McART WORDS AND IMAGES
The First Year Seminar on Great Ideas studies artistic interpretations of ten ideas for five and a half weeks.
After an introductory session on blending art and ideas, the students read Biblical stories and essays by
Mortimer J. Adler on three arête elements (Courage, Justice, and Moderation), producing Art Profiles from
among selected art works. During the next four sessions the class considers Happiness, Beauty, Love, and
God. Finally, after hand drawing their dual self-portraits now and at some future time to visualize the concept
of Character, the students complete the remaining three ideas of War and Peace, Life and Death, and
Judgment. -- Charlie McAllister (Fall 2010, Catawba College)
I: THE ART OF ARETE
Web Resources
 Arête (Wikipedia)
 Seven Virtues (Wikipedia) -- With Cardinal Virtues
 Giotto, Seven Virtues and Seven Vices (c. 1306)
 Seven Deadly Sins (Wikipedia)
 Bosch, Tabletop of the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things (c. 1480)
II: COURAGE
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "Courage" (Adler)
GROUP I: Sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22.1-19)
 Ghiberti and Brunelleschi (1401)
 Caravaggio (c. 1601-5)
 Titian (1542-44)
 Rembrandt (1635)
 Marc Chagall (1960-66)
GROUP II: David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17.1-54)
 Donatello (1409-34)
 Michelangelo (1504)
 Titian (1542-44)
 Caravaggio (1609-10)
 Bernini (1623-24)
III: JUSTICE
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "Justice" (Adler)
GROUP I: Massacre of the Innocents (Matthew 1.18-2.1-18)
 Giovanni Pisano (1301)
 Giotto (1304-06)
 Domenico Ghirlandaio (1486-90)
 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1566)
 Rubens (1636-38)
 Picasso, Guernica (1937)
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GROUP II: Prodigal Son (Luke 15.1-32)
 Albrecht Dürer, The Prodigal Son among the Swine (1497-98)
 Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1618)
 Rembrandt, The Prodigal Son in the Tavern (c. 1635)
 Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son (c. 1669)
 Bartolome Estaban Murillo (1660s)
 Giorgio de Chirico (1922)
IV: MODERATION
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary (moderation and temperance) and "Temperance" (Adler)
GROUP I: Temptation and Fall (Genesis 3)
 Gislebertus, Eve (c. 1120-32)
 Masaccio (1426-27)
 Michelangelo (1509-10)
 Auguste Rodin (c. 1885)
 Barnett Newman, Eve (1950)
 Marc Chagall (1954-60)
GROUP II: David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11.1-21.24)
 Jan Massys (1562)
 Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1635)
 Rembrandt (1654)
 Rembrandt, David and Uriah (1665)
 Jan Steen (c. 1665-70)
 Marc Chagall (1956)
V: HAPPINESS
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "Happiness" (Robert Fulghum, "Not Even Chickens" and
Mortimer J. Adler, "Aristotle's Ethics: The Theory of Happiness")
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Jan van Eyck, Stigmatization of St Francis (1428-29)
Donatello, Mary Magdalene (c. 1457)
Botticelli, The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (fourth episode) (c. 1483)
Giovanni Bellini, St Francis in Ecstasy (1480-85)
Hieronymus Bosch, Death and the Miser (c. 1485-90)
Michelangelo, Bacchus (1497)
Quentin Metsys, The Moneylender and His Wife (1514)
Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-22)
Titian, Bacchanal of the Andrians (c. 1522-23)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children's Games (1559-60)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Fight between Carnival and Lent (1559)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Tower of Babel (1563)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Peasant Dance (c. 1567)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Misanthrope (1568)
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Caravaggio, Young Drunk Bacchus (c. 1593)
Caravaggio, Bacchus (c. 1596)
Francisco de Zurbaran, Apparition of the Apostle St. Peter to St. Peter Nolasco (1629)
Judith Leyster, Jolly Toper (1629)
Diego Velazquez, The Triumph of Bacchus (c. 1629)
Pieter Pauwel Rubens, Bacchus (1638-40)
Bernini, The Ecstasy of Saint Therese (1647-52)
Jan Steen, A Merry Party (c. 1660)
Jan Steen, The Dissolute Household (1661-64)
Jan Steen, The Bean Feast (1668)
Jan Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1664)
Vigée-Lebrun, Marie Louise Elisabeth, Self-Portrait in a Turban with Her Child (1786)
Winslow Homer, Snap the Whip (1872)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (1876)
George Caleb Bingham, The Jolly Flatboatmen (1877-78)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-81)
Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882)
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers (1888)
Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson (1893)
VI: BEAUTY
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "The Idea of Beauty" (Adler)
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Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci (c. 1474-76)
Botticelli, Primavera (c. 1482)
Botticelli, Birth of Venus (c. 1484-86)
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Giovanna Tornabuoni (1488)
Domenico Ghirlandaio, An Old Man and His Grandson (c. 1490)
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (c. 1503-6)
Hans Baldung Grien, Three Ages of the Woman and the Death (1510)
Michelangelo, Creation of Adam (1510)
Quentin Massys, The Ugly Duchess (1525-30)
Titian, Venus of Urbino (before 1538)
Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Fountain of Youth (1546)
Benvenuto Cellini, Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1545-54)
Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin (1606)
