Degas and Titian

I will be comparing “Dancers in the Wings,” by Edgar Degas, to “Christ Crowned With Thorns,” by Titian.  I used “Degas” by Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge (Gordon, p. 166), and “The World of Titian, c. 1488 – 1576” by Jay Williams (Williams, p. 161), and their respective portrayals of these two paintings.

Edgar Degas painted “Dancers in the Wings,” or “Danseuses Derrière le Portant” sometime between 1878 to 1880. The media of this painting is pastel and tempera on paper, with the dimensions of 27¼ × 19¾" (69.2 × 50.2 cm.).  At the time of the publication of Gordon’s  book this work could be found at the Norton Simon Art Foundation, Pasedena.  (Gordon, p. 276)

Titian painted “Christ Crowned With Thorns” sometime around 1570.  Although William’s book no where explicitly states that the media used was oil, I believe it is safe to assume this is an oil painting.  It is painted on canvas, and “canvas and oil went together like wine and cheese.” (Williams, p. 12)  The dimensions of the painting are 9' 2¼" × 5' 11⅝."

In “Dancers in the Wings” Degas uses the impressionistic style to portray two dancers who appear to be awaiting their on stage appearance.  In neither figure do we see a full portrait of the dancer.  The dancer in the foreground is placed at the edge of the painting so that we literally see only one half of her frontal view.  The dancer in the background actually becomes the focus of the picture even though she too is not fully portrayed.  She is instead partially hidden from view by the first dancer.

When I think of a ballet dancer I think of light, airy scenes where the dancers are full of energy.  At the risk of sounding chauvinistic I also first think of ballerinas who are of course very feminine and appear to be very dainty.  In this painting Degas does not portray the feminine delicateness of the ballet dancer.  Instead he shows the viewer the real person rather than the illusion we see on stage.  Here we see two dancers readying themselves for the work they must do once they enter onto the stage. 

These are not the petite dancers we see on stage.  These are women at work.  They are thinking about their parts.  The woman in the background adjusts her shoe as she leans on a backstage prop.  She looks at the blank wall and we sense that she is thinking.  This sense is reinforced by the woman in the foreground.  We see only one of her eyes, but that eye is slightly drooped giving the viewer the sense of one who both has something on her mind and is tired.

The content of this painting is not one of young ballerinas in the show simply for the thrill of being on stage.  The content is of women who have chosen the dance as a profession.  To them the stage is their place of work.  They are being paid to perform, and to perform as rehearsed.  Thus his form is to have the two dancers have the look of contemplation as they go over their choreographed parts, and the weary look of those who have done this night after night.

Degas wants the viewer to focus in on the girl in the background.  All most all lines in the painting point to her.  The stage prop fades back with a vanishing point somewhere outside the painting.  The lines of this prop serve two purposes.  First, the lines add perspective to the painting, giving the viewer a sense of depth.  Secondly, the lines of the prop serve to draw the viewers eyes to the girl in the background.  And even as the lines of the prop ends the jagged edge of the prop are used by Degas to point down to the girl in the pink outfit. 

The dress lines of the foreground dancer point toward the dancer in the background.  Even the flowers on her head are arranged in such a way that they too point to the girl who, partially as a result of this use of lines, becomes the main focal point.

Where some lines on the girls dress in the foreground begin to go back to herself, they are broken by lines that point the dancer in the background.  On the other hand, all the lines on the girl in the background point back to herself without interruption. The lines on the girl in the background serve to draw the viewer's eyes to her. Even both her arms are extended to form straight lines pointing back to some point on her body.

Most striking, with regards to creating a focal point for the painting, is the shape of the girl in the background.  Degas uses a sharp contrast of somewhat complementary colors to make her shape stand out from the rest of the painting.  By using this contrast he causes the viewer to focus immediately on the girl in the pink dress.

With his choice of colors or hues Degas again causes the viewer’s eye to focus in on the girl in the background.  Her colors are bright and more feminine, much like one most often envisions a ballerina.  All other colors in the painting have darker values, causing the light value of the pink dress to stand out.  By contrast, the girl in the foreground is portrayed with more subdued and earthy hues, having the effect of blending her more into the background colors.

Notwithstanding this contrast in colors, Degas’ painting is still much brighter over all than Titian’s “Christ Crowned With Thorns” (c. 1570).  In the latter painting virtually all the colors have dark or subdued values.  He has even been able to somehow make the white bear a subdued value by giving it a darker tone by tinting it with some of the other hues in the painting.  Yet, all the while, it is his use of the contrast of white against the other hues that brings the viewer’s focus immediately to the figure of Christ.

There is an illusion of motion in Titian's painting as the shape and lines of one figure draws the eye to the shape and lines of the next, and so on as the viewer's eye goes around the picture.  All the figures together form kind of a circle that causes the viewer's eye to move around the picture.  This movement of the eye around the picture gives motion to the painting. 

