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Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

Rembrandt was an excellent painter, printmaker and teacher. He is considered one of the most influencia artists of the Dutch Baroque period. He completed over 400 paintings, more than a 1000 drawings and nearly 300 engravings. He was born in Leiden, Holland during a great expansion of the wealthy mercantile class. Rembrant is probably known mostly for his portraits, but during his time he painted landscapes, still life and did prints.

The aim of this presentation however is to look closely at one of Rembrandt’s masterpieces „The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.“The painting was made in 1632 in Holland, when Rembrandt was 26. The event pictured is an anatomy lesson that took place on the 31st of January the same year. This painting is one of Rembrandt’s most well-known group portraits. He was commissioned for the piece by the Amsterdam’s Surgeon’s Guild and most of the doctors present in actuality paid him comissions to be included on the final piece. However the piece itself is a work of fiction due to the fact it was more common for an anatomy doctor to start with the opening of the chest. As is common with a lot of earlier Rembrandt works, its highly rich in detail and while at a glance nothing visually interesting is taking place, the truth is quite the opposite.

The most obvious vocal point in the image is the good doctor himself. Tulp was the official City Antomist,a praelector, (a professor) who has permitted one public dissection a year. These lessons him and other anatomists held were considered social events and took place in theaters, with students, colleagues and other people watching. They all would have to pay a fee to enter. Dr. Tulp is the sole character who has the luxury of wearing a hat, thus making him the most out standing character. The light as indicated by the red lines points toward him in a cone-like shape thus leading the eye of the viewer. The darkness of his robe and that of his colleagues creates another semi-conical effect that leads to his character as indicated by the green lines. With the faded yellow lines I have indicated that the character is placed nearly at a rule of thirds cross thus again strengthening the importance of him. Arguably the open book is facing the good doctor as well along with some of the other people looking at the doctor indicated by the blue lines.

The next point of interest is to me, the cadaver. Due to the law at the time, the anatomists had to use corpses of the criminally condemned and executed. The man lying on the table was a thief recently executed named Adriaen Adriaenszoon. He met his ill fate by being convicted of armed robbery and was hung to death. The cadaver was fresh as it was procured on the day of the execution. The face of the dead man is partially shaded which suggests the concept of umbra mortis or the fact that the shadow of death had started taking over the deceased which Rembrandt used often. The head of the body is on another rule of thirds cross which implies its importance and draws the attention of the viewer. Thus the two most important characters, the doctor and the patient or victim, are on a diagonal line through the painting as indicated by the blue line. Another device used by Rembrandt to draw the attention to the cadaver is the use of bright tones as light on his skin and the loincloth as indicated by the red lines. He is the brightest character on an otherwise quite dark painting. This is reminiscent of chiaroscuro technique, or the balance of light and dark being used, a technique used since the Renaissance. A techinque that Rembrandt used on his other paintings as well. To me it seems odd that the corpse is very highlited, while being the most gruesome object on the painting.

Other noteable details are the faces of the colleagues around the doctor with each their own emotion, some staring at the viewer, one glancing at the book and so on. Every face seems to have a story and emotion of its own behind it. Another is the book on the bottom right corner.The book was most likely Andreas Vesalius’s „De humani corporis fabrica“ or Fabric of the Human Body published in 1543) an anatomy book of the time. Additonally Rembrandt was clever at writing his signature off as a minor detail in the background. One of them being a scroll on the far side of the room with the text signature feeling like a part of the image. The other one is the R shaped naval of the cadaver. The architetural style used seems to be of a neoclassical style.

To me the painting didn’t at first strike a lot of emotion, but as I researched it, it became more and more interesting. While to me not being visually striking or interesting, the details and signs were fun to find and made me appreciate the painting that much more.

Is realism great for vidya games?

