Essay 1

              

Autumn Landscape with a Flock of Turkeys                                                                                                     Jean-François Millet(French, Gruchy 1814–1875 Barbizon)

                                                                                 

The Adoration of the Magi

                                                                               Giotto di Bondone  (Italian, Florentine, 1266/76–1337)
                                                                                          

The first painting is known as “Autumn Landscape with a Flock of Turkeys” by Jean-François Millet. The way Millet drew this painting, shows how naturalistic and realist painter he is. It’s a small hill which has single tree almost bare of leaves and a women surrounded by few turkeys and a village background in the back. I was looking at this painting for a while thinking how the artist created this painting so real. On the other hand, the second painting “The Adoration of the Magi” by Giotto di Bondone is representing a religious view. It has faces and gestures that are based on close observation. It is a compelling picture of human’s emotion. 500 apart these two paintings are having many similarities and dissimilarities.

The similarities between these painting are that both of these are painting and 2D form. Both of them have contour lines. while in the first painting, cart, the women, horizontal line between the sky and hill has contour lines the second painting as well has contour lines and some repeated lines of  human bodies and the bed, goats and angels in the back makes this painting more real and attractive. Actual texture is smooth in both paintings. Both top parts of these paintings are lighter than the bottom parts. They are both eye level paintings. The rule of thirds is applied in both paintings. They are asymmetrical. Both of these paintings seem to be in motion and alive.

There are many dissimilarities between these two paintings as they have more than five years gaps in between. The first painting has emphasis and that is the sky as it’s bright color is drawing the attention first than any other parts of the painting but the second painting does not have any emphasis because if I see this painting my eyes moves around to see the whole painting not any certain part. The first painting has more organic shapes than the second one as the tree, grasses on the hill, another tree in the back these are having organic shapes but the second painting has more geometric shapes. The first painting has more varieties while second painting has more unities such as, the objects of first paintings are in different shapes as the women, turkeys, trees, cart their shapes colors are not matching to each other. While in the second paintings I can see the unity in shapes, shapes of human’s bodies, unity in lines and facial expression. Both paintings have shade but the first painting has more shades, as if it looks like the whole hill is having shade from the sky. Some cross hatching shades are making grasses darker and dense. On the other had in the second painting’s shade is being used in the cloths of the people in order to make some folds. While the horizontal line of the first painting and the dark and cool colors are creating a calm and quite successful autumn day, the second painting is representing a dramatic move, opposite worm bright colors are creating a tension.

However, my experience of viewing two works from different eras amazed me as I could see there are huge differences between the paintings. Usually the earlier paintings were based on religious belief using more worm and primary colors and focusing more on the facial expression. While the paintings made later were having more tertiary colors, scale, proportion, shades, verities and rhythm. Last but not least although having both similarities and dissimilarities these paintings are successful in expressing their predominant mood or action.