I would also like to note that as the viewer moves around the painting his or her eye might be drawn, as was mine, to the shape of a cross just above and to the right of the figure of the cross.  It is as if Titian was reminding the viewer both that the suffering will continue beyond this scene, and that the cross is what makes all this suffering worth while.

All of this motion is enhanced by the short brush strokes, and the somewhat hazy look of the painting.  This haziness has the same effect on the painting as does a photograph of an object in motion.  In the photograph the object appears faded or blurred around the edges, telling the viewer that this object was moving at the time the shutter of the camera opened and shut.  The somewhat blurred appearance of the figures has this effect on the eye of the viewer.

This somewhat blurred effect, as well as the motion of the picture, gives the overall theme a kind of agitation that reinforces the content of the painting.  The viewer can sense the agony of the Christ as he is tormented at the hand of those who are beating him with the weapons the wield in their hands. 

Here again, as in Degas’ painting, the viewer is forced by the various lines of the painting to bring his focus in on the central figure.  In Degas’ painting all the major lines point directly to the central figure.  In Titian’s painting the lines seem to serve more as a border for, or to outline, the central figure of Christ.  The weapon’s Christ’s antagonists hold do not point directly to the figure of Christ, but they frame the figure of Christ in such a way as to bring the viewer’s eye to him.  The sticks, the axe, and even the steps, and the bodies of the other men in the painting, all serve to frame the figure of Christ, leaving no question that he is the focal point of the picture. 

In both paintings the use of colors also help set the mood of the setting.  In Titian’s painting the value of the colors is dark, as are the emotions of one who must imagine their savior being tortured in such a way.  Although Degas uses brighter hues in his painting there is less a sense of energy associated with dancers.  Instead his use of darker values to frame the picture helps give the sense of introspection and weariness, rather than excitement and anticipation.  It is not the mood of pain and anguish, as in Titian’s, but the mood is still one of dulled senses, weariness, and work.

No hues in Titian's painting, with the possible exception of black, gives the appearance of being fully saturated.  Even the pure black colors are interrupted by streaks and spots of other colors in the painting.  This gives, then, the appearance of no color having complete saturation.  This can also be said of Degas' painting.  Red seems to be the most saturated hue in his painting, but his desire to have each color reflect some of the light coming from somewhere outside the painting causes him too to dab the red with spots of other, lighter, hues.

The bright colors of the girl in the background of Degas' painting foretell the bright and energetic performance to come, but it does not change the overall mood of the painting.  Her stooped position, her holding onto the stage prop for support, and her look as though lost in thought, seem to take away any inclination of interpreting the overall mood as one of being bright and cheerful.

In Titian’s painting the viewer has the real sense of being on onlooker; his or her eye level is below the scene that is portrayed in the painting.  There is no sense of being on the same stage as you feel when viewing Degas.  In Titian the viewer is lower, as though looking up to a stage and watching the scene taking place.  This gives the viewer the realization that this is a scene in which he or she is both helpless to get involved, or to intercede, and that his is a depiction or reenactment of something that has already occurred. 

In Degas’ painting the eye level is equal to the figures in the painting.  The viewer can feel as though he or she is on stage (or backstage) with  the dancers.  The emotions are felt as though it is happening right here and right now.  You are anticipating the live performance.  This anticipation is made real by the real emotions of the dancers who appear tired yet ready to put on the performance.  The contemplative look in their eyes shows both a weariness and a need to go over their parts just one more time before entering the spotlight.

This is an event that is about to happen, and the viewer is given the sense of anticipation.  In Titian the painting is of an event that happened long ago, and the viewer is left with a sense of anguish and helplessness.

Although Titian painted during the 16^th Century, three-hundred years before the Impressionist, such as Degas, there are some very striking similarities.  The most obvious similarity is the impressionistic style in the use of the brush.  Degas is an impressionist painter, using the soft brush strokes, and the combination of complimentary colors.  Titian used a similar style in this painting.  His brush strokes, for the most part, seem short.  The light colors he does use seem to reflect whatever light there is in the painting; much as the impressionist attempted to give objects in the sunlight the look of the sun’s reflection.

In both paintings this style means there is very little saturation of any of the colors.  All colors seem to be purposefully tinted in such a way as to reflect the light; whether that light is natural or man-made.

Titian’s colors are more complementary than those of Degas, yet both paintings are enhanced by the artist’s use of colors as earlier discussed.  Titian's use of more analogous colors with a darker value gives his painting the more somber mood.  Degas, on the other hand, uses somewhat more complementary colors to remind the viewer that his is not a somber scene, albeit a somewhat weary scene.

 Works Cited

Gordon, Robert and Andrew Forge.  Degas.  New York: Abradale Press,             1988.

Williams, Jay.  The World of Titian: c. 1488 - 1576.  New York: Time-Life             Books, 1968.