Edgar Degas Compare and Contrast

Edgar Degas Compare and Contrast. Ashley Cullers Art210_190.

[Audio] This sculpture was created in 1879 by Edgar Degas. Edgar was famous for his subject of art being ballet dancers. This piece consists of multiple mediums including bronze (for the figure), cotton (for the skirt), satin ribbon (in her hair), and wood for the base. This sculpture is named " The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer" and is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City..

[Audio] This painting, " Tilting Dancer", was also created by Edgar Degas in 1883. The medium used is oil pastels. This piece is part of a private collection and is not available to see on display. Again, it shows Degas' love for ballerinas..

[Audio] How are both of Degas' pieces the same? The subject matter of both pieces are ballerinas. Degas loved the ballet, and it was his favorite subject matter. We see this in several pieces of his artwork throughout his lifetime. Both of these pieces show movement. You can see that the fourteen-year-old dancer is stretching. She is probably warming up for her time on stage. The Tilting Dancer, is clearly dancing and you can tell by simply seeing that her limbs are spread out in different directions and her body is in a position that shows the onlooker that she is dancing. Also, both pieces of art show how line is used to make the viewers eyes follow the movement and directions of the girls. Degas shows great linework in his art not only with his dancer subjects, but also with surrounding details as well..

[Audio] How are these two pieces different? Although Degas loved his ballerinas, in these two pieces of art, there are quite a few differences which shows the spectrum of Degas' artistic ability. Here we see that the Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer is a three-dimensional sculpture. The painting of the Tilting Dancer, is a two-dimensional piece that we cannot reach out and touch. We can only imagine the texture and details of the painting, whereas we can reach out and touch the details of the sculpture. The sculpture is made of bronze, cotton, ribbon, and wood, while the painting was created with a single art medium ( oil pastel). The third difference is the color pallet. The sculpture is all one color. We see that the entire dancer is bronze in color, including the base. The oil pastel piece shows much brighter colors and an array of colors within the pallet which adds depth to the piece and vibrancy. Lastly, the activities within each piece is different. The statue preparing to dance and seems to be stretching and warming up, while we can tell that the oil pastel ballerina is on stage performing..

[Audio] My personal preference is the Tilting Dancer. I personally prefer paintings and other two-dimensional works to the sculptures. With paintings and drawings, we can use our imagination and come up with our own interpretation as to what is happening, what things may feel like, or what the scene may look like behind the painting. There is so much left to the imagination this way. When looking at a sculpture, there is no background. You can touch it, so you know what the texture is. For me personally, I prefer to make up the scene in my head, and I love that details in the paintings allow my brain to do this. When I see the Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, I know what she is doing, and while she really is a beautiful piece, there really isn't much left to the imagination in my opinion. I also love the fact that the color differences are a little more stimulating in the painting than the sculpture. The use of color really adds to the ability to use the imagination..

9/3/2023. Degas. 7. Wikiart Visual Art Encyclopedia. (2023). “Dancer Tilting”. https://www.wikiart.org/en/edgar- degas/dancer-tilting. Wikimedia Commons. (November, 2022). “Degas-Dancer”. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Degas-dancer.jpg..