Oil Painting

 Angie Fernandez

November 18, 2012

Oil Painting

In this essay I will analyze three different paintings, these are, Place de la Concorde by Piet Mondrian, Bottle of Port and Glass by Pablo Picasso, and The Light of Coincidence by Rene Magritte. Although these paintings have different styles they all demonstrate how amazing and creative oil painting can be.

Place de la Concorde is an abstract work painted by Piet Mondrian, the painting is characterize by an irregular pattern of black outlines creating rectangular shapes, which some are colored with a closed palette of primary colors blue, red, and yellow, but most rectangles are just a white background.

Place de la Concorde by Piet Mondrian. 

Date: 1938 – 1943

Dimensions: 37x37 3/16 inches

Oil on Canvas

Location: Dallas Museum of Art

Personal Image.

The painting is supposed to represent a Square in Paris, in which place many artists in 1930s decided to paint. But Mondrian chooses to make his painting more “naturalistic” representing the true nature of objects, what he called Neoplasticism.  In the painting we can see different vertical and horizontal lines, giving the viewer a sense of axis. Its simplicity is what appeals the most about this painting. And that it is not three-dimensional, but only has two-dimensional shapes.

 When Piet Mondrian made this painting he wanted to express his Neoplasticism ideas. And he accomplished this by using the most simplistic ways of painting, geometric, restricted palette and lots of open white spaces. These things give the viewer the opportunity to experiment different ideas about the painting, when you look at this painting you get a sense that it has its own frame, generated by its black lines, and concentrating the whole picture in the center of the painting, which is just a large white rectangle. But also Piet Mondrian made the painting in a way that makes your eyes look around this big rectangle at the center, the strips around it are supposed to be the intersections at the Square. And besides its asymmetry, the painting offers a sense of order, making it attractive to look at.

 I believe Mondrian choose this style of painting because he truly believed in his theories of Neoplasticism and wanted to be heard. “Mondiran published Le Neo-plasticisme while in Paris, having become convinced that his theories,…were almost unknown beyond his native country.” This is why his theories were translated in other different languages and then he traveled to the United States in nineteen seventies, and became a member of American abstract artist. He brought with himself the Place de la Concorde painting. I believe this artwork is about simplicity and self-interpretation, the artist by painting abstract wants the audience to view what their minds tell them to see. But Piet Mondrian also gave the painting a name, which I think it’s because besides he wants the painting to be open to ideas, he still wants to make his point. When I see at this painting, I can really imagine how that square at Paris looked like.

Bottle of Port and Glass by Pablo Picasso

Date:1919

Dimensions: 18x24 in.

Oil on Canvas

Location: Dallas Museum of Art

Personal Image.

Bottle of Port and Glass panted by Spanish Pablo Picasso, is a paint characterized by its cubism and for being abstract. It was done in the year 1919 and has dimensions of eighteen by twenty four inches. When you first look at the painting you can see a set of geometric forms but you cannot really distinguish any meaningful object. Once you take some time to look at it, you start to see the positive shape, the bottle and the glass, the bottle is at the left where the word “Dporto” is, and the glass is next to it at the right side; once you see these two shapes it becomes hard to have a different focal point. If you look harder you can see these two objects are sitting on a table and you can also perceive it represents a three dimensional painting. If a person has enough imagination he or she will easily see the outline of the table, and the overlapping of certain objects like the bottle, around it. You can also see the usage of color temperature in this painting; at the borders, you can appreciate a warm temperature made of different hues and saturation of yellow-orange and browns. Then towards the center you see a combination of blue-green representing a kind of cold square. And finally the usages of black and white, especially to define some objects like the bottle and the background of the glass. In this painting there are also two extremely simplified objects, which are a pipe and a pouch of tobacco Picasso made this two objects so simple that are very hard to distinguish. They are located at the right side of the glass.

Pablo Picasso used geometrical forms and asymmetry of cubism to developed this abstract painting. Bottle of Port and Glass can be very difficult to “read”, and at first sight can give a person the sense of chaos and confusion, overloaded with many shapes. But Picasso did a great job at mixing different levels of reality, because, a person can actually imagine things in this painting that are not real, different shapes that are made of other shapes. And Picasso achieved this by using different schemes of color and forms. 

