Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
If you have another idea, run with it.
Special Update! The New York Times website does this same exercise every Monday with a news photo that is uncaptioned and contains no text (click!). The Times asks viewers the same three questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
However, at the end of the week, the Times posts the background information on the picture. So, I’ve decided to do the same. I’ll still post an unlabeled piece of art on Thursday. But return on Sunday (for the Sunny Sundays post!) and you’ll find an update on the artwork here.
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
Warwick Castle: The East Front
Artist: Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) (Italian, Venice 1697–1768 Venice)
Date: 1752
Medium: Pen and brown ink, gray wash
Dimensions: 12 7/16 x 22 1/8 in. (31.6 x 56.2 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number: 1975.1.297
Description
Canaletto’s highly detailed, topographically accurate panoramic views were greatly admired and avidly collected by English visitors to Venice, who acquired them as souvenirs of the Grand Tour. In 1746, when demand for Canaletto’s work in his native city declined, he traveled to England. He remained there for nearly a decade, producing characteristically descriptive views of London and the English countryside. The artist completed five paintings of Warwick Castle, the subject of this scenic drawing, for Francis Greville, Lord Brooke, and later Earl of Warwick. The Lehman sheet appears to have served as a preparatory design for the canvas now in the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, one of two versions depicting the castle from the east.
This looks like a toy castle with tiny figurines frolicking in front of it. All the people seem to be dancing or talking in a relaxing way with a friend or running. The free-spirited demeanor of the people stands in stark contrast to the severe straight-line rigidity of the castle.
Brown.
This looks like a sturdy fort! What’s with the tree that’s growing halfway up the side of the castle, just to the right of the entranceway?
This is a spectacular castle/fortress. Let me quickly say that the sun is offscreen and to the left. I agree with Holly that the humans in front on the lawn are all in poses that suggest carefree relaxation. But what architect dreamed up the castle? And what do these people have to protect themselves from? I see a flock of birds in the air around the tallest turret, the one on the right. But no birds around the lower towers and turrets. Why is that?
The contrast between the relaxed demeanor of the humans and the severity of the fortress is striking.