Those who observe the depictions of Venus and Madonna in Renaissance paintings, immediately notice that there is a common motif to the artistic representations of these two mythological female figures. This motif is being concerned with the celebration of one of the foremost feminine virtues – fertility.
In its turn, this can be explained by the fact that, even though that, formally speaking, the Greco-Roman antiquity’s aesthetic ideals and the theological postulates of Catholicism do not quite correlate, they nevertheless reflect the innermost workings of the same Faustian (Western) psyche, which has always been known to celebrate sexuality, as the driving force of existence.1
One of the most famous depictions of Venus (Roman goddess of love and passion) is being associated with Titian’s painting ‘Venus with a Mirror’. In this painting, we get to observe a beautiful blond woman looking at her reflection in the mirror.
However, it can hardly escape anyone’s attention that Titian’s Venus appears to be slightly plump. This is because, in full accordance with Greco-Roman tradition, Renaissance artists never assessed the notion of a female beauty in terms of a ‘thing in itself’. That is, they appraised the aesthetic subtleties of a woman’s bodily appeal, as such that reflected her ability to give birth to healthy children.
And, as physicians are being well aware of – the skinnier a particular woman happened to be, the more difficulties she will be experiencing at childbirth. Therefore, there is nothing too surprising about the fact that Renaissance painters never used skinny models – for them, the idea that female beauty could be discussed outside of what account for the woman body’s reproductive functions, simply did not make any sense.2
This, of course, does confirm the validity of an idea that Titian’s Venus may indeed be referred to as a fertile role model, which glorifies the earlier mentioned virtue of womanhood.
Therefore, the fact that this painting also features one of the two Cupids trying to place a wreath on Venus’s head (another one is holding the mirror), has a strongly defined symbolical significance. Apparently, Titian wanted viewers to consider the possibility that it is a specifically women’s ability to ensure the spatial continuation of humankind, which represents a true measure of their existential worth.
The earlier suggestion’s validity can also be illustrated in regards to the painting ‘Venus and Cupid’ by Battista Dossi. The first thing that immediately comes in sight, about this painting, is the fact that there are strongly defined erotic undertones to it.3
For example, contrary to what used to be the 16th century’s conventions of a female modesty (as well as contemporary ones), with her left hand Venus exposes her bare breast. This, of course, was meant to emphasize the fact that Venus’s godliness is being reflective of her physiological constitution of a woman, capable of breastfeeding.
There is, however, even more – Venus’s dress is being jammed between her legs in such a manner that, despite that fact that the lower part of her body is being concealed, the audience’s male-members cannot help imagining Venus naked.
What also adds rather considerably to the strengthening of this painting’s fertility-related overtones is that Cupid (who throws ‘love arrows’ in men and women’s hearts – hence, causing them to fall in love with each other), appears to be asking for Venus’s ‘blessing’ to proceed with doing what he does the best.
Given the fact that, as it was pointed out earlier, Dossi’s Venus clearly emanates the feminine virtue of fertility, this can have only one meaning – the artist wanted to promote the idea that a true love between the representatives of opposite genders must always result in the sexual copulation.
Moreover, Dossi appears to have also wanted to encourage viewers to think that without sex (which presupposes women’s fertility) there can be no civilization. This is exactly the reason why his painting’s background features a distant town (society) and sea-vessels (trade).
There can be few doubts as to the fact that, as it is being the case with the earlier discussed paintings of Titian and Dossi, Lorenzo Lotto’s ‘Venus and Cupid’ is also being concerned with the celebration of women’s sexual powers, which women would not have possessed if they were not fertile.4
The logic behind this conclusion is quite apparent – the very appearance of Venus naked body in this painting, suggests that she is ripe for sexual consummation and consequently – childbirth. For example, there is an undeniable firmness to Venus’s breasts, which implies that her sensual pleasures from having sex would be particularly intense.
The adequate width of her hips also points out to the fact that, while giving birth, she will not be experiencing much of a pain. This is the reason why Lotto depicted his Venus holding a bridal wreath – apparently, he also tended to think of a female virtuousness in essentially reproductive terms.5
The validity of this statement appears especially obvious in the light of Cupid pissing on Venus’s bridal wreath, as there is a symbolic significance to it – Lotto wanted to emphasize Venus’s female virtuousness a subject to male-fertilization.
Therefore, we can well conclude that, just as were the previously mentioned Renaissance artists, Lotto was an ardent advocate of a Greco-Roman idea that the measure of just about any woman’s worth should be explored within the context of her varying ability to live up to the physiological and societal purposes of her existence.
Even though that, formally speaking, Antonio da Correggio’s ‘Madonna del Latte’ is supposed to glorify Jesus’ mother Mary, on the account of her ‘virginal purity’, there can be few doubts that the actual themes and motifs, contained in this painting, only formally relate to the Christian fable of the ‘immaculate conception’.6
There are a number of reasons for us to believe that this is indeed being the case. For example, contrary to the iconographic tradition of depicting Saint Mary, Correggio’s Madonna does not appear even slightly sad. Quite on the opposite – she is depicted not just smiling, but smiling in an undeniable sensual manner.
One cannot help but to consider a possibility that, while sucking on his mother’s nipple, child-Jesus was causing her to experience the sensation of a sexual arousal.
This, of course, does not allow viewers to think about Correggio’s depiction of Madonna, as such that emanates a scholastically defined ‘holiness’, but rather the physiological holiness of Saint Mary being young, beautiful and fertile woman, who enjoys the happiness of a motherhood.
Hence, the apparent ‘heresy’ of this particular painting – if Madonna could enjoy the process of breastfeeding Jesus, what is the reason for us to believe that she could not have enjoyed having her vagina penetrated by whoever ‘made’ Jesus? The implications of this ‘heresy’ for the fable of the ‘immaculate conception’ are self-evident.
Therefore, despite being formally religious, Correggio’s ‘Madonna del Latte’ can be best defined as a thoroughly humanistic art-piece, which promotes the idea that it is only those people who, due to some religious considerations, on their part, actively strive to suppress their absolutely natural desires and inclinations, which can be considered true sinners.7
When we take a closer look at Francesco Parmigianino’s painting ‘Madonna with the Long Neck’, it will also appear that there is very little traditional Christian spirit in this piece of art. One of the reasons I consider this to be the case, because it was specifically Parmigianino’s desire to depict the Madonna particularly graceful, which prompted him to work on this painting, in the first place – hence, Madonna’s swan-like neck.8
There is, however, only one reason for women to aspire to look graceful – it increases the strength of their sexual appeal to men. Therefore, by having presented Madonna as a particularly graceful woman, Parmigianino subtly implied that it is namely on the account of her amazing looks that she needs to be admired, rather than on the account of having brought Jesus to this world.
In its turn, this partially explains why Parmigianino intentionally depicted baby-Jesus in a rather grotesque manner – apparently, the artist wanted to dramatize the effect of Madonna’s physical beauty.
The same line of reasoning can be applied, when the explanation of why Parmigianino had made a point in emphasizing Madonna’s bodily curves, is being concerned – he strived to represent Jesus’ mother, as a woman well capable of providing our Savior with little brothers and sisters.
Thus, it will not be much of an exaggeration to suggest that, just as it being the case with the earlier analyzed paintings, Parmigianino’s ‘Madonna with the Long Neck’ promotes the ‘politically-incorrect’ idea that it is namely fertility, which constitutes the womanhood’s foremost virtue.
Footnotes
1 Susan Greenwood, Anthropology of Magic (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2009), 53.
2 Neil Haughton. “Perceptions of Beauty in Renaissance Art.” Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 3.4 (2004): 231.
3 Scott Schaefer. “Battista Dossi’s ‘Venus and Cupid’.” Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin 74.320 (1978): 20.
Contemporary residential premises are characterized by enclosed structures. Housing architecture is replete with security features differentiating it from other forms of urban architecture. In addition, contemporary architecture pays attention to entrances, which are used to control outsiders’ access to the premises (Harvey 2005, 14).
The gated community and other issues in contemporary society elicit different reactions from different individuals. One such individual is director Rodrigo Pla. The director expresses his views regarding these developments through the film La Zona. The movie is a reflection of the gated community and other contemporary phenomena in Mexican cities.
The rate of crime in Mexican cities is high and a gated community is perceived to be the only solution to the problem (Mullings 2012, 421). The gated community phenomenon emerged in early 1970s. According to Caldeira (2007), a gated community is “a residential premise that has its entrance strictly controlled to protect the insiders from the outside violence” (p.17).
The author of this paper will provide a critical analysis of the movie La Zona with regard to the contemporary issues described above. The author will first provide a synopsis of the movie to give the reader an idea of what the movie is about. The illustration of the gated community and other contemporary issues in the movie will be critically analyzed.
A Critical Analysis of the Movie
Synopsis
La Zona is a depiction of events that took place in La Zona, a residential community. The movie illustrates the security measures taken by members of this residential community. In addition to the concrete wall surrounding the residential premises, barbed wires were used to increase security.
The residential premises are fitted with security cameras, which monitor the area for any suspicious activities (Judd 2009, 18). However, these extreme security measures were compromised one windy day. On this particular day, a billboard fell on the walls and demolished them.
