Journey Through the Renaissance The Art Masters of a New Age ancients history ancienthistory

Again, there is no clear distinction in the transition from the proto-Renaissance to the Renaissance, the era that replaced the culture of the Middle Ages and preceded the culture of the New Age. Approximate chronological framework of the era, 14 to 16 centuries. The distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular character of culture and its anthropocentrism, that is, interest, first of all, to a man and his activity. There is an interest in ancient culture, a kind of rebirth of it. So the term appeared. Drawing pictures of traditional religious subjects, artists began to use new artistic techniques, the construction of three-dimensional composition, the use of landscape in the background, which allowed them to make images more realistic, lively. This distinguished their work from the previous iconographic tradition, which abounded in conventionality in depiction. A striking representative of the early Italian Renaissance was Fra Filippo Lippi. The museum's collection contains the first double portrait in art, one of the first portraits in the interior, and finally, one of the first depictions of a woman, in no way related to a religious theme. Portrait of a woman with a man at a sash, c1440. Who would have thought that the depiction of a woman as she is, for 15th century art, was a true breakthrough? According to one of the most versions, we have before us something like a wedding portrait. On the heroine's pearl embroidered sleeve is the word li, which is Italian for loyalty or fidelity. This has been interpreted as a fidelity oath, leading to the assumption that we are talking about a couple. Another interpretation is that the characters are not yet married or even engaged. As in the picture, they are separated by an obstacle in the form of a wall with a window. The hands of the man in the portrait lie on the family coat of arms of the Scolari family. It is believed that the man in front of us is Lorenzo Ranieri Scolari, and the woman, in all likelihood, who became his wife around 1436. Anguillality, Bernardo Stapiti. In addition to this, experts note the value of the landscape outside the window. It is also very elaborate and detailed and could have been a painting in its own right. But the religious theme does not leave art, and another work by the artist, Saint Lawrence on a Throne with Saints and Sacrificers. 1440's Saint Lawrence is depicted on a throne, his feet resting on the grating on which he was martyred. He is surrounded by saints Comas and Damien. The canvas was commissioned by Alessandro Alessandri, a Florentine merchant, and is depicted kneeling with his two sons. A pupil of Filippo Lippi was Bocelli. Unfortunately, the museum does not have his great works, in whose female images we see his great love, Simonetta Vespucci. Incidentally, a relative of Amerigo, whose name is given to a continent and a country. On display in Robert Lehman's private collection is one of the collection's most famous paintings, Annunciation C. 1485-92. I disagree with the dating, as Bocelli is already creating his beautiful women in the years indicated. In my opinion, this is an early work of the artist. The image of the Annunciation unfolds in a classical architectural interior, made with a single point perspective to create the illusion of depth. A technique achieved in early 15th century Florence. A row of columns separates the space occupied by the angel Gabriel from the intimate bedroom of the Virgin Mary, who kneels in humility as she accepts his divine message. The panel was almost certainly commissioned as a personal religious image. Although the identity of the patron is unknown, the painting was in the famous Barberneri collection in Rome in the 17th century. Another painting of the artist refers to the terrible times when Florence was under the rule of the brutal fanatic Savonarola. Books and paintings flew into the fires. Botticelli had to sacrifice his works for the massacre, and I hope not the most valuable. It is believed that the artist supported the Savonarola movement, but I think it was a way to survive. There is correspondence with the Medici family with the hope of their return, and so the painting is in the Met exhibit. The Three Miracles of Saint Zenobia. The painting dates from around 1500 and is painted in the stern style that Botticelli developed in those years under the reign of the preacher Savonarola. It belongs to a series of four panels illustrating the life of a 5th century bishop of Florence, all notable for their architectural entourage. On the left, Zenobia meets a funeral procession and brings a dead young man back to life. In the center, he lifts up a man killed while bringing relics in the coffin of Saint Ambrose. On the right, Saint Eugene receives the water and salt blessed by Zenobia and then hurries across the square to resurrect his dead relative. Closer to the images we know, his Madonna with Child and Two Angels. It shows the synthesis of two different schools, Fra Filippo Lippi and Verrocchio, who were Saint Ambrose's teachers and whose manners he followed and transformed into his own particular style. Madonna with Child and Two Angels is imbued with peace and purity. The young artist was able to create a lyrical and spiritualized image of a young mother who was looking at her son with tenderness. Two angels are supporting the child as if they had brought him to the mother. Three children's faces gaze intently into her face with an unchildlike seriousness. Mary is dressed in a red loose dress and a spacious blue cloak. An imitation of his teacher, Filippo Lippi, he depicted a landscape with rocks in the background as a symbol of the difficult and dangerous journey that awaits the child. The works of the masters in narrative paintings are of great interest. The theatrical scenes are built on the principle of storytelling and deal with both