Art coursework Week 14 Work

Antonio de Pereda – Allegory of Vanity c. 1632 Background information about the artist: Antonio de Pereda was a Spanish man born in Valladolid, he was the eldest of three brothers from a very artistic family. As well as his still lives and religious paintings, Antonio was known for his historical paintings such as the Relief of Genoa, presented to the bottom left.

Antonio was born in c. March 1611, and died January 30 th 1678. During his time he produces many remarkable historic pieces of work including, el Socorro a GĂŠnova, 1634, Agila, 1635, painted for the collection of series of Gothic kings and Annunciation, 1637, Prado.

This painting by Antonio de Pereda is called Allegory of Vanity, produced in c. 1632. The word Allegory, mentioned in the title is another word for stories, I believe Antonio named his painting this because of the many hidden messages in this piece of work.

As you can see, the lady in this painting can be represented as an angel, due to her wings and angelic profile. Angels can be associated with heaven, which can be associated with death, which can also be associated with religion, which Antonio was well known for portraying within his artwork. However, this angel is looking at us with a very unsettling stare.

To the left of the angel, you can see a candle which has been put out, which Antonio has used to represent the passing of time or even death.

Also to the left of the angel are many skulls, in this painting the skulls represent death also, but the fact that they are placed on top of books, which have been opened and read, portrays the fact that knowledge isn’t everything in life, and when you’re dead, none of those things ever mattered, and that they are pointless.

The gun in this artwork gives across another strong message towards war and fighting, just like the armour does. The gun suggests power. In front of the gun there is an hour glass, Antonio has conveyed a strong message with this, as all the sand is at the bottom, meaning that time is up. The skulls also show this message.

The angel is also shown to be holding a portrait of somebody who looks like they hold great power.

She is also seen to be pointing at a specific spot on a globe, meaning she could be trying to convey a message or warning to the world about this man in the portrait. Placed on the table to the right of the painting is a time piece, which is relevant in the message being put across backed up by the hour glass and skulls. Also placed on the table I can see money and jewellery, which as well as the gun represent power and great wealth within the artwork.

Jan van Eyck – The Arnolfini Portrait 1434, oil on oak panel, 82 x 60cm in the Gallery of London. This portrait is of a wealthy Italian couple living in Bruges. There is great skill In this painting as using oil paint to create an image of such unprecedented illusionism.

Two figures are reflected in the mirror, above which reads in Latin ”Jan van Eyck was here 1434”. Arnolfini raises his hand, perhaps to greet them, the people that you can only just make out in the mirror behind the couple.

The gaze shown in Arnolfini’s face had no emotion at all in the image, he is also not shown to be looking at his wife, nor the painter, suggesting he is some what disconnected from the whole situation. Behind Arnolfini is a pile of expensive oranges, this helps to suggest that the meaning of this painting is wealth, as these citrus fruits would’ve been a luxury at the time, although they are inanimate objects which do not even last long, which go off and deteriorate over time.

The meaning of this painting is that wealth – the wealth to hire van Eyck – can purchase immortality.

Much of the powerful wealthy impact of this painting comes from its exceptional sense of realism. The oil paint has been used in such a way of such precision by the skillful use. Oil paint also dries slowly, which allows him to apply layers of transparent glazes to build up forms, create realistic textures and give the illusion of light. The perfected texture of the green dress is heightened by placing it next to its complimentary colour, red, which is the colour of the object draping next to her. Green can also signify fertility, showing that she is also pregnant, the tiny dots of paint also suggest that the intricate design was decoratively cut and perfected within the dress, also symbolizing wealth.

A polished chandelier suggests in great detail the wealth aspect of this painting, the great detail is the way that the light is reflected on its polished surfaces, even showing the tool marks.

The little dog situated at the bottom of the painting, the dog can represent the couples want to have a child, but may not be able to have one, or a sign of loyalty. The dog is looking directly at the viewer, unlike the humans. The delicate brush strokes of the dog help to convey the skill of the artist, as they have been done so precisely.

I have now looked at a number of key examples into the 17 th century to do with time and my intention is to now produce a body of work focusing on symbolism within pieces of work.

Symbolism being the untangling of invisible means of visible sensuous representations, revealing aspects within paintings that aren’t always obvious, and also the expressing of emotions and states of mind through the use of symbols to then interpret a deeper meaning to the particular artwork.

I now intend to further develop my exploration into the topic by creating an exhibition focusing on pieces of work involving symbolism that I express great interest in.​ I also intend to further my information of the 15th century and analyze many pieces of artwork from that time period, including that from the Italian Renaissance. I intend to create my own movie style poster with my own technique and develop my knowledge of fonts to include within my design.

All the paintings in which I will be analyzing are a part of what is known as the Italian Renaissance. The Italian Renaissance was the earliest manifestation of the general European Renaissance.

Italian Renaissance paintings are the paintings of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political areas. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.

Many of the painting from the Renaissance period were commissioned by or for the Catholic Church. These works were often of large scale oil paintings. Additionally, Renaissance art was driven by the notion of "Humanism," a philosophy which had been the foundation for many of the achievements (eg. democracy) of pagan ancient Greece. Humanism downplayed religious and secular dogma and instead attached the greatest importance to the dignity and worth of the individual.

Primavera - Sandro Botticelli c. 1478 Remaining in the same time period, the 15th century, this painting and its hidden meaning really interested me. The meaning of this painting is unclear.

One of the first focal points in this painting is Mercury, Botticelli's representation of the heroic male physique is perfectly portrayed though his hand on hip pose from a contemporary statue.

An elegantly dressed Venus stands in the centre, set back from the other figures, suggesting that all the attention revolves around her. Venus's swollen stomach suggests that she is also pregnant.

