Category Archives: Take Five

Giotto di Bondone, Crucifixion, 1305-6, fresco, Arena Chapel, Padua, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Take Five: Intro to the Intro

 Whenever I teach the Introduction to the Visual Arts (or Art History 101), I always begin by making one point very clear: art does not exist in a vacuum. We can always learn something about the artist or the culture … Continue reading →

Jeff Koons, Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988, ceramic, 42” x 70½” x 32½”, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Photo by artgrad, Flickr.

Take Five: Why Bother with Art History?

Last month, philosopher Alva Noë wrote an interesting article about art and neuroscience that the New York Times published in its Opinionator section.  In the article, he took issue with the assumptions and methods of a field called “neuroaesthetics,” which … Continue reading →

Norman Rockwell, OURS… to fight for Freedom from Want, 1942, color lithograph, covered by fair use laws via Wikimedia Commons.

Take Five: Norman Rockwell, Art, and Illustration

This is the best-known image of Thanksgiving. Norman Rockwell, the painter and illustrator who created cover art for the Saturday Evening Post for forty years, painted this as part of a series entitled  Four Freedoms that promoted war bonds during … Continue reading →

Sculptures from the east pediment of the Parthenon, c. 438-432 B.C.E., marble, over life-size, The British Museum, photo by Andrew Dunn under a Creative Commons Attribution license via Wikimedia Commons.

Take Five: The Parthenon Marbles

The recent news about the economic and political crisis in Greece brings to mind the controversy surrounding the Parthenon Marbles. The Parthenon Marbles are the classical Greek sculptures by Pheidias and his workshop that originally were part of the Parthenon … Continue reading →

Part of the Isaiah Scroll, The Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Uploaded by Daniel Baranek, via Wikimedia Commons.

Take Five: Google and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Even though this is more of historical rather than art historical interest, it certainly is worth mentioning here. Google has put the Dead Sea Scrolls online for everyone to view. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest copies of the … Continue reading →

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, 37 ⅞” x 63”, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Take Five: Art to Make Your Eyes Dilate

It appears that deep down, we humans are a sentimental lot. The Daily Mail Online published news of a study by Professor Semir Zeki, chair in neuroaesthetics at University College London, that indicates that looking at paintings by John Constable, … Continue reading →