Compare and Contrast: A Reading of a Classic and Contemporary Painting

As I have mentioned previously, my series is to help my readers—particularly those who consider themselves clueless about art—learn how to read an artwork. My last post (post number 3) offered sources for which readers and students can further develop their historical knowledge about western art.

In this post, I will have readers look at two specific artworks and allow them to decide what each painting is about by comparing and contrasting the artworks I am showing below. In other words, you can practice reading an artwork.

I ask that readers take only a few minutes to write down their observations about each painting, particularly their similarities and differences, before clicking on the provided links. (The links are provided under each painting).

• In the links, I offer my own observations and additional information I know about each painting. These are used as visualizations to help some of my followers who may not feel comfortable yet comparing the two paintings.

PAINTING NUMBER 1:

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David, 1803 version, oil on canvas

Please examine the first painting above to gather your own observations before clicking on my observations/information below.

My personal link of observations and prior knowledge of painting number 1:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1389412787482001409

PAINTING NUMBER 2

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Kehinde Wiley, 2005 version, oil paint on canvas

Again, please take a moment to gather your own observations about painting number two.

Below is my personal link of observations and prior knowledge of painting number 2:

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1389412759803789313

If you feel like commenting, I would love to hear what you think about the paintings and what you think is the meaning of each painting. If you have prior historical knowledge, I would love to hear about your take on these two "historic" pieces.

PS- It truly helps to look at your observations and my observations from the links provided to determine what you think about each painting.

AND

Remember: there are no right or wrong answers, so guessing is totally okay to do!

Teacher and instructor friends please read below as I share about what I learned when creating my "visualization".

The creation of my visualization (the links I provided on this blog) was inspired by a prior teacher’s work using Thinglink.com. I was able to see how a history teacher used artwork for colonial America to discuss how the United States became an independent country. This teacher, using Thinglink to create a visualization, took a famous painting from the colonial time period and added “bullet points” around various places of the painting. Students could then hover over these bullet points with their cursors and read additional information about the painting.

I wanted to pick an artwork with which students could successfully “read” and apply their own accumulated knowledge of art history. I decided between two specific artworks, as one of the artworks mimics the other in a very unique and thought-provoking way.

My first visualization was an artwork from 1801, titled Napoleon Crossing The Alps, painted by Jacques-Louis David. This politically-motivated piece depicts Napoleon as very authoritative, powerful, masculine, and as a conqueror of lands. My second painting is also titled Napoleon Crossing the Alps, but was painted in 2005 by an African American Artist Kehinde Wiley. Wiley’s painting depicts Napoleon as an African American man in today’s urban culture with the same political prowess, but expressed visually in a contrasting and ironic way.

Visualizations are mandatory for any art classroom. Without visualizations or examples of art projects/artworks, students can easily get confused. Creating these two visualizations, however, made me realize that art is not strictly limited to an art classroom setting; it can truly enhance any classroom. Students that are primarily visual learners could really benefit from this type of learning activity. I would argue every teacher should have an array of different teaching methods that extend beyond lecturing or textual reading.

Thinglink.com was a new tool for me to utilize, though I felt it was easy to navigate. The website, however, does have a limit on how much you can type per “bullet point” on each image, which I found frustrating. It would have been nice to add more information to the “bullet points,” but probably beneficial for students who perhaps do not have the attention span to read multiple paragraph long “bullet points,” when they would rather look at the image. This forced me to be more concise and coherent in what I wrote. Regardless, I will say that Thinglink is a great way to share what I know with students rather than simply lecturing. Students don’t always want to hear my voice, and sometimes I need a break from talking. This kind of visualization is easy to produce and can be easily shared online if students are learning from home. This kind of online visualization could be extremely helpful in our current curriculums, where a majority of students are already learning from home.

I think as I move forward in my teaching career, I will be far more willing to look at online projects or visualizations because of my experience working from home to create these two images. I want to be a teacher that ultimately keeps up with the technology in which our children are immersed and utilizes tools that could facilitate their learning. Either way, I think this experience of creating a visualization is already making me grow into a better educator.

Iconography, Symbolism, and Art History Affects How We Read Art!

