Sunday, May 29, 2011

Louvre: The Search to find the Perfect Painting




Today was our day at the Louvre, it was to least to say overwhelming. I still cannot believe how large this museum is, I typically think of covering an entire museum when I go to visit it this is just simply not possible in the Louvre. We spent the whole 4th day at Louvre, in the morning we visited the Large french paintings, we focused on three rooms and picked one painting to dissect. I choose to focus on Anne-Louis Girodet De Roussy-Trioson's The Burial of Atala. I was drawn to this painting because of its softness and overall calming feeling. I felt that when I looked at the other paintings in these three rooms there was sense of chaos in both the amount of people and the painting itself. I immediately noticed the light and its positioning in this painting. The figure that you go to first when looking at this painting is the face of Atala, which is interesting because she is of center. The second thing that you go to is the cross in the background. Then back to Atala, and follow her body to her lovers back, highlighting the curves in his back, which is almost in a fetal position cradling his lovers legs. You then follow back up Atalas body to the priests head, emphasizing again the downward focus on Altala. All the while keeping in mind and glancing at the highlighting of the cross. This was the aspect of the painting that I was drawn the most too.

This was much more manageable for me than the afternoon. After we all got together we split up and went to focus on one thing that we wanted to dissect. Anything from the building itself, paintings, furniture, sculptures, prints, drawings, and more. This was extremely challenging for me, I am a person that is all over the place as it is, so when I started off all I had in my mind was focusing on a French painting. I wanted to analyze something that I am not use to analyzing. With that in my mind I set off to the second floor. I started to look around the rooms, in each room I liked something, but I was afraid that there was something that I would like more in the next room. I ended up walking around for about 2 hours searching for the perfect painting to analyze. After the long search I found a painting that mixed my interest in architecture, Paris, and painting.
The painting that I choose was The Bridge over the River Gard which appeared in the salon in 1787. This square painting is only one painting in a series of four all about the celebration of the idea that a monument takes pride in place. This painting was all about the people and the use of the water. Everyone is using or coming to t
he water, there also is an animal coming. I believe that this was important because in 19 BC having an a water system that worked was a
great connivance and luxury.


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