Art Appreciation

Art Appreciation

Unit 5

Abstract

Art is many things to many different people and it can be many different things to one person. The beauty if art is that it’s meaning and necessity differs from one person to the next. Not only do we get the color and depth the artist is trying to portray, but we also can open up so many more avenues of thinking for ourselves and, more importantly, to the artist themselves. What can we learn from the artists of the artwork we find most interesting? One of the main points to what we learn is that, even though art can imitate life, it can also provide the viewer with an insight to places or times when the activity being portrayed would not be permitted to be viewed by the public at large, or not open to be believed upon someone’s word. Take for instance, religious saints, or holy persons. How do we know they really existed or that their suffering or joy was divinely inspired. The truth is we don’t, however it is the belief in the possibility that guides our hearts. In the same way, art assists us to believe what is unbelievable.

The Pieces

The Ecstasy of St. Theresa

Giancarlo Bernini

1645-52

Marble : Lifelike

Location: Comaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

Some have called this particular piece the greatest single example of Bernini's mature art. “The Ecstasy of St. Theresa” is a depiction of a mystical experience of the great Spanish Carmelite reformer Teresa of Ávila. In representing Teresa's vision, during which an angel pierced her heart with a fiery arrow of divine love, Bernini follows Teresa's own description of the event. The sculpture, showing the transported saint swooning in the void, covered by cascading drapery, is revealed in a seemingly celestial light within a niche over the altar. The figures of St Teresa and the angel are sculptured in white marble, with golden beams seemingly descending from above the figures. It is not certain from the view of most viewers whether the figures are in the...