Art

    The interconnection of Byzantine art and the Eastern culture of Asia particularly China and India paved way for the enrichment culture as well as the sharing of technologies. The immersion of Byzantine culture into Eastern Asia culture took place primarily due to the journey and expansion of the Empire taking place which coincides with the advancement and development of external trade relations by China and India. Since India and China were advanced civilizations in Asia, they were also part of the reason why Byzantine art showcases Eastern Asian touch (Bassett 2004). China and India were in constant trade arrangements and religious connections and thus when the expanding empires came through these regions they accepted trades and learned part of each regions culture.

    The specific art type that shows an interconnection of Byzantine and Eastern Asia works of art would be the mosaic. Mosaic have high cultural significance due to the fact that they can be found on many historic sites and resemble figures of religious perspectives as well as the ruling class. Byzantine art primarily uses mosaic to portray religion, kingship and the theme of power. Similarities of Byzantine art and Eastern Asian art include primary materials used, harmony in relation to nature, and the heavy use of symbolism (Dark et al. 2002). An example of mosaic art that shows similarities between Byzantine mosaic and Eastern Asian mosaic is Ravennian Mosaic depicting Emperor Justinian and Bishop Maximian. This particular mosaic art shows the unifying theme of power in art and the regard for the ruling class which can also be seen in Chinese and Indian art. On the other hand, the difference between Eastern Asian and Byzantine art would be ways o how these mosaic art products were used (Bassett 2004). In Eastern Asia, mosaic art can be seen in pottery, glassware, floors, walls and other ordinary items that can be used or seen in the daily life of an Asian.

In Byzantine, mosaic art was limited to walls, ceilings, sculptures and figures of grandeur and power.
Essentially, Mosaic, as an art is a way of creating an image through the use of small pieces of material which are glued and assembled together to form one image. Materials for mosaic would include glass, metals, stones and wood. Mosaic art was done primarily using a direct method of applying the bits and pieces while forming them to create one unifying representation (Evans 2004).
Byzantine art is mostly portrayed by mosaic art. The style of Byzantine echoes in mosaic through the use of images of empire related themes and also religion. Indian and Chinese art related to this by providing a connection which gives more attention to details and the immersion of symbolic ideas within the theme of power and religion. Another example of Byzantine art that showcases this connection to Eastern Asia would the mosaic of Christ Pantocrator. Although Christian, China and India also prioritize their religious life in their art by making it a continuous theme of images throughout one group of art works. These direct portrayals of high regard for religion translates into Byzantine art. Overall, the substitution of a Christian religion to the themes of Eastern Asian art highlights the significant connection of Byzantine art. Artists in Byzantine took the idea and concept of Eastern Asian art and molded into a specialized style in their own country.

    The Romantic Movement in the arts occurred from the late 18th to mid nineteenth centuries. Romanticism came about mainly as a response to the rational, scientific ideals of the Enlightenment, and focused on the artist, musician, or writers emotional response to nature, to heroism, and the ancient myths and traditions. (Jansen, Horst, Woldemar, and Janson, Anthony, F 672) Many artists became popular during this period including, William Blake, Gustave Dore, and John Henry Fuseli. While many think of the works of J.M Waterhouse, and Thomas Gainsboroughs depictions of beautiful women from mythology as being more representative of that art of this period, this is not the case. Many artists of this period focused upon the dark or macabre aspects of nature, of heroic tales from history, and of mythology rather than idealizing them in order to make them aesthetically pleasing.

The Artworks
    The first painting by William Blake is called the book of Job When the Morning Stars Sang Together. Blake painted this work in 1820. It is a watercolor painting and measures 280x179 millimeters. The primary colors in this painting are white, blue, gold, black and red. At the bottom of the painting we see the biblical character Job in the center, surrounded by his wife, and daughters. Job and his family are painted in white and gold, yet they are surrounded by darkness. Above Job in the center of the painting is God. God is the focal point of the painting, and is the largest figure in the painting. He has his arms outstretched as if to welcome Job and his family. On the left side and above the figure of God are groups of angels. One group is leading a group of horses in a charge, while the other angels are arrayed above God and appear to be singing. On Gods right hand side is the devil holding a whip, and surrounded by snakes as if to represent temptation. The devil is colored in red and black. The upper background of the painting is the evening sky in dark blue with golden white stars.

