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Art History?


neighway

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Hey there! I'm an art history major, and I was wondering if there were any other people who like art history out there! 

 

I would start talking about my favorite artists/time periods/styles/etc, but once I start talking about it, I ramble and I can't stop. So how about you guys? :)

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I don’t know much about anything in particular but I love the subject

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I am studying product design right now, and I need to take two art history classes to complete my program. I am currently taking a class about European art from the late middle ages to modern times. We just finished the late Renaissance period, and are moving onto the baroque period. While the art itself is fine, I really love learning about the people who made it, and the influence of religion, political situations, and societal expectations on the art of a particular time.

One of my favorite people to learn about so far is Michelangelo. He was so stubborn and self-absorbed. He considered himself a sculptor, and got very upset when people called him a painter. Regardless, he agreed to do a mural on the wall of a government building. The only reason he agreed to it was because Leonardo Da Vinci was painting the opposite wall, and Michelangelo saw this as a a big competition against his arch rival. Leonardo really didn't give a damn what Michelangelo did, he just wanted to paint his wall. Neither of them finished their piece. Leonardo because oil paints work really badly for murals, and the whole thing was a disaster. Michelangelo because the pope called him to Rome. The pope wanted Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of his personal chapel, the Sistine Chapel. Because he didn't like painting, Michelangelo did not want to put his sculpting on hold to paint if it didn't involve a "competition" against his "greatest rival". He also didn't like the ideas that the pope outlined for what subject matter and composition he wanted in the piece. Michelangelo and the pope argued for a long time. Michelangelo even tried to flee Rome, and the pope had guards sent out to drag him back to Rome. Eventually he agreed to paint the Sistine ceiling, but under the condition that he chose exactly what to paint. There are lots of little parts of the painting that people believe are little 'eff you's to the pope, such as an angel making a rude gesture towards a saint who looks suspiciously like Pope Julius II. Michelangelo was provided assistants to help him, but he didn't like them, and fired them all soon after the project began. Michelangelo really hated painting the Sistine Chapel. There are letters we have of him complaining to his friend that "Painting the Sistine Chapel is going to kill me!". He painted the Sistine Chapel in his thirties, and complained about it until he died at age 89.

25 years after painting the Sistine ceiling, Michelangelo was called back- this time by a different pope- to paint the Sistine altar wall. He painted a scene of the last judgement, featuring many naked men. This was painted near the end of the period where it was not completely unacceptable for there to be nude pictures in the church. Michelangelo was called back a few years after the completion of the alter wall, and asked to paint drapery over the genitals in the piece. He responded that he would rater just have the piece destroyed. The church commissioned another artist to pain the drapery, likely most of this done after Michelangelo's death.

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Part time artist here. I like art history, and for some reason I like reading about art thefts and fraud. One of the things that made this handy was at the science museum I work at. We had a display of the machines of Da Vinci. I played him. I had to learn how to do things left handed, and to talk like an Italian without sounding like something out of a mob movie. I also dropped persona a few times to bust some myths about him (no he did not invent the bicycle).  

    Luckily, no one really knows what he looked like in his late 40's, so I got away with a lot ( my eyes are blue, he likely did not have them.)

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InsomniacAnna

I love art history :) I actually started art history in uni, but I decided that I actually didn't want to have it as my career, but it was a beautiful degree. It was such an awesome year that one. 

 

Everything we studied was so awesome, and I learned to appreciate all forms of art, from the classics to contemporary art. 

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I have a BFA so I have 8 semesters of art history under my belt. Some classes were more interesting than others (obviously). I'm more interested in Dada, Bauhaus, David Carson, Irma Boom, Art Deco (LA so how can I not?) and Art Nouveau than Monet or Manet. The best course title was definitely Madonna and Whore, though. 

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I love art history! Although, I can be pretty bad with specific dates and names if it's not something I'm directly looking at.

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On November 4, 2017 at 1:41 PM, Juno_L said:

 

That definitely sounds like Michelangelo! haha. I did a project last semester on a female artist named Sofonisba Anguissola, who was most active during the Mannerist period right after the Renaissance. She was a really incredible artist whose paintings were almost like realist/genre art. I feel like she was way ahead of her time, but eventually her paintings started being credited to men and her fame kind of died out. It wasn't until recently (I think around the 1970s) that art historians started looking more into female artists like her. Anyway, so she sent Michelangelo a picture she drew of a girl laughing and he basically wrote back saying, "it's nice, but that's easy, can you draw a picture of a boy crying?". And so she did, and he had to recognize her talent. This is the picture she sent him, and it's really great. 

