Rick Nilson’s fauna paintings register psychological nuance marked with authenticity and an underlying humorous streak. With the precision of an insightful observer, the artist recreates the subtle gestures of his subjects, capturing their essence and personality. As a result, some of the pieces function as “species portraits”, representing, in general, the most salient character traits of that kind of animal.

Painting birds can be difficult due to the mercurial nature of the beast: constantly on the move, feeding, flying, or courting; even the larger specimens, when deliberately static, appear tense and ready to take wing.

The artist’s attention to the motivation of his subjects, combined with an understanding of their anatomy and unique locomotion, allows him to negotiate these complications, and render a convincing image that’s at once painterly and iconic.

A display of aggression (above), where the bird is shown exerting its entire mass to issue a message of warning, epitomizes Rick Nilson’s style. The creature’s fearlessness, channeled via pictorial veracity, draws the attention and fascinates, as any good nature portrait should.

By picturing the avian models from such close proximity (as if suggesting a face-off between the audience and the subjects), the artist both cancels and emphasizes the differences between the human spectators and the birds. We are close to them, yet are so different. The incompatibility can be a rich ground for comic effect; the compatibility – a reflection on the unity of nature and the humans’ part in it.

Another common theme in the artist’s repertory is the crab. A pronouncedly symmetrical animal, the crab can be compositionally challenging to paint; to avoid repetition and rigidity the painter positions the crabs askew, and adjusts the viewing angles to convey a sense of mass and presence.

Diagonals are not the only device employed to signal movement. Thick, rich, smeared strokes of vibrant color impart a sense of motion and progression through water and sand. The inconstant, varied texture of the brushwork, combined with the seemingly random scattering of color, becomes a powerful method of light representation. Where this quality peaks, the style of the paintings approximates impressionism.

The abundance of light – obvious to a painter living so close to a large body of water, a natural mirror and refractor of the sun’s rays – shows the environment at its busiest, liveliest moments. Using a brilliant white tone, Rick Nilson sprays light over everything, flooding the paintings with spontaneous, seemingly infinite energy. The animals materialize within that flux, restating life at its most immediate and invigorating.

When he was over fifty years old Titian painted the first of the series of Danae paintings, today hanging in various European museums: Napoli Museo di Capodimonte, Museo del Prado in Madrid, Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Viena. Scholars note that at least some of the work in the paintings was performed by Titian’s workshop – in effect, his assistants.

Danae Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) Buy From Art.com

The painting describes a key moment in the myth of Danae. Locked up by the king, who fears for his life after being foretold that his daughter’s son would kill him, she becomes Zeus’ love interest. The father of gods eventually penetrates the princess’ chamber in the form of a golden shower, thereby begetting a multitude of allegorical interpretations, as well as a son, Perseus.

The paintings are famous for their frankness, and are often compared, thematically and compositionally, with the artist’s the Venus of Urbino. But Danae lacks the direct intimacy of the Venus of Urbino, and has a more clear narrative purpose to it. It is thus less intimately erotic than it is lustful and sexual.

Description

Looking intently at the incoming coins, Danae gently tilts her neck and torso towards them, slightly parting her legs; she appears a welcoming and grateful recipient of the descending rain of affection. What goes in her mind, her most unconstrained and sexually charged self could be reflected in her company, who spreads her apron unabashedly widely to catch as much of the precious nuggets as she can.

Danae, Mother of Perseus, circa 1554 Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) Buy From Art.com

Correggio employed a similar device in his Danae (painted a few decades before Tiziano’s), albeit in his version it is the protagonist herself who performs the same gesture, spreading a sheet instead of an apron. Titian’s allegory is arguably more poignant and more boldly outlined. Correggio’s, like his paintings, is more delicate and suggestive.

The Allegory

Allegory lies at the heart (or perhaps at the brain) of the Venetian master’s series: the deity appears in a purely metonymical form (with some exceptions – his profile is visible peaking from the clouds in some of the versions), producing an absence that can – and should – be filled with various figurative meanings. The most obvious, of course, suggests that Zeus didn’t actually transform himself into gold, but simply paid his way inside.

Danae receives the rain for what it represents, the nursemaid for what it is. Literally, the princess appears greedy, figuratively, she is enamoured. The old woman, a visual foil, displays outright greed but, we can read her behaviour as a commentary on her counterpart, as she enacts Danae’s display of desire, presenting it in the concrete form of avarice. Perhaps all passionate desires spring from the same root.

The allegory can have additional meanings. For instance, the association of gold with masculinity and power that grants access to a woman’s bedchamber. Another interpretation suggests the theme of intercourse in exchange for money – simply put, prostitution.