religious and mythological themes. The work of Biagio D'Antonio, an Italian Renaissance artist, is before us. His work was inspired by the works of Filippo Lippi, Andrea Verrocchino, and Domenico Ghirlandario. Scenes from the story of the Agronauts. A long wooden panel depicts the story of Jason and the Agronauts, unfolding in a continuous narrative. In this panel, King Ape and his daughters Medea and Ciocchiopi meet Jason and his companions. In the center, Jason is furrowing the Grove of Ars, where the golden fleece is guarded, and Orpheus is lulling a dragon so that Jason can steal the fleece. On the right, the king sends his son to capture the fleeing Jason and Medea. These paintings were probably painted on Another painting by Biagio D'Antonio, The Story of Joseph, illustrates the biblical story Genesis 37-39, 42-27. In the background on the left is the sale of Joseph into slavery to Potiphar. Joseph escaping the seductive advances of Potiphar's wife and his subsequent imprisonment. In the foreground on the right is Pharaoh's dream and Joseph interpreting the dream. While on the left, Joseph greets his father and relatives upon his arrival in Egypt. The panels were originally mounted on the bedroom paneling and date from around 1482. Thus, the rudiments of the theatrical narrative established by the followers of Giotto were developed in the works Another center of the Italian Renaissance was undoubtedly Venice. Giovanni Bellini was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, with whose light brushwork Italian art reached a new level. His work turned Venice into the center of the Renaissance, which was equal in importance only to Florence and Rome. As many scholars have noted, Bellini succeeded in bringing Venetian art to the form of humanity that was so essential to the Western world. Although he has been called the father of Venetian painting, the master's canvases never feature the landscapes of his native Venice. For more than three decades, the artist created a whole collection of paintings dedicated to Our Lady. Bellini painted about 90 images of the Virgin, Madonna and Child, late 1480s. Separated from our everyday world by a drapery, the figures nevertheless capture the viewer's attention. The drapery canvas is pulled back, revealing a distant landscape where we observe the transition from dormant to green nature, a metaphor for death and rebirth. The asymmetrical composition anticipates the work of Titan. When Albrecht Dürer visited Venice, he declared Bellini the best artist. By the end of the 15th century, a whole cohort of great artists was stepping onto the great stage of Italian painting. There are no Leonardo da Vinci canvases in the museum's collection, but there are his sketches. Head of the Virgin and three quarters facing right, 1510 to 13. The sketch of the Virgin's head on the front has sometimes been questioned by scholars as belonging to Leonardo. However, even in Leonardo's densest pictorial drawings, some traces of his left-facing parallel shading often remain visible under all layers of worked material. As detailed scholarly analysis in 2002 to 2003 has shown, this drawing is done in an almost seamless sfumato technique and is extremely uniform due to the dense use of red and black crayons, revealing extensive unified strokes with the left hand in the stroked intermediate shadows. This study is closely related to the final design of Leonardo's oil painting on panel, Our Lady with the Child and St. Anne, Musée du Louvert Paris, with the author dates c. 1508 to 1512. Although the exquisitely finished surface of the drawing from the Metropolitan Museum of Art has suffered some minor abrasions, one can still appreciate the atmospheric disillusion of the Virgin's relief forms as a work of superb technical virtuosity. Like a number of other drawings associated with the Louvert painting, Our Lady with the Child and St. Anne, this sheet is an important example of Leonardo's pioneering development of the complex pictorial techniques of drawing in order to materialize his specific studies of color perspectives. Madonna and Child on Throne with Saints. Raphael Santi. Raphael painted this altarpiece around 1504-5 for the Franciscan Covenant of Saint Antonio in Pergua. It hung in a part of the church reserved for nuns, who may have insisted on conservative details such as the elaborately dressed infant Christ. This is the artist's early work, when he was just beginning to learn from the works of the masters Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo in Florence. The nuns sold their altarpiece in 1678, and in the early 20th century, its purchase by J. Pierpont Morgan provoked a strong press reaction. At the same time, the Northern Renaissance of 1430-1550 was born in Northern Europe in wealthy merchant Flanders and the Netherlands. The Northern Renaissance manifested itself in architecture, painting, literature, philosophy, and science. But the most outstanding achievements of this era belong to painting. Among the major painters are the Dutch and Flemish Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Gros, Rogier van der Weeden, Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch, and Pieter Brueghel. In Germany, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Hans Holbein represented Renaissance movements. In France, Jean and François Clouet and Jean Fouquet. But let's go step by step and start with a great representative of Dutch art, the painter Jan van Eyck. A brilliant representative of the visual art of the early Northern Renaissance, Dutch artists laid the beginning of the direction called Art Nova. He was among the first authors who signed paintings. His work was distinguished by the detail of detail and incredible accuracy, making experts think that the artist used optical instruments in his work. An interesting fact, some researchers argue that van Eyck was the man who discovered oil painting. He was not a pioneer, but seriously