Venus is the goddess who protects and cares for the institution of marriage. The myrtle plant surrounding her body is traditionally thought of as the plant that represents sexual desire, marriage and child bearing, which helps to convey the message that she is pregnant. Venus supports the fact that marriage is where sexuality is experienced, the Three Graces, to the left of her, also portray this. They portray the female virtues chastity, beauty and love and their long, flowing coverings are characteristic of Botticelli's painting style. Also, just behind Venus the trees are parted in such a way that the light is shining through, appearing to be in the shape of lungs, Venus is in the middle, therefore suggesting that she is the heart of the painting.

The Three Graces are linking hands to dance in a ring which they float above the lawn, as they are hardly bending a blade of grass beneath their feet. Their position, with two figures facing towards the viewer, and the other, in the middle has their back turned as they all link hands. This is their typical grouping.

This figure covered in flowers is Flora, the goddess of flowers and blossoms. Flora's former name was Chloris, she was in the woods when, the God to the far right of the painting, Zephyr, found her and raped her. The West Wind, is what he was known as, his face is blue and contrasts with the delicacy of her face, her face showing surprise and fear. Flora, the Goddess of Spring, is also shown with flowers out of her mouth as another sign of delicacy, also conveying the transformation from Chloris to Flora. To prove to Chloris that the West Wind was sorry for his violence, he married her and declared her Flora, the goddess of flowers. The story of Chloris shows that this painting was meant to celebrate a marriage. The fact that Chloris was not the one to choose who she falls in love with reflects 15th century culture where women had very little control over who they got married to. The painting also reflects marriage and happiness by the large garden of fruit above in the trees, and within the ground being covered in flowers and petals. These flowers also represent fertility, which is relevant as Venus is pregnant.

The flowers as an artist technique also help the figures stand out against the rich backdrop. Botticelli's naturalistic observation of beautifully individually sketched Spring flowers growing from dark lawn beds help towards creating the idea that the figures are performing against a tapestry.

This detail of Botticelli's Primavera represents Cupid, the Roman god of love. Cupid is here portrayed as a winged baby. He is blindfolded and shown in the act of shooting one of his notoriously powerful arrows into the group of Graces who stand, unsuspecting, below him.

Sandro Botticelli The Florentine painter and most esteemed artist in Italy, known for his life size Renaissance paintings such as 'Venus and Mars'. He was given the name Botticelli meaning 'small wine cask' which could suggest great wealth within the family. Throughout the period 1478 – 90 he was at his most creative, producing works such as 'The Birth of Venus' and 'Venus and Mars' pictured below. In these works, the influence of Gothic realism is tempered by Botticelli's study of the antique During the last 15 years of his life, Botticelli's work appeared to undergo a crisis of style and expression. Botticelli had then rejected the ornamental charm of his earlier works in favour of a more simplistic approach that seemed crude and heavy-handed by contrast comparing to the work he once produced.

These later more crude paintings, included deep moral and religious overtones, also suffered a comparison with the sophisticated aesthetic of artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael.

The Birth of Venus. Botticelli – 1486 Another mythological painting by Botticelli which uses symbols is The Birth of Venus is undoubtedly one of the world's most famous and appreciated pieces of work. It has become an element of XV century Italian painting, with so much meaning and allegorical references.

Venus is shown to be emerging from the sea onto a shell aligned with the myth that surrounds her birth.

Her shell is being pushed onto the shore by Gods surrounding her, you can see this by the way their mouths are positioned, also the roses around the canvas are seemed to be heading towards Venus.

As Venus is shown to be stepping onto the sand, another Goddess from the right is shown to be covering her with a cloak.

On the left hand side, a Goddess Is being held by Zephyrus, who is blowing wind, to stop the cloak, being held up by Pomona from covering over Venus's body.

The overall layout is similar to that of the Primavera, with Venus being situated in the middle, also being isolated against the background so that she stands out from the rest of the painting and none of the other figures overlap her. Her head is slightly tilted, and she has a quite awkward position compared to the rest of the figures in the painting.

Much attention was payed to Venus's appearance. Which reflects the artists love for women, through the long golden blonde locks. He also gave Venus an idealized face, with perfectly symmetrical features, also perfect skin with not a single blemish. He has also painted her with a beautiful light skin tone, this also helping Venus to stand out from the background and other characters. Her image could also be a sign of innocence, with no evidence of any make up or modifications done to her body, she could be argued the perfect woman in the 15th century.

Although this image of Venus is nude, she is still showing an aspect of innocence and purity. She is doing this by trying to cover herself like a gesture of modesty.

Around the outside of her body, a dark line has been painted, this makes her milky skin tone more visible and also helps her to stand out from the background more. Botticelli's intention with this is to create the illusion that her skin tone is made from smooth marble stone rather than actual skin.

On the right a female figure who is floating slightly above the ground, the floral pattern on her dress could suggest that she is the Hora of Spring, other predictions is that she is also Floris, due to the flowers on her dress, also on the cloak. She looks quite similar to Venus, with the same long flowing golden locks, she could possibly be aspiring to be her, and her level of beauty.

Many artists around this time period based many of their figure portraits on already existing statues. To the right presented is a statue of Venus created before Botticelli created this artwork, this could in fact where he gained his inspiration from to illustrate Venus in such an elegant way. The statue of Venus shows great similarity to that of the artwork by Botticelli. The way in which the statue is attempting to cover it's modesty with a piece of fabric is similar to how the painting of Venus is, however Venus is using her long hair and not any item of clothing. The statue also appears to have portrayed Venus having perfect smooth skin and an idealized body, which reflects that of Botticelli's work, he has incorporated this factors and recreated them by giving Venus a smooth, one toned skin, with mirroring bodies to the statue.

The time period in which Botticelli's work was the Italian Renaissance. Renaissance means 'rebirth'. For the first time, paintings were giving an illusion of three – dimensions, with solid looking figures in an unified space. This can be reflected through Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, which I have looked at previously. She has been portrayed with a soft black outline to make her stand out from the background, this is also why her skin is seen to be so bright.