Composition and Color

A diagonal extending from top left corner to lower right bisects the paintings, establishing the juxtaposition between the mistress and her maid – and consequently between the figurative and the literal. Danae’s light-skinned abundant figure, sprawling on white sheets, occupies the lower resultant triangle (where all the light accumulates), the dark-skinned, uncomely maid stands in the second, upper triangle.

Furthermore, many of the lines create parallels, generating a visual rhythm, and producing tentative polygons that map out, with the assistance of color, a more global division and visual logic.

Danae, circa 1554 Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) Buy From Art.com

These energetic diagonals impose a purposeful sense of movement and dynamism. Motion becomes especially important in the immediate local context of Zeus’ infiltration (the streams of coins are also arranged in fast, descending lines) from what seems like a different dimension. The sheer energy and force of the movement lends the composition a kind of proto-baroque flavor.

Color plays an important compositional role, helping in dividing the piece into logical areas, and marking the most dramatic reference points. Contrast, between dark and light hues, as well as between warm and cool tones, pumps “visual juices” into the overall framework, rendering it more dynamic, vivid and fleshed-out.

Interestingly, the palette device of a “golden eruption” in the sky can be viewed in the artist’s Assumption as well. In both paintings it suggests a type of portal from (or to) a divine dimension – Christian in one, pagan in another.

Conclusion

Titian revels in exploring Danae’s passion, lingering on her body and gesticulation to the point of voyerism; at the same time he ridicules and exposes the maid. He admires the youth and spontaneity of his primary subject, coupling it with what appears like disgust for the secondary one.

In this judgmental, somewhat cruel approach he takes the viewpoint of youth without reservations – a bias that could be the very glue that holds this composition’s conception together. One must be hated so that another is loved.

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To compare, Danae with Eros presents a much sweeter mood, but lacks the psychological depth and invention of the nursemaid series.

While the Catholic dogma prescribes the sins of lust and greed as “deadly,” the artist eschews moralistic lessons and avoids denunciation. Instead, he adopts a universal and liberal approach of genuine fascination with human weakness and character; he finds gratification in probing the depth of human emotion regardless of its tonality.

The Venus of Urbino is one of Titian’s best known paintings, and probably his most provocative. Portraying a young female model, who according to some scholars appeared in other artist’s pieces, the work feeds the ambiguity regarding the protagonist’s social status by blurring generic boundaries. It is a pagan allegory, it is a private image that celebrates matrimony and, apparently, it is also a portrait.

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The lush, naked Venus directs at the viewer a liquid gaze full of sweet surrender and yearning tenderness. She seems to be completely at ease with her inclined to corpulence form, displaying a confidence and openness that make her even more charming and desirable; her body, tilted slightly towards the viewer, throat exposed, lies in a pose of suggestion, or perhaps a demand.

Her seductive pose is made to appear even more tantalizing by the ambivalence of the left hand gesture: does she conceal herself, thereby rendering it a sign of modesty, or does she, in fact, touch herself in a more deliberate fashion, implying, as it would be, the opposite of modesty? As this wikipedia article on the painting proposes, the model, while covering her genital area with her left hand, appears to “toy with a strand of pubic hair” with her fingers.

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The Venus of Urbino derives its inspiration from Giorgione’s Sleeping Venus, which Titian himself completed (he painted the landscape after Giorgione’s death). Its influence spread beyond place and time, captivating such artists as Mark Twain, who thought it too lascivious, and Manet, who thought it insufficiently so, painting an even more shocking version, the Olympia.

Composition and Meaning

The painting presents a full-fledged composition that balances somewhat the languorous static character of the reclining protagonist with a consistent dynamic component.

The tiles, foreshortned by the perspective, rhytmically lead to the end of the hall, where one of the maids is hurrying to prepare her mistress’ dress; the red dress of the other echoes the cushion’s red corner in the foreground. Thick verticals relieve the eye from the nearly all-black piece of wall behind’s the figure’s back.

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This wall helps to define the boundary between the private and the public (or semi-private): the sleeping chamber at the foreground is “for your eyes only,” the hall appears to offer more access to the help, and possibly visitors. The portico entrance and the trees confirm the more open character of the main room.

It is the enclosed room that allows Venus to open her eyes and accompany her nudity with such a soul-baring gaze; Giorgione’s goddess, placed outside, sleeps with her eyes closed. Titian’s model is thus so much bolder, and so much more revelatory. Her unconditional honesty translates into a kind of incorrupt innocence, no matter how erotic and suggestive the context is.

These intimations lead to the notion that Titian gives physical attraction and pleasure an approbation, or at least a well considered aknowledgement. The image overall can be viewed as one giving legitimacy to the idea of sexuality, and endorsing intercourse (between a husband and a wife) as positive and desirable. Catholic dogma of marital intimacy and procreative sex as inferior to celibacy, and as of being merely the lesser of two evils between itself and extramarital relations, dissolves in this image.

