Museum of Fine Arts Boston Essay/Reflection
Sol Manuel Garza
Travis Sevilla
Art
5/25/2015
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts:
An Unforgettable Experience
I walk up the marble steps, lined with Chinese ceremonial items and roaring, green lion sculptures, into a rotunda covered with enormous murals depicting greek gods and goddesses. As I reach the top step a I smile because I am among the works of the worlds most famous sculptors and painters from around the world in one of the United States largest art museums, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
It was the second day of my week long trip in Boston, Massachusetts. I visited the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) so that I would be able to write about one interesting art piece, but after we started to walk around I realized that I wouldn’t be able to just write about one art piece. The MFA has an enormous collection of art from Asian, African, European and American cultures. It has 3 floors just dedicated to american art! I saw dozens of interesting exhibits ranging from the Sculptures of ancient Egypt to Jackson Pollocks abstract drizzle paintings. Although each exhibit was fascinating, out of all of them I had 3 favorites. My 3 favorites were by John Singer Sargent, Leonardo DaVinci and Hokusai.
Exploring the MFA was a museum was a fabulous experience because I not only saw the finished works of art but also learned about the artists artistic process. Being able to take a peek into the sketches and rough drafts of their final art pieces, gave me comfort as an artist. Knowing that even Leonardo DaVinci drew countless sketches to get one face right makes me realize that all artists no matter how great or meek, go through a similar artistic and creative process.
The exhibit of John Singer Sargent showed not only his completed murals but also his initial paintings and studies. John Singer Sargent was asked to build murals for the MFA in 1916, just after it’s completion. It took him 9 years to finish the murals for the dome of the rotunda and along the stairway ceiling. His style was classical, using greek mythology to show that the museum was, “the guardian of the arts”. In the explanations of his initial paintings and studies they explain that he had to change the way he made paintings to make them look real from a distance. While he used a similar color scheme in all of his murals: light blue, golden yellows and off whites, he had to rely on thicker lines and bolder shades of color. This was because people at the museum would be looking at the murals from far away. Seeing the work and thought that went into the final murals made me appreciate the art more. Sargent died before the exhibition opened. When the exhibition opened, critics, as well as the public, were in awe of his murals and he was referred to as the Michelangelo of his time.
The exhibit of Leonardo DaVinci focused on his idea of beauty. This exhibit was completely composed of his sketches of people, not the final paintings. Had his final paintings been on display, I would not have known the thinking that went into his work. I learned that Leonardo’s artistic process was influenced by his scientific way of looking at the world, observing and collecting data on the natural world. Leonardo drew young and old, male and female, strange and beautiful. He brought together convincing beauty and naturalism. He wanted to capture how the human body actually looked like. Leonardo believed that recording observations with your own eyes was more important that any established philosophy or religious principle. Leonardo was most interested in the natural world, meaning real people, and the unique features they have. Even his drawings and paintings of angels had some sort of unique facial feature or expression. Leonardo wanted to capture people’s expressions and how their expressions shaped their appearance. Leonardo showed the physical differences between faces, making each one unique. Imperfections are what made his paintings so beautiful. This is exemplified in Leonardo’s sketch, “Head of a Young Woman” which is a study for the angel in the “Virgin of the Rocks” painting. Leonardo passed his ideas about beauty onto his students as can be seen in Giovanni Antoni Boltraffio’s “Head of a youth with ivy wreath”.
The exhibit by Hokusai was my favorite exhibit in the whole museum because I got to see an artist who challenged himself artistically from his early career to his death. Even though all of the paintings in the exhibit were final products, I saw the progression of his work over the course of his life. Hokusai was a pop artist. He drew paintings of popular kabuki plays and famous actors but, even after he had achieved fame, he kept challenging himself as an artist to do greater works. This exhibit showed the progression of his art. At a young age, Hokusai became popular for his woodblock prints depicting kabuki plays and pop culture icons. He did his kabuki play woodblock prints in the early 1800’s. Throughout his career he made thousands of these types of prints. Later in his life, in his 60’s, he decided to do something new. He began working on his collection 36 views of Mount Fuji. He painted his famous “Great Wave” in 1831. I learned that Hokusai used the imported color “Prussian blue”, a cheap and long lasting paint, in his paintings. The shades of color used in these prints were part of the reason they were so popular. After achieving worldwide fame, he made “100 views of Mount Fuji”, said to be some of his finest work. In 1849, he painted his famous waterfall painting “Li Bai Admiring a Waterfall”. Hokusai kept making prints and painting up until his death.
I spent over 5 hours at the Museum of Fine Arts, but as I was leaving I realized that I had only scratched the surface of this vast collection. This museum is a treasure. There are online collections of what museums collections, but that is nothing like going in person. This trip was not only a great experience but it also helped me to learn about new artistic styles and techniques.
