Describing a painting 4BT: 3D Gallery

the Great Wave off Kanagawa

The “Great Wave Off Kanagawa”is the most famous and
first print in Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series, published in
the early 1830s when the artist was in his 70s. The style is known as ukiyo-e,
or woodblock prints

Mount Fuji, appears smallish in the well of the
wave, symbolizing Japan. It is about to be dangerously consumed by foreign
forces. Indeed, the viewer has an outsider’s point of view and
sees a wave moving left to right in the Western way of reading. Watery
fingers reach out to seize Mount Fuji.

A great force, an unstoppable change is about to take
place.

The ‘Great
Wave’ can be considered as the artist’s complete meditation on the ideas of immortality and identity.And of the
realization that each may ultimately prove mortal.

Wanderer upon the sea of fog by caspar david friedrich

A man stands on top of a crag of rocks,
overlooking a valley cloaked in mountain mist. Other ridges rise through the
fog, giving the impression of islands in a sea.

The man himself appears to have hiked up this mountain and now looks out
over the precipice at the heights he has scaled. He is an explorer His hair
catching the wind, his noble stance with
one leg raised, his frock coat and walking cane, all give the impression of a
well-to-do town-dweller who has chosen to spend time in the wilds of nature
rather than human society.

The image focuses on a person gazing out over nature. The terms for this
device is Rückenfigur,
or figure seen from behind, a compositional device by which the viewer can more
readily identify with the scene.

We could think of an optimistic interpretation: that he has trekked to
the top of this rocky precipice, looks over the entire world or we could choose the pessimistic reading —:
a man racked with doubt looks out over a vast mountain range. He is all alone
in this place, in whose limitless dimensions he recognises, by contrast, his
own uncertain existence.

The success of this painting, lies in the
possibility of this ambiguity:

echo and narcissus by J.W. Waterhouse

This painting represents the typical Victorian style with soft colours,
beautiful figures and a high level of realism even in the interpretation of
themes from classical antiquity.

Ovid’s poem tells the story
of Narcissus the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Lyripe. Narcissus
was blessed with devastating beauty causing all who beheld him to fall utterly
and hopelessly in love, including the nymph Echo who is depicted here in the
painting. Narcissus rejected all of them, and eventually fell in love with his own
reflection was eventually driven to madness knowing that he could never touch
or be with the object of his desire. The melancholic longing both figures feel
is easily perceived by the viewer and is a key part of what makes this work so
compelling. The beauty of the figures is matched by the woodland which
surrounds them and provides the perfect location for the tragic story which is
playing out between them.NO DESCRIPTION

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Describing a painting 4BT