When looking at video games, it’s hard to look past its short but vivid history. Realistic video games were as real a dream for developers as the accurate depiction of subject matter was for artists throught time. Different periods in art history show a same struggle albeit slower to reach realistic perfection. The hunt for life-like graphics as we know is still ongoing. As early artists attempted to find their way they met several limitations, mostly due to them not understanding principles of art as we know today. The ideas of perspective, porportion and depth were unknown to them. Starting with basic scripture which was loosely illustrated here and there, yet delivered a clear message. At the time and in the future, the subject matter was unchangingly religion and royalty. Similarities between early video games are uncanny. Text based games were produced due to the limitations of the technology used. As artists over time learned new ways and techniques, to hone their abilities and overcome these issues their paintings improved. The process then took hundreds of years until reaching it’s pinnacle. A parallel can be drawn with the evolution of video games. Moving from text based games to simple pixel based 8 bit imagery to early mock-3d environments to basic modeling and on to more and more realistic visuals all due to the advancment of technology and software. Video games are still evolving today alongside our technical capabilities.

However throught all this history, the struggle for realistic and life-like designs there was another factor. Art did not just came to be - it took ideas, thought and emotions to portray scenes never imagined before. Non-representational art without even being acknowledge as an art movement then has been arguably there from the roots. All the characters, stories and ideas pictured were arguably never of real things. Angels, demons, giants and sea monsters are conjured from the imagination. Games did and still do try to make you believe the happenings are real. Titles strive for reality but with it come emotions and the untouchable. The surrealists and abstract expressionists believe strongly in creation from within the mind and of that which lied underneath. Without those subconsious pushes arguably none of it would have never come to fruition. Thus I believe that representational art has always walked hand-in-hand with the ideaologies and processes of non-representational art – like two sides of the same medallion.

http://www.cs.uu.nl/docs/vakken/b2go/literature/history_of_games.pdf

Violence is a part of the human nature and wars have been fought since the dawn of man. As we live in a time where conflict does not directly influence the Western world a medium has arisen to satisfy our need for violence. Games. Realism plays a large role in portraying virtual violence. From humble beginnings with games like Death Race (1976),Mortal Kombat (1992) and Mike Tyson’s Punc-Out (1987) to modern games like Manhunt(2003), Hatred(2015) and Medal of Honor(2010) we are facing a constant influx of violent video games. Arguably almost all video games have violent elment to it, wether is physical, mental, racial or sexual. An article in psychology today says that violent video games discourage players from exercising self-control, have violent lashes more likely and are more prone to cheating as result of game systems that promote violence by rewarding it with points, money or other means. This portrayl of designed violence bends the fabric of reality for underdeveloped minds, so a rating system has been put to place. Unfortunately it’s not always enforced. However the need for violence itself drives the industry and forces its hand to design ever more realistic and true to life video games. Violence with all its realities is arguably one of the core design elements amongst games. Sometimes it’s masked with the concept of morality and good versus evil, other times it’s just violence for violences’ sake. As conflict drives innovation in the real world it also drives the industry of video games.

(https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/get-psyched/201401/violent-video-games-decrease-self-control)

Like art, almost every game desires to tell a story. Sometimes these stories are linear and other times players are left on their own means to forge theirs. When we read a book our mind does the work for us as we imagine the worlds written down. Games however are interactive visually, physcially and acoustically. As our technological capabilities have increased worlds can be created where players have an impact so stories do not feel distant or bland. Characters, environments and dialogue are more and more life-like. Developers want their players to be invested in games emotionally, to feel everything around them. In earlier titles like Max Payne (2001) the protagonists face had little emotion, but we felt his pain through dialouge. Now we have full animated increasingly more realistic faces, that move, react and portray emotions much like we do like in The Last of Us (2013). Players trust these characters, they fall in love, they care for them, they hate them, they feel betrayed by them – a full range of emotions. Much like the color-field paintings of Rothko and others, developers use color palettes to portray these feelings. Environments that are meant to characterize fear and tension often use very dark or even black colors with glimpses of light like in Dark Souls (2011). On the other hand where hope is certain or the mood is happy the colors become vastly warmer and brighter alongside a more casual game play like Candy Crush (2011). For cold environments its blues and grays and so on. Much as being able to identify our enviroments by visual elements via represenational art, the theories of non-representational artists are all used to make the world believable. Two sides of the same medallion.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-rothko-mark.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/12/future-of-video-gaming-visuals-nvidia-rendering