Botticelli had been shown to copy the style of the early 15th century portraits, many artists during this time period used such techniques to enable their figures in their paintings to almost look like they're made from stone, such as an airbrushed skin texture, just like Venus. The photograph next to Venus, is called St. George, by Donatello as you can see, the two figures to the right have many similarities.

Throughout the 15th Century, Florence is often described as the main element in the Renaissance.

Florence was Italy's most innovative and productive art center. In the early 15th century is was home to a remarkable group of artists who brought about a revolution in style and set the agenda for much of the following, Masaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, and Brunelleschi in architecture.

For much of the early Renaissance, Rome was also a massive secondary importance, when Rome was Being re-built many artists were attracted to come to the city. The greatest of these artists being Michelangelo and Raphael, these two artists, and Leonardo da Vinci, were responsible for creating the grand High Renaissance style.

Raphael – The School of Athens 1511 –High Renaissance The School of Athens is a painting that crosses both the Renaissance in Florence and the high Renaissance in Rome. The painting represents all the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists gathered together sharing their ideas and learning from each other. These figures all lived at different times, but here they are gathered together under one roof. The figures all hold attributes, or symbols to represent their characters.

The two thinkers in the very centre, Aristotle (on the right) and Plato (on the left, pointing up) have been enormously important to Western thinking generally, and in different ways, their different philosophies were incorporated into Christianity.

Plato points up because in his philosophy the changing world that we see around us is just a shadow of a higher reality that is eternal and not changing. Plato holds his book called the Timaeus.

Aristotle holds his hand down, because in his philosophy, the only reality is the one that we can see and experience by sight and touch.

Aristotle's Ethics, being the book that he is holding "emphasized the relationships, justice, friendship, and government of the human world and the need to study it."

Pythagoras (lower left) believed that the world operated according to mathematical laws. These mathematical laws were related to ideas of musical and cosmic harmony, and to God. Pythagoras taught that each of the planets produced a note as it moved, based on its distance from the earth. Together, the movement of all the planets was perfect harmony, known as "the harmony of the spheres."

Ptolemy (he has his back to us on the lower right), holds a sphere of the earth, next to him is Zoroaster who holds a celestial sphere. Ptolemy tried to mathematically explain the movements of the planets. His theory of how they all moved around the earth remained the authority until Copernicus and Kepler figured out (in the late 16th century) that the earth was not at the center of the universe, and that the planets moved in orbits the shape of ellipses not in circles. Raphael included a self-portrait of himself, standing next to Ptolemy. He looks right out at us.

Venus of Urbino - Italian Renaissance - Titian - 1538 Venus of Urbino is one of the most celebrated of Titian's work. A young woman staring frankly at the beholder painting her, she is naked except from her jewelry, conveying wealth and power, she is seen only wearing a ring, a bracelet and earrings. The roses in her hand allude not only to the Goddess of Venus but the constant of love.

Titians technique earned a reputation for extending the expressive effects of oil painting – especially in his later paintings. He uses thick paint for the effect he gained, the broad areas of colour are offset by crisp details, it is a technique that helps to construct all the picture space.

Titian has created a balanced composition dominated by two diagonal lines, which I have added in to the right. One is formed by Venus and the other by the two maids. Together they create a dynamic cross-like composition. The maids in the background have an important role, counteracting Venus and making her appear the main element of the painting although there are other figures. Similar to this the dog on the right counterbalances the strong point of interest caused

by Venus's face and pose on the left. Venus's face also stands out from the dark of the background due to the darkness of the curtain just behind her. The darkness of the curtain is also balanced by the light sheet in the bottom right corner.

Titian's flesh tones catch the viewers eye, due to the smooth pale tones with that realistic feel to them. The soft white highlights to the rose coloured leg shadow tones create that sensuous allure to the body.

Venus is shown to be holding roses, these roses are associated with Venus, the Goddess of Love. These roses hold a strong deep red colour and a strong tonal contrast. This same colour is repeated in the mattress and in the maid's dress.

Venus's chestnut hair defined in individual strands shimmer in the light, falling very seductively over her shoulders, the hair and the roses create a very erotic charge to the entire painting. The detail in these elements also creates an overall very impressive look and feel to the entire painting.

The story of this nude figure has been debated over the centuries. Roses and the tree were traditional attributes of Venus. The maids in the background that are keeping themselves busy with the subject's clothes, this suggesting that the temporary nakedness of a mortal rather than the ideal nudity of a goddess.

The two maids add a lot of mystery to this painting for me, they're seen to be taking clothes out of a bridal chest. Such chests of these were often painted with erotic scenes similar to this painting.

Critics see this painting as an allegory of martial love have suggested that the maids are involved in their mistresses (Venus) nuptial preparations.

Venus is shown to be staring straight at the viewer, with somewhat of a blank expression. She seems very unconcerned with her nudity, she seems to challenge others, rather than be challenged by. Her face has been painted beautifully, showing depth and tone in the right places, the skin of her face seems to be darker than that of her body, suggesting a light contour across the cheek bones, however she seems as if she is completely bare faced, revealing her whole persona, not being covered up at all by nor make up or clothes.

Masaccio – The Trinity (1401 - 1428) This painting shows the Christian Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Masaccio's interpretation shows how medieval ideas are starting to give way to new ways of thinking and seeing. This painting shows a great deal of symbolism.

This painting offers an illusion of a vaulted ceiling that has been precisely calculated according to mathematical rules of perspective. The intricate grid lines under the plaster can still be seen.

This shows new optimism as God the Father is shown supporting the dead body of Christ as if to raise him up, to deny death and prove existence of an afterlife and rebirth. This new optimism contrasts with the old gloomy depressing dominance of death.

Within this painting there are two life like donors, positioned to the bottom right and left. The kneeling figures are assumed to be Lorenzo Lenzi and his wife. Although they are placed low down in the painting, suggesting they are lower down on the hierarchy, however they are still perceived at the same scale showing some equality. Their lifelike presence shows the view of a man's position in the hierarchy, right at the top in the centre, with the world around him.

