Sebastian Rothwyn
Art 11
Professor John Coppola
May 14, 2011

Panther Seizing a Stag

Antoine-Louis Barye was born in Paris on September 24, 1796 and died at the age of 80 years old on June 25, 1875 back in his hometown. He was a French sculptor most famous for sculpting animals, my favorite subject matter.

Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period. Goldsmithing was his father’s trade. He was apprenticed to the military equipment engraver, Fourier at age 13. He even worked for Napoleon’s goldsmith, Martin-Guillaume Biennais, learning every facet of metalwork from casting to engraving. Afterwards he studied under sculptor Francois-Joseph Bosio, for a year, then painter Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, and was later admitted to the École des Beaux Arts in 1818. While working for Fauconnier, the goldsmith, he discovered his partiality for animals from watching them in the Jardin des Plantes, making vigorous studies of them in pencil, and then modeling them in sculpture on a large or small scale.

After numerous successful sculptures he modeled the Panther Seizing a Stag, which embodied the “instinct over reason” found in animal combat, evoked by the unrestrained violence of the natural predator-prey relationship. This bronze is found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, NY in a hall devoted entirely to nineteenth century paintings and sculpture. There are several pieces by Barye but this piece struck me the most.

This sculpture is impressive to me from a personal fascination and from an artistic appreciation. One can feel the sheer force of the panther sinking its teeth into the neck of the stag just by looking at it. The muscles of the panther used to pull the stag to the ground, in its shoulders and torso are most pronounced. The posture of the panther is almost alive and moving. The stag also appears to be moving, falling, under the pressure exerted by the panther. One can feel its desperate attempt to resist and pull away, and in this act, the near futility of it.

Barye was made Professor of Drawings at the Museum of Natural History in 1854, and was elected to the Académie des beaux-arts in 1868. No new works were produced by Barye after 1869.

Antoine-Louis Barye lived through three republics, two empires and two revolutions and, the ultimate test of the nineteenth century for any French citizen: the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War. This life of violence and abandonment of reason parallels Barye’s work, which he used to reflect the instincts of the “animals” of his time.

He blended the sense of motion with the sense of impact to capture the most striking moments of violence from an illustrative point of view more so than a decorative one.

Barye spent five years at the Ecole, Barye and distinguished himself with honors in 1819, 1820 and 1823. Here he developed his passion for animal sculpture. He won an honorable mention at the Ecole for the engraved medallion of Milo of Croton Devoured by a Lion. Although most saw this as a classic subject of a Greek athlete, most of his detail could be found in the lion itself.

He was so fascinated by animals that he created little animal figurines while goldsmithing for Jacques Henri Fauconnie to help meet his expenses during the 1820s.

He studied zoology and natural history to better understand the animal kingdom. He read a lot of Comte de Lacépède, the natural scientist who headed the reptiles and fish section of the Jardin. Additionally, the works of Georges Cuvier, who helped establish paleontology and comparative anatomy as independent fields of study were also great sources of information and inspiration.

To explore form and function Barye attended anatomy classes taught by Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, the chairman of the zoology department at the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle. These studies helped Barye understand the animals he chose for his subject matter very well.

Nature’s pattern of survival, the circle of life, and the violent instinct of the animal kingdom were the items Barye combined to produce several pieces including Panther Seizing a Stag. Critics did not take to his "animalier" work, seeing it as more decorative than illustrative, so when the Salon jury eventually rejected several of his pieces, he decided to pursue his career outside the Salon.

Barye established his own company, Barye & Cie, in partnership with Emile Martin, in 1845 to finance the casting of his work and provide a venue for sales and commissions. Out of necessity, Barye was one of the first independent artists to promote his work in the private sector. Although it was plagued with debt and he lost his casts to foreclosure, he was able to recover them ten years later.

He continued to focus on animal sculpture and eventually wealthy Americans began to develop art collections of whom Barye found greatly interested buyers.

In 1870, he moved to Cherbourg, in an attempt to escape the horrors of the Franco-Prussian War, which took its toll on a man in his seventies. The following year, at the end of the War, he moved back home and five years later, he died.

Sebastian Rothwyn
Professor John Coppola
Art 11
April 09, 2011

Giotto and Duccio

Despite the heavy Christian themes of Western European art in the thirteenth century, the late thirteenth century saw both subtle and major influences from Roman antiquity in many of the arts, including writing and fine art. The fourteenth century saw the development of the humanist movement in Italy. Both of these happenings at the turn of the century found many artists developing the new style to become known as the Renaissance.

