Portraiture Assignment

High Renaissance - Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo Da Vinci

ART MOVEMENT

High Renaissance art was the most dominant art style in Italy that traditionally
began in the 1940s, but grew more attention during the 15th to 16th century. The
High Renaissance was deemed as “high” because it was viewed as the period in
which artistic ideas and aims of the Renaissance reached their highest
presentation.
The most predominant change during the Renaissance that affected the art world
at the time was the spread of the Black Death. The plague brought fear to many
people and especially regarding the horrific idea of hell. These started to seam
more and more real and truly reinforced realism in art, one of the styles that
profoundly characterised this era in art.
During the High Renaissance, artists were considered a craftsman, they weren’t
viewed any differently and were only regarded for their skill rather than their
creativity. However, there were still many that appreciated the intellect of
artists. The High Renaissance was mainly dominated by three individuals:
Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo Da Vinci.
Lady with an Ermine (1489-
1491)

Leonardo Da Vinci

ARTIST

Leonardo da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian man who created many paintings that are famous to
this day and have shaped the idea of art greatly. These include the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Lady with an
Ermine. He was also a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician,
and a writer. Da Vinci is well known for his realistic and smooth looking paintings. He was known as the master of
“chiaroscuro”, which is the Italian term for “light/dark”, this meant that he had a talent for being able to create
exceptional shadows and highlights with the paint.

ARTWORK

Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci is a painting depicting a lady looking to the side holding an ermine. The
lady in the painting is Cecilia Gallerini, who at the time was 16 years old. The artist has used shadow to enhance the
three-dimensional effect of the picture. Leonardo has used the structural frame to evoke the symbolism of the ermine
held by the girl, which was actually used to cover her pregnancy at the time. But the general meaning of this animal
was that when in its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity.

The main colours in this artwork are more muted tones, focusing more brightness onto the figures skin’s highlights
and the animal’s, bringing focus to both subjects. The placement of the ermine being lower in the arms of the model
still keep the viewer’s eye at the lady’s face as it is in eye level. This is evidence of using lines as the artist’s intention
was to lead the eye from the top of the canvas to the bottom.

AUDIENCE

Overall, Lady with an Ermine alludes to both Duke Sforza, as the model, Cecilia was from the Milanese court and was
a favourite mistress of the duke. Da Vinci’s works now have made a huge impact in changing how different artists
approach painting portraits and their own art styles as he is now one of the most acknowledged artists of all time, not
only for his creations in science, but his role in the art world and forwarding movements.

Cubism – Portrait of Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso.

ART MOVEMENT
Cubism is an art movement that emerged in the early 20 th century. It was an avant-garde movement revolutionised
European paintings and sculptures, as well as influenced many movements related to music, literature and
architecture. The main idea of cubism through the style of art was that any artwork would be able to portray all the
possible viewpoints of the main object all at once. This is done by creating cube-like figures, hence the name of the
movement, and other geometrical shapes. The movement related to abstract styles as it was first started by Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque.

ARTIST

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and
theatre designer who spent the majority of his life in France. His paintings were usually painted using the technique of
portraying the main object at a frontal view and his overall style was When it came to art styles and techniques, he
was heavily inspired by African tribal masks which were highly stylised, or non-naturalistic, but were still able to
present a vivid human image to the viewer. His paintings show the great influence that these tribal marks had on his
style, such as the Portrait of Dora Maar.

ARTWORK

In the Portrait of Dora Maar, a representation of Dora Maar is created. Her real name was Dora Markovic and she was
a young photographer who came into Picasso’s life in 1936. Maar is represented majestically seated in a chair, resting
her head on her long-fingered hand. The model is structurally and purposely centred in the middle of the canvas.
Viewers can infer that this was intentionally done by Picasso to contradict his style and how the model is depicted
with a variety of geometric and organic shapes, which are completely the opposite of symmetrical. The face has been
drawn to show a combined frontal and side profile perspective, with a red and green eye looking in different
directions. To most people, these deformations are the very hallmark of Picasso’s art style.

Picasso has specifically chosen to use more naturalistic colours, combined with a subtle variety of colours to neutralise
the background and other features, excluding the face. The face is made of a combination of bright warm tones, with
most of the girl being a lemon yellow and the shadows represented by a peach pink colour.

AUDIENCE

Although many would think that Picasso

created this painting as a gift to Dora Maar
or to acknowledge her in some way, it is not.
Maar explained herself, that she felt that this
portrait was not actually of her, but more so
depicting the tragedy of the Spanish people
metaphorically. Viewers can agree with
Maar’s judgement as the painting was
created in the same year which Picasso
denounced the rebellion of General Franco
against the Spanish Republics as “a war of
reaction: against the people, against liberty”.

