2nd Formal Paper

Alexandra Querrard

Akeyla Silver

Writing Studio

28 October 2009

Time Being Discovered

In the paintings The Judgement of Paris and Time Discovering the Love of Venus and Mars, there is a lot of meaning and story to both the paintings. Artist from the times usually painted stories of people, culture, time periods or Gods or goddesses. Artist often found creative ways to tell important stories.

In the Judgement of Paris, painted in 1690 by Lodovico David of Switzerland that lived in Rome and Venice created the painting that included 3 female goddesses and 3 male gods, Paris, Cupid and the Messenger God. In this painting Paris has been given the choice to choose between love, money or the woman of his life, but he has made the wrong decision and is about to cause the Trojan war. The goddess of war is putting on her armor and the other goddess of love is putting her cloths back on as the other goddess Venus stands in the back of the painting with little Cupid holding her clothing up with a mischievous face. The colors are very vivid and tell a story in itself, such as white meaning angelic or pure, red meaning passion, purple meaning death or to foretell death, and green is usually greed or earthly. The dark sky in the painting also makes the painting a little more gloomy and dark giving more to the story and mood of war and a bad decision.

In the painting Time Discovering the Love of Venus and Mars, painted in 1640 by Simon Voulet of France but active in Rome and Paris painted a story. The painting is framed bringing the gods into view for the audience. The gods and goddesses included in this piece are Father time, the holiday New Years, Cupid being the god of love, and then there is Venus and Mars. Venus and Mars produces little Cupid with their love. Venus is wearing baby blue while touching Mars and turning his head romantically and passionately towards her. Baby Cupid is sitting on a long chair looking at Father Time looking at him. Father Time has Cupid in the corner of a net pulling the net towards him. The title of the painting being Father Time discovering the Love of Venus and Mars could be him discovering the child of the two lovers. The way Father Time is pulling the net is as if he was revealing something.

In these two paintings, painted in the same time period but painted by two completely different artist from two different places and times both paint with many similarities. They both paint stories of famous gods and goddesses from the same culture, they both paint stories of their lives, and they both paint with color revealing a little more information foretelling the next event to happen in the story. Artist from all different times all have a uniqueness about them and they all have a story to tell, all in a different way.

Work Cited

David, Lodovico. “The Judgement of Paris”. 1690. Ringling Museum of Art.

Voulet, Simon. “Time Discovering the Love of Venus and Mars”. 1640. Ringling Museum of Art.

Web Page With Artwork

http://emuseum.ringling.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/search$0040swgdepartment$$IS_STRICT$$EUROPEAN$0020ART$0020$0028BEFORE$00201900$0029/117/title-asc?t:state:flow=ad2660e8-0d61-4aef-b6d4-fb7bd13a9eab

http://emuseum.ringling.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/search$0040swgdepartment$$IS_STRICT$$EUROPEAN$0020ART$0020$0028BEFORE$00201900$0029/130/title-asc?t:state:flow=47a29706-03c5-4dd3-b616-9a67ab7dcc8d