The essence of decadence, Progetto fotografico di Tania Brassesco e Lazlo Passi Norberto
Art history meme | 3/8 artists: Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
The iconic tortured artist, Vincent Van Gogh strove to convey his emotional and spiritual state in each of his artworks. Although he sold only one painting during his lifetime, Van Gogh is now one of the most popular artists of all time. His canvases with densely laden, visible brushstrokes rendered in a bright, opulent palette emphasize Van Gogh’s personal expression brought to life in paint. Each painting provides a direct sense of how the artist viewed each scene, interpreted through his eyes, mind, and heart. This radically idiosyncratic, emotionally evocative style has continued to affect artists and movements throughout the twentieth century and up to the present day, guaranteeing Van Gogh’s importance far into the future.
art history meme | 1/5 women: Ophelia
John William Waterhouse - Alexander Cabanel - John Everett Millais
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is the protagonist’s love interest. But she is forgotten by Hamlet amidst his obsession in vengeance. Thus, Ophelia starts losing her mind, particularly after the death of her father by the hands of Hamlet himself. Constantly being promised of love only to be rejected right afterwards, Ophelia grows madder and eventually drowns while picking up flowers by the river.
The theme of Ophelia gained particular interest in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, but it wasn’t exceptional to them, as Alexander Cabanel demonstrates in a romantic death struck by rays of light defined by academism. John Everett Millais drove inspiration of Ophelia and the meaning of her tragedy to another level by painting miss Elizabeth Siddal (an event in which she almost died of hypothermia) surrounded by the flowers that float with her dying body, carrying meaning, and the flowers described in Shakeaspeare’s drama in the bushes, carrying a literary link. John William Waterhouse, a late heritance of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, chose, like several artists before him, to depict Ophelia in her rather innocent madness in an almost idyllic moment.
