Final Paper

Dempsey and Firpo George Bellows
The Fall of Phaeton Sir Peter Paul Rubens

My essay compares two artworks by American painter George Bellows and Sir Peter Paul Rubens who is a German painter. Bellows was born on August 12^th, 1882 and Rubens was born on June 28^th, 1577. The two artworks I will be comparing are Bellows’ Dempsey and Firpo made in 1924 and The Fall of Phaeton created by Rubens in 1906. Dempsey and Firpo was influenced by the realism period of the 19^th century. The Realists of the late 1800’s felt that painters should work from the life round them. The naturalistic and close to life depictions by Bellows showcased that as his art takes you right into scene of the painting as if it is happening right in front of you. The Fall of Phaeton was made during the Baroque period. Baroque was a movement in European painting in the 17^th and early 18^th centuries, characterized by violent movement, strong emotion, and dramatic lighting and coloring.

George Bellows Dempsey and Firpo was made in 1924 after the famous fight between Luis Firpo and Jack Dempsey. The theme of this piece is stories and histories. A theme is a concept or category that the subject of the artwork represents. The theme stories and histories has a subject matter of stories whose roots reach deep into their culture’s collective memory. Anyone with a deep knowledge of boxing history knows about one of the most historical fights of one of the greatest fighters that ever lived. Though the story in this picture is half told, as it would seem that the 4 year champion Dempsey, who is the man knocked through the ropes, is going to lose to Firpo, the first Latin American to fight for the championship. But after the event depicted by Bellows transpires, Dempsey gathers himself back in the ring to knockout his opponent and retain his championship. In the artwork, all of the people are drawn with a surprised expression on their faces at what has happened to their champion except the left most and only bald man who is also the least detailed. That is Bellows himself in a self portrait as he was a spectator of the fight.

The Fall of Phaeton by Paul Rubens made in 1606 also had the theme of stories and histories but because the picture is depicted from Greek mythology I saw a bit of the invention and fantasy theme. Though it tells a story, the fact it is from mythology means the story isn’t factual especially the flying horses and winged figures standing on a cloud. Without prior knowledge of the mythology it most mostly impossible to know what is exactly going on from just viewing the picture. Phaeton, son of Apollo the sun god, wanted proof that he is in fact the sun of a god after being told he had no proof. To prove it he asks to drive Apollo’s horses and chariot. When he does the horses sense the weakness of the mortal and run out of control. They get to close to earth and set it on fire. To stop this Zeus hits Phaeton with a thunderbolt represented by the ray of light streaking through the painting. Phaeton, singled out by the red cloth around him, falls out the chariot into the darkness of the painting.

George Bellow’s Dempsey and Firpo, uses several principles of design. The painting is symmetrically balanced with the action of the objects being focused towards the middle of his art with exception of the ref on the right side. The people also show balance as the spectators are balanced around the focal objects. Bellow’s even has two heads in the back sitting up higher than the rest on each side. The line of repeated spectators also shows rhythm but the most obvious example of repetition is the few copies of spotlights above and around the boxer in the ring. The spectators in the back have also been scaled down compared to those in front to show depth and distance. Because the painting is monochromatic, I would think that it would have been unified with grey and black and have no variety. The black background, the darkness of the clothes spectators wear, and gloves/shoes the boxers dominate the picture. But using different shades of gray, Bellow’s is able to create different complexions, flesh tones and hair colors. The best examples of it are the three men to the left of the boxer that got knocked out the ring. Each man has a different skin and hair color. The first man has a darker skin tone but lighter hair than the man next to him and the man to the right seems older because of the grayness seen in his hair. The unity and rhythm is not perfect but can be seen. The Fall of Phaeton by Sir Peter Paul Rubens also uses several principles of design. The focal point and emphasis is clearly the ray of light shining down and the objects it highlights as when I first viewed this picture, my eyes were drawn to light shining down on the woman with the blue cloth. That blue cloth stands out from everything else that has a complementary reddish orange tone. Next my focus moves to the horses in a counterclockwise circle back to the light. The implied light in the focal point contrasts the darker valued subordinate area around the emphasis circle I explained above. Besides the sun yellow used for the light, the vibrant red and orange colors kept you looking at the other emphasized objects from the horses to the man falling out the chariot wearing a red sash. Those colors are complemented by the blue of the clouds in the subordinate area. There is unity and repetition of the horses and people in a circular fashion as if they were connected by a chain.

This living characteristic of art is called mood. Mood is a state of mind or a feeling. Artists use a variety of methods to create mood in their works, including subject matter, scenery and composition. Coincidently both Dempsey and Firpo and The Fall of Phaeton have a very dramatic and surprised mood. They both give me a suspenseful feel of what is going to happen next. In Bellow’s piece he uses the body and facial expressions of the spectators to show their shock that the boxing champ Dempsey was knocked through the ropes. Rubens used the same types of facial and body language along with vibrant colors to show astonishment of what phaeton has done.

