Moments of English: Response #3

In 1612, Artemisia Gentileschi completed her painting, Judith Slaying Holofernes. The inspiration for this painting comes from an Old Testament story in the Book of Judith, in which Judith, a widow, uses her good looks to sneak into Holofernes’, an army general, tent and gets him drunk enough to pass out and then behead him. At first glance, the painting is nothing but a gruesome murder scene. With closer examination and context, it’s a great deal more than that. Judith Slaying Holofernes is composed of harsh lighting, a combination of warm and cool colors, a sense of motion, a sense of feminism, and realism, which are all agencies that play into the main message Gentileschi is trying to convey, the theme of right vs. wrong and the fine line between the two.

Lighting

Notice the lighting. There is a harsh and bright light coating half of the faces if the two women, Judith and her ladies maid. This light causes a dark shadows all around the painting, specifically on Holofernes. Gentileschi does this to symbolize that Judith and her accomplice are not bad people, but people who decided to fix things for themselves, hence them being mostly covered in in a golden-ish light, a common symbol of goodness and right. But in contrast, Judith and her aid also have these dark shadows that cover the other halves of their faces, which could mean that the act they are committing is wrong, but is for the greater good and that is why the golden light outweighs the shadows. The act of right outweighs bad connotations.

Color

Judith and her maid are dressed in cool colors (Judith) and warm colors (maid and Holofernes). Judith is depicted in gold, in biblical terms; gold is a color that represents purification and righteousness. Judith is displayed in this color because she truly believes what she is doing is right and that she is ridding the world of a horrible individual and that his death will bring more benefits than consequences. Judith’s maid is painted in a dark amber color which can represent a strong godly spirit, which Judith’s maid would probably need to be able to convince herself to aid Judith in beheading Holofernes. Holofornes is draped with a red cloth, a color that means sins or sinful actions, a fitting color for him. These colors play into the overall theme that there is a thin line between right and wrong and that it can be interpreted in many ways.

Sense of Motion/Act

There is a chaotic sense of motion portrayed in this painting. The way Holofernes hand is gripping Judith’s maid’s collar gives the audience the motion of struggle. It’s easy to imagine the fight that Holofernes is putting up, sticking against Judith’s maid, flailing his legs about, and trying to somehow stay alive. The way Judith holds the dagger conveys the motion of sawing through his flesh and bone until the head pops off. This motion supplies the emotion of anger and determination. Lastly, the audience gets a sense of the blood spurting out of his body. The blood is rendered with it flowing up out of his body and with a slight curve in the stream, making the idea of motion more prevalent

Feminism

There is a bit of irrational feministic ideals at play in this piece, specifically, the depiction of woman conquering man. It’s not about equality for Gentileschi; it’s about domination and revenge. In her lifetime, Gentileschi was raped by a work associate of her father. While her rapist was sentenced to prison, Gentileschi lived with the aftermath for the rest of her life and that comes across in her work. She represents Holofernes as being held down and murdered by two women, two women who are standing up for something they believe in. It’s an act of revenge fueled by feminism.

Realism

Gentileschi executes her painting very realistically. The way she depicts the human body is very realistic and proportional, there is no sense of the human body being exaggerated or stretched to the point of nonrealistic. The muscles in Holofernes body are visible and accurately represented. The scene is highly plausible and could be executed with a dagger by two women undoubtedly. The blood also plays into the realism; the way it shoots out of his neck and drips down on the bed behind him is pretty truthfully. The fact that Gentileschi depicts this scene in such a way causes the viewer to think of the reality that takes place within the frame. And it aids the theme of right vs. wrong. By making it so realistic, audience members are forced to think that if such an act is capable, would they do it as well?

Gentileschi is using this piece to convey one message, that the line between right and wrong is very thin. Judith and her maid are in the right for fixing what they saw was wrong in their world, for taking matters into their own hands. But taking revenge in such a way could be seen as wrong. The piece offers a bit of perspective. The idea of wrong and right lies in the minds of the viewer. And Gentileschi uses these subthemes to help express this message. Her message is being communicated first through painting, but more so through Judith.

