Tuesday, May 6, 2014

4: Comparative Point of View: Extremes of Viewer Utilization in Baroque Era Painting

Throughout paintings in the B/R era, a unique set of circumstances afforded painters the chance to both paint in a style of realism and to paint with quickly changing social mores. As the B/R era encompasses the better part of two centuries there were quite a few to tackle, and very few techniques do better at invoking empathy with the painted scene than directly involving the viewer in an implied role in it, with all the consequences therein.


Caravaggio, The Entombment of Christ

Here we have a spiritual example, where you, the person, stand to lift the stiffened Body of the now dead Christ and hoist Him and carry Him into the tomb. It would take a seriously spiritually disenfranchised person to miss the mark on that one. Though we discussed this in class I felt it was particularly powerful.

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

 Here we sit at an early anatomy lesson, quite eloquently laid out for us by Ellis in her final presentation. Notable here are those that look not at the lesson or the teacher but at us, with eyes that are not embarrassed but anticipatory.

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