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Conclusion

This extensive and eye-opening article on the Venus of Urbino claims that obscure interpretations of the painting aim to disavow Venus’ sexual appeal, sometimes to a ridiculous degree of obfuscation and denial; that these could be telling more about the authors rather than the work of art. “This woman seems far too sexy to be chaste.”

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At the same time, the author insists on the marital interpretation, basing his claims on iconography: the two cassoni, probably containing the girl’s bridal garments, and the curled little dog, a very common symbol of marital fidelity (van Eyck’s famous Arnolfino portrait is a classic example).

Private, discreet ownership could be the most fitting bridge to the gap (one not altogether uncommon in contemporary Western society) between sexy and marital. Intended to be owned and seen in a private collection, the image becomes a personal message – similar to that sleeping chamber – “for your eyes only.”

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And today still, while the curves of Venus’ naked body are there for the eyes of all to observe and admire, one person remains the singular addressee of the girl’s attention, and the sole recipient of the almost limitless fondness and affection exuding from her face. The rest of the audience will never be able to penetrate that room and gaze. It was not the artist’s intention.

Titian’s altarpiece “The Assumption of the Virgin,” hanging in Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, is a large scale painting both in size and concept. It accommodates multiple characters, including the apostles, The Virgin Mary, and God, as well as countless angels and cherubims — all organized in dense but clearly discernible planes, insulated by their atmospheres.

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According to the Catholic doctrine, the event took place on August 15 in Jerusalem, but otherwise nothing in the panel indicates as to the time and place of the proceedings. Titian builds his vision in an abstract space, using the frame (and color in some areas) as the natural boundary; by condensing the earthly and divine realms into a single framework he produces a metaphoric, mystical interpretation of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. For her, distance between between earth and heaven contracts to symbolical levels.

While the complex, multi-tiered composition may appear overwhelming in its sheer amount of detail and visual information, it adheres to Renaissance concepts of painterly design. Hierarchical order, compositional clarity, and overall harmony ensure that the grandeur and expressive sweep of the protagonists do not overwhelm, but inform the viewer.

The painting is often considered Titian’s early masterpiece, as this Wikipedia article indicates.

Composition and Meaning

Titian condenses the earth and the heavens – essentially the first and the second stage in Mary’s ascension – hence giving his work a temporal dimension as well. He then establishes an hierarchy in the number and size of the acting figures: the apostles on the first tier, Mary and multiple cherubims on the second, God, two pages, and the chorus on the third.

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The higher the floor the fewer central figures there are, and the less space they occupy — their religious significance, however, increases. Such inverse progression can also be seen (in a downward direction) in Da Vinci’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne.

The apostles appear in a state of immense agitation, sending adoring and anxious glances towards the mother of Christ. Their placement at the lower level of the panel, closest to the altar, allows the Basilica visitors to identify with them first; the congregation, in all its multitude, thus comprises another notional level, one that looks up at (and to) the apostles. Naturally, the people need to aim even higher to see the Madonna and God himself.

Mary’s form and expression reveal a state of complete spiritual receptivenss and readiness. The sharp contrast of light and shadow across her face enhances the mysticism, further emboldened by the pouring gold that reflects in her eyes. Caught in a moment of epiphany, she herself becomes one, so powerful and awesome her reaction is to the vision of the Lord.

Titian’s precision in portraying emotional states extends further, to the figure of levitating God, who emerges as the calmest of all present. Perhaps not surprisingly, he exudes limitless confidence and fatherly affection: he is about to host a very important guest. The slightly diagonal line of his red cloak produces a parallel with Mary’s shoulder line, implying their affinity.

Colors

Besides fleshing out the shapes of the actors and the clouds, color plays the mystical role of announcing the Divine Presence. Titian chooses brilliant golden hues, which turn incandescent dazzling white just below the Lord’s apparition (which resembles the sun as a result), to accompany and communicate his arrival. Gold also marks a kind of crown, or halo, around the figure’s graying head.

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The bluish sky, with a hint of sunrise (essentially the same golden tones that infuse the heavens, oozing down from above), stretches above the apostles and beneath the clouds: it plays the more neutral compositional role of dividing the earthly and divines realms. The clouds, lit from above and shaded below, assume a palpable quality, resembling cotton wool.

Red and green colored clothing ensures continuity and visual rhythm and interrelation between the three planes. From below, two saints dressed red act as a funnel, directing the eye towards Mary’s dress, who in turn leads to God’s own red tinted garment. The complementary green does just that, offsetting the red farther at the flanks, as well as balancing both the Virgin’s and Lord’s attire.

Colors thicken at either end of the painting, as the dark green earthy platform on which the apostles stand (and where Titian planted what seems like a sarcophagus with his name on it) turns black in some areas, while the chorus of flanking angels above absorbs the golden sheen, and becomes thick orange, and even brown. Thus color also assists in the logical task of delineating the scene.

