Burns 1 Brandon Burns Ms.

Sosa Art 6H February 25, 2014 Object #6 (Oil on Canvas, 72cm by 97cm)

Description: In this painting, titled Object #6 (oil on canvas, 72x97 cm.), we can visually see two detailed figures playing chess, surrounded in green nature, and two other figures spectating the same game of chess. All of the figures appear to be wealthy females dressed in luxurious renaissance clothing, except for the eldest woman who is dressed modestly. The age of the women varies from a young child to a near elderly woman. Roughly centered on the painting, but slightly to the left, there is a smiling young girl who is dressed in expensive, olive-drab colored late northern renaissance era clothing. She, along with the other three women, is outside and is framed by a large, dark, and leafy oak tree behind her that covers much of the detailed background. In the portion of the canvas that in not covered by the oak tree, we can see a patch of bluish mountains and a lone structure in the distance that is lightly hazed over using the sfumato technique to give a sense of distance. The smiling child is looking at an older

Burns 2 adolescent girl playing chess on the black team on the right side of the canvas. This adolescent is dressed in the same fashion as the child, but her shirt is colored dark navy blue with gold sleeves. The adolescent, who is perhaps slightly annoyed, is raising her hand in a gesture that could either be signaling the end of her turn or requesting the attention of her adversary. She is looking at her opponent who is on the opposite side of the black and ivory chessboard at the opposite end of the canvas, which is the left end in this case. Her opponent is a middle aged but still young woman who could possibly be the mother of the two younger girls but there is no evidence to support this theory other than the closeness of the people, the personal setting, and the feeling of family that you get from the expressions on the face of the figures. This adult is dressed in bright blue shirt and light red sleeves that contrasts the adolescents dark clothing. Unlike all of the other figures, this woman stares out towards the viewer and covers most of the space on the canvas, which could suggest that she is the focal point of the painting. Finally, across from her, behind the adolescent, on the farthest upper-right of the canvas there is a much older woman whose body lies mostly off of the canvas except for her head and a section of her shoulders. She is dressed much differently that the other three women in a white headdress and dress which, to me, appears to be the uniform of either a maid or religious woman. Because the elderly womans clothing is in such stark contrast compared to the other three women, it can be assumed that she is not part of the group in the same way that the three other women are. Her main purpose in the painting may be to balance the figures and make the painting more symmetrical. In general detail, the artist makes good use of the sfumato method in the background by hazing over the distant mountains and river. Another technique this artist used is chiaroscuro, which is the shading and lightening of areas of a painting to give more three-dimensional depth and realism. The chiaroscuro on the faces of the figures is applied skillfully and carefully in this painting, every detail is very deliberate. This chiaroscuro along with the sfumato technique gives the painting a great sense of depth that makes the overall picture of the women playing chess outside in nature a very complexly composed artwork.

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Analysis: This artwork is structured more or less symmetrically. The two figures on the right are balanced by two figures on the left and all of the figures are in front of a backdrop of delicately painted trees, grass, and landscape that has been made to seem far away using sfumato. The figures are painted in oil with very soft, flowing lines and expressive faces. The chiaroscuro technique is also used to accentuate the foreheads and skin of the hands with light and darkness to aide in the illusion of depth for the viewer. Nearly all lines, objects, and figures are painted with a sort of bloom effect that, in conjunction with the properties of oil paint, causes everything to appear very soft and smooth. In this painting, there is a sense of directional force in the soft organic shapes of the people and rigid geometric shaping of the table and chessboard. The child's eyes look to the adolescent, whose upright arm leads your eyes down to her left arm which trails you leftwards across the chessboard and up the arm of the adult who is staring back at the viewer. All directional force, even the eyes of the maid who also look toward the adolescents upright arm, points back to the face of the adult woman who stares back towards the viewer. The way the artist composed the painting causes some of the women to appear moving while others seem still. The raised hand of the adolescent appears to have just moved or about to move and the smile of the child suggests movement as she looks to be laughing. Even the maid seems to be leaning in, creating a sense of implied motion there as well. The middle aged adult, however, does not appear to be moving; She appears to be frozen in the picture which is strange when compared to the other figures. Size wise, while all characters are proportionally correct, the woman who looks at the viewer takes up considerably more space on the piece than the other women, which suggests, as does the clear directional force towards her, that she is the subject of this painting; she could possibly even be associated with the patron, be the patron herself. The size of the painting is 72cm by 97cm, a size that tells us this was clearly meant to be displayed and it is painted in oil with excellent use of bright

Burns 4 reds and gold that contrast dark blues and greens. The implied movement of the three other women versus the middle aged woman who appears still is an interesting choice of composition that causes the still woman to appear in more of a portrait pose rather than a natural pose that someone would adopt while playing chess. It is clear that the painting was composed in this way to put the focus on the adult woman.

Interpretation: This painting, by my estimation, was painted in the late northern renaissance. There are three characteristics of late renaissance artwork that tells me this piece is from the late renaissance and three characteristics of northern artwork that tell me it is from the northern renaissance. The three distinctions of late renaissance artwork recognized in this painting are the popularization of fully secular imagery, the almost complete separation from the gothic style, and the use of new and innovative techniques such as linear perspective, sfumato, and chiaroscuro. Clear examples of sfumato can be seen in the mountains in the background as they are all hazed over and misty because of the atmospheric conditions that the artist is trying to simulate. An example of sfumato and chiaroscuro in the late Italian renaissance can be found in the famous Leonardo da Vincis later version The Virgin of the Rocks (14951508, oil on panel, 189.5cm by 47.25cm) where, in the backdrop, he also hazes and blurs the background to add atmospheric perspective to the work and on the figures, he cleverly uses light and shadow to emphasize the faces to enhance the realism. Notice how when compared to gothic art, Leonardos Virgin of the Rocks and Object #6 have little to no similarities and have shifted focus from religious intent in the gothic period, to realistic painting which is indicative of the renaissance. Another trend in the late renaissance specifically, which pertains to Object #6, was the detachment of the church in art and a shift towards secular imagery. During the time period around the 1480s and 90s, the roman church was losing power and as a result the popularity of secular imagery increased. More and more of