The demolished walls exposed the gated community to the surrounding poverty-stricken community (Berman 2007, 29).
Three robbers from the slums took advantage of the security breach to rob residents of the La Zona community. Individuals from the surrounding community felt that the fortified homes contained valuable items, which they could steal. Members of the la Zona community felt that their properties are protected from members of the surrounding poor community (Susser 2009, 14).
Many anthropologists contend that gated communities negatively affect the whole community (Stack 2004, 24). Such scholars as Susser (2009) use the term ‘enclave’ (p.14) to describe this phenomenon. The poor are separated from the ‘others’ by fortified homes owned by the rich people. The segregation is based on the perception that the poor are a threat to the property and life of the rich people (Vincentia 2003, 41).
Under the direction of Rodrigo Pla, la Zona addressed various issues characterizing the social aspect of urban life across the world. Mexico is one of the countries in the world where gated communities are used to separate the rich people from the poor (Holston 2009, 51).
The segregation in the city is one of the reasons why Rodrigo used Mexico City to depict these contemporary phenomena in his movie. The various issues characterizing urban life are critically analyzed in subsequent sections of this paper.
A Critical Analysis of the Urban Issues Addressed in the Movie
Neo-Liberalism and Privatization
The surrounding slums are occupied by poor people struggling to make ends meet. The existence of the poor brings to fore an important aspect of contemporary urban life, which is neo-liberalism and privatization. The movement started in USA in the early 90s.
It later spread to other parts of the world (Wilsons 2007, 37). Most urban problems are brought about by neo-liberalism and privatization (Neckerman 2007, 49). Neo-liberalism holds that “anything that is not privatized is unpromising” (Caldeira 2007, p.91).
Such public utilities as education, healthcare, and security are privatized. In la Zona, neo-liberalism and privatization are vividly captured when the three robbers access the private premises. Two of them are killed and dumped into the city garbage truck. What this implies is that the poor are not protected by the law. On the contrary, the law appears to protect only the rich people (Caldeira 2006, 72).
In the 1980s, neo-liberalism policy in the US favored the rich people at the expense of the poor. 90% of the citizens lost a considerable amount of their income. At the same time, the income of the remaining 10% increased by more than 50%.
Inequality, which is closely related to neo-liberalism, has encroached into contemporary society. Inequality is clearly evident in the movie. Slum dwellers languish in poverty as the rich people continue to accumulate wealth (Marcuse 2011, 702).
The rich people are not aware of the problems faced by the poor. For instance, when the two thieves are killed, the police are bribed to drop the charges against the killers.
The rich people are only interested in their property and safety. The poor are left to take care of themselves. Inequality leads to job scarcity, which pushes the poor into crime (Dobriner 2008, 19).
The Rise of Homeowners’ Associations
As a result of insecurity, home owners’ associations have established communities favoring individuals from a particular socio-economic class in the society. In the movie, gates protect the rich people from the outside world. There is no interaction between the rich people and the poor.
The residents have to abide by the rules and regulations set by the associations. The segregation is illustrated in the film by a golf park from where the residents view the slums surrounding the secured premises (Caldeira 2007, p.95).
Rodrigo Pla uses characters to express grievances of the poor in the community. For instance, Alejandro’s family does not understand what made the three robbers to steal. They kill two of the thieves, leading to a heated argument between the family members. Alejandro’s father killed the two thieves with the help of a guard. The family does not agree with the action the father has taken (Caldeira 2007, p.99).
In the film, everyone needs to control the security of their home. For instance, panic buttons, cameras, as well as barbed wires are used for control. The homes reflect the situation in the third world countries where the rich people live in houses that are besieged by the slum dwellers (Saskia 2011, 21).
Gated Communities in Mexico
The rate of crime has increased in many Mexican cities. There is fear that the situation is getting out of control. Several options are proposed to address the situation. Gated communities appear to be the most preferred option compared to other proposed solutions. Members of the rich community are afraid of the outside world. They opt to fortify their premises to protect them from the increasing rate of crime (Marshalls 2005, 29).
Addressing the insecurity problem is difficult for the rich people. They believe that the only way out is to establish fortified residential premises (Saskia 2011, 31). The ‘jail-like’ homes are equipped with sophisticated security features, such as panic buttons, uniformed guards, and surveillance cameras (Holston 2009, 42).
The phenomenon is vividly captured in La Zona. For instance, the collapsed walls made it possible for the three thieves to access la Zona. The gated community phenomenon poses several challenges to urban life in general (Sennett 2004, 59). The challenges are clearly captured in the movie.
Problems Arising from Gated Communities
Fragmentation
Fragmentation occurs when low earning individuals come together to reside in such cheap places as slums where social amenities are inadequate. New home owners opt to acquire a home within a gated community. Home owners’ associations have come up with such homes, which are targeted at individuals with a considerable amount of income.
The associations have nothing to offer the low income earners, which leads to fragmentation of public resources (Saskia 2011, 42). Such fragmentation is evident in la Zona. The rich people are separated from the poor.
Social Interaction
Social interaction is considerably low within the gated communities compared to the slums. In the film, one of the residents in La Zona accidently shoots a guard. The shooting indicates that members of the gated community are less concerned with the welfare of their neighbors compared to slum dwellers.
The guard was patrolling the premises to keep the intruders at bay (Marshalls 2005, 72). However, the situation in both the gated community and the slums is similar. Residents from both localities have violated the law.
The thieves trespassed on private property while the members of the gated community killed them. Members of the gated community behaved like the slum dwellers, indicating that both parties are the same. Their similarities are separated by a thick wall, as well as wealth and poverty.
Studies conducted in this field found that residents in gated communities would rather ask a guard to ask children to stop playing in the lawn than initiate the act themselves (Stack 2004, 81). Such findings show that members of the gated communities are afraid of other people within their own community (Marcuse 2011, 22).
The situation poses a challenge to the community given that whenever an issue arises, the members are unable to tackle it together. In the film, residents killed the thieves and bribed the police officers (Stack 2004, 81).
Policing the Gated Communities
Police officers patrolling the gated communities are meant to protect the interests of the residents. For instance, they have guns to intimidate robbers. Additionally, they have their own laws, which give them the freedom to do whatever they want. However, the safety of the perceived ‘safe community’ was compromised when the perimeter wall collapsed in la Zona.
What this means is that the issue of insecurity can only be tackled effectively by bringing together all members of the community (Clark 2006, 28). The poor and the rich people should come together to address the issue (Certeau 2004, 24).
Conclusion
The author of the paper critically analyzed the film la Zona in relation to the gated community and other issues in contemporary urban society. The gated community is a threat to urban life with regard to safety and development.
Measures put in place to boost security cannot be fully relied on. As a result, urbanization should be accompanied by equality to prevent crime, which in most cases results from segregation.
Reference List
Berman, Marshall. All that is Solid Melts into Air. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.
Caldeira, Teresa. “Building up Walls: The New Pattern of Spatial Segregation.” International Social Science Journal 10, no 147 (2006): 55-59.
Caldeira, Teresa. City of Walls: Crime Segregation and Citizenship. Berkley: University of California Press, 2007.
Certeau, Michael. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Clark, Titus. The Painting of the Modern Man. Princeton. N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006.
Dobriner, William. The Suburban Community. New York: Putman’s Sons, 2008.
Harvey, David. Consciousness and the Urban Experience: Studies in History and Theory of Capitalist Urbanization. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Holston, James. The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of Brasilia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Judd, Dennis. The Rise of the New Walled Cities. London: Sage Publications, 2009.
Marcuse, Paul. “Dial City: A Muddy Metaphor for Quartered City.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 1, no. 13 (2011): 697-708.
Marshalls, Hulk. Citizenship and Social Class: In Class, Citizenship, and Social Development. New York: Doubleday, 2005.
Mullings, Benard. “Investing in Public Housing and Racial Discrimination: Implications in the 1990s.” Journal of the Urban Studies 3, no. 18 (2012): 415-25.
Neckerman, Kelvin. Poverty and Family Structure: The Widening Gap between Evidence and Public Policy Issues. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Saskia, Sassen. The Global City. London: Princeton University Press, 2011.
Sennett, Richard. The Fall of Public Man: On the Social Psychology of Capitalism. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
Stack, Caleb. All Our Kin. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 2004.
Susser, Irene. Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in the Urban Neighborhood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Vincentia, Joan. “Framing the Underclass: A Critique of Anthropology.” American Journal of Urban Studies 13, no. 3 (2003): 215-231.
Wilsons, Wycliffe. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Effective narratorial voice causes readers to share in an experience and hence feel what the characters are supposed to feel. An essay, novel, short story or any other literary work is a way of embarking on a journey. The narrator must take readers on that journey with him or her.
It is never enough to recollect a series of events; the story teller must share how an occurrence changed, affected or strengthened a character. It is this quality that gives readers a sense of living the plot.
Three ways in which narratorial voice accomplishes this effect
Narrators can cause readers to live the plot by maintaining the right balance between crucial information and tedious details. Readers do not necessarily have to know the identity or background of the narrator. However, they need to be furnished with just the right amount of information to understand the plot.