Introduction:

The overarching goal of this series is to help “non-art people” learn how to approach and read a work of art. Firstly, I want to introduce you to three important, fundamental concepts: iconography, symbolism, and western art history. It is important to note that while “iconography” and “symbolism” might sound like terms covered in an introductory undergraduate course in aesthetics or art history, these terms are more than scholarly, literary devices—they are deeply ingrained in our culture. We interpret symbols and iconography on a daily basis, from the marketing campaigns to the commercial media we regularly consume. Furthermore, we often interpret these visual elements without our being conscious of it, and much of that has to do with art’s history in the west, specifically how western culture associates meaning with common symbols and images.

While I intend for this series and the topics considered therein to remain accessible to all readers, if you are struggling to read my writings because it is hard to understand, I suggest looking at the resources I put together below (specifically the videos), as these break down the topics being discussed in greater detail.

1. The Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2014, February 4). Iconography Visual Art. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/iconography

2. Little Art Talks. “Understanding Art with Iconography | Art Terms | LittleArtTalks.” YouTube, 8 Aug. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv2_UcSA8bY. Accessed 22 Oct. 2020.

3. Literary Devices of Symbolism In Art. (n.d.). Literary Devices Definition and Examples of Literary Terms. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from https://literarydevices.net/examples-of-symbolism-in-art/

4. Goodbye-Art Academy. “Symbolism Defined - From Goodbye-Art Academy.” YouTube, 23 Sept. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIkXOhT_BDY. Accessed 21 Oct. 2020.

5. Art History Timeline: Western Art Movements and Their Impact. (n.d.). Invaluable The World's Premier Auctions and Galleries. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from https://www.invaluable.com/blog/art-history-timeline.

6. Little Art Talks. “Art Periods and Art Movements | LittleArtTalks.” YouTube, 31 Dec. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfX1tvloLNA.

7. Wilson, Matthew. Symbols in Art. Thames and Hudson, 2020.

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For each of the resources listed above, I will provide a brief synopsis; on three of the resources, however, I will provide a more in depth summary and touch on the quantitative and qualitative elements of each text. Such elements are measurements of text complexity that can help educators choose appropriate texts to apply in their classroom. When used throughout this blog, I define these terms according to Wessling’s definitions posed in her video Simplifying Text Complexity : quantitative refers to the parts of a text often measured by a computer (reading grade level, word length, sentence length, etc); qualitative, on the other hand, refers to the text’s humanistic components, often measured by how attentive the reader is to the text. Below are the sources I used to determine qualitative and quantitative measurements for the texts cited throughout this blog:

A) Text Complexity Rubric: Qualitative Measure https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0d3wvcHDk0BWTVuRDJIZ2poU3M/view

B) Wessling, Sarah. “Simplifying Text Complexity.” Online Video Clip. TeachingChannel. Teaching Channel. Web. 19 September 2020.

Iconography:

In my first main source, Iconography Visual Art, the text defines iconography as “the science of identification, description, classification, and interpretation of symbols, themes, and subject matter in the visual arts.” Referring to a specific artwork, “the term can also refer to the artist’s use of this imagery in a particular work.”

The quantitative grade level for the source, according to StoryToolz.com, suggests it is college level of 15.5. The qualitative measurement for the source is considered Extremely Complex, according to the “Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric.” I agree with the quantitative and qualitative measures of this text, especially since the text goes into such great detail about iconography, tracing its ties to movements throughout western art history. However, as an educator, to make this more accessible to my students, I would include a rudimentary vocabulary list to further break down this source’s definition: identification, classification, interpretation, themes, subject matter, and imagery.

As the purpose of this source is to provide an introduction to iconography as a topic, I would shorten this text for my students because most have not yet been officially embroiled in the world of art history. I desire to get my readers’ “toes a little wet” before going full throttle into reading a work of art.

A great video to better define iconography within the visual art context is by LittleArtTalks. This video is listed as number 2 on my resource list. This is a great resource for students that are struggling to understand how iconography works in a painting or artwork. The video link is below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv2_UcSA8bY

Symbols:

Symbolism has two meanings in the art world, which is why it is necessary to bring up my 4th resource from my list. The video, Goodbye Art-Academy, broadly defines symbolism as “when an artist uses a specific object or image to represent something else.” But the video also points out that symbolism can refer to an artist movement, called the Symbolist Movement, that took place from 1860 to 1900. It is important to draw this distinction when discussing an artwork, as an artist can use symbols in a piece but not necessarily be part of the Symbolist Movement. The video below does a great job explaining these distinctions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIkXOhT_BDY

This source is a bit less complex than the previous source used to introduce iconography. Qualitatively, this source is considered Moderately Complex, and quantitatively, this source has a college level average reading score of 13.1. I disagree that this thirty-seven second video is considered college level material; this video is concise, clear, and even provides visual aids to facilitate its message. However, to help my students further comprehend this source, and to better introduce the topic of symbolism as whole, I would consider clarifying the following terms: symbol, object, image, artistic expression, abstract, representation, and hidden meaning.

