Blog Assignment 1 (Part 1)

One of the paintings that we discussed on Wednesday, September 1st was Fredric Church's "The Parthenon".  The first and most distinct element of this painting is the placement and emphasis of the parthenon itself. Because it is centered in the page, we know that it is meant to be the focus of this painting and it shows importance/respect for this structure. There is also a noticeable light source hitting the parthenon which also emphasizes importance. There are distinct lines that add to pull ones eye to the parthenon. There are two beams of sunlight on the bottom right as well as a shadow in the center that has a triangle shape, point centered in front of parthenon. Church's use of color helps to illuminate the parthenon and it's near surroundings and darken everything else. This helps direct the eye first to the parthenon and then around the rest of the page.
This painting's technique is that of a well trained artist. It also holds a certain style that leads more into its time period. Each time period seems to hold different styles of painting. This style is very traditional and seems to be created in oil which is also another traditional media. From research, we know that Fredric Church painted this in 1871. Even from not knowing the exact year, we notice that in order to paint like this, one would have had to have had a lot of training. Art class in this time period must have been centered around painting from life as well as very traditional techniques. Knowing about the certain art training entailed in this time period, we can make the assumption that this was a time period that found education very important. Because Church chose to paint the parthenon, it also shows that he was from a time period that really admired the traditions of the ancient world. There is a figure painted at the foot of the painting. This helps to show the idea of respect and power that Church and his culture had for the ancient world.