 

570px-Sofonisba_Anguissola_-_Asdrubale_B

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1 hour ago, cjk said:

I am also an art history major! Where do you study?

Yay! ^_^ I live in Arizona, and I'm still in a community college there, but I'm transferring to Arizona State University in the spring! I'm really excited to be able to take more art history classes there, because my current college only provides two and I've already taken them. What about you?

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I'm from Arizona! I moved when I was 14, though. I'm at a small liberal arts college in Virginia now. I'm a junior and I've already completed the major, so if you have any questions feel free to PM me. My focus is on inter- and post-War art and theory; as an undergrad, it's not too specific yet. I am working on a independent study on intersectionality theory and Frida Kahlo though, which is probably where I want to focus my future research. 

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I really love Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman art :) 

Temples, statues, everything!

Last year I went to Sicily and I visited the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento.

It was amazing :wub:

2825923986_b27203805a_b.jpg

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@cjk That sounds so cool! I love Frida Kahlo, she's so introspective. And being a half-Mexican woman, I really connect with her artwork. And I'll definitely let you know if I have any questions, thanks! ^_^

 

@Hazell I am so jealous haha. I've never been out of the United States! But I did just go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where they have a ton of Greek and Roman sculpture. Not to mention, Greek pottery, coins, and jewelry. But my favorite thing there is this 15 ft tall Roman statue of Juno. It's so beautiful :wub:

V34HO9SSmdB_useQBq8Qy8hmVjUjbow8M2VRF-RH

 

 

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drjohnhwatson

I'm not very learned on the subject, but I really love Caravaggio and Vincent Van Gogh and some of Salvador Dali's works.  I especially love Baroque and Romantic art.

 

Of course, anything old has my interest because I have a BS in history--just not art, haha.

 

:lol:.

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20 hours ago, drjohnhwatson said:

I'm not very learned on the subject, but I really love Caravaggio and Vincent Van Gogh and some of Salvador Dali's works.  I especially love Baroque and Romantic art.

 

Of course, anything old has my interest because I have a BS in history--just not art, haha.

 

:lol:.

I love Caravaggio too! His diagonal lines make me so happy :wub:  Also, speaking of Italian Baroque, Artemisia Gentileschi is another great, really important artist. And van Gogh has been my favorite forever! I love reading the letters he wrote (which are all right here!). They add a lot of context if you read them alongside his work, and it's really interesting.

 

And I agree, old stuff is real cool! ^_^

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On 10/11/2017 at 5:30 PM, neighway said:

@cjk That sounds so cool! I love Frida Kahlo, she's so introspective. And being a half-Mexican woman, I really connect with her artwork. And I'll definitely let you know if I have any questions, thanks! ^_^

 

@Hazell I am so jealous haha. I've never been out of the United States! But I did just go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where they have a ton of Greek and Roman sculpture. Not to mention, Greek pottery, coins, and jewelry. But my favorite thing there is this 15 ft tall Roman statue of Juno. It's so beautiful :wub:

V34HO9SSmdB_useQBq8Qy8hmVjUjbow8M2VRF-RH

 

 

I love that statue neighway :wub::wub::) 

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I'm just going to leave this beautiful painting here, if anyone's into still lifes: 

 

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730px-Antoine_Vollon_-_Mound_of_Butter_-

 

It's my faaaaavorite. I mean, like, that's butter. It's like, the most perfect shade of yellow. It's exactly butter. It's insane. I love it. Thank you, Antoine Vollon.

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On 11/18/2017 at 1:56 AM, neighway said:

I'm just going to leave this beautiful painting here, if anyone's into still lifes: 

 

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730px-Antoine_Vollon_-_Mound_of_Butter_-

 

It's my faaaaavorite. I mean, like, that's butter. It's like, the most perfect shade of yellow. It's exactly butter. It's insane. I love it. Thank you, Antoine Vollon.

