Mastery of Artistry: Defining Baroque Art

Baroque is a term given to the style of art during the late 16th century to the middle of the 18th century. Ironically, the term was first used by critics to describe art that failed to meet their standards of beauty. Baroque art is often described as an “intense movement of explosive energy.” It is a style that is full of flamboyant concepts and dramatic quality. The era known as the Baroque period includes the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth centuries in Europe. The Baroque style was a style in which the art and artists of the time focused upon details and intricate designs.   Their art often appeals to the mind by way of the heart. During this time the portraits began to portray modern life, and artists turned their backs on classical tradition. Much of the art shows great energy and feeling, and a dramatic use of light, scale, and balance.   Buildings were more elaborate and ornately decorated.   These works of art created history and altered the progress of Western Civilization. Architecture such as the palace of Versailles, and artists like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Goya symbolize these ideas. Baroque Style evolved from the classic forms of the Renaissance, but it differs by new details and trends: colossal buildings as proportions with dramatic appearance, pompous facades with gables modified in various means, double towers, tall and unshapely domes, annex buildings with beautiful ornaments, windows with irregular forms.

The Baroque style is still used today as inspiration when it comes to decorating a home in a rich manner. This style is well known for being dramatic and opulent, characteristics which can transform a simple home into something flamboyant. Many people choose to decorate their living space with a baroque style, and there are a variety of ideas that you can incorporate; ideas like using baroque style patterns to enrich cushion covers, linen, upholstery, curtaining and much more! Now graphic artists can add Baroque flair to almost any design project with elements like lush florals, rosettes as a repeating motif in a frieze and many more ornaments with a clear Baroque influence. Baroque designs can be used by artists to enhance various items, because the ornaments specific to this style have the great capacity of making an art work look richer. It’s not an unknown fact that often in modern graphic design the inspiration comes from art styles from the past. If you have the right skills, you can combine past and present design and create amazing modern art work. The Baroque Style is represented by beautiful and rich decorations that can perfectly combine with the styles designers who love to ornate their work with flowers and swirls.

Renaissance: Rebirth of Art

Formally, Renaissance art is characterized by naturalism, the use of expressive gesture, linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, and chiaroscuro. In painting, figures are placed in a three-dimensional, believable space, and their posture and gesture is part of a complex formal arrangement. There is the beginning of perspective in the work, but not is a sense that makes the space look real. Leonardo's Madonna, on the other hand, sits in a real-looking landscape, and appears in a natural looking posture, mid gesture. The sense of depth is illusionistic; for example, in the foreshortening on her raised hand. There appears to be a single, soft light source in Leonardo's painting, with carefully rendered light and shadow. The Cimabue work has a little shadowing on the faces, but primarily without illusionistic depth. Another key characteristic of Renaissance art is that tends to be monumental. This was a time of a powerful and wealthy church, princely courts, and powerful patrons like the de Medici family. Architecture, sculpture, and painting is massive, opulent, and enduring. The primo fresco of the Sistine Chapel is not only vast, but meant to last forever. Along with the monumentality of art, there is also the beginning of artistic fame. While particular popes or patrons sought to be eternally commemorated with art commissions, artists sought perfection and recognition. Not only have their works endured, but so has their own fame.

The Renaissance had massive effects on developements that led to todays society. Early democratic governments emerged in Renaissance Italy. Greek and Roman classics that were rediscovered during the Renaissance were studied in Humanists schools. These forms of education based on study of science, mathematics, history, and liturature are used today. Roman architecture that was used in the Renaissance can be seen in many cities, especially in state buildings in Washington DC. Inventions such as linear perspective and printing are used today. Many artists and sculpters in the Renaissance had a huge impact on society. The White house itself is based on a design by Michelangelo. The Reformation of the Church also brought great change. Many Popes were corrupt at the time and reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin took a stand and formed the protestant church. There would still be many corrupt popes and officials in Europe today. Some of Shakespeare's(a screenplay writer) wrote many famous plays such as Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. It affects our world in almost every aspect, even war.