Since audiences are unfamiliar with a narrator’s background, it essential to let them know about this information at the right time. For instance, in the story “A family supper” by Kazuo Ishiguro, one learns that the narrator had lost his mother, yet he knew about the cause of her death two years later (Ishiguro 167).
Readers can then decipher that the ‘family supper’ mentioned in the title would be a tense and constrained one. It is then possible to relate to the effects of immigration between family members, as a theme in the novel. Through this careful placement of information in the novel, the narrator was able to convey information about the constrained relationship with his family.
Readers did not need to know about why Kazuo left Japan for the US as this was not essential to the story. The events of interest were his relationship with his family, and this took place after his mother’s death. This narrator started with the issues that were pressing his family rather than the occurrences that led up to their loss. Using such an approach locks readers into the book because it dwells on consequential issues (Eakin 33).
A good narrator must refrain from overpowering or dominating the story at the expense of certain characters in the play; instead, one should combine characters’ experiences in an effortless and rich way. A good way of accomplishing this goal is through paragraphs that have varied subjects.
One such strategy is in the short story “A man to send rain clouds” by Marmon Silko. “Before they wrapped the old man, Leon took a piece of string out of his pocket and tied a small gray feather in the old man’s long white hair. Ken gave him paint.” (Silko 65). The point of view in this narration is third person.
In one small paragraph, the narrator has talked about three characters that were essential to the story. However, instead of dominating the work through the narrator’s descriptions, the author opted to show the actions conducted by Ken and Leon rather than expounding on them.
For instance, instead of adding comments about why it was necessary to place a gray feather in the old man’s hair, the narrator simply described what the characters did. This minimized the level of dominance that the storyteller would have added to the story.
Readers continue to follow the story because few unnecessary explanations from the third person narrator exist (Altman 19). This individual only states what needs to be said and allows readers to deduce the characters’ motivations.
Scene clarity is a priority in engaging readers through narratorial voice. Audiences should be able to see the image of a certain character, event or setting as the narrator describes it (Wyile 200). In essence, visualization of the story’s plot must occur seamlessly throughout the story.
Some narrators achieve this by following a character as he or she gets into a scene and then describing what the narrator does in that circumstance. Alternatively, a storyteller may choose to give details of a conversation as it unfolds in a certain scene. Clarity is evident in the story ‘A family supper’. The narrator describes the family meal lucidly: “What is it?” “Just fish.” “It’s very good.”
The three of us ate on in silence. Several minutes went by. “Some more?” “Is there enough?””There’s plenty for all of us.””(Ishiguro 168). The storyteller gave a step by step description of what went on during the meal in order to convey his main theme. These short exchanges between the narrator, his father and sister demonstrated how each of them related to their father.
The fact that the conversation largely revolved around food also proves that there was a loose connection between these individuals. Readers can experience the sense of uneasiness, loss and uncertainty that these family members have around one another because every aspect of the conversation has been covered. Therefore an accurate and clear scene description is essential in engaging readers.
Conclusion
Effective narration works by providing the right balance of information to readers. Storytellers must not give too much away, but they should also share what is essential to the plot.
Additionally, effective narratorial voice is accomplished by merging different characters’ predicaments; unnecessary explanations by the narrator would delineate readers. Finally, an effective narrator can engage readers by explaining scenes clearly as this enables visualization and hence connection with readers.
Works Cited
Altman, Janet. Epistolarity: Approaches to Form. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1992. Print
Eakin, John. How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1999. Print.
Kazuo, Ishiguro. “A family supper.” Esquire Nov. 1990: 167-169. Print.
Silko, Marmon. “The man to send rainclouds.” New Mexico Quarterly 1981: 65. Print.
Wyile, Andrea. “Expanding the View of First-Person Narration.” Children’s Literature 30.3 (1999): 185-202. Print.
Rubens was born in Siege, Germany, in 1577. He was a prominent baroque artist. He supported Baroque movement of arts and travelled popularize it around Europe. The purpose of this paper is to use visual skills to analyze the portrait of “Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria”.
Analysis
The title of the painting is “Marchesa Broginda Spinola Doria” by Peter Paul Rubens. Although the exact date is not known, Rubens indicates that he finished this work in 1606 at the time he was working in Genoa. The portrait shows a young Marchesa Broginda Spinola Doria in her wedding gown at the age of 22, just after she married Giacomo Massimiliano Doria in 1605.
The extravagant Baroque style, to which Rubens belonged, was one of the most popular artistic movements in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is because it placed a lot of emphasis on color, movement and sensuality (Andersen, 2006). Although this portrait does not provide evidence of movement, it is easy to analyze it in terms of Baroque movement, with the reference to exaggerations in color, light, emotions and sensationalism (Buci-Glucksmann, 1994).
Like most popular paintings of the Baroque movement, Reuben’s “Portrait of Marchesa Broginda Spinola Doria” was developed using oil on canvas. From an analysis of the portrait, the viewer notes the gaze and the angle of architecture. This indicates that Rubens intended his audience to use a worm’s eye view.
According to the National Gallery of Arts, the painting was initially large and more imposing, but it was cut into a smaller frame sometimes in the 19th century (National Gallery of Arts, 2013). Brigida’s pose is evidently static, with no evidence of movement. However, Rubens emphasized on the exaggerated light, which in this case, is successful in activating the pose.
In addition, some diagonal flow of red curtain behind Brigida provides a good way of activating the static pose. Moreover, it is worth noting how Reuben has used his skills in applying thin but fine brush. For instance, the slivery satin dress worn by Brigida as part of her attractive and seemingly expensive dress was developed using layers of almost translucent glazes.
In fact, to achieve this, Rubens highlighted it with thick and freely painted strokes of brush. It is clear that Rubens must have spent adequate amount of time in developing this portrait because it appears that he combined his bold style of painting with traditional style of focusing on details.
Emphasis on color is evident. Rubens has used both primary and secondary colors. The whitish-grey color of the dress, the bright-red curtain, the whitish brown color of the face, the red lips the black eyes of Brigida are the most eye-catching features of the portrait. Light and dark are also evident in the work. For instance, while exaggeration of light is evident on the particular details of the subject such as the face and the dress, the objects behind her are actually fading to give the subject ability to attract the viewer’s eye.
The symmetrical details of the portrait give the subject its dominance on the plane. Brigida occupies more than 80% of the portrait. The smooth texture of the dress other details shows the preciousness of the wedding gown, while the smooth texture of the face indicate the beauty with Brigida.
Reflection
I selected this portrait as an example of age-old portraits that still show the skills and talent of the ancient artists. In addition, it demonstrates the need for appraising Baroque as one style that contributed to the evolution of modern arts. It is clear that Rubens was attempting to show the beauty of women in Genoa and the need for cities and states to appreciate, respect and appreciate their women.
References
Andersen, L. (2006). Baroque and Rococo Art. New York: H. N. Abrams.
Buci-Glucksmann, N. (1994). Baroque Reason: The Aesthetics of Modernity. New York, NY: Sage
Perspective drawings entails portraying three dimensional spaces into two dimensional spaces, and are classified into aerial and linear perspective. Historically, perspective drawing was examined by philosophers including Euclid, Roger Bacon, and Robert Grosseteste according to their professions, and the way they made observations of the visible world.
Duccio and Giotto immensely contributed to the study of perspectives through paintings representing real world observations. The underlying goal was to accurately describe what a viewer was seeing with changing vision changed, leading to the mathematical theories of perspective drawing by Piero della Francesca in 1478. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) discovered drawing machines as illustrated in figure 1 below, where different positions of the same object are attained because of variations in viewing positions.
Figure 1. Drawing machine.
Other contributions were made by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), where geometry and painting were combined, Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) on the ‘practice of geometry’, Girard Desargues (1591-1661) on ‘projective geometry’ for slotting a point, x, for mapping points to points and lines to lines, as shown in figure 2 below, the advent and propagation of the use of mathematics in perspective drawing.
Figure 2. points and lines
Math Used In Perspective Drawing
The mathematics used in perspective drawing includes a one point, two point, and three point perspective.
One point perspective
One point perspective is defined by diminishing points as the distance from the observer increases. Take a specific point of choice as the center point and eye point of an object with the axes of the objects having parallel orientations to the drawing plane as an example. If the center point is cp= [6.0, 5.0, 2.0], and the eye point is ep= [6.0,-15.0, 2.0], and the y=l plane is parallel to the x and y axes, there is no rotation because dp= [0, 20, 0]. In this case, the position of the center point is the vanishing point. Figure 2 illustrates one point perspective with one point projection axes. The projection plane is pierced only by one principal axis (Z1).
Figure 3. one point perspective
Two point perspective
The projection plane is pierced by two principal axises in a two point perspective as shown in figure 4 below. If the eye point is ep= [16.0,-15.0, 2.0], and the center point is cp= [6.0, 5.0, 2.0], such that there is a rotation about the z axis, by taking dp= [-10, 20, 0], then, for y=l and z-axis are parallel. The y2 axis does not pierce the axis. Axes or points can rotate in this system.
