Divine Wisdom and the Fine Arts by Paolo de Matteis - Essay Example

The major ways by which these two paintings (Getty 2004) may be compared are as follows - 1) Material used: Paolo’s Divine Wisdom was created using oil on canvass while with Frans’ Pictura, a copper panel; 2) Subject matter: Paolo addressed a number of disciplines including Science, Painting and Architecture encompassing Virtue, Time and Truth; while Frans dealt only with Painting and possibly illusion; 3) Composition: Divine Wisdom is a conglomeration of many subjects to include men, women, angelic beings, and artifacts of a compass and a drawing, clock, laurel wreath, and paddle while Pictura is of a lone woman holding a palette, brushes, and a small plaster sculpture for a model for larger works. Hanging from her neck is a mask on a chain.

Divine wisdom suggests a hierarchy of the disciplines where Science is paramount before Painting and Architecture, which may point to the necessity for these two fields of human interest to uphold principles, facts, and knowledge. But these may have to be tempered with Virtue (symbolized by the laurel wreath), Time (the clock) and Truth (the unfolding canvass). On the other hand, Pictura is said to refer to the Arts and seems to warn of the capacity of art itself to deceive sights through the art of illusions as suggested by the mask.

Paolo trained under Luca Giordano which explains his leanings toward naturalism, a trademark of the Neapolitan school (LOCMA news release 2001). In his Divine wisdom, he employed the delicate graceful manner (the hand of Science, for example), an influence of a French master, but “broke into baroque” (Getty 2004) as exemplified by the rich, elaborate elements of his work. The Church and nobility were said to be Paolo’s major patrons, influencing also the themes he depicted and his pictorial style. Angels and cherubs obviously were favorites. Meanwhile, Frans of Pictura fame mastered under Gerrit Dou who often used wood or copper panels. The woman subject of Pictura was simple, a characteristic of her Calvinistic time, on a copper panel. The mini-size style (likened to a small index card) was an influence of the fine painters called fijnschilders who worked on small subjects with bright colors, a shiny finish, and much attention to detail (Encyclopedia 2003).

In sum, both these paintings are similar in that they primarily speak of allegories (the subjects and objects standing for larger senses like abstract ideas), are influenced by their own time period, their masters and their clients, and are significant in terms of teaching content when addressing contemporary issues (like architecture should follow physical laws and principles). Meanwhile, they differ firstly in size (Pictura is quite small at 5 x 3 1/2 inches while Divine Wisdom is quite large at 141 1/2 x 99 5/8 inches). They differ in material used, in a number of subjects, composition, the subject matter, the number of disciplines addressed, the themes and symbols and stylistic characteristics. Read More