European Artwork

PART ONE Raffael and Rembrandt

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483-1520)

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 - 1669)
版画(蚀刻画)《生猪》(etching) (The Hog) Signed Rembrandt f 1643 Haarlem. 16.4 X 14.4 cm.

PART TWO Jean-François Millet

Jean-François Millet, one of the world’s greatest artists, had enormous influences and contributions to the world art history development. However, very few scholars had used the golden ratio as a method to analyze Millet’s works. Needless to say, people never realized that, in fact, Millet succeeded his practice of the golden ratio from Leonardo da Vinci. Scholars always study da Vinci’s works by using the golden ratio principle, especially the line segments. This paper introduces Millet’s succession of da Vinci’s adaptation of the golden angle principle in his figural paintings. In an artwork, the golden angle means the 111.24˚ angle composed by the key elements. The ratio between the golden angle and the sum of angles of a triangle, 180˚ or a straight line to be also considered as 180 ˚, is 0.618 (111.24 ˚ / 180 ˚), which equals to the golden ratio.

Italy embraced the summit of the Renaissance in the last quarter of the 15^th century. Escaped from the darkness of the medieval period, tremendous changes occurred on the continent of Europe in various aspects ---- politics, religion, economy, ideological trend, culture and art to name a few. In the 15^th century, The Florentine School became the major art trend in Italy. Developed from this general background, during the time of the late 15^th century to the early 16^th century, Italy turned into a galaxy of art talents. The greatest three artists of the Renaissance ---- Leonardo (1452 – 1519), Michelangelo (1475 – 1564) and Raphael (1483 – 1520) were born in this golden age. Their influence widely spread over the Europe; new schools and creative styles generated after them. Among the great three, Leonardo was the only one who applied the golden ratio to paintings precisely. He possessed thorough theoretical studies on the golden ratio, at least the line segments of the golden ratio, which had a close relationship with his mathematics, mechanics and anatomy backgrounds. Although Leonardo did not written record his studies on the golden angle, his application of the golden angle can be found hidden in his artworks.

The styles of figures of the Dark background The Gleaners also can be approved by Forbes' collections (Julla Cartwright “The Drawings of Jean- François Millet in The Collection of Mr. James Staats Forbes”，《The Burlington Magazine》， Volume V – April to September，1904. P47-67，118-159.

讓-法蘭斯瓦·米勒 (尚-弗朗索瓦·米勒)(Jean François Millet)是十九世紀法國寫實主義的田園畫大師。他深深地熱愛那一片黃土地，以農民生活的繪畫創作聞名世界「火星雲美術館」介紹館藏的米勒與米勒同時代的風景畫大師胡梭、柯洛和查克等人的油畫、素描和版畫17幅。其中暗背景的《拾穗》是法國奧塞美術館同名畫《拾穗》的早期本。米勒和巴比松畫派的畫作，逐步呈現農民純樸、堅韌的性格，透過米勒人性化的詮釋，昇華為平凡的高貴與莊重。同時反應著當時米勒周圍藝術創作的氛圍，一方面也顯示著自米勒以降，藝術家對現代化導致農村沒落的焦慮，使得農民生活為主題的藝術創作，從米勒對農民草根性的掌握，逐漸轉化為美化農民生活的潮流。巴比松畫派亦是印象派的先驅。距離楓丹白露公園不遠的巴比松小鎮位於法國巴黎南郊，盧梭從巴黎遷居到了這裡，緊接著柯羅、米勒等大批畫家都來到這裡。在米勒的存世作品中，僅以「拾穗」為題材的就至少有十余幅。我們現在所看到的關於「拾穗」的文章，大多是根據成名作《拾穗》，從米勒的個人背景和時代背景以及米勒的藝術影響入手分析。本文則試圖將分析的重點集中在「拾穗」本身的調整和演化的過程上。在米勒各個版本的「拾穗」中，構圖和色調都發生過重大的變化。構圖的變化，改變了主題的性質。色調的變化，改變了主題的氣氛。《拾穗》中的主人公，特別是最右邊女子的形態變化，更是成功的關鍵。符合黃金分割原理的女子形體，塑造了勞動者之美。不符合黃金分割原理的女子形體，則表達了勞動者之艱辛。這正是米勒的「拾穗」之路。