Lecture 1: Looking at Film with an Artists' Eye
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A. What Film and Paintings Have and Have not in Common
1. Jan Van Eyck- The Arnolfini Wedding, Flanders 1434
Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Wedding and detail
2. A Priori Criticism vs. Serious Criticism
3. Composition, depth, two dimensionality, the problem of movement
4. Lighting, evocation of sound, color, narrrative, atmosphere, influences
5. Symbolism- St. Margaret, the oranges of the Hesperides
6. Editing and Pace
B. Film Language
1. Lenses- telephoto, fisheye, zoom
2. Set design, subject matter, sound
3. Maximalists and minimalists
4. Style and the Grammar of the Shot
a. Long Establishing Shot
b. Two-Shot
c. Closeup
d. Feel Pan vs. Stationary Camera
e. Low and high angles- cranes and booms
f. Tilt- Disorienting Diagonal/Dutch Angle
g. Panning and Tracking
h. Hand-held camera
i. Zoom
j. Studio Film- stimmung
C. Appreciating Film Style: A Special Film Example (Caution: Viewing may be too intense for some audience members)
Please note cinematic devices used:
Panning and Tracking and Tilting
Various shots- Closeup, Long Shot, Feel Pan
Use of sound and music
Lecture 2: Surveying Art History
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A. -- The Classical Quarry
1. What is the Classical Quarry? It is not a real quarry but an intellectual quarry or source of inspiration for artists of later periods of time. Many of these later artists went back to classical art and ideas (Greek and Roman ideas) to inspire their own work.
2. The Classical Age- the 5th century B.C., particularly in Athens, Greece
a. The Golden Age of Athens and Pericles
b. Realistic yet idealized monumentality of form-- Polyclitus' Doryphoros or Spear bearer ca. 440 B.C. Classical Greece (shown at the right). This is a Roman marble copy of the bronze original.
c. The Parthenon- 447-432 B.C., Athens, Greece [view an image of The Parthenon]
B. The Middle Ages- fusion of Christianized late Roman Empire and migrating tribes in Europe- 5th century A.D. to 14th century A.D.
1. Holy Roman Empire
2. Feudalism
3. Crusades
C. Romanesque Art- France in the 12th century A.D.
1. St. Sernin in Toulouse, France (1070-1120)
2. Sainte-Foy, Conques, France 1050-1140 A.D.- shown in your textbook
3. Characteristics of Romanesque
a. Massive walls, round arches, dark interiors, barrel vaulted nave
b. Dark and foreboding, absence of light and windows
c. Cross shape, apse end
4. St. Lazare, Autun, France- awesome God of Last Judgement, fear of God [view an image from Autun Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Lazare d'Autun)]
For a larger version of this picture, click here.
D. Gothic Art- 13th and 14th centuries A.D.
1. Growth of cities and universities
2. Rise of Humanism, humane God, guilds
3. St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans
4. Notre Dame Cathedral- 1163-1250 A.D. Paris, France
5. Gothic Characteristics-
a. Cluster piers, stained glass, pointed arches
b. Dematerialized spaces, flying buttresses
c. Ribbed vaulting, rose windows, tracery
d. Color and light let into church--different from Romanesque
e. Sculpture- increasingly realistic and less doll-like: Chartres Cathedral
f. Amiens Cathedral- typical High Gothic Style 1220 [view an image of the exterior of Amiens Cathedral and Amiens Cathedral nave]
Lecture 3: From the Renaissance to the Romantic Age
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A. The Renaissance- 14th to 16th centuries
1. Man is the measure of all things
2. Petrarch and the Renaissance Man 1330
3. Development of perspective
4. Order and Reason, powerful families in Italian city-states such as Florence
5. Raphael- 1483-1520 Influence of the Classical Quarry
a. Geometric Arrangements, stately, clear and calm
b. Monumentality and clear light
c. Madonna of the Meadow- 1505
6. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
a. The Mona Lisa ca. 1504 [view an image of a parody of the Mona Lisa]
b. Sfumato
c. perspective
B. The Baroque Period 1600-1715 Italy
1. Religious energy and power
2. Experiments with space, light, drama
3. Caravaggio and the Concept of Tenebrism
a. Chiaroscuro
b. Calling of St. Matthew 1600- tax gatherer and agents
c. Liberation of art, theatricality, forced perspective, dynamism
Conversion of St. Paul by Caravaggio 1601- Baroque Art [view an image of Caravaggio's Conversion of St. Paul]
4. Artemisia Gentileschi- Judith with the Head of Holofernes 1625 i
a. Holofernes is Assyrian general of 6th century B.C.
b. Artemisia is daughter of a follower of Caravaggio
5. Rembrandt-1606- 1669 Dutch art, Return of the Prodigal Son [view an image of Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son, 1665- Dutch Baroque]
a. The psychology of light
b. Influential on theater and cinema
6. Borromini- 17th century Italian Baroque architect of St. Carlo, church in Rome [view an image of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane]
C. Rococo Period in France 1715-1800
1. Reaction to the power of Baroque
2. Germain Boffrand, Hotel de Soubise, Paris, France 1737-1740
3. François de Cuvillies (1695-1768) Hall of Mirrors, Amalienburg at Nymphenburg, Castle in Munich, Germany, decorated by Zimmerman and Dietrich in 1734
a. Light and delicate, pale, cluttered, putti or cherub figures, love themes, playful
b. Contrast to Borromini [view an image of The Amalienburg at Nymphenburg (interior view)]-- a typical Rococo interior
4. Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)- The Swing 1766 [view an image of Fragonard's The Swing]
