During my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I saw two pieces of work, nearly 500 years apart that looked extremely similar. The one on the top left is by Italian painter Pieve di Cadore titled
Venus and the Lute Player (1485-1576). The Venus, was painted with Oil on canvas. In the bottom left, is a painting by the Belgian painter Paul Delvaux titled
The Great Sirens (1947).
The Great Sirens was created with oil on Masonite. In these two works of art have very similar themes. They both feature the same kind of softness in the faces and in the bodies of the women. Something that drew me to write a comparison about these two particular works of art, which I found interesting, was that Delvaux managed to stay in a representational traditional way considering how obscure modern art became in the time that
The Great Sirens was created. In Cadore’s
Venus and the Lute Player, in the foreground, there is a woman laying on a couch of some kind. Also in the picture is a man playing an instrument and a baby with wings placing a crown on her head. In the background there are trees and bushes and a reflective lake showing the sky in its ripples. In Delvaux’s
The Great Sirens, there are four women sitting in chairs with blankets draped over their laps on left side. on the right side four more women are shown doing various activities (Walking, standing, sitting, stretching). In the background there are mermaids on the sands of what looks like a beach. One man is seen watching over them. In
The Great Sirens, It seems like Delvaux is telling the story of mermaids and how they use to sing songs to lure sailors to their deaths. To me it seems like the man that is “watching” over them is just a man that the mermaids on the beach lured so that they could murder him (dun dun dun!) and maybe the women in the foreground are getting ready to be transferred into mermaids or they are just not wet so they have land legs. Also the darker colors made it seem more ominous as if the calm and serene women would be able to murder these men. In the
Venus, I have been trying to find words to explain it better than the blurb provided by the Met Museum, but I could not conjure one up. so this is what the quote says ”In addition to celebrating love and music (Venus pauses from making music to be crowned by Cupid), they have been thought to address the Neo-Platonic debate of seeing versus hearing as the primary means for perceiving beauty.” This painting shows just that. The beauty in the venus’s face, the serenity that radiates from her face the softness from her body. She looks completely comfortable in her self and everything around her including cupid and the Lute player. The bright colors show how calm and happy everything is. This two works of art completely surprised me just for that fact that they are 50 years apart and yet are so similar. It seems almost as if they could’ve been painted by the same artist. There could be many reasons why these two paintings are in the museum. The obvious answer would be that they were donated to the museum, but I think they are still there because they have aesthetic emotion.
The Great Sirens, is a gigantic painting. It measures at 79 1/2 x 122 in. When you walk up to it it’s almost as if you are transported to the world of these women. It’s almost as if the viewer is the sailor and the mermaids are trying to get you to come to them. The Venus, is a smaller painting measuring 65 x 82 1/2 in. but even with that painting it draws you in to want to know more about this woman with the soft, kind face. To me this is why these paintings are in the museums and should be recognized at all.
During my trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I saw two pieces of work, nearly 500 years apart that looked extremely similar. The one on the top left is by Italian painter Pieve di Cadore titled Venus and the Lute Player (1485-1576). The Venus, was painted with Oil on canvas. In the bottom left, is a painting by the Belgian painter Paul Delvaux titled The Great Sirens (1947). The Great Sirens was created with oil on Masonite. In these two works of art have very similar themes. They both feature the same kind of softness in the faces and in the bodies of the women. Something that drew me to write a comparison about these two particular works of art, which I found interesting, was that Delvaux managed to stay in a representational traditional way considering how obscure modern art became in the time that The Great Sirens was created. In Cadore’s Venus and the Lute Player, in the foreground, there is a woman laying on a couch of some kind. Also in the picture is a man playing an instrument and a baby with wings placing a crown on her head. In the background there are trees and bushes and a reflective lake showing the sky in its ripples. In Delvaux’s The Great Sirens, there are four women sitting in chairs with blankets draped over their laps on left side. on the right side four more women are shown doing various activities (Walking, standing, sitting, stretching). In the background there are mermaids on the sands of what looks like a beach. One man is seen watching over them. In The Great Sirens, It seems like Delvaux is telling the story of mermaids and how they use to sing songs to lure sailors to their deaths. To me it seems like the man that is “watching” over them is just a man that the mermaids on the beach lured so that they could murder him (dun dun dun!) and maybe the women in the foreground are getting ready to be transferred into mermaids or they are just not wet so they have land legs. Also the darker colors made it seem more ominous as if the calm and serene women would be able to murder these men. In the Venus, I have been trying to find words to explain it better than the blurb provided by the Met Museum, but I could not conjure one up. so this is what the quote says ”In addition to celebrating love and music (Venus pauses from making music to be crowned by Cupid), they have been thought to address the Neo-Platonic debate of seeing versus hearing as the primary means for perceiving beauty.” This painting shows just that. The beauty in the venus’s face, the serenity that radiates from her face the softness from her body. She looks completely comfortable in her self and everything around her including cupid and the Lute player. The bright colors show how calm and happy everything is. This two works of art completely surprised me just for that fact that they are 50 years apart and yet are so similar. It seems almost as if they could’ve been painted by the same artist. There could be many reasons why these two paintings are in the museum. The obvious answer would be that they were donated to the museum, but I think they are still there because they have aesthetic emotion. The Great Sirens, is a gigantic painting. It measures at 79 1/2 x 122 in. When you walk up to it it’s almost as if you are transported to the world of these women. It’s almost as if the viewer is the sailor and the mermaids are trying to get you to come to them. The Venus, is a smaller painting measuring 65 x 82 1/2 in. but even with that painting it draws you in to want to know more about this woman with the soft, kind face. To me this is why these paintings are in the museums and should be recognized at all.
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