[aquamire]

Alright, I'll shoot.

1. The color scheme is dominanty orange with blue on the girl and darker blues in the background to bring both contrast and focus to the halves of the foreground. The blue is definately subordinate to the orange, which is shown by the girls dress which is of a very desaturated blue.

2. Devices used are the scarf the woman is holding, and whatever it is the girls holding (looks like a mirror?). For some odd reason the pole thing in the background is given a lot of attention.. maybe to clarify a setting? Looks kind of elegant.

3. In focal areas, colors are with greater contrast and saturation, shapes are more defined and 'hard'.

4. I think the artist is using the womans arms and scarf to lead you around as well as the color choices and patterns of the background. Its blue against orange, and the orange brings the woman out to the front since its dominant.

5. I really cant tell what the girl is holding. Its the most bothersome thing about this piece. It looks like a mirror. What do you think? A mirror befits the pose of the lady I suppose. Also why is that pole given so much attention?

[digiGen]

The pole, I think, can be interpreted as serving several functions.
One is the seperation of mistress/servant.
Another is the fallic symbolism; this IS a harem we are dealing with. By having an elaborate pole, ehem, we have a sign that it is a very rich and powerful man whose woman this is.
Third, it sets up a barrier which the bottom corner of the mirror overlaps and thus creates a path for the eye to follow.


I think the eye is meant to be guided thusly:

Top of pole (the fallic symbol) to arm, scarf and face of woman, then down along the body and hanging sleeve. There it hooks on the mirror edge, to the hand of the girl, then face of the girl and down her bright blue back. The streak on the floor guides to the right, up the womans dress. From there the eye simply explores.

all for now

Btw, Mr. Manley, will we ever see a real gallery with big versions of your icewind portraits? They're gorgeous.

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: digiGen ]

[Jason Manley]

nice crits guys!!

yes..I agree the column is to communicate rich elegant woman vs. servant girl ideas...it also keeps the piece from being way too simple...he needed a suggestion of environment that worked symbolically and you all found it and what it means. nice work.

it does look like a mirror to me...the details around the hand on the child and the lack of details on her works well to keep the narrative with what the girl is doing rather than who she might be.

The large figure is simly beautiful. I particularily like the break up of value shapes around her head...for such a strong focal shape breakup the piece seems to be balanced fairly well...as my eye tends to move around the composition rather than stagnate on one simple focus. I do think that that is why the column is so heavy in terms of focus...he is really hitting the focal areas hard (both in design and in rendering) and that seems to be the only way to balance such a detailed area as that around the main figure.

keep em coming...


jason

ps..thanks for the compliment..dont know when my website will be done...sometime I guess...I do have the domains registered..haha..hopefully soon.

[ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: Jason Manley ]

[Anthony]

Critique eh? Well, I think perhaps the woman's skin is a little flat, and it's not that she's flat, it's that on her face, chest, and right forearm it comes off a touch flat. The child's hair looks a bit too soft, like it's a mesh rather than strands. And I could stand some more color variation on the whole, although that's getting nitpicky. Overall great work! Keep it up. Hahahaha

[Jason Manley]

anthony...I think that in the real painting that there must be modeling of the forms to a higher degree...leighton usually has very strong forms...however I do think that you may be right about the hair...I wonder what this piece looks like in person.

also...color variation and optical color mixing was something that was primarily explored by the impressionists who were a half generation to a generation after leighton...it was an advancement in painting that leighton did not, as a whole, explore..or so to speak.

notice how luminous the shadows on the faces are...the colors he chose just glow wonderfully...I really like that.

what else??

anyone??

jason

[Jason Manley]

what are some examples of "implied lines" in this image?

j

[Anthony]

Yeah, it's amazing how much nicer great paintings are in person, even when compared to good prints. Seeing Ginevra Di Becci in person was like seeing a whole new painting.

One obvious implied line is her waist-Her raised left arm and the outside outline of her shoulder create the motion of the figure that insist her waist is slender, despite being hidden by the dress. Another great aspect is the way the composition itself is like a flower-the pillar straight up, the woman bending gradually more right as she rises, and the girl leaning slightly left(more of a suggested bend for the girl, created by the conflict line of her upwardly tilted head). Also, note how in the perspective grid the girl is smaller, closer to the camera, but is layered on the smaller side of the comp. The woman is on the larger side, creating an obvious sense of grandeur for her. The girl's upturned face accentuates this too.

No one thinks this much about a painting anymore, which is why these guys are the masters.