Peter Paul Rubens, The Fur ("Het Pelsken") (1630s)
Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665-66)
Antonio Canova, Cupid and Psyche (1786-93)
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Large Odalisque (1814)
Raphaelle Peale, Venus Rising from the Sea -- A Deception (After the Bath) (c. 1822)
Thomas Cole, The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton) (1836)
Hiram Powers, The Greek Slave (1843)
Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits (1849)
Frederic Church, Heart of the Andes (1859)
Édouard Manet, Olympia (1863)
Albert Bierstadt, Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California (1865)
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Thomas Moran, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872)
Thomas Eakins, John Biglin in a Single Scull (c. 1873)
John Singer Sargent, Madame X (Mme. Gautreau) (1884)
Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907)
Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912)
Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q. (1919)
Grant Woods, Daughters of Revolution (1932)
Andrew Wyeth, Christina's World (1948)
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych (1962)
VII: LOVE
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "How to Think about Love" (Adler)
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Botticelli, The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti (first episode) (c. 1483)
Titian, Sacred and Profane Love (1514)
Agnolo Bronzino, Venus, Cupide and the Time (Allegory of Lust) (1540-45)
Titian, Venus and Adonis (1554)
Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders (1610)
Peter Paul Rubens, The Garden of Love (c. 1632-35)
Nicolas Poussin, The Rape of the Sabine Women (1634-35)
Rembrandt, Rape of Ganymede (1635)
Nicolas Poussin, Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice (1650-51)
Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Teresa (1645-52)
Jan Steen, Love Sickness (c. 1660)
Jean-Antoine Watteau, The Pilgrimage to Cythera (1717)
William Hogarth, Marriage a la Mode: I) Marriage Settlement (c. 1743)
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (c. 1749)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing (1767)
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Meeting (1771-73)
Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (1830)
John Everett Millais, Ophelia (1852)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Paolo and Francesca (1849-62)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881)
Auguste Rodin, The Kiss (1889)
Mary Cassatt, Maternal Caress (1891)
Auguste Rodin, Orpheus and Eurydice (1893)
Camille Claudel, The Mature Age (1894-1900)
J. W. Waterhouse, Echo and Narcissus (1903)
Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (1907-08)
Käthe Kollwitz, Mother with her Dead Son (1903 and 1993)
Salvador Dali, Metamorphosis of Narcissus (1937)
Thomas Hart Benton, Persephone (1939)
Frida Kahlo, Diego and I (1949)
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VIII: GOD
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "The Great Idea of God" (Adler)
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Giotto, Marriage at Cana (1304-06)
Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna (c. 1310)
Duccio, Maesta (1308-11)
Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece: God Almighty (1426-27)
Masaccio, Trinity (c. 1425-28)
Giovanni di Paolo, The Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise (c. 1445)
Giovanni Bellini, Agony in the Garden (c. 1465)
Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper (c. 1495-98)
Michelangelo, Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants (1511)
Michelangelo, Creation of Adam (1508-12)
Michelangelo, Creation of Eve (1509-11)
Michelangelo, The Deluge (1508-09)
Giovanni Bellini, The Feast of the Gods (1514)
Matthias Grunewald, The Isenheim Altarpiece (1515)
Titian, Assumption of the Virgin (1516-18)
Raphael, Transfiguration (1517-20)
Correggio, Jupiter and Io (1531-32)
Tintoretto, Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples (c. 1547)
Tintoretto, Creation of the Animals (c. 1552-52)
Tintoretto, The Last Supper (1592-94)
Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus (1601-02)
Francisco de Zurbarán, Crucifixion (1627)
Rembrandt, Supper at Emmaus (1648)
William Blake, Ancient of Days (1794)
William Blake, Job Confessing his Presumption to God who Answers from the Whirlwind (1803-05)
Caspar David Friedrich, Tetschen Altar (Cross in the Mountains) (1808)
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jupiter and Thetis (1811)
Horatio Greenough, George Washington (1840)
Constantino Brumidi, The Apotheosis of Washington (1865)
Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night (1889)
Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation (1898)
Salvador Dalí, The Sacrament of the Last Supper (1955)
Mark Rothko Chapel (1965-66, Houston, TX)
IX: MAN
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary (character, man, and portrait)
Web Resources
 The Self-Portrait as Self-Study
 Who am I? Self-Portraits in Art and Writing (NGA): Vincent van Gogh (1889), Paul Guagin (1889),
Judith Leyster (c. 1630), and David Alfara Siqueiros (1948)
 Rembrandt, Self-portraits in Chronological Order (WGA)
 Choose one artist: Albrecht Dürer, Sofonisba Anguisosola, Judith Leyster, Thomas Smith, Vincent
van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Lucien Freud
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X: WAR AND PEACE
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "How to Think about War and Peace" (Adler)
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Botticelli, Venus and Mars (c. 1483)
