0:02 hello class in today's lecture video
0:04 we're going to be talking about themes
0:05 that are presented in
0:11 so for the purpose of this class what
0:12 we're going to be looking at
0:14 is eight themes which are listed on this
0:16 page you have the sacred realm
0:18 politics and social order stories in history
0:19 history
0:21 looking outward the here and now looking
0:23 inward the human experience
0:26 invention and fantasy the natural world
0:28 and art and art
0:29 now it's not to say that these are the
0:31 only eight themes
0:32 that you can talk about when you're
0:34 discussing art these are just the ones
0:36 that we're going to be talking about in
0:37 this class so this week we'll be
0:39 focusing on the first three
0:41 the sacred realm politics and social
0:43 order and social or stories in history
0:45 and then next week is when we're going
0:46 to cover the remaining five
0:50 as far as our themes looking up
0:52 is what's called the sacred realm the
0:53 sacred realm of the
0:55 spirit includes gods and goddesses
0:57 spirits of ancestors
0:59 spirits of nature and this idea of one
1:01 god and one god alone
1:04 so all of which has to do with these
1:06 universal questions of man
1:08 the nature of the human condition so who
1:10 made the universe how did life begin
1:13 what is its purpose what happens to us
1:16 after we pass away so this idea of faith
1:18 and from the earliest times art has
1:19 played an important role in our
1:21 relationship to the sacred
1:23 helping us to envision it to honor it
1:24 and to communicate with
1:27 it the first artwork that your book gives
1:28 gives
1:30 is saint chappelle that goes along with
1:32 this idea of the sacred realm this is
1:35 located in paris from 1243 to 1248
1:38 this particular chapel housed the relics
1:40 of pieces of the true cross
1:43 as well as the crown of thorns it was a
1:44 private chapel that was intended to be
1:47 used for a french king and his court
1:49 so some of the ideas the things that are
1:51 done artistically to be able to enhance
1:53 the idea of spirituality in the sacred
1:55 realm within this structure
1:58 is the height of the interior the knave
1:59 that we're seeing here
2:01 so very tall soaring up towards the ceiling
2:02 ceiling
2:05 this idea that heaven is above us and so
2:07 the closer we can kind of reach towards
2:08 that heaven
2:11 that concept is being represented in
2:13 this particular architectural structure
2:17 we also have an abundance of gold that's
2:18 being represented
2:19 this is characteristic of a byzantine
2:21 time period
2:23 the idea of christ is the light of the
2:24 world and
2:27 using gold to be able to make that um
2:30 that iconography that symbolization
2:31 within the piece
2:33 we also have stained glass so that's
2:34 another idea of the light that's
2:36 entering through
2:39 the windows itself creating this kind of
2:41 like dazzling radiant effect
2:44 very otherworldly so the glory of
2:47 heaven and those different concepts are
2:48 being represented in
2:51 the architectural features within this
2:56 another building that your book gives to
2:58 be able to represent the idea of the
3:00 sacred realm is the great mosque of
3:02 cordoba this is located in spain
3:05 and it's been expanded on several times
3:06 but in multiple editions
3:09 so the time span goes over the 8th to
3:11 the 10th century
3:14 so in this case what we're seeing in our
3:15 hypo style hall which is going to be the
3:17 image that's on your left here so
3:19 hypostyle hall means
3:21 literally a forest of columns so you
3:23 have several columns that are being
3:25 incorporated here and the columns
3:28 themselves were actually
3:31 used they were for a previous culture
3:33 and they were discarded
3:35 and kind of set off to the side and what
3:37 ends up happening is when the muslims
3:39 come into spain
3:41 they see the columns that are there they
3:43 incorporate those columns as more of a
3:45 utilitarian structure these are already
3:46 features that are here
3:48 we might as well use them but the
3:50 problem is is they're not tall enough so
3:52 what ends up happening is we have the
3:54 creation of this double
3:57 horseshoe arch that's being represented
4:00 we also have the multi-lobed arch that's
4:01 being seen
4:03 in the image that's at the bottom right
4:05 corner and then the dome that's being
4:07 represented in the top right corner
4:10 is showing us the dome