Figure 4. two point perspective
Three point perspective
The three point perspective occurs when the line of projection is pierced by three principal axes. As illustrated in figure 5 below, the projection plane is pierced by the X3, Y3, and Z3 axes.1
Figure 5. three point perspective
How perspective drawing involves the mathematical ideas
Mathematical ideas are involved in perspective drawing because it lies on the rations of the objects that are drawn as illustrated in figure 6 below.
Beyonce is arguably the top female musician in the world. From a career that emerged from the success of an all-girl music group, she has received several accolades for her music and acting careers. Her success has attracted a lot of media attention from critics and fans alike.
Moreover, her recent engagement and wedding to rapper Jay-Z has even brought more media attention to the laid-back musician. Now, most entertainment observers consider Beyonce and Jay Z as America’s “power couple” (“Beyonce, Jay-Z Top” par. 1).
In several ways, Beyonce has been in the limelight for most parts of the last decade. Thus, different media have always contained different stories about her. This paper compares the singer’s image in the news media and academic literature by arguing that both sources share more similarities than differences in how they portray the artist.
Notably, this paper shows that academic literatures are concerned with Beyonce’s role in female empowerment and healthy living, while her media image focuses on her glamour, music, sex symbolism, and style.
The structure of this paper first analyzes Beyonce’s image in academic literature. Subsequent sections of this paper highlight her image in news media. The last section of this paper compares both images (in news media and academic literature).
Image in Academic Literatures
Symbol of Female Empowerment
Professionally, Beyonce’s image has easily appeared besides other powerful African-American personalities, like Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and the likes.
Most of these comparisons stem from Beyonce’s success in the music industry and her ability to transcend the superficial and stereotypical image of African American women, as objects of sexual gratification (within the confines of white supremacy) (Celeste 11).
While it is important to appreciate the individual successes of music icons, such as Beyonce, many academic journals have found it difficult to do so outside the confines of race (Fan 117). Thus, in many academic circles, many researchers largely perceive Beyonce as an icon of female empowerment (Celeste 11). Feminists have especially championed this view.
For example, Murphy (96) says Beyonce is an icon in the success of the third wave feminist movement. This perception led Murphy to say, “Beyonce is a girl power icon who is average but, beyond her star status, she is overwhelmingly portrayed as a normal and powerful woman” (96).
Indeed, in one journal article, Celeste says, “The media has portrayed Knowles as empowered and in charge, as a mask to make oppressive forces, such as the “sexualization” of black women and white supremacy, invisible” (12).
The depiction of Beyonce as a female icon has made it difficult for scholars to ignore the racial identity within the discourse of female empowerment. Indeed, many academic literatures appreciate Beyonce’s stature as a woman of color.
Therefore, unlike most female icons (mostly white women) that demonstrate the “girl power” ideology, Beyonce has achieved the same stature by demonstrating multiple talents and performing abilities. Evidence of Beyonce’s multi-talented nature comes from her career launch in the pop group, Destiny’s Child.
Murphy says, “As a dancer, songwriter, and choreographer, she later catapulted her success into new fields, such as acting and fashion design” (p. 97). Through such multi-variable talents, scholars have not shied from associating Beyonce’s success with the third wave of feminism.
Certainly, they have done so by associating racial identities with discussions concerning the empowerment of young women. African-American scholars have especially used the success of young African-American women, like Beyonce, to inspire African-American audiences.
Health Image
Although Beyonce has received global accolades for being a top female musician, her image has transcended her professional career and delved into her lifestyle attributes. Notably, she has curved out an image of being an enviable female icon for healthy living. Academic journals that focus on healthy living have especially affirmed this image because they say Beyonce has an ideal body that most women strive to have.
For example, Apple (111) exposed a study which asked women to state the body type they would like to have (the researchers gave the women the options of choosing the body types of four female celebrities including, Beyonce, Kate Moss, Keira Knightly, and Queen Latifa). Most of the respondents preferred Beyonce’s body style (“Men want a” 121).
The emphasis on Beyonce as a fitness model stems from her widely publicized workout and diet plans. Concisely, her name has appeared in most health fitness regimes (“Another jar of” 50). For example, Beyonce’s workout plan exists in healthyceleb.com and motleyhealth.com (these websites advice people how to live healthy by maintaining a proper diet regime) (Borges 7).
For example, Beyonce advises women on how to lose weight, at healthyceleb.com. She gives a step-by-step account of the time she wakes up, the types of activities she does for exercise, and how her diet helps her to be healthy.
In the same forum, she advises most young women to breastfeed, as a way to stay healthy (Borges 7). Here, she emphasizes the importance of a vegetarian diet and its role in keeping her healthy (Borges 7).
From the huge responses she receives from the website, Beyonce also provides a link for people to contact her personal trainer and get more advice on healthy living. Her success in health education has permeated through most academic literatures.
News Media Image
Flamboyant Image
Beyonce’s image in mainstream media contrasts with her “academic” image. While the above sections of the paper highlight Beyonce as a motivational icon for racial minorities in America, her public image in mainstream media portrays her as a glamorous and flamboyant person.
As portrayed in the introduction section of this report, Beyonce’s image in news media largely premise on her superficial attributes, such as her sense of fashion, style, net worth, and the likes. For example, her recent marriage to rapper Jay Z has shifted most of her public image to her net worth, lifestyle, and influence in the music industry (Seno and Lukas 121).
For example, many American newspapers picked an article from Forbes magazine to show the position of the “power couple” as America’s highest earning celebrity couple (“Beyonce, Jay-Z Top” par. 1). Such news has always been associated with huge monetary figures, to show how rich the artist is, and how she compares with other wealthy celebrities in the country.
For instance, mainstream media have often compared Beyonce and Jay Z to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Similar comparisons also exist with the celebrity couple Tom Brady and Gisele Bundschen (“Beyonce, Jay-Z Top” par. 2).
Sex Icon
Besides the media’s obsession with Beyonce’s money and wealth, the singer has adopted an image of being a crossover sex symbol in American music. Indeed, most news media have referred to the singer as “bootylicious,” “voluptuous,” and similar acronyms to denote her status as a sex symbol (Seno and Lukas 122).
Partly, the singer, through the former all-girl music group, Destiny’s Child, affirmed this image through songs, like “bootylicious.” However, mainstream media have emphasized this image as the singer’s trademark.
Beyonce’s image as a sex symbol largely differs from the star’s academic image. Certainly, earlier sections of this paper show that, academically, scholars have perceived Beyonce as a role model for women worldwide (Celeste 11). Scholars have also disassociated the singer from stereotypical images of African-American superstars as sex symbols (Celeste 11).
However, this image appears to disappear in the news media because her image consistently depicts her as a sex symbol. This image has not only existed in music videos and television, but also in print media. For example, “Beyonce, Jay-Z Top” (par. 3) says, after Beyonce appeared on Tom Ford’s fashion show, in 2011, People magazine identified her as the world’s sexiest woman.
Complex (a celebrity website) also named the singer the sexiest musician of all time. The list of other print media that have popularized Beyonce’s stature as a sex symbol is endless. For instance, VHA and GQ have also named the star as the sexiest woman of the century.
This way, Beyonce has received several offers to appear on magazine covers from different entertainment outlets in America and Europe. Her success on this front has affirmed her image as a sex icon.
Fashion Icon
News media have also highly popularized Beyonce’s image as a fashion icon, to characterize her identity. Murphy (131) says this image has largely been popularized by mainstream media, but the Knowles family has also helped to cement it. For example, Beyonce’s mother co-authored a book, in 2002, titled, Destiny’s Style. She revealed that Beyonce’s fashion sense had a huge role to play in her success (Murphy 131).
Independent fashion designers (who have worked with the star) have also reinforced this image. For example, one Italian fashion designer, Roberto Cavalli, also revealed that Beyonce’s success largely stemmed from her strong fashion sense (“Beyonce, Jay-Z Top” par. 3).
He made this statement after referring to the diverse fashion styles used by the singer during her performances. Indeed, based on an assessment of Beyonce’s music videos, it is difficult to dispute the fact that Beyonce’s fashion sense ranges from a continuum of classic to contemporary fashion styles.
Again, magazines and other types of news media have not shied from affirming Beyonce’s image as a fashion icon. For example, People Magazine listed Beyonce as the best dressed celebrity of 2012.
Such rankings paved the way for the star to feature in more prestigious print media magazines, such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuits Issue. Again, it is important to highlight Beyonce’s stature as an icon of African-American descent because she was the second African-American woman to feature in this magazine (Tyra banks preceded her debut on the Magazine).
Musical Icon
Since Beyonce started her solo career as an artist, after breaking away from Destiny’s Child, she has cut out an image as an influential and powerful musician. This image has largely dominated most mainstream media because many commentators have portrayed Beyonce as a great and influential musician. Music critics, for example, consider Beyonce as the greatest musician of all time (“Beyonce, Jay-Z Top” par. 1).
Influential commentators, such as Jody Rosen of the New Yorker, hold this view. Surprisingly, most news media have upheld this image of the singer for a greater part of the last decade. In fact, 2013 rankings showed Beyonce leads other artists in exerting the most influence in America’s music industry. Her musical prowess prompted Luhrmann (12) to say,
“No one has that voice, no one moves the way she moves, no one can hold an audience how she does. When Beyonce does an album, when Beyonce sings a song, when Beyonce does anything, it is an event, and it is broadly influential. Right now, she is the heir-apparent diva of the USA — the reigning national voice” (Luhrmann 12).
