The Scream painting by Edvard Munch is one of the most well-known

pieces of artwork in history, appealing to a wide audience even today. There

are actually four different original versions of The Scream that Edvard Much
created using different art mediums including oil paints, tempera, and pastels.
The Scream is part of a larger art collection series that Edvard Munch called
The Frieze of Life.
In The Screams timeless image is a genderless person with a pale face,
standing besides a railing with an expansive view of a chaotic environment.
What is so gripping about the image is that the person is screaming, their
mouth hung wide open with their hands on the sides of their face, and you can
see that scream reflected and continuing on into the distance of the intensely
bloody red, orange, deep blue, and black colored background. Two people
stand with their backs turned to the screaming figure, with their black
silhouettes on the very edge of the scene. Far in the distance there is a hint of a
small city, almost completely lost in the swirling sky.
Two of The Scream artworks are paintings, and the other two were done in pastels. The National Gallery
in Oslo, Norway owns one of The Scream paintings, the Munch Museum holds the other Scream painting and
one pastel, and another pastel is privately owned by Petter Olsen. Mr. Olsen is auctioning off his original
Scream pastel artwork by Edvard Munch through Sothebys in New York on May 2, 2012. Its estimated that
just this one pastel artwork version of The Scream will sell for around $80 million dollars, making it one of the
most valuable art pieces ever auctioned in history.

I nspiration of the Artist

Norwegian by birth, Edvard Munch studied at the Oslo Academy with famous Norwegian artist
Christian Krohg. He created the first version of The Scream in 1893 when he was about 30 years old, and made
the fourth and final version of The Scream in 1910. He has described himself in a book written in 1900 as
nearly going insane, like his sister Laura who was committed to a mental institution during this time period as
well. Personally he discussed being pushed to his limits, and going through a very dark moment in his life.
The scene of The Scream was based on a real, actual place located on the hill of Ekeberg, Norway, on a
path with a safety railing. The faint city and landscape represent the view of Oslo and the Oslo Fjord. At the
bottom of the Ekeberg hill was the madhouse where Edvard Munchs sister was kept, and nearby was also a
slaughterhouse. Some accounts describe that in those times you could actually hear the cries of animals being
killed, as well as the cries of the mentally disturbed patients in the distance. In this setting, Edvard Munch was
likely inspired by screams that he actually heard in this area, combined with his personal inner turmoil. Edvard
Munch wrote in his diary that his inspiration for The Scream came from a memory of when he was walking at
sunset with two friends, when he began to feel deeply tired. He stopped to rest, leaning against the railing. He
felt anxious and experienced a scream that seemed to pass through all of nature. The rest is left up to an endless
range of interpretations, all expressed from this one, provocative image.
The Unique Style of The Scream and its Influences on the Expressionist Movement
Many sources agree that the way that Edvard Munch portrayed pure, raw emotion in this artwork was a radical
shift from the art tradition of his own time, and he is therefore credited with beginning the expressionist
movement that spread through Germany and on to other parts of the world. Most of Edvard Munchs work
relates to themes of sickness, isolation, fear and death.

The Characteristic Techniques Used to Create
One early version of this scene was created by Edvard Munch on a cardboard surface, using tempera, oil paints,
and pastels together. Another version is only done with tempera on cardboard, and these early versions have
almost violent, explosive strokes across the surface that deliver a high impact on the viewer. One of the later
versions of The Scream was a lino print done in black and white only. Edvard Munch liked to add shadows and
auras of color around his main subjects to add


The Son of Man is a Belgian surrealist painting. It
was painted in 1964 by Rene Magritte. The painting was
originally intended to be a self-portrait. The painting
conveys a man in an overcoat wearing a bowler hat and
standing in front of a short wall. Behind this short wall are a
cloudy sky and the sea. You cannot see the face of the man,
since it is largely obscured by a floating green apple.
However, you can see the eyes of the man as they are
peeking over the edge of the apple. If you are keen enough
when looking at the painting, you will notice that the left
arm seems to be bending backwards at the elbow.
Seen and Unseen

I nspiration of the Artist
Magritte said that the painting just shows us about
humanity. He says that everything we see hides some other
thing yet we still want to see what is hidden by what we see.
There is always some sort of interest in what is hidden and
what the visible does not show us. This brings about some
sort of conflict between the visible that is present and the
visible that is hidden.
This painting is similar to another painting by Magritte. It resembles The Great War on Facades. When you look
at this other painting you will notice that it also consists of a person standing in front of a wall overlooking the
sea. Here, it is a woman holding an umbrella and her face is covered by a flower. Magritte is fascinated by
surrealist art as he also has another similar painting called Man in the Bowler Hat. Here, the face of the man is
blocked by a bird and not an apple.

