+ ART HISTORY FAVORITES BY MARY GOLDMAN

+ The Death of Marat I like this piece for several reasons… 1. It tells a story in a single picture. This revolutionary, his skin irritated by the sewers he traversed to advance his revolutionary cause sits in a curative bath doing political business when a guest, a counter revolutionary he has taken the time to meet, comes in and stabs him to death. 2. I also like that the composition is somwhat simple, but it communicates a lot. 3. Marat’s expression, dignified and honorable in death, is excellent in and of itself. I suspect this expression is among the reason this painting became one of the many symbols of the French Revolution.

+ The Treasury of Atreus The Treasury of Atreus initially struck me as something of an uber luxurious fort that one might stumble across in the woods, that some kids built for kicks and now the kids are in school so they don’t build forts anymore. But, after I examined the picture in the text book and read the accompanying text, the complexity of the design, the scale, and the skill required to corbel all those stones to create a perfect beehive tomb that combs together just so at the top is astounding such that it could have never been created by kids for kicks. The scale and method of building booth floored me. I also though it was beautiful in an elegant and simple sort of way.

+ The Bayeux Tapestry Initially, the Bayeux Tapestry didn’t appeal to me because I thought of it as a colorless roll of cloth. My interest perked up after I learned that it actually told a detailed story and recorded celestial events like the passing of Haley’s Comet. The Bayeux Tapestry is proof that the dark ages weren’t all that dark. I like the work because it is a narrative and the people are portrayed in a cartoon-like way because of the fashion in which they are embroidered, I also think the Haley’s Comet thing is very cool. The fact that we can look back at the piece and say, “oh yeah, that wasn’t a sign from god just a comet,” is awesome.

+ The Sarcophagus of JuniusBassus I liked this work initially because of the name. The name JuniusBassus is an excellent name. It rhymes, sort of, and has the exoticness of Early Christian/Byzantine Rome. I also liked the work a lot because of the way the people are portrayed. Like the Bayeux Tapestry, the people are cartoonish. Instead of embroidered though, on the sarcophagus they seem like little carved creatures. Like The Littles from that book series chronicling the lives of miniature people. The juxtaposition of little people and biblical scenes amused me.

+ The Red Studio I like The Red Studio for it’s color and it’s composition. The color red is usually only used sparingly, it has a reputation for being an intense color associated with blood and love. Here, used in excess to describe a setting, it isn’t necessary but it’s unexpected and I like that. The composition of the piece is such that the entire studio is outlined in furniture. The walls are covered with debris and the foreground on the left and right side show a table and a chair. It is directly in the middle of the foreground that is most startling. This is nothing. First you see red empty space, and then examine everything else displayed in the bright red space.