Such views have brought a lot of national attention to Beyonce’s influence in mainstream music. The Guardian has even named her the greatest artist of the decade (Luhrmann 12). This image has elevated the mellow-voiced singer to iconic status in the music industry. This image has also enabled Beyonce to command unwavering respect in the industry.
Observers say her production of two great musical singles of the decade (crazy in love and put a ring on it) marked the reinvention of Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music in the last decade. Indeed, Luhrmann (12) says through Beyonce’s contribution to the music industry, pop music has relied on the success of R&B, as its favorite medium.
Beyonce’s influence in the R&B genre has also replicated in redefining the success of other musicians. For example, evidence shows that Beyonce’s works have influenced other successful R&B musicians, such as Adele and Rihanna to succeed.
Seno and Lukas (121) say Beyonce’s reputation, as a successful artist, mainly stems from her strong stage presence. Through her success on stage, other artists, such as Rihanna, have reinvented their stage performances to make them more entertaining and captivating. Beyonce’s success beyond music has spilled over into marketing and branding (Seno and Lukas 121).
Here, she has also influenced other artists to participate in marketing campaigns. For example, in a recent interview, Nicki Minaj claimed that Beyonce’s commercial success in a Pepsi campaign motivated her to try the same in a 2012 global campaign. Through her influence in the music industry and other artists, mainstream media continue to affirm Beyonce’s image as a music icon.
Conclusion
After weighing the findings of this paper, it is important to say Beyonce’s image in news media and academic sources differ. Notably, both sources focus on different aspects of the celebrity. News media portray the singer as a sex symbol, musical icon, and fashion icon. Comparatively, academic literatures appreciate the artist for her contribution to female empowerment and health education.
These two zones of focus highlight different aspects of Beyonce. News media highlights her superficial and glamorous aspects of life, while academic literature highlights her beneficial contributions to society. A comparison of these two aspects of analysis shows that academic literature and news media share one similarity of depicting Beyonce in a positive way.
Although news media concentrates on her glamour and splendor, they still show Beyonce’s positive contribution to the music industry. Evidence of her contribution to the R&B genre is the most notable contribution to the music industry. News media also portray her as a mentor to upcoming and existing musicians.
Overall, an assessment of Beyonce’s image in academic and news media shows that both media are sympathetic to the artist. Furthermore, both depictions of Beyonce’s image do not exaggerate her achievements and contributions. Instead, they portray a factual image of her personality and achievements.
Both perceptions (from news media and academic sources) are also not stereotypical (however, academic literatures show the stereotypical background that influences the perception of African-American artists, such as Beyonce). Comprehensively, this paper shows that there are more similarities than differences between how academic literatures and news media portray Beyonce.
Works Cited
“Another jar of baby food?” Nutrition & Food Science 39.1(2009): 49- 53. Print.
Apple, Michael. “Democratic Education in Neoliberal and Neoconservative Times.” International Studies in Sociology of Education 21.1 (2011): 111-118. Print.
Celeste, Manoucheka. I’m Universal: Beyoncé and the Re-Packaging of Black Women in Media, Boston, MA: TBA, 2013. Print.
Fan, Weihua. “Social Influences, School Motivation and Gender Differences: An Application of the Expectancy-Value Theory.” Educational Psychology: An International Journal of Experimental Educational Psychology 31.2 (2011): 117-122. Print.
“Men want a body like Beckham.” Nutrition & Food Science 41.4 (2011): 238 – 241. Print.
Murphy, Caryn. New Girl Order: Youth, Gender, and Generation in Contemporary Teen Girls’ Media, University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. Print.
Seno, Diana and Lukas Bryan. “The equity effect of product endorsement by celebrities: A conceptual framework from a co-branding perspective.” European Journal of Marketing 41.1 (2007): 121 – 134. Print.
The review relates apparent production concepts and elements portrayed on the stage. It focuses on performance and principles of performers by looking at sounds, movements, and gestures. It also reviews styles of performance based on acting styles and performance as well as themes and production concepts.
The entire story of the Wild Bride emanates from the dance that creates the stage. The girl (Audrey Brisson) shows innocence as she jumps and embraces her father (Stuart Goodwin) and giggles. We can notice that the father loves her daughter. The daughter also loves her father.
However, we have a father tricked into trading his daughter to the Devil with devastating results. Stuart McLoughlin (the Devil) negotiates a business deal with the father of the Bride to sale the backyard with everything in it. The father did not realize that her daughter was there too.
As a result, she must escape from the Devil’s grip. The Devil realizes that the girl’s hands are too pure for him and asks the girl’s father to chop them off for him. However, the girl retains her purity in her soul. As a result, the girl cannot forgive her father, starts her adventure into woods, and turns into a wild woman.
We can follow the typical journey of the Bride from the wilderness to redemption. Emma Rice (Director) combines various elements of performance such as dance, music, design, and poetry. This results into a passionate theatrical creation that sways the audience through various performances such as horror, surprise, pathos, and comic actions.
The wild woman becomes the Bride after her encounter with the Prince in the woods. We can notice that the Kneehigh production has a well-executed and enthusiastic theater work. It asserts the role of humanity as we realize this through images and sounds on the stage.
Three different performers play the role of the woman at different ages (Audrey Brisson, Patrycja Kujawska, and Eva Magyar). We note the role of the song and dance in these transition processes. We can notice the pain, confusion, endurance, and the final transformation of the girl.
Every performance achieves an instant of appalling magnificence and insight. This tripartite performance gives unusual transformation and depth to the performance because we can see all the women embrace different ages of the daughter, including her future.
We recognize the piece of music from Ian Ross, Stuart Goodwin, and Stuart McLoughlin. The blue music acts as the center of the play. However, we can notice other styles, which show and emphasize the emotional appeal of the performance.
The Kneehigh production does not refer to the word ‘cast’, but it uses ‘performer’. This is an attempt to show various skills from different performers. We can also note that the work deviates from the confinement of the usual drama performances. The performance reflects Kneehigh styles of singing, dancing, performing, and playing music.
This seems to be the norm of Rice’s productions. We can recognize the enchanting voice of the girl from the music. One outstanding feature is also the use of musical instruments throughout, and the performers rarely leave the arena.
At this point, we can also observe the details of human transformation and pear tree and light bulbs on the stage, and the letter-writing cast involving the Devil. Bill Mitchell brings nature to the stage with a tree with a twisted ladder and branches. On the stage, we can observe a littered stage with twigs and leaves. We also notice how the girl is muddy.
The Wild Bride reflects a story told on the stage. It appeals to audience’s imagination and sways viewers into a dream-like world. We can see how Rice portrays the initial performance in the drama. At this point, the Devil arrives and thrusts himself on the girl. We can see the transformation of the dark undertones and their effects on the innocent girl.
The director is able to create sinister acts and combine them with acts of comedians. However, we cannot realize this humor instantly. Instead, we have to experience the pain of the girl first and effects of the harsh weather on her. It reflects fairy tales, which emerge from folklores of the past.
The drama has sounds, sights, and stories that transform performances of the theater. The viewers never know what to expect from the performers because they assume different roles such as singing, dancing, and playing comedies and instruments. This creates constant delights and surprises among viewers.
Reflection: SF Mime Troupe
Commedia dell’arte from Italy refers to Comedy of Profession. These are unwritten drama. They tend to focus on the way of performance instead of the theme of the drama. The play relied on chosen subjects and characters. The director named and determined their roles and relationships to one another together with scenes and acts. Performers must know their roles properly.
Stock characters achieve their goals because they have opportunities to change, heighten, and exaggerate scenes as their genius may allow them. Therefore, there is a need for constant surprises, clearness, and the use of wit, which come from the medieval period.
Stock characters have to find suitable words in order to arouse emotions of the audience. In addition, they also have to establish relations with their fellow performers. This requires characters to study their scenes thoroughly.
San Francisco Mime Troupe also uses stock characters in order to reach the audience with various messages. It also uses homilies and banal statements in story lines. We recognize the roles of stock characters in developing famous political satire. However, the general approach is mimicry. SF Mime Troupe also uses elements of American Melodrama. Stock characters must create fantasies, adopt exaggerated approaches with the strong story line in order to appeal to viewers.
However, the theme must present avowed observations. Stock characters focus on how America has achieved its status, which portrays fears, the growing power of religious bodies, and disenfranchised masses. Stock characters explore these issues by focusing on the government and corporate as in the God Fellas, 2006, Doing Good, 2007 and Making a Killing, 2007.
Stock characters appeal to viewers because of contemporary issues they explore. For instance, in 2008, they explored the issue of the global financial problem by playing the Red State. In this manner, stock characters can appeal to masses or the working class, who experience the greatest effects of economic troubles.
In some cases, the characters appeal to the audience to reclaim their nation because the government and corporate no longer care about them. Therefore, stock characters appeal to viewers by making extreme demands like making claims that the government should share the wealth of a nation with citizens who make that wealth.