Christian Art: Unleashed

Christian art was practically entirely about religious expression and manifestation with most of what was produced controlled tightly by church theology. This control is one reason why most works are uniform and anonymous and not varied by personal expression.  Byzantine achievement in Mosaic decorations brought art to a surprising level of monumentality. Mosaic is like small pieces, normally cubic, of stone or glass of different colours, which are used to create a picture or pattern. Mosaics were applied to the domes, and other available surfaces of Byzantine churches in an established of hierarchical order. They were all handmade. The art of mosaic flourish in the empire making it stand out.   The majority of Byzantine mosaics were destroyed but some survived. Buildings like Hagia Sophia were embellished with mosaics during the Emperor Justinian. If the purpose of classical art was the glorification of man, the purpose of Byzantine art was the glorification of God, and of His Son, Jesus. Another Byzantine work of art was the religious Icons. Icon creates admiration in worship and provides as an existential link to God. It was used as an object or veneration in Eastern Orthodox Church. Characterized by vivid colours and often gold coloured backgrounds, everything shown in it would be symbolic. There were many arguments within the Eastern Orthodox Church because some thought of using icons was appropriate and some did not.   Those who did not believe were called Iconoclasts. Byzantine art did grow from the art of Ancient Greece but with some significant differences. Since the main purpose of Byzantine art was the glorification of God and his son, Jesus, the classical artistic tradition of depicting nude figures was banned. Replacing the classical preoccupation with the human body, the focus became the elevation of the figures of the Father, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints. Thus we get the most important form of Byzantine art, the icon.

Byzantine art has somehow managed to stay strong within Christian communities and churches to the very modern day which we live in. Why have these depictions managed to last so long within our cultures? You could purchase a Christmas card in 2012 and if it is a religious one, it will likely have some form of Byzantine design. I know that many churches were built hundreds of years ago, which explains why churches have such designs, but even in our modern day, the Byzantine period of art seems to influence quite strongly. Is this because Christians stick with these depictions as traditional? Could this form of art soon die out and be replaced with a modern version? In my personal point of view, Christian art is very important in me in terms of being creative. I can tell that I am obsessed with any religious art. I must admit that I am not that influenced by Christian art then but not until Lady Gaga emerged and relived religious art. She had been making songs that we’re inspired by the bible, making videos that are inspired by Christianity, making my curiosity burst out about religion. This is a legitimate fact that Byzantine art styles are used even today. Christian art is highly important among religious people. It is the representation of their beliefs. As of today, Byzantine art is widely used all over the world. Probably, this kind of art will never vanish.

A Vision of Ancient and Classical Art

Art As Old As Time. Like today, not everything from the past has a purely functional use; some beautiful artworks have come down to us from the ages.

Have you ever own an old photograph of your grand, grand father or have you experience shopping in an antique store? Creepy but most of them have valuable beauty tracing how it is done many years ago.

Art was one of the earliest manifestation of culture, this is because it fulfils human kinds need to interpret everything around them including their world and spiritual beliefs. Art is a huge part of ancient history. Ancient art provides insight from the past about many different civilizations. Just from looking at ancient art archeologists can found out hold old something like pottery is, or who ruled over an area at a certain time. Egypt and Persia are thought to have the richest artistic history and various, diverse artifacts from thousands of years ago. Paleolithic art can be found to date back over thirty thousand years.  They were cave paintings that depicted men, women and, animals, these types of works were most often found deep in caves were no natural light could reach. In the gloom of the caves, the paintings look remarkably realistic. As well as paintings there were many sculptors, mainly animals, the human forms discovered are believed to be symbols of fertility, these were carved form materials like ivory, serpentine and limestone.

Greek art was developed through several cultural phases, geometric, archaic, classical, and Hellenistic. Geometric was characterized by the use of geometric shapes; the archaic style developed from the use of oriental motifs. The period of The Classical was composed of idealistic human figures with emphasis on naturalism, grace and sophistication, depicted with drapery. The Human form in an idealized state was much admired by Roman artists, as they valued the emotional and psychological side of their art as well as the physical. Roman images emphasized wisdom form experience of social and political values of the Empire, as it was the Empire that determined the forms and context of art.

