Nagle - Motivational Art

Claude Monet, The Water Lily Pond. 1899.

Monet was an artist during the period of Impressionism. The impressionist style is using small dots or dashes to create a complete picture--even layering colors to create a different one (for example, Monet layered yellow and blue paint to show green here). It originated in Paris and was very popular during the 1870s and 1880s. Monet painted this piece at his home in Giverny, France, using oil paints; there, he had large and magnificent gardens where he completed his water lily series. When he created his gardens, it was with the intent of having a beautiful, peaceful area that is the perfect location for concentrating on his art. I visited his home in Giverny and fell in love with both his beautiful home and art. Therefore, this is a very inspiring artwork to me because it takes me back to Monet's "perfect art location" to complete my own art.

Exekias, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game, from Vulci, Italy, ca. 540-530 BCE.

By the mid-sixth century BCE, Athenians learned the black-figure technique from the Corinthians and painted vases became a popular export market. Exekias is an Athenian artist that used the black-figure technique and one of his works is of Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game while both are ready for battle. The "calm before the storm" was made this way for the Archaic preference for dramatic action. Gravity and tension will later characterize much Classical Greek art of the next century. Dice games of "luck" had always been popular in Greece, shown in art such as this vase and even writings of Homer. In mythology, the Greek Gods even played "throw the dice" in order to split up the universe between them (mythology was also important to the Greeks, the Greek Gods being the ones they worshiped). Therefore, this vase is a product of popular activities at the time: making black-figure vases, dice games, and worshiping the Gods.

Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon (Temple of Athena)

The Temple of Athena is a temple on the Acropolis of Athens; it is the earliest fully iconic temple on the Acropolis. Greek architects tried to achieve perfect beauty by using harmonic proportions, which is a relation of three to four quantities such that the first is to the last as the difference between the first two is to the indifference between the last two; so 2, 3, 6, are in harmonic proportion. Construction began in 447 BC, and was completed in 438 BC. The temple was built to host a shrine to the goddess Athena, and was used less as a place of worship and more of a symbol of Athena's values.

Discobolus, by Myron

The statue is a frozen moment of time, meant to capture the tension of action right before a discus is thrown. The original bronze piece was lost many thousands of years ago. The piece was made in 450 BC, the classical period of ancient Greek (480-323 BC) and stood at 5’1”. In Greece, both the human figure and the Olympics were very important. The men participating in the Olympics competed naked in order to admire the human body as they did athletic activities ("athletic energy"). Again, this piece of artwork showcases potential energy that was very popular at that time. The statue is made in an unnatural pose that would be inefficient to the throw of the discus and the muscles in the torso are not strained even though the arms are out flung... either way, this statue showcases the advanced sculpting skills of artists at the time.