The San Antonio Museum of Art displays a piece called, “Tree of Life” made in 1805. “Tree of Life is a painting made by Sor Juana Beatriz de la Fuente a Mexican nun; de la Fuente is from Morelia, Mochoacan, Mexico. “The painting is rooted in European morality art of the 16th century” (San Antonio Museum of Art Plaque). The this painting uses realism to help in the depiction of what the painting is showing- a man surrounded by the devil, an angel, a skeleton, Mary, and Jesus ringing a bell. “By technical definition, mediums are the liquids added to paints to bind them and make them workable. They are discussed here, however, in the wider meaning of all the various paints, tools, supports, surfaces, and techniques employed by painters” …show more content…
The meaning or the content- the message behind this painting is that each person has a beginning (the tree) and an end (the skeleton), and we will never know when our last day will be (Jesus will ring the bell when our time is up). During our life we are faced with the choice of doing right or wrong, and the wrong option always seems to nag at us until we cave in (the angel trying to keep the man on the right path while the devil is sticking his tongue out at him).
Art and artists have a way of telling stories through pictures and figures that help us visualizes things in a way we would have never done before. Sor Juana Beatriz de la Fuente’s “Tree of Life” helps not only the religious society but society as a whole to have a better visual picture and understanding of what our life is really like. Everything that was depicted in the painting I already knew; however, the way that she illustrated life really stood out to me and helped me gain an even better visual for our definition of