Ancient and Classical Art had been packed with history. It contains full of illustrations and artworks depicting history that helps us define what happened in our world years ago. I had been impressed by Ancient and Classical Art by its creativity not just in the terms of art-making but also in sculpture and architecture. Because of their brilliance, they had been influenced the way how I make art. They have a unique art style in which I can use to apply in art-making. Realism had been predominant in terms in Classical Art, in which I adore that’s why for a long time; I had been obsessed in realistic art. It is not that easy in terms of creating Ancient and Classical Art since it takes a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of inspiration and a lot of creative thinking in order to create such artwork.

*Premise: Ancient and Classical Art 

What My Eyes Can See: Redefining Art Through Realism

Realism in Photography. This photo is the mirror of the Philippine society. Through this art, various message can be perceived and this could be an effective way to turn this picture the other way around.

Have you ever drawn a simple picture that illustrate a true-to-life situation in our society or composed a poem that represents life? It is in fact the reality that was told in every form of art. What the artists’ purpose to do such realistic style in their craft is not only done aesthetically but bounds to leave a substantial message. We, humans, are realists in our own way. 

After Gustave Courbet led the Realist movement in France hundred years ago, modern artists tend to create new approach of expressing the reality that may vary in objective. Today, art per se, is redefined. Many individuals think that art is just a painting picture or just a splendid artists’ work, this is not what it most handles about, and it’s about the expressing and stating which any artists want the people to have inside them. Art throughout all these generations was used in many ways, methods and techniques. Art is unlimited; it can be served to all people around the world in few seconds. However, a lot of artists used art to illustrate and exemplify a view and other artists use it to express people's feelings and emotions. When we look at art and diverse artwork, some of us have trouble seeing more than what meets the eye. I, myself tend to get caught up in how I feel rather than giving any thought at all to the history and details of the moment in time when the piece was created. Realistic method to depict art as itself is too broad to describe, thus, more and more style are being established everyday. As of this moment, I am doing a realistic art in the form of online blog. 

Art has so many different styles and forms of interpretation in which, sometimes I feel confused what kind of style I shall use to express my thoughts through art. Many people likely use three main styles which are realistic art, art as alteration and distorted art. Even though they have different styles, they tend to express a thought that normally the artist can only explain. In art, I prefer realistic art because we settle within the world; the world is inherently subjective in nature. There is a certain amount of distortion or alteration to what we see that is dictated by our vision, our mood, and our perspective and perception of a given circumstances. To draw or paint realistically is to objectively draw a subjective world. There is a lot to be said for this stylistic choice, not the least of which is that it allows for an understanding of shape, form, and proportion that can be applied to any form. Realism in art is used to describe the depiction of artistic impressions as they exist. The difference in other styles are realistic art can be easily distinguished and easily comprehended as you see the artwork. Artists basically draw their inspiration from the contemporary life. Most of the subject matter in realistic art generally includes daily scenes and ordinary people. The act of seeing is what makes the world subjective, no matter how objectively you may try to view it. It is our creativity and our imagination that allows us to choose the viewpoint, the pose, and the focus of the piece. Our personality, our creative impulses, contributes to the mood and atmosphere of the piece. On the other hand, it’s counterpart on the modern era is photography, in which as camera’s were invented, people are starting to take photographs. As a result, realistic art became unpopular in this modern era. However, few artists still use this style in art. Have you done like this lately?

*Premise: Realistic Art 

Art of a Sudden

When Art Meets Time. Whatever I could draw, paint or write in just a split of a second, yet sometimes, it could be my greatest work than a masterpiece made for a decade.    

Usually I feel so nervous when it comes to an “off-the-cuff” moment thinking of what could I accomplished for a “sudden art”. Making an impromptu art is similar to having an impromptu speech; you need to think on what you are about to say as fast as you can so that you can speak to the public strikingly. In terms of art, your audience is the people. You need to think of a design to convey attraction. Making an impromptu art is not as easy as it could ever be. In my personal experiences, there are times when you’re not in the mood in making art. Probably, that’s the hardest part of it since you need determination in making one. As much as I’m concerned, modern art is definitely booming. The art, in any form, encourages collectors, painters, sculptors and even writers to go beyond time of doing their masterpieces. What to be considered are criteria that define quality. Instead of just aiming to have a beautifully-made masterpiece and outrageous techniques, impromptu art could also lose its grip. 