4:13 of paradise so here we see a lot of
4:14 floral motifs
4:17 we see calligraphy part of the islamic religion
4:18 religion
4:22 is that the images of god muhammad
4:24 these are all forbidden so what we end
4:26 up seeing predominantly
4:30 is going to be images of floral motifs
4:31 geometric patterns
4:33 decorative script so that's what we're
4:35 seeing within the
4:38 imagery that's in that top dome there so
4:39 in both
4:43 images we're seeing the idea of
4:45 the worshipers kind of taking away from the
4:46 the
4:47 everyday world that's kind of shut out
4:49 we're being transported
4:52 into this essentially kind of sacred place
4:56 now religious images they serve to focus
4:58 the thoughts and the faithful
5:01 by giving concrete form to very abstract
5:03 ideas and we have two images that we can
5:04 kind of compare here
5:06 the image that's on the left is our
5:08 transcendent buddha of the cell from tibet
5:08 tibet
5:11 13th century opaque watercolor and cloth
5:13 and then the image that's on the right
5:15 here is madonna and thrown by chimbu
5:18 so we notice that we have at about the
5:19 same time period
5:21 two completely different religions representing
5:23 representing
5:26 some of the main individuals within that religion
5:27 religion
5:30 in very similar ways so the one on the
5:31 left we have buddha
5:34 we notice that he is larger than all of
5:36 the other figures within the composition
5:38 he's centrally located um
5:41 the main focus is essentially on him
5:44 same thing with mary and christ in our
5:46 image that's on the right here
5:49 they're also larger centrally located we
5:50 have some of the other figures that are
5:52 kind of pointing or even looking
5:55 up towards them so this concept is
5:56 what's referred to
5:58 as hierarchical scale when we want to
6:00 show a figure being more important than
6:02 some of the other figures and the main focus
6:03 focus
6:04 there's a couple different ways that we
6:06 can do that we can make them larger
6:07 we can put them in the center we can
6:09 have other figures kind of drawing their
6:11 attention towards that figure
6:13 so that's something that we see within
6:14 both of these images
6:16 now even though we're in completely
6:18 different locations the world different religions
6:18 religions
6:21 we're using very similar conventions to
6:27 the second theme that we have is
6:30 referred to as politics and social order
6:33 so these specific questions that we have
6:35 when we start to develop as a culture
6:37 and start to develop cities things like that
6:37 that
6:41 um the answers to these questions that
6:44 arise are oftentimes depicted
6:48 in artwork throughout history
6:50 so the first piece that we're looking at
6:52 is the pyramids of giza
6:56 so this isn't three pyramids that we're
6:57 seeing here
6:58 the largest one is actually the one
7:01 that's farthest away from us so
7:02 it's going to be the pyramid that's on
7:05 the right hand side of the composition
7:08 that is a pyramid dedicated to khufu
7:11 the one in the center is caffrey his son
7:12 and then the smallest one that's closest
7:13 to us
7:16 is mankari which would be kafri's son
7:18 so in ancient egypt the belief here is
7:20 that a pharaoh is actually considered a god
7:21 god
7:22 not only do they mediate between the
7:24 gods but they are considered gods
7:26 themselves they have ultimate power
7:28 that's after absolute after death the
7:30 pharaoh would return to reside with the
7:33 gods so the burial served as not only a
7:34 pride of the pharaoh during the time
7:35 that they reigned
7:37 but it also served as a place of worship
7:40 for god after they passed away
7:44 so the size of the structures here
7:46 and the amount of work that went into
7:48 making them the engineering
7:50 of all of that that attached to the
7:52 power of
7:55 the pharaoh at the time so not only does
7:56 the pyramids of giza
8:00 serve as this concept of
8:02 politics and social order this can also
8:04 be associated with the sacred realm because
8:05 because
8:07 the pharaoh is a god and this idea of
8:09 life after death those are all concepts
8:09 that are
8:12 incorporated within that theme and then
8:13 the next theme that we are going to look
8:15 at is going to be stories in history
8:16 which is another theme that could be
8:20 associated with our pyramids at giza
8:23 our equestrian statue of marcus aurelius
8:25 so this is from rome the year 800.