    The perspective used in this painting is linear. The placement of Job at the bottom center of the painting draws the viewers eyes upwards towards God. God is at the exact center of the painting. God is also the focal point in the painting in that he is the largest figure in the painting. With his arms outstretched God takes up a full 13 of the painting. Blake uses a stunning combination of darkness and light in this painting. He places the figures against a back ground of the starry night sky. The figures of God, his angels, and Job and his family are all painted in white, and the use of light focuses primarily on these groups of characters making it appear that they are almost highlighted. Blake also uses the atmospheric perspective in order to highlight the central figures in the painting while casting the figures to Gods left and right into a sort of darkness.

    Blakes use of color is magnificent. He uses colors that complement each other in order to bring out details that might otherwise be ignored by the viewer. The watercolor method that he uses makes the figures seem ethereal and unreal. The painting uses a brilliant combination of warm and cool colors. When the viewer looks upon this painting it inspires a sense of awe, and the viewer can literally see the story that Blake is trying to tell in this painting.

    Hecate or the Three Fates is a second well known work by Blake. The painting was created in 1795, and is created from pen, ink, and watercolor. The painting measures 430x58 millimeters. The painting uses the colors brown, peach, black, grey, and red. The figures depicted in the painting are the Fates of Greek and Roman legend. There is an owl to the right that can be interpreted as meaning wisdom or knowledge, and a donkey that can be interpreted as meaning ignorance. Above the heads of the Fates is a bat like figure, and in the background is a monster, or demon.

    Blake uses chiaroscuro effects in this painting to give it a dark and gloomy feel. The center of the painting is Hecate, one of the Tree Fates, who appears to be the main subject of the painting. She is the only one of the Fates to be clothed, and she wears a robe of black. Hecate has a hand on a book signifying her role as one of the Fates. Blake uses linear perspective by placing the other figures in a triangular shape in order to draw the viewers eyes towards Hecate in the center of the painting.

    Blake also emphasizes the subject of the painting by only using lighter colors to paint the fates. The animals and monsters that surround them are painted in darker colors indicating that that the Fates themselves are subjects of the painting. This painting causes the viewer to respond with both awe, and fear at what the Fates might be planning next.

    In comparison, the works of Gustave Dore are less frightening in terms of subject matter. They are however different in terms of the technique and materials used to create the paintings. In the painting Alpine Scene the viewer sees a dark and frightening forest that looks out onto a clear and sunny mountain scene. The painting is created from oil on canvas which gives the painting depth and texture in comparison the watercolor paints used by Blake. The painting was created in 1865 and measures 77 x 51 18 inches.

    Dore uses linear perspective by placing tall dark trees on both the left and right sides of the painting draw the viewers eye towards the sunny blue sky with only a few clouds, and the brightness of a mountain meadow. The colors used in this painting include, greens, blues, browns, grey and black. These colors can be considered complementary colors and add to the aesthetic beauty of the painting.

    Dores focus in this painting is on the wildness of nature, and the beauty of the landscape. Rather than a singular figure being the subject of the painting, Dore seems to focus upon the concept that nature, is not tame, and that it is neither darkness, nor light but a blending of the two.

    This depiction of nature can also be seen in another work by Dore. L Enigme is created with oil on canvas and measures 1.3 cm x1.955m. The main colors used in the painting are black, grey and white. The scene depicts a wild landscape damaged during a battle. The landscape is literally destroyed, there are dead bodies everywhere, and the ground appears blown apart in spots. There are two figures in the painting which appear to be mythological characters. One is perhaps a sphinx, and the other is a harpy. The viewer can see the remnants of weaponry lying on the darkened ground. The sky is filled with smoke and fumes from the battlefield.

    Dores use of dark colors emphasizes the mysterious aspect of the painting. The viewer does not know who the figures are, what the figures are, or where they came from. The contrast between the darkness of the battlefield, and the light colors used in painting the sky only emphasizes the two mysterious figures in the foreground.

    This painting inspires a sense of foreboding in the viewer, while it is fantastical, it also emphasizes that these mythological creatures are not there for any good purpose. Overall the painting is aesthetically pleasing. Dores painting is detailed and descriptive. Dore also utilizes a linear perspective by placing the two main figures in the painting somewhat off-center in order to draw the viewers eyes to the figures rather than focusing upon the carnage that surrounds them. Dore main concept appears to have been to emphasize the horrors of war.