Dempsey and Firpo by George Bellows was a lithograph print. The printing process which creates a lithograph is different from other traditional methods. Most printing presses require the printmaker to etch an image or text into metal plates or physically carve out the image on blocks of wood or other soft material. To create a lithograph, no etching is required. The artist uses a set of greasy crayons or pencils to draw a mirrored image of the original artwork onto a smooth stone tablet. An oil-based variety of ink is applied directly to the plate and immediately bonds with the equally greasy crayon lines. Water is then wiped onto the remaining unpainted areas to discourage the ink from smearing. For multiple colors, a new plate had to be made, and inked. Because this print was monochromatic he only needed one, though there is a colored version of the painting that would require many plates. The textures throughout the print for the most part are very smooth especially for the skin of the people, but with a shading technique, Bellows makes things such as wrinkles in the shirts of the ref and the rough feel of the jackets some of the spectators have on very lifelike and realistic. The Fall of Phaeton by Paul Rubens was an oil painting done on canvas. Unlike water based paint, oil paint does not dry quickly as it doesn’t use evaporation to dry. This property allows the artist to mix or separate paint on the canvas without the paint drying or cracking in the process. This is very evident in this painting especially the way Rubens blends in the yellow streak of light with the other objects in the middle of the piece. Rubens started with a thin layer of blue and a thick brush and created his painting on top of that layer also with thin layers with exception of the main objects in the middle that have a thicker application of paint. Those objects were also painted with a much thinner brush than that of the 1^st layer.

Dempsey and Firpo has a realistic style. From the spectators, the boxers, the ref, and the ring, nothing if left to the imagination besides what you believe happened before or after the event depicted. The Fall of Phaeton on the other hand uses the Baroque style. The Baroque style had hints of realism because artists painted people with all of their imperfections, hence baroque meaning grotesque which is what many believed it was at the time. Baroque is also is characterized with extravagance with great drama exemplified by bold composition, strange juxtapositions of content and use of bright elementary colors. Rubens’ painting has all of these items from the primary color smorgasbord for your eyes to the positions he draws the people and horses.

Before taking this class, I would probably look at the two pieces of artwork I chose and said well they are both completely different on basis of one having color and the other not and nothing else. But despite that huge difference there were some similarities such as the shocked and dramatic mood shared by both artworks. Also Rubens and Bellows both painted how they viewed a particular event as realistically as possible though they are from different art periods, have different styles, and one is a real life event while the other is from Greek mythology. I chose Bellow’s Dempsey and Firpo because I am a boxing fan and have seen the video of the fight he painted but the video never show that angle of Dempsey falling out the ring. As for The Fall of Phaeton, I didn’t choose this one initially as I saw a different painting by Rubens, but found that someone else had chosen it. I then looked through his other works and was intrigued by that mythological painting.

EXTRA CREDIT

The color relationships of the Assignment list on blackboard seemed to be complementary colors after each other excluding the intro. For example, green and red for week 2 and 3, then orange and blue for week 4 and 5/6.

Activity #10

Dempsey and Firpo by Geroge Bellows was a lithograph print. The printing process which creates a lithograph is different from other traditional methods. Most printing presses require the printmaker to etch an image or text into metal plates or physically carve out the image on blocks of wood or other soft material. To create a lithograph, no etching is required. The artist uses a set of greasy crayons or pencils to draw a mirrored image of the original artwork onto a smooth stone tablet. An oil-based variety of ink is applied directly to the plate and immediately bonds with the equally greasy crayon lines. Water is then wiped onto the remaining unpainted areas to discourage the ink from smearing. For multiple colors, a new plate had to be made, and inked. Because this print was monochromatic he only needed one, though there is a colored version of the painting that would require many plates. The textures throughout the print for the most part are very smooth especially for the skin of the people, but with a shading technique, Bellows makes things such as wrinkles in the shirts of the ref and the rough feel of the jackets some of the spectators have on very lifelike and realistic.

The Fall of Phaeton by Paul Rubens was a oil painting done on canvas. Unlike a water based paint, oil paint does not dry quickly as it doesn’t use evaporation to dry. This property allows the artist to mix or separate paint on the canvas without the paint drying or cracking in the process. This is very evident in this painting especially the way Rubens blends in the yellow streak of light with the other objects in the middle of the piece. Rubens started with a thin layer of blue and a thick brush and created his painting on top of that layer also with thin layers with exception of the main objects in the middle that have a thicker application of paint. Those objects were also painted with a much thinner brush than that of the 1^st layer.