8:28 before our modern mass media it was art that
8:29 that
8:31 served as a means of being able to
8:33 project the presence of the authority of
8:34 the rulers
8:37 any time you had an emperor that came
8:38 into power
8:41 his exact likeness so they take a mold
8:43 of the face of the figure
8:45 and then that would be sent to all the
8:47 artists throughout the roman empire and
8:48 they would start working
8:51 to make copies so that everybody in the roman
8:52 roman
8:55 empire knew exactly what the ruler would
8:57 have looked like at that time
8:59 so that's something that we see within
9:00 this particular image it's very important
9:01 important
9:04 to be able to project that presence to a
9:08 large area and large amount of people
9:11 without the ability to have tv and
9:16 liberty leading the people is going to
9:19 be an artwork that is not necessarily for
9:19 for
9:22 the person who's in charge our leader at
9:24 this time but this is actually for
9:27 the lower and the middle class and so
9:29 it's the people here
9:32 that are kind of uprising and going over
9:32 the king
9:36 at this time in france so
9:38 what we see with this particular artwork um
9:40 um
9:43 the context here so this is about the
9:46 revolution of 1830 specifically the july
9:48 uprising against the
9:50 bourbon king charles the 10th resulting
9:53 in louis felipe becoming a citizen king
9:54 so the french government would go into
9:56 the homes in the middle of the night of
9:58 many of the
10:00 civilians at that time and they would
10:02 take entire families and murder them
10:04 they would then bring their bodies into
10:06 the middle of the town center
10:08 so when everybody woke up the next
10:10 morning they would see this entire
10:12 family that's been executed by the
10:13 french government
10:15 and this was a means of intimidation so
10:17 that the people would not
10:20 uprise and go against the king at the time
10:21 time
10:23 but that's exactly what ends up
10:24 happening the people
10:26 want to fight for their rights and they
10:27 go against the king
10:29 so the composition here there's a couple
10:31 different things that are added
10:32 we have what's called a pyramidal
10:35 composition so if you notice the apex of
10:36 the triangle that we're seeing here this pyramid
10:37 pyramid
10:39 is where the flag is at the top that
10:40 liberty is holding
10:42 then we can follow that and make a triangle
10:43 triangle
10:46 down to each of the corners of the
10:48 composition at the bottom there
10:51 we have this idea of personification so liberty
10:52 liberty
10:55 is a an idea it's not actually a person
10:57 and so when we take that idea and we put
10:58 it into bodily form
11:00 that's what's referred to as a personification
11:02 personification
11:04 the subject here there's quite a few
11:06 things that the artist is doing to bring
11:08 the whole piece together
11:11 so we're seeing this idea the common
11:13 cause here so it doesn't matter
11:16 how wealthy you are if you're young if
11:17 you're old
11:19 if you're black if you're white we the
11:21 people the french people are going to
11:23 come together and we are going to go against
11:23 against
11:25 and fight for our rights go against the
11:27 king at the time
11:29 so we see that being represented here so
11:32 this is what's called a conceptual unity
11:35 we also see a chromatic unity that's
11:36 being formed so
11:38 the red white and blue are the most
11:40 predominant colors in that flag that
11:41 we're seeing at the top there
11:43 this red white and blue is being
11:45 repeated throughout the rest of the
11:47 image so we're also seeing
11:48 some of the red and blue on the french
11:51 soldiers the white of the
11:54 nightgown that the french civilian who
11:56 was murdered is wearing so
11:58 these colors are repeated over and over
11:59 and over again
12:01 which helps to bring the entire
12:02 composition together
12:04 so that's what's referred to as
12:09 the next artwork that we have is what's
12:12 called guernica this is by pablo picasso
12:15 um so we have um our context here a
12:17 little background so the germans wanted
12:18 to test aerial bombing
12:21 to see if it could wipe out an entire
12:22 city um this
12:26 happening at the time of world war ii
12:29 where hitler is in power and what ends
12:31 up happening is on april 28th
12:34 the year 1937 we
12:37 they test this on a small city a town by
12:38 the name
12:41 of guernica and so what pablo picasso is
12:43 doing here is he's protesting against
12:45 the brutality of war and tyranny
12:47 and so he does this in a way the
12:49 composition um the size
12:52 of the painting is very very large we're talking
12:52 talking
12:55 a little over 11 feet by a little over
12:56 25 feet
12:59 so just the size of it kind of uh adds
13:00 to that idea
