Degas and Velazquez Essay Example

and focuses on light and shadow, somewhat like Chiaroscuro. Baroque art is characterized with great drama, rich and deep color.

Unlike the Baroque which focuses on spiritual subject matter, Impressionism focuses on light and natural subject matters that have nothing to do with deep hidden meaning, religious matters, or concerns for mortality. Impressionism is based on loose form. It consists of technique with unformed edges and blurred lines that are meant to be noticed. The painting by Velazquez, " The Rookery Venus" also known as the "Toilet of Venus" was painted in 1648.

The painting is known as 'The Rookery Venus' because it was in the Merritt Collection at Rookery Park. It is the only surviving example of a female nude by

Velazquez. The subject was rare In Spain because it was disapproved by the church. This painting was completed when the artist was In Italy. He was Inspired by from numerous works, from ancient to the Baroque being the main inspirations.

The nude Venues of the Italian painters, such as Goriness's Sleeping Venus (1510) and Titan's Venus of Robin (1538) were the main precedents. Venus, the goddess of Love, was the most beautiful of the goddesses. She was regarded as a personification of female beauty, and is the main subject of Vazquez painting. The Toilet of Venus shows the

Roman goddess of love, beauty and femininity, lying on a bed with her back towards the viewers while looking into a mirror held up by Cupid, her son. The painting is void of any mythological equipment which is usually present In the scenes: Jewelry, roses etc are all absent.

Because Venus Is the personification of

beauty, she Is mostly shown as a nude figure who has blonde hair. In Velazquez painting, the goddess 1 OFF En can identify her is because of her sons presence, Cupid, who is also without his transitional bow and arrow. We can see the face of Venus reflected in the mirror, Hough it is blurred.

It is often said that Venus stares at herself in this painting but that may not be the case as the viewer can see her reflection looking at them, so it can be argued that she is looking at the viewer, but because of the blur of the image, one cannot be entirely sure, which adds a little mystery to this magnificent art piece.

Velazquez has used fairly simple colors which are very "unsoundness" like. His color scheme consists of white, grey, pink, muted black and red. The black grey cloth that reflects upon her luminous skin makes her flesh look tender with pearly reflections.

There are streaks of pink white and grey loop ribbons around the edge of the frame of the mirror for which some say that the ribbons were used by Cupid to blindfold lovers, though that is still debatable.

The crumpled sheet that she lays on echo the goddess's physical form, and emphasize the curves of her body. The sharp reds of the curtains unfolding symbolizes action in the painting, gives it a more theatrical appeal. Also the reds curtains contrast with the black cloth under her body. Degas on the other hand worked on a series of pastels on paper with the subject matter Ewing women at their toilette.

One of the paintings form the

series was "The Tub" 1886.

In this series, he showed women taking their daily ablutions, being completely involved in their activities. The subject matter was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, though he went in a slightly more different direction than their flat Japanese counterparts. He went back to drawing and transforming ancient art, some of the poses taken form antique sculptures. Unlike in the Baroque, where the paintings are disciplined, degas uses the effect of chiaroscuro and sharp outlines, typical to the Impressionist style.