    The work of John Henry Fuseli is both similar and dissimilar to that of Blake and Dore. The painting Oath on the Rutli measures 25 58 x 21 38, and is created from oil on canvas. The main colors the work are red, blue, and yellow. The central figure in the painting appears to be that of a man with his arm upraised holding a knife as if  he is about to attack one of the other figures in the painting. To the central figures left is a figure with red toned skin. This figure has their arm upraised as if they are being attacked. The figure on the opposite side has his arm uplifted as if to try and prevent the main character from killing the red skinned figure.

    The mood of this painting is dark and somber. The colors clash violently, and one can tell that Fuseli was not painting the story of a myth or legend with a particularly happy ending. Fuseli uses linear perspective to draw the viewers eyes towards the central figure by placing the red and blue skinned figures to his right and left. The viewer feels awe and fear when viewing this painting and wonders what the central figure is planning to do to the red skinned figure on the left.

    Fuseli creates a dramatic scene with his use of vibrant yet clashing, reds, yellows and blues. The colors that are used in this painting can be viewed as symbolic of the violence that is seemingly about to occur in the painting. This painting is not aesthetically pleasing, however it does fit into the emphasis on the fantastical and mythological that is often seen in the artworks of the Romantic era. However in other paintings, Fuseli tends to fit into the stereotype viewers have of Romantic art (e.g. Gainsborough and Waterhouse).

    This can be clearly seen in the painting Milton Dictating to his Daughter. (httpwww.artic.edu)  This painting measures 121.7x 118.7 cm and is created from oil paints on canvas. The main colors are white, black, blue, and red. The painting depicts blind, 17th century poet, John Milton dictating poetry to his daughter. Milton is on the right, and sits in an almost throne like armchair. He is dressed in traditional Puritan clothing and stares blankly holding his hands in front of him. Miltons wife sits to the left, in the background. She is dressed in a red Puritan dress, and appears to be either knitting or sewing. Miltons daughter is the focal point of the painting. Unlike her parents, she does not wear traditional Puritan garb. Her clothing is white and diaphanous and appears to be Grecian in style. She is holding a notebook and an ink quill and is paying close attention to what her father is saying.

    Miltons daughter appears to have much of the idealized beauty that one typically sees in paintings of the Romantic era. The subject matter however is not traditional in that Romantic artists did not typically paint pictures of authors, or other celebrities. The focus was more upon heroes or mythological characters. This painting is intriguing in that it diverges from what was commonly accepted as Romantic Art. It is a simply family scene that leads the viewer to wonder what is truly going one. Fuseli demonstrates an interesting use of space within this painting in that there are few other objects within the room, other than the daughters notebook and quill and the fathers chair. The majority of the painting is taken up by the three figures of Milton, his wife and his daughter. Finally, this painting is unique in terms of Fuselis use of light. Fuseli used light in such a way that it seemed to emphasize Miltons blindness, by creating a setting in which Miltons daughter was the only brightly lit, and light colored figure in the room, when all else was in shadow.

Despite having been influenced by Mesopotamia in different ways (trade and technology), the Egyptian civilization formed a quite unique society and culture. In many ways they are both related and different. However, no one can deny that both civilizations managed to produce extra ordinary piece of arts with the ingenuity of their craftsmen and with the help of the wealth of their lands.

Architecture
    Both civilizations erected huge monuments. Among these monuments, the most famous are their pyramids. In many cases, Egypt is characterized with their colossal pyramids. The same with the Mesopotamia, they are often portrayed doing rituals in their ziggurat. In Mesopotamia these huge buildings are referred as ziggurats. The ziggurats are constructed by sun-dried mud brick which are not as long lasting compared to the materials used in other pyramids. These make Mesopotamian pyramids not to last as far as the Egyptian pyramids which are made of brick and stone. As scholars would say, Egyptians buildings and monuments are built to last forever.
 

