I really enjoy impressionism art because of the boldness of the colors and how different it is than the paintings before this era. These paintings use newer brush strokes and brighter colors making them stand out way more than the previous paintings. Impressionism art was started in France in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s. This revolutionized the way we look at art and the way it is perceived. They started to paint real people and real landscapes with different compositions from paintings in earlier eras including the classical era. This painting by Monet is a great example of impressionism art, Sunrise by monet was made in 1873 and is 18.9 x 24.8

http://www.wikiart.org/en/claude-monet/impression-sunrise

This painting is a great example of the use of brush strokes during this era and the fact that they used their brushes with quick and somewhat spontaneous strokes making paintings like this. You can see that it shows a boat on a body of water as the sunrises but its not perfectly clear which makes it that much more interesting. I like the fact that the whole picture is not spelled out for you and that their is a kind of mystery to the photo making it up to you to determine whats really going on behind the whole thing. Comparing this to a painting from the classical era and a photo like,

 The Girl With the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer dimensions 44cm x 39cm

http://www.artsales.com/ARTprints/Print_ARTchive_images_for_comparison.html

This painting is so detailed and is very dark which shows just how different the impressionism era and the classical era were so different. I think this is also a great example of why I enjoy the impressionism era better, the colors and liveliness of the paintings really engage you and make you want to look at more.

Sources:

http://www.impressionism.org/salon/salonIndex.html

During the 1700’s science and just a general want to know more became a big wave. This at the time was called enlightenment. With this new wave of thinking and new ideas art started to move along with it. At the same time as the idea and wave of technology, religion was slowly beginning to die down but was still present in a few ways.

A Philosopher giving a lecture at the Orrery.

Joseph Wright Of Derby (1765)

1.47m x 2.03 oil painting

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0706/fig2.jpg

This painting very obviously shows the connection between the art and science. You can see how they are all gathered around learning about the object in the middle of the table. This painting is a prime example of how everyone whether young or old wanted to see the new technology.

Madame Francois Buron

Jacques-Louis David (1769)

Dimmensions: 66 cm x 56 cm oil painting

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/88632

This painting by David shows us how even people who where rich or higher up in society wanted to be knowledgeable. This photo is a great example of how women where also included in the enlightenment. The way he paints Madame Francois Buron in such a studious way makes you really realize how impact full this period was in changing paintings. For me the fact that she has more then one book makes her seem that much more studious.

Princess De Rohan

Jean-Marc Nattier (1741)

Dimensions: 145 cm x 113cm oil painting

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Marc_Nattier,_Princesse_de_Rohan_(1741).jpg

This painting is similar to the one above it in the idea that it shows how royalty took it upon themselves to join the enlightenment. This painting shows Princess De Rohan reading a book. Although she does look quite positioned and told how to look in this painting it still shows how everyone was a part of the sciences coming into play.

Overall all three of these painting show in different ways how they connect with science whether it be directly to science or it be through knowledge in general. Either was the idea of science connecting with the classical era is a big one. The enlightenment was a huge part of moving that era forward and these painting are proof that it effected all aspects of the population.

The Lacemaker is a painting by Jan Vermeer during the baroque era. This painting relates to the idea of the rise of the merchant class during this era. Jan Vermeer painting mainly showed the idea of the merchant class, many of his painting all had to do with some merchant class women and what job she did. In this painting he shows a women working on a lace piece, she is the only aspect to this painting really. There really isn’t a whole lot to distract you away from her in the painting which shows how much he really did just want to paint her doing something that most merchant class women of that time did. Jan Vermeer was a dutch artist and at that time many dutch artist including Rembrandt where focusing mainly on the merchant class and profiling them in their paintings. http://wamtac.wordpress.com/art-history/dutch-baroque-1600s-1700s/ this link talks a lot about the idea that Rembrandt painted a lot of paintings about the rising merchant class. I took what I read at this link and applied it to another dutch artist in Vermeer. The Lacemaker painting made me feel as though even though she may just be a Lacemaker she is worth something and that she should be empowered by the world. I think Vermeer’s paintings are very clever in a sense that he painted people in their normal lives instead of royals proving that anyone could be painted and that it didn’t matter what class you where. Here is the painting The Lacemaker by Jan Vermeer.