[Jason Manley]

I posted this on another forum but it will do just as well here.

Here is a link to a master painting by good ole Lord Leighton.
Since today is Crit a Master Painting Day (officially a new holiday at my house), I figured we could all add some words to an analysis of this image.

I will start by asking some questions...if you want to answer them feel free....if not, please add in your own observations.

here is the link
http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/l/Leighton_Lord_Frederick/large/ Light_of_the_Harem_c1880.jpg


Questions...

1. what is the dominant color scheme of this image?

2. What devices are used to create focal areas for narrative?

3. What happens to the shapes of value around the focal areas?

4 What does the artist do to lead your eye around the page?

ask any questions you like as well...answer any you want too.

jason manley

[Jason Manley]

well said anthony..well said.


j

[Malachi Maloney]

When I look at this piece, I try not to look to deeply into it.
What catches my eye first is the scarf and the beautiful maroon pattern in it. I think the background is beautifully done but I don't think it has any significance beyond that. The column is very well renderd. However, I don't think it's symbolic of anything other than the opulence of their surroundings. The color scheme is very muddled but it's not so stark that it doesn't work. The only crit I can find is with the young person's hair. The problems of which have already been stated. Other than that, it is a beautiful painting from a true master.

MDM

[ October 20, 2001: Message edited by: Malachi Maloney ]

[edible snowman]

i dont know if i like the thing in the upper left compositionally. its probably supposed to draw your eye back into the picture as opposed to just having black space, but it seems like its a little disjointed from the rest of the painting.

::edit:: i looked at another painting which seems to be a different version of this one. overall i like this one better, buts its a lot easier to see what's going on in that darkened area, so it kind of connects the two more::

[ October 20, 2001: Message edited by: edible snowman ]

[BiGJoN]

I didn't read most of the posts here but here's what I get from it...

THe purpose: The dull focused mirror (?) with the focused child (highlighted head/hair) make me think one thing... when the lady is looking into the mirror she is comparing herself to the child... So its about ageing/beauty. But thats just me. The other things mentioned are also significant to. Especially about the elegant women and the servant. If what I said previously was mixed in with that we get a noble woman envious of a servants beauty. Though she does not look envious. She is pale though which suggests she is not healthy or naturally beautiful... ARGHH! Too much going on... its deep.

I dunno I just wanted to share that.. its an interesting piece. Been a long time since I actually saw a piece that made me stop and think about what it was about...


Thanks for showing it.

[ October 21, 2001: Message edited by: BiGJoN ]

[Freddio]

good Idea Jason..

I think you can add more to this,

isntead of just dealing with the structural frame, maby we could also look at the paintings curtural, post modern, and subjective framework..

where ever they apply.

[Jason Manley]

well said freddio....

Im not sure how to answer those areas of the topic.

I am aware that at the time this was painted that there was a popular interest in foriegn lands and especially the middle east. Artists such as Gerome, Leighton, Alma Tadema etc..went on many travels to gather accurate costumes, maticulously collect cultural items and to do studies for their paintings on site. I think we have to keep in mind that before airplanes and television most people did not see images from foriegn lands. Ideas of these places must have been highly romantic and far from reality based. Leighton and the others picked up on that (or so it seems) and used those images to fascinate the viewers.

I think in terms of art history the salon artists and english groups had finally moved away from strictly religious or political propaganda imagery and into imagery that was either socially responsible (Goya-Meissonier-Daumier) or held dreamy entertainment value (Bouguereau-Gerome-Leighton-the Preraphaelites). Another movement at the time dealt with art about art (whistler) which continues to this day (diebenkorn) then of course you have commissioned art for the rich which was also very popular at the time (sargent-whistler- william merrit chase). Also to be included is art about seeing and visual phenomena(the impressionists).

Out of the above movements Leighton seems to be a story teller with his simple figure compositions. He was an idealist with absolutely wonderful draftsmanship skills who rather than use his art for political reasons or personal expression he chose to use it to entertain.

There are not many people around today that can even compete with him in terms of his abilities to create drapery and tightly render his fugures. As tight as his images are I rarely find them stiff. I really do enjoy his images a lot.

what else can you all think of...to add to this??


jason

[Waldo]

One thing that struck me was the fluidity of the rhythm lines that ran through both figures, particularly the woman, and how easily my eye traveled through the piece. I crudely placed some lines over the image to give an idea of this...


Thank you for the informative post, Jason. Glad to see you're still around. Lunch is on me...

[ October 24, 2001: Message edited by: Waldo ]