Albrecht Dürer, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (c. 1497–98)
El Greco, Laocoön (1610)
Pieter Pauwel Rubens, The Consequences of War (1637-38)
Diego Velazquez, The Surrender of Breda (1635-35)
Diego Velazquez, Mars, God of War (c. 1640)
Benjamin West, William Penn's Treaty with the Indians (c. 1771)
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii (1784-85)
Goya, The Third of May, 1808 (1814)
Goya, Saturn Devouring One Of His Children (1819-23)
Francois Rude, La Marseillaise (The Departure of the Volunteers) (1833-36)
Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom (c. 1834)
Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
Winslow Homer, Prisoners from the Front (1866)
Daniel Chester French, The Minute Man (1874)
Lady Elizabeth Butler, Scotland Forever! (1881)
Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais (1884-86)
Frederic Remington, Fight for the Water Hole (1897)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (1897)
Otto Dix, Self-Portrait as Mars (1915)
Childe Hassam, Allies Day, May 1917 (1917)
John Singer Sargent, Gassed (1918)
Paul Nash, We are Making a New World (1918)
William Orpen, Signing in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles (1919)
Sir Stanley Spencer, The Resurrection of the Soldiers (1928-29)
Grant Wood, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (1931)
Salvador Dali, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936)
Picasso, Guernica (1937)
Salvador Dali, Visage of War (1940)
Otto Dix, Self-portrait as POW (1947)
Felix W. de Weldon, The U. S. Marine Corps Memorial (1951-54)
Marc Chagall, War (1964-66)
Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982)
XI: LIFE AND DEATH
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary and "Why Philosophy is Everybody's Business" (Adler)
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Giotto, Lamentation (1305-6)
Masaccio, The Distribution of Alms and the Death of Ananias (1426-27)
Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition (c. 1435)
Giovanni Bellini, Dead Christ Supported by the Madonna and St John (1460)
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Hugo van der Goes, The Lamentation (c. 1470-75)
Antonello de Messina, The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel (1475-76)
Andrea Mantegna, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1490)
Michelangelo, Pieta (c. 1499)
Michelangelo, Pieta (c. 1450)
Michelangelo, Pietà Rondanini (c. 1552-64)
Hans Baldung Grien, Three Ages of the Woman and the Death (1510)
Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil (1513)
Hans Holbein the Younger, The French Ambassadors (1533)
Titian, Death of Actaeon (1562)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Triumph of Death (c. 1562)
El Greco, The Burial of Count Orgaz (1588)
Caravaggio, The Death of the Virgin (1606)
Pieter Pauwel Rubens, Descent from the Cross (1612-14)
Nicolas Poussin, The Death of Germanicus (c. 1627-28)
Benjamin West, Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus (1767)
Joseph Wright of Derby, Experiment with Air Pump (c. 1768)
Benjamin West, Death of General Wolfe (1770)
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark (1778)
John Trumbull, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill (1786)
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates (1787)
Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat (1793)
John Vanderlyn, The Death of Jane McCrea (1804)
Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa (1818-19)
Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)
Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans (1849-1850)
Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows (1890)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, The Adams Memorial (1886-91)
Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas (1939)
XII: JUDGMENT
Words -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary (judgment, punishment, and reward) and "The Great Books, the Great
Ideas, and a Lifetime of Learning" (Adler)
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Gislebertus, Last Judgment (1130-45)
Giotto, Expulsion of the Money-changers from the Temple (1304-06)
Giotto, Last Judgment (1303-6)
Duccio, Descent to Hell (1308-11)
Jan van Eyck, Last Judgment (1420-25)
Stefan Lochner, Last Judgment (c. 1435)
Petrus Christus, Last Judgment (1452)
Rogier van der Weyden, Last Judgment (1446-52)
Hans Memling, Last Judgment Triptych (1467-71)
Botticelli, The Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron (1481-82)
Gerard David, The Judgment of Cambyses (1498)
Luca Signorelli, The Damned (1499-1502)
Joachim Patenier, Charon (early 16C)
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Albrecht Dürer, Harrowing of Hell (1512)
Hieronymus Bosch, Paradise and Hell (c. 1510)
Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1505-15)
Joos van Cleve, Last Judgment (c. 1520–25)
Michelangelo, Last Judgment (1537-41)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c. 1555)
Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas (1576)
Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1598)
El Greco, The Purification of the Temple (c. 1600}
Pieter Pauwel Rubens, Prometheus Bound (1610-11)
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (1611-12)
Christofano Allori, Judith with the Head of Holofernes (1613)
Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (1612-21)
Jan Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (c. 1664)
Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons (1789)
Gustav Klimt, Judith I (1901)
Grant Woods, Parson Weems' Fable (1939)
Frida Kahlo, Without Hope (1945)
Henri Matisse, Icarus (1947)
Marc Chagall, The Fall of Icarus (1975)
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