Again, I believe Picasso invented these types of paintings to show a different and more “purer” form of all things in the everyday life. And also, to give people the opportunity to see what their mind shows them. In my belief, Picasso painted the objects in this painting in a way humans are not used to see the world, in cubes. Although it is hard to see, he actually did paint the actual items.

The Light of Coincidence by Rene Magritte

Date: 1933

Dimensions: 60x73 cm.

Oil on Canvas

Location: Dallas Museum of Art

Personal image

The light of coincidence by Rene Magritte is a symbolic painting with genre surrealism; the painting was finish in year 1933 in Brussels, Belgium. Rene Magritte painted it in oil on canvas. In the painting you can appreciate just the torso of a woman, with no legs, arms, or head. What makes this painting interesting is its surrealism, because Magritte painted this torso, on another two dimensional painting. In other words, it’s a painting inside a painting. You can also see a candle sitting on a table. It seems like this candle is the only source of light in the whole painting; it produces the painting to have a touch tenebrism look. Making the torso, the candle, and the table look lighter, with a dark background. But the highlights of light are concentrated on the torso of the woman. The surrealism in this painting is such that we can even see some overlapping, between the table in which the candle is sitting on, and the painting behind it. In this painting we can see how Magritte used a wide scale of dark colors, including black, grey, and brown. But he also utilized white, yellow, and red.

Rene Magritte used surrealism to represent the beauty of the torso of Venus de Medici, who is the Roman goddess of Love. He also chose to paint her so he could emphasize woman’s beauty and perfection. This painting is very appealing especially because of its three dimensional figure of the torso, which thanks to Magritte usage of light and shadow, the torso looks with good sharpness. The artist made the torso realistic and you can easily see the highlight, shadow, and core shadow on the torso; and then you can see the cast shadow to the left of the torso, which would be the darkest shadow.  Besides appreciating the different areas of light and shadow, you can also see how Rene Magritte used the use of line to achieve this goal of three-dimensional shape, I feel there are different vanishing points, one made by the red table that is on the paining of the torso and other can be one that is made of the corners of the actual painting of the goddess, and not the light of coincidence.

Although many artist of this time painted this beautiful goddess, I may think that Magritte should have had another reason besides representing, love, woman, and beauty. He had a rough past, with his mother committing suicide when he was just a child. I think the artist may felt an especial attraction toward women in general, since he did not have that female figure for most of this life. Magritte probably felt relief, comfort, or maybe he felt he was representing his mother on his paintings.

Work Cited

McCarter, William M. "Piet Mondrian's Place De La Concorde." Piet Mondrian's Place De La Concorde by William Matthew McCarter. University of Texas at Arlington, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/pietmondrian.htm>.

Henkels, H. "ART TERMS." MoMA.org. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10131>.

Champa, Kermit Swiler. "Mondrian, Piet." Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. Ed. Michael Kelly. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 19 Nov. 2012.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t234/e0359>.

            "Bottle of Port and Glass." Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://dallasmuseumofart.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/2154/71/title-asc?t:state:flow=513767c4-dbab-4773-9f14-74446d0dc6be>.

Melissa McQuillan. "Picasso, Pablo." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T067316>.

"Pablo Picasso." San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artists/867>.

"Pablo Picasso / Bottle of Port and Glass / 1919." Pablo Picasso / Bottle of Port and Glass / 1919. The Amica Library, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.davidrumsey.com/amica/amico87860-42437.html>.

"The Light of Coincidence." Wiki Paintings. Visual Art Encyclopedia, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/rene-magritte/the-light-of-coincidence-1933>.

Hopkins, Justine. "Magritte, Rene." Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://ezp.tccd.edu:2148/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e1564?q=rene+magritte&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit>.

"The Light of Coincidence." Dallas Museum of Art - Collections. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://dallasmuseumofart.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/2154/657/title-asc?t:state:flow=ff6f6d5d-79f4-4fad-ad6d-e5ac9397ed10>.

"Venus De' Medici (Getty Museum)." The J. Paul Getty Museum. J. Paul Getty Trust, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=313766>.

