Week 10: Dark Arts

I have really enjoyed learning about art and the history of art this quarter. I feel that the time period we just finished learning about is such an important time in history because it is such a time of transition for the art world, moving out of pieces of work having solely to do with religion to pieces both having so much meaning in them and having no meaning what so ever. I think that the techniques and styles developed in the Baroque and Rococo periods are some that are easily some of the techniques and styles still seen in work of artists of today. One of the genres I have really enjoyed learning about is the horror pieces from the Romantic era. I find these interesting because they have some of the characteristics of the Romantic era, with the detail and the emotional drama and the way that the art seems to be a scene from a dream. I find these pieces interesting because I, myself have been in a “dark state of mind” for a while now, and have had trouble making that apparent in my art, and then not liking the way my own art has turned out because if my inability to convey my dark emotions in my artwork. I really like that artists like Goya were able to portray their dark emotions and nightmares in a way that is elegant and meaningful for any viewer.

Some of these pieces are not about the inner turmoil of the artist, however. For example, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by Francisco Goya is a piece that was in response to the government during the Inquisition and its aftermath. This piece is Goya’s way of saying that when you ignore reason, it becomes a sleeping monster; that at any moment it could jump up and eat you whole.  This piece shows a man sleeping, reperesnting reason, and is being haunted by and picked on by demonic bats, owls, and a cat. All these things represent different stereotypical “educational” and things of wisdom. For example, some art historians have said that the owls represent the stereotype of mindless stupidity, instead of the more common wisdom. The bats are to show the evil, blood sucking demons of the society, which at the time linked to the people with the most education and “wisdom.”

John Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare is another piece that shows a dream like scene gone wrong. His work is more based off of his study of the human mind, and how it reacts to certain situations. He spent many years studying the works of Dante, Shakespeare, and Homer, who themselves spent a significant amount of time producing works that had the capability to warp the dark twisty corners of the human mind. In The Nightmare, Fuseli shows a woman who is in the process of being possessed by an evil spirit. She is sprawled across the frame, with her head and arms thrown back in an uncomfortable but vulnerable position. The evil spirit sits on her pelvic area, where he will feed and fornicate with her helpless body. Fuseli places a wild horse with lit eyes peaking into the room through the curtains to convey more fear of the unknown, and the fear of the evil unknown spirit.

I feel that even though these pieces aren’t stated to be about the artist’s own inner turmoil, Goya’s piece is said to be a self portrait, so there has to be some sort of way of him saying that he is fighting some demons as well as participating in the fight against the government. I also feel that as an artist, your feelings do tend to come out on the canvas, whether you know it is or not.