Died: 13 February 1883; Ca' Vendramin
Calergi, Venice, Italy
Nationality: German
Richard Wagner was a German composer,
theater director and conductor, born on May 22, 1813 and died on February 13,
1883, who is mainly famous for operas (or music dramas).
Wagner's birthplace, at 3, the Brühl, Leipzig
Unlike most opera
composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for his stage works.
Initially, establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein
of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, he revolutionized opera through
the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), in pursuit
of the integration of poetry, visual arts, music, and drama arts. He described
this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner
realized this idea most faithfully in the first half of "Der Ring des
Nibelungen", consisting of four operas.
In particular, his later works are famous
for their complex textures, rich harmonies and orchestration, and the use of “leitmotifs”,
which are musical phrases related to individual characters, places, ideas or
plot elements. His works “Tristan und Isolde” are also described as the work
that marked the beginning of modern music.
Wagner and his second wife Cosima Wagner,
Wagner created the “Bayreuth Festspielhaus",
an opera house that embodied many novel design features. He premiered his
operas “Der Ring des Nibelungen” and “Parsifal” here, and his stage works are continuously
performed at the “Bayreuth Festival” every year, run by his descendants every
year.
The Bayreuth Festspielhaus
His thoughts about the relative contributions of music and drama in opera
changed again, and he reintroduced some of the traditional forms into the last
few stage works, including his opera, "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg".
Until his last year, Wagner's life was
characterized by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty, and repeated
flight from his creditors.
In addition, his controversial writings on music,
drama and politics attracted many opinions expressing antisemitic sentiments.
In addition to composing, Wagner influenced many art fields of the 20th
century, including conducting, philosophy, literature, visual arts and theater.
I published my new book from J Books &
Media and it was launched sale at bookstores in South Korea today.
This is my fifth book for Modigliani, titled
"Dedo, Modi, Modigliani."
For the title of the book, Dedo was the name
when his family and acquaintances called Modigliani in his hometown Livorno,
and Modi was the name that Modigliani was called when he was living in Paris.
This book is a novel written on the basis
of factual data on his life from his birth to death. To give the feeling following
his life, I made my book title using all his names. It is also the first novel I've ever
written, and an entry into the Amazon Book Contest.
This book is Korean version and the English
version of this book is also available on Amazon from following link.
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK) is
currently introducing artworks of Amedeo Modigliani one by one every week.
The 39th work to introduce for this
week is “Man's Head (Portrait of a Poet) (1915)”.
This work is a portrait of an
expressionist style and an oil painting on canvas with the size of 46 x 38.1 cm. Currently,
this work is owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
The model of this work is presumed
to be “José Pacheco”, a Portuguese artist. Modigliani, who often painted several
pieces for the same model, painted another portrait of José Pacheco, too.
Portrait of a Man with Hat (Jose Pacheco )
Pacheco traveled from Lisbon to
Paris in late 1909 (or early 1910) to meet “Amedeo de Souza Cardoso”, a
Portuguese painter and his friend who lived in Paris. At the time, Cardoso moved to an
apartment in the 3 of the Rué du Colonel Combes, leaving his studio in the Cité
Falguière to his friend Pacheco. Cardoso was presumed to have met Modigliani
in the Cité Falguière, and he will host a sculpture exhibition of Modigliani in
1911.
After that, returning to Portugal
in July 1914, Pacheco, along with Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, gave life to
the Portugal's poetic movement. He also became a member of futurist
avant-garde group, who wanted to revolutionize the graphic arts in Portugal through
the magazine "Orpheu", which was founded in March 1915.
The work I introduce today has some
features.
First of all, the whole composition
of this work is tilted to the left.
In general, when Modigliani draws a
model tilted to one side, he balances the whole composition using the background
or various elements in the painting.
In the case of this work, however,
the model's posture as well as the background was tilted to the left, but
Modigliani made no attempt to balance the whole composition. Even he wrote his signature obliquely
on the top right.
Modigliani also painted the left
part of the clothes and background darker than the right part. He also drew the model's left ear larger
and left cheekbone more prominent than the right part, and hair in the left
part more abundant. Using all these things, Modigliani
further emphasized the tilt to the left.
Another feature is that in this work,
unlike the usual Modigliani’s painting style, the technique of “Cloisonnism”that distinguishes models and objects by drawing the outlines of them in black was
used. Cloisonnism is one of the painting
styles of post-impressionist, drawing a dark outline, which can be seen in the
works of post-impressionist painters such as Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin.
Breton Women in the Meadow, Émile Bernard (1888)
The Yellow Christ (Le Christ jaune), Paul Gauguin (1889)
Influenced
by: Peter Paul Rubens, Caravaggio, Titian, etc.