Burns 5 the wealthy merchants began commissioning art for secular purposes and it is clear that Object #6 is secular in that it has no religious iconography. By reviewing and contrasting against other paintings of the time and knowing the history of the time, we can clearly see that Object #6 is from the later renaissance. Another simple fact is that it was only after the examples of artworks by the great artists of the renaissance such as Leonardo and Michelangelo had been created that the level of realism shown in this artwork could be achieved. This painting is also unmistakably from the north during the time of the renaissance. Referring back to the three characteristics of northern renaissance art mentioned early, the three traits comparable to northern art in this painting are the scenes of nature, the northern styled clothing, and the fact that the women are not idealized (this was most common in Italian art for the time). It should be noted that although three out of four of the women do appear very clean and are dressed in luxurious clothing, they are not idealized. Idealization was not the popular style of northern artists, but instead of the Italians who strived for the perfect image of man and space. In this case our figures are normal, albeit wealthy, folks who appear not to be idealized. A second fact is their clothing is quite clearly northern styled; northerners commonly painted northern clothing and Italians painted Italian clothing. The third clue to the origins of this piece is the fact that the women playing chess are outdoors. They could have been in a pavilion or home but they are intentionally placed outdoors. The northerners had an admiration for nature and commonly painted landscapes, animals, and included bits of the outdoors in much of their art. Albrecht Drer, an well known German painter of the late northern renaissance, writes about art, proportions, and nature among other subjects in Book III of the Four Books on Human Proportions (c. 1528) when he says this: For verily art is embedded in nature; he who can extract it [from nature], has it (Drer, pg N/A). Drer states that art is one and the same with nature; if you can capture the art from within nature, than you have captured the true essence of art. He goes on to say that nature is the creation of God, whom is perfect, so the perfect example of art in his mind and in the minds of northerners would be in nature, so it is often included in northern renaissance

Burns 6 art. This is a similar belief of Italians of the time who believed that perfection through God lied in geometry and math. Another example of northern artwork that includes nature is Pieter Bruegels Hunters in the Snow (1565, oil on wood panel, 117cm by 162cm). Bruegels painting includes much more outdoor scenery with its large, cold landscape and busy, snowy townscape. It is much bigger in size than Object #6 but it is still a great example of the northern love for nature. There are four figures here, in Object #6, all playing or watching a game of chess outdoors but all of the directional force leads back to one woman: The woman in the blue and bright red shirt. She is the only figure to face the viewer, she is the endpoint of all directional force, and she is the only figure that appears static. This leads me to believe the intention of this painting was to be a portrait. Not only a do I believe it is a portrait, but I will say that it is also a portrait featuring the personality of the subject. Keith Christiansen and Stefan Weppelmann write in their book The Renaissance Portrait: from Donatello to Bellini (2011) that *Portraiture+ is a work that skillfully balances the demands of immediate recognition with those of longterm recognition (Christiansen/Weppelmann, pg 5). In other words the function of the portrait is to have the viewer immediately recognize the subject, to provide the subject long-term recognition, but also, according various other examples of renaissance portraiture, the portrait is also an advertisement of ones assets and/or traits. I theorize that instead of this portraits only purpose as a display of assets or traits, she may be displaying some aspect of her personality as well. It is possible that playing chess could signify her and her daughters, or who I assume to be her daughter, intellect by playing a game such as chess and that she as a person enjoys intellectual endeavors. The expensive clothing is obviously meant to show her social status and the fourth old woman could possibly be her maid which would further enhance her status as it tells the viewer she can afford such a luxury. But the fact that she is painted playing and laughing with and among whom I theorize to be her daughters makes me believe that she also wanted the viewer to know that she is family oriented, or perhaps that it is her role to take care of children. A painting as large as this and set in this particularly way is clearly a picture that is

Burns 7 meant to be seen, to advertise her social status, but possibly to also display some degree of her personality. An allegorical reference to personality in this way would be innovative for a painter of the time.

Personal Connection: This painting, named Object #6, called to me because of the expressions on the little girls face and the strange gaze of the adult woman though the other subjects where facing other ways. If I had to be more honest than that, I would say that I selected this piece because it was the most clearly identifiable painting for me and from first glance I was easily able to tell it was from the late northern renascence. As far as the visual qualities of the work go, I really enjoyed studying the realism of the faces and the accurate depiction of the smiling child. The artist paints a clear picture of the joy of a laughing child and you can feel it when you see this child; it was something that I found when properly appreciated, could turn the corner of my mouth into a slight smile. I also noticed how incredibly detailed and decorated the adolescents clothing is. She has the frills and pearls lining much of her clothing and she has the shining gold sleeves and gold lacing that contrasts beautifully with the deep navy blue. Now that I am mentioning it I notice that by comparison, the adolescent is dressed more flamboyantly than whom I perceive to be her mother and the main subject of the painting, the adult in the blue and red shirt. What importance does this detail have? It is strange that a side character, who isnt of as much importance as the main character, would be further adorned. Apart from that little mystery, I still believe that this is a portrait done in a much different style for the time and it is meant to signify more than what is readable by me and perhaps is now only readable the original patron, who could see all of the intended messages originally painted.

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Works Cited:

Albrecht Drer - the Four Books on Human Proportions; c. 1528 Keith Christiansen, Stefan Weppelmann - the Renaissance Portrait: From Donatello to Bellini; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011