Hands in Art

THEME: THE BODY AND ITS FEATURES

We all take notice of each other in different ways. Most of us first notice the other person’s eyes and what they might reveal about the personality within: caring, thoughtful, intelligent, mischievous. Some people look at your clothes, others your hair style. Think for a moment what feature you take in when you meet someone-particularly someone you are not familiar with.

Personally I’m a hands observer. And eyes also. For me, these features tell you more about a person than their hair style, clothes, or they way they speak. Over the next few blogs I want us to study a little more about human features and how they are represented in different forms of art. Today we are going to start with hands.

And probably the other most famous hand in art is Rodin's bronze sculpture The Hand of a Pianist which I have showcased in the Hero Image. But we need to go beyond the famous and look in more depth at other hands in art.

If we start with babies and hands we need go no further than the photographic works of Australian photographer Anne Geddes so well known for her images of small children. Geddes’ imagery singularly captures the beauty, purity and vulnerability of children … embodying her deeply held belief that every child deserves to be “protected, nurtured and loved”. (annegeddes.com) Most of us are familiar with cute images such as this one where the impact is created particularly by the child's face, costume and background scenery. The baby hands aren't particularly important except to portray innocence by the way they are placed in this photo.

No words are required. The Geddes’ touch says it all.

There is a little homework for you to do before tomorrow's blog and that is to look at this site which has an excellent visual summary of hands in art over the passing of time. Learn about the creation of Hands by primitive people, early civilisations, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer and many more. No reading- it's all visual.

And a Happy Christmas to all my Russian Orthodox family and friends.

(Credit: Russia Trek.org)