I have first chosen the piece, “Page with St. Matthew the Evangelist, Coronation Gospels” on page 442 in our textbook in comparison to “Page with St. Matthews the Evangelist, Ebbo Gospels” on page 443. The Ebbo Gospels piece is very different from the original piece. The Coronation Gospels piece is a very lifelike representation. The colors are dull and old looking, nothing too vibrant. The Ebbos Gospels piece is not natural looking at all. His face figure looks more cartoon like, along with a different hairstyle than the other piece. There is a lot more going on in this piece, details in the background give it more energy and also there are more specific parts of his clothing you can see. The background gives you a part of some history. The colors are vibrant and there’s more in the picture to look at. There is definitely more gold in this frame than the other. I personally like the more deviant picture; it seems more “alive”, although he seems more stressed, this piece definitely shows more emotion. Although it’s not naturalistic, it seems to bring out more liveliness. It’s interesting to me because the Byzantine icons have flat gold halos and in the Coronation Gospel picture, he has one and the other manipulated picture does not.
Secondly, I chose “Page with Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples, Aachen Gospels of Otto |||” on page 451. This piece is very interesting because the colors are so ecstatic. The buildings behind Christ seem unreal because they are so manipulated and stylized. There is a lot of gold and vibrant colors shown in this piece compared to a similar piece called “Presentation Page with Abbess Hitda and St. Walpurga, Hitda Gospels” on page 450. In this picture the colors are dark and gloomy, but definitely more naturalistic. There’s not really a lot of energy in this picture. The Aagen Gospel picture seems more cheerful with bright colors. The detail is more embraced in their clothes, faces and the buildings. Their eyes are bigger then normal especially compared to the other piece. It’s very unnatural and stylized, also showing more colors than you would see in a naturalized piece. I do like the manipulated pieces better because they give you more to look at and they are more appealing to the eye. There are more excitable features.
All these pieces have interesting colors. Like you said nothing too vibrant. I liked that you kept that focus on both pieces. This also later helped you point out that it was unnatural and stylized instead of natural. There were good comparisons and analysis of these pieces.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Ebbos Gospel piece has more emotion than the Coronation Gospel piece! The dark shadows and bold brush strokes make it feel so much more dramatic! The two pieces definitely seem to evoke different feelings
ReplyDeleteI think the way you did your post this week was creative, in that you chose to do comparisons of four versus just comparing the two. I also see that there is a lot of energy in the last piece you discussed, it is probably the one I find most interesting and thought provoking out of the four here.
ReplyDeleteI agree how there is a lot of gold on these particular art pieces. I also did noticed this. For some reason I think it has to do with the type of religion that these pieces are. I also noticed the huge eyes on the art piece. In my opinion I think the eyes are the reason why it caught my eye. It makes me look at it and figure out what the piece means or what the message is. Your blog is very well written.
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