Art appreciation

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

This is a special post, it is based on one of William Kloss' lectures on European art.

How to look at art with understanding and pleasure ?

To be able to appreciate a work of art, we need to understand it, to be able to understand it we need to take in consideration five important elements:

* SUBJECT

* INTERPRETATION

* STYLE

* CONTEXT

* EMOTION

Every work of art has a subject. The way the subject is expressed, is the artist's interpretation of that subject. The artistic means of interpretation is the artist's style (which is not the same as the style of the period, but they are both related). The context is about the moment lived by the artist, it could be a particular moment of their private lives, it could be a political moment - like a revolution for example or a historical period. The emotion is instinctive, the feeling experienced by the artist and the viewer. To be able to understand the emotion, it is required that we test it against the other information collected by the study of the other elements.

Understanding the history behind the artwork, the myths, the facts is essential.

I have been moved by art for quite some time, I am not sure when exactly it started, I just feel like I was touched at some point and since then I have been intrigued by my own curiosity.

My favourite art movements are the Renaissance and Baroque, the context of the period was Christianity, consequently most of the artworks produced at that time were religious. Even thought I believe in God, I am not a religious person, but while studying the subject I realized that we don't have to believe to be moved by art the art expression, we just need to feel it, connect to it.

To illustrate a little bit of the elements Professor Kloss chose a very famous painting by Caravaggio - Saint Matthew and the Angel

This is the first version of the painting commissioned to decorate a church and rejected as improper.

This is the original Caravaggio's interpretation of the subject, he shows Saint Matthew as an illiterate, the position of the body shows focus on the mental challenge, the angel is holding his hand, writing the gospels for him. The angel does not look divine, he is solid physical, earthly. Saint Matthew looked like any dispossessed person of that time would look like.

Caravaggio wanted the viewer to identify themselves to St. Matthew's figure, because the poor people were the people that did not know how to read, they were the ones that needed painting to help them to understand the gospel.

This painting was destroyed after it was rejected by its commissioners.

The second version of the painting is called The inspiration of Saint Matthew, really beautiful, but its originality was lost. The artist's interpretation was removed as well the emotion.

This version shows St. Matthew well dressed and completely literate. The angel is in the air, there is no physical contact, it is just an inspiration. The figure of St. Matthew is painted further back, which gives an impression of distance from the figure to the viewer, like a suggestion that "we are not the same". The original painting shows exactly the opposite.

This painting is displayed at Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi (Rome, Italy), it was completed in 1602.