Sources of inspiration

Identifying fantasy themes in the works of the Swiss artist Paul Klee (1879-1940) serves as another example of investigating sources of inspiration.

Paul Klee
Battle Scene from the Comic Opera "The Seafarer," 1923
Colored sheet, watercolor and oil drawing
Private Collection, Fran T. Durst-Hass
Muttenz, Switzerland
Examples of the ways artists interpret ideas and feelings also need to be investigated. Beliefs and emotions may be dealt with: realistically, depicting objects as they might actually appear (a portrait of a lady by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden, 1400-1464); symbolically, reflected in personal views or social conventions (portrait of a wedding couple by the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck, 1395-1441); or dramatically, exaggerating scale or dark and light qualities (the chiaroscuro effects in a portrait by the great Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606-1669).
Rogier van der Weyden
Portrait of a Lady, c.1455
Oil on wood, 14 1/2" X 10 3/4"
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
This remarkable portrait presents an image of a woman who appears to posses great inner strength, which can be attributed to the strong and almost equilateral triangle created by her head dress and the unequivocal dark and light contrast.
Jan van Eyck
The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and
Giovana Cenami,
1434
Oil on wood, 32 1/4" X 23 1/2"
National Gallery of Art, London
Several of the symbols in this painting implies that the couple are standing on the holy ground of matrimony and the dog in the foreground stands for faithfulness and love and loyalty between husband and wife.
Rembrandt van Rijn
Head of Christ (Detail), 1650
Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Dramatic effects are emphasized through the manipulation of values, which conveys an extraordinary mood of both vulnerability and saintliness.