Color Explorations Notes

JULY 13 - AUGUST 17; Every Monday

COURSE NOTES

Jump to:

CLASS 1: Where did color come from?

Color as material from the earth.

CLASS 2:  Can color imitate nature?
The Renaissance search for realism

CLASS 3: Can darkness be beautiful?
Baroque color and the drama of light

CLASS 4:What if color is light itself?
Romanticism, Japanese prints, Impressionism

CLASS 5: What if color expresses emotion instead of reality?
Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Fauves

CLASS 6: Episode 6 — What if color becomes the subject?
Abstraction to digital color

CLASS 3: Can darkness be beautiful?


Baroque color and the drama of light and the omission of light

Part 1: Florence (Disegno) vs. (Venice Colore)

  • Disegno: (Florentine School) Form and space should be intellectually planned using precise lines, anatomy, and structure before paint is applied.

  • Colore: (Venetian School) Compositions should be built directly on the canvas using color, light, brushwork, and blended oil glazes.

Michelangelo, Preparatory drawing for the Libyan Sibyl, 1511

Titian, Pastoral Concert (previously attributed to Giorgione), 1509

Part 2: Inheriting Oil Painting Innovations

Antonello da Messina — Oil and luminosity

  • Northern Oil Technique in the school of Jan van Eyck

  • Glazing

  • Luminosity

  • Optical Realism

  • Diffusion of Oil Painting in Venice

Jan Van Eyck, Portrait of Man, 1433

Antonella da Messina, Portrait of a Man, 1476

Part 3: Venetian Masters

Bellini

  • Concepts

  • Atmospheric color

  • Unified light

  • Landscape as mood

  • Soft transitions

  • Luminous glazing

  • Harmony between figure and landscape

Giorgione

  • Concepts

  • Poetry over narrative

  • Atmosphere

  • Ambiguity

  • Tonal unity

  • Mood

  • Pastoral landscape

Titian

  • Concepts

    • Glazing

    • Warm/Cool Contrast

    • Broken Edges

    • Atmosphere

    • Painterly Surface

    • Visible Brushwork

Tintoretto

Concepts

  • Diagonal Composition

    • Foreshortening

    • Dynamic Space

    • Dramatic Lighting

    • Movement

Veronese

Concepts

  • Diagonal Composition

    • Foreshortening

    • Dynamic Space

    • Dramatic Lighting

    • Movement

Bellini and Titian, The Feast of the Gods, 1514-1529

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1523

Tintoretto, Miracle of the Slave, 1548

Part 4: Caravaggio and the Caravagistii

Concepts

  • Tenebrism

  • Chiaroscuro

  • Selective Light

  • Psychological Realism

  • Ordinary Models

  • Omission

  • Lost Edges.

Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew, 1600

Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes,1613

Francesco de Zubarán, Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and Rose,1633

Rubens

  • Concepts

    • Tenebrism

    • Chiaroscuro

    • Selective Light

    • Psychological Realism

    • Ordinary Models

    • Omission

    • Lost Edges

Rembrandt

  • Concepts

    • Psychological Light

    • Introspection

    • Golden Light

    • Impasto

    • Atmospher

Vermeer

  • Concepts

    • soft daylight

    • cool shadows

    • optical observation

    • quiet interiors

    • color relationships/composition

    • limited palette

Part 5 — Northern Europe: Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer

Peter Paul Rubens, “The Garden of Love”

Rembrandt, The Night Watch

c. 1499–1508

Vermeer, The Milkmaid, circa 1658

Exercise: Chiaroscuro Study of Glazing