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Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15th 1452, In Vinci Italy, a town outside of Florence. He was the son of a town Notary,
and a peasent girl (wikipedia). Soon after his birth, his father took custody of him. His father was a wealthy man therefore
Leonardo was blessed with a high education in Florence Italy. Leonardo was introduced into Vinci's painting tradition. at
the age of fifteen Leonardo's father got him an apprenticeship to Andrea del Verrochia, an Italian painter in Florence who
was considered during this time one of the most gifted Artists in Florence(ucmp).
Leonardo began painting small peices in Verrochio's work. He painted an Angel in the piece
"Baptism Of Christ". The angel painted by Leonardo appeared to be much better than Verrochio's (wikipedia). Leonardo's talent
was revealed. In 1482 Leonardo entered the service of The Duke of Milan. He spent seventeen years in Milan and this is where
he reached the hieght of his artistic and scientific achievements. The Duke kept him busy by painting, sculpting, and designing
elaborate court festivals. Also by designing weapons, buildings and machinery(Nuland).
From 1485 to 1490, Leonardo produced studies on many different things. Some of his studies during
this time included; Nature, Flying machines, municipal construction, Canals, and also architecture (mos). Leonordo didn't
finish all of his projects. He very often got sidetracked by other more interesting projects that would come up. This
is why in seventeen years Leonardo only completed about six works. Two examples of these are, "Madonna on the Rocks" and "The
Last Supper".Both of which are two very famous pieces (Nuland).
Leonardo spent most of his time studying science. He would observe nature and
he even got permission to disect dead bodies at the Hospital Santo Spirito to learn about human anatomy. He was one of the
first to start learning about human anatomy. He did this so he could make his paintings and sculptures as accurate, and as
realistic as possible (wikipedia). He also kept all his findings in notebooks. The works in the notebooks covered four
main themes. Painting, Architecture, the elements of mechanics, and the human anatomy (ucmp).
In 1499 Leonardo traveled and worked in Italy for the next sixteen years, and he then traveled in 1502, with
the service of Cesare Borgia, the youngest son of the pope Alexander VI, as an engineer (mos). He reportedly began his
work on the Mona Lisa in 1503, and it would take him 3 years to fully complete it. The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous
paintings in westurn art history, or even thw world. Later, In the year 1513 until about 1516 he worked in Rome undertaking
projects from the pope. Leonardo died on May 2nd 1519 in Cloux France (wikipedia).
Art ISU Essay: Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Art has been through many changes in style but nothing is more beautiful than the style of Impressionism. Using sharp choppy
brush strokes, impressionism looks at the world as it is. Artists were able to paint outdoors with the invention of oil paints
and a lot of the subject matter was nature and people interacting with it. One man who was able to capture this idea and start
the new trend in impressionist style was Claude Monet.
Claude Monet was born on November fourteenth in the year 1840. He was born in Paris France. At the age of five Claude moved
to the Havre in Normandy. His Mother was a singer, and his father was in the grocery store business. His father wanted Claude
to go into the family business, but Monet wanted to paint. Monet went to La Havre Secondary School in April of 1951. Here
he became known for his charcoal sketches, that he would sell for fifteen to twenty francs. In 1856 he met up with a fellow
artist named Eugene Boudin on a beach in Normandy. Boudin taught Monet to use oil paints and he quickly became his mentor.
Boudin also taught Monet En Plein Air which is a technique for painting outside. In 1857 Monet’s mother past away and
he moved in with his aunt. He had to serve in the army in Algeria but his aunt agreed to get him out of the army if he took
an art course at a University, which he did but he did not like the painting styles taught at the university. Later he went
to Paris and he saw other painters copying the ideas and techniques of old painters. Monet would not do this; instead he would
sit by a window and paint what he saw. Monet would be in Paris for several years and he met many impressionist artists before
he died at the age of eightysix.
The paintings by Monet were not done spontaneously like most people think, but as an impressionist he planned all his paintings
ahead of time and he worked very hard to achieve the best results. A lot of the time he would paint a different series of
the same subjects to show the changes in them. He would paint the difference in light on the same subject throughout the day
and swap canvas's as the day progressed. For example he did a haystack series, a water lily series, a cathedral series, a
sunlight series, and garden series. He would paint the same object many different times during the day. The shadows and colors
would change as the day went on. Not all of Monet's paintings were painted on location; in fact most of his paintings were
finished in his art studio. He was quoted as saying "Whether my cathedral views my views of London and other canvases are
painted from life or not is nobody’s business and of no importance whatsoever." (Karen sagner)
Monet was very fond of painting controlled nature. His Garden in Gervany had water lilies, a meadow, willows and a marsh,
and a bridge that he liked to paint and he did many of them in series. He also liked to paint up and down the banks of Siene.