Design
    The Egyptian pyramids are constructed to use its internal structure while the Mesopotamian ziggurats are primarily used as a platform. This makes the design of two kinds of buildings to vary. The Mesopotamian ziggurats outside are painted with bright colors with staircase leading to the top of it. As scholars would describe it, terraced pyramid of successively receding stories. The Egyptian pyramids outside structure however are crude in color (stone or brick colored) and does not provide an access to the top level using a staircase outside.

    However in a particular pyramid of Egypt which is referred as Saqarra who was made for the pharaoh Djoser-Netcherikhe a pyramid that somewhat resembles the Mesopotamian ziggurat was built, the Egyptians referred it as the Step Pyramid.

Utility
    Aside from the materials and design used in construction, Egyptian pyramids and Mesopotamian ziggurats differed in their utilities. The ziggurats are known for their importance and significance in religious gatherings and rituals. The Egyptian pyramids however are known for their housing of the corpse of the Egypts pharaoh.

Paintings
Themes
The theme of the Egyptian art primarily revolves on religion and their respect for death or the afterlife. Much of the Egyptian art symbolized power and the order in the Egyptian civilization. Also, the use of animals is widespread in many wall paintings. The use of specific colors also portrays specificity in the characters of what is being portrayed. Gold for example are commonly used in royal characters while red are often used to portray the youth and the warriors.
Most of the paintings of the Egyptian portray wars. They paint their warriors, their chariots and their leaders in battle. Aside from wars they depict some of the events wherein their gods communicate with their leaders.

Layout
It is noticeable that in both Egyptian and Mesopotamian paintings, there is a similarity on how a 2 dimensional image is portrayed. The head, the legs and the feet are shown in their sides while the torsos are shown frontally.
See pictures below
 
Sculptures
Royal Masks
The Golden Mask of Tutan Khamun is one of the most celebrated pieces of masksculpture. It is a mask weighing 24 pounds of solid gold, inlaid lapis lazuli, carnelian, quartz, turquoise, obsidian, and colored glass.(Deurer 1996)
The Helmet of King Meskalamdug is comparable in different attributes with the Golden Mask of Tutan Khamun.
Gold for both civilization become the currency in building prestigious objects that are usually reserved for the royals.
   
The Eyes
It has also been observed that many of the Mesopotamian sculptures are engraved with huge eyes. The sculptures found in Abu Temple in Tell Asmar are great examples of the sculptures with this characteristic. This implies the emphasis of the Mesopotamian in the eyes of a character.
In the Egypt however, eyes are often drawn or engraved as narrow and smaller. Eyes are only emphasized with the use of color linings typically black in color (commonly known today as eye liner).We can often see these in the paintings in the walls of a pyramid. Aside from the drawings in the wall, this is also noticeable with the discovered precious masks of their rulers in the past.
See pictures below
       
No one can deny the riches of both the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization. Both of them made the transition from the prehistoric to historic. The importance of their accounts of their daily lives, their rulers and their gods cannot be discounted especially for our understanding of the earlier people. They also spearheaded the value and importance and legacy of erecting one of a kind structure that will inspire the future generations to strive for perfection and innovation.

The ancients Romans are known to have borrowed heavily from the Greeks in terms of artistic inspiration and techniques. This combined with their own indigenous artistic features forms what is termed as Greco- Roman art. The various art forms include Pottery, Sculpture, Paintings, Architecture and other art forms. The earlier subject matter was mostly geometric or abstract in nature and the later works include depiction of human figures. The subject matter chosen were mostly divine, mythological, animal figures and war scenes. The sheer beauty of the work of art, the symmetry and the choice of subject matter adds sheer delight to the onlooker and makes an interesting subject matter for study.

The choice of subject matter like human forms, horses, infantry men and the use of material like marble, terracotta and bronze are factors that are common to both Greek and Roman artworks. The penchant of the Greeks in portraying members from the higher echelons of the society, the royals and their army appears to have been emulated by the Romans as well. Both their Gods are depicted in human form, either as a tribute to the deceased or as a symbol of sacredness of the human body. Both the Greek and the Roman artists appear comfortable in their portrayal of nudity. The fact that their artworks have stood the test of time and continue to both thrill and inspire the artists of modern day is an interesting fact.