Conclusion

Titian’s consistent, deliberate palette application coupled with a supernova-like eruption of light shows that he could employ color as an agent of order and of chaos at the same time. The mastery of two such contradictory types of coloration — the capacity to run the full gamut of the medium’s scope — both derives from and attests to the artist’s Venetian origin.

Furthermore, the intensity of some of the gestures betrays signs of departure from such Renaissance precepts as idealization and harmony. It holds the seeds of swirling action and effusive sentiment that defined the work of mannerist, and later baroque artists; for instance, the upward motion and the low point of view anticipates the outpouring drama of El Greco’s Disrobing of Christ — a painting by an artist who lived and studied in Venice, possibly under Titian’s tutorship.

The Mona Lisa, also known as The Gioconda, has gained the status of “the most famous painting in the world” due to a combination of various bohemian predilections and series of events, most of which evolved and took place during the 20th century. “The most famous” is not necessarily the “most beautiful,” as this extensive Wikipedia article appears to imply — but it undoubtedly is beautiful, and will remain such even if it loses its celebrity status.

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The portrait, however, is more readily referred to as “enigmatic.” The ever elusive smile, the misty atmosphere, the hazy landscape in the background and, most of all, the ambiguous, inscrutable expression on the face of the sitter entrap the imagination, leaving questions open and fancy disturbed. Mona Lisa’s exceedingly serene, indifferent disposition further deepens the uncertainty and excites curiosity.

Indeed, the long-standing fascination with her visage could have a simple yet powerful psychological reason: we are often most interested in that which doesn’t seem to be interested in us.

Composition

The painting divides into three planes, unequal in importance and the space they occupy. First is the landscape in the background: it lends the image depth, as if letting it breathe, and counterbalances the protagonist; it itself divides into two complementing zones, the reddish terrestrial, and the bluish aquatic (and mountainous). The sky appears to combine the two tones, showing a blue azure touched with red and brown hues. Overall, the landscape creates a profound sense of harmony, matching the mystique of the lady with its own foggy atmosphere.

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Mona Lisa herself comprises the second, and the primary, plane. Sitting in an upright position, with perhaps just a hint of tension in her neck and back, she as well can be compositionally deconstructed into two main areas: the upper, which includes the face and the chest, and the lower, which includes the arms and the hands. The third plane consists of a few vaguely visible, yet structurally important elements at the lower part of the panel: the armrest (or the seat-back), and the tentatively outlined balcony fence. These two parts delineate the immediate boundaries within which the figure rests.

The Face

La Gioconda’s face displays youth and maturity at the same time. The condition of her skin – its freshness can be discerned through the gauze of the sfumato (and 500 years of atmospheric effects) – reveals the former, whereas her confident pose and outlook attest to the latter. Notoriously, she lacks eyebrows and eyelashes.

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As the young lady looks slightly to the right of the viewer, her eyes squint a little, miming thoughtfulness – perhaps this is an inner gaze that visualizes a memory, or recalls an event. As a result, she appears to look past the viewer, through us and at the same at us; she is present, but her mind is elsewhere. This very duality acts as a source of endless mystery and fascination, and is one of the reasons for the portrait’s enigma.

Interestingly, there are no apparent wrinkles that usually accompany squinting, making her focus slightly supernatural, as if occurring in and of itself.

The Hands

A portrait subject’s hands will often reveal more intent than its face. The hands frequently become an iconography agent, holding an object – a letter, a book, a scepter, a weapon, a flower, a ring – that bespeaks not only the meaning, but also the designed mood and the purpose of the painting. Mona Lisa’s hands, completely empty and holding nothing, thus emerge as yet another element that amplifies the enigma.

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While Gioconda’s palms do not hold any iconographic detail, the way she folds and rests them can betray character traits. They can – but don’t, as what we see matches exactly her countenance – a serene, restrained cross that withholds more than it shows. Resulting is a harmonious psychological continuity that, along with the landscape, creates a consummate vision that remains largely impenetrable, however compositionally consistent.

Sfumato

Sfumato, a technique invented by Leonardo da Vinci, involves painting a gradation of shadows to create a subtle haze (akin to the English “fume” etymologically, sfumato means “smoky”) over the relevant area, usually where various contours and lines intersect and merge. This softens the linear component and yields a more gradual, painterly effect, sometimes exceptionally subtle and delicate. The technique is somewhat similar to the blurring effect in modern image manipulation software.

In the overall scheme the use of sfumato produces a complex local interplay of light and shadow. It is a very dynamic visual device that can be especially effective in a portrait – an essentially static image. Sometimes, perhaps just like in the software, it can be overused, and establish an incompatibility between the light source and the sheer amount and richness of the shadows.

