The Battle of San Romano after Uccello by Georgeta Naparus
The following is text from my interview of Fran O’Neill, Oct 6, 2020. I asked Fran to share some of the historical artworks she regards as masterworks. She talked about what she sees as the magic of transcriptions.
“There’s a whole mystery that is incredible about works from the past, and unlocking some of that mystery is phenomenal… to think about the intersections that they did or the way their shapes lock in together and how particular the shapes are.”
“Making a transcription is not necessarily a copy. It’s basically trying to get down to the structure or the magic of the painting itself, and seeing that come alive on the page. [Transcriptions] can teach you a lot about how important every single little blade of grass is in this particular work, how maybe feet or hands might point in a way and give the viewer this underlying idea of what’s happening.”
Giovanni, Bellini, and Titian The Feast of the Gods
“[There are] synergies that happen in the work that I think are pretty important to understand; how they can be sometimes incredibly quiet, yet it’s sort of like a subliminal thinking that happens, like subliminal messages in art to get you to move around the page in a different way, to get you to think about relationships. I think our eyes generally go towards a pattern but you don’t necessarily want it to be an obvious pattern. A synergy is a type of pattern too so you might get a similar shape that repeats itself. By doing these transcriptions you actually see how important these shapes are to the artist and how they’ve used them in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways – to create a powerful image, and to create an image where the viewer is constantly moving around the [composition].”
Velazquez The Spinner
“So you take that and then think about it within your own work. How can you do it so that it’s subtle? How can you do it so that it’s maybe quiet but really powerful?”
“You think about history, where a lot of those great masters started by working in an apprenticeship beginning at ages of eight or ten, and then they were actually working with these master artists for 10 to 12 years, even longer – some of them never left the workshop. They became the person that Bellini would get to do the grass, the person that Titian would ask to do x, y and z. Incidentally, Bellini was one of Titian’s…. There’s this whole lineage of powerful painters and it feels like we forget the power of learning, and we forget the fact that basically you can learn so much from these masters and even though their work might be historical in context and we don’t want to recreate what they’ve done, we can actually start to examine their underlying structure and hopefully take that into our own work, and work out how then best to push that forward for our own sake so we’re not just putting something down, like “it’s all intuition isn’t this fabulous.” I think intuition can take you so far, and then you really want to start using your mind, and using learned things to actually make the painting stronger structurally and fundamentally so that it’s got this better rhythm moving forward.”
Diego Velázquez Las Meninas
“By doing a transcription you begin to delve into a masterwork where you’re really looking at Pierrot della Francesca or Giotto or someone like that where you’re really understanding that these guys were giants of their times. How can I take some of that philosophy and move it forward for us myself so it’s brilliant.”
Picasso Guernica
“So what will happen in the class: some people may end up with something that looks specifically like the image that it comes from. Other people might end up with something that’s quite abstracted and quite different from that, but there’s a better sense of what that structure was from to begin with, and then potentially you can do a similar thing with your own work so that you’re moving further away from the original but you’re still thinking about the structure that might be able to be incorporated into your own paintings. It’s a big idea but it’s also got very humble ways of actually just exploring, which can be brilliant.”
Giorgione The Tempest
“I know a lot of people keep going with this idea for years and years. It feeds into their artwork continually. Also in a way it’s a key to beginning to understand what they were doing with their paintings so you’re not just… you know when you go around a museum like ‘this is fantastic’ and somehow in the back of your mind you’re like ‘well I know I’ve got to like it because it’s historical and it’s got pretty colors” but [you] actually sit and say ‘oh now I know why: because look at the way that this triangle is formed with the figures on either side and how maybe that triangle is actually flipped upside down and comes in from a different way, so it talks about surface geometry and space, and you know how these things repeat themselves constantly.'”
Piero Della Francesca The Flagellation of Christ
“…A transcription is a snippet into a master’s work, and [transcriptions] help you to understand how powerful they are, and why they’re powerful. […] You can learn a lot if you’re really willing to think about ‘How am I approaching this? Am I approaching it [in a way that] I’m just thinking about the figure or am I approaching it from a bigger underlying idea of the philosophy of the work itself. […]'”
Tintoretto The ascent to Calvary
“Sometimes it’s about getting that little bit of insight into the magic of what these paintings are, and being given a little bit of a key on how to get into it. Then you can take this yourself. One of the things that I’m always interested in as a teacher is that you start to form your own questions. You start to form your own ideas about what’s important to you within a work. Therefore you start to then be the director rather than going along to a class and […] you actually start to understand that ‘Wow I’ve got choices. I can do this and I’ve got these sets of questions now that I can go to my work and be like “Wow am I thinking about the center? Am I only thinking about the center? Should I be thinking about something else? What if I move it….’ You start to think about all these different considerations. I’m always interested in how I can teach someone so that they can then go out into the world themselves and really apply this to anything that they’re looking at.”
– Fran O’Neill talking to Ruthie V. about Transcriptions
Paolo Veronese The marriage at Cana
Piero Della Francesca, Battle Between Heraclius and Chosroes
Detail of Piero della Francesca’s fresco Battle between Heraclius and Chosroes
Study by Fran O’Neill
Nicolas Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabine Women
Nicolas Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabine Women
Study by Fran O’Neill
Diego Velázquez, The Spinners
Las Hilanderas, translated to “The Spinners,” is a painting by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez.
After Velazquez’s death some artists thought he could use a little help with the composition, because in 1734, they added a little extra to the top and sides. Fran’s sketch included the additions on a separate piece of paper.