Masaccio had modelled the donor's robes with light to create solidarity and weight rather than defining their shape with a flat outline. Their gestures and facial expressions seem very serious and stern and closely observed.

Classical architecture - the setting is based on a study of the classical buildings of Rome, shows the interest the artist had of antiquity. Whilst also showing great wealth in the actual surroundings of the painting.

Masaccio's work was presented on a two dimensional canvas however, due to the sophisticated manor of his work. His mastery of foreshortening is also evident in this painting. This work has been described as "a barrel vault drawn in perspective, divided into squares with rosettes that diminish and which are foreshortened so well that there seems to be a hole in the wall" this suggests that his work in creating a three dimensional piece of work was successful and very effective.

The dove represents the Holy Spirit within this artwork. Masaccio's modern interpretation of the Trinity makes the great mystery more humanly accessible in a world where intellectual and emotional relationships were changing rapidly.

This could perhaps be why the dove is seen to be flying just above the dead body of Christ, representing the Holy Spirit taking his body.

At the bottom of this painting, there is the remains of a corpse that has been decaying over time, this has great relevance in this painting due to the body of Christ being taken by death. Behind the corpse, there appears to be some very faint writing on the wall, perhaps a mystery runs into what that piece of writing actually reads.

Rubens- Peace and War - 1630 Peace and war was created to prevent war against the European nations. In this piece of work, Rubens acts upon ancient Greek and Roman mythological subjects and symbols.

To the far left of the painting are two women traditionally dressed as the followers of Bacchus, a fertility God. One holds a basket full of jewels and cups signifying indulgence in good wines and spirits to celebrate the good things in life.

Next to them is a satyr who holds up fruit for the children and cupid is seen next to him picking up the fruits ready to enjoy, signifying the great things that life has to offer. Below lies a leopard who acts like a domestic cat playing with the vine. It's wild nature is tamed by the events taking place in this scene. It symbolizes the untamed spirit in docility and serenity.

Peace is the main focus within this piece of work and is mainly represented by the person Ceres, the Goddess of the Earth. She is presented squirting milk from her breast into the mouth of Plutus, the God of wealth, represented as a child.

This gesture shows that peaceful relations nurture prosperity amongst the people and that mankind can prosper socially and economically from peace.

Behind Peace and Wealth is the goddess of wisdom, Minerva. She is presented as a soldier holding up a shield to ward off Mars, who is the god of War and Alecto, the fury of war. Minerva protects the scene from potential destruction that looks to break the harmony created.

To the bottom right of the image Rubens paints children as symbols of the future of mankind, as they are the ones who will benefit the most from peace. To the left of the children we see Hymen, god of marriage, who places a wreath upon the head of a girl which comes to represent the prospect of marriage and life and a worthwhile future.

Rubens continues to use his signature composition as this scene lies upon a slanted horizontal plane from right to left. By creating this angle, Rubens was able to add more drama to the image and also more space amongst the figures, to create depth and tone, almost a real feel to the artwork.

The viewer is first drawn to the lighted back of one of Bacchus' followers to the left. Her symbolizes us to Peace. As she looks down we see the feeding Plutus and their arms directs us to the satyr. The satyrs' bold and muscular arm take us to the fruit, whose vines point to the playing leopard. This creates a circular viewing process.

To achieve the rich narrative and dramatic effect present, Rubens uses the most sumptuous colors available. Being an abundance of rich reds, deep browns, golds and greens are used to create the various textures and fabrics and to define emotions within the characters present.

Rubens' choice of colors results in a harmonious piece of work that highly sophisticated. Furthermore, it is evidence of the artist adopting a new technique by using a bold color palette to define depth, volume and natural flow.

Fragonard – The Swing This painting is a fine example of symbolism in an example of Frangonard's work as an independent artist. The theme is playful; a young woman is shown kicking off her shoe in abandon while her lover watches, concealed by the bushes beneath her.

The sunlight was mastered by the pleasing effect of dappled sunlight, illuminating many areas within this painting. This emphasises a seductive style within this painting with emphasis on the lady's youthful beauty and virtuoso handling of dapped light.

Frangonard's technique versatility enabled him to master a variety of different styles of work. Usually, he would use the technique of rapid, fluid brushwork, but in this piece of work he has chosen to paint in unusually fine detail, perhaps influenced by the 17th century Dutch masters.

These trees painted are said to owe more to the artists upbringing and memories of childhood and student years rather than the perception of nature. Frangonard was raised in the flower filled region of Grasse – being the center of the perfume industry. These trees also show great signs of sophisticated professional brushwork as of the bushes.

The slipper flying through the air after being kicked off by the lady is a brilliant touch, adding a focus of visual attention and also sums up the playfulness of the subject.

Rococo in the 17th century Rococo, less commonly Roccoco, or "Late Baroque", is an early to late 18th century French artistic movement and style. Fragonard incorporated this in his work. Artists tended to use a more florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was delicate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold.

However, unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. The interior decoration of Rococo rooms was designed as a total work of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. To the right is an image of the typical Rococo architecture.

The two paintings below are Rococo paintings, they are both similar in the fact that they both stick to the same colour scheme, mostly greens and deep browns, creating an elegant effect. The first painting also has a playful and witty theme, however the second painting seems a lot more serious, less similar to the Rococo design.

The stone statue of Cupid catches the sunlight and seems to have come alive due to this. He is shown to be raising a finger up to his lips as if to warn us of the forbidden secret of the baron hidden in the bushes.

Just below Cupid situates the three graces appearing as a classical relief. In Greek mythology, the Graces were attendants of Venus herself, the Goddess of love.

Fragonard is half hiding them, as if to emphasize his lack of interest in the art of classical antiquity.