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In Mona Lisa sfumato frames the sitter’s eyes (almost like an eye makeup), the mouth, and the entire face oval, as the gradations of shade weave a mutable, shifting grid. While shadows underscore the physical reality of the model, their fuzzy softness places her in a kind of remote, removed space. She hence becomes both attainable and unattainable; worldly feminine and ethereally angelic, gently intimate and coolly aloof.

Conclusion

Leonardo painted three other female portraits, all of which evince a considerably more legible degree of expressiveness, be it a display of pride and self-worth, or humility and nobility. They are easier to read, but they are, perhaps, less interesting because of that, giving away too much.

And yet the artist didn’t start a trend in portraiture where painters would seek to enshroud their models in mystery; on the contrary, psychological precision rather than ambiguity has become the universally sought for standard, including by some of the greatest visual artists.

Mona Lisa, c.1503-6 Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Perhaps for that reason – one that has had 500 years to be overturned, yet remained steadfast – the Mona Lisa remains unique – daring to ask whether she was real at all.

The Virgin of the Rocks exists in two variations, one hanging in the Louvre, another in the London National Gallery. Almost identical in terms of composition and mood, the paintings differ in palette and brushwork, one displaying a more a naturalistic lighting and coloring, the other a more poetic and stylized, generally cooler (and blue) coloration. It may appear as if a different filter has been placed on the same image, creating or examining a change in mood.

Madonna of the Rocks, Louvre Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

In the Louvre version the angel breaks the fourth wall by making eye contact with the viewer and pointing at the proceedings. He engages the audience, acting as a mediator between the saints and the observer, and claims a dual existence in the surrounding physical and the meta-physical — quite appropriate for an angel. He initiates a didactic dialog, directing the controlled theatricality of the mies-en-scene to strictly religious channels.

In the London version the angel is the most inert, passive figure, sitting in a dreamy, reflective state; he acts as a compositional counterpart to the Madonna, their profiles and hair styles mirroring each other.

Comparison with Madonna and child with St. Anne

These pieces instill a restrained, even formal attitude – quite the opposite from the emotionally infused intimacy of Madonna with St. Anne. The familiarity and long established canonization of the depicted scene — essentially a variation on the “rest on the flight from Egypt” theme (and the immaculate conception according to wikipedia) — might have imposed certain limitations on the artist, as might have the client.

The Virgin of the Rocks, London Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

An interesting similarity transpires between the resting Madonna and St. Anne in the other painting: the former may seem like the replica image of the latter. Indeed, the virgin’s mother exhibits the most sober and contemplative disposition (in an otherwise outspoken emotive scene) that matches the overall mood of the “Madonna of the Rocks” piece.

Though the type of rocky landscape here is similar to the one depicted in the background of Madonna and child with St. Anne, it occupies more space, envelops the figures, and clearly plays a more central role. And then, the geographic origin of the scene itself suggests increasing landscape significance.

Composition

In two dimensions the group’s organisation adheres to the classic triangular shape. Arrangement in space produces a kind of crescent (John, Madonna, angel, and Jesus) whose semi-open geometry makes the viewer, facing the open side, the recipient of the projected meaning and overall impulse of energy. The crescent disperses and emits tension that builds up at the epicentre.

The Virgin lifts her left hand slightly, resting it on an invisible cushion, softly gesturing – as if pleading time to stop and everything that surrounds her to pay attention – in what seems to be a blessing for the child Christ. She appears to listen closely to her inner self, attuned to her soul, while performing the orchestrating move.

The Virgin of the Rocks Detail Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

It’s interesting to note the vertical succession of hands: first Madonna’s palm, then angel’s pointing index finger (in the Louvre piece), and third Chirst’s blessing motion. This cluster of gestures becomes a tripartite visual axis that counterbalances John’s clasped hands; it’s possible to visualize a triangle of which this axis marks the base and John’s palms (or Madonna’s right hand) mark the apex.

The Eponymous Rocks

The rocks accumulate heavily above and around the group, almost encroaching upon the saints; such landscape can be interpreted as menacing or as protective – or perhaps both. Blue toned mountains in the background not only absorb the light from the sky and the water, they create a color continuity between the group and their distant surroundings. In particular, the Virgin’s garment (especially in the London version) matches the color of the chain behind her, giving a literal tint to the painting’s title.

The brown clusters at the foreground, painted in a similar tone, pile up in an uncanny and fanciful conglomerate, as if in an upside-down pattern. The insistent, repetitive rhyhtm of their tops brings to mind the gaping, large-toothed mouth of a predator. The way in which the artist chars the stones — into smooth slabs that pile up close together to form a kind of staircase — remind of Giotto‘s similar technique. It’s not necessarily realistic, but it conveys a very “rocky” essence.

