The Laocoön

I have been reading an interesting book “The Mirror of the Gods” by Malcolm Bull.  The author discusses the revival of Greco-Roman mythology during the Renaissance and how those myths show up in art.  In the book he briefly discusses the stunning Laocoön sculpture group, one of my favorite sculptures.  It would be worth taking a trip to Rome just to see it.  Bull mentions this sculpture when he is talking about the sources that Renaissance artists and patrons had for referencing mythology.

Laocoön, Roman copy from 1st c. AD after 2nd c. BC Hellenistic original, Vatican Museums

Laocoön (pronounced lah-ock-o'-own) was a figure in the Trojan war, he was a priest who warned the Trojans not to accept the Trojan horse as a gift.  However the goddess Athena wanted to see Troy defeated so she sent serpents to strangle Laocoön and his sons, it is that moment which is being shown.  This is an extremely powerful image and a good example of the Hellenistic style in Greek sculpture.  This was marked by an extreme realism and often with a dramatic subject matter.  The struggle for life and death is evident in all figures, both in their contorted poses and in their expressions.

Dying Slave, Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1513-15, Louvre

The original Greek statue was lost but a Roman copy (today in the Vatican) was discovered in Rome in an excavation in 1506.  Michelangelo was in Rome at that time and was one of the first to see it.  The sculpture was a huge influence in Michelangelo’s own work, the twisting torso showed up many times in his sculptures.  He was painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescos at the time and the musculature and anatomy seen in the Laocoön group can be seen in the Sistine Chapel ceiling figures.  A good example is seen in the figures surrounding God Separating Darkness and Light.

God Separating Darkness and Light, Michelangelo Buonarotti, 1509,

Sistine Chapel Ceiling fresco, Vatican, Italy

This was a well known and highly praised work of art in the Renaissance, so I found it surprising when I found that it never became a popularly represented myth in painting or sculpture. 

There were very few original images I could find from the 16^th through 19^th centuries, such as this painting by El Greco.  

Laocoön, El Greco, c-1610, National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.)

Ancient Rome, Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1757, Metropolitan Museum of Art

However there were quite a few works of art during that same time period which referenced the Laocoön in the Vatican.  There were several sculptural copies, many prints and etchings and more than a few paintings which included the work.  One example is Panini’s painting gallery of Ancient Rome (he painted three versions) that show a variety of ancient sculptures and buildings in Rome.

The Finding of the Laocoön, Hubert Robert, 1773, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond

Another example is 18^th century French Neoclassical painter Hubert Robert’s The Finding of the Laocoön, where the scene of this discovery is imagined in a romanticized scene.  In The Mirror of the Gods, Bull does wonder why some scenes from mythology are popularly represented in art and why some are not.  He discussed that usually this happens with a little known myth or where the original representations of it aren’t well known.  That is clearly not the case with the Laocoön.  Were there few other original interpretations because the sculpture is so striking that it set too high a standard for other artists to compete with?  Even if other original depictions of the Laocoön story did not commonly show up in art, this sculpture had a definite influence on art centuries after it was unearthed.

6 Different Guitar Picking Styles

New guitar players will sometimes overlook their right-hand to pay attention to all of the activity on the left. But the picking hand holds the keys to a variety of textures and styles. This summary of various picking techniques will help you to explore some of these textures and then incorporate them into your guitar playing.

Downstroke

This is the first one everybody learns. Using your pick you will stroke downward, towards the ground, then let it come to rest against the succeeding guitar string (known as a "rest stroke"). Make certain that you do not pick out from the guitar and into thin air. To do so results in a longer gap to get to your following note and there is a greater risk that you may come back to the incorrect string. Employing the rest stroke allows the pick to move within a finite space each time, training your hand muscles to come back correctly for the upcoming note.

Double Stroke

Double stroke or "alternate picking" means alternating down strokes with up strokes. It's usually used for 8th notes and faster. Although at times you'll use all downstrokes for 8th notes depending on just how much aggression the song demands. As with the downstroke, you need your pick to come directly back upwards, rather than away into thin air. In order to accomplish this, ensure that you're moving sideways with your wrist not rotating your lower arm at the elbow. Make sure you are alternating: down - up - down - up. You will find picking techniques which will occasionally repeat a down or up movement, nevertheless, you will need to get good at this even double picking first so that you don't develop undesirable habits.

Sweep Picking

This kind of picking style may be used for speedy arpeggio runs. The idea entails stringing together all downstrokes or all upstrokes on adjacent strings in order to sound a quick series of notes. Think of it in this way: Get a barre chord and, instead of a typical strum, pick through each of the guitar strings using a down stroke in a single fluid motion towards the floor. After that do the very same using up strokes. The difference will come in your left-hand. For a sweep picked line your left hand should not hold down all the notes at once, but one at a time, like a normal single note melody. The big aim at this point is to have clean articulation between the notes and don't let them ring together. All using that steady single movement in your right-hand.