The ancient Greeks are known to have used pottery extensively in their everyday lives. Pottery was used as drinking vessels, as large wine cups and as bowls and jugs. Their pottery was finely shaped, symmetrical and often decorated with art. The themes are mostly depiction of human forms. The choice of colors was mostly limited and the work appears to be monochromatic.  The ranges of colors used in these paintings are mostly limited to black and red in combination with the natural light color of the pot. The artwork resembles the Red  figure Technique known to have been evolved by the Greeks in 5th Century BC. However the Siana Cup appears to be a combination of Red-Figure Technique and the Black-figure Technique. The pot is painted on the inside in black and on the outside the natural light color of the pot is seen with black and red figures represented on them. The term Siana refers to the decorative schemes, one in which the subject covers the upper exterior around the handles, and the other in which a large tondo or circular picture covers the bottom of the interior. The choice of complementary color for the background and the foreground makes the image stand out.

The Column Krater looks solid in appearance portraying the confidence of the artist in his craftsmanship. The elegance of the painting and the finesse of the artwork are in sharp contrast to the firmness of the object itself giving the Krater a sense of added beauty and mystery. The formwork is more organic and lucid in nature with the use of curves to define the outline of the human figures much in variation with the usual straight lines used by Greeks. The subject matter depicts a mood of celebration and joy Most probably this scene was selected due to the function of the vessel. A krater was used to mix wine and water for use at social gatherings. The main subject matter is depicted in the body of the vessel. The rims and the handles are decorated with fine engravings in black. Though the functionality or the usability of the pottery seems questionable owing much to the shape of the handles, the work stands out in its beauty and aesthetics. The sheen and finish is a classic example of the exemplary techniques the Greeks adopted in firing clay, though the colors are limited owing to the limitations in technology.

The roman art form especially sculptures mostly depicted human forms. The material choice is usually stone, marble in particular. The sculpture seems to have been sculpted from a single stone. The various proportions and the use of light and depth portray the understanding that the Roman artists had of the human anatomy. The bearded roman would fall under the Roman Portraiture category. The portrayal is realistic and natural without any artistic exaggeration added to it. The fineness of the artwork is displayed by the meticulous detailing of the facial hair and the hair on the head. The lines on the forehead and the way in which the facial muscles are captured indicate the portrayal of a middle aged man. A clear sense of symmetry is visible in their depiction. The face is rectangular or cubical in form and definitively male in its portrayal. The shape of the lips portrays a tightness or firmness perhaps indicating an impenetrable emotionality of the person depicted. The sculpture invokes a sense of seriousness on the viewer. The cubic structure conveys a sense of force and latent power in the image of the dictator-emperor, especially in combination with a firm, quiet expression, and the most typical public demeanor for emperors during the initial two centuries of the Roman Empire.

The early artwork appears to have worshipped the human form. The human body seems to have been considered as sacred. This is apparent in their depiction of Gods in human form. The Roman artists are bold and natural in their depiction of nudity. There is strangeness to the sculpture in the fact that though the sculpture was obviously meant to portray a nude image the artist has detailed some clothing on the upper part of the body. The human figure is muscular in a non-exaggerated fashion. The shape of the body, the muscles, the detailing of the knee and various other parts are clearly captured through varying depths flowing across the sculpture. The main subject matter is portrayed on a circular pedestal and a pole or a tree trunk connecting the base to the subject giving a sense of continuity to the sculpture.

The artworks chosen are a typical of the features of artworks of similar period from the Greco-Roman art framework. The choice of material, subject matter, the style and the techniques are similar to other works from the same period.

In the first piece, we have an example of 1-Point Linear Perspective. This is a drawing by Andrean Schiptjenko, which is unofficially titled closed space. This piece is displayed in the Galerie der Stockeregg in Switzerland.

Notice how the vanishing point is in the center of the rectangle. All the diagonal lines meet at this vanishing point. The diagonals above the eye level line slant downward toward the vanishing point and the diagonals below the eye level slant upwards toward it. Also, the vertical and horizontal lines get shorter, or recede toward the vanishing point.

The second piece is by David Godbold and is titled A few things I thought about while painting this, residing in the Kerlin Gallery, in Dublin, Ireland. This Cross Contour example uses brush strokes to indicate the different contours of the landscape and the various elements of the landscape, such as the ground, the sky and the trees. Cross-contour lines describe form and volume and reflect the movement of your eye in and around what you see.