Portrait of Dora Maar (1937)

Pablo Picasso
92 cm x 65 cm
Oil on canvas

Pop Art – M-Maybe by Roy Lichtenstein

ART MOVEMENT
Pop Art was first introduced by artists from New York which were, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James
Rosenquist, and Claes Oldenberg. Many of these artists drew mainstream imagery and became a part of this
worldwide movement. Pop’s reintroduction of recognisable imagery drawn from media and popular culture was a
significant change in the direction of modernism following the popularity of the Abstract Expressionists. This art
movement was generally characterised by recognisable imagery, such as commercial items, bright colours, satire, and
using mixed media and collage.

Pop artists celebrated everyday things and characters, attempting to lift modern culture to the level of fine art. The
subject matter shifted away from conventional "high art" concepts of morals, mythology, and classic history. Pop art
has become one of the most popular forms of contemporary art, possibly due to the inclusion of advertising images.

ARTIST

Born in New York city in 1923, Lichtenstein grew up in a city and an era characterised by prohibition, mass
commercialisation, advertising and jazz. His surroundings played a major role in the development of his unique
artistic style which is used in some of his most famous work. You could describe his work as being inspired by comic
strips as he produced accurate compositions that were parodies of comic book pictures. His work was also sparked by
popular advertising within America and the art world at the time.

ARTWORK

Like most of Roy Lichtenstein’s romance comic adaptions, M-

Maybe depicts a blonde-haired, conventionally attractive girl. She
is holding her hair on the left side of her face, leaving viewers to
guess that she is running, so that wind is blowing her hair away
from her face. The thought bubble in the top left corner show that
she is waiting for a man in an unknown urban setting – a common
theme seen in Lichtenstein’s works. The woman seems to be
looking somewhere outside of the frame and her eyes are below
the natural eye level, which implements the use of lines and
direction to lead the eye from her face to the bottom of the frame.
The lines in the background and rigid and go downwards, which
again, lead the viewer’s eyes to be drawn on the woman.

Red dots are spotted all over her skin to imitate the traditional
comic style as well as add texture and used to create shadows in
the windows behind. The artwork consists of heavy, black
outlines and flat vibrant colours which consist of an electric M-Maybe (1965)
blue, red and yellow to imitate the style in most comic books. Roy Lichtenstein
152.4 cm x 152.4 cm
Canvas
AUDIENCE

Roy Lichtenstein has directed this painting to the viewers of it

and society as a whole. He wants viewers to ask themselves how the woman depicted represents our societal ideal and
create a discussion, or even contradiction, as he does with most of his pieces. The audience of this painting has never
changed, from when it was created to this modern day, as there will always be people that will view his work and try
to understand the painting from different levels.

How do you think the invention of the camera changed the way portraiture was approached by artists?
The invention of photography with paper film in 1885 made art more affordable and accessible, which led to an
increase in the popularity of photographed portraits as they were cheaper than painted ones. For painters, this changed
their approach to portraiture drastically as they now had a competitor which forced them to create more realistic
portraits. However, instead of taking an approach in realism, they used art as a way to protest against the now popular
photographed portraits and took their own spin on it, moving forward with pop art and Cubism.

Why do you think portraiture is still very important in the art world today?
I believe that portraiture is still important to this day as they are able to bring a better insight in the stories of the
subjects of portraits than just a regular photograph. They are able to express this, as when drawing or painting
portraits, you are able to change the colours and shapes of things which are able to not only give the artist’s personal
perspective of the subject, but also allow viewers to create their own stories. Self-portraits can also tell viewers things
about the artists’ personal lives. Portraits have always been able to tell the power and beauty of the sitter, unlike
anything taken by a camera.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo Da Vinci
Blog
Retrieved 6 May 2021
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-paintings/lady-with-an-ermine.htm

Lady with an Ermine – Leonardo’s Masterpiece

Written November 8, 2018
By Kevin Shau
Retrieved 6 May 2021
https://kevinshau.medium.com/lady-with-an-ermine-leonardos-masterpiece-412231f1f158

Lady with an Ermine – Leonardo Da Vinci

By Culture.pl
Retrieved 6 May 2021
https://culture.pl/en/work/lady-with-an-ermine-leonardo-da-vinci

Portrait of Dora Maar, 1937 by Pablo Picasso

Pablopicasso.org
Retrieved 6 May 2021
https://www.pablopicasso.org/portrait-of-dora-maar.jsp

Art Term: Cubism

(Author unavailable)
Retrieved 8 May 2021
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/cubism

Portrait of Dora Maar Seated, Pablo Picasso (1937)

Written 23 May, 2003
By Jonathon Jones
Retrieved 9 May 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/may/24/art

What is Pop Art?

Blog post
Retrieved 9 May 2021
https://www.invaluable.com/blog/what-is-pop-art/

Pop Art
Theartstory.com
Retrieved 9 May 2021
https://www.theartstory.org/movement/pop-art/

M-Maybe
En.wikipedia.org
Retrieved 10 May 2021
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Maybe

How the invention of photography changed art

Peareylalbhawan.com
Blog
Retrieved 10 May 2021
http://www.peareylalbhawan.com/blog/2017/04/12/how-the-invention-of-photography-changed-art/