Background
The Son of Man is quite dominant in the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair. This painting is very
visible in the house of the protagonist in this film. It is noted by the love interest as the stereotypical faceless
businessman. The protagonist or the star uses a lot of accomplices who are dressed like the subject of the
painting so as to confuse the police. He does this while he enters the museum in order to return the painting that
he stole in the earlier parts of the film. All the accomplices carry similar briefcases that are filled with copies of
The Son of Man. The painting is again featured in Stranger than Fiction and in Days of Summer.
This painting is privately owned. Recently, in October 2011, the painting was seen hanging in LHotels lounge
which is located in the old historic part of Montreal. Since it is privately owned, opportunities to see it are rare
but you can get reproductions of the original.









The Persistence of Memory was painted by Salvador Dali in 1931 and is one of his most famous works.
It is currently housed in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. It has a huge fan following to date and is
frequently referred to in popular culture. The surrealist artist Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 to January 23, 1989)
was born in Figueres, Spain.

The Persistence of Memory and Surrealism
Surrealism was a cultural movement which had its origins in the 1920s. Surrealist works of art feature
an element of surprise, unforeseen comparisons, and irreverent humor. At times this art, which is a free flowing
expression of the artists imagination, is difficult to interpret and The Persistence of Memory is no exception. It
uses the concept of hard and soft objects.

Expert I nterpretations

The Persistence of Memory depicts a scene showing pocket
watches, detached from their chains, melting slowly on rocks and
branches of a tree, with the ocean as a back drop. A part of the painting
is basked in sunlight and a part is shrouded in a shadow. Looking
carefully you can see too small rocks, one in the sunlight and the other
in the shadow.
Dali frequently used the philosophy of hard and soft in his paintings.
The melting watches points to time being flowing and eternal, whereas
the hard rocks are the reality of life and the ocean represents the
vastness of the earth. There is an orange clock covered with ants. He
used the symbolism to convey the decay of time or death (and at times,
the female genitalia). The strange human figure in the center could be
interpreted, as a formless person we would imagine, while we are in a
dreamlike trance.



Symbolic theme

There have been so many interpretations and analysis of The Persistence of Memory, but Dali never
himself interpreted or explained his work. The art critic Dawn Ades wrote that the soft watches are an
unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time. When Dali was asked if this allusion to Einsteins
Theory of Relativity was true, he replied, rather flippantly, that it was a surrealist vision of Camembert cheese
melting in the heat of the sun.

Experts have said that The Persistence of Memory was a painting during his Freudian phase of life,
before the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki propelled him into his scientific phase. Whatever Dali
wanted to convey by the painting, he took the interpretation with him to his grave. In a strange sort of way, each
of us could interpret it in our own way and would all be right. Who knows, that may be what Dali intended.

The painting has attracted the attention of art lovers for decades. Criticism and praise have been heaped
on The Persistence of Memory, in equal measure. For those who favor the Surrealist genre of art, it is a
masterpiece. To others it is junk, or at the best, the painting of a madman. Be that as it may, it is one work of art
which will never fade away and will always provoke arguments and interpretations.
"Girl with a Mandolin"



The Story

Each successive square behind the subject is part of a background
silhouette giving the eye the ability to see the subject from within her natural
environment. She is not represented in a surreal world like in one of Salvador
Dalis paintings. The painting is not an instrument intended to imitate altered
consciousness. Instead, Picasso gives an example of how each person sees
perceptions from life individual ways. He translates that ordinarily by using
minimalism with equal shapes, colors, and forms of the painting. (Faint
shading for perspective behind the subject might even be insignificant to the
picture and style, except to bring the whole full illumined form closer to
viewers perspectives and concentrated reactions.)
The woman is outlined by cubical versions of her dress as shown on
her right shoulder on the left hand of the painting. The passing outline of the
areola under her dress is painted with more cubes to draw in the audiences attention to what the painting is
about. Cubic illustrations that jut out like triangles are at the bottom of the center of the painting and are
intended to represent the hem of her dress. Her breast provides a curvature drawn away from the cubes. This
also clarifies the feminine aspect and who or what the painting is about. Her hair is drawn up in curls or a bun
and the bending of her hair diverts effectively from every other cube in that it is drawn up and buoyant like a
girls or a young womans hair. Her eye is another ovalesque shape and, once again, is representing the pleasing
feminine and fertile aspects of the subject (like the shape of an egg would). In this way even the mandolin
blends into the aspect of the feminine, with its pear shape, before the instrument unites into remaining perfect
mathematical cubes that compose its neck to be held upright by the subject.