Influenced
on: Carel Fabritius, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo,
Gustave Courbet, Chaim Soutine, Francis Bacon, Ilya Repin, etc.
Rembrandt was a Dutchpainter and
printmaker, and considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of
art and the most important in Dutch art history. Unlike most Dutch masters of
the 17th century, Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of style and subject
matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, historical scenes,
biblical and mythological themes as well as animals.
His contributions to art
came in a period, Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch art, antithetical to the Baroque
style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave
rise to important new genres. Like many artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such
as Jan Vermeer of Delft, Rembrandt was also an avid art collector and dealer.
Vincent
van Gogh wrote, "Rembrandt goes so deep into the mysterious that he says
things for which there are no words in any language. It is with justice that
they call Rembrandt magician."
Today's
lecture is five operas featuring “Fairy Tales/Legends”, which were introduced
in “The 42nd ACJ Music Academy” on April 9, 2016.
1. Die Zauberflöte
(Mozart)
2. Faust
(Gounod)
3. Les contes
d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
4.
Rusalka (Dvořák)
5. Pelléas
et Mélisande (Debussy)
1. Die Zauberflöte (Mozart) The opera “Die Zauberflöte” is a two-act opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The opera was written in the form of a Singspiel that included both singing and spoken dialogue, which was popular at the time. It was also premiered at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Schikaneder's theater, on September 30, 1791, just two months before Mozart's death.
The opera's plot shows a fight between the worlds of light and darkness, which are contrasting each other. The world of darkness that appears first is the world dominated by The Queen of the Night, where magic and witchcraft play in chaos. The world of light, on the contrary, is dominated by the sage “Sarastro”, where wisdom, reason, and nature form a trinity to teach people a happy and modest way of life.
Sarastro attempts to kidnap The Queen of the Night's daughter Pamina into his world and protect her from the queen, and the enraged Queen of the Night tries to take over the innocent prince Tamino to get back her daughter.
At this time, the queen gives the prince a “magic flute” that can calm the wild beasts, as a guard, and Papageno, a bird catcher who will accompany him, a magical bell with an iridescent sound. The queen visits her daughter Pamina in the middle of the night, saying, "If you don't kill Sarastro with your hands, you're not my daughter." And gives her a dagger to kill him, but Pamina falls to Sarastro's rational persuasion and forsakes her mother's world. The Vengeful Queen of the Night is launching an attack to destroy Sarastro's Empire of the Sun and seize power, but eventually the victory returns to the world of light and the queen and the world of darkness perish together.
2. Faust (Gounod)
It is a five-actgrand opera composed by Charles Gounod with a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play “Faust et Marguerite”, loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One.
The main storyline of the opera is a love story of Marguerite, a young maiden, and Faust, who became a young man with a contract with the devil. The old philosopher Faust despairs about gaining wisdom in the book, lamenting the vainness of life, and the moment he attempts to commit suicide with poison, the devil Méphistophélès appears. The devil tells Faust that he can give him everything, and Faust says he wants to be young and love again. In response, the devil proposes to give Faust youth and introduce Marguerite to him in exchange for taking Faust's soul. As soon as he sees the vision of charming Marguerite, Faust immediately contracts with the devil.
Then, Faust approaches Marguerite and says he will protect her, but Marguerite refuses it. Eventually, Méphistophélès helps Faust to get Marguerite's love. A few months later, Marguerite kills her child in an accident because of his brother Valentin's death and Faust, who never returns. Faust and Méphistophélès appear in front of Marguerite, who was imprisoned and became insane. Méphistophélès encourages Faust to decide whether to die with her here or flee. Eventually, Faust falls to hell with Méphistophélès, and Marguerite saves her soul with the help of an angel and ascends to heaven.
3. Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach)
It is a three-act opera with prologue and epilogue composed by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story.
The opera is proceeded in the form that a writer, Hoffmann, is seated at a bar in Berlin, and tells college students the stories of his youth and past lovers.
The first lover Olympia was a doll made by a doctor, who is a physicist and mechanical engineer, but Hoffmann, who thought it was a real woman, loves the doll. He confesses love to Olympia and dances with her, but in the end this love ends by the envy and the jealousy in surroundings.
Antonia, who was his second lover, is a woman who inherited pulmonary tuberculosis with a beautiful voice from her mother who passed away early. She should not sing because of illness, but she sings endlessly with the skillful persuasion of her demon-like doctor and is eventually exhausted and dies.
