Muhammad Umair Khan

Art and Culture The first painting that caught my eye was called The Dream, created by Franz Marc in 1912. The medium of this piece is Oil on Canvas and covers 1355 x 1005mm in dimensions. As is with dreams, this art work can be interpreted in a number of ways. The state of the women in the center looks quite precarious. She is undressed; a sign of vulnerability and carries an expression full of grief, disappointment and defeat. Although, there is a lion, a sign of imminent danger, staring down at her, she is either oblivious of its presence or just too despaired to care. One thing I noticed after some time is the stance of the horses in blue color. They seem to be aware of the danger i.e. the lion, and are standing near the women as if trying to console her or to get her out of her miserable situation. The second piece of art that was prominent for me was the "Les Vessenots" in Auvers, painted by the famous Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh in 1890. The medium of this piece, like most of his work, is Oil on Canvas and covers an area of 650 x 550mm. The calm and lush countryside depicted in this painting is quite pleasing to the eyes. It gives the viewer a sense of peace and tranquility that comes with a warm sunny morning in rural plains, with a vast expanse of fresh green stocks as far as one can see. One thing that is not prominent at the first glance is that the painter has played less with different shades of a color to create textures, but rather he has utilized different strokes of the brush for this purpose. The trees, the grass, flowers, the stream of water and the cottages, every element is painted with different stroke. This creates a feeling of depth in the painting. One very old and peculiar painting, called the Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio somewhere between 1498 and 1490. This painting uses a Mixed Technique on Panel and spans over an area of 490 x 770mm. The expression-less, yet graceful demeanor of the subject lady gives a sense of royalty. Her beautifully embroidered dress and the large pendant also adds to that effect. When you ponder on it closely, you will discover that it has quite an astonishing amount of detail embedded into its elements, despite it being not too large. The embossed embroidery, the strings and threads in the arm, the pattern on the side of the book, the dragon on the piece of jewelry in the back and her strands of blonde hair, all add to the artist’s attention to detail.