Techniques Applied
By utilizing the same khaki color tone throughout the painting and reducing the number of shapes to
represent the subject, Picasso does not render the image false like the styles of reactionary postmodern painters
and artists against advertising as well as the image and simulacra would. Nor does he paint an image intended to
cause emotion, like Jackson Pollocks extreme abstractions in painting. Instead, the minimalism helps the
audience see the subject that much more clearly and three-dimensionally. By designing this painting out of the
finest construction of mathematical perfection that would resemble the construct of these shapes put together in
real life, Picasso constructs his own medium of simulacra for everyone to take an abstract image and perceive as
their own new, everlastingly novel imaging.

Background
In the winter of 1908, following Braque's exhibition, Picasso and Braque developed a give-and-take that
often verged on collaboration. The Spaniard's misgivings about the Frenchman vanished. (That spring he was
still accusing Braque of pirating his inventions without making any acknowledgement.) They did not share a
studio, though; both artists worked resolutely on their own. But they did meet constantly to discuss their
progress and learn from each other. They took trips - Picasso to Spain in 1909 and 1910, Braque twice to La
Roche-Guyon in the Seine valley. Not till summer 1911 did they spend time together in Ceret in the south of
France, a popular artists' colony. They compared the fruits of their labours and debated new possibilities, often
in a competitive spirit. Thus, for instance, Picasso's "Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier)" is plainly a response
to a painting by Braque. Both artists - and this is unique in the history of art - were developing a new style
together. It was emphatically a give-and-take process: both artists have the same standing in the history of
Cubism. The painstaking Braque, a slow worker, painted extraordinarily subtle works incomparable in their
aesthetic effect. By contrast, Picasso was more restless and abrupt, jumping to and fro amongst various formal
options. Both were experimenting in their own way, and both, independently, hit upon significant innovations.
Oath of the Horatii




The Story
Oath of the Horatii (French: Le Serment des Horaces),
is a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David
painted in 1784 and now in the Louvre in Paris. The painting
immediately became a huge success with critics and the
public, and remains the best known painting of
Neoclassicism.
It depicts a scene from a Roman legend about a
dispute between two warring cities; Rome and Alba Longa,
when three brothers from a Roman family, the Horatii, agree
to end the war by fighting three brothers from a family of
Alba Longa, the Curiatii. The three brothers, all of whom
appear willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of Rome,
are shown saluting their father who holds their swords out for
them. The principal sources for the story behind David's Oath
are the first book of Livy (sections 24-6) which was
elaborated by Dionysius in book 3 of his Roman Antiquities.
However, the moment depicted in David's painting is his own
invention.
It grew to be considered a paradigm of neoclassical art. The
painting increased David's fame, allowing him to rear his own
students.

Symbolic theme
The painting depicts the Roman Horatius family, who, according to Titus Livius' Ab Urbe Condita
(From the Founding of the City) had been chosen for a ritual duel against three members of the Curiatii, a
family from Alba Longa, in order to settle disputes between the Romans and the latter city. As revolution in
France loomed, paintings urging loyalty to the state rather than to clan or clergy abounded. Although it was
painted nearly five years before the revolution in France, the Oath of the Horatii became one of the defining
images of the time.
In the painting, the three brothers express their loyalty and solidarity with Rome before battle, wholly supported
by their father. These are men willing to lay down their lives out of patriotic duty. With their resolute gaze and
taut, outstretched limbs, they are citadels of patriotism. They are symbols of the highest virtues of Rome. Their
clarity of purpose, mirrored by David's simple yet powerful use of tonal contrasts, lends the painting, and its
message about the nobility of patriotic sacrifice, an electric intensity. This is all in contrast to the tender-hearted
women who lie weeping and mourning, awaiting the results of the fighting.
The mother and sisters are shown clothed in silken garments seemingly melting into tender expressions
of sorrow. Their despair is partly due to the fact that one sister was engaged to one of the Curiatii and another is
a sister of the Curiatii, married to one of the Horatii. Upon defeat of the Curiatii, the remaining Horatius
journeyed home to find his sister cursing Rome over the death of her fianc. He killed her, horrified that Rome
was being cursed. Originally David had intended to depict this episode, and a drawing survives showing the
surviving Horatius raising his sword, with his sister lying dead. David later decided that this subject was too
gruesome a way of sending the message of public duty overcoming private feeling, but his next major painting
depicted a similar scene - Lucius Junius Brutus brooding as the bodies of his sons, whose executions for treason
he had ordered, are returned home.
The painting shows the three brothers on the left, the Horatii father in the center, and the sister/wives on
the right. The Horatii brothers are depicted swearing upon (saluting) their swords as they take their oath. The
men show no sense of emotion. Even the father, who holds up three swords, shows no emotion. On the right,
three women are weepingone in the back and two up closer. The woman dressed in the white is a Horatius
weeping for both her Curiatii fianc and her brother; the one dressed in brown is a Curiatius who weeps for her
Horatii husband and her brother. The background woman in black holds two childrenone of whom is the
child of a Horatius male and his Curiatii wife. The younger daughter hides her face in her nannys dress as the
son refuses to have his eyes shielded.