In 1914 Monet began the water lily series at the request of his friend, a politician named George Clemenceau. Monet painted
on white canvases and he used opaque colors. Studies of his paintings show that most of the paint was often applied right
from the tube, or else it was mixed right on the canvas. He used thin layers of paint that would allow the lower layers of
paint to shine through. He built up texture using his brushstrokes, which could have been thick or thin. He added tiny dabs
of light to his paintings using light colors, he banned all dark colors from his pallete.
Monet along with Pissaro, is considered one of the founders of Impressionism. Monet was one of the most consistent of all
the Impressionists. Two examples of Monet's impressionist paintings are garden at Sainte- Adresse and The cliffwalk.
Garden at Saint Adresse has a lot going on in it. There are many gardens. He painted the flowers using many dots. As well
there are boats on the horizon. It is very alluring and attractive to the viewer’s eye, and it gives the feeling of
pure joy no matter how often the painting is viewed. The cliff walk is very recognizable when seen from a distance,
but when seen up close it is very abstract with many brushstrokes showing. The two figures are barely sketched in and unseen
against the landscape when viewed up close.
Monet's paintings show his intimate relationship with the natural world through his own gardens, and landscape paintings.
He used his brushstrokes and lighting to challenge his skills as an artist. Monet's paintings are not meant to be analyzed."
People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's simply necessary to love."
(Arthure Lazre) His paintings are meant to be enjoyed by the viewer and today his paintings can be viewed in Museums around
the world.
Work Cited
Books:
The History of Impression By John Rewald, The museum of Modern art; revised edition, June 1973
Strokes of Genuis: The Magic of Monet By Karen Sagner- Duchting; scholastics, 1995
Websites:
Marion Boddy-Evans "Pallettes and techniques of the Impressionist masters; Claude Monet" about.com, The New York Times
Company 2006 <http://painting.about.com/od/oldmastertechniques/a/Techs_Monet.htm>
Arthure Lazre "Monet in Normandy" culturevulture.com, Michael Wade Simpson, June 2006
<http://www.culturevulture.net/ArtandArch/MonetinNormandy.htm>
Anne Mette Hiendorff "Claude Monet" July 2006
<http://arthistory.heindorffhus.dk/frame-Monet.htm>
Douma, Michael, curator. "Claude Monet's Impression Sunrise" Color Vision & Art. 2006. WebExhibits. Institute for Dynamic
Educational Advancement, Washington, DC. Retrieval date. http://webexhibits.org/colorart/monet.html
Sunset of The Samauri: Charactor Sketch
Saigo Takamori was born in Kagoshima, in his early career he was a low ranking samauri official. He led a campaign over
the Sogunates supporters. Over Time he became known as "great Saigo", and he was given command of the Imperial Guard. Saigo
was a very proud, violent, and stong person for the following reasons.
Saigo is very proud of his country and of his political
stance so much the he was prepared to die for what he believed in. When it came to starting a war with Korea he was dedicated
and willing to go to Korea as an embassador and insult their government so badly that they would be forced to kill them. This
would give the chinese reason to go to war. He fully intended on doing this and when the shceme was put into the play the
only thing that stopped it was, the chinese government. Siago was already on board of the ship when he was recalled.
He was also very Violent, not only did he want to help give the Chinese a reason to start a war, he opened schools and
taught young students how to fight. The schools were scattered throughout the Satsuma province. They taught Chinese tactics,
English and French. Student were required to take weapons training and instrution in tactics. Saigo also started artillery
schools.
Saigo was very strong, In 1877 when some of his students attacked a government arsenal he found himself to be the head
of a rebellion. They were armed with modern weapons and were able to seriously challenge the imperial armies for several months.
In the end instead of being killed by the enemy or captured, he asked a fellow comerade to cut off his head and preserve his
honour.
Therefore because of Saigos strong beliefs, and all the things he caused and fought for he had many traights. He was very
proud of his country and showed it by putting his life on the line. He was very violent and showed this by teaching students
violent ways, and also he was very stong because he fought for what he beleived in.
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