Mediterranean Works of Art

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The importance of art in today's society is to present ideas, teach about the artist's culture or to simply provide decoration for one's life. Two works of art that represent different views of similar ideas can be seen in two paintings: Lourenco's "Atradecer Entre Los Arboles" and John Zaccheo's "Mediterranean Vista with Black Chairs". Both works of art are very similar because they are paintings of seaside villas, but they represent different ways of viewing a villa and the surrounding scenery.

In Lourenco's painting "Atradecer Entre Los Arboles", which means "Woman at a seaside garden table", he displays a very simplistic view of a seaside villa patio. Lourenco displays his vision, by painting a view of a seaside villa with a very elongated woman sitting at a table. The woman that is painted is very unreal in shape. Her body looks similar to a bowling pin, showing that his view of the villa appeared to be distorted.

The buildings painted along the right side of the painting and behind the woman at the table are very simple shapes. Lourenco did not focus his attention on the details of surrounding buildings or the background, almost as if he did not want to distract viewers from his view of the woman. Lourenco use of brush strokes through out the painting, add a choppy feel, keeping the transition between the woman and the background from colliding, allowing the focal point to continue to remain strong on the woman.

Lourenco's use of form is very much unique and simple. It appears that the artist does not make the shapes in his painting very sharp and distinct, instead leaving the painting to appear dark and distant, keeping sole attention on the woman, centered in the painting. The symmetry of buildings, the further away they are, become out of focus and unclear, suggesting that the buildings in the painting are just there to serve as no other purpose than for background landscape. Each building painted on the right side, appears to be mostly in the shape of a square, with a flat roof on top. Where as the few buildings behind the woman, appear to be shaped more to the form of a house, not like the other buildings. Like the buildings in the painting, Lourenco shows that the woman in the painting is unique by giving her a defined shape but and unrealistic look.

Almost every painting that has been created, has a main focus that the artist would like to make obvious in his/her piece. The artist used focus in a couple of different ways to draw the viewer's attention toward the main subject. The first way Lourenco showed focus in the painting, is he actually named his painting "Woman at a seaside garden table". It almost seems like he placed a subliminal message to what his painting is about. Lourenco also uses focus in the way he draws your eye directly to the lady in the painting by giving her an oblong shape. Focusing strongly on the woman in the painting, Lourenco wants you to see that the woman's body structure is not that of a true to life person. Lourenco also brings your focus to the woman in the foreground by making the background and its objects less appealing by not adding a lot of attention to detail.

Therefore, he does not give you a reason to focus as strongly on the buildings. Instead creating strong, brightly colored light surrounding the woman in the painting, keeping strong focus on the woman or sole interest of his painting. I feel that Lourenco did a great job in keeping the distracters, in the background of the painting from drawing attention away from the main focus, the woman.

In every painting there is usually some form of depth given to it to create a scenic value to it.

To create depth in the painting, Lourenco draws the buildings decreasing in size as they go down the shoreline until they reach the sea. However, he does not provide any space between the buildings so it creates an illusion of the buildings being close to each other. This makes the painting seem as if the shoreline is not that long and the ocean is near. Therefore, providing the illusion of little distance in the background. Lourenco takes away some of the depth in the painting by enlarging the size of the buildings in the foreground, leaving little room in the back for the depth to be shown. It appears that most of the canvas is taken up by mostly the painting of the foreground. The painting appears to seem almost like it is being shoved in your face. Lourenco shows that he is interested in packing as much into the canvas at that moment as he could, not opening up his view to a larger area. Looking at the painting I feel that I am being stranded tightly on a small villa and if I move too close to the side, I will fall.

The 2nd painting of interest is the painting by John Zaccheo entitled "Mediterranean Vista with Black Chairs. This painting is very detailed, providing a very in depth view of the Mediterranean from a private vista. Zaccheo provides great detail when it comes to the form of objects in his painting, also providing great detail to the shape of his objects. Zaccheo provides a broader view of the Mediterranean, and provides a clear focus in the object of his painting.

Zaccheo shows great depth in his painting by adding length along the shoreline. It is clear that between the paintings of Lourenco and Zaccheo, Zaccheo's painting pays closer attention to smaller detail, allowing a brighter, clearer understanding of the artist's view of the Mediterranean.

Although both artists painted houses in their paintings, Zaccheo provides closer attention and more definition to the all of the objects in his painting than Lourenco did. He gives greater detail in the coloring and outlines of the houses. Zaccheo makes them look real, as if you are standing right there, sharing the same view. Zaccheo gives them a true shape to the way that houses are made. In Lourenco's painting the buildings appear unclear the further away they get. However, in Zaccheo's painting, he maintains the shape and detail of the houses even as they get farther away. The detail in the houses is very precise. No matter how far away from the viewer an object in Lourenco's painting was, no precise form or shape was displayed, but in Zaccheo's painting, everything displays a precise form and shape.

In both paintings, the artists show a precise purpose for painting the pieces. It seems as though each artist had a vision of the Mediterranean Sea, but both painted their view differently. In Lourenco's painting, he explicitly titles his painting, "Woman at a seaside garden table", so it seems that he wants you to focus on the woman. However, in Zaccheo's painting, the title of his painting, "Mediterranean Vista with Black Chairs", he wants you to view the whole entire picture and not just the foreground. Lourenco wants you to draws your eye to the lady in the picture.

Zaccheo makes the entire painting very detailed so his focus is so it seems as if he wants the viewer to look at the entire picture. He put the vista in the foreground of the picture, but really made no distinguishable center point or focal point to the picture. Even though objects get farther away from the viewer, the picture does not become unclear, instead maintaining their sharpness and clarity. I think that Zaccheo's focus was not just on one point of view in her picture, but he wants you to absorb the entire beauty of his picture. Almost as if he wants you to be right there with him enjoying the same view at that very same moment.

Lourenco had a little depth in his picture, however Zaccheo took depth one step farther in his painting, by putting more distance in his picture. By Zaccheo adding more into the background and make them smaller and smaller, he utilized the entire canvas for his picture. Zaccheo gave a much wider view of the sea than did Lourenco. Zaccheo put objects in the background that are known to be large in size, by painting them small allowing the view seem as if it keeps going and going, to no end. Lourenco's painting had no spacing in between his buildings, making the painting seem that, even though there was depth, however the view was not ongoing. I feel that both artists provided a great interpretation of what the artist was visualizing at that moment. Although both artists provide some depth in their paintings, Zaccheo provides so much more, allowing you to experience the Mediterranean, just by the clear view of his painting. Lourenco appears to want you to focus on the society, mainly in the views of on specific woman, instead of soaking up the surrounding area and atmosphere.

Art has been a major part of society. It provides a major variety of personal views about a subject. Art has provided stories about history, stories about people's lives and other ways of telling a story. Although sometimes unclear, art is up to interpretation. 10 people will view art pieces in 10 different ways. Just about everybody will see the same painting, but they will see different things in the painting. Art is a major part of society and will always be there, no matter what style it is.