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh is a well-known Post-Impressionist Dutch painter. In his lifetime, Van Gogh was unpopular and suffered from a mental illness. Starry Night was finished in 1889, just over a year before he committed suicide. Starry Night is one of his most famous pieces that exhibit a strong use of color, motion, line work, a contrasting scene, and the abstraction of reality. All of these factors, or agencies, work together to represent Van Gogh’s message that reality is all about perception and perception differs from person to person.

Color

The colors Van Gogh uses are very calm and cool colors in various shades. Streaks of light blue and dark blue and hints of green create circles in the sky. The most striking color is the yellow moon that seems to radiating across the sky. Yellow is a warm color, and the moon is not normally or realistically seen as yellow. These colors are calming and are visually relaxing to the viewer but also create this sky that is not usually seen by the audience. The audience is used to seeing a single, solid colored sky, a sky of reality. But Van Gogh builds this sky of multiple colors, in multiple shades that swirl and streak across the sky. These colors are the first agency in Van Gogh’s message of reality. Through these colors Van Gogh’s perception of reality, or something of realistic like the sky, is very obviously different from the audience. And the colors cause the audience to begin to question their own perception of reality.

Motion

A sense of motion also steams from the sky and is a supporting agency in Van Gogh’s overall message. Typically when viewers look at the sky they see solid thing, there is no movement, not even a single inch. But Van Gogh’s perception of reality of the sky is presented with wild movement, as the wind blows the colors of sky across it. Swirls and lines dance across Van Gogh’s sky, making something ordinary and concrete and bringing life to an otherwise dull reality. This sense of movement not only adds to the visual appeal of the painting but begins to approach the idea that each individual has a different perception of reality.

Line Work

Line work is a big thing in Van Gogh’s work. In other artist’s work, it’s a point to make their lines invisible or not so noticeable. Van Gogh leaves these bold outlines that give this piece movement and life. He uses a combination of curved and smooth lines in contrast to the straighter and fuller lines that he uses to compose the city beneath the sky. His line work brings a contrast of realities into view. The sky is very fluid and is an embodiment of fantasy or an alternate perception of reality. While the city is plain and straight lines that clearly captures the one dimensionality of a plain reality. The line work is the beginning of Van Gogh’s message showing a bit of contrast.

Contrasting Scene

As previously stated, there is a contrasting scene between the sky and the city. The sky is this separate world of freedom, a new version of reality that is colorful and vibrant and full of life and movement. And the city is an accurate representation of having only one view of reality, that it becomes typical and repetitive, there is no movement or color. It’s dark and lacks motion. Van Gogh places this contrasting scene (purpose) to not only show viewers the difference in perceptions of reality, but show that it all about perception. The viewer holds control over whether or not their reality is bursting with color and moves gracefully or stands still and bleeds monotone colors.

Abstraction of Reality

It is no secret that Van Gogh suffered greatly from mental illness, which was usually accompanied by hallucinations. This could be why the sky in the Starry Night is so stretched and abstracted from how the average person sees the sky. The sky is abstracted with its movement and colors and its moon and stars that look unrealistic. Even the city seems abstracted a bit, it seems overly stretched high into the sky, the city and the stars and the moon in the sky are out of proportion. Even the more realistic part of the piece, the city, is left more abstractly done in a lacking way. This abstraction of both the sky and the “realistic” city set the stage for the broader message that reality is a back and forth kind of perception. That there is more than one reality and each one had wilding different qualities and often contrasts the others.

Through agencies such as color, motion, line work, contrasting scene, and abstraction of reality Van Gogh is able to make his viewers think about reality on a deep and wider level. For them to see that there are different realities and each one of them is a perception. Van Gogh wants his viewers to realize that reality is about perception and each individual reality is different and contrasts those around it.