This third piece, Hiroshi Sugimotos 017 Rei Kawakubo, resides in Gallery Koyanagi in Tokyo, Japan. This painting demonstrates the Chiaroscuro effect. The word Chiaroscuro basically means, light and dark, in Italian. These types of paintings generally use dark backgrounds with a spotlight on the figures in the paintings, such as the spotlight here, shown on the left side of the model. This type of contrast creates a powerful and dramatic effect.

This fourth piece, A History of the Heart in Three Rainbows 1.3-1.5, by Francesco Clemente, is held in the Deitch Projects in New York City. This artwork focuses on the biomorphic form. Biomorphic paintings and drawings depict shapes in organic form rather than geometrical. Notice how the man-made grid-like table cloth contrasts with the over-sized, organic sunflowers.

The fifth piece of art is an example of line variation by Aditya Pande. This particular painting is called,  and is held at the Nature MorteBose Pacia, in New Delhi, India. In this piece, Pande displays incredible line variation. There are all types thin, thick, flat, broad, straight, slanted, curved and spiral.

The three paintings included in this art analysis of female nudes are Venus and Adonis from the Italian Baroque style of painting, Grande Odalisque from the French Neo Classical style, and Le Dejeuner sur lHerbe from the 19th Century European Modern style.  Venus and Adonis is an oil painting on canvas by Flemish artist Peter Paul Reubens from the mid or late 1630s about 78 x 96 inches in size.  Here, the nude goddess Venus, assisted by Cupid, tries to restrain her mortal lover Adonis from setting off for the hunt, knowing that if he goes, he will be killed by a wild boar.  Grande Odalisque is an oil painting on canvas by French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres from 1814 about 36 x 64 inches in size.  Here, the nude harem woman and the accessories around her invoke a sense of the sensuous Orient.  Le Dejeuner sur lHerbe is an oil painting on canvas by French artist Edouard Manet from 1863 about 82 x 104 inches in size.  Here, a nude woman and two fully clothed men are taking lunch on the grass together.  By comparing analyzing the varying styles of these paintings, one is able to gain insight to the significant similarities and differences between the paintings as well as the overall progression of art across time and cultures.

Style
These three paintings are good examples of each of the three art styles in question, namely Italian Baroque, French Neo Classical, and 19th Century European Modern.  Venus and Adonis exemplifies Italian Baroque painting in that there is a continuing fascination with classical antiquity, yet the nude female is actively seductive. The female nude took on fresh meaning in the art of Rubens, who, with apparent pleasure, painted his nude with generous figure and radiant flesh.  The Baroque taste for allegories based on classical metaphors also preferred undraped figures, which were used to personify ideals such as Love and Truth.  Grand Odalisque exemplifies French Neo Classicism in that Ingres rejected the classicism and lays the foundation for personal emotive expressiveness.  Here, an elegant female is lounges in a luxurious interior, creating a cool aloof eroticism accentuated by an exotic context.  Le Dejeuner sur LHerbe exemplifies the 19th Century Modern European style in that Manet has painted a nude woman among clothed men, as she tranquilly stares out to the audience (424).  During this time, many people were scandalized by the subject matter, which illustrates two men in contemporary cloths seated casually on the grass for lunch in the woods with a nude woman.

Similarities
There are significant similarities between the three works, which aim to link them together within a certain broader era and style.  All three female nudes share the enjoyment of being the central focus of each painting.  Their bare and brightly painted skin radiates light and catches the eye, while other aspects of the paintings are darker and less attractive.  As the central points of the paintings, the women serve to tell tales about their own personal sexuality as well as their broader cultural environments.  Following a time period when women were more reserved and took a sideline presence to the idea of male domination, these three paintings empower women in the sense that the females are presented as bold, erotic, and fascinating subjects who enjoy the spotlight of the intentions of the artists and the messages conveyed to the audience.  Each woman is painted with specific attention to the light which falls on her skin, making them all warm, vibrant, and strong characters within each work.
 
