Andrew Loomis Is The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds
I never thought drawing feet could get so philosophical—or so contentious. Sometimes you get students in your art class who have already convinced themselves that they will fail before they even try. A few weeks ago the attitude manifested itself when a student blew off a figure drawing assignment---because it had to include the feet. “I suck at feet,” he told me. Presumably this disqualified him from ever having to draw feet—or any figure with intact limbs. I told him, “
Massacre of the Innocents
For a few centuries, history painting was considered the pinnacle of art. These epic paintings portrayed "important" moments from the past, focusing on the deeds of great men while evoking the grandeur of classical statuary. Before there was history as a discipline, there were these paintings--which mythologized political and military power as sublime heroism. Benjamin West's painting The Death of General Wolfe (1770) sums the whole genre up: It's got the theatricality of