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract expressionism is a post World-War 2 art movement originating from New York. It was an art style that put New York as the center of the Western artworld dethroning Paris. It’s a predecessor to surrealism, with it focusing on spontaneiety, auotmation and subconscious painting. The artists revisited ideas from Ernst, Masson and others. AE is an art movement that is hard to pin down, there is no strict stylistical rules, some of the artist even deny being tied to the movement (like Rothko). It’s intent was to be expressive and emotional while retaining properties of abstract shapes and figures. The most prominent groups that emerged were action painters, such as Pollock and de Kooning and colour field painters like Rothko, Newman and Still. The action painters focused on placing their inner impulses on the canvas while colour field painters were interested deeply in religon and myth and created simple compositions intended to produce a contemplative or meditational response in the viewer. en.wikpedia.org/wiki/abstract_expressionism

tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-expressionism

Robert Motherwell was an American painter, printmaker and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School. He was the one to coin that phrase. He spend a lot of time with the Parisian surrealists and they proved to be very influential to his artistic process. Motherwell set up the Dedalus Foundation to educate the public in understanding modern art and modernism through research, education, publications and various exhibitions in the field.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Motherwell

I looked at the visual similarities between Motherwell’s work and some games. The Total War series have always had shadowy figures riding or marching in the main menu screens similar to the middle image in the top “Three poems 47.” Gears of War logo obviously is influenced by the splittery-splattery imagery of inking, the colours also were similar to the first image “Three Poems 21.” Finally “Lad” an iOS puzzle game released in 2012 striking a visual similarity between the black and white ink work and also Limbo. Twisted metal, originally released in 1995 with its latest release in 2012 is a vehicular combat game series that in its concept is a demolition derby with the use of ballistic weapons. It comes with the cookie fun of Whacky Races mixed with all the sick imagery of the Saw franchise. The aim is to engage in combat with other drivers, with pickups and upgrades and finally ending up the last driver alive. The Abstract Expressionism in it shows mainly in cut scenes. The main character Sweetooth was built around the premise of a psychopathic clown turned murderer/driver. He also drives an ice cream truck. Since AE is about emotions, I believe that the cut scenes display his mental state quite well seeing through his eyes the world being very twisted, exaggerated in colours and forms and yes his head is on fire. Probably are result of the anger. The game does provoke emotions like fear, disgust, unease and at the same time massive fun.

monochromagame.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/182/

AE being about emotion I looked into two other games that have affected a lot of people emotionally. The first being The Last of Us that has the player worry about the fate of the main characters – an emotional rollercoaster of relief and constant dread. From some of the comments I read I quote “Because of The Last of Us, I feel ready to be a father,” “the thought of them possibly being killed off terrified me which kept me totally engrossed throughout the entire 5 playthroughs I have done.” Another one is definitely, my favourite, Dark Souls. It has emotional value on different levels, within the game and out of it, the story alone is mystical and enthralling, but it’s the gameplay that brings out the emotional reactions to the happenings.

gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/what-game-has-had-the-most-impact-on-you-emotional-31926014/

In conclusion it could be said that abstract expressionism is confusing and often misunderstood, but throughout thinking of it and researching it a bit more I personally have slowly understood its value. While it may be visually strange and outlandish, the emotions it conveys is the true talent of the artist. AE in itself to me is the reason behind and the result of us trying to put our feelings into word and picture.