Literary Devices of Symbolism In Art—listed as number 3 on my resource list—broadly defines symbolism and provides various visual examples of symbolism in western art history. Symbolism, an aesthetic not unique to poetry or literature, is used “to convey the hidden meaning to the reader or listener. It tells us about artistic expression and represents abstract ideas.” For example, a painter may use symbolism “when he wants to put emotions and ideas in the picture, which we can’t experience with our five senses.” In other words, it is the art of “showing, instead of telling.”

Art History:

My third main text source is Art History Timeline: Western Art Movements and Their Impact (number 5 on my resource list). As you can obviously tell from the title, it is a timeline of various art movements that took place in western culture. The source also provides visual examples of each artistic movement. I am choosing to look at this specific timeline of westernized art because most of my students / blog readers would have encountered at least one westernized artwork at some point in their education. That being said, I cannot emphasize enough that other art histories exist and are precious to art history as a whole.

I would use this text primarily as a visual example of the different art fads and art movements that affected artists throughout westernized history. I wouldn’t ask students to read about all of the art movements up front. Doing this would understandably confuse, bore, and frustrate students. However, I would have students refer back to this reading throughout a class because it touches on so many symbols, topics, philosophies, styles, and themes found throughout western history. It is also a great source to look at on your phone while in an art museum.

The Quantitative grade level of this timeline, according to StoryToolz.com, is college level or 12.5. The Qualitative level, according to “Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric,” is Extremely Complex. I don’t completely agree that this timeline is college level or extremely complex material, being that its layout is simple and intuitive; however, I do acknowledge that it contains A LOT of definitions and terminology, making it more complex than your average article. Before looking at the timeline, I would discuss with students the following basic terms: artist movement, art period, western art history, art history, fads, and artistic influence.

The Art History Timeline: Western Art Movements and Their Impact resource doesn’t fully explain the difference between an art movement and an art period. This is why the video, my 6th resource on my list, is essential. The video from Little Art Talks, “Art Periods and Art Movements,” adequately goes over these definitions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfX1tvloLNA

My last source (number 7 on my resource list) is a book by Matthew Wilson titled Symbols In Art. This book is simply an encyclopedia of various visual symbols seen in art ranging from different art histories, religions, cultures, and societies. While it isn’t a book from which I would directly instruct, I think it is a great way to give examples of symbols generally found in art. I may ask students in my future classroom to use a symbol from the book in an art project.

Thank you for reading all of this information. I appreciate your effort to read this specific blog post. I know it was a long post and I hope you will read more of my blog going forward.

To comment please hit "Write a comment" below. Thank you.

Introduction to My First Online Lesson Series

“Art can be thought of as a symbol of what it means to be human, manifested in physical form for others to see and interpret. It can serve as a symbol for something that is tangible, or for a thought, an emotion, a feeling, or a concept. Through peaceful means, it can convey the full spectrum of the human experience. Perhaps that is why it is so important.” From ThoughtCo.:Ways of Defining Art By Lisa Marder Updated July 26, 2019

Art is a process of symbol-making, be it in an abstract, traditional, or personal form. It documents the identity of the individual artist and the society and the culture they inhabit, and the meaning the artist wishes to convey about these facets of their identity. Art is a powerful, flexible, and extremely important utilization of imagery that people ought to be educated about because art is everywhere, from film, to dioramas, to advertising, to diagrams, to architecture, to the way words are laid out on a page. As humans, we experience things every day through our senses, and it is precisely through our processing of this sensory information that we ascribe meaning to the world around us.

In the first online lesson series, I want to look at art throughout history and discuss how one might go about “reading” visual images. I think many people feel discouraged trying to unpack a work of art because they don’t know where to begin, let alone feel adequately equipped to derive any meaning from the piece. But the truth is, all anyone needs is their own intuition and a lasting curiosity. This blog will be a mix of art history, social studies, and visual reading. I hope you will be reading along with me.

If you feel like commenting please hit "comment(s)" below and it should give you a space to type in. Thank you.