Art: Western Art: Renaissance Art I

First we see the birth of Venus, done in 1480 by Sandro Botticelli in Tempora. Sandro Botticelli was a Florentine artist. Venus was born full-grown from the foam of the Mediterranean. The figure is art painting what relief sculpture is the sculpture. It's a little volume, lighter than air. Botticelli had an interest in linear contours, the drapery billows. Botticelli seems to have modeled Venus after the Greek statue Aphrodite Nidos, which was made or copied by the Romans and both have kind of a deformed left arm. Classical mythology at the time had been shown to be very pagan or seemed to be very pagan by the Catholic society and Botticelli used Plato's philosophical ideas of Neoplatonism to suggest that the visible world is a poor reflection of the ideal world and that Venus is just a poor reflection of Mary. Typical Florentines there's an emphasis on line. Next we see a painting done in tempering oil on wood panel titled Old Man and Grandson by Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was done in about 1480. It's reminiscent of Flemish art from Belgium or what was called Flanders at the time. It's domestic, it's down to earth. The theme is similar to northern artists where the oil was revived. The feeling of empathy that is expressed is more of an Italian style however and it's not glossy like Flemish art so it's an interesting combination of both Flemish art and Italian style which Ghirlandaio was known for. In the background I seem to remember, I'm not sure why, that that may be Mount Vesuvius, although that might not be Mount Vesuvius. In any way it's an interesting piece of work. Next we see Saint Sebastian done by Andrei Montegna done in Tempera in northern Italy in the town of Padua, P-A-D-U-A. Montegna was very interested in Roman archaeology and most of his paintings reveal artifacts from antiquity. He has kind of an intense preoccupation with this. It's similar to the Ark of Severus, sometimes pierced with only one single arrow it's shown. He survives and is martyred again in Saint Sebastian. Here Montegna is paying attention to anatomy. The contrapposto curve is not very convincing. The sculptural quality is kind of an influence on Donatello perhaps. There's natural light and atmosphere which is a northern influence, a Flemish influence. And if you look very closely you'll see that the clouds have a horse possibly in the right-hand corner. Here we see Madonna and Saints done by Bellino Giovanni, 1505 circa, from 1400 to 1490. That was the early Renaissance and now we're moving into the High Renaissance which was kind of where the Middle Renaissance was. This is a sacred conversation. There's a Flemish style or Flemish interest in light. The warm colour is characteristic of the Venetians. The Venetians had a much more of an interest in colour whereas the Florentines had a kind of a preoccupation with line. So you see an interesting colour here. Bellini is his last name but it goes by Giovanni who was probably born in Venice. His family were some of the most well-known Venetian artists. Moving into the High Renaissance here we see Da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks circa 1485 or so. It's oil on panel. There is one in the Louvre and one in the National Gallery. It was quite a common thing to do to make authentic replicas, two versions of the same painting. Here we see Mary, Jesus, an angel and Saint John the Baptist. Saint John the Baptist is identifiable by the animal skins which he often wore. That's his trademark and he is actually the one under the right hand of Mary. Mary is serving as kind of an intermediary from God, reminiscent of perhaps the church protecting the people, John the Baptist. In the background you see kind of the foggy style of fumato which Da Vinci was famed for. It's a smoky hazy atmosphere of many layers of tempera. It's a poetic version. It ties in with Horace's paintings should emulate poetry. He's moving beyond linear clarity. Not that this one needs a title but this of course is the Mona Lisa from about 1503 to 1505 by Leonardo da Vinci. It's got this fumato as well. She's enveloped in kind of a smoky fog. It's portraiture and it's idealization. She's the wife of an Italian merchant who didn't actually like the result so Francis I was given the painting. It was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 by an Italian who claimed it belonged in Italy. There are several versions of this made perhaps and this one at the Louvre may not in fact be the original. Some claimed that crackling or the craquelure in French didn't match the original pre-1911 after it was received back. Others claimed that paintings revealed the intention of a man's soul. Here we see the Tempietto and the Tempo done by Donato Vermante. The focus of the high renaissance was in Rome. It became more powerful. New bigger churches and sculptures and paintings were created especially Julius II. He was of hope with grandiosity. He hired Michelangelo and Raphael. Circular temples were reminiscent of Greek and Roman antiquity. There may have been some influence between this and St. Paul's Cathedral's dome. The floor plan shows a central plan building. A circle was considered at the time the perfect shape. It has both convex and concave shapes. It's a nice contrast. It's typical of like a renaissance balance of horizontals and verticals and the columns are Doric. They're Tuscan Doric. The dome of St. Peter's Basilica built around 1550 by Michelangelo is part of the largest church in Christiandom. The dome is nine stories high dwarfing the altar beneath it. Twin ribs turn into twin column knits and twin columns hide buttresses. The dome of St. Peter's represents the reintroduction of concrete which hadn't been used since the Romans. The dome is made of two shells with space in between them. Next is the sculpture of David done by Michelangelo in a heroic nude style. It's above 12 feet tall. Artists began being recognized as individuals not only craftsmen and they became viewed as almost geniuses and Michelangelo was certainly one of these. I said genius meant divine inspiration and called Michelangelo divine. Michelangelo's David just like Donatello's David shows no action. Dead like St. George shows attention. Perhaps an inner struggle between body and soul and materialism as was the time. Michelangelo's David is known as the symbol of Florence.