Museum Essay

       The Great Sirens, 1947                                                                   Madonna and Child, 1290-1300

     Art has been around for centuries in museums, at home, work, outdoors everywhere in history. While visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there were many exhibitions to look at that include paintings from early history during A.C and B.C till the late 1900s. Throughout the trip there were two beautiful paintings that caught my attention that show many similarities and differences. One of those paintings is called "The Great Sirens" painted on 1947 and the other one is called"Madonna and Child painted during 1290-1300s. 

     The first painting on the left was painted by Paul Delvaux who is Belgian born on 1897 and passed on 1994. He named the painting "The Great Sirens" painted on 1947 and made with oil on masonite. This specific painting represents a theme of love and an erotic fantasy. A group of women are naked sitting on chairs which shows ambiguous in meaning. In this painting you see a dark setting that makes the painting interesting to look at since all of the women are very light skin which makes them stand out. Paul painted this to make known of his admiration of Giorgio de Chirico's artwork which at the time inspired him to create a painting like this one. 

    The second painting on the right was painted by Duccio di Duoninsegna who is Italian born on 1278 and passed on 1318. He decided to name the painting "Madonna and Child" painted during 1290-1300s and made with tempra and gold on wood. Duccio created this painting to symbolize the Christ Child tenderly pushing away his mother's veil whose mournful expression reveals the feeling of his crucifixion. In this painting you see the connection between the mother and the child that clearly shows sadness. Duccio's painting represents a feeling of lost and sorrow within the relationship of a mother and their child. 

    While observing these two paintings I notice that they are 647 years apart which helps me see the similarities and differences within one another. They both are two dimensional paintings with visual elements of value, color and shape. In the first painting you see the light and dark value of the work meaning that they have light and dark importances of life and same goes for the second painting. Both of them contain analogous colors which makes each of them stand out even more. Another similarity is the positive and negative space in each one. The first one has a dark night setting which is the negative space and the brightness of the each women skin is the positive space while in the second one the gold on the wood is the negative space and the mother and child is the positive space.        

   Not only do they have similar visual elements but also similar principles of designs. One of them is unity since every person in each picture belongs together making up a whole to show a strong meaning or story. Another one is focal points since in the first painting you realize that all of the women were painted with bright colors so when the audience looks at it they focus more on them than anything else. While in the second painting you see the same thing with the mother and the child being the first object to catch people's eyes. 

 

  When you look more into each painting you can point out the differences containing some visual elements and principles of designs. One difference is that in the second picture you see the gold on the wood which makes the painting look more shinny and colorful while in the first one you can see more of dark colors making the painting dull. Another difference is there are more monochromatic colors in the second painting than in the first one. You see the variation of the same colors which are yellow and orange while in the first painting you see a little bit of variations of the color blue. Also there is no repetition being used in the second painting but in the first one you see the repetition of women with the same hat and body position. Last difference is that in the second painting you can point out the proportion of size meaning that the mother is bigger than the child in the painting and in the first painting all women are the same size which shows that there is no difference in size and contains no proportion of principle design. 

   

  Viewing both of these paintings from different time periods shows me the different lives of people throughout that time and how artists uses different types of martial to create their paintings, different visual elements and principles of designs. Since one painting was made first than the other you can point out what you see the same and what you see different to establish the meaning of it. In other words, observing two paintings from different eras helps me understand the differences of art design and the similarities within art history.