Art Appreciation: The Getty Museum

Onbirbak 1

Neema Onbirbak

Professor Levin

Art Appreciation

3 August 2015 Art has a part in every nation’s history, whether it captures events or creates some themselves. Unfortunately, during the Nazi Regime many pieces of this kind of history were lost. When I look at art, I try to recreate the artist in his or her studio trying to paint the piece or even photograph it, and imagine all the hard work it took to make one image. Personally I liked art during the Renaissance period because of the fact that it was under control, and not crazy. Now days, people can simply draw a line on a blank canvas, or even just shapes in different colors and it will be considered art. That might seem crazy, but the answer is simple, it has a backstory

From the Cyrus Cylinder that used to be on display to the paintings that hang on the wall, all of those pieces are rich with history. Luckily for me, there was a lot of classical art on display, and it was very hard for me to make up my mind as to which three I would select to analyze. I had previously been to the Getty Museum before in 2013 when the Cyrus Cylinder was on display, but I didn’t know anything about art. Thanks to what I have learned in Art Appreciation, I recognized some very famous painters and their paintings when I visited recently. All three of the paintings that I chose to analyze from the Getty are European oil paintings. During the time of the European oil painting, the hierarchy of subject matter was around. All three of these paintings belong to the history painting category. The three that stood out to me the most had to be Perseus Confronting Phineus with the Head of Medusa by Sebastiano Ricci, Moses and Aaron Changing the Rivers of Egypt to Blood by Bartholomeus Breenbergh, and Christ Cleansing the Temple by Bernadino Mei. There is one thing in common with all three of these paintings, they capture certain events into one image, even if they are not real. Immediatley Confronting Phineus with the Head of Medusa by Sebastiano Ricci captured my attention when I saw it. Being that it had Greek mythology in it and that it was also an oil painting, I was instantly in shock of how well it was detailed. The

Then, a battle emerged between Perseus and his men, and Phineus and his men. The image itself shows Perseus’ triumph in the battle by revealing Medusa’s head to Phineus and his gang. I also recognized that the painting was pretty dark in color, which was not unusual, being there are many deaths involved in the painting. Besides the color, the painting really accumulated a sense of justice and anger for me. Personally, I feel the morale is that you have to stand up to what you believe. In Perseus’ case he had to stand up to Phineus and protect the belief that the women is his. Another painting that shares this morale in a way is Moses and Aaron Changing the Rivers of Egypt to Blood by Bartholomeus Breenbergh. I liked this painting because I recognized its biblical reference and knew the story behind it already. Most everyone knows the story of Moses and what he did in the Book of Exodus to free the Israelites from the Pharaoh’s imprisonment. Initially, a polite gesture did not work out for Moses when asking for the freedom of his people, so he warned the Pharaoh of the terrible disasters in store for him. One of them happened to be to turn the Nile River into blood. At the time, the Nile River supplied the Pharaoh’s