The Spinners, modified composition
Study by Fran O’Neill
Velázquez, Las Hilanderas
To Transcribe, with Fran O’Neill Oct 24/25 12 – 6pm PST This class will be recorded Learn more
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Fran O’Neill’s Transcriptions
The following is text from my interview of Fran O’Neill, Oct 6, 2020. I asked Fran to share some of the historical artworks she regards as masterworks. She talked about what she sees as the magic of transcriptions.
“There’s a whole mystery that is incredible about works from the past, and unlocking some of that mystery is phenomenal… to think about the intersections that they did or the way their shapes lock in together and how particular the shapes are.”
“Making a transcription is not necessarily a copy. It’s basically trying to get down to the structure or the magic of the painting itself, and seeing that come alive on the page. [Transcriptions] can teach you a lot about how important every single little blade of grass is in this particular work, how maybe feet or hands might point in a way and give the viewer this underlying idea of what’s happening.”
“[There are] synergies that happen in the work that I think are pretty important to understand; how they can be sometimes incredibly quiet, yet it’s sort of like a subliminal thinking that happens, like subliminal messages in art to get you to move around the page in a different way, to get you to think about relationships. I think our eyes generally go towards a pattern but you don’t necessarily want it to be an obvious pattern. A synergy is a type of pattern too so you might get a similar shape that repeats itself. By doing these transcriptions you actually see how important these shapes are to the artist and how they’ve used them in subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways – to create a powerful image, and to create an image where the viewer is constantly moving around the [composition].”
“So you take that and then think about it within your own work. How can you do it so that it’s subtle? How can you do it so that it’s maybe quiet but really powerful?”
“You think about history, where a lot of those great masters started by working in an apprenticeship beginning at ages of eight or ten, and then they were actually working with these master artists for 10 to 12 years, even longer – some of them never left the workshop. They became the person that Bellini would get to do the grass, the person that Titian would ask to do x, y and z. Incidentally, Bellini was one of Titian’s…. There’s this whole lineage of powerful painters and it feels like we forget the power of learning, and we forget the fact that basically you can learn so much from these masters and even though their work might be historical in context and we don’t want to recreate what they’ve done, we can actually start to examine their underlying structure and hopefully take that into our own work, and work out how then best to push that forward for our own sake so we’re not just putting something down, like “it’s all intuition isn’t this fabulous.” I think intuition can take you so far, and then you really want to start using your mind, and using learned things to actually make the painting stronger structurally and fundamentally so that it’s got this better rhythm moving forward.”
“By doing a transcription you begin to delve into a masterwork where you’re really looking at Pierrot della Francesca or Giotto or someone like that where you’re really understanding that these guys were giants of their times. How can I take some of that philosophy and move it forward for us myself so it’s brilliant.”
“So what will happen in the class: some people may end up with something that looks specifically like the image that it comes from. Other people might end up with something that’s quite abstracted and quite different from that, but there’s a better sense of what that structure was from to begin with, and then potentially you can do a similar thing with your own work so that you’re moving further away from the original but you’re still thinking about the structure that might be able to be incorporated into your own paintings. It’s a big idea but it’s also got very humble ways of actually just exploring, which can be brilliant.”
“I know a lot of people keep going with this idea for years and years. It feeds into their artwork continually. Also in a way it’s a key to beginning to understand what they were doing with their paintings so you’re not just… you know when you go around a museum like ‘this is fantastic’ and somehow in the back of your mind you’re like ‘well I know I’ve got to like it because it’s historical and it’s got pretty colors” but [you] actually sit and say ‘oh now I know why: because look at the way that this triangle is formed with the figures on either side and how maybe that triangle is actually flipped upside down and comes in from a different way, so it talks about surface geometry and space, and you know how these things repeat themselves constantly.'”
“…A transcription is a snippet into a master’s work, and [transcriptions] help you to understand how powerful they are, and why they’re powerful. […] You can learn a lot if you’re really willing to think about ‘How am I approaching this? Am I approaching it [in a way that] I’m just thinking about the figure or am I approaching it from a bigger underlying idea of the philosophy of the work itself. […]'”
“Sometimes it’s about getting that little bit of insight into the magic of what these paintings are, and being given a little bit of a key on how to get into it. Then you can take this yourself. One of the things that I’m always interested in as a teacher is that you start to form your own questions. You start to form your own ideas about what’s important to you within a work. Therefore you start to then be the director rather than going along to a class and […] you actually start to understand that ‘Wow I’ve got choices. I can do this and I’ve got these sets of questions now that I can go to my work and be like “Wow am I thinking about the center? Am I only thinking about the center? Should I be thinking about something else? What if I move it….’ You start to think about all these different considerations. I’m always interested in how I can teach someone so that they can then go out into the world themselves and really apply this to anything that they’re looking at.”
– Fran O’Neill talking to Ruthie V. about Transcriptions
Piero Della Francesca, Battle Between Heraclius and Chosroes
Nicolas Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabine Women
Diego Velázquez, The Spinners
Las Hilanderas, translated to “The Spinners,” is a painting by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez.
After Velazquez’s death some artists thought he could use a little help with the composition, because in 1734, they added a little extra to the top and sides. Fran’s sketch included the additions on a separate piece of paper.
To Transcribe, with Fran O’Neill
Oct 24/25 12 – 6pm PST
This class will be recorded
Learn more
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