Met Museum Homework

      The two paintings I am comparing are Study Head of a Young Woman by Anthony van Dyck, and The Lute Player by Caravaggio. Both pieces are oil paintings of young women. In The Lute Player, there is an emphasis  on the instruments. The bright colors of them stand out boldly against the black background. Gesture  is used within the folds of the woman’s clothes, guiding your eye around the fabric. Naturalism is also noted, because while the painting is two-dimensional, it is so realistic that it gives the impression that it is three-dimensional. All of the shapes of the instruments are positive shapes because they are clearly distinguished from the black background.

      In Study Head of a Young Woman, the figure is unbalanced in the center. Instead, the woman is facing towards the right of the canvas, her head not in the center. The dark background of this piece is somewhat blotted and distorted.  The shape of the woman’s face is defined by the color and value changes to define the edges. Both of these pieces are oil paintings, one on wood, the other on canvas. They both depict portraits of young women, created in bold colors that stand against a dark, black background.