Venus dhe Adonis!

[Dara]

Sic e kam permendur ne nje postim te meparshem, dy prej periudhave ne historine e artit qe me terheqin me teper jane : Renaissance dhe Flemish Baroque.
Meqe kisha nje projekt ne shkolle per te bere krahasimin nje pikture me te njejten teme por te trajtuar nga artiste te ndryshem ne periusha te ndryshme, xgjodha Venus dhe Adonis. Fatmiresihst pikturat e pikturauara repsektivisht me periudhat e mesiperme , Titian dhe Rubens, ndodhen ne Metropolitan Museum Of Art ketu ne New York.
Trajtimi im ehste ne anglisht fatkeqesisht :P :

With this he breaketh from the sweet embrace
Of those fair arms which bound him to her breast
And homeward through the dark laund runs apace
Leaves love upon her back, deeply distressed
Look how a bright star shooteth from the sky
So glides he in the night from Venus’eye.

Venus and Adonis, William Shakespeare.




Shakespeare’ poem calls on much of the same erotic energy as Titian’s and Ruben’s paintings, while Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, relates the story of the Queen of Love trying to restrain her lover, Adonis, from departing for the hunt. He is destined to be killed during the hunt by a wild boar, and in both paintings the tragic irony of his death conceals with the mood of playful sensuality.

By definition, art is anything that people add to their ‘output’ which is not functionally necessary and is other then the default properties of that output. I would not blame anybody if they don’t understand the above sentence, simply because I found it hard myself. But what I can say is what I think of art. I believe anything created from mankind that expresses views of the world, is a work of art. Whether it resists time and critics, is a different story, and there is where the master pieces fall, but every single work of art should be respected and judged as a master piece, even though it might not have the signatures of Da Vinci, Van Eyck, Velasquez ect.

After visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I choose Venus and Adonis, by two different painters, Titian and Rubens, respectively painters of High Renaissance and Baroque periods. This is a repeated theme in the history of painting but every artist treated it in a different and original way. In the painting by Titian, the image of Venus, the Goddess of Love, seems like a stranger begging Adonis, whose arrogance led him to believe he was immortal and the result was fatal. She looks like she is asking for money or food because Adonis is ignoring her very casually, and it quite seems like he does not know her. She seems fragile compared to Adonis’s stern look. Cupid sits in the background weeping in sadness and Adonis’s dog seems to go his own way as if he knows what was about to happen to his patron. The message that Titian is sending is that we can not change fate. Even though Venus was a Goddess and knew about his fate, she had no power to prevent his death. She tries to go against the prophecy but Adonis proceeds to meet with his own fate. The painting is relatively big. It dates 1560 and it is oil on canvas; 42 x 52 ½ in and it is the second composition and it was last cleaned in 1976. He shared a Renaissance interest in the richness of classical mythology that offered character, drama and intensity. The pose of Venus is inspired by that of a similar figure on a Roman sarcophagus relief. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York published 1983). She embraces her lover with her arms. The beautiful landscape is lit by a golden ray of light emerging between the clouds and a rainbow hangs over them. The warm colors are deepened by the many layers of glaze, his insight into the character of his figures and even here we see how he likes the diagonal composition. Characteristic of him are the yellow light and the gradual shading that falls in the texture of Venus’s body and the dog also. Even from the back of Venus we see how he masters to give a perfect and awake nude figure.
The same theme, Venus and Adonis is being painted by Rubes, and I would like to say that is one of my favorite paintings ever. Because Rubens belongs to a late period of art history, Flemish Baroque, we can say that he was inspired by Titian’s painting. It dates mid-or late 1630 and it is oil on canvas with added strips; 77 3/4 x 95 5/8 in. Following the Baroque’s rules of art, the painting shows vitality, sensuous exuberance and dynamism. This work is a fusion of the tradition of Flemish realism with the classical tendencies of the Italian Renaissance and is typical of Rubens to use mythological compositions in his paintings. The rich colors, the superb technical ability, the vitality and human warmth of Rubens best works are all united here. The great, turning figures dominate the canvas in a huge triangle: Adonis, pivoting on his spear, will in another instant throw off the beautiful, entangling arms and be on his way to his death.
Where Titian offers us a pair of lovers, Rubens must have a bevy, a mob. The difference must be insisted upon. For only when we begin to accept Rubens's extravagance as a momentous choice can we see his desire always to add something more--to put in more figures, more curves, which are known to be as Rubenesque, more colors, more sparkling effects while Titian, a Renaissance artists remained attached to the logic of narrative, the simplicity of storytelling.
Both paintings are master pieces, painted according to the rules and techniques of the period of art they were familiar and also by being influenced from previous grand artists. Even though it is the same theme and compositions that both artists use for their paintings, the art works are original, unique and ideal on their own. They deserve to hold the place they have in museums, art shops and Art history.