Travis Sevilla
Art
5/25/2015
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts:
An Unforgettable Experience
I walk up the marble steps, lined with Chinese ceremonial items and roaring, green lion sculptures, into a rotunda covered with enormous murals depicting greek gods and goddesses. As I reach the top step a I smile because I am among the works of the worlds most famous sculptors and painters from around the world in one of the United States largest art museums, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
It was the second day of my week long trip in Boston, Massachusetts. I visited the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) so that I would be able to write about one interesting art piece, but after we started to walk around I realized that I wouldn’t be able to just write about one art piece. The MFA has an enormous collection of art from Asian, African, European and American cultures. It has 3 floors just dedicated to american art! I saw dozens of interesting exhibits ranging from the Sculptures of ancient Egypt to Jackson Pollocks abstract drizzle paintings. Although each exhibit was fascinating, out of all of them I had 3 favorites. My 3 favorites were by John Singer Sargent, Leonardo DaVinci and Hokusai.
Exploring the MFA was a museum was a fabulous experience because I not only saw the finished works of art but also learned about the artists artistic process. Being able to take a peek into the sketches and rough drafts of their final art pieces, gave me comfort as an artist. Knowing that even Leonardo DaVinci drew countless sketches to get one face right makes me realize that all artists no matter how great or meek, go through a similar artistic and creative process.
The exhibit of John Singer Sargent showed not only his completed murals but also his initial paintings and studies. John Singer Sargent was asked to build murals for the MFA in 1916, just after it’s completion. It took him 9 years to finish the murals for the dome of the rotunda and along the stairway ceiling. His style was classical, using greek mythology to show that the museum was, “the guardian of the arts”. In the explanations of his initial paintings and studies they explain that he had to change the way he made paintings to make them look real from a distance. While he used a similar color scheme in all of his murals: light blue, golden yellows and off whites, he had to rely on thicker lines and bolder shades of color. This was because people at the museum would be looking at the murals from far away. Seeing the work and thought that went into the final murals made me appreciate the art more. Sargent died before the exhibition opened. When the exhibition opened, critics, as well as the public, were in awe of his murals and he was referred to as the Michelangelo of his time.
The exhibit of Leonardo DaVinci focused on his idea of beauty. This exhibit was completely composed of his sketches of people, not the final paintings. Had his final paintings been on display, I would not have known the thinking that went into his work. I learned that Leonardo’s artistic process was influenced by his scientific way of looking at the world, observing and collecting data on the natural world. Leonardo drew young and old, male and female, strange and beautiful. He brought together convincing beauty and naturalism. He wanted to capture how the human body actually looked like. Leonardo believed that recording observations with your own eyes was more important that any established philosophy or religious principle. Leonardo was most interested in the natural world, meaning real people, and the unique features they have. Even his drawings and paintings of angels had some sort of unique facial feature or expression. Leonardo wanted to capture people’s expressions and how their expressions shaped their appearance. Leonardo showed the physical differences between faces, making each one unique. Imperfections are what made his paintings so beautiful. This is exemplified in Leonardo’s sketch, “Head of a Young Woman” which is a study for the angel in the “Virgin of the Rocks” painting. Leonardo passed his ideas about beauty onto his students as can be seen in Giovanni Antoni Boltraffio’s “Head of a youth with ivy wreath”.
The exhibit by Hokusai was my favorite exhibit in the whole museum because I got to see an artist who challenged himself artistically from his early career to his death. Even though all of the paintings in the exhibit were final products, I saw the progression of his work over the course of his life. Hokusai was a pop artist. He drew paintings of popular kabuki plays and famous actors but, even after he had achieved fame, he kept challenging himself as an artist to do greater works. This exhibit showed the progression of his art. At a young age, Hokusai became popular for his woodblock prints depicting kabuki plays and pop culture icons. He did his kabuki play woodblock prints in the early 1800’s. Throughout his career he made thousands of these types of prints. Later in his life, in his 60’s, he decided to do something new. He began working on his collection 36 views of Mount Fuji. He painted his famous “Great Wave” in 1831. I learned that Hokusai used the imported color “Prussian blue”, a cheap and long lasting paint, in his paintings. The shades of color used in these prints were part of the reason they were so popular. After achieving worldwide fame, he made “100 views of Mount Fuji”, said to be some of his finest work. In 1849, he painted his famous waterfall painting “Li Bai Admiring a Waterfall”. Hokusai kept making prints and painting up until his death.
I spent over 5 hours at the Museum of Fine Arts, but as I was leaving I realized that I had only scratched the surface of this vast collection. This museum is a treasure. There are online collections of what museums collections, but that is nothing like going in person. This trip was not only a great experience but it also helped me to learn about new artistic styles and techniques.