3. “Sloth (Desidia) by Pieter van der Heyden
ca. 1525-1569
This piece has many of many design principles
and visual elements. What first comes to mind
is Value Contrast. The entire piece is based off
the use and shading of the color gray. I think
the artist used that concept to amplify the
theme of “Sloth”. The gray shading gives a
feeling of laziness and exhaustion. The peoples
minds seem to be hazy so all of the vibrancy and
color in life is lacking. There is also a large
amount of overlapping through the piece. The
foreground, middle ground, and background
show linear perspective as well. In regards to
texture it seems the artist used the modeling
method. He created the illusion of 3D homes
and people through shadowing. You can also
see examples of contour lines and diagonal lines
through out the piece.
Return to Gallery
4. “The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust”
by Paul Cadmus I chose this Paul Cadmus piece for lust based off
of the use of visual elements. What first came to
view for me was his use of a focal point. The idea
of lust was conveyed by the placement of the
hands drawing your eyes to the nether regions.
The hands are also disproportionate to the body
because the are abnormally larger making it a
distortion of scale. The persons body is angled to
where it looks like he is thrusting his hips forward
which makes the emphasis clearly on the “lustful”
region of the body. The use of the color red and
how he has it billowing from the body as if the
man is exuding lust was a great technique since
the color red is often a symbol for lust. Contour
lines are also displayed to emphasis the shape of
the muscles and body. The piece overall gives me
an uneasy and uncomfortable feeling due to the
positioning of the body and the look on the
subjects face. This in turn makes me assume that
it is displaying Imbalance. The medium of the
piece is egg tempera which explains the vibrancy
of the colors used.
Return to Gallery
5. “The Seven Deadly Sins: “Pride” like “Lust” is made with an egg tempera
Pride” by Paul Cadmus medium. There is an implied mass in terms of
the body. Though there is muscle, the jowls of
the face and roundness of the abdomen displays
that the subject is overweight. The subject
displays organic shape and has a natural looking
body shape and appearance. There is a great
use of shading which is depicting in the
roundness of the body. Implied lines are also
used. The outline of the entire body and
muscles (minus the hands) are not contoured
specifically but rather are made through the use
of shading, which makes them implied. The focal
point of the piece is the head. The use of red is
used to symbolize pride. As well as the hand over
the heart. The body stance and obvious tension
and stretching of the neck also shows pride. It’s
as though the subject us using every muscle in
his body in order to seem more powerful. The
stance of the body and how his eyes are looking
down shows hierarchical scaling as if the subject
is more important the others.
Return to Gallery
6. “Allegory of Avarice” by Jacopo Ligozzi I chose this painting to depict the sin of
Greed. The piece shows a use of linear
perspective with the being the focal point in
the foreground. There is a symbolism in the
color yellow in contrast to the dark tone of
the rest of the piece. The value pattern of the
piece uses warm yellow to show her as “good”
in comparison to the “evil” of the rest of the
piece. The skulled men behind her seem to
be enticing her into a trap by promising riches.
The middle ground shows a woman being
attacked which is interesting based on the
nonchalant look on the foreground girls face.
There is a great use of shading on the girls
arm showing the skull creating a shadow over
her. As if evil is taking over. There also seems
to be rythym in the piece depicting a chain of
events in progress. If the girl in front does not
make the correct decision she may end of like
the girl in the middle ground. The medium of
the painting is Oil on a canvas.
Return to Gallery
7. “Gula (Gluttony)” by Pieter van der Heyden The piece “Gula” contains many visual
elements. The use of modeling,
strippling, hatching, and and cross
hatching can be seen through out the
piece. Especially in the house figure in
the top left, underneath the bridge on
the lower left, and throughout the
skyline with the billowing smoke.
Value contrast is widely displayed with
the use of gray. The gluttony theme is
scene through out with the busted
open stomachs and aura of drunk and
overconsumption displayed. An
interesting detail can be scene in the
bottom center. The human like animal
can be scene encouraging the woman
to keep drinking. It seems that they are
trying to take over the town.
Overlapping and linear perspective are
also shown through out. Each section
has extreme detailing as if to convey
the chaos is going on for miles.
Return to Gallery
8. Conclusion
Each piece in my collection depicts my theme of “Capital Sins”.
They are thematically similar. There is also a cohesive flow in
terms of how they are visually as well. The way I chose to
display them in the gallery was based off of the theme. I felt
that “Pride” should be displayed front and center based on the
focal point of the face and by how the subject seemed so much
larger then the others. By him standing the way he was I felt as
though he was vying for front and center. Your eyes are being
immediately drawn to that piece. I also felt that the smaller gray
pieces were great bookends to the flow of the display. I really
enjoyed working on the theme and trying to tie everything
together.
Start Over
