Maestas-- COMPOSITION

Rebekah Maestas
Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628
Pieter Claesz (Dutch, 1596/97–1660)
Oil on wood; 9 1/2 x 14 1/8 in. (24.1 x 35.9 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1949 (49.107)

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This is one of the earliest dated still lifes by Claesz., a Haarlem painter who gave extraordinary presence to familiar things. Here a skull, an overturned glass roemer with its fleeting reflections, an expired lamp, and the attributes of a writer suggest that worldly efforts are ultimately in vain.

The paintings of Robert Jackson are definitely a feast for the eye! His art appeals so much because it has a rare balance of clarity, playfulness and spirit.

Read more: http://afflante.com/7663-captivating-still-life-paintings-robert-c-jackson/#ixzz3Bhh2KS9i

1) What is the medium? Surface? Technique used?

        ~It's an oil painting done on wood.

        ~This one is oil on Canvas

        ~ The Robert C. Jackson painting was done with oil on linen.

2) What are the OBJECTS or SPACE being portrayed and what is the condition of said objects/ space? What does this say about the socio-economic, age, education, religion, etc of the artist? Does the viewer need to know these things to be able to read the piece?

        ~Peculiarly, the most charming part of history states the meaning of Vanitas which is a passage of Bible in revelations. Surprisingly, it means “vanity of vanities, everything or all is vanity”. The incredible idea behind was linked with people who love joy and pleasure in their life. They appreciated and adored those things which would add colors to their lives and give them the strong feeling of being wealthy or important. The chief aspect about vanity paintings lies in their reality which speaks of them as expensive and magical fanciful objects, wine goblets and musical instruments for pleasantness. These fancy paintings also remind people of the horrifying times such as hourglass or candle, death portraying human skull mostly. I think it does matter in some paintings like this one where there is so much being said with just objects places objectively. Would you have thought that the artist was talking about vanity just from looking at the objects? Most likely you would think of death because of the skull and the candle. Seeming like its represents the time we have in life before death.

        ~ The objects being portrayed are a wine bottle, two wine glasses, flower in a vase, grapes on a vine, something that could be cheese and the window with the view in the background. To me this says the artists takes a joy in fine wines and cheese. I couldn't find what it really represented, this is where knowing what the artists is like helps in interpreting their still life.

         ~"Poker Night", The paintings of Robert Jackson are definitely a feast for the eye! His art appeals so much because it has a rare balance of clarity, playfulness and spirit.The goal of the painter Robert Jackson is to take traditional conceptions and attitudes about still life painting and turn them completely different. The objects in his paintings aren’t just objects, the artist turns them into a composition of psychological drama, a war. The apples, for example, which the artist likes to portray, have a variety of symbolic meanings, it represents a man, a sin or salvation. If you add those symbolic meanings to these playful paintings you get a completely another sense of it.

3) What is being portrayed? What is the narrative?

      ~The last question i feel kind of answered what the narrative is. the First painting is about vanity, the second one to me is about enjoying a good wine and the third is just for fun. A lighthearted view on still lifes. 

4) What are three compositional techniques used to help tell this storyline? Where is the focal point? Is there grounding? Foreground, background?

       ~The skull is the focal point, looks like a view finder was used, if you section the painting into thirds the skull would line up the the middle horizontal like and the foreground would be in the lower section of the horizontal section. There is unity in the objects in that your eye just flows through them. There is a flow, your eye starts at the skull and then moves down the wine glass to end up at the candle holder.  

      ~There is unity in the wine painting, All the objects go together. A view finder was used you can see where the thirds are there is a base and the wine bottle is the right side of the the vertical section. there is a variety is shapes and size, nothing is the same size your eyes follows the slope from the top of the wine bottle to the thing that looks like it could be cheese.

     ~The underlying composition is  obvious, its friends having drinks playing a game of poker. There seems to be more cool colors, to have a fun light mood about the playful painting. The focal point is the table or box that has the shot glasses and the beans. All the balloon dogs are focused on the middle of what is going on.

5) Who is the intended audience? Is this readable to a larger audience? Should the artist consider audience?

     ~I think all audiences are intended, when a painting is painted it was made to be seen by as many people can see it. People are going to be drawn to things that they are interested in. people who like darker things will be drawn to the first painting, those with like to drink wine would be drawn to the second and the third could be a variety of people from men who like poker and dogs. to kids who just like that there are balloon dogs and there is a fun aspect to it.