The importance of Art, Turner's painting Slave Ship

A detailed Summary of The importance of Art, Turner's painting Slave Ship

How can Art influence our views? Images have been used for thousands of years to change them. For example, the early religious figurines, or the present day modern media, photojournalism. What makes paintings(especially this one) special, is the way they grip you, nearly forcing emotions on you. The story behind it, if orally told is sad, and cruel; but the painting gives a much heightened sense of this, giving it more poigniency, and suffering.

The painting in question: "Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhon Coming On" 1840 by Joseph M.W.Turner 1775-1851, is a medium sized(90.8x122.6 cm) oil on canvass. In Turner's own life time, it was owned by his dear friend Ruskin. Now it belongs to the Museum of Fine Arts, in the fair city of Boston. The first time it was publicly displayed was in London, during the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy 1840. The painting depicts a true story, that during a storm in 1783 Captain Collingwood, ordered his crew of the "Zong" to throw all the sick, and dying slaves off the boat. The reason being, that it was possible to claim insurance if a slave was killed in a storm, but not if he(or she), was killed by disease or otherwise.

The colours are the most striking element to th

What was new to Art, was the way he, "captures the horror of the event and terrifying grandeur of nature through hot, churning color and light." This effect was later called an 'envellope', by the later Impressionists, and was considered one of their key characteristics. To be able to capture nature on a canvass, so containing the whole event compressed into one scene.

The pathos of the scene, is portrayed by the many hands, reaching up out of the water for supplication, which we know they will never get. The irons they still wear, can be seen coming out of the water. The patches of blood, just visible to the left, give a macabre touch to the painting. While the leg to the right, still bound, seems to be pulled out of the water, showing the ferocity of the fishes feeding.

The variety of brushstrokes, which causes the variety of surface texture, is again typical of his late style. There is a pronounced shift from the chiaroscuro, of the upper left of the painting, to the rough pasty, and visible brush stokes of the waves and the rest of the sky. The roughness of the other areas of sky, and the waves accentuate it's turbulence. More importantly though I think, is that the 'rough' handling mirrors the violence of the subject, in a crude way matching the cruel handling of the slaves. On the postcard you can make out a few areas of where the surface has a rougher texture, especially to the area to the left of the sun's flare. An interesting detail the postcard does not show, is how the two edges on the bottom of the painting are not fully painted. The canvass is clearly visible, at these two corners. The brushstrokes here are very rounded, again mirroring the sea's natural form, whereas the corners in the upper half are filled up, this in contrast to the lower corners, suggest an infiniteness.

For me, this was much more interesting. A few could not explain why, but the majority could, coming out with a variety of answers. Six people said the colours made the painting, for it's mood, or violence. Four, said the figures in the water. Two mentioned the fish, gorging on the bodies, or "Jaws", approaching from the right. While the rest had different answers, related to the previously mentioned ones, such as the "goriness".

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1512
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts