Value and Overlapping Art
Don Troiani. “Washington at Yorktown”, 1781. Painting the Revolution: An Interview with Don Troiani, http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/painting-the-revolution-an-interview-with-don-troiani/
The painting depicts the Battle of Princeton and shows a great number of people, which is why the painter uses the overlapping technique. In this painting, overlapping serves as a means to highlight the important ideas of the painting and hide the less important ones. Due to the fact that many actions on the painting take place at the same time, there is a necessity for the artist to give more value to some objects and less to others. The painting can be divided into five thematically different parts, each of them presenting a different idea. The painter managed to successfully organize these parts by using overlapping and creating a focal point, which serves as the markers of different ideas. I this case, the main gun serves as a focal point which unites all soldiers and commanders around it. There was no necessity for the painter to show all soldiers in the full height and the machinery in the full length, which is why he used overlapping to effectively hide less important objects and put the more important ones to the front.
Leonardo da Vinci. “The Last Supper”, 1495-1498, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, http://www.italianrenaissance.org/a-closer-look-leonardo-da-vincis-last-supper/
In this painting, overlapping technique helps Leonardo da Vinci to extend the space and show the action in the process. However, these are not the only benefits of overlapping on this painting. The artist paints some of the movements of apostles on the foreground and puts others to the background. It should be noted that none of the apostles are depicted without overlapping – only the Jesus’s figure stands out and makes him the focal point of the composition. Overlapping is present not only in locating the people but also in placing the objects. For instance, the rectangular room terminates at three windows, which overview a beautiful landscape setting. This harmonic and beautiful landscape on the background contrasts the evil intentions of Judas in relation to Jesus who are placed on the foreground. Therefore, it may be concluded that the artist managed to successfully organize the painting and created a successful value pattern with interesting composition.
Pieter Claesz. “Breakfast Piece with a Tazza, Fruit, and Cheese in a Basket” or “Still Life with Cheese and Fruit”, 1623. Frans Hals Museum. Famous Still Life Paintings by Dutch Artist Pieter Claesz. http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/en/items/FHM01:OS-2002_63
This painting shows a good example of successful value pattern. The painter places the larger objects to the background and the smaller ones to the foreground. It helps the artist to successfully organize the place, because the larger objects are still visible behind the smaller ones. Here, overlapping plays a significant role to spare place for as many objects as possible and depicting them so, that the viewer sees them all and perceives the general idea. The sides of the table surface and the direction of table-ware serve as the leading lines which indicate that a …