The third lover is a courtesan, Giulietta, in Venice and if someone wants to sleep with her, he has to sell his soul to the devil. Indulged in Giulietta singing barcarolle "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour", Hoffmann kills a man in a duel to get the key of her room, but Giulietta ridicules him, rides on a gondola and disappears with the devil. The Muse comforts Hoffmann, who was never successful in love, saying “The artist always fails in love, but the experience of that passion helps to create a better works” and the opera ends.
4. Rusalka (Dvořák)
It is a three-act opera composed by Antonín Dvořák. The Czech libretto was written by the poet Jaroslav Kvapil based on the fairy tales of Karel Jaromír Erben and Božena Němcová. A rusalka is a water sprite living in a lake or river from Slavic mythology.
Rusalka, a mermaid living in the river, falls in love with a prince who occasionally comes to the forest for hunting and earnestly prays to the moon in the sky. Like "The Little Mermaid," Rusalka goes to the witch and loses her voice instead of gaining legs.
The prince is fascinated by the cold beauty of Rusalka, but instead of her who is unable to express her mind with words, he loves a princess in a neighboring country who confesses love with fiery passionate words. Then, Rusalka rejects the witch's temptation that “if she kills the prince, she can return to the mermaid again'' and wanders in despair alone.
But after the prince left Rusalka, he has an incurable disease that cannot survive and wants only Rusalka. Rusalka, who realized that only death can end the pain of the prince, returns and kisses him as he wishes, causing the prince to sleep forever, and the god of water sighs with repentance.
5. Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
It is a five-act opera composed by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's famous symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande. This opera, which Debussy rejected the conventional name, “opera” and called it “drama lyrique", is often called "Impressionist Opera."
Prince Golaud, grandson of King Arkel of Allemonde, a fictitious country, take Mélisande, a princess from a distant country whom he met at a spring in the forest, as his wife and to the castle. In the castle, Mélisande becomes acquainted with Golaud's half-brother Pelléas.
Golaud, who is jealous of Pelléas, asks him to leave the castle. Then, Golaud tells Yniold, who is a son with his ex-wife, to watch the two. Before the departure, when Pelléas confesses his love to Mélisande at the spring in the garden, Golaud appears and kills Pelléas. Mélisande, who is seriously wounded, dies, leaving a young baby who was just born.
You
can listen to all the arias selected in this course from following YouTube
link.
1. Der
Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen, Die Zauberflöte (Mozart)
2. Le
veau d’or, Faust (Gounod)
3.
Belle nuit, o nuit d’amour, Les contes d'Hoffmann
(Offenbach)
4. Mesicku
na nebi hlubokem, Rusalka (Dvořák)
5. Quel
est ce bruit?, Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy)
In the meantime, I have worked about
Modigliani, who is my best beloved artist, in various areas such as researches,
lectures, book publication and writing columns introducing Modigliani's works
to South Korea as well as overseas every Monday with the establishment of
Modigliani Institute Korea (MIK).
Another activity I've been conducted with
the activities was publication of Modigliani's articles in overseas art
magazines.
As a result of various activities and
efforts, as my international recognition is increased, I was requested from
some art magazines for writing Modigliani’s articles, and then I published four
Modigliani’s articles so far.
In January, I received an interview request
from the “Art Gallery 5'14” in Slovenia for commemorating the 100th anniversary
of Modigliani's death, and I sent my responses to the interview.
About two months later, I received an email
from the Art Gallery 5'14 that my interview was published on their website, and
I post it to share the joy with you.
On every Thursday, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 4th story for this week is
"The Last Supper" by Italian artist of the Renaissance, Leonardo da
Vinci.
The Last Supper is a painting on
the wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, painted by Italian artist
Leonardo da Vinci. The painting is believed to have
started in 1495 and completed in 1498, and Ludovico Sforza, who was Duke of
Milan and Da Vinci's patron, commissioned Da Vinci as part of a plan to renovate
the church and its monastic buildings.
It is the painting depicting the moment
when Jesus foresaw that one of his twelve apostles would betray him as he has
the last supper with them before he was crucified. Da Vinci brilliantly
portrayed the twelve apostles' different reactions with surprise at this
moment.
This painting is a huge mural
with a size of 180 x 360 inches, and numerous restorations have been made until
the last one in 1999, but only little of the original painting remains today.
The painting as it looked in the 1970s
The room with this painting was
not a dining room when Da Vinci painted, but it is currently used as a dining
room, and the opposite wall, on which this painting is existed, is covered with
a fresco titled "Crucifixion" by Giovanni Donato da Montorfano.
Crucifixion, opposite Leonardo's Last Supper, Giovanni Donato
Da Vinci drew this painting from
1495 to 1498, but he did not continuously work. As a result, there is an
anecdote that a man in the monastery at that time complained about the delay of
the painting to Da Vinci. The main reason why the painting
work was delayed is that it was difficult to find a suitable real face matching
with Judas. It is known that Da Vinci reflected the faces of real people in and
around Milan for the figures in the painting. But the most difficult thing was to
find Judas’ face, and Da Vinci wandered streets and even visited the prisons of
Milan to find the face.
