Federico Montes

Professor Slaughter
ARH 2000
Fall 2015
The Museum Report

The Tampa Museum of Art is an amazing place with many works

to offer to its visitors. For those who have never been in a museum
before it could be a life changing experience when seeing a completely
different world inside doors. Many different art works and names that
people have always talked about such as Pablo R. Piccaso you can find
in some of the pieces exhibited in there. At a museum you can see
different pieces of art and time periods that call our attention the most
depending on our own preferences and desire. In the following
paragraphs we will be discussing a couple or works by C. Paul
Jennewein and Charlotte Dunwiddie. Also comments on details about
the works and the process on how they were created and which formal
elements of art and principles of design were used by the two artists
on their works.

The Birth of Athena is a work by C. Paul Jennewein created in

December 3rd on 1936. This piece was influenced by Hydria, (a water
jar exhibited in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris) which has a very
similar image than the one we find in Jenneweins piece and it was
commissioned by the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in
Pittsburgh, PA. Paul uses Gouache and watercolor on board as the
medium for his piece and it is around 10.9 in height and 7.8 in width.
The piece shows six people in where four of them are standing, two on
the left side looking to their left and the other two standing in the right
side looking to their right; there is one person sitting down looking to
the right side of the painting and the last person seems to be floating
on the air, positioned on top of the person who is sitting down and
going towards the right side as well. In his 2D painting, the author has
made an emphasis on the lines using them to indicate the movement
and the direction of the person who is floating, he made his arm
straight to his left side and his leg well aligned with his arm giving yo
the public a sense of movement towards the left side of the painting.
The work was based on a neoclassical idea, which means that many of
the paintings will have a sense heroism, civil responsibilities and
rational thought (class lecture on The formal element of art). The
dresses that are being wore on the painting give us a really good idea
of the time period when it was most influenced by. The characters of

the painting are wearing togas, which also give us a hint that it could
have taken place in a place like Greece. This dressing for each one of
the characters was well thought, taking in count the visual texture
especially in the bottom of the dress. Only four togas have shapes in
the lower part close to the feet. We can also see different kind of
graphics; two of them are based on geometrical shapes and the other
two in organic shapes.

The variety of colors that Jennewein implements in his work is

intended to attract peoples attention. The watercolor is a great media
to use when you are trying to express the meaning of the art through
the colors of it. The painting lends a flat look throughout the entire
picture. The togas have a complex coloring such as orange and white,
orange and black or white and blue, although the only two characters
wearing a black item of clothing are those in the center (one sitting
down and the one floating). They seem to be the judges of some sort.
If you see a little closer to the image you will notice that both of the
gentleman in the center have a thin lance (thin lines are easier to paint
in a watercolor media), one in his left arm and the other one in the
opposite one. Something really interesting about this work is the
almost symmetrical balance that Paul includes in his piece. If we see
the four people (two in the left and two in the right side) facing each

other group in the other side you can see that the images are almost
the same but in different points of the painting, almost at the point
that if you cut the work in half you can almost have identical parts in
both of them. The focal point of the painting is design for you to look at
the floating character the first time you look at the work, just because
it is the only figure that seems to be out of place within the
placement of the other parts inside the work.

The painting by Jennewein is the same figures but painted

repeatedly in three different frames (three almost identical copies of
the same image). The differences between the three of them are
mostly the colors that the author has chosen for each one of them. In
the first one as said before we see mostly the colors white, blue and
orange; in the second replica we see some yellow, white and blue but
what is very particular about this second copy of the painting is that
the background was painted in red instead of grey on the first or yellow
in the third one. The red color makes the audience get a sense of
tension; there could be a discussion in process in the second painting.
The third copy has the most contrast out of all of them; the artist uses
darker colors for the characters, a yellow background and the main
change is the two gentlemen in the center are facing towards their
right side (opposite than in the first two paintings). Looking at the

three pieces of work together it gives me an idea of sequence in where

the characters seem to be discussing something (first painting), after
the conversation gets more intense but the judge (gentleman sitting
down in the center for the second painting) is still facing to his left,
then, the judge and the floating character turn to the other side and
the combination of new colors make us think that there is a different
atmosphere where the people in questioning are no longer the ones in
the right side but the ones in the left; this is why we can probably call
Jenneweins work representational. The colors and shapes of the work
combined with the roll of the characters in the middle of the painting
drive us to the conclusion that the content of the piece could be a
judgment which is taking place in a room with two groups of two
people against each other, the floating character which could be taken
as the symbol of justice and a judge. The first impression of the work
could be just a simple conversation going on between the characters
inside the painting, but after studying the formal aspects of it with a
little more detail I have found that a discussion or a kind of jury could
be more appropriate to describe the impression of the piece.

The second work is a bronze-toned composition by Charlotte

Dunwiddie. Made in 1984 and called Festina Lente. A beautiful work
that helps us understand a little about Dunwiddies life and her passion

for horses. She described this animal as a modern tradition but

sometimes looking back to the classical world. Her works seem to be
very calculated and Festina Lente is a very detailed work. All the
features of what it seems to be a majestic horse are included in this
work. As said before, the sculpture gives us an idea of what Charlottes
life was when she was in her third marriage, which took place in Lima,
Peru. In the Latin-American country she was involved with this type of
animal when she was racing them. One of the reasons that drove her
to make this work could have been that she wanted to express and
share with the public what seems to be a very special part of her life. It
seems easy to understand how much the artist appreciated horses.
The detail and fine characteristics of the work leave us with no doubt
that she had a strong passion for the sculpture. Her passion gave her
many awards and also helped her become the first woman president of
the National Sculpture Society.

Visiting the Tampa Museum of art has left a big question mark on
my life, Why have I not spend more time visiting the amazing
museums in the area? The experience has been amazing being able
to spend some time looking at fantastic works by many different
artists. There are many works that inspire me to think about what the
artist was thinking on when he or she was creating the piece, also

under which situation the artist decides to create a piece of art, a

memory? A specific mood? What are their feelings when the process of
creating a new piece of art? Sometimes questions that most likely
could be answered by looking in detail at the work. The organization of
the museum was really clear and especially in how easy it is to follow.
Visiting the museum has also show me how open minded or very
characteristic a work could be. Determining the media, subject of
matter, the elements of art and all of these different aspects from a
work is what is going to give us the sense of appreciation towards the
work because we know what each of those details could mean in the
piece. Looking at those amazing pieces of art have left a big inspiration
on me to attend to many of these places more often.