theWRIGHTartblog

Maddison Wright
Intro to Art History
9/17/2013

Meanings Behind Art Pieces

Buddha is a well known figure that is overlooked by many and described with one meaning, enlightenment. Though how well do different cultures understand the entirety of the statue? Imagine a tourist strolling down china town in L.A. and noticing a statue of a hand sized green buddha. She walks in and purchases this as a memory of her time in L.A. The tiny buddha could be sitting on her counter when she gets home, yet given time Buddha will most likely end up in a junk drawer given no second thought. To this women Buddha is simply a figure of the Buddhism religion, yet like most things the Buddha statue presents much more meaning. If individuals are not taught how to look at artwork, most art pieces they view will not make much sense; they will be missing the meanings behind the substantial amount of detail.

One art piece called Amida Nyorai (a Buddhist) by a Japanese sculptor named Jocho, captures much iconography. Take for instance Buddha’s long ear lobes, the bottom parts look stretched out so many can infer that he wore heavy earrings (which is precisely what he wore), though this type of iconography seems simpler compared to the other details in Buddha. Another aspect of the sculpture is his bun on top of his head that is referred to as a ushnisha. This detail seems difficult to un-code the meaning, I would guess it was a traditional head piece however overall this bun is a symbolization of enlightenment.

Another art piece that poses many theories is Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Double Portrait, an oil painting on wood. This is a difficult painting to decode with little art history experience. In my opinion the reason this piece is decoded in many different ways is because art is perceived differently from person to person. Even people who study art history differ in opinions and the motives behind the art pieces. Art is not black and white paintings with the underlined meanings written on the bottom. However there are art pieces that can push the viewer in a general direction of where the painting is headed, illustrating this is another one of Jan van Eyck’s painting titled Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych.

Yes, art can be viewed with differing opinions of how that piece made someone feel, but the actual iconography and deliberate story behind why the artist painted something a certain way can only be known by studying the stories of art history.

Cited

Getlein, Mark. “What Is Art?” Living with Art. 10th ed. Boston,

MA: McGraw Hill, 2008. 37-46. Print.