As a result, when the work was
delayed, a man in the monastery complained to Da Vinci, and for excusing it, he
wrote a letter to the head of the monastery as he was struggling to find the
perfect face matching with the wicked Judas, and if he could not find it, he
would use the man's face, who complained about the painting’s delay, as a model
for Judas.
As I said earlier, this painting
reflects the reaction of each apostle when Jesus tells his apostles that one of
them will betray him. Before the 19th century, only Judas, Peter, John, and
Jesus were able to be identified with certainty, but as a document was
discovered in the 19th century, all the apostles could be identified.
The
figures in this painting, except Jesus, form a group of three, and I will organize
them into groups by figures, from left to right in the painting.
1. Bartholomew, James, son of
Alphaeus, and Andrew: All three are surprised at the story of Jesus.
2. Judas Iscariot, Peter, and
John: Judas looks withdrawn as his plan is suddenly revealed. He holds a small
sack, which is presumed to symbolize the silver he received in exchange for
betraying Jesus. Also, Judas is the only person whohas his elbow on the table, and
his head is also the lowest in the painting. Peter is angry and holding a knife
as it foretells his violent reaction in Gethsemane during the arrest of Jesus.
He is also touching John's shoulders, leaning towards him. The youngest
apostle, John, appears to be stunned and he is leaning towards Peter.
3. Jesus: It is the figure in the
middle of the painting.
4. Thomas, James the Greater, and
Philip: Thomas is apparently angry, and the index finger he raised in the air
seems to foretell his distrust of Jesus' Resurrection. James is confused with
his arms raised in the air. Meanwhile, Philip seems to be asking Jesus to
explain the story.
5. Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and
Simon the Zealot: Matthew and Thaddeus are looking at Simon, and they are probably
trying to ask him if he knows the answer to Jesus' story.
Besides Da Vinci, there are many
painters who have drawn last supper, most of which excluded Judas unlike Da
Vinci's paintings, by placing him alone on the opposite side of the table from
the other eleven apostles and Jesus, or placing halos around all the apostles except
Judas.
It is known that two early copies
of The Last Supper exist, presumed to be works by Da Vinci's assistants. The
copies are almost the same size as the original painting, and works that
preserve details well that cannot be seen in the original painting. One of them
is a painting by Giampietrino, currently owned by the Royal Academy of Arts in London,
UK, and the other one, by Cesare da Sesto, at the Church of St. Ambrogio in
Ponte Capriasca, Switzerland.
The Last Supper, Giampietrino
The Last Supper, Cesare da Sesto
This painting is often cited or
referenced in various culture and art sectors, and here are some notable
examples:
An oil on canvas copy painted by Andrea Solari (c. 1520) is on display in
the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of the Tongerlo Abbey in Antwerp, Belgium.
The Last Supper, Andrea Solari
Giacomo Raffaelli, the Roman mosaic
artist, made a life-sized copy, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte, which is in
the Minoritenkirche in Vienna.
The Last Supper, Giacomo Raffaelli
In 1955, Salvador Dalí painted
The Sacrament of the Last Supper, with Jesus portrayed as blond and clean
shaven, pointing the torso upward in the sky with his finger while all the apostles
gathered around the table heads bowed.
The Sacrament of the Last Supper, Salvador Dali
In 1986, Andy Warholwas
commissioned to produce a series of paintings based on the Last Supper, which
was initially exhibited in Milan, which became his last series of paintings before
his death.
An image of a series of The Last Supper, Andy Warhol
In 1988, Susan Dorothea White painted
The First Supper showing 13 women from all regions of the world, and the woman in
the position of Da Vinci’s Jesus figure in this painting was an Australian
aboriginal.
The First Supper, Susan Dorothea White (1988)
Also, the Last Supper was a
subject of many speculations to many people, especially since the publication
of Dan Brown's novel “The Da Vinci Code (2003),” which claimed that the figure
on the right side of Jesus was actually Mary Magdalene, the speculations were more
amplified.
First US edition cover, "The Da Vinci Code", Dan Brown
However, art historians hold that it is just due to the unique characteristic
of Da Vinci, which blurs the distinction of the sexes, and the figure is the
apostle John.
Italian musician Giovanni Maria
Pala suggested that if five lines are drawn across the painting, the positions
of the apostles' hands and loaves of bread on the table can be interpreted as musical
notes. Then reading from right to left as was characteristic of Da Vinci's
writing, they form a musical composition for about 40-second duration.