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Observations on Art Deco

Art Deco is an art style that rose to prominence from as early as the 1920s until waning in the 1940s after WW2. It’s a mixture of different ideas and combines traditional craft with the machine age. It’s most apparent qualities are rich colors, bold geometry and fancy ornamentation. Art deco is different from it’s predecessor art nouveau because it embraces technology instead of nature. It’s a strong modern style depicting a possible future. Art deco represents luxury, glamour, exuberance and faith in social and technological progress. One of the artists at the time was Ethel Hays a cartoonist dedicated to flapper-culture in the 1920s and 1930s. After that period she became one of America’s most successful children’s book illustrators. She is also considered on of the most successful female cartoonists of the time. Trina Robbins a comics historian had this to say about her “without a doubt the most brilliant of the women cartoonists influenced by Neil Brinkley.” One of the games that instantly reminded me of Art Deco is Transport Tycoon originally released in 1994 on the PC. The game begins in the 30s and is centred around building a transportation empire. Skyscrapers, bullet trains and luxury cruisers are common in that game and they represent the Art Deco era of mechanical growth quite well. It’s also a play on the American dream of starting with nothing and becoming a great business leader. Another that pops to mind is “The Ship” released in 2006 for PC, a game that takes place on a luxurious cruiser in the 1920s. The aim of the game is to murder the target given and is mostly enjoyed online. There is a single player story as well. The games art style is very modern for the era and all of the characters are well represented in their attire and leisure practices. Additionally there is Mafia and Mafia 2. Mafia is probably the flagship for Art Deco along with Bioshock, but unlike the latter it takes place in a non-fictional America. Not only is the architecture, attire, automobiles and advertising in the Art Deco style and era, the gameplay itself focuses on the behind the scenes activities of the criminal underworld during that time. Things like prohibition, racketeering and tax evasion are commonplace. The game has a great soundtrack featuring artists like The Chordettes, Duke Ellington, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Dean Martin and many many more. The game itself is critically acclaimed and has reached mixed scores such as 8.5 on Gamespot, 3.5/5 on Metacritic and 7/10 on IGN.com. In conclusion it can be said that art deco like art nouveau was a complete art style encompassing all walks of life. It is still appreciated and practiced today, with games like Fallout and Bioshock noticeably not letting it sink into memory.

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Is surrealism real? Observations on the obverse.

Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 20s and is mostly known for it’s art, but also literature. Surrealists aimed to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.” They painted unsettling and illogical scenes with very high precision. It had it’s roots in dada and aimed to shock the viewer. From art the movement spread quickly around the world to film, music, languages and political thought that still has influence today. One of the artists at the time was Escher. Maurits Cornelis Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. He drew a lot of inspiration from nature and even more so from mathematics. Escher explored topics like infinity, reflection, symmetry and perspective to name a few. The artwork became popular among both scientists and popular culture. Escher actually never made contact with the surrealisitc movement. Looking at his art I instantly recognized a few games. One of them being Monument Valley. Monument valley is more art then a game, but the directors aim was to balance approachable gameplay with surrealist designs. It turned out great and feels really good. It tackles several different emotions and plays a very mesmerising soundtrack.

One other game reminded me of Escher. Back to bed is a short surrealistic puzzle game with simple mechanics and very little depth, but it’s gameplay is still fun for puzzle game enthusiasts and it’s a masterpiece of art, clearly inspired by Dali’s “Dream Sequence,” but also shows similarities with Escher’s work.

Another game that is strongly influenced by surrealism is definitely Psychonauts, released in 2005. It was directed by Tim Schafer, who made other games like Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend and The Monkey island franchise. Pyschonauts has a huge fan base around it who loves the game and it’s characters. The protagonist is Raz a young gifted boy who has got psychic abilities. He gets trained to become a Psychonaut, a feared spy. Gameplay wise it’s a traditional 3D platformer with amazing surrealistic artwork behind it. The game received much praise and good reviews such as “A breath of fresh air that has restored faith in platforming adventure titles. Within the first three minutes of gameplay, one realizes just how funnily bizarre this title is.” by GamerFeed. In conclusion it can be said that video games and surrealism do match because as the artists then wanted to explain the unknown world of the subconscious, games today want to bring the same experience to players. Personally, I don’t really care for surrealism, but I see it has a strong grip on some elements in the video game industry. Fortunately for those who like wacky games and artistic overreach then surrealism is definitely a good choice.

