Museum of Fine Arts Project
From pre-history to present day, cave paintings to computer art, classical music, photography, illustration, posters and et al. History of Art brings together art from every age and from every corner of the world. Dating back to centuries ago, three very prominent artists in the history of art such as Frenchman Rococo painter Francois Boucher, Italian Baroque and Frescoes painter Boccaccio Boccaccino, and a Dutch Baroque painter Rembrandt has a great influence in modern art. However, portraits such as Boucher’s “Return from Market” c. 1767, Rembrandt’s “Self Portrait” c. 1628 and Boccaccio’s “Virgin and Child” c. 1500 compositions displays a very distinct and prestige artwork in its own right.
The French painter François Boucher (1703-1770), was a leading exponent of the eloquent and frivolous rococo tradition was perhaps the greatest decorative artist of the 18th century and with most of his work reflecting the Rococo style. Boucher also had known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, and intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture. Boucher's greatest skill as a designer, the ability to subjugate disparate sources to his aesthetic, was also his greatest failing in the eyes of later critics, especially as neoclassicism supplanted the rococo in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Boucher’s Return from Market is one of his most important pieces of the late renaissance in which he integrated Italian frescoes techniques to enrich this specific artwork. Boucher uses an ancient narrative format by showing one big event with many distinct valuable techniques. Although one normally reads from left to right, the first image is presented in the center and top notch of the painting. There is no vanishing-point presented in the portrait but the woman on top of everyone else makes sure our eyes go there first. The use of this type of narrative moves away from a symbolic portrayal of the scene as the Gothic artists would have him presented the narrative instead reverts back to classicism and logic. With the use of the compactness technique Boucher can further develop some elements in the painting. The casting of shadows behind the characters is remarkable and the amount detail on the characters' bottom is exquisite.
Boucher’s Return form Market, best incorporate not only techniques but also his preferred uses or likes, detail, and shapes and not only demonstrates chiaroscuro techniques but also choice of colors. The scene is characterized by calm, structured composition, cool colors, hard, clear lighting, and a feeling of solemnity. By using lighter colors the invisible cow on the right side of the mountains are put in the virtual background - the atmospheric perspective. Boucher utilizes the rich, glowing magnificent color in which he attained a monumental simplification and almost supernatural calm, went beyond the illustration of historical events to become symbols of eternal verities. Light seems to alternate and change throughout the painting. The amount of detail on each of the individual’s body adds a stark realism to the painting and the shadowing on the clothes and drapery is done so well the painting seems devoid of any lines. Further, Boucher used a single source of light, whereas in the work of his predecessors and contemporaries the light seemed to come from everywhere that creates real shadows and gives the otherwise flat figures three dimensional. Three are two main aspects to this painting that give us depth in the painting. Firstly, the left side minuscule landscape in the background are painted farther back into the painting than the other landscapes scenes on the right side and are almost void of color. Secondly, the landscapes nearer, although may not be presented in the story serve to provide classical structure that pushes