Detail of the Head of the Virgin Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Eventually the landscape becomes an additional character, a pervasive, insistent actor that links the occasion to nature and the wordly in general.

Conclusion

The Virgin of the Rocks demonstrates a serious, deliberate mood, set off by equal measures of melancholy and religious ardour. There is no place for expression of love and regret, only contemplation about the mission ahead, and it importance. It eschews expressive close-ups and sudden movements, presenting a smoothly, calmly evolving course of events.

In these the pieces Leonardo da Vinci brings the art of painting to the threshold of High Renaissance. The serenity of the virgin and the dainty expressions of the children anticipate Raphael’s Madonnas (for instance, the Madonna of the Meadow); the composition, complex and layered, points to an inclusive and universal approach. The artist creates a complete world that’s as cautionary as it is fascinating, and as genuine as it is imagined.

Da Vinci’s Madonna and Child with Saint Anne reveals an endearing family scene rich with displays of intimate tenderness and affection. The Virgin is caught in a moment of rapture of motherly love, while St. Anne shows a more sober attitude; Christ child, playing beneath the two, returns an ambiguous look. The scope of sentiment brings to mind The Last Supper, where each apostle marks a different point in a broad emotional arch.

The Virgin and Child with St. Anne Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

The image combines two canonic Catholic themes. One is the meeting of generations, where the grandmother, the mother, and the child appear together, interacting. The other is the notion of the sacrifice and passion, represented by the the lamb, and the toddler holding it.
More often than not the central mood in visual expression of both themes tends towards the contemplative, or mournful — reflecting the magnitude of forthcoming distant events. Da Vinci, however, prefers to focus on the immediate rather than the distant, investing the painting with urgent emotional energy. Contemplation is only marginally suggested by the misty background and St. Anne’s aloof expression.

Idyll turned Tragedy

While thoughtful, St. Anne’s face also beams with joy, her curving smile (a trademark motif that reappears in the Mona Lisa) and the arm stuck in her side betraying signs of good-natured irony. The way the child irreverently plays with the lamb, and looks up, with perhaps just a glint of mischief, underscores the idyllic tones of the scene. Overall, on a literal level the group telegraphs a sense of deep trust and unconditional support.

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Indeed, the image may appear idyllic at first — a love-drenched family scene with a pet — but its underlying dark motifs gradually take shape as we lower our gaze and look closer at the child. Da Vinci makes him reveal his purpose in subtle motions and gestures: he holds the lamb in a such a way as to create a juxtaposition between its head and his own. His inquisitive, ambiguous look narrates his actions: “look at us, mother, we’re exactly the same.”
Common context (basic understanding of Christian iconography) bridges between the literal and the suggested figurative meaning. The artist assumes that the observers know their catechisms: there is no actual gap if the religious background is taken for granted. If we are to interpret the painting correctly, we must be familiar with the concept of Jesus’ sacrifice.

Composition

In front of us is a dynamic composition that’s barely contained by the classic pyramid shape: every actor moves and interacts with the others, threatening to break the triangular boundaries — which may appear somewhat artificial as a result.
In a sudden descent, Madonna lowers her body to form a ninety degree angle with St. Anne’s mostly upright position. She responds to the activity and meaning ensuing from below: the child is playing with the animal as if it were a close pet, holding it by the ears, and pinning to the ground with a plump leg.

Sketch of Saint Anne, 1500 Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

St. Anne is removed from Christ and his martyrdom both generationally and via visual hierarchy, a distance also emphasized by Mary’s sudden rush downwards, away from her mother, towards the child. Physically, the matriarch tops the group, and appears the largest of the participants. As our eyes travel down, the shapes become smaller — but their significance grows in inverse proportion, as they accumulate more symbolism.

Meaning

The emotional force of the Virgin’s impulse towards her son anticipates another Christian canon, the Pieta. The child’s grip on the lamb symbolizes how tightly linked — apparently with all his limbs, as he would be with the cross — he is to the sacrifice the animal represents. He guides the lamb to look up at the mother, as if saying “I am — it, and it — is me,” forcing the parent to acknowledge the forthcoming passion.
At once being held and being let go (a tragic struggle), child Christ is confined between Mary and the lamb. He forms a link in a notional chain, suggesting a familiar religious narrative: he comes from one — the Virgin and the immaculate conception — to become the other — the martyred Messiah, the Saviour. As a mother, Madonna is at odds with the sacrifice, as a saint, she accepts it.

Detail of Heads of the Virgin and St. Anne Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

By being placed between the Madonna and the lamb, small Jesus is made to mark “a stage” between his human start and divine purpose. Such compositional placement allows to infer the concept of the duality of Christ, as he absorbs from both ends, uniting them into one. He is made a mediator, reflecting his function of connecting between believing Christians and God.

