heaven and hell

Inka Essenhigh


Raphael The Madonna of the Meadows


In this weeks chapter, I read about the visual elements of art. I read about things like shape, mass, line, light, texture, space, color, etc. So first i'm going to talk about Inka Essenhigh's piece called In Bed. this piece, i thought, was really cool. If you look at the top of the picture you can see some blinds. the blinds are straight but as they curve, it turns your attention to what appears to me like a demon. That figure the blinds led me to seems a bit mischievous. The painting looks like its depicting a nightmare. The cool thing about the picture is that everything from shape to lighting and color resembles some type of twisted event. The bed is made to look like it's about to swallow the main figure whole. Also, the figure looks like she's in a position of agony. It's like she's twisting in pain. It looks like to me there's a puncture wound and from the wound there are veins. Those veins are lines that direct your attention a demon that is on her stomach ripping out what looks like her kidneys. The colors chosen are all cool colors. The colors chosen give the picture a sad or negative effect. The colors make you feel a bit of pity for the person. Also, if you pay attention to the lighting, the shades are made extremely large. The large shadows adds a demonic effect. The person is being haunted. The figures themselves are tiny but their shadows are humongous. I thought it was pretty cool how at first glance it just looks like some abstract piece of art; kind of like graffiti. However, when you look closer, there's a whole different meaning to it. There's so much going on and all the elements tie into giving this picture a scary, nightmarish effect.

The next picture i wanted to talk about was Raphael's The Madonna of the Meadows. I don't know what it is about the picture but i don't like it that much. It could be the intensity of the colors or it could be just the overall style of the painting. The babies seem to be so much smarter that their look would portray. Its like a one year old knowing how to walk and play with a pole with a cross on it. The colors of the woman are intense Her mass, the colors she wears, the space she occupies immediately draws your attention to her. It's kind of like a map in a way. I feel like this is religious propaganda. The painting draws your attention to the woman who isn't even paying attention to you. She's looking at the babies. This then draws your attention to the babies who seem focused on this rod that they are playing with. the rod then draws your attention to what's at the end of the rod which is the cross. I think that's cool and all but to me it felt like a lot of work only to find out it's like religious propaganda. even the baby that's wearing cloth is kneeling before the other baby. one baby is naked which may be indicating his purity. He is then being bowed before by another baby wearing cloth. it reminds me of the world bowing before the pure one which is God himself.

I guess both artists are similar in the sense that they both use all these different visual components to draw your attention around a single idea. However, i feel like the reasons they paint are completely different.