Upon arriving to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the size and the amount of art was very overwhelming. I journeyed through one gallery at a time, admiring all the different pieces of art that were being shown: from paintings and sculptures to stained glass and pottery. I saw a numerous amount of art that stood out to me, but one particular piece would have to be Heart of the Andes, painted by Frederic Edwin Church. Looking at this amazing work of art put me in a state of awe, wondering how someone was able to create this.

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According to the Met description of this painting, Frederic Church painted Heart of the Andes in Ecuador on 1859 using oil paint. He probably painted this painting to illustrate his appreciation of God for creating such beauties in nature. Based on looking at the painting, it falls into the genre of landscape art, which is evident through the showcase of what one would normally see in nature, such as mountains, water, clouds and trees. This natural scenery depicted in Church’s painting allows the painting’s viewers to feel as if they were there with Church, witnessing the same beauty he witnessed when he was painting this piece of art. Not only that, by looking deeper at the painting, one can see all the different elements that Church used to compose this piece of landscape artwork.

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First of all, at first glance of the painting, it can be seen that this painting was formatted as a horizontal rectangle. This is common in most landscape paintings since when one looks at nature, they tend to see it from left to right instead of from top to bottom. Not only that, making a landscape painting a horizontal rectangle lets the artist show more of what they are seeing as opposed to a vertical rectangle that limits the amount of landscape that can be painted. As for the overall structure of this painting, it looks to me as if the painting itself is divided into four sections of triangles. The trees on the left and right sides all look like many triangles combined together to create a forest-like image. In the middle, the waterfall and the pond as a whole looks like a triangle as well. Lastly, the snowy mountain and the snowless mountain both seem to be their own triangles. These triangles help to give each structure in this painting, such as the mountains and trees, a feeling of stability and safety. 

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As mentioned before, Church used oil painting to create this painting. The brushstrokes he used to create this painting can barely be seen because he was able to blend his strokes so well that the painting almost looks like a photograph. By blending in his brushstrokes, Church is able to create a more smooth and realistic looking piece of artwork. In addition to this, Church was able to include a mixture of open and closed shapes in this piece of artwork. In some areas, such as the trees and even the cross, Church was able to use his brushstrokes to create distinct lines that helped to give these objects a definite edge, so we are able to know what they are. However, other areas like within the mountains, contain a very complicated form where edges cannot be easily determined, making it more of an open shape. 

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What makes Heart of the Andes stand out to many like me is the large array of colors that come together to create such a great painting like this. Starting off with the sky, it is in a nice hue of blue with some gray clouds. Both of them seem to be low in intensity and value, giving a calm feeling to the viewer as it seems like a decent day. Moving on to the mountains, the mountain farther in the back has a dull snowy white color, while the one closer has a dull light brown color. The dullness is probably a result of it being very far away in the distance when Church was painting this. Now looking at the water portion of this painting, the waterfall has a bright white color to it, while the body of water has an array of colors that is too much to name because it is reflecting everything around it. After that, we have the trees on both the right and left side of the painting. The left trees are more dull and dark, looking as if it is like an army green, while the right trees have a slightly greater intensity, appearing to be more of an olive green. Lastly, in the part of the painting with the dull, white cross, there are two people that can be seen and differentiated by the visible difference in the color of clothing they wear. There is one in a bright tomato red shirt and another in a bright teal shirt who we can see have a story of their own as they are praying at the cross. All these colors together do a great job in making the painting look balanced. Not only that, it gives the painting a calm and relaxing mood, instead of a stormy and upsetting one. 

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In addition to the colors, Church also used shading and luminosity to make his painting look even more realistic. Under the trees, such as those on the right side of the painting, the shading is visible in the shadows of those trees. As we shift our view up the trunk of the trees hanging off the cliff on the right, we can see that the shading gets lighter and lighter, showing the extent to which Church was able to make his painting more realistic. Not only that, by shading and creating these shadows that are directly below the objects, Church allows his viewers to believe that the sun is directly above this whole view as he was painting this. Church also used luminosity to create an illusion of light that catches our eyes’ attention. For example, in the waterfall, Church’s play with the white mist surrounded by a darker shade of the water, makes it seem as if the mist is reflecting some of the sunlight to us. Luminosity is also apparent in other areas such as the cross, where the white cross is put in front of the darkness of trees. This causes an illusion where we think that the cross is emitting some light, which Church probably did on purpose to emphasize the importance of God. 

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Church can also be seen using scale and proportion while working on this painting. The most obvious area of where he used this would be how he made the mountains seem like this biggest object in this painting. He did this by making the mountain take up most of the space near the top of the canvas, while making everything directly in front of it, such as the small town in the middle, very small. This allows for the perception that the mountain is huge, which would make sense in the real world, showing that Church was able to use scale and proportion to make the painting more realistic as well. 

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Lastly, Church used illusionistic space to help make us view certain objects in the paintings as farther away than others. For instance, he used overlapping to make it seem like those objects on top would appear closer. This is very evident in the mountains where the snowy and snowless mountains are overlapping and since the snowless mountain is on top, it appears to be closer than the snowy one. Church also used scale changes to achieve this effect, which can be seen in the trees on the right and left of the painting because the trees that look larger appear to also be closer than the smaller trees. In addition, there was also a change in color intensity that causes the illusion of depth and that can be found in the trees surrounding the waterfall. These trees are brighter in green, thus they appear closer than the duller green trees right behind it. Additionally, one of the techniques Church utilized the most to create depth in this painting is the position in which he put everything. It is very apparent that Church made everything that seems closer more towards the bottom of the painting, such as the few detailed trees. However, as he went up the painting, everything seemed farther and farther until the snowy mountains which appears the farthest mainly because it is almost all the way at the top of the painting. Finally, he can also be seen using atmospheric perspective because the closer trees look very detailed compared to those farther away, which eventually looks like a whole patch of green. By using these techniques, it allows for Church’s viewers to have a sense of how far some things were relative to others, which helps them get a better sense of what Church saw as he was painting this.

 

Overall, the experience I had at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was one I do not think I can ever forget, Seeing the numerous amount of amazing artwork, such as Church’s Heart of the Andes helped me look at art in ways that I would never have. Doing this has allowed me to dig deeper into Church’s techniques and see how he was able to compose such a piece of artwork. All in all, looking at how he was able to paint this piece of art only made me admire him for what he was able to do even more.