Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Dance in the Country VS Dance in the Country- Liu Dong

“A Dance in the Country” by Giovanni Domenico Tieppolp, an Italian artist who is trained in the studio of his famous father, Giovanni Battista Tieppolo, after his father passed away, he developed a more straightforward approach to composition than his father’s work demonstrated, he paused his art for approximately fifteen years until he resumed his painting on Punchinello, which was his first masterpiece.

The painting, “A Dance in the Country” is one of his famous art pieces; it is painted in oil on a canvas dated 1755. It shows an actress dancing with a young man wearing the traditional costume of commedia dell’arte character mezzetino. Giovanni choses red for the young man’s costume and centralized the figure to demonstrate the passion in music and dancing for the people of the painting, but also uses red to catch the audience eyes. It seems Giovanni want to portray that the people in painting are enjoying a festival or carnival, thus everybody is well dressed. Although there are only two figures dancing, the others are busy socializing; most of the people in the painting are wearing mask, Giovanni does this to emphasize the mysterious atmosphere.

Moreover, the painting is interesting because the painting is crowded with people but Giovanni purposely left some empty space on the left side of the painting. The people are crowded together. Also, he not only centralized the men dancing figure but also the man who is trying to climb up the tree but he used different technique, he fades out some color to a degree and uses darker colors draw the attention away from the man wearing a red costume. In addition, the human figures are purposefully not showing their faces for some reason. Only one figure is showing his face, which is clown-like because of the prominently face structures. Giovanni used different color in clothing to separate each figure to avoid overlapping since they are all standing close to each other. The women’s clothing color is gradually divide into light then darker, the woman sitting on the chair is wearing blue color, then the actress dancing is wearing a warm yellow dress and the female behind the actress is wearing dark brown.

In a contrast, Giovanni painted sea as background and used very light blue with white clouds to light up the painting because the painting seems complex when there are too many focal points. Overall, the painting is focus on human figures, and level of colors that is been used. The painting passed the warm and flourishing life style, everybody seems came from royal background depending on their clothing style. The dance, the music instrument and the celebration shows passionate in life.

“Dance in the Country” is one of the three painting that Renoir painted that were commissioned by Paul Durand-Ruel. The painting is similar to Renoir’s older painting, but there are some differences. “Dance in the Country” has a tighter, yet light composition and light is manipulated in a way to draw the focus to the center of the painting. The figures in the painting are painted delicately; their body language and clothes are used to show movement. The figures are a couple located in the center of the canvas. The painting is the first of Renoirs to feature a female that is enjoying herself and showing a full smile. The female is revealed to actually be Renoir’s wife, Aline Charigot. The color palette is much simpler that his other works of art, Renoir states this change was cause by his desire to modify his techniques. Aline is painted in warm, soft colors which contrast with the unknown male’s dark suit, this combination forces the audience to focus on the couple instead of the background. Renoir uses the swooshing effect around the couple’s feet to signify movement. The light and darkness blend with each other in the painting to create a warm, romantic setting. “Dance in the Country”, along with “Dance in the City” and Dance in Bougival”, marks the change in Renoir’s technique and is believed to be the most experimental paintings in his career.

“A Dance in the Country” By Giovanni Domenico Tieppolo and “Dance in the Country” By Pierre-Auguste Renoir are very different painting, despite having similar names. “A Dance in the Country” By Giovanni Domenico Tieppolo has a more joyous and mysterious feeling to it, while Renoir’s painting is and sensual. Also Giovanni’s painting uses darker color to soften the intense color of the man dressed in bright red and draw the attention away even though the man is the center piece of the painting. Renoir’s painting forces you to focus on the center piece by using the man’s dark suit to contrast with Aline’s dress that features soft, warm color. Renoir also uses darker color to create a romantic feeling. An obvious difference is the amount of people in the painting, Giovanni includes dozens of people which contributes to the festive feeling, and While Renoir isolates the couple.

Dance in the Country

A Dance in the Country

A Dance in the Country

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