Technique and Medium: Activity #10

Technique and medium, both, are employed to in art, both two and three-dimensional, to express complex ideas and emotional sensations. Mark Rothko and Andreas del Verroichio were no strangers to employing these important tools.

In the western tradition, painting is the queen of the arts, for if one were to ask people to form a spontaneous mental image of "art", ninety percent of them are likely to visualize a painting. During paintings long history, the styles have broadened richly. Mark Rothko's 'Chapel Murals',1962-1967, oil on canvas are but one example of the medium. Oil paint, consisting of pigment(p.168) compounded with oil, it's binder(p.168), dries so very slowly that it may be weeks or months before the painting has truly "set". Rothko employed oil paint's slow drying characteristics to thin the paint as far as to create and express a sensation of pure dematerialized color with the pigment barely clenching to the support(p.168) or canvas. The thin consistency of the paint Rothko applied to the canvas enhances the meditative tranquility of his pieces and initiates contemplation.

'Putto Poised on A Globe' forged of unbaked clay by Andrea del Verrochio in 1480 is a sculpture in the round, which means it exists wholly in our three-dimensional world. Verrochio modeled this piece, as mentioned prior, in unbaked clay which meant as long as the clay remained wet, he was, using his hands and sharp tools, able to build up the pieces form and pinch it's outward decisive lines. These decisive lines and rounded form then make up Putto's body and gesturing limbs. We can then from this three-dimensional piece, 'Putto Poised on A Globe', read a curios emotion from the pieces posture and gesture. The message is complex and all-inclusive, so Verrochio expressed it in the complex form of sculpture in the round.

Technique and medium play a vital role in any form of art. From applying oil to a canvas, to using clay to form a round sculpture which exist with us in the three-dimensional realm.