Visual Devices

To give his ideas a powerful visual anchor, Da Vinci creates a memorable repetition effect of outstretched hands. We see both Madonna and child extend their hands in an almost identical embracing motion; the repetition generates a visual rhythm, as our eyes go back and forth, following the saints as they return each other’s glances.
This rhythmic device features the child in two different roles: as a passive agent when held by Mary, and as an active one when he holds the lamb. This dichotomous agency — during which the child is equated to the passive sacrificial animal — may again imply the dual transcendent nature of Christ.

The Virgin and Child with Saints Leonardo Da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Given a Chance

The misty, grand, mountainous landscape in the background encourages contemplation, much like it is reflected in St. Anne’s face. She, like us, is an almost external observer, removed somewhat from the mother and son physically, allowed to literally keep her head in the clouds.
Like her, we are all given a chance to contemplate the story of Christian becoming in an abstract, removed manner. We are given this chance by God — and by Leonardo da Vinci.

I would like to examine how Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper unites a personal interpretation of the event with a display of some general Renaissance aesthetic principles. On the one hand, we are confronted with an idiosyncratic vision, on the other with a generalist, if not dogmatic, principle.

As Da Vinci narrows in on the faces of the apostles, their features, highly agitated, become vehicles of emotional expressions as the artist understood them. Here he may be giving the viewers a glance into his own emotional realm. Via their behavior he pours out his own sentiment.

The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci Buy From Art.com

As we let go of examination of separate figures or the three-figure groups, and shift towards the overall organization – the long table, the hall space, the receding perspective – we transpose into a plane where intimacy and private experience give way to compositional concerns. Broadly speaking, Renaissance “takes over.”

Consequently, the schematic linear disposition of the actors becomes a straightforward and powerful compositional tool, as it imposes on observers a certain way of viewing. The air and light in the room and the landscape beyond it appear to absorb, and perhaps diffuse some of the tension developing at the table. The micro level can do the same, as discussed further in this review.

The Last Supper (detail), 1495-97 Leonardo da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Back to Da Vinci’s vision: at the table, the immediacy of the gestures exposes heartfelt, genuine, piercing emotions – and here, I think, lies the work’s chief strength. Overall, the sense of irrevocable loss that persists in the atmosphere of the image seems at once bittersweet and monumental.

For comparison, Michelangelo could rarely, if at all (perhaps with the exception of Pieta), delve into such intricate details of responses: he preferred to hover in heroic and symbolic spheres. Leonardo impregnates the actors with unrest that literally lingers forever, enveloping viewers, percolating through our eyes into the depth of our souls.

Composition

The painting divides into five distinct groups: four clusters of three apostles, which flank a fifth central figure of Jesus of Nazareth. According to this Wikipedia article on the Last Supper, the apostles are as follows: Bartholomew, James, and Andrew; Judas, Peter, and John; Thomas, James, and Philip; and Matthew, Jude, and Simon.

The Last Supper (detail), 1495-97 Leonardo da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Da Vinci relies on a classic linear formula, but enhances it with as much sophistication and elegance as possible to avoid any formulaic traps. The systematically granulated set-up adheres to the ideals of Renaissance by employing triangular/pyramidal shapes, and maintaining symmetry between the apostle clusters.

While Christ acts as a central axis, the two groups on the left mirror their counterparts on the right. Already here a compositional solution serves to support the theological idea behind it – Jesus as a central axis of Christian faith.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist, occupying the center of the composition, grabs the attention immediately, his expression revealing resignation and acceptance. Christ’s isolation (he is the only character not to come in contact with any other of the sitting) reaffirms the melancholy appearance. His features bespeak an air of the supernatural, of being removed from earthly concerns.

The Last Supper, 1495-97 Leonardo da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Recognizing Judas the antagonist is made easier by his clenched fist (where he apparently holds a salt shaker, salt literally being the equivalent of money, as the word “salary” indicates), a gesture contrasting with Christ’s open palms. Taken aback by the fact that his betrayal is already known, Judas goes on to betray more: his bulging eyes show a mix of fear and disbelief.

Jesus Christ becomes the figure where the composition and its emotive content converge and mature, achieving a full measure of development. Towards him everything flows, and at the same time, he acts as an agent, or source, from whence energy emanates.  It’s possible to suggest that this dual quality tentatively reflects the theological precept of the twofold, co-existing nature of being both man and God.

The Apostles React

As opposed to Jesus, the apostles demonstrate decidedly human behavior. Grief, surprise, denial, anger, disbelief – they are all there, creating an intense wave that seems to break, as if magically, at the rock which is the shape of the savior.