WOW! I'm not into a lot of still lives from this period, but this is amazing.

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14 minutes ago, Copal_0 said:

WOW! I'm not into a lot of still lives from this period, but this is amazing.

Right?! I love the texture, it's so wonderful :wub:

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Some contemporary art :wub: I love hyper-realist Matt Doust. It makes me so sad that he passed away in 2013. He was barely 29, and I can't imagine what he would've been able to do had he had more time. Still, what he did create is wonderful.

 

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e356b0260d8fac71c789a5897c1044eb--pencil

 

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13 hours ago, neighway said:

Some contemporary art :wub: I love hyper-realist Matt Doust. It makes me so sad that he passed away in 2013. [...]

 

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e356b0260d8fac71c789a5897c1044eb--pencil

 

I think this is the difference between art historians and artists. :P Not that there aren't a lot of hacks out there. Haha 

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I like history of art a lot! Well, art in general. I don't study it or anything related, but I'm still a lover. I'd love to take a second major in art after I graduate. I won't probably have the energy for another full-time degree, though, so maybe part-time? Let's be honest, I need a job too.

 

Caravaggio - yup, I like him too. This dramatic light. I also like Art Nouveau, and impresionists and post-impressionists. Those are my favourites. Dadaism and anything after Art Nouveau - not so much. Except for single artists, probably.

 

It's a shame there used to be so few female artists and that women who wanted to fulfil themselves outside of household were discriminated against so much. Sofonisba Anguissola seems like an extlemely talented artist from the picture! I'm stunned.

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8 minutes ago, Emery. said:

I like history of art a lot! Well, art in general. I don't study it or anything related, but I'm still a lover. I'd love to take a second major in art after I graduate. I won't probably have the energy for another full-time degree, though, so maybe part-time? Let's be honest, I need a job too.

 

Caravaggio - yup, I like him too. This dramatic light. I also like Art Nouveau, and impresionists and post-impressionists. Those are my favourites. Dadaism and anything after Art Nouveau - not so much. Except for single artists, probably.

 

It's a shame there used to be so few female artists and that women who wanted to fulfil themselves outside of household were discriminated against so much. Sofonisba Anguissola seems like an extlemely talented artist from the picture! I'm stunned.

Oh, yes, the impressionists :wub: That is my absolute favorite style of art. 

 

Le Boulevard de Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps, Camille Pissarro, 1897 

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603px-Camille_Pissarro_-_Boulevard_Montm

 

Rocks at Barra, Samuel John Peploe, 1903 (I like how big these brushstrokes are, it's interesting)

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Afternoon Tea (The Snack), Marie Bracquemond, 1880

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el-pincel-encerrado-marie-bracquemond-18

 

As for Anguissola, you're absolutely right! She was super talented. And she wasn't even allowed to study as much as the men were. Like, she couldn't study anatomy or nudes because it was "inappropriate", so she just painted her family mostly. But her paintings are so amazing, because of the way they portrayed daily life, which I don't think is common for the time. This is a great example:

 

1555-chess_game_sofonisba_anguissolamuse

(The Chess Game, 1555)

 

The way one of her sisters has her hand up, and the other is laughing, it's like it's a scene you're walking into, rather than just a portrait of someone. They're so expressive. So even though she wasn't allowed to paint the same kinds of things men did, I think she ended up using it to her advantage.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just came across this Russian painter named Valentin Serov and I am in love. This is a wonderful painting.

 

(Portrait of Yevdokia Loseva, 1903)

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portrait-of-yevdokia-loseva-1903.jpg_Hal

 

Time to go look at the rest of his portraits :wub:

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arekathevampyre

somehow I love Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night painting a lot :)

I also love his sunflowers painting .

The scream painting by Edvard Munch and  the  Whistler's mother painting by James McNeill is very nice too ;)

 

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@arekathevampyre van Gogh is my favorite artist ever! :lol: I don't know why, but this has always been my favorite painting of his haha

 

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608px-_Vincent_van_Gogh_-_A_pair_of_leat

 

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arekathevampyre
On Friday, November 10, 2017 at 8:12 AM, Hazell said:

Last year I went to Sicily and I visited the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento.

This would be on my travel list since I love Greek and Roman stuff too (not to forget : Egyptian) ;)

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