Art 102: Prof. Guest's Patronage Project: Films

Georges Seurat was an enigmatic character who produced, in La Grande Jatte, an equally enigmatic work of art. What is the fishing woman really fishing for? What do the monkey—revealed by X-rays to be a last-minute add-on—and the luminous little girl symbolize? What is going on with the painting’s shadows and proportions? This program considers these and other mysteries as it scrutinizes Seurat’s defining masterpiece: the pointillist technique and the color theory that underlies it, the visible influence of Classical art, the indignation aroused by the painting’s first public showing, and its many unusual appearances in pop culture.

Given the commission by the Pope to build two bell towers for St. Peter's, Bernini designs towers doomed to end in disaster. In 1644, the new Pope dismisses Bernini and gives the job to his old rival, Borromini.

By 1630, Constantijn Huygens becomes a Rembrandt patron. Rembrandt experiments with chiaroscuro. He declines to go to Italy and remains in Holland. He paints his first self-portraits.