According to Thomas Le Claire:
This painting occupies an extremely important place in the body of Davids work and in the history of French
painting. The story was taken from Livy. We are in the period of the wars between Rome and Alba, in 669 B.C.
It has been decided that the dispute between the two cities must be settled by an unusual form of combat to be
fought by two groups of three champions each. The two groups are the three Horatii brothers and the three
Curiatii brothers. The drama lay in the fact that one of the sisters of the Curiatii, Sabina, is married to one of the
Horatii, while one of the sisters of the Horatii, Camilla, is betrothed to one of the Curiatii. Despite the ties b
etween the two families, the Horatii's father exhorts his sons to fight the Curiatii and they obey, despite the
lamentations of the womans

Compositional technique
This painting shows the neoclassical art style,
[4]
and employs various techniques that were typical for it:
The background is de-emphasized, while the figures in the foreground are emphasized to show their
importance.
Overlapping ranks of profile figures are a common motif in classical art, and that of other ancient Near
Eastern cultures.
The central point of the hand clasping the swords is placed in front of the vanishing point of the
perspective scheme, which is emphasized by the straight lines of the edges of the wall blocks and floor
slabs of the architectural setting leading to it (see schematic).
The use of dull colors is to show the importance of the story behind the painting over the painting itself.
The picture is clearly organized, depicting the symbolism of the number three and of the moment itself.
The focus on clear, hard details and the lack of use of the more wispy brushstrokes preferred by Rococo
art.
The brushstrokes are invisible, and the painter's technique is not displayed as a distraction from the
subject
The men are all depicted with straight lines mirroring the columns in the background signifying their
rigidity and strength while the women are all curved like the arches which are held up by the columns.
The use of straight lines to depict strength is also demonstrated in the swords, two of which are curved
while one is straight, perhaps foreshadowing that only one brother would survive the encounter.
The brother closest to the viewer (presumably destined to be the sole survivor) is dressed in colors
matching that of the father while the garb of the other brothers is obscured but seems to mimic the colors
being worn by the women.
The frozen quality of the painting is also intended to emphasize rationality, unlike the Rococo style.
The only emotion shown is from the women, who were allowed to feel, while the men show Stoic
determination to do their duty.
[4]

That it depicts a morally uplifting story, promoting civic duty over the personal, reflects the values of
the Age of Enlightenment and neoclassical idealism.



I nspiration of the Artist
Canova took his inspiration from a legend recounted by
Latin author Apuleius in the Metamorphoses At the close of the
tale the gods decide in council to grant Cupid Psyches hand in
marriage, according her immortality and making her the goddess of
the Soul.

The story of Psyche
There were once a king and queen who had three very
beautiful daughters. Psyche, the youngest and most beautiful of
them, was venerated like a goddess by the local people. Jealous and
infuriated by such blasphemy, Venus, goddess of Beauty, ordered
her son Cupid to avenge her by making Psyche enamored of the lowest of all human beings. But at the sight of
the beauteous mortal Cupid fell hopelessly in love. Psyches father, in despair at seeing his daughter unmarried
despite her beauty, consulted the oracle of Miletus. The oracle predicted terrible disasters if the girl were not
abandoned at once on a rock, where a monster would carry her off. Alone and trembling on the rock, Psyche
suddenly felt the caress of a light breeze: this signaled the coming of Zephyr, the gentle west wind. He bore her
away to a marble palace covered with precious stones, which would now be her home. Each night a mysterious
visitor came to Psyches room and made love to her. But he forbade her to try to see his face. One night Psyche,
curious to see her lovers face, lit her oil lamp as he slept and saw that he was none other than the god of Love.
But a drop of burning oil suddenly woke him; and feeling himself betrayed, he fled.