The 95 Theses of Martin Luther

 Angie Fernandez

November 27, 2012

The 95 Theses of Martin Luther

Although in the 1700s the Catholic Church was very powerful in Europe, and had many followers; Martin Luther did not hesitate when he wrote his 95 theses against the selling of indulgences. In his theses, Martin stated three main points. One was that selling indulgences to finance St. Peter’s basilica was wrong. His second point was that the pope did not have power over purgatory. And last but not least, Martin Luther stated that the selling of indulgences gave the people a false sense of security and endangered their salvation. Martin Luther was risking his believes when he wrote the 95 theses, nevertheless it was a necessary event to happen in human history.

Martin Luther was born in Germany on November ten of 1483, and died on February nineteen of 1546. He was a monk, priest, theologian, and after he wrote the 95 theses, he became a major figure of the protestant reformation. He wrote the 95 theses in the year 1517, when he opposed salesman Johann Tetzel. After his theses reached Pope Leo, the Catholic Church decided to excommunicate Martin Luther and the emperor outlawed him.

Martin Luther thought that many Germans would never be able to attend St. Peter’s basilica, since it was built in Vatican City. Not everyone had the means to travel; therefore they should not be giving their own money for such project. Everybody knew that the Catholic Church was economically stable, since they were always using gold and precious gems “under the name of God”. Even Martin Luther stated on his point number 86 that if the Pope really wanted that basilica he should be the one paying for its expenses, since he was rich.

The Pope could not write God’s laws, because then this would be human laws and not God’s. Therefore, the Pope could not decide by any means who went to heaven and who did not. And not to mention sell people’s way to heaven. If he was really to decide who goes to purgatory and who doesn’t, and since he was the divine figure to represent God, the greatest good. Then why wouldn’t the Pope just release all souls from purgatory, or even eliminate the significance and existence of it to all souls be freed. In Martin Luther’s twenty-six point, he states that if the Pope intervenes to save an individual, this will only be by the will of God. Meaning, that it is God and only God the one deciding who goes to purgatory and who goes to heaven.

 In his point number nineteen Luther stated that there is absolutely no proof that by buying an indulgence the person is free from sin. We are all humans, and we cannot know for sure what God wants from the words of a priest, we only know God’s rules by the word of the holy bible. People could not simply buy their salvation. Indulgences were nonsense. And, this idea of buying their own forgiveness incited people to be sinners and endanger their true salvation. People would sin, commit crimes and even murder; but they did not care about going to purgatory, because they falsely knew that if they had the money to buy an indulgence they will be forgiven by God. It gave people a sense of security of going to heaven, but this was false. And Martin Luther saw the wrong in this; he knew that it would not matter if a person bought a million indulgences from the Pope, it would not take that person to heaven. In his argument number thirty-eight, Luther said that it is not the Pope’s forgiveness that people needed because his forgiveness was not the most important, God’s was.

The result of the 95 theses was, first personally to Martin Luther, he got excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the Pope. And then he was outlawed by the emperor. Socially, the 95 theses gave a start to Protestants, and then started to appear different religious branches.

I believe that Martin Luther 95 theses were an important and necessary critique to the Catholic Church. Because the Vatican was taking advantage of people, the church knew that they had high prestige and power among many countries in Europe, gained over the years. And not everybody was actually aware of the bible’s teachings. They made their own social rules, instead of obeying God. After Luther came up with his ideas, people started to question the church, and they made different Christian denominations. I also think that, nowadays there are some people that became atheist because of the church ways of ruling and teachings. There are still some countries that Catholicism is the dominant religion, and it becomes difficult or even discriminatory to practice a different religion or denomination.  Martin Luther 95 theses were necessary so the people could “awake” and realize this hypocritical act.

Work cited

"The 95 Theses - a Modern Translation." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/95trans.htm>.

"Martin Luther." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther>.

"The 95 Theses." Uncommon Travel Germany. Site Build It!, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.uncommon-travel-germany.com/95-theses.html>.

Vargas, Edwin. "Responses to Martin Luther's 95 Theses." Suite101.com. N.p., 08 Oct. 2009. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://suite101.com/article/responses-to-martin-luthers-95-theses-a151999>.

"The Roman Catholic Church in 1500." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/RomanCatholic-Church-in-1500.htm>.

Luther, Martin. MHHE: Primary Source Investigator. Thesis. N.d. Germany: n.p., 1517.MHHE: Primary Source Investigator. 31 Oct. 1517. Web. 27 Nov. 2012. <http://psi.historicusinc.com/psi.php?editionId=56>.