13:03 of the protest kind of
13:07 in your face type concept this
13:08 the fact that we're using just black and
13:11 white and we're getting the feel that
13:12 it's almost kind of like a newsprint
13:13 especially with the small dashes that
13:15 are placed on some of the figures in the center
13:16 center
13:19 that's also he's essentially announcing
13:20 to the news
13:23 to the people this event that happens
13:24 he's combining
13:26 two different styles here it's what's
13:29 called analytic and synthetic cubism
13:32 but the subject is just supposed to
13:34 display extreme pain and anguish
13:38 he painted this and it was actually held
13:41 in a museum of modern art in new york
13:44 until francisco franco
13:46 who was the fascist leader leader who
13:49 was in charge at the time died and then
13:51 after his death it was allowed to be
13:53 returned to madrid
13:57 the capital of spain
14:00 so the image here
14:03 it's not only politics and social order
14:04 that's being represented but another
14:06 concept that we see here is the sacred realm
14:07 realm
14:08 there are two figures on either side of
14:10 the composition so if we look on the
14:11 left side
14:13 we have a mother figure holding a dying
14:15 child here this is a representation of
14:16 the pie top
14:18 it's supposed to be a symbol of mary
14:20 holding her dead son
14:22 christ and same thing with that figure
14:23 that we're seeing all the way on the
14:24 right side of the composition that has
14:26 the arms up
14:27 even though the arms are kind of more in
14:29 a vertical orientation
14:31 it is supposed to be a representation of
14:32 the crucifixion
14:35 so we are seeing that concept of the
14:37 sacred realm being represented in this
14:39 piece along with
14:41 obviously stories and history as this is
14:43 a moment a specific event that happened
14:49 so stories in history are is a theme that
14:49 that
14:52 shares stories to be able to create a
14:54 sense of community
14:58 within the artwork so this could be
15:00 deeds of heroes the lives of saints folk
15:02 tales all of these kind of shared
15:03 stories that we passed down from one
15:09 the ramanana which is an image that
15:10 we're seeing here
15:13 of rama and lakshmana being bound by
15:14 arrow snakes
15:17 this is something that is showing
15:20 a story that represents
15:24 your your specific role within
15:28 each individual relationship that you
15:28 have so
15:30 it's all about behavior it's about your
15:32 dharma so
15:35 the story that's being represented in
15:36 india would have been something that
15:39 every child would have learned
15:40 kind of growing up so it'd be something
15:42 that you would be very familiar with
15:44 so what the artist is doing here is he's
15:46 using what's called space cells
15:48 so we're using separate parts in the
15:49 composition to represent different
15:51 aspects of a story
15:53 it's a very long story that is being told
15:54 told
15:56 so we're seeing different aspects of the
15:58 beginning the middle the end of that story
15:59 story
16:06 alter to the chase's high school this is
16:08 a piece that
16:11 we have an artist who has taken a photograph
16:12 photograph
16:14 and he has enlarged some of the images
16:16 of the photograph the photograph is actually
16:17 actually
16:20 a class picture from
16:23 a all jewish school and this is right at
16:24 the time
16:28 uh before the start of world war
16:31 ii so what he's done here is he's taken
16:32 three images
16:33 because he's enlarged them they seem
16:35 very blurry he's added lamps on top of them
16:36 them
16:38 and some boxes so he's drawing on the
16:40 historical event of the holocaust
16:41 the mass murder of jews and other
16:43 populations by the nazis during world war
16:43 war
16:47 ii um so the different aspects in this
16:48 particular piece
16:50 they depending on the individual they
16:52 can kind of represent different things
16:54 so the lamps that are above the figures
16:56 they can be interpreted
16:58 as the interrogation lamps that were
17:00 used by the nazis
17:02 they can also be interpreted as kind of halos
17:03 halos
17:06 to go over the figures that have passed
17:08 away in the holocaust
17:10 the boxes can refer to some of their
17:12 personal belongings that they have lost
17:13 in the holocaust
17:16 maybe possibly the ashes of the cremated
17:18 remains of the individuals
17:20 so here we're referring to a historical
17:22 event and we're taking
17:25 um the several different mediums to be
17:27 able to
17:29 represent that particular event in history
17:30 history
17:32 so that's the last image that we're
17:33 going to be looking at for
17:36 part one of our themes of art and make
17:38 sure that after you're done watching the video
17:38 video
17:40 you're participating in the discussion