The painting, Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern (see fig. 1) of Rembrandt van Rijn during the 17th century presents the modern or hybrid painting of the traditional paintings. Most of Rembrandt’s paintings show the idea of the modern romantic artworks. Rembrandt captured his brilliance as an artist using three aspects of creativity, which were drawing, oil painting, and etching.
He aimed to portray most fascinating aspects of life and to meet certain demands of artworks in the market. Rembrandt painted many people close him, who included members of his family. He also had over 100 paintings of himself. Therefore, we can understand the private life of Rembrandt by using his artworks. Many artists tried self-portraits, but none of them succeeded like Rembrandt.
Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern of 1639 is a hybrid painting that got little attention among scholars of artworks. The painting presents Rembrandt as holding a dead bittern. Rembrandt expresses self-satisfaction and a sense of pride because of his magnificent catch. However, we do not have any means of proving that Rembrandt was a hunter during his lifetime.
On the other hand, we cannot presume that he did not take part in hunting during his career as a painter. Based on such views, Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern has raised many questions on the real intentions of Rembrandt with a dead bittern. In order to understand this painting, we have to review the significance of hunting and self-portrait to painters in the Dutch society during the 17th century.
The historiography
Hunting was a highly regarded sport in Netherlands during 1600s. In fact, past records indicate that there were laws governing hunting sport and falconry in the 16th century. These ordinances remained in effect to the next century. These works show that there were many restrictions on hunting during the time.
In this sense, hunting was only a game of the noble class and senior officers of the state. In this respect, Rembrandt was not a member of the nobility and was not anywhere close to them. Therefore, hunting as a sport was not within his class.
Some scholars have argued that Rembrandt propagated the idea of individualism during his time by using his self-portraits. They claimed that Rembrandt wanted to portray the greatness of his paintings in history. At the same time, Rembrandt also used self-portrait to elevate his social status in society.
People relied on three ways in order to achieve high social status in the Dutch society, which included wealth, fame, and honour. Painting provided all these options to Rembrandt. Studies show that the demand for self-portraits encouraged the growth of the art in the mid 17th century.
This essay shall focus on the Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern by analysing historical and social contexts of the time, as well as theoretical concepts that guided painters of the time with regard to self-portrait and hunting.
Self-portrait
The painting that shows Rembrandt with a dead bittern has led to several claims and counter-claims among scholars of historic paintings (Bruyn 1996).1 At first, we may presume that Rembrandt was a hunter during his time. However, the ordinance that governed hunting in Netherlands showed that hunting was only for the nobles and few state officials. Rembrandt could not match this social status.
Consequently, we may assert that he was never a hunter. In this respect, some scholars have claimed that Rembrandt wanted to “elevate his social status by posing as a hunter, whereas others have dismissed that idea by claiming that Rembrandt’s real intention was to symbolize the immortality of painting” (Sullivan 1980 p. 236).2 We agree with the both observations based on facts every scholar presents.
From the visual elements, viewers should recognise that this was a painting of Rembrandt to glorify hunting in society during his time. The dead bird is a painting, which the painter portrays as if he caught it. From the elements of the painting, Rembrandt has posed as if he caught the bird and not painted it.
Rembrandt’s costumes portray a noble man in society with social ambitions. This painting reflects the belief in nobility, hunting, and painting in Dutch during the 17th century (Chapman 1990). 3 From the above statement, we have to understand why Held relates freedom and individuality of a painter with paintings. Moreover, economic situation of the time facilitated individuality (Alpers 1995).
Rembrandt was able to achieve individuality ‘effect’ through his painting because of the authority he had in his painting studio. During this period, people mastered the new meaning of individuality due to the prevailing economic system, and Rembrandt played an active role in shaping this concept. There were pursuit for life, liberty, and happiness. Practical applications of individualism in Rembrandt are in his self-portrait.
The self-portray shows that Rembrandt focused on himself when his art gained recognition. We can identify the depth in such self-portraits by the way the painter focused on himself and the dead bittern.
Rembrandt found the perfect opportunity to identify himself, focus deep in himself, and elevate his social status in society through hunting and self-portrait. The manner in which the artist applied congruence of the paint on the Self-Portrait with the Dead Bittern reveals a strong urge to root for self-identity.
From this painting, Rembrandt does not portray himself as a painter at work but rather as a noble man because he lacks the studio attires that later characterised his paintings after a break of eight years (Wright 1982).4 This painting also reveals that Rembrandt does not present himself as a professional painter. Instead, Rembrandt chooses to define his individuality and social ambition in the painting.
Scholars note that such requests for self-portrait from artists were specific. For instance, “the servant of the prince delivered an image of himself which served a certain social order and a certain notion of art” (Alpers 1995).5 The idea of a self-portrait also informed painters to produce their own self-portraits. Other artists began to produce their self-portrait, which depicted them at work.
Therefore, we cannot fail to look at the Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern without looking at historical significance of the painting in relation to social status of the artist, demands in the market and motives behind such portraits. These are some of the attributes, which iconographic studies have attached to self-portraits, arts, and the artist.
According to R. W. Scheller, an artist could attain a high social status through three means, which included honour, fame, and riches (Scheller 1963).6 Scheller has linked this idea to Rembrandt self-portraits. We have noticed that Rembrandt displays elements of elegance only associated with the nobility of the time in the painting with the dead bittern.
The painter has velvet attire coupled with earrings in the self-portrait. During 16th and 17th century, earrings were common and fashionable among men of class and nobles. Further, Scheller observed that artists of the 17th century had various collections, which included natural elements like shells, minerals, and fossils together with antiques like paintings, sculptures from Rome, and porcelains from the East.
Such a marvellous collection among nobles of the late 16th century represented consciousness about science and arts and in some way, represented an ideal life. However, in the case of Rembrandt, collections represented the artist’s desire to rise in the social ladder towards the nobility.
Rembrandt also yearned for a remarkable and notable social position in society. For instance, Rembrandt married Saskia van Uylenburgh in 1634. Saskia was a woman from the influential family of the Netherlands. Therefore, Rembrandt had to strive in order to match the social position of Saskia.
Hunting
Past studies have indicated that hunting was a highly regulated sport in Netherlands between 16th and 17th centuries. It was an activity for the nobles and senior states officials. However, Rembrandt was not close to the upper class of Netherlands. This suggests that hunting was above Rembrandt’s class.
The issue of Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern has disturbed scholars for many years. Several historians and painters have sought to understand why an artist would pose with a dead bittern in order to represent a sport that was not within his class. Therefore, we have to understand the importance of hunting among the nobility in order to understand the painting.
Rembrandt was aware of the traditional place and popularity of hunting among the nobility. Therefore, he sought to capture such importance of hunting through painting. Few artists like Titian, Holbein, and Frans Floris painted portraits that depicted hunting in society during the Renaissance (Garrard 1980).7 However, self-portraits were not common in Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century.
Rembrandt introduced this form of painting in Netherlands in the mid 17th century. Soon, his students like Ferdinand Bol and Govaert Flinck also concentrated on self-portrait paintings. In fact, some scholars have linked the Portrait of a Man with a Falcon of 1643 to both Bol and Rembrandt (fig. 4).
This painting shows elegance of the nobility and a captured falcon in hand. Scholars believe that the Portrait of a Man with a Falcon aimed at elevating the man to nobility with the dressing, props, and satchel.
Portraits that depicted hunting became popular in the middle of 17th century when skilled painters like van den Tempel, Karl Dujardin, and Michael Sweerts started to paint such artworks (Slive 1998).8 There were also paintings, which depicted families in beautiful gardens or landscape.
Early works of 1665 depicted outstanding habits of the Dutch bourgeoisie. Some authors claimed that the Dutch bourgeoisie had a growing taste for finery and elegance of the upper class. In short, there was an increasing number of the Dutch bourgeoisie and the patricians, who adopted characteristics, tastes, mannerism, and fashion of the nobles, and Rembrandt was no exception (Schama 1997).9
For instance, the middle class began to purchase large country houses, which were far from the city in order to reflect their new social status. This is what Rembrandt did.
In addition, the middle class started to look for some titles, which could fit their social status. In this respect, hunting and painting fulfilled the wishes of Rembrandt. These activities were for the nobility and state officials. Besides, they reflected a gentleman’s life (Berger 2000). 10
Scholars have found it extremely difficult to explain the extent of privileges that patricians and the wealthy middle class enjoyed in hunting, which was a reserve for the nobles.
Visual Analysis
In the Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern, the dead bittern takes over the forefront of the portrait. The use of the paint to link and construct the substance of the dead bittern strikes viewers as a sensational portrait. The spotted impasto technique highlights the dead bittern significantly and brings it as the main object of the painting, especially when we contrast it with the dark shadow of the artist behind.
Rembrandt shows the value of the dead bittern in his painting. The painter is trying to claim his status in the society through the bird. The fact that Rembrandt allows the dead bittern to occupy the central position shows the artist’s way of shifting viewers’ thoughts to the bittern.
The portrait of the dead bittern also reveals a cross or a frame in the background. It bears a signature that we can attribute to the artist. Rembrandt uses the signature to reinforce his identity on the painting.
