Art Appreciation Final Project

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

By: Erin Judson Enter Gallery

Capital Sins

Sloth Gluttony

PrideLust Greed

Click on painting for principle breakdownConcluding Slide

“Sloth (Desidia) by Pieter van der Heyden ca. 1525-1569

This piece has many of many design principles and visual elements. What first comes to mind is Value Contrast. The entire piece is based off the use and shading of the color gray. I think the artist used that concept to amplify the theme of “Sloth”. The gray shading gives a feeling of laziness and exhaustion. The peoples minds seem to be hazy so all of the vibrancy and color in life is lacking. There is also a large amount of overlapping through the piece. The foreground, middle ground, and background show linear perspective as well. In regards to texture it seems the artist used the modeling method. He created the illusion of 3D homes and people through shadowing. You can also see examples of contour lines and diagonal lines through out the piece.

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“The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust” by Paul Cadmus I chose this Paul Cadmus piece for lust based off

of the use of visual elements. What first came to view for me was his use of a focal point. The idea of lust was conveyed by the placement of the hands drawing your eyes to the nether regions. The hands are also disproportionate to the body because the are abnormally larger making it a distortion of scale. The persons body is angled to where it looks like he is thrusting his hips forward which makes the emphasis clearly on the “lustful” region of the body. The use of the color red and how he has it billowing from the body as if the man is exuding lust was a great technique since the color red is often a symbol for lust. Contour lines are also displayed to emphasis the shape of the muscles and body. The piece overall gives me an uneasy and uncomfortable feeling due to the positioning of the body and the look on the subjects face. This in turn makes me assume that it is displaying Imbalance. The medium of the piece is egg tempera which explains the vibrancy of the colors used.

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“The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride” by Paul Cadmus

“Pride” like “Lust” is made with an egg tempera medium. There is an implied mass in terms of the body. Though there is muscle, the jowls of the face and roundness of the abdomen displays that the subject is overweight. The subject displays organic shape and has a natural looking body shape and appearance. There is a great use of shading which is depicting in the roundness of the body. Implied lines are also used. The outline of the entire body and muscles (minus the hands) are not contoured specifically but rather are made through the use of shading, which makes them implied. The focal point of the piece is the head. The use of red is used to symbolize pride. As well as the hand over the heart. The body stance and obvious tension and stretching of the neck also shows pride. It’s as though the subject us using every muscle in his body in order to seem more powerful. The stance of the body and how his eyes are looking down shows hierarchical scaling as if the subject is more important the others.

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“Allegory of Avarice” by Jacopo Ligozzi I chose this painting to depict the sin of Greed. The piece shows a use of linear perspective with the being the focal point in the foreground. There is a symbolism in the color yellow in contrast to the dark tone of the rest of the piece. The value pattern of the piece uses warm yellow to show her as “good” in comparison to the “evil” of the rest of the piece. The skulled men behind her seem to be enticing her into a trap by promising riches. The middle ground shows a woman being attacked which is interesting based on the nonchalant look on the foreground girls face. There is a great use of shading on the girls arm showing the skull creating a shadow over her. As if evil is taking over. There also seems to be rythym in the piece depicting a chain of events in progress. If the girl in front does not make the correct decision she may end of like the girl in the middle ground. The medium of the painting is Oil on a canvas.

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“Gula (Gluttony)” by Pieter van der Heyden The piece “Gula” contains many visual elements. The use of modeling, strippling, hatching, and and cross hatching can be seen through out the piece. Especially in the house figure in the top left, underneath the bridge on the lower left, and throughout the skyline with the billowing smoke. Value contrast is widely displayed with the use of gray. The gluttony theme is scene through out with the busted open stomachs and aura of drunk and overconsumption displayed. An interesting detail can be scene in the bottom center. The human like animal can be scene encouraging the woman to keep drinking. It seems that they are trying to take over the town. Overlapping and linear perspective are also shown through out. Each section has extreme detailing as if to convey the chaos is going on for miles.

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ConclusionEach piece in my collection depicts my theme of “Capital Sins”. They are thematically similar. There is also a cohesive flow in terms of how they are visually as well. The way I chose to display them in the gallery was based off of the theme. I felt that “Pride” should be displayed front and center based on the focal point of the face and by how the subject seemed so much larger then the others. By him standing the way he was I felt as though he was vying for front and center. Your eyes are being immediately drawn to that piece. I also felt that the smaller gray pieces were great bookends to the flow of the display. I really enjoyed working on the theme and trying to tie everything together.

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