Unit 3

Giving Meaning Behind

the Art Subjects
objects and visual symbols intended to remind
viewers of the nearness and easiness of death
intending to communicate not just death but
the fragility and transience of life
the soap bubbles appear too. In moments these
bubbles will pop and cease to exist, but for the
instant the painting depicts they’re perfect and
robust. They won’t last long, though.
 Subject in art refers to any person,
object, scene, or event described
or represented in a work of art. In
the case of a story, poem or
music, subject is the main idea,
character or theme of a
composition.
2 types of Art
A. Representational or objective arts
are works of art that have visible
subject.
Painting, sculpture, the graphics
arts, literature, and the theater arts
are considered representational arts.
The term "representational art"
usually refers to images that are
clearly recognizable for what
they purport to be, such as a
human figure, a banana, a tree
and so on.
Thunder Magic by Marcia Baldwin
B. Non-representational or non-objective arts
are those that do not have visible subject.
Music, architecture, and many of the
functional arts are non-representational.
They appeal directly to the senses
primarily because of the satisfying
organization of their sensuous and
expressive elements.
Nonrepresentational art may
simply depict shapes, colors,
lines, etc., but may also express
things that are not visible –
emotions or feelings for
example.
Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory
The Persistence of Memory at the age of
twenty-seven years old. If we are looking
for the autobiographical meaning
of Persistence of Memory, the clocks
might be representative of his adolescence
and are fading or melting away because
Dali cannot remember them accurately
now that so much time has passed.
Is subject synonymous
to content?
Subject matter is the literal, visible
image in a work while content
includes the connotative, symbolic,
and suggestive aspects of the image.
The subject matter is the subject of
the artwork, e.g., still life, portrait,
landscape etc.
Content refers to what the artist
expresses or communicates on the
whole in his work. Sometimes it is
spoken of as the meaning of the work.
In literature it is called the “theme”. It
reveals the attitude toward his
subject.
"Content is not subject or things in the painting.
Content is the communication of ideas, feelings
and reactions connected with the subject......
When we look at a painting its content is what is
sensed rather than what can be analyzed. It is the
ultimate reason for creating art." Something in
the painting must appeal or speak to the heart,
spirit and soul of the viewer. He specifically
calls this "emotional content".
Subject matter may acquire different
levels of meaning:
1. Factual meaning is the literal
statement or the narrative content in
the work which can be directly
apprehended because the objects
presented are easily recognized.
2. Conventional meaning refers to the
special meaning that a certain object or
color has for a particular culture or group
of people. Examples: Flag is the agreed-
upon symbol for a nation. Cross is a
Christian symbol of faith Wheel is the
Buddhist symbol for the teachings of
Gautama Buddha.
3. Subjective meaning is any personal
meaning consciously or unconsciously
conveyed by the artist using a private
symbolism which stems from his own
association of certain objects, actions, or
colors with past experiences. This can be
fully understood only when the artist
himself explains what he really means.
Analysis
Subject: Biblical art
Factual meaning: Creation
Story
(creation of man)
Subjective meaning: Man
was created in the image
and likeness of God
Subjective meaning:
Endowment of intellect to
man from God.
Common Subjects
Depicted in Art
1. Landscape, seascape, and
cityscape
Filipino painters have captures on
canvas the Philippine countryside, as
well as the sea bathed in pale
moonlight or catching the reflection
of the setting sun.
Fernando Amorsolo
romanticized
Philippine
landscapes, turning
the rural areas into
idyllic places where
agrarian problems are
virtually unknown.
Modern painters seem to more
attracted to scenes in cities.
Traffic jams, high-rises, and
skylines marked by uneven
rooftops and television antennae
have caught their fancy.
2. Still life
Groups of inanimate
objects arranged in an
indoors setting such as
flower and fruit
arrangements, musical
instruments, dishes of
food on dining tables.
3. Animals
 the carabao has been a favorite
subject of Filipino artists.
Romeo Tabuena’s stylized
carabaos have graced
Philippine Christmas cards.
Napoleon Abuena’s bronze and
marble sculptures have
captured the strength and
beauty of the animal.
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William Blake wrote about the
symmetry and power of the tiger
and the meekness of the lamb.
D.H. Lawrence celebrated the
regal bearing of golden snake in
his poem, “Snake.”
Inconventional religious art, the
dove stands for the Holy Spirit in
representations of the Holy Trinity.
The fish and lamb are symbols of
Christ; the phoenix, of the
Resurrection, and the peacock, of
immortality.
4. Portraits
A portrait is a realistic likeness
of a person in a sculpture,
painting, drawing, or print.
Besides the face, other
things worth noticing in
portraits are the
subject’s hand, which
can be very expressive,
and his particular attire
and accessories. They
reveal so much of the
person and his time.
Portraits are also used to mark
milestones in people’s lives.
Baptisms, graduations, and
weddings are often occasions
for people to pose for their
portraits.
5. Human Figures
The sculpture’s chief subject has
traditionally been the human body,
nude or clothed.
The grace and ideal proportions
of the human form were
captured in religious sculpture
by the ancient Greeks. To them
physical beauty was the symbol
of moral and spiritual
perfections; thus, they
portrayed their gods and
goddesses as possessing human
shapes.
Early Christian and medieval artists seldom
represented the nude figure. The figures they used
to decorate the entrances and walls of their
churches were distorted so as not to call undue
attention to the sensuous physical shape and distract
the mind from spiritual thoughts. However,
Renaissance artists reawakened an interest in the
nude human figure. Michaelangelo’s David shows a
closer tie with the Greek sculptures than with the
Romanesque ones.
6. Everyday life
Artists have always shown
deep concern about life
around them.

Rice threshers,
cockfighters, candle
vendors, street musicians,
children at play, etc.
7. History and Legend
Juan Luna’s Blood Compact,
not at Malacanang,
commemorates the
agreement between Sikatuna
and Legaspi which they
supposedly sealed by
drinking wine in which drops
of each other’s blood had
been mixed.
At Ford Santiago are paintings showing
incidents in the life of Jose Rizal.
Malakas and Maganda and Mariang
Makiling are among the legendary
subjects which have been rendered in
painting and sculpture by not a few
Filipino artists.
8. Religion and myth
Most of the world’s religions have
used arts to aid worship, to instruct, to
inspire feelings of devotion, and to
impress and covert non-believers.
Some Filipino artists attempted to render
in art not only traditional religious themes
but folk beliefs in creatures of lower
mythology as well. Solomon Saprid has
done statues of the tikbalang, and some
painters have rendered their own ideas
about the matanda sa punso, asuwang,
tianak, mankukulam.
9. Dreams and fantasies
Dreams are usually vague and
illogical. Artist, especially the
surrealist, have tried to depict dreams,
as well as the grotesque terrors and
apprehensions that lurk in the depths
of the subconscious.
 The Great Masturbator is one of the earliest Salvador Dalí‘s surrealist works from
the period he was fascinated by Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and obsessed by
analyzing unconscious aspects of self as well as sexual repressed mechanism and
ego structure. Therefore, painting The Great Masturbator is kind of a self-portrait,
view on a artist’s overgrown ego and its transformations, posed in dreamlike
surreal landscape along with various objects of desire – beloved Gala or desert
oasis but also accompanied by paranoid fears of unknown faceless figures and
insects.