Rembrandt’s portraits have ways of appealing to viewers’ psychological depth. In the Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern and the Flayed Ox (fig. 5), we can see the size and scale of both carcasses. The Flayed Ox shows a skinned and split open carcass in which Rembrandt manages to show details of the carcass by painting.
Just like in the dead bittern, the flayed ox also occupies the foreground of the painting. Rembrandt uses dark backgrounds in both images of the dead bittern and the flayed ox.
The usages of thin and dark paint in the backgrounds help the artist to capture the rich impasto of the carcasses and bring them forward for the audience.
The artist carefully paints the dead bittern, its wings, feathers, legs, and the hanging neck. Rembrandt applies the same technique in order to capture the drying meat, open ribs, and the protruding lumps of fat on the Flayed Ox. If we look at both images physically, they represent nothing other than dead animals.
However, a deep analysis shows that the Flayed Ox and the dead bittern have visual metaphor. For instance, the colour glows with warmth while the light focuses on the carcasses in order to reflect the deep feelings that the painter has about death. The carcass of the Flayed Ox represents horror, holiness, artistic beauty, and transcendent nature of life.
The portrait shows an omnipresent and ephemeral nature and spiritual questions of life. In both portraits, we have wooden frames that resemble the cross. The wooden frames may represent crucifixion images. At the background, there is a woman who appears to have experienced the events of the holy scene. Thus, we can understand the relation among the truth, death, and meaning of life for viewers.
The dead ox and bittern are significant images of both life and death. Rembrandt achieves both sanguine beauty and horror of death by relying on artistic expressions. The painter uses both death and horror in the carcasses by creating golden flesh and bittern, which glow from the dark backgrounds to represent the harsh truth and the beauty of life.
The portrait of a Man with a Falcon is strikingly different from Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern. For instance, the dead bittern presents a dark background, whereas Man with a Falcon is in the foreground with the thick impasto throughout the portrait, just like the falcon.
Still, it is difficult to show the setting of the self-portrait because of the dark background with unknown source of light on the dead bittern and the face of the artist. The artist uses the dead bittern to show that painting has immortal life, is timeless, and transcends in an ordinary manner. In other words, painters live forever in their portraits. Thus, he reinforces the importance of painters and painting in society.
Still Life
For instance, the Dutch also brought still life paintings to show their rising social status. In this context, the game was popular after the middle of the 17th century. Few forms of “still lifes” had existed before, but mainly within the culinary context. Before the game piece, there were only mixtures of paintings, which depicted birds, hare, fruits, vegetables, and elements of the kitchen in an open manner (Honig 1998). 11
The growing Dutch middle class found gardening and breeding of beautiful flowers as ways fulfilling their interests in art and science. They painted exotic flowers to highlight their expertise in exploration. De Heem captures 31 species of various flowers in a single vase to depict life and death (fig. 2).
Not all these flowers can bloom in a single season. De Heem presents flowers with symbolic meanings. Flowers at the top of the vase usually blossom in the sun, which we can see its rays streaming through the artist’s window. Flowers at the bottom of the vase wilt.
The painting depicts a salamander, which is opposite the spider. On the shelf, there are ants, moth, butterfly, and snail, which depict life and death. These animals represent decay while the moth and white butterfly show signs of life. De Heem expresses a colour taste of Flemish with flowers and animals in his still life. Still life paintings had a significant influence on later artists.
Dutch painters of still lifes applied sophisticated techniques through selecting, studying, grouping, and depicting in order to present realities of life. The art became popular as artists started to represent lifestyles in homes of the middle class.
Still lifes could be deceptive because they combine several floral items and animals, which cannot exist together. However, we have to recognise elements like death and life (a memento of mortality) in the painting.
Still life paintings existed as arts of visual expressions with moralistic message death and life. Hybrid paintings did not adopt much symbolism like still life. Instead, artists concentrated on sheer pleasures by displaying flowers, gardens, and other fabricated objects.
However, the game piece gained recognition later in the century. Artists introduced elements like nets, guns, different falconry gears, and whistles, which replaced kitchen items in the portraits. Later developments included fashionable items like velvet hunting bags, jackets, and boots. Reviews of the backgrounds of still life paintings revealed ornate gardens, which had pools and antiques to reflect high social status.
The game portraits gained elaborate styles as painters added many elegant features. For instance, artists portrayed hunter’s catch as priced item. They placed them in a posh landscape and did not pile or hung them up. From the Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern, we can observe how Rembrandt reflected self-satisfaction and pride from the manner he held the dead bittern.
Artists introduced striking elements of lighting and rich colours (Wetering 2006).12 Artists who thrived with this form of art were “Melchior d’Hondecoeter, Willem van Aelst, and Jan Weenix” (Sullivan 1980). Generally, critics must look at game pieces as forms of portraits, which only portrayed artistic works but not as real trophies from hunting sport.
These paintings do not represent the actual hunting sports because they capture several hunting paraphernalia. It is obvious that the 17th century Dutch hunter did not use all those items at once, which artists captured in their works. Besides, various animals required different sets of hunting paraphernalia.
The elegant scenes show that hunting was mainly a sport for the upper class. In fact, later paintings in the last half of the century promoted such scenes (Westermann 2000).13 Artists also depicted smart women and gentlemen on horseback as hunters (fig. 3).
The valid reason for the growth and demand for such painting in the last half of the 17th century was due to the growing market that resulted from the increasing number of the middle class. The middle class got pride and self-satisfaction by associating themselves with the sports of the nobility, hunting.
Therefore, we can argue that Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern was just an attempt to reflect the rising status of the artist and the desire to associate himself with the nobility. The portrait was the best manifestation of such desires and social ambition of the Dutch bourgeoisies in the 17th century.
Conclusion
Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern is a hybrid portrait of the traditional painting. Scholars have studied the painting with aim of understanding the significance of hunting and self-portray in the 17th century Netherlands society.
Some concurred on some issues while others have brought new explanations to the portraits. However, two elements stand out strongly, which are elevating one’s social status and the importance of hunting in society.
We can argue that Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern was a means of self-promotion, individualism, and the desire to portray one’s own image through painting.
Individualism became a dominant factor and central focus on patricians and the wealthy middle class. Individualism allowed people to fashion themselves in desirable ways to them. This notion led to the demand for self-portraits in the 17th century.
From the history, we have noted that princes and noble class commissioned artists to paint them with strict details. Painters had to display opulence, wealth, and high social status. On this note, artists started to paint self-portraits, which had their own images.
In these portraits, artists also displayed magnificent regalia and opulence of the nobility. Elevating their social status among artists defined themes of their self-portraits in the 17th century. Three methods of achieving such high social status were through wealth, fame, and honour.
Artists used their self-portraits in order to achieve such status in society. Artists elevated themselves through self-portraits and acquired wealth, various antiques to reflect their new social status and interests in science and arts.
Such desires and association with the sport of the nobility placed artists among the elite of the Dutch society. Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern is a fine piece of artwork to reflect such desires among artists of the 17th century.
Portraits
Figure 1: Rembrandt’s Self-portrait with a Dead Bittern (1639) Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
Figure 2: Jan Davidsz de Heem’s Still Life: Vase of Flowers, c. 1660
Figure 3: Lady and Gentleman on Horseback by Aelbert Cuyp (c.1655)
Figure 4: Rembrandt, Portrait of a Man with a Falcon, 1661 Gothenburg Museum of Art
Figure 5: Rembrandt’s The Flayed Ox 1655
Reference List
Alpers, Svetlana. Rembrandt’s Enterprise: the Studio and the Market. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1995.
Berger, Harry. Fictions of the Pose: Rembrandt Against the Italian Renaissance. California: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Bruyn, Josua. “Dutch Cheese: A Problem of Interpretation.” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 24, no. 2, (1996): 201-208.
Chapman, Perry. Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Identity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Garrard, Mard. “Artemisia’s Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting.” The Art Bulletin 62 1980: 97-112.
Held, Julius. Rembrandt Studies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Honig, Elizabeth. “Making Sense of Things: On the Motives of Dutch Still Life.” Res Anthropology and Aesthetics 34, (1998): 166-183.
Schama, Simon. The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. New York: Vintage, 1997.
Scheller, Richard. A Survey of Medieval Model Books. Cincinnati: Haarlem, 1963.
Slive, Seymour. Dutch Painting, 1600-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
Sullivan, Scott. “Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern.” Art Bulletin 62, no. 2 (1980): 236-43.
Westermann, Mariet. Rembrandt A&I (Art and Ideas). London: Phaidon Press, 2000.
Wetering, Ernst van de. Rembrandt: The Painter at Work. California: University of California Press, 2006.
Wright, Christopher. Rembrandt Self-Portraits. New York: Viking Press, 1982.
Footnotes
1 Josua Bruyn, “Dutch Cheese: A Problem of Interpretation.” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art 24, no. 2, (1996): 201.
2 Scott Sullivan, “Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait with a Dead Bittern.” Art Bulletin 62, no. 2 (1980): 236.