In a world where ideal subjects for an art work are in the perspective of poverty, inequality, corruption and other social issues, impromptu are could never that hard to people who is artistically inspired. In my in-depth experiences about impromptu art that drastically scattered anywhere we go, I often turn a blind eye on issues that do not directly affect me. A doodle behind my notebook, made out of boredom, is a best example of impromptu art. Maybe its insignificance or maybe it’s just the truth that I tend to get used to the situation and they are now considering it as a norm. But today, I applied art as my channel whether it could be done as immediate as possible. During my high school days, once I forgot to make my art homework and got realized when it’s one subject to go before the submission. Without any uncertainty, I took a piece of paper and art materials, I drew what comes to my mind. In a very short while, I made my homework and beat the time knowing that the output is truly marvelous. I may not realize how to measure time to create a wonderful art work, but I am blessed to have the capability to “make an art, an art.” We could be a painter, an artist or a designer, but behind this, experiences made us appreciate the importance of art and time. 

*Premise: Experience in Making An Impromptu Art

Artpop

Get Popped! Pop art looks out into the world. It doesn't looked like a painting of something, it looks like the thing itself.

Exposing its vivid colors and undying phantom, it is the Pop Art (1950s-present) that shines the brightest (for me)! Why did I say so? Hold on tight, and let's ride in the time machine to see my perspective.

Taking from its roots, art has been a part of our life for as long as civilization has existed. For thousands of years people have been creating, looking at, criticizing, and enjoying art.  Probably, art has been a medium of expression of truth and belief, emerged at the time proliferation of humankind began. Some art dares our beliefs, views and opinions. Other works affirm our faith and devotion. Art is an essential instrument in causing us to scrutinize our beliefs in light of an artists' interpretation or perception of truth. Humans have been making art from diverse kind, aspects and form, which include the creation of phantasmic imageries or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, prinmaking, photography and other visual media. Art brings beauty into our world. Art is important because it makes our world a better place. It also brings a sense of enjoyment and pleasure. Art immortalizes people, places, and events. Artists create a chromatic record of life experiences reminiscing the memorable and challenging social injustices, such as slavery and abuses, in time. Artists serve as historians in this role, documenting life on canvass, photography, or sculpture. Art may be used to express chaos and misunderstanding, or to establish order from what appears to be chaos. 

And now, here's the deal: 

Since the Pop Art emerged during the mid-20th century AD, it became the basis of most beautiful things we are doing today. From painting, layouting, doodling, writing, saying, editing and to singing, art design nowadays dominates through the period of Pop Art and has been used in our everyday living. Try to watch a television show today and keep an eye on a music television channel. What you see is a bunch of pop art in motion picture. Give yourself a time to read a  magazine. Have you seen a handful of pop art-themed graphical design on each page? Don't tell me you didn't! (I doubt it).  The mysterious question is, how did it influence us through the ages? What particular era did art has become mainstream? Many of the modern artist try to convert classical art to modern art for example. The portrait of Lisa Gherardini (popularly known as Mona Lisa) has been reworked so many times in today's era, adapting Renaissance art to a modern one. Every art era has its own importance. Whether it is from the Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance civilization, art has been used to express the entire range of human feelings and spiritual beliefs. “Art was a pleasure in itself”, according to humanist ideas.  For me, all of those era has influenced us in various aspects. Like for example is the Byzantine Art, it influences mainly on Catholicism, in which, is mainly used in basilicas, churches, convents and chapels. Byzantine art, from the sixth century to the present time, has exerted a wide influence. Up until now, churches are still using the classical Byzantine art which includes stained glass depicting stories from the Holy Bible. Other than Byzantine Art is Contemporary Art, in which, is mainly an artwork depicting different, sometimes bizarre depictions of human perceptions and interpretation. Contemporary has been a mainstream in the present time, used mainly in entertainment and multimedia works. Art as whole has a general influence to humankind, even though they varies in forms, art will always be in the heart of humanity. So now, get a piece of paper and pencil, draw whatever you want and get popped!

*Premise: The Best Art Era