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Gray 1

Chad Gray

Professor _______

________ 2010

2 May 2010

The Evolution of Space in Paintings

The illusion of creating space on a two-dimensional surface changed drastically in the 20th century . By looking at three works by painters David , Cezanne and Mondrian , I will discuss this evolution of space

Oath of Horatii (1784 ) by French artist Jacques-Louis David is considered on the most important paintings in neo-classical art . A break from the Rococo style art that had preceded this time period , David 's painting shows hard lines

and de-emphasized backgrounds . His use of one-point perspective and triple arches in the background create a shallow space that emphasizes the action happening in the foreground The repetition of the three soldiers , as well as the three arches and swords , bring us into the action as if we are viewing a snapshot of the actual event . David also uses color to describe space , by using dull colors in the background and strong repetition of reds for the father and son in the foreground

Paul Cezanne 's painting Still life with Basket of Apples (1892 , is also considered a transitional use of space for its ' time period . Bridging the gap between Impressionism and Cubism , Cezanne 's painting depicts a skewed space with distorted perspectives . We see that the plane of the tabletop doesn 't match from left to right and the ellipse of the basket seems to tilted toward the viewer , as if viewed and painted from multiple positions . Cezanne , like David , uses...