Giotto di Bondone was born in the late thirteenth century around 1267. His birthplace, in the Mugello Valley near Florence in Italy is regarded as the center of the new Renaissance culture. In addition to geographic serendipity, several writers that are important to art history have commented on Giotto’s influence on the period through his art. Boccaccio and Petrarch made remarks about Giotto’s work elevating the culture from dark times of the Middle Ages.

Sebastian Rothwyn
Art 11
Professor John Coppola
March 12, 2011                                                                                        

Pantheon in the Library

The Pantheon located in Rome, Italy in the 9th region or "Regione IX Circus Flaminius" was originally commissioned by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, son-in-law of the first emperor of Rome, Emperor Augustus, as a temple to all of the gods of Ancient Rome. However, because of the periodic destruction and damage it endured for almost 100 years, it was rebuilt in 126 C.E. by Emperor Hadrian. This is the form of the structure that now stands.

The majority of the structure is circular. It has incredibly tall granite Corinthian columns at the entrance, or portico, underneath a triangular-styled top. Inside is a rotunda, covered by a dome in the center of which is an oculus which provides the second only natural source of light to the rotunda; the other being the entrance.

It is significant because its dome is still the world’s largest unreinforced dome made of concrete and has endured for almost two thousand years. It is also significant because of its conversion into a church with the addition of high altars and apses commissioned by Pope Clement XI in the early eighteenth century. Several works of art were added to the building to provide for a more Christian appeal. To this day it is still used for its original purpose of worship, except that the gods have changed.

On the Bronx Community College campus, the Gould Memorial Library resembles the architecture of the Pantheon in its present form, in a strong way. It has incredibly tall arches at the portico as well, in the Corinthian style, but the addition of stained glass windows echoes style of a Christian movement similar to Catholic churches.

It is named after Helen Gould Miller, a prime donor for the construction of the library. The interior has a dome with relief that resembles the relief in the dome of the original Pantheon. There is an oculus in the roof of the dome which also lets in light. Inside the rotunda in the upper gallery are female figures, considered Greek Muses, statues holding scrolls and other educational tools. This may be significant because Helen Gould Miller and 47 other women attended the N.Y.U. Law School in April 1895 in a law program separate from that for male students. It is almost as if they are inspiring the young minds who walk through the building.

The Gould Memorial Library is also significant because of the large amount of detail that went into its creation and the fact that it has been given landmark status. Additionally it is surrounded by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, a series of statues of great Americans who made significant contributions in areas of learning and American progress.

Sebastian Rothwyn
Art 11
Professor John Coppola
March 12, 2011

Philip the Arab

The Emperor Marcus Julius Phillippus, or Philip I, was born in the Huaran region in the same location as Shahba in Arabia, as a Roman citizen. The portrait commonly associated with the emperor, was found in 1778. Consequently, it is referred to as the portrait of Philip the Arab, as a result of his Syrian heritage. He had the unique privilege of presiding over the Roman Empire’s one thousandth anniversary, since its founding.

The facial expression of the sculpture is best described by the period in which it was made known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Although the artist is unknown, he or she has captured what is believed to be the most profound expression of the face of the emperor: summing up his rise to power, financial mistakes which caused the empire a great deal of problems and his murderous activities, all in this facial expression and tightly wound toga. The artist used a realistic technique; however, the clothing lacks texture and there are no historical records to determine whether this was accurately smooth.

The style is considered the Caracallan style, named after the emperor Caracalla, because that emperor was the first main figure to utilize the military style showcasing close-cropped hair, stubble beard and a complicated but menacing expression. This was a deviation from the previous styles where flowing and attractively styled hair and clean faces were sculpted.

The composition appears as homage to the militaristic value of the emperor, more than his statehood. My eyes were drawn to the large wrap of the toga as his face’s very intense expression rises out of his shoulders. A lot of time can be spent on his face searching it for many meanings but there is no singular expression. Emotions such as pride, indifference, fear and disgust, among others, can be found. The entire body sits atop a shortened Ionic column.

There is no concrete information as to how the work was regarded in the past. After it was allegedly excavated in Porcigliano, Italy, it was displayed in Musei Vaticani, Braccio Nuovo in Rome, Italy about fifty years later because of the significance of Philip the Arab as a friend to Christianity. Although Philip the Arab was interested in and sympathetic to Christians, he was not regarded as Christian because of his secular practices in recorded history.