Week 4 - Formal element analysis

The Lament for Icarus

This is 'The lament for Icarus' by Herbert Draper, an English classicist painter whose career began in the Victorian era, in 1898. It's the picture of a man with wings lies on the rock with some women around, which personally, makes me feels like he is an angel who fell from his grace to the human world. In this blog, I'll analyse the formal elements, research more informations, and response in my opinions.

Formal elements analysis

Line

• The contour line isn’t dense

• There are some descriptive lines and implied line on the detailed parts like wings, face and body expression, and lake surface

• Has some expressive lines on the movement and face expression

• Organic lines

• Possible connotation: Sad, lose, and disgrace

Colour, tone

• Warm colours

• Harmonious colours, almost monochromic (yellow, red, brown)

• Some complement colours(blue) at the background and wings instead of fully black

• Dark tones, have contrast in dominant point, but the overall contrast is low

• possible connotation: Despair, sadness, lost

Shape, Form, Space

• Organic shapes, forms

• Implied form

• Shot from above

• Overlapping people, close together

• Positive spaces are all in the middle

• Possible connotation: Emotional, fragile, weak, realistic

Texture, Pattern

• Realistic, smooth texture

• Possible connotation: Look like real situation or real event, even it’s based on mythology

Secondary research

• Oil paint on canvas

• The story is about Icarus, whose father, Daedalus, made wings for him to fly away from the prison island, became excited that he forgot the warning and soared too close to the sun. He fell to his death after the wax on the feather was melted.

• ancient Greek mythology

• struggles between animal and human nature

• Inspired by Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species

• The artist was in the generation that was influenced by French Impressionism but he devoted himself to the historical and literary themes of Victorian

• Sources:

  • The Lament for Icarus (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2020, from Tate Britain website: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/draper-the-lament-for-icarus-n01679

  • The Lament for Icarus (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2020, from Art UK website: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-lament-for-icarus-117696

  • Herbert James Draper (2020). Retrieved October 17, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_James_Draper

Responds and evaluate the work

Personal opinion

Personally, I really like the tone, composition and texture of the work. The texture of each object is realistic and look like it’s touchable. The style of the picture is definitely influenced by European and Greek style that focused on features of human body and realistic colour. Also, the composition of the picture leads our eyes from details around Icarus to him which shows the story and sadness of the picture. These factors make overall picture looks really great and tells the story of the event very well. At first, I think the main message of this work is just telling the story of Icarus, but after I’ve read the gallery’s caption, another idea comes up to my mind. As the gallery has mentioned Charles Darwin’s publication of ‘On the origin of species’ that offered the ideas of struggle between animal and human nature, it might be meant that humans shouldn’t go beyond yourself because it might shorten your life like what Icarus did. Moreover, from looking up more sources on the internet, I can see more details from the picture, like the wing texture that shows the difference between smooth inner feather and outer feather that can be seen as burnt part.

Visual response

My first reaction about this photo is dramatic, because the movement of the character acts extremely sad. The composition of the wings make it looks like he falls from his high grace. The wings are also the most attractive part for me.

Memory or experience

This kind of work remind me of renaissance art style that emphasised body parts and realistic texture. As this work related to Greek mythology, this reminds me of ‘The Birth of Venus’ which is one of the most famous painting of classical renaissance era.