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Art Nouveau Observations

When we talk about Art Nouveau we can’t just pin it down as just an art style. It was a way of design everything – from architecture to jewellery. Becoming well known and popular during the end of the 19th century and ending quickly in the 1910-s. Art Nouveau in it’s appearance was naturalistic, with curves resembling natures forms. The term used then was “whiplash” –“a sudden violent curve generated by the crack of a whip” – by Hermann Obrist. It entailed motifs formed by dynamic, wave-like motions. In architecture the windows, arches and doorways became plant-like in appearance. Art Nouveau like most art styles pushed towards harmonizing it’s forms. They used all kinds of ideas from other revival styles before them. Designers then modernised some of the elements from Rococo, such as flame and shell textures and they also started using more and more organic forms for inspiration like seaweed, grasses and insects. Video games like “The Last Express” and “Botanicula” use these same motifs, deriving their inspiration from Art Nouveau.

One of the more direct influences to Final Fantasy, was Art Nouveau. Especially in the concept artworks of Yoshitaku Amano. He drew a lot of his inspirations from Art Nouveau, as pictured. With the warrior of light, not only is the composition similar to Le Divan Japonais, but the facial expression and the pose of the character are very similar. Another notable similarity is between Tidus and Yuna and Le Schleiertänzerin by Raoul Larche. Both of them have akin features that define the characters, details in the curvature of the fabric and the decorations. These influences still echo throughout the Final Fantasy series.

As Art Nouveau was a way to design everything it encompassed every walk of life. There was furniture, decorations, utensils, lighting and the fine arts of course. This could be said about the gaming industry. It is not just a picture on the screen, it’s a total “art style.” Gaming being a form art holding within innumerable forms of art. As with the former, there is a plethora of elements available for fans starting from bed covers to clothes, from figurines to posters and so on. So video-games aren’t just a hobby, for a lot of people – it’s a lifestyle just like Art Nouveau was.

Information used en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_NouveauInformation about Final Fantasy youtu.be/zIkqHpdZH50 , by Aaron Ly

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Impressionism impressions

” Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.” - en.wikipedia.org Some of the impressionists used very free-flowing brush strokes which gives an impression of speed or even dirtyness. Speed however is quite important nowadays in the concept art world and gaming industry in general, so artists have adapted digital techniques that mimic the texture of brushes and still convey a believable image. The impressionists also often used small brush strokes to paint the image focusing often on how the subject was illuminated. 8-bit video games and pixel art uses small pixels, with every pixel being placed with high accuracy to compile a believable image. Often only one dot is enough to represent the shadow or highlight of the object. It’s strange how the human mind reacts to impressionism paintings and pixel art. We can tell that it’s weird and almost abstract but from its chaos comes beautiful imagery. Our mind uses the little date available to create those images. As children we often did not need more then a few pixels on the screen to believe in it all. Immersion was never about the graphics and I think that has not changed. Snow, a difficult thing to render, the shadows and light of it hard to master - however the impressionists managed it very well perhaps changing our understanding of it forever. The impressionists were known for not using black in their shadows - they used different colours to build it up to make it look more natural and less clinical. Their focus on accurate lighting is uncanny and their paintings look incredibly lifelike. This has now been transferred to games today - albeit the work is rather done by the engine itself or various particle effects. Impressionism was very controversial at it’s time, they suffered a lot of scrutiny from their peers and the public often thought of the artists as a joke. Subject matter had changed. From academia to simple and ordinary life. Plain people in their natural environments capturing the essence of life. Some depicted violence and adultery - the real truth in society. They were mostly rejected by the artistic community but managed to push through and ended having an impact on the world around them. The same could be said about many games that attempt to push the limits of what is acceptable. The most well known for its controversy is probably GTA with it’s whole series, notably starting from GTA III. A more recent example is Hatred, receiving an unimaginable mountain of criticism before it’s release and post. I quote : “ It has been dubbed the 'sickest ever' video game because players only have one aim - to massacre as many people as possible in a 'genocide crusade.'Now, Killing-spree simulator, 'Hatred', has been given an adults only (AO) rating from ESRB, the video game ratings board in the US and Canada.Such a high rating is rare in the gaming industry, with 'M for Mature' far more common, and the only other game to receive an AO rating for violence is 'Manhunt 2'. - from the dailymail.co.uk