Desperate, Psyche set out in search of her lost love. Venus inflicted terrible ordeals on her, leading her from the
Underworld to Olympus. For the last of these ordeals, Venus sent Psyche to Proserpina, goddess of the
Underworld, ordering her bring back a flask she should open under no circumstances. But Psyche, a victim of
her curiosity, opened the flask. Inhaling the dreadful vapors, she fell into a deathly sleep. Cupid revived her by
touching her with his arrow. Moved by such devotion, the gods finally granted Cupid Psyches hand. They gave
her nectar and ambrosia, and this made her immortal. They then consecrated her goddess of the Soul.

Since ancient times Psyche has been depicted with butterfly wings. This is a reference to the dual
meaning of her name, Psukh, in Greek: soul and butterfly. Thus did the butterfly become the symbol of the
immortality of the soul? The story of Psyche symbolizes the ordeals the soul must undergo in order to achieve
happiness and immortality.

Techniques Applied
Canova seems to have undertaken extensive research before beginning this complex composition, whose
inspiration is a Roman painting found in Herculaneum, a city the sculptor visited during his stay in Naples in
1787. Canova copied the mans kneeling position exactly, together with the womans reclining pose and the
movement of her arms. He then modeled numerous clay figures, gradually bringing out the intertwining of the
bodies. In his sketches, drawings, and models of loving couples we sense struggle as much as embrace. This
may intimate the episode in which Cupid, stung by the drop of hot oil, suddenly wrenches himself free of
Psyches arms.

Canova also made many studies of the position of the arms as they prepare to close in a circular movement. The
interplay of the arms and the exchange of looks in this large plaster model of Canovas Venus Crowning Adonis
foreshadow our statue. The composition of the group is to be found in the clay models: on a rock are two
intertwined bodies. In the final work, however, the flexing of Cupids leg, the upright position of his wings, and
the lifting of Psyches torso give the composition new upthrust.

The position of the legs of Psyche and Cupid creates a pyramid shape which grounds the composition solidly on
the rock. Canova has managed to combine real equilibrium with a powerful, complex rotation. He makes his
composition turn: starting from Cupids right foot, the upward movement follows the line of their arms in an
affirmation of her return to life.

The vertical position of the wings accentuates the rising movement. This is not the case of the plaster model as
modified by Adamo Tadolini, on which the smaller, more horizontal wings diminish the ascending spiral
effect.The works emotional and sensual charge is accentuated by the space between the lovers faces. Time
seems suspended before the passion of the final embrace.

The first steps towards fame
Canova was born in 1757 in Possagno, a small town in north-eastern Italy. After studying drawing,
painting, and sculpture in Venice, he set up his workshop in Rome. In 1787, when he received the commission
for Cupid and Psyche, he already had many works to his credit: in the far left background of this drawing of the
workshop by Francesco Chiarottini we see Daedalus and Icarus, created between 1777 and 1779, when Canova
was still working in Venice. The group bears the stamp of Baroque drama and Venetian picturesque.

Theseus and the Minotaur, of 1781 to 1783, was Canovas first group in this restrained style inspired by the
ancient models discovered in Rome and often drawn by artists. One example is the Apollo Belvedere. Theseus
and the Minotaur was much admired for its frontality and equilibrium. Theseuss upper body seems to derive
from the ancient Belvedere Torso, now in the Vatican.

In 1787 Canova created the tomb of Pope Clement XIV in Rome, revolutionizing sculpture with his pared-down
figures and his emphasis on line and its use in space. Here we see the plaster model of Temperance leaning over
the sarcophagus; higher up was the figure of the Pope giving his blessing, seen here on the right. Canova also
illustrated the Cupid and Psyche theme in a version showing them standing, very young and playing with a
butterfly. The composition of this group is similar to that of a model from Classical antiquity depicting the
couple as two children in a standing embrace. To meet his many prestigious commissions, such as this one for
Pope Clement XIIIs tomb in St Peters in Rome, Canova had to reorganize his workshop. It became a hive of
activity, where assistant sculptors like Tadolini worked under the watchful eye of the master.