Introduction
William Fosdick piece titled Adoration of St. Joan of Arc ( William, 1896) represents a spiritual art. The piece was painted in 1896 as a depiction of how the wealthy industrialists favored the richly designed interiors. The piece’s location as a now is Smithsonian American Art Museum and is painted on a wood medium. The image is relatively large with the dimensions of 109 by 49 inches. Looking at the picture is attractive mainly and should be viewed in its entirety.
The colorful piece of image is a representation of a spiritual appeal depicted to the wealthy tycoons who love some richly designed interiors. However, William uses some few types of colors in the piece of work. St. Joan is represented with brown colors light brown colors represent the woman's faces while their clothes are dark brown. The background of the image is also painted with the dark and bright brown colors. In detail of the renaissance times paintings, Joan’s cloths color and hair are emphasized.
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William makes use of implied lines to direct the audience of the image. The suggested routes are the direction to which all the women are facing to the center of St. Joan where they are all facing and directing the viewers. St. Joan is seen standing there while all the other women are bowing down at her feet while others are there sideways. The women that are there sideways are well dressed in expensive clothes of the ancient times. There are also two women who are there that seem as angels with wings but dressed in simple clothing. The women are seen to be in a spirit form where they are praying. There are also empty spaces that seem to be light blue; therefore, the spaces do not seem to have laid much weight as the other dark brown places, such as the dark brown colors of their dresses and hair. The visual lightness of the brown color and the other women’s garments brings in a healthy balance of the multitude of the differences between dressing mode of the women ( Scott, 2018) .
The artwork is a rectangle in shape taking the form of a rectangular shape. There are small images that repeat themselves at the back of Joan. We can see them facing in the same direction as Joan. The model has soft colors that depict the warmth and peacefulness of the image. The image is centered on Joan, and therefore the author of the piece has used the space well since he covered the whole portion of the image. The repetition of the background images at the back gives a sense of unity, in a perfect pattern offering a very good design.
It appears as if there are some small black spaces which are painted in a dull blue color, but it should look that way to some degree or else one would not be able to distinguish it, thus the dark blue color that is not that much emphasized that the rest of the brown portion of the image. There are two squares on either side of the picture that has been painted with a dark brown color and light respectively. William’s use of palette creates a sense of variety and unity. He has also used warm colors in the whole piece and diversely used of one solid-colored background brings in the creation of integration in the spiritually oriented piece. The use of the diverse variety of colors that is the warm colors and the cool colors brings in the production of range in the artwork. The flowers that are comprised in either side of the image also bring in variety since they have mixed the dark and light brown colors. The question of the purpose of the model has been overly directed since they are all pointing out to a spiritual purpose. Even without the focus of the Joan centered image, the other images in the image one could tell the purpose or focus of the artwork ( Castor, 2014) .
The placement of the images and posture of the people in the picture shows a sense of unity. The women on the image are peacefully kneeling in front of Joan’s vision seems to be at peace and content. There is an image of a shield at the bottom of Joan’s feet with crops with a sword and crown. Therefore, it is obvious to note that there is the view of wealth and spiritual appealing in the image. The women who are seated on either side of the image also have shields with pictures of the crops. They are also holding long spears but are not in such a way that suggests they are going for battle.
William’s use of colors that are dull on Joan gives the image an ancient look leaving out the traditional white colors which suggest or symbolize purity. Joan is holding a sword on one side of her hand and wood on the other side of her hand. The garment she is wearing has a cross which is a spiritual symbol. Her shoes are different with one emphasized with the dark brown color and the other with a light brown color. The division in colors suggests the two purposes of the image which are the spiritual appeal to the wealthy. The women on either side of the model have baskets with them that are filled with foodstuffs. At the bottom of the image, there are some words written that suggest that she is a legend since she had died for being a king and her country ( Longstaffe, 2017) .
The women that have knelt on either side of her have somber faces seem as if they are redeeming themselves to her. However, they have spears to show how strong they are to the world just like their male counterparts. Others have garments that have a cross drawn on the front of their garments, with good designs, that look attractive. Through the employment of color, William brought out various symbols of boldness for the meaning of the image. The image has very few men to be precise only one man is seen but a lot of women who surround her. Therefore, the bringing in of the boldness and emphasizing colors of dark brown and black connects well with the purpose of showing the world the role of modern women since looking at the world as it is today it is seen that women are brought up to be strong and shown to work hard in accomplishing anything and proved to be independent.
References
Castor, H. (2014). Joan of Arc . Faber & Faber.
Longstaffe, M. (2017). Joan of Arc and'The Great Pity of the Land of France' . Amberley Publishing Limited.
Scott, W. S. (2018). Trial of Joan of Arc . Courier Dover Publications.
William J. F. (1896), Adoration of St. Joan of Arc. Fire etched wood relief, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
