The Parthenon (447 BCE – 432 BCE)

- Built by architects Itkinos and Kallikrates under the direction of Phidias. It was dedicated to the
city’s patron deity, Athena. It was built to house the cult statue of the goddess and to proclaim
to the world the success of Athens as leader of coalition of Greek forces which had defeated the
invading Persian armies of Darius and Xerxes.
- The name Parthenon was derived from one of Athena’s epithets: Athena Parthenon.
- Largest Doric Greek Temple and it mixed two architectural styles of Doric and Ionic. The
difference between the two is evidently seen in the column capitals. While the doric had a plain
column capital, the ionic style had a scrolled capital on the top of the columns.

The Mona Lisa

- By Leonardo Da Vinci in 1507

- Also known as La Gioconda, is the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo
- Believed to be a female version of Leonardo Da Vinci or Lisa Gherardini
- Leonardo da Vinci made heavy use of an almost forgotten painting technique which is called
sfumato (it's Italian for smoke, by the way). It's a very tedious process where the paint/pigment
is applied in thin layers, this is also the reason why it took him so long to paint it. He drew one
layer, waited for the paint to dry and then drew over it (a couple of hundred times). It's a
technique that only very few people have mastered and it's not really used anymore.
- Another thing that makes the Mona Lisa so special is the fact that her eyes were drawn in a very
specific way: they literally follow you when you move around. This is another optical illusion that
is achieved by a special painting technique, we commonly refer to it as the "Silberblick" in
Germany
- Da Vinci's famous masterpiece is painted on a poplar plank. Considering he was accustomed to
painting larger works on wet plaster, a wood plank does not seem that outlandish. Canvas was
available to artists since the 14th century, but many Renaissance masters preferred wood as a
basis for their small artworks.
- The Mona Lisa was relatively unknown and unappreciated until a scandal broke in 1911. An
Italian named Vincenzo Perugia stole the artwork from the Louvre. The theft went unnoticed for
26 hours. But the heist had inspired a media frenzy. Popular culture jumped on the story and the
image, and a whirlwind of satire, image reproduction, postcards and vaudeville followed. The
portrait was quickly turned into an iconic image known to all. Thousands of people came to the
Louvre just to stare at the empty wall where the Mona Lisa had hung.

The Last Supper (1495)

- Leonardo’s visual interpretation of an event chronicled in all four gospels.

- Leonardo hadn't worked on such a large painting and had no experience in the standard mural
medium of fresco. The painting was made using experimental pigments directly on the dry
plaster wall and unlike frescos, where the pigments are mixed with the wet plaster, it has not
stood the test of time well.
- What makes the masterpiece so striking is the perspective from which it's painted, which seems
to invite the viewer to step right into the dramatic scene. To achieve this illusion, da Vinci
hammered a nail into the wall, then tied string to it to make marks that helped guide his hand in
creating the painting's angles.
 - Da Vinci's masterpiece has been subject to numerous restoration attempts. Some of these took
place in 1726, 1770, 1853, 1903, 1924, 1928 and 1978.

Spoliarium (1884)

- by Juan Novicio Luna

- A Spoliarium is a Latin word referring to the basement of the Roman Colosseum where the
fallen and dying gladiators who fight to the death for the entertainment of their Roman
oppressors are dumped and devoid of their worldly possessions. Luna depicts to us what is
happening after the gladiator’s fight and what happened to those who loses the battle.
- We can see the main actor of the painting as he is being dragged by another gladiator into the
darkness, and this is where the story starts. The warrior being drag can be represented as
Filipinos. Dead from fighting with another gladiator, which are other Filipinos, for the self-gain of
their oppressors, the Spanish overlords. The Philippines by then have been ruled for over 319
years when the painting was finished. At that time, around 1872, a revolutionary sentiment
arose after three Filipino priests, the famous GOMBURZA (Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and
Jacinto Zamora) when they were accused of inciting revolt against the authority by colonial
authorities and then executed. It’s also interesting to point out that the Rizal’s book would be
called Noli Me Tangere, “the Latin echo of the Spoliarium”
- Under the Spanish rule, not only those who fought suffered but also their families and their
loved ones. Some people who lost someone during the Spanish rule tell the tales they saw and
some are weeps but are forgotten in the darkness of history.
- At the center of Luna’s painting are fallen gladiators being dragged by Roman soldiers. On the
left, spectators ardently await their chance to strip off the combatants of their metal helmets
and other armory. In contrast with the charged emotions featured on the left, the right side
meanwhile presents a somber mood. An old man carries a torch perhaps searching for his son
while a woman weeps the death of her loved one.

The Parisian Life (1892)

- By Juan Luna
- This painting is showing a lady wearing a flamboyant hat, in a French dress with long sleeves,
ruffled ends and length reaching beyond her ankles. Not so far from her back are three men
who look like making gossips about her.
- Impressionist Painting

Portrait of a Lady (1460)

- Netherlandish Painter Rogier Van Der Weyden

A Starry Night (1889)

- Vincent Van Gogh

- depicts a dreamy interpretation of the artist's asylum room's sweeping view of Saint-Rémy-de-
Provence.
- He painted it from a room in the mental asyum in Saint Remy de Provence where he was
recovering from mental illness and his ear amputation.
Nightwatch

Persistence of Memory

Scream (1893)

- Expressionist
- Edvard Munch
- Edvard Munch reveals an honest and perhaps even ugly glimpse of his inner troubles and
feelings of anxiety, putting more importance on personal meaning than on technical skill or
"beauty," a traditional goal of art.

Trompe L’oeil

Meaning

- Is a French phrase meaning “deceives the eye”

- It is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted
objects in the painting exists in three dimensions.
- Naturalistic form of realism

History

- The phrase originated with the artist Louis-Leopold Boilly (Pic), who used it as the title of a
painting he exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1800. (Pic)
o Although the phrase Trompe L’oeil originated in the 1800s, the technique associated
with it dates much further back
- Ancient Greek
o Zeuxis and Parrhasius (464 BC) (Pic)
 Zeuxis produced a still life painting so convincing that birds flew down to peck at
the painted grapes
 Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to judge his paintings that was behind a pair of curtains,
but when he tried, he couldn’t pull it back because the curtains were included in
the painting
o Renaissance Period
 The style of painting was used to show perspective and realism
 Earliest known use can be seen in architectural structures of the Medieval
period. Artists created their artwork in churches during this time.
 Camera Degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna in the Ducal Palace at Mantua
 Quadratura
 A specific style of trompe l’oeil painting in which a fake domed roof is
painted onto a flat or slightly domed ceiling, thus creating an imaginary
space above and beyond its actual confines
 Assumption of the Virgin by Correggio in Parma Cathedral (1524-30)

Other
Examples

- It is commonly seen in paintings, sculpture, architecture and the decorative arts.

- The Veiled Beauty by Raffaelo Monti, 1860
- Escaping Criticism by Pere Borrell del Caso (1874)
- Trompe L’oeil by Louis Boilly Leopold