The Baron de St. Julien has provided very specific details for the painting. Indicating his misstress he says "Place me in a position where I can observe the legs of that charming girl" this highlights the humor element behind this piece of work.

Fragonard enjoyed adding hidden details to his pieces of work, these details wittily develop the theme of love. The two embracing putti that ride a dolphin are easy to see, but the lap dog beneath them is a lot less easy to find.

The luxuriant curves of the dress, the delicate pastel colours, and the theme of youthful love are essential characteristics of the Rococo style, which deliberately appealed more to the eye than the intellect.

Fragonard has portrayed the females unsuspecting of what is going on husband in deep shadow in the background, whereas a shaft of bright sunlight illuminates the flushed face of the baron. Nevertheless, it is the husband who manipulates the swing, propelling it towards his rival.

William Hogarth – Marriage A La Mode Marriage A La Mode is taken from a series of six pieces of work painted by William Hogarth between 1743-1745 conveying a piece of upper class 18th century society. This moralistic warning shows the disastrous results of an illconsidered marriage for money and satirises patronage and aesthetics. The paintings are exhibited in the National Gallery, London.

To the bottom of the slide are the other five elements of the six set piece of work. They are all painted in a similar manor, similar colour schemes and from a distance, all look very similar. Definitely showing that these six paintings are all from what looks like the same event and building.

The element of these series of work that stands out the most to me is number two, the Tete a Tete, due to the amount of symbolism within.

This painting translates to Shortly after the Marriage, conveying what looks like to be a scene of panic. Within this image are signs that the marriage has already begun to break down.

The husbands and wife's posture and expression suggest that they are already no longer interested in one another, amidst evidence of their separate overindulgences the night before.

A small dog, which could be seen to convey commitment, contradicting the mood of the painting, finds another lady's cap in the husband's coat pocket, indicating his adulterous ventures the previous night before.

A broken sword at the husbands feet also shows that he may have been in a fight, perhaps with his wife the night before, which is why he ventured out with another woman, unfaithfulness is also portrayed within the wife, with her posture, this is due to the fact that in the way she is sat she looks open, just like she treated her relationship.

As Hogarth once noted: "A lock of hair falling thus cross the temples ... has an effect too alluring to be strictly decent, as is very well known to the loose and lowest class of women." This shows also how he has painted the wife, not decent and very loose and open, therefore a lower class woman for cheating on her husband, also explaining his anger within the painting.

The disarray of the house and the servant holding a stack of unpaid bills shows that the affairs of the household are a mess.

Just like their newly married relationship.

I now intend to further develop my exploration into the topic by creating an exhibition focusing on pieces of work involving symbolism that I express great interest in.​ I also intend to further my information of the 15th century and analyze many pieces of artwork from that time period, including that from the Italian Renaissance. I intend to create my own movie style poster with my own technique and develop my knowledge of fonts to include within my design.

These art exhibition posters are all inspiration to me because they're all very effective, they are all very bold and get the point across in one quick glance, short and snappy techniques are always important. Most of the posters also involve a bold title in the middle o f the poster, which stands out from the background. The fonts are used in colours that also contradict the background colour and therefore stand out easily. Many images on these posters are also overlapping, which gives a more modern and professional technique to the poster. The background of overlapping images also include relevant pictures in order to draw the viewer in, the important information is also included in a professional manor such as the dates and times and also the whole topic of the exhibition. When creating my own poster I will make sure to include many of these elements in order to create a successful exhibition poster.

As I'm looking at popular movie posters, I notice that they all are very similar in many ways, similar to art exhibition posters also. The movie posters mostly all involve a full cover of either the main character/characters of the film, or something that highly represents the film, with the font overlapping the image, but not stopping the image from standing out in such a way. All of the backgrounds also usually involve something to not take the attention away from the character or title, such as smoke, light or fire etc. Not things like patterns with bright colours which will draw people's attention away from the main element of the poster.

When creating my art exhibition poster I will look closely to all the designs of these posters as they are similar in a way, they all use contradictory colours in the title and background to make the writing stand out, also contradictory colours in the background itself, such a blue and red next to each other. Also, I like the effect of two or more images making up a picture or a face, such as the Avatar poster, with two faces blended together to make one.

This exhibition poster has a very powerful meaning, all the small squares of pictures each bring across an individual meaning, portraying what is on offer at the art exhibition I presume. At the top right hand corner the poster is made up of a series of faces, all lined up in a certain way, to create the illusion of one face within many. This is a very professional technique to use, and gives an overall impressive first impression of the art exhibition. To the right you can see a collage made from parts of a face, this is the intention I believe the creator of the exhibition poster had.

The contrast of colours within the poster also create an impressive look to the design, they're all cool toned colours and create a dusky feel to the work.

At the top they begin a cool faded purple colour, then fade to navy blue to green to grey.

However, due to the complicity of the design, the writing is quite small at the bottom, meaning instead of noticing the true meaning behind the poster, the designer of the poster should've in my opinion, made the font a bit more bold and larger, so the viewers eyes are drawn to it, this is what I will make sure to do when creating my own exhibition poster.

I also like the idea of this art exhibition poster to the left, due to the fact that it is similar to that above, my poster will include an almost cut and paste feel of different pieces of work to indicate the feel of the exhibition in just one image. This also gives the poster a more exciting feel to it, rather than it just being one flat image, adding a few images makes the poster more eye catching and interesting looking.

This posters artwork illustration was created by Roy Lichenstein, his famous pop art style of work was use to promote the art of the 60s exhibition. Roy Lichenstein was very popular around the time period of the 1960's so he was the most relevant. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied.

Although, in the early 1960s, Lichtenstein was often casually accused of merely copying his pictures from cartoons, his method involved some considerable alteration of the source images.

