Easter Story

 

Detail from Giotto's "Lamentation"

As Easter approaches, I want to share some beautiful frescoes depicting events of Holy Week. I have chosen frescoes by Giotto  de Bondone from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. Giotto told the story of Christ's passion with a series of unforgettable frescoes. As you follow the story in a series of panels along the walls of the Chapel, you can't help but experience an emotional build-up, and an increasingly tragic tone.

Giotto, "Kiss of Judas"

Giotto, "Kiss of Judas" detail

Giotto was a early Renaissance painter, whose work marks a clear shift from the prior Byzantine style. Before Giotto, paintings tended to depict people in a one-dimensional, highly stylized, static way. The looked like flat cut-outs. But in the hands of Giotto, the figures become human. They are modeled in three dimensions, and their expressions are full of emotion. One critic has written that you can almost hear the sobs of the women and shrieks of the angels in these frescoes of the Passion. 

Giotto, "Crucifixion"

From Judas' betrayal of Christ, to the crucifixion and resurrection, we see masterpieces of Renaissance art. The  emotion of the characters is almost palpable. These frescoes were painted over seven hundred years ago (yes, seven hundred!!), but their appeal is timeless. And the Easter story that they tell--the victory of life over death--is as powerful today was it was two thousand years ago.

Giotto, "Lamentation"

It would not be an exaggeration to say that each fresco warrants hours of study. The overall harmony of the ensemble is marvelous, but I think that the details of certain characters and expressions are equally compelling. I am including close-up images from several of the panels. Any one of these, standing alone, would be a master work. The entirety makes for a very rich feast. Notice the bare little tree on the right in the fresco just above ("Lamentation"). The tiny green buds on it are said to symbolize the coming resurrection. And of course, we can't end with the crucified Christ--the focus of Easter is the triumph of the resurrection!

Giotto, "Resurrection and Noli me tangere"

I love this resurrection fresco, which combines a scene from the empty tomb with the scene of Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene. On the left, the Roman guards sleep at the tomb, and two angels sit nearby. On the right, the risen Jesus appears to Mary Magddalene. The flag carried by Jesus reads "victor mortis", or "conqueror of death".  Hallelujah!  Happy Easter!

Apple of my Eye

Is there any fruit more storied than the apple? Perhaps the mystique surrounding the apple began in the Garden of Eden. In Eden, fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, presumed to be the apple, was the one forbidden fruit.  And of course it proved to be the most enticing. We have all grown up seeing images of Eve proffering an apple to Adam.  A simple red orb, yet laden with so much meaning.

"Red Deliciious, Single"

7 x 5, Oil on Gessobord

(c) Lesley Powell 2021

Apples have figured in many historic moments.  Isaac Newton had a famous encounter with an apple.  It's said that his realization about gravity happened because he was hit in the head by an apple falling from a tree.  William Tell earned freedom from his captors by shooting an apple off of his son's head, using his bow and arrow.  And the list goes on.

Untitled

5 x 7, Oil on Gessobord

(c) Lesley Powell 2021

Leaving aside the symbolism of apples, I love to paint them simply for their color and shape.  It's a challenge to depict  a sphere correctly, showing its volume and weight.  No mere red circles these!  Finding the turns of the planes in a rounded fruit is a key to showing its three dimensionality. Or as painters say, "When the plane changes, the color changes."

Untitled

6 x 6, Oil on Gessobord

(c) Lesley Powell 2021

Patrick George taught his art students that they should "recognize the apples as some sort of an irregular solid, made up of a succession of planes."  Easier said than done!  I'm illustrating this post with some of my recent efforts.  These are small paintings, quick studies.  My aim was to lay the paint and leave it, to avoid over-working, and to leave the marks of the initial drawing visible as a sign of the process. Hope you'll enjoy taking a look.

Mudheads

 

What, you might ask, is a "mudhead"?  No, it's not a derogatory term for a dull person.  In the world of art, a "mudhead" is a particular type of painting, one that shows faces and figures in a quasi-abstract, often colorful manner.  The term originated with the great artist Charles Hawthorne, who founded the Cape School of Art in Provincetown, MA, right around 1900.  Nowadays, vintage mudheads painted by Hawthorne's students are prized, and are highly collectible. 

Hawthorne era mudhead; Anonymous 

Hawthorne taught a revolutionary approach to painting the figure.  He had his students paint from live models, in bright sunlight on the beach.  The students were told to paint only the broad patterns of light and shadow, and not get bogged down in details.  This approach allowed the painter to capture the color, value and form of people, without rendering their facial features.  In many ways, it became the backbone of modern painting, emphasizing the fact that the impact of a painting comes from the big shapes, not fine details. 

Carole Smith Myer

A mudhead is usually backlit by very bright light.  With such strong backlighting, the heads and faces appear to be a fairly uniform, warm, muddy color.  Thus the term "mudhead".  To me, the charm of the mudhead is that fact that it is specific, despite also being anonymous.  I love the way these paintings are built from abstract shapes of color.  The big shapes are put down first, and although they may ultimately be refined somewhat, they are never detailed.

Untitled

15 x 14, Oil on Linen

(c) Lesley Powell 2021

I'm illustrating this post with some vintage mudheads, and also an effort of my own.  My painting is from a photo I took in Italy many years ago.  The ladies on the park bench were very strongly backlit, and the features were not discernible.  But I think you can tell a lot about them, nonetheless. I couldn't decide whether to call this one "Support Group" or "Support Hose".  Cast your vote here!