Notes:
METAMORPHOSIS
RESEARCH INTO OVID
OVID POET
STORIES ABOUT ROMAN AND GREEK MYTHOLOGY
LOOK INTO TITIAN PAINTER - UNDERSTAND THE THREE STORIES THE PICTURES OF THE STAG STAGE AND DIANA BEING THE GODDESS OF HUNT
CREATE ARTWORK LINKING WITH POEMS THAT RELATES TO YOUR STYLE
This particular image I have taken an interest in as the colours attract me to look at it and the randomness of it intrigues me. I like how the link to the theme is more relaxed as its showing the progression of insects and animals forming but links it with a wide range of living things. I feel it is slightly surreal as well and this adds a strange look to the image. In my opinion I like the idea of the fathers for antennas and the way the insects and animals are presented on the wings, the clever thing about it as well is that each time you look at it you notice something new and something you didn't see before. Hopefully when I begin this unit fully I can refer back to the style of image and work like this.
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after giving birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animals's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. The image below is an example of metamorphosis, its shown through the progression of a caterpillar to a butterfly. Metamorphosis is a simple process however with in fine art I'm unsure on how I can interoperate it into my work. Because of this concern I am going to research in metamorphosis art and see examples others have done and how they have linked it.
Meta = change
Morph = shape
Change shape
This particular image I have taken an interest in as the colours attract me to look at it and the randomness of it intrigues me. I like how the link to the theme is more relaxed as its showing the progression of insects and animals forming but links it with a wide range of living things. I feel it is slightly surreal as well and this adds a strange look to the image. In my opinion I like the idea of the fathers for antennas and the way the insects and animals are presented on the wings, the clever thing about it as well is that each time you look at it you notice something new and something you didn't see before. Hopefully when I begin this unit fully I can refer back to the style of image and work like this.
Ovid was a poet from 43 BC to AD 17. He created this poem below called Metamorphosis. It was written in latin and its genre was epic poetry and tragedy. The poem is about a collection of mythological and legendary stories linking with metamorphosis and the change of animals and insects and other life forms.
Both these images below are of the most famous painters in the 16th century, they were done by an Italian painter Titian. He was born in 1490 and sadly died in 1576 he painted very scenic paintings and included human figures in there too. Linking back to Ovid's poem one of the stories were of the greek myth about the goddess of the hunt. Her name was Diana as well as being the goddess of hunt she was also goddess of the moon and nature. So she was associated with animals and the woodland. Another thing she was known for was that she was known to be the virgin goddess of childbirth and women. She was one of the three maiden goddesses, along with minerva and vesta, who swore never to marry. As a goddess she had the power to control animals, she also was against sexual activity, this is explained in the paintings and poetry. They both state that she enjoyed the company of women and were always surrounded by her nymphs, they were almost classed as her servants as shown in the image below they washed her and accompanied her most of the time. However one of the stories I'm focusing on from the poem is The Death Of Actaeon, this includes Diana and her nymphs, in the picture below is the painting of this scene, it is showing many hidden details for example, the stag's head above the woman that is washing Diana and just above the goddess is a proudly hung deer skin these both represent accomplishment that Diana has achieved. Also the image is telling us the story between them two, this is that Actaeon entered her bathing area when he was deer hunting and whilst Diana was being delicately washed, this made her feel vulnerable and exposed to him. Now because Diana didn't believe in such thing she was angered by his presence and used her powers on him. To get back at him she controlled his own hunting dogs and made them hunt him, she changed him (metamorphosed) into a deer which made the dogs hunt him. I feel this reaction was not necessary but as this is what she strongly believe in this made her react how she did.
This image below is another painting by Titian and this is the following scene after she had sent the dogs to kill him. This painting is a lot more scenic and woodland, it is showing her way of living and what she worshiped being a goddess. However it is also demonstrating the actions she used to for fill and proceed with in her wishes. For example, the kill of Actaeon its presenting the hunt of the dogs and how his appearance has changed because of her powers, you can see the head of a stag on him as if he had changed into one. The position she is in makes her seem very powerful and independent especially with the dogs at her side, clearly Diana was a very strong goddess and if she didn't like something she would fix it. On the other hand relating this to metamorphosis is quite simple as it links with Actaeon changing into a stag, now linking this with my fine art work I find will be hard, but experimenting is what I need to do and planning. I got most of my information about these paintings from the National Gallery website and I have done a bit of video research on Youtube into these paintings from the poem and I found a more modernised meaning of the images, this helped me understand the meaning of them properly and guided me to look more into the background of Diana. The link is below.
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