This may not be a technique that everybody needs to have, however it's a striking tool for your guitar player tool box. This can also be used in a simpler way, for a few notes as opposed to a massive flurry.

Music artists to listen to: Yngwie Malmsteen, Herman Li (of Dragonforce), and Frank Gambale.

Fingerpicking

This approach calls for losing your pick entirely and simply using your fingers. It is prominent in classical music as well as folk and world music styles, but can also be used for almost anything you would like. In general, the thumb will deal with the bottom two or three strings and your second, 3rd, and 4th fingers are going to deal with the top three strings. You can experiment with a rest stroke, which is similar to the picking option above where by your finger tip comes to rest against the next string. The other option is a free stroke in which your finger tip finishes its motion hovering above the guitar strings. Free strokes are usually used for chord arpeggios in which you want the notes to ring against each other. Rest strokes are used for melodies where you want cleaner articulation between your notes.

Music artists to listen to: Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits), Andres Segovia, Merle Travis, and Joao Gilberto

Hybrid Picking

This style uses a pick, held as normal between your thumb and second finger, plus your additional fingers used bare. You'll find it's good for articulating clean bass lines as you are playing chords or melodies on the upper strings using your fingertips. You might also use it along with ordinary picking techniques when you have to hit notes on non-adjacent strings.

Music artists to listen to: Buckethead, Brad Paisley, Albert Lee, Brian Setzer

Finger Picks and Thumb Picks

These are guitar picks that are attached to each individual finger (excluding the pinkie) and thumb by a plastic band. The principles are generally basically the same as those regarding fingerpicking. The big difference is that the picks provide a sharper, louder sound as compared to regular fingerpicking. A lot of players use only the thumb pick as a substitute for a traditional pick. Finger and thumb picks are most often used by banjo players, yet also by slack key, Dobro, and slide players.

Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration

A new exhibit called Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration just opened at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) featuring American landscape painters in the 19th century.  What better way to start off the long holiday weekend celebrating Independence Day than by going to see this exhibit on Friday night?  Unfortunately my friends and I got off to a late start and we didn't have as long as we would like in the museum before they closed, however in that short time I did see a lot and also found out some of the reasons for painting landscapes at that time.  I also learned of some new favorite painters such as William Keith, Grafton Tyler Brown and pioneer daughter Emily Inez Denny whose view of the San Juans was among my favorite paintings.

Mount Rainier Bay of Tacoma, Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1875, Seattle Art Museum

I went from room to room gasping in awe as I saw each painting and wishing I had more time to spend in front of them.  While the artists in this exhibit weren’t working in one specific style there were definitely commonalities in the work.  American landscape painting from this time period can best be described as majestic.  It is bittersweet to look at the paintings knowing some of these landscapes aren’t there anymore but for those that remain these paintings would inspire anyone to want to visit all the places depicted.

SAM’s website states this about the exhibit:

“When the first surveyors went westward, they took painters and photographers with them to create images that would fire the collective imagination of a nation and draw emigrants westward.

Albert Bierstadt's painting of Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast for example, was deemed a virtuous enterprise for attempting to transport viewers to a still unknown region of the country. We tend to think of landscape art as a record of an artist's personal, intimate experience in nature, but in the nineteenth century, artists painted the American landscape as a response to the enthusiasms of their audience, too. They led us to remote places of natural splendor and abundance, and we followed, leaving our own marks upon the land.”

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, Albert Bierstadt, 1870, Seattle Art Museum

I have always loved the German born painter Albert Bierstadt and his panoramic and sweeping views of landscapes.  This work at SAM has always fascinated me; I now know Bierstadt painted this without seeing the Puget Sound which is why it is so unusual.  The landscape is dramatic, but it doesn’t actually exist.  Bierstadt based it off a combination of the Atlantic coast and mountainous areas he had seen.

However the rest of the paintings give an accurate view of American vistas from coast to coast.  There were examples of the rocky shores of Maine, Niagra Falls, several mountain ranges (Catskills, Adirondacks, and Rockies), the Grand Canyon, the Yosemite Valley and the Pacific Northwest among others.

There was also a sizable collection of landscape photography and if I hadn’t been ushered out by the museum guards (yes we were the last to leave the building) I would have seen that too, but I’ll be back.  This exhibit runs from June 30 to September 11, 2011 and has an accompanying catalog.  Also, there is a concurrent program running on Public TV station KCTS 9 called Land of Beauty and Bounty.