The imagery chosen for the poster is also very relevant I believe due to the face that the speech bubble references a studio, similar to what the poster is advertising. I believe that the font used for the speech bubble is SEGOE UI LIGHT in capitals and italics due to the fact that it is quite tall and thin, adding a real dramatic tone to what she is thinking and the overall image. Furthermore, her hair is made out of words in small and large fonts, I believe this is also a powerful technique to use, creating that extra bit of needed detail. I intend to use aspects like this in my poster design along with the collage effect to make the most detailed design properly.

I believe this image was chosen to represent an art museum due to the fact that it is very eye-catching, seeing this around would draw in people's attention due to the bright colours, the stippling used within the face and skin gives a very pop art feel to the piece of work – in which Lichenstein was famous for. Also, although the background is quite bright, the figure stands out dramatically in front of it which I think helps the overall boldness of the piece of work. I intend to create my poster in a similar way, eye catching and bold, with the correct contradicting colours, not necessarily pop art however.

To begin with in creating my initial poster design, I chose to base it around the Goddess Venus as this is the most relevant to my analyses. Firstly, I decided I wanted to remove the background of this image, to make the main focus Venus herself. To do this, I highlighted the image using the quick selection tool, when the image was highlighted I then pressed Ctrl X to remove the background. To the right is what the image looked like after the background is removed. The next step for me was to then turn the image black and white, which I did by pressing Ctrl + Alt + J. I think the black and white effect looked ore professional, and the font was more likely to stand out against a monochrome image.

After this I also turned the background black instead of white, then cropped the image to ensure that the main focus is the face rather than Venus's hair. I did this by selecting the background and then changing the forecolour. This was a useful step due to the fact that the font I am adding is in white, and I didn’t want it to fade into the background at all.

Next, I created my word art font on a website called "WordItOut" which allowed me to paste my own words into a generator, it then creates font art, making some words bigger and some smaller, I then manipulated the font into one suitable, and changed the colour to white.

The words I included were taken from one of my analysis on Venus, I included words such as innocence, perfect, beautiful, modesty and blonde. In the middle of the word art I included 'Venus' in large font so that the main element of the poster is clear without actually reading any of the other smaller words.

Here is the same word art image in Photoshop, which I created a new layer for, my next step was to then drag this image across onto the layer with Venus in monochrome on. I needed more than one layer of this, so I made sure to duplicate it as many times as I needed, to the right there is a list of how many layers there were, you can also see the background layers with Venus on. Below are my final posters, I added over twelve of the word arts to overlap on the images to fill the whole poster up. Furthermore I intend to add a large bold font over the top, and a glitch also just underneath the font, to create a more sophisticated approach to my poster design.

To the left is one of my final poster designs, this is my preferred one, I believe this is because I added the font around the background and the hair rather than the face, this has a positive effect because it is not blocking out Venus's facial features like my other design is. This way her expression and emotion is presented and looks more professional. On the other hand my poster to the right holds mystery, due to the fact that Venus's facial expression is unknown. This poster's words are also difficult to read, due to how overlapped and overcrowded they are, and they're on a light gray background, meaning they do not stand out as much as the other posters, which are on black.

This film poster appealed to me due to the bright glitch effect in the center. Adding a bright element to the poster right in the middle draws the attention towards this image, intriguing people in with bright and bold colours like these enable more people to view the poster. In my poster design I intend to use a similar colour scheme, especially blues and reds. These are the brightest contradicting colours and stand out well against each other. This overall allows the poster to be very eye catching.

The imagery of the main character behind the glitched triangle is shown in an almost monochrome effect, this is good because if colours were added into her, it would take most of the focus away from the glitch. This would be a weakness to the poster due to the fact that it would be too bright, the overall poster would be messy and not straight to the point.

The title of the film, situated at the bottom of the poster, could however I believe be slightly bigger, the font is not as bold as it could be, leading to it not being able to be read from a distance, to improve this factor on my poster I will ensure that the font is big enough and bold enough to be read from a distance. The poster also doesn't include a whole lot of relevant information about the film like normal movie posters do, such as elements to expect during the film, in my poster I will ensure I add these at the bottom of the poster in a small font to not remove the attention from the main aspect. Parts of the fonts on this poster do not also stand out against the background, for example a small portion of the title at the bottom does not stand out. When creating my poster I will ensure to use the correct fonts against the backgrounds.

Firstly, I have taken the Allegory of Vanity produced in 1632 by Antonio De Pereda, and on Photoshop, I have taken an image of a glitch, my intention was to overlap these images in a way to make the Allegory of Vanity look glitches and distorted.

To begin with, I added each picture onto Photoshop, each on a different layer, so if I were to click on the eye tool, one layer would disappear, and I would be left with the original image. This came In very handy when showing the process in which I created the glitched painting. Of the glitch image above, I reduced the opacity of it to 40, so it would be slightly more see-through and allow for the original image to show through quite nicely. Below my first layer, the glitch, presents the hue/saturation setting. My next step was to manipulate the saturation to make the image all over blue, this adds to the glitch effect and gives the overall image a very different look.

Without the lines the glitch looked rather blocky, like it hadn’t been blended in properly. The placement of these layers in my digital work is a key element within the image as it ensures the image looks fully touched up and professional. To create the lines over the image I duplicated the background layer which is the painting, and created another vector layer for the line work. To create the actual lines, I went to filter gallery, which there are many different effects and filters to choose from, the filter then adds to the current layer present, It does not create a separate layer for itself, which was handy in the long run.

Now that my image is blue, I used the eye symbol to remove the glitch so I could display the process a bit more clear. The small box to the right shows my three layers, one being just the glitch, one the saturation/hue set to blue, and the other the original painting and and layer effect that I had added to make the image appear more of a glitch, to make the image overall more put together.

I chose the Allegory of Vanity as my picture to distort because this painting is already a mystery to me, due to the many hidden messages within the painting which are specially unfocused on within the image, so adding the glitch effect really added to the overall mystery of this painting.

Overall I'm pleased with the turn out of this Glitch effect poster, as I believe it represents an actual glitch quite well, and you can still see the original image, and also the colours are shining through over the blue of the original glitch image, but very faintly, so they don’t overpower the whole image with colour, just a subtle hint. I believe this is very effective.