Differences
The differences between the three works are in the slight ways in which intensions of the artists and the messages to the audience shift in the ways in which each of the women is captured and illustrated within her unique environmental context.  The female nude from Venus and Adonis is a classical goddess, undraped and spotlighted because of her personal divine nature and allegorical embodiment of Love.  Her fleshy body is generous in curves, and her eroticism is slightly guarded by the fact that she represents a divine creature.  Moving from the classical divinity of Venus and Adonis is the honest emotionality of the nude woman of the harem in Grande Odalisque.  The exotic nature of the Oriental surroundings hints at a woman who is one woman of many to choose from.  She peers out to the audience with cool sensuality and a kind of guarded invitation.  Her mortality is a given and her Christianity is more than questionable, lending her an otherworldly and earthy allure.  Le Dejeuner sur LHerbe is even more scandalous than what is hinted at with Grande Odalisque.  Here, the naked woman is sitting between two men among a scattered luncheon in the woods.  One gets the impression that the men have just engaged in sexual play with her together.  Boldly, she looks out to the audience with no shame as to what has occurred between her and her male counterparts.

Assessment
Through the analysis of these three paintings, one is able to get an idea about the cultural shifts which occurred in Europe across the latter half of the last millennium.  Generally speaking, there was a certain shift from females being heralded as pure goddesses to female being heralded as mortal women with tendencies toward openness in sexuality.  There is an altering in the depiction of the female nude from a devoted and chaste image of classical divinity to a fresh and modern female nude who is self assured and unashamed of her earthy mortality.  While all three women in these paintings are central to the whole image and story being told, illuminated in light as the focal point of each painting, the core of each tale shifts from painting to painting, with an evolution of woman being increasingly regarded as more of a personally sexual and emotional individual, with daring tenacity in her desire to be seen and appreciated in her earthy sensuality.

September 2009 was marked with one of the most notable and most notorious thefts in the history of art  a collection of sport paintings by Andy Warhol was stolen from the LA home of a famous collector Richard L. Weisman. The collection, the value of which is difficult to estimate, simply disappeared without any hope for a return. However, just a decade ago the silkscreen paintings of the prominent sport figures made by Andy Warhol waited for the buyer to find them, and no one seemed interested in what Andy Warhol was trying to communicate to his audience. Today, art has become too unpredictable, too various, too changeable, and too transparent. The growing commercialization of art changes its nature and makes it impossible to understand the new criteria of quality in artistic expression. In present day environments, the quality and effectiveness of the artistic expression are defined by the amount of money, which the public is willing to pay for it as a result, art for the sake of art is no longer relevant, while artistic brutality and the open denial of conventional art values have already turned into perfect objects of commercialization.
   
That postmodern society is increasingly commercialized no one can deny, and the traits of commercialization are readily reflected in different forms of artistic expression, which postmodern artists tend to choose. Looking at the terribly naturalistic and even brutal graphic representations of Edgar Allan Poes works, which in no way reduce the scope of his literary talent, the society consciously uses his stories to attract additional profits. But if one of the goals of the show was to give kids exposure to gore and terror via art and literature  rather than by way of video games and slasher movies, may be it would have been better to distract kids from these horrors and to create a more pleasant representation of images from Poes stories This question is easy to answer horror and terror are never routine and thus can attract additional profits. This commercialization seems to have released the kind of artistic representation which for years had been suppressed by conventional norms and values of art. However, this very commercialization also imposes even stricter requirements on artists art should no longer be routine it should generate terror and gore, be brutal, naturalistic and unusual to the extent, which will make its consumers pay money to watch and possess it.
   
Such commercialization breaks conventional art at the seams and undermines the stability of conventional art norms. The cheap foam core models at the Whitney Museum, held to together with glue and pins also reflect this disruption of values and the failure of conventional art, but again, even the representation of these disruptions and failures aims to generate material profits. Even getting back to conservatism in museum exhibitions is justified by conservatism being fashionable, with predictable results. Even the value of Andy Warhols silkscreen paintings, the quality of which did not change over years, varies and depends on its monetary value which, under the influence of various market and art forces, is still bound to change. If not for the money which could have been paid for Warhols works, no one would ever remember him as one of the most prominent representatives of his age.
   
The growing commercialization of the postmodern society makes art unpredictable and changes its nature. Art is no longer for the sake of art rather, the quality of artistic presentation is measured by the sum of money, which the audience is willing to pay for it. This commercialization undermines the stability of conventional art values and breaks the value of traditional art. And even if some museums dare to go back to conservatism, these trends are not about preserving the historical value of art but are primarily justified by the commercial profits, which they can potentially generate.