influenced the formation of this direction in the fine arts. Probably the artist created a new type of mixture, which included tempera. The elaborate composition makes van Eyck's works appear as a whole with just the right amount of symbolicism and a distinctive pictorial style. The perspective used in the works, coupled with the color reproduction, created a specific plastic effect. Crucifixion, Last Judgment, C. 1450-41, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, considered van Eyck his court painter, unsurpassed in his art and science. In fact, van Eyck's vast yet microcosmic paintings seem to be observed through both a microscope and a telescope. In Crucifixion, he evokes a surprising range of emotions, from the crowd against the backdrop of an imaginary Jerusalem. Jan's journey across the Alps in 1426, on a diplomatic mission to Italy and the Holy Lands, influenced his naturalistic depiction of the landscape. He gives an equally tangible form of the horrors of the Last Judgment. Technical studies have shown that these two paintings did not always take the form of a diptych, but originally served as the wings of a triptych or the doors to a tabernacle or tomb. One of the pupils of the Jan van Eyck school was Petrus Christus. His naturalistic mature style, characterized by jewel-like execution, is a simplified adaptation of his teacher's style. The collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art possesses two magnificent paintings by the artist. Portrait of a Cartesian, 1446, is one of the artist's earliest known works. It has been suggested that the monk who posed for him was from a Carthusian monastery near Bruges. In 1927, the portrait was sold for $80,000, New York banker and collector Jules Basch. Basch died in 1944, and in 1949, the picture together with his collection was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is still located. An earlier version of the painting depicted a halo above the monk's head. At the bottom of the frame, a fly was depicted. Together with the painted frame and other details, it is part of a technique known as obfuscation. It was used by artists to create the optical illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. On the one hand, the fly could symbolize the decay of all living things, and on the other hand, it could be seen as a talisman against evil forces. The second painting in the museum's collection is the Jeweler in the Shop, 1449. The panel testifies to the lively interest of Dutch artists in representational illusionism and their careful attention to detail, especially the luminous gems, glass and metal objects, secular and ecclesiastical trade wares that are examples of the virtuosity of the jeweler. The central figure in this enigmatic painting was long thought to be Saint Elegius, patron saint of jewelers, because of the presence of a halo, which was considered a later addition and subsequently removed. The panel is probably a professional painting depicting the profession of jeweler and perhaps a particular jeweler. The couple may well be buying an engagement ring that is being weighed on a scale. The belt that passes over the protrusion of the store into the viewer's space is another hint of matrimony. A convex mirror connecting the pictorial space to the street outside. Roger van der Weeden is among the significant artists of the 15th century. Along with his predecessor Jan van Eyck, he is the founder of the early Netherlandish painting. Van der Weeden's work is centered on a profound and meticulous exploration of the subtleties and particularities of human personality. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church was strong and the power of the Spanish kings reached the point of tyranny, the art of the civil portrait developed and reached remarkable heights. Portrait of Francisco d'Este c 1460 by Roger van der Weeden, the son of the ruler of Ferrara. Francisco was educated at the court of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. The hammer and ring may be nightly prizes or symbols of power and the unusual white background may refer to the Este family livery colors, white, red and green. The stylized lines of the face and hands of the portrayed person are among the qualities that establish the excellence of the court portraitist in the Netherlands. The emblem of the Este family and the coat of arms on the back of the panel emphasize the helderic nature of the portrait. Hans Memling was a German painter belonging to the Flemish school of painting. There is little data on the life of this artist. By 1467 he had joined the corporation of painters of Bruges. It is believed that he was a pupil of Roger van der Weeden. He was a very popular painting who made a huge fortune from his work. His style is soft and delicate with beautiful figures and gorgeous colors. The portraits in the Metropolitan Collection are striking for their sensuality in conveying human beauty. Two portraits, Tommaso di Falco Portinari and Maria Portinari c a 1470. The clever balance of verisimilitude and idealization in the features of this pair made Hans Memling the most sought-after portraitist of his time. The Florentine Tommaso Portinari was the branch manager of the Medici Bank in Bruges and probably commissioned these portraits from Memling after the couple's wedding in 1470. They originally constituted a triptych with a central religious depiction of the virgin and child. In addition to demonstrating the piety of the couple, Mary's exquisite necklace and dress demonstrate their wealth and social status. Memling also uses a style of trickery and takes the characters beyond the boundaries of the illusory frame in an attempt to transcend three-dimensional space. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries ecclesiastical motifs dominate European art and secular themes are found but not often. Then the 16th century will delight us with other subjects but that is in the next story.