Activity #8 Collage

Activity #9

Today we take them for granted, but art was changed forever by the inventions of paper and the camera. Paper took it from walls to make art portable. The camera taught us how to see. The advantages of paper are very obvious, but the effects on art by the camera are not so often considered as I didn’t notice the effect until now. Before the camera, the task of recording appearances and events through paint and sculpture such as one of the paintings I chose for my blogs, Dempsey vs Firpo. The rules of perspectives also changed as a photo was as close to reality as you could get whereas a painter is showing their view on things.
Daguerreotype, the first practical photographic process by Jacques Daguerre, that made a single permanent image directly on a copper plate. This impact of photographic prints was as a theoretical force behind the development of Impressionism and invariably Post Impressionism. If a camera could capture a fuzzy impression of a scene, why couldn't an artist do the same? As film speeds improved, time-lapse photography or chronophotography influenced Futurist and Cubist painting in the first decades of the twentieth century. The Dada movement often incorporated various images in a collage format to show a form of protest or disgust after World War I in a less traditional form of art. Today photography is a full fledged art form as there is a camera now at every event or occasion documenting it forever.

Activity #7

Nature, like still life’s, can be taken for granted by some, as it is just stuff some people see everyday depending on where they live. But for many nature in is a gateway to a completely different place with every brushstroke on the canvas highlighting not only the landscape but the animals that inhabit it. The desire to portray landscapes is been matched by the desire to create them as visual delights. Also like a still life, nature is not only a subject, but the material for art. But unlike still life’s that some my find unimaginative because of its realism, the ability to take transfer a colossal landscape to a canvas can be breathtaking. My exhibition showcase’s the art in nature theme from the dynamic landscape, the ferociousness of nature’s wildlife, to the quaint scene depicted by an artist.

Trail Riders by Thomas Benton, fixates your eyes immediately to a glorious mountain peak amongst the clouds that is lightly colored than the rest of the mountain to show its height and dominance compared to the much darker ridges cascaded below it. Your eyes are lead down toward a body of water vanishing into the bottom of the mountain. In front of the water is a symmetrical semicircle of pine trees that leads to the riders on horseback which follows the title. The scene in this painting is very serene and relaxing. Another piece in the exhibition is Niagara Falls from the American Side. This one is contrary to Trail Riders as William Bennett shows nature’s liveliness through the Niagara Falls. Though the emphasis is placed on the energetic moving water, towards the bottom of the artwork a group in a canoe calmly row towards the shore as if the powerful flow of water isn’t close to them at all. The next three paintings show nature and its wildlife. All three have the most focal weight in the middle of the picture and multiple animals. Charles Raleigh’s Law of the Wild shows exactly as the title says, the law of the wild that the hunter kills the hunted as a sea lion is caught by a polar bear. The textures throughout the painting are very smooth. It’s almost as if the smirk-like grin on the polar bear shows it knows the sea lion has no chance to escape on the smooth, slippery ice. D.G. Stouter’s On Point and Right and Left by Winslow Homer both also show the law of nature that before stated law of nature but with human interaction. On Point shows a dog of the pointer breed which is a popular hunting dog, looking down at some birds that are possibly quail. The birds are repeated as they trail to the right but are scaled down towards the right to show they are chicks. Right and Left show has two ducks in the center just like the previous paintings with one to the right and one to the left as the title suggests. The two birds a just about the same with one rotated towards the water as if it was shot. The blue and white mixture on the water under the ducks shows where the shot was fired though it isn’t clear which one was shot because of expression and posture of the left duck. It is apparent that Homer showed the fragility of life in nature.

The artists in my exhibition illustrate many different aspects of nature. I found that art with this theme usually have titles that are exactly what is seen in the painting with the perfect example in my exhibition being Head of Cabbage with Insects by Rosenwald.

Activity #6 MidTerm Exibition

Thomas Hart Benton
Trail Riders, 1964/1965
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art

William James Bennett
Niagara Falls from the American Side, published 1840
hand-colored aquatint with touches of engraving
National Gallery of Art

Charles S. Raleigh
Law of the Wild, 1881
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art

D.G. Stouter
On Point 1854
oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art

Winslow Homer

Right and Left 1909

oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art

Head of Cabbage with Insects
Rosenwald Collection
Watercolor
National Gallery of Art

Color Game

Here is my Color Game. Under each Definition is a word in red. Unscramble that word to match its defintion.

1. A color harmony composed of any three colors equidistant from each other on the color wheel.

idactri

2. A ray of light split into different colors.

frrecdeta

3. These colors are made by combining a primary color with an adjacent secondary color.

iatytrer

4. These types of colors are on the red-orange side of the wheel and associated with sunlight and firelight.

ramw

5. A color harmony that combines colors adjacent to one another.

lonagauos

Answers are in the comments