Sources: Paraphrasing - arts.jadephoenix.com/tag/impressionism/

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Romanticism Observations

A time of great change in Europe. The time of industrial revolution in England, several bloody revolutions in France and a time for science and culture across the world. Took place around in the early til mid 19th century. It had a strong effect on politics with liberalism and radicalism but also paved the way for nationalism in future. It was an era when emotion was emphasized, feelings nurtured and a time for the endless quest of depicting the sublime. The art of the time went full ahead towards photo-realism (however not limited to photo-realism) but the subject matter had changed to depicting heroes of legend and awe inspiring nature. Long forgotten knights and gloomy forests were resurrected along with gothic architecture. Paintings of fantastic landscapes and machinery remind us of concept art today, limitless fantasy and ever so often, the truly sublime. It was art and writing of the time, that holds a strong grip on the modern gaming industry. Whom among us has never played a game where they portray a hero? A knight? So many games nowadays still use the same model - from humble beginnings to a hero that rescues the distressed. Caspar David Friedrich was a german artist, considered the best of the era. His work often depicted the contemplations of nature and hidden symbolism. He tried to convey an emotional response to the natural world. In which I believe he succeeded. Looking into the work of C.D.Friedrich I can’t but see the similarities between Bloodborne and his work and naturally the storytelling of the time reflects on the souls series as a whole. The artists even used a similar colour palette to his. The famous “Wanderer above the sea of fog” painting has been a strong influence to modern poster design and game concept work. The “Me against the world” feeling has been recycled a lot. Despite his genius unfortunately his fame declined steadily over his last fifteen years of his life. He had lost the strength in his hand due to a stroke yet still managed to paint “Seashore by Moonlight”. He finally died in Dresden in 1840.

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The Dutch Golden Age Observations

Rembrandt, a brilliant painter and his later work especially strikes a resemblance with modern day practices of speedpainting and concept work. The use of bold strokes, seemingly dirty and muddy when zoomed in. In actuality they build a strong image with character and a clear statement. We can say the portraits are portraits and we can make out the people on them. That work reminds one of Frank Victoria, a concept artist and painter for the film industry. He worked on various titles like The Hobbit and Thor: The Dark World. His paintings convey the same style - bold strokes, but intentional and focusing on the dynamics of the painting. The ever popular maritime painting scene during the Dutch Golden Age is not only a depiction of the era itself but an obvious source of inspiration for the overplayed Assassins Creed series, namely the Black Flag. Highly detailed ships and beautiful seascapes painted then still hold a strong grip on modern maritime concept work. Aside from Black Flag other games like Sea Dogs, Sid Meier’s Pirates and Age of Sail.

However the Dutch Golden Age was not just about ships and waves. Beautiful landscapes and highly detailed portraits were common. Expressive brush strokes and vivid colours depict the artistic boom during peace time. As comparison one can see the similarities in high fantasy artwork and the Wizards of the Coast Magic the Gathering card art. Namely the plains and island land cards. The realistic painting style is conveyed throughout the card game.

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