Compare and Contrast

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When we look at two works of art side by side, we're often interested in what they share in common and the manner in which they differ. Using your book and the web links in the text below, please answer the questions and send responses to your instructor via e-mail, if so directed.

This activity contains 2 questions.

Jackson Pollock is the featured artist in the Works-in-Progress section of Chapter 8 (p. 160-161). His huge abstract action paintings brought him tremendous acclaim. However, many of Pollock's early works are figurative, and reflect an influence from his teacher, Thomas Hart Benton.

Compare the work Autumn Rhythm to the top two paintings—Male and Female and The Moon-Woman at Pollock's WebMuseum Page (double-click each thumbnail image). Pollock is clearly at a point where he has all but abandoned the representational style to which Benton had probably hoped he would dedicate his life. As you scroll across either image, where do you see evidence that Pollock is beginning to employ the freedom of "thrown paint?" Does it appear that the action style is fully vested within these works? Another work, located lower down on the Main Page is Pollock's version of the She Wolf of the Capitol. Do any of these early works reveal the style that would come to be known as "Action Painting?"

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Michelangelo's famous Pieta at the Vatican (p. 152), completed in 1499 when he was only 24, is a masterwork that reveals the artist's love for both his medium and his faith. It has been described as "sublime perfection." A sense of classical structure and harmony are dominant, and the marble exudes a softness that betrays its true nature.

Compare this work to Michelangelo's other Pieta completed sometime between 1549 and 1555 (some 50 years later). It is thought that by the time Michelangelo carved this work he was despondent over the Protestant Reformation and the turn of Catholicism from its humanistic side back to a more rigid and dogmatic form of Puritanism. What clues exist within the work itself that would indicate Michelangelo's dejection over the changes within the church, and perhaps his acceptance of his own inevitable mortality?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

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