Baroque Art

 I have chosen a work done by Judith Leyster, her work of Two Children with a Cat. She created this piece of art with oil on canvas back in 1629. She was a Dutch painter from 1609-1660.

Judith Leyster created a work that shows motion or a moment in time that shows an illusion of motion.  It looks as though this piece of work can come to life any moment, almost as though you can hear the children laughing a playing. The Renaissance period showed works of art that portrayed naturalism and harmony, her work has a heightened realism.  

Leyster uses dramatic changes in color in this painting, shades from very dark to bright highlights.  This use of dramatic changes really catches the eye of viewers, including mine. This characteristic of being overly exaggerated with darks and lights is another character of the Baroque period. I can appreciate the deep rich colors expressed in this painting, especially the bright red cap to the blue buttons of the kids coat, and finally the black fur of the cat. 

Not only is the colors catching of the kids, she also makes the portraits pop more with the dark contrast of her back ground painting. Looks like you are seeing proper use of lighting and the shadow of a wall in the back ground brings light to the painting very well. 

This portrait captures a moment in time. There are no staging of this painting, the kids certainly cannot hold this stance very long, so much as a the can sit still. This way this painter captures this moment in time is awe struck and very talented. The way the children are splayed out in action shows that this is not a naturalistic work but rather dramatic. 

After the Thirty Year War, many of the nations that were controlled under the Habsburg Empire were created sovereign nations that were able to control their lands.  After this long war, the nations had moved into expressions in art, and Dutch artists arose from this period with a new look on art. Art was becoming a new found interest of all levels of society. 

I would love to own a copy of this painting for my self, it portrays a happy moment in children's lives.  I enjoy seeing the joys of my children and how happy and playful they are.  This work of art portrays utter happiness with the use of contrast colors. I am not too sure the backstory to this work but can definitely relate to seeing happy kids around the house.  



Resources

“Web Gallery of Art, Searchable Fine Arts Image Database.” Www.wga.hu, www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/l/leyster/index.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2021.

Web Gallery of Art, searchable fine arts image database (wga.hu)

Comments

  1. Rizza MaeMarch 2, 2021 at 12:29 AM

    Hello Heather,

    You made a great post about the painting! I also observed that the painting does really portray a motion, it looks like a photograph of the kids and the cat. The most appealing part of the work that you presented is how you recognize the colors used. The Baroque art has mostly dark and blackened background, and the color used in the painting shows more life as the color pops from the dark background. Also, I appreciate that you add the interesting information about the Thirty Year War. I think owning a copy like this painting is great especially when you have kids. It can remind them to live and be carefree just the kids in the painting happily playing with the cat.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Blog Post Introduction

Image
 Hello,      My name is Heather Kangas. I live here in Fairbanks, Alaska and am attending college for my degree as a Physicians Assistant. I am currently a junior this semester, and am attending part time.  I have a long history working in the health field and wish to continue. I am currently a Certified Medical Assistant working part time also, along with raising my three children.  We love to fish, hunt, camp, and gather for subsistence lifestyle.   http://www.gustavklimt.net/the-kiss/ I am not a huge art person, my strengths lie with things more like math and science. I did take a ceramics course back in high school once, which I really enjoyed.  During our Anatomy and Physiology class back in high school and college, we were required to draw or sketch alot of our anatomy learning, which I enjoyed very much as well. I do not own any art pieces my self, we do more of our home decor with pictures of our adventures here in Alaska. I have not really attended any First Fridays or attend
Read more

Art Elements

Image
 I chose the art piece done by Dennis Wojkiewicz, Rosettes Series #16. His work is oil painting on canvas. There is not set date or year that he created this work that I could find. He had created most of his work between the years 1978-1983. I was chosen to this picture by the attention to detail, the visual appeal of how realistic is looks, and because I love Grapefruit.  When I first came across this painting, I thought it was a picture that captured the perfect lighting. This image, I feel, leaves one feeling in awe, almost very surprised. This work of art seems very refreshing or could be part of a picture to a commercial to a refreshing grapefruit beverage. I find that the very realistic aspect to the photo is very eye catching once you realize that this is a painting and not a picture.  There is not much of a backstory or a reason why I chose this art, other than that it has really popped out to me. The only way I can relate to the painting, is that my favorite fruit to enjoy is
Read more