1&tx_commentaire_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=7091.
The Artist's Studio, a real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life is a painting by French realist Gustave Courbet created between 1854 and 1855 that now resides in Paris Musee d’Orsay. It is painted on an enormous canvas and as stated in the title is presents seven years of Courbet’s life. The size was chosen by the artist to parody or even mock classical and similarly enormous historical paintings. Courbet was a visionary and a revolutionary in the subjects he chose for most of his paintings and he positioned himself agains the Academy of Arts that was the artistic center at the time. It was new and unheard of that on one painting artist could portray what does it mean for his to be make art and be a realist artist.
He commented on the painting himself and partly explained it, on the right it is possible to se his friends and other artists and those, who love and understand the real value in art, and on the left there are other people, whose life is not connected to art, they are the embodiment of everyday life, masses and exploiters. There is a pure and bright image of his muse or a model standing right next to him and a beautiful canvas in the center of the frame, which is a transition from one group of people to another or from his artistic life to his everyday life. Most of the other figures are rather dark and gloomy, the group on the left, together with a beggar stand the symbols of academic art that Courbet did not consider art lovers, there is a crooked male model that stands in the shadow and created a contrast to a beautiful naked woman in front.
Vincent Van Gogh - The Starry Night
1889, oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art
"Vincent Van Gogh. The Starry Night. 1889". Moma.Org, https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889.
Vincent Van Gogh became extremely famous after his death, he is remembered as misunderstood artist and mad, depressed person. Nowadays people marvel at his unusual style of strokes and luminescent colors, his Starry Night attracts a lot of visitors to Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In fact, Vincent Van Gosh did have a lot of phycological problems, he spent some time in the mental asylum surrounded with beautiful nature and calming landscapes that he painted. He painted his doctors, other patients and such moments as his Starry Night, when affected by sorrow and illness he transformed his pain and feelings into something almost magical. The impression of the night could be also affected by the processes in his head making the colors of the sky swirl and lights twinkle, but he rendered this impression to the viewers perfectly.
He also described his painting in the letters to his brother and he said that it is a landscape he saw before the sun from the window of Saint Paul asylum in southern France, he also told his brother that painting there helped him, which was also advised by his doctor.
As was already mentioned, the composition is glowing and moving, which corresponds to Van Gogh’s impression of the night. The village of Saint-Rémy is visible in the bottom, but the main elements of the painting is changing night sky, glowing mood and morning star and the element that connects calm village with the turbulent sky is the trees in front.
Works cited
"Gustave Courbet The Artist's Studio". Musee-Orsay.Fr, 2006, http://www.musee-orsay.fr/index.php?id=851&L=1&tx_commentaire_pi1%5BshowUid%5D=7091.
'THE CENSUS AT BETHLEHEM'. Google Cultural Institute, https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/exhibit/zQKyGcrY3z1hKQ.
"Vincent Van Gogh. The Starry Night. 1889". Moma.Org, https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889.