I used blue to represent the colour of the glitch as this is the most common colour, this and red, you would expect a glitch to be, I also made sure the background was still black so the whole image was not over powered blue.

This font for an art exhibition poster would be perfect, especially for my glitch effect poster, due to the font being pixelized, it fits in quite well with the whole glitched design, as it looks glitched itself. The bottom glitched font is also effective, but can be hard to interpret and read, so on my glitched poster I intend to use the top one.

This font for my exhibition poster may be appropriate for my first poster design including Venus and the writing making up her background. I chose this font due to its boldness. As there is already writing over the image, a font that easily stands out is needed. This font differs from the existing fonts over the image so adds a nice effect and does not blend in.

This next font however, is a similar design to that of above, however is a bit too thin for the poster I will be applying it onto. It may not stand out as much as needed or be as easy to read due to its thickness.

This next font is relevant to my analysed paintings as it is named 'Renaissance' I used the website 'DaFont' to find it. It has a very old fashioned almost Italian renaissance feel to it as well meaning that it is relevant to use on my poster/booklet designs.

This font is also effective due to the first letter. Any capitalised letter turns to a square image with an embellished version of the letter inside it, this was also very common during the Italian Renaissance period. The font is easy to read and is bold enough to be able to read from a distance too.

Exhibition Room Design Inspiration Before I consider creating my own exhibition room , I am doing some research into real art exhibition rooms and different elements within.

When creating my exhibition design, I will ensure to keep it as minimalistic as possible, I believe this has a good effect because as the surroundings are quite basic, the pieces of art around will shine and stand out a whole lot more. The open roof in these images is also very effective I believe, because of the light shining through, in an art gallery, lighting is an important element, and natural light is the best. These images also contain spot lights for when it is dark outside.

These rooms look overall very neat and tidy, clean and professional. There is also a lot of space so the area is not restricted at all.

I intend to involve elements like this in my exhibition, also with bright walls and flooring. The white walls and light wooden flooring also help to remain the room in a light state. If the walls were dark, the sunlight wouldn’t have such a good effect.

The paintings around the walls are laid out well too. They're the correct distance apart and at eye level. In my exhibition design this is a crucial step in creating the best room possible for the viewers. The area also looks incredibly clean and sharp, I will include this in my design also.

Second Exhibition Design Inspiration When searching for exhibition designs, this one caught my eye because it is quite different to the norm. This involves a very dark room, in which the artwork is projected onto screens, and on TVs', also, any written artwork is on the walls with LED lights shining down on it. This is a very effective room design, I will incorporate aspects like this in creating another room design, the complete opposite of the first one. The paintings will stand out due to the LED lights, and the other aspects of the room are darkened out with dimmed lights and dark floors and walls. This way the projected artwork is able to shine into the wall.

The overall layout is good too, there is a lot of walking space and clear areas. The floors are tidy and clean as well. However, if I was designing this room I would ensure that there were a lot more seated facilities, as everything is spaced apart with no seats or refreshments.

Another aspect I do like that I will be using in my design is the writing on the wall explaining the artwork instead of there just being artwork with no explanation. This gives an in depth explanation of the artist, their other work and the meaning behind the picture.

Wallpaper and floor ideas for my exhibition Here are all the potential minimalistic wooden floors that I have to choose from for my exhibition, as you can see, most of them would be too dark, this is because I want to enable my artwork to stand out a lot more than anything else in the room, so I will keep wall and floor designs to a minimum, also furniture. To the right is the floor design I went with I chose this one due to the fact that it is quite light, and will keep the entire room quite bright also, which is the aim. I also think this floorboard would be effective because all the boards are not going in the same direction, so it creates a non-flat effect with the floor. If they were all just one flat colour they could run the risk of blending into the walls, creating a very tedious looking room.

For the wall paper on the other hand, I wanted that flat effect, so that the paintings that are hanging on the wall stand out, and don’t fade into the background, or even clash with the bright or patterned colours of the walls. Due to that factor, all of the patterned wallpapers were completely ruled out for me. Instead, I was aiming towards one flat colour.

Quite naturally, I opted for a white wall because I am aiming to achieve a minimalistic design for my exhibition. Any bright or even dull colours on the walls may clash with the artwork. However, I was hesitant, as I didn’t want the room to look too dull, but I thought with some bright spot lights and white walls a nice professional effect will be created.

Here I have started to create my exhibition design on floor planner. To begin with all I have done is ensured the walls are white, added a minimalist wooden floor, which I will lighten later, and added some doors and windows where the artwork will not hang.

To the right is my floor plan in 2D, I have added an extra few rooms to my design, a bathroom for facilities and a foyer, just before you enter the main art exhibition room. As you can see I have also lightened the wooden floor so the room looks overall lighter. In the actual exhibition room I have places three benches in attempt to space out the room a little bit, so it is not just an empty room with paintings. I have added the same sort of doors to and from the exhibition rooms, these are large white open doors as they'll help to create an open space feel to the room, adding more natural lighting to the room.

To the bottom right is the complete exhibition without the paintings on the wall. I decided to stick to one large hall for all the paintings so there was no confusion on which paintings were in which room.

My next step is to, on photoshop, add some of my relevant pieces of work to the walls of the exhibition. To the right I have added some pieces of art to my exhibition, to do this, on photoshop I had to isolate each piece of artwork on different layers. Then, I dragged each image across to my plain exhibition room.

I then cropped the images according to size to fit onto the wall. Because they didn’t blend well onto the wall like this, and just looked placed there, I skewed the images with the transform tool so they looked like they were actually placed on the wall. With the pieces of art I chose, I tried to remain to a Venus theme throughout, so all paintings linked well.

Within this exhibition design I have also tried to incorporate parts of my inspiration exhibition's that I had a look at.

