Human Action and Drama

A good life is built on a firm foundation of actions and reactions, without these, our lives become droll and listless. Humans thrive on a hope of making an impact on the lives that surround them as well as the world itself. It creates, within us, an emotion that is solely human in it's nature. No animal sets about in his daily routine to change something in the world that would not only benefit himself, but also all his fellow animals. However, in humans, it's nearly an instinct that rises up from infancy. We strive to make a difference.
A moment of time is captured in a swirl and swipe of brush strokes, a ghastly horror is pictured in marble, and an artist imitates life as only he knows how. Jutting out from the surface of the canvas is a message that viewers can understand and believe, pulling us ever further into the painting itself, the action, surrounding us in drama and emotion. It is what connects the people to the art- an understanding.
Rogier van der Weyden was one of the very first artists of his time to capture such emotions and actions in his work. In one of his early works, Deposition, a polyptych commissioned by the Archer's Guild, Rogier displays the utter turmoil each man and woman feel as Christ is taken down from the cross.

Note the woman on the far left, covering her face in her hankerchief as she lets out a shuttering sob of anguish as her heart breaks at the sight of her Lord, the limp and pale form of Mary which mirrors the lifeless body of her son, and (my personal favorite) the expressive form of Mary Magdalen (seen at the far right and down below).

Note the bent frame of her body, her hands tightly clasped, her knees buckling beneath her, and the obvious lines in her face created from the sorrow that is surfacing from her broken heart! It is a far cry from any previous works and a demonstrative work of emotion, action, and reaction!
Equally as important, is the Baroque sculptor Giovanni da Bologna. Each of his works display his love for human emotion as well as drama. Borrowing many techniques found in Hellenistic sculpture (Laocoon and His Sons, the Dying Gaul, etc...) Giovanni depicts a rather tumultuous scene captured in marble. Receiving its title only once it was completed and displayed, the Abduction of the Sabine Women is wholly Baroque as it's figures create a dramatic descending corkscrew, trapping the three characters in a desperate, vertical cylinder.

Note how the woman's arm is flung out above and to the side of her as the look of anguish is etched into her once soft facial features. Note also the crouching figure on the bottom, straining to look up above at the helpless woman. It is so like the Laocoon group, and yet, so innovative to its time in its construction. It is a stunning piece!
The emotion that is built into these pieces speaks to the viewer directly, as if to say, you have felt as I have; drawing one so deeply into the work, that he is immersed in the action and is believingly a part of the reaction!