Deep into Painting

  During the final decades of the eighteenth century, mythological and legendary themes reigned supremely, like David's "Death of Socrates", "Oath of the Horatii", etc. But a female painter, Vigee Le Brun ushered in a distinction. During those times, aristocracy was not unreasonably enough associated with artifice and depravity. But this painting showcases authenticity, affection of a mother and love of her daughter. Le Brun was an official painter in the court of the queen of France, Marie Antoinette. When in the French Revolution in 1789 the queen was beheaded, Le Brun was also defenestrated, having her citizenship been revoked. However, after a few years, she is restored. She was an extremely popular and prominent artist, her fame having been dispersed around the continent. She has achieved great opuses in the countries like Italy, Austria, and England.  The painting under review ostends a depth feeling not in vogue during the Rococo period. The loving embrac...

Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo, father and son, painted this fresco, entitled "Apollo and the Continents" during 1752-53 in the ceiling of The Residenz, which was located in the city Würzburg, Germany. The Tiepolo family belonged to Venice. In the sixteenth century, the era of Titian and Veronese, Venice had lost its artistic preponderance. Superlative artists like Caravaggio and the Carracci brothers decentralised Venice from its glorious position. But the Tiepolo family retrieved the lost glintz. However, their eminence dispersed throughout Europe. Their style of grand, elegant ceiling paintings and frescos maturate a new tradition and facilitate a sine qua non in the Rococo Painting in Baroque Italy. In the above painting, the Tiepolos had experimented with perspectives, because from various angles of the grand staircase, different continents will be showcased, in the centre of which stands God Apollo. The four continents, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America, ...

Madame de Pompadour, the ladylove of King Louis XV of France, is embellished by François Boucher in this painting. The spectator is overwhelmed by the pink tinge of her cheeks, the ruffles and volume of her lace, the cameo on her wrist, the pouf through which she powders herself, the blue bow on her hair, the flowers below, the little pink at the end her brush that she is using to pink her blush. There is the portrait of her lover on the cameo. In the ribbons of her dress, a sense of volume is pronounced. There is an idea of artifice in her outfit, though her visage with big eyes and childlike face provides a sense of proximity. It's an idea of intimacy as if she is trying to confide in the viewer about her secret affair with the king. Her incommensurable persona is the sine qua non of the entire painting. The tenuous apron is in congruence with the pastel pink of the dress and appearance. It's a great exemplification of the Rococo style of painting.

"Pilgrimage to Cythera" evinces the typical Rococo style painting through which Watteau illustrates the hedonistic and luxurious modus vivendi that the aristocrat class of the French society led. Cythera is an ancient Greek island, dedicated to the Greek goddess Venus or the Roman Aphrodite. She was the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility. In the painting, there stood a statue of the goddess in the right side, merged with the pastel greenery. Beside her feet there is a bow, like Cupid's, interwoven by flowery bushes. A little Cupid is sitting beside the pair of lovers, with his arrows on the ground, signifying that they are not prerequisite at this particular moment. Rather, he is tugging an edge of the apron of the coy female, as if urging her to love the man beside, as the male lover seems appealing her too. The more we would move leftward, it will be perceived that the position of the pairs is shifting, as if in a dance. They look to be more intimating a...