I have tried to stick to a minimalist design which I believe was successful, due to the fact that the paintings majorly stand out against the plain white walls and bright wooden flooring.

However, this design is very plain, and could be improved, when creating a second exhibition design, I intend to section off the rooms of the gallery to spread things out a bit, have one piece of work on the wall with a small explanation below it.

To the right is my next exhibition design layout, I have included many more rooms in this design so space out the paintings a lot more, so appropriate paintings can go to appropriate rooms. The second image is the same layout however with doors included, I made sure when creating this that no rooms would be cut off, ensuring that the doors were an appropriate space apart and did not overlap. I also made sure that they were at the correct measurements apart and therefore looked symmetrical from an overhead view like this one. In creating my booklet I intend to use these room plans so explain to the viewers which rooms are which.

This is what my exhibition plan looks like in 3D, at the moment, the floor and walls are still quite white, I intend to change them to a much gloomier colour to let the paintings stand out with LED lighting.

In designing my second exhibition idea, I decided to go for a more dark themed room, to achieve this I have added a dark wooden floor.

However, I intend to leave the walls remaining white, this way the paintings still have something to stand out against, this is due to the fact that many of the paintings I have chosen for my exhibition are quite dark based, meaning they will not stand out very well against a dark wall as well, so opting for a white wall will solve this issue. I have added dark black see through doors to add to the gloomy effect too, as looking through them will make the following rooms appear gloomy, which is the effect I am going for.

Furthermore, when creating my booklet design for my exhibition, I intend to use this design rather than the first one.

To the right is the 2D design of my exhibition room, here I have added two sofas in what is the foyer room so that visitors have some accomidation. I also am pleased with the way that the rooms look, due to the fact that they don't just look blocky and placed there, this is how I believe the walls looked on my previous exhibition design.

Here is my finished exhibition design with all the pieces of art on the wall. I am overall pleased with this design as the paintings do stand out from the dark walls, however spot lights would work well too.

To add the artwork to the walls I had to add the unfinished exhibition design to photoshop, then individually add the artwork one by one to the image, crop and resize to fit the walls, then skew them to make them look as if they're actually hanging on the walls.

To the right are some close up images of my exhibition room, the artwork is skewed nicely to fit the wall looking like theyre actually hung there.

Booklet Analysis Cover The top two images are of a booklet that I have researched from the internet. The overall layout of the poster is sophisticated I believe, however to improve upon it I would have ensured that the title and purpose is more obvious. This is due to the fact that the font Is hard to read and is quite small, I would enlarge this when creating my own booklet design. I will also ensure that I use a clear font that is bold and fits the purpose of the booklet, so everything is relevant. Inside the booklet which is presented on the photo on the right of the two, Is effective as it explains where and what paintings are situated in the rooms of the exhibition. I will incorporate a similar design when creating the pages inside my booklet. I will ensure that the booklet inside is clear and insightful, so the visitors can navigate their way around the exhibition easily and correctly.

This second art exhibition booklet design is more effective that the top one in my opinion this is because it is simple and easy to establish. When creating my own booklet I will incorporate elements such as the ones in this bottom booklet.

The font of the title is effective because it is so bold and to the point, unlike the first booklet it is large enough to read from a distance and gives a clear indication what the booklet is about. The four paintings presented quite small at the bottom of the booklet is also a good aspect as it gives an insight to what work will be at the exhibition, I will use a design similar to this when creating my own booklet.

Booklet Pages Analysis

This image is the first and second pages inside the booklet. These two pages will be giving you information about the exhibition, and some of the artists within. Maybe also some information about the person who created the exhibition.

The way in which this example booklet is laid out is similar to how I would like to lay out my booklet, with a page alone of the piece of artwork, and the page next to it explaining about the piece of work, including the artist, time period, and maybe some background information. However, the page on the right with this information looks a little plain, when creating my own I intend to create more interesting information sheets, with big headings and an interesting font to keep the reader intrigued.

Within my booklet design in and outside of the book, I intend to keep the design to the plain side and quite minimalistic so that it reflects the design of my exhibition. I intend to stick to a white clean looking theme, so that the writing and the paintings stand out well, and the background does not clash. However, I do intend to use interesting intriguing fonts to keep the viewer interested, while including interesting and relevant information about the artist also.

Booklet Front Cover Design

To begin with I took the painting 'The Birth of Venus' by Botticelli to use for the front of my exhibition booklet, which I will later edit in photoshop to create a water colour like effect over the center of the image, where Venus is standing.

After this, i changed the filter of the image by going to Filter in the top menu, then to 'Stylise' then finally to 'Find Edges' this reverted the colours to black and white and sharpened the edges.

I then created a new layer in which I added multiple effects to the original image to create a mosaic kind of effect. From the filter list on the right hand side, I selected 'Cut out', 'Dry Brush' and 'Palette Knife'. These three effects combined helped me to achieve that old fashioned mosaic effect that I wanted for my front cover of my booklet. As well as this I then merged this final image with the sharpened black and white layer.

Next, I added a layer on top of that image, which can be removed with the brush tool to reveal the image underneath. To the right is a screenshot of the drop down menu in brush tools, using this feature I was able to select a variety of brushes to paint over the blank screen to reveal the image in different effects.

To begin with, I added the mosaic effects all at 100%, which is why the first two images below look so sharp and firmly shadowed. I believe however, the final three designs along the bottom row are more effective, as there are still elements of the original image. The brush tools I used also look more smooth and not blocky like the first two. The last design (the largest image) is the one I will be taking forward to use on the front of my booklet, this is because it smoothly transitions from the background into the artwork without any rough edges.

Final Booklet Pages

Booklet pages

This will be the last page of my booklet, on the back cover, this is due to the fact it is explaining where everything is, I will include the names of the paintings and the artist directly next to the artwork within the booklet. I am including this as the last page as it will just be a helpful guide for people visiting the gallery for the first time.