The Last Supper (detail), 1495-97 Leonardo da Vinci Buy From Art.com

The way in which the prophet’s detached, ethereal disposition suspends the turmoil of his adherents, right at the epicenter of the image, creates a clash of immense psychological force. A full scale tragedy unfolds: some already begin to mourn, Christ already communicates catharsis.

Interlude

Reading closely, one by one, the apostles’ responses may diffuse some of the narrative tension, just as the atmosphere around them may do the same . Lacking the shocking purity of their leader, their reactions intermix. Observing and deciphering their conversations offers some entertainment value, as viewers (and especially believers) can more easily identify with these emotions.

There’s a touch of mundane in the details of feet and sandals, gesticulation, intricate changes in facial musculature – all of which hark back to da Vinci’s interest in observing faces and recording typical and atypical traits.

The Last Supper (detail), 1495-97 Leonardo da Vinci Buy From Art.com

Eventually, the time it takes to go over the four groups, to take note of all the subtle characterizations, deflects somewhat the thrust of the first reaction. It allows us to enjoy the artwork on a level of portraiture, and return to the center equipped with more context and meaning.

Conclusion

While close-ups half-open a door into Da Vinci’s own emotional landscape, zooming out shuts such vistas, placing the focus on various technical, global aspects, on contours rather than what they delineate. In the latter instance we are given a chance to admire the painter, in the former, the man behind the painter.

Can the two be truly separated is a question that’s bound, so it seems, to remain open.

Arcadian Shepherds, circa 1650 Nicolas Poussin Buy From Art.com

A universally accepted meaning of the phrase suggests that it’s Death’s proclamation – “even in Arcadia I exist” — that is, even in the most paradisaical of places (read full text Britannica article on Arcadia) there’s demise and decay.
The leap from this pastoral (even if dramatic) scene to the art of painting as such can be traced by focusing on the bearded kneeling shepherd. First, by touching the words he acknowledges the message and its meaning. Second, by the same gesture he comes in contact with his own shadow, thereby appearing to paint it. Why? Because there is only one way to cheat death, and that is by continuing to live in art – of painting in this case. Therefore, by the second effect he tries to symbolically overturn the first one – both, of course being part of a single action.

The Shepherds and Shepher… Nicolas Poussin Buy From Art.com

Shadow is often associated with death, which adds an ironic touch to the image. Escaping death by painting its symbolic representation might seem like a cruel joke that bares the hopelessness of even the most noble of endeavors. Poussin might have wished to present his views on the absolute inevitability of the end, and the futility of any resistance, even the most sophisticated – perhaps the futility of “everything” – suggesting a deeply philosophical, contemplative insight.

On a different note
When I look at this painting I recall, strangely enough, BBC documentaries on elephants. When these large beasts encounter the bones of their dead relatives, they too gather around in dramatic fashion, touch and feel the remains, clearly disturbed by the findings.

*this article was edited at a later date

Eliezer and Rebecca Nicolas Poussin Buy From Art.com

Similarly to The Death of Germanicus, this is a linear (frieze) composition where the main event takes place slightly off center to the right. As a result, both Rebecca and Eliezer are difficult to recognize immediately. The viewers have to search for them, which prompts the examination of the faces of the other girls – how they react to the conversation between the protagonists. This process generates anticipation and encourages active emotional participation. Eventually, when we look at Rebecca, we already know how her friends perceive the occurrence, and can hypothesize what goes in Rebecca’s mind.

Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well, circ… Ottavio Vannini Buy From Art.com

The composition progresses from left to right in line with the mountainous ascent. The two girls on the far left are not yet aware of the proceedings in the center; the following group, obviously in haste, reveals a few cursory signs of acknowledgment. To the right of the protagonists we witness three girls who openly watch the interlocutors, implicitly judging them by their postures and facial expressions. This visual progression creates a narrative structure that encompasses a range of emotional responses, arranging them from left to right, according to levels of intensity and involvement.

Rebecca and Eliezer Bartolome Murillo Buy From Art.com

In order to tie this long horizontal composition together, Poussin cements it with a matrix of arms and amphorae. Arms, usually white or pinkish in tone, appear here and there, creating a chaotic scheme that evokes a sense of bustle, an almost auditory experience. Eliezer’s hand offers the gifts in an inconspicuous fashion, and blends with this general trend. The amphorae, however, appear in a more or less equal intervals, and impart a sense of rhythm that acts as a compositional glue of a different sort.

Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well, 1562 Maarten de Vos Buy From Art.com

Architectural motifs play a background role, though unlike in The Judgment of Solomon, they interact with objects in the foreground. For instance, Eliezer’s turban, the attribute of his masculinity, is repeated in the marble ball. While Eliezer communicates his interest to Rebecca – the topic of their discussion being masculine-feminine relations – the large marble ball overlooks the young ladies on the right, perhaps disclosing their line of thought.