3 Perry Chapman, Rembrandt’s Self-Portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Identity. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
4 Christopher Wright, Rembrandt Self-Portraits. (New York: Viking Press, 1982).
5 Svetlana Alpers, Rembrandt’s Enterprise: the Studio and the Market. (Chicago: University Of Chicago Press), 1995.
6 Richard Scheller, A Survey of Medieval Model Books. (Cincinnati: Haarlem, 1963).
7 Mard Garrard, “Artemisia’s Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting.” The Art Bulletin 62 1980: 97.
8 Seymour Slive, Dutch Painting, 1600-1800. New Haven: (Yale University Press, 1998).
9 Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. (New York: Vintage, 1997).
10 Harry Berger, Fictions of the Pose: Rembrandt Against the Italian Renaissance. (California: Stanford University Press, 2000).
11 Elizabeth Honig, “Making Sense of Things: On the Motives of Dutch Still Life.” Res Anthropology and Aesthetics 34, (1998): 166.
12 Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt: The Painter at Work. (California: University of California Press, 2006).
13 Mariet Westermann, Rembrandt A&I (Art and Ideas). (London: Phaidon Press, 2000).
Figure 1: Chinese Vase with Peony Scroll, Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) (Metropolitan Museum of Art 2013).
Formal perspective
This is a Cizhou-type Chinese vase, which relied on a complicated technique in order to create an outstanding decoration on a jar. This technique is sgraffito, an Italian term that means scratched. The potter would cover the jar with a white slip and then apply a black one. He would then carve the jar to create a design of a huge peony scroll (Yaw 1990 p. 29).
This vase has a short thin neck with a saucer-shaped opening. The jar has peony flowers and leaves. It has well-designed lines at the bottom and top that separates the body of the vase. Every design has a deep carve that runs across the surface of the vase. These carves show the dark slip underneath the white slip, which results in a different color tone and elements of natural shades.
Technical perspective
This vase is made of stoneware with black and white slips with cut decoration beneath a transparent glaze. Designers used the sgraffito technique to make this piece of vase. Sgraffito is a method of decorating a ceramic with paints.
Potters paint a coat of colored slip onto a leatherhard pot, and they then follow this step with carving all the way through the slip to show the clay beneath the surface. The technique requires a distinct color from the color of the clay. This is necessary to enhance the contrast and visibility of the vase when it is fired and glazed.
Cultural perspective
This vase is ornamented with several peonies. This was common among Chinese arts during the Northern Song dynasty. The jar is large with striking colors. Most Chinese considered leaves and flowers as symbols of rank and royalty. The symbolic relations in the peony flower made it to be called the flower of wealth and nobility.
Peonies and other related species were common in the traditional Chinese arts. These trees had large red flowers. Consequently, Chinese referred to them as the king of flowers. The Sui and Tang Dynasties introduced the peony in Chinese royal gardens. Peony gained great recognition during the reign of Emperor Wu Zetian, who was the only woman to serve in that capacity in China. She took a great interest in peony.
As a result, several officials who wanted to gain recognition and advance their careers in the empire had to appreciate peony flowers. This led to a widespread use of the flower in China. The flower became a symbol of riches and rank.
Social perspective
Cizhou ceramic was made strong enough to withstand the pressure of daily use. Moreover, the large size of the vase made it suitable for common populace, who used it for general purposes. These qualities made the vase to be the ‘people’s ware’. Potters were able to try different styles in order to produce different styles of Cizhou ceramics by using glaze and slip techniques alongside brush and paints (Welch 2008 p. 34).
This jar served the normal roles of a vase. Chinese placed flowers inside the vase. It was also a drinking ware or a container for wine or liquor. Although this vase does not have any words or phrases on it, there were other vases with words and phrases, which had messages of good wishes, great life, or relationship. In this sense, Chinese believed that the vase had certain spiritual meanings.
Welch, Patricia. Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery. North Clarendon, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2008.
Yaw, Law. Lee Kong Chian Art Museum: Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Bronze, Archaic Jade, Paintining and Calligraphy. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1990.
The film Thunderheart suggests that urban and rural environment can reflect various forms of inequality which may exist in modern societies. By examining the life of a Native-American reservation, the authors can give the viewers in-depth insights into the difficulties experienced by the residents of this town.
To a great extent, this movie confirms the idea of Sharon Zukin who argues that living spaces can indicate the so-called distinction between the majority and minority or “us” and “them” (Zukin, 1995, p. 42). This distinction is important for explaining the differences between various communities.
Although, this movie can be regarded as a western, it is closely related to such issues as urban planning, economic stagnation, dilapidation, and environmental problems that Native-Americans try to overcome in their daily lives. These are the major themes that can be identified.
The viewers can better understand these differences in living conditions by looking at various urban settings. For example, at the beginning of the movie, one can see the main character Levoi driving through the streets of Washington D.C. (Nozik, 1992). Such images indicate that a certain society or culture has achieved high levels or prosperity. This is one of the major impressions that this scene produces on a person.
However, later, the protagonist is placed in a dramatically different world which is not familiar to him. It does not resemble what he believes to be his home. In particular, when Levoi approaches the reservation, one can definitely see the signs of dilapidation. In this case, one can pay attention to such a detail as the crooked road sign (Nozik, 1992).
This road sign can be viewed as a post that marks the border between two different states that have nothing in common with one another. Additionally, the land through which Levoi travels bears practically no marks of civilization. This is one of the details that immediately attract attention of the viewers.
On the whole, this contrast is supposed to demonstrate that people of the United States can live in very different conditions; more importantly, this inequality can be closely related with the racial or ethnic origins of these individuals.
This discrepancy can be explained by a great number of factors such as lack of funding, the decreasing number of people living in the reservations, or the inaptitude of the local government (Sachs, 2011, p. 9). These are the main factors that should be considered because they lead to the stagnation of this town.
So, one can argue that Levoi is forced to look at the world to which he is not accustomed. Thus, this movie presents contrasting pictures of the United States, and this is one of the reasons why Thunderheart is worth watching.
Later, the viewers of this film can understand the reservation is definitely stagnant. An onlooker can notice a great number of stray animals as well as people who can hardly make both ends meet. These are the signs that this community is by no means problem-free (Nozik, 1992). More likely, these individuals see no way for improving their living conditions and one of their main intentions is to leave this place.
Furthermore, the shabby houses suggest that people living in these settlements of this movie are not prosperous. It is possible to find such towns in the developing world, but not in a country like the United States (Gugler, 1997). This is one of the ideas that the authors of this film wanted to express. To some degree, this town is a symbol of economic decline or at least stagnation.
Again, the images of this reservation can differ dramatically from the prosperous streets of Washington. This is one of the distinctions that viewers should be aware of. One can say that the comparison between the capital and the Native-American reservation is critical for understanding this movie, even though it is a mystery film, rather than social drama. This is one of the main points that should be made when discussing this movie.
It should also be noted that the residents of these reservation can face significant environmental risks. This land can be used for the construction of the uranium mines (Nozik, 1992). This initiative is opposed by many activists of this town. To a great extent, this part of the plot is based on real-life events because a great number of uranium mines that were operated in Native-American reservations (Rosier, 2003, p. 149).
Moreover, these industrial activities significantly impaired the health of many people who worked or lived near uranium mines (Rosier, 2003, p. 149). According to researchers, the residents of Native-American settlements are still more likely to develop various forms of cancer (Rosier, 2003, p. 149).
Again, this example indicates that urban or rural environment can largely reflect the cultural, ethnic, or social divisions existing within a country. So, this movie can throw light on some on the problem that are encountered by American society or at least by some groups living in this society.
More importantly, Levoi as an FBI agent wants to distance himself from this community, especially at the very beginning (Nozik, 1992). This question is of great importance to Levoi since he is also a Native-American. This is one of the main aspects that can be identified, and it should be considered by the viewers.
One should take into account that the protagonist rejects the idea of ethnic or racial distinctions. In particular, when Levoi is asked about his nationality, he immediately responds that he is from the United States (Nozik, 1992). In other words, he does not accept the notion that the country in which he lives can segregated. Furthermore, Levoi does not want to be associated with a particular tribe.
This is probably the main trait in his behavior. However, this character confronts the reality which tells him that the lives of people can differ dramatically in terms of many criteria. This is one of the main questions that Levoi struggles with in the course of this film. He attempts to reconcile the images of prosperity in Washington and the picture of stagnation.
On the whole, the movie Thunderheart shows that contemporary society is very heterogeneous. The members of this society can differ in terms of class, gender, race, culture, income level, and so forth.
Although, this film focuses on a detective story, it also raises a great number of questions about planning, environment, and economic development of various regions within a country. In particular, it illustrates the experiences of Native-Americans living in reservations. Furthermore, the authors of this film show that this population has to struggle with different forms of inequality.
Reference List
Gugler, J. (1997). Cities in the developing world: issues, theory, and policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Nozik, M. (Executive Producer). (1992). Thunderheart. New York: Tribeca Productions.
Rosier, P. (2003). Native American Issues. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Sachs, S. (2011). Re-creating the Circle: The Renewal of American Indian Self- Determination. Albuquerque: UNM Press.
Zukin, S. (1995). The cultures of Cities. New York: Wiley.
