Renaissance begun in great Italian cities, key among them being Florence, Venice, Milan, and Papal states. During this period, Italian political leaders and merchants gave their full support to artists. This made Italy enjoy the products which resulted from renaissance. Each of these cities was distinct in terms of character during this period. This was largely dependent on the ruler in each of these cities. The most notable among these cities is Florence, the place where renaissance is believed to have originated from. Florence set out its niche as a wood-trading post. It was able to retain this status for a very long time this was largely credited to the strong and stable leadership of Medici family. Medici family set as a priority the maintenance of financial stability in the city. They were also very intelligent and ensured that art flourished during that period. During this period, pope who is charged with the leadership of the Catholic Church was also the head of Rome. With the developments that were taking place in Italian cities, the pope became very powerful and assumed the role of a politician at an international as opposed to the spiritual leader he was supposed to be. The other cities also flourished and became very wealthy as well as powerful in the process. They attracted many great artists and merchants.
Italian renaissance was greatly affected by the invasion of Italy by French soldiers. These foreigners vied for the Italian peninsula pieces. Renaissance ended during the rule of a Roman Emperor, Charles V. This emperor had placed very stringent financial restrictions. The Catholic Church was under strong censorship at the time. All these culminated in the crumbling of renaissance. With it went artistic, intellectual as well as economic prosperity of these cities and Italy in general.
Renaissance as a period of cultural movement was characterized by the development of a variety of aspects. The most notable aspects that were advanced and indeed taken to another level were music, philosophy, science, architecture, literature, poetry, sculpture as well as painting. The main purpose of this paper is to explore the development that took place in the field of art and more specifically painting. During this period artists were accorded great respect as talented people of the land and not just as craftsmen as they had been considered for a very long time. They were very famous. Artists expressed their view on nature and humankind by exploring different mediums. Artists were hired by very great people at that time.
One great distinction in art during the period of renaissance was the development of linear perspective that was more realistic. Perspective development was one of the ways that were being employed to achieve realism in the field of art. Painters also ventured into new techniques, studied light and shadow and human anatomy as was the case with Leonardo da Vinci. Art was preferred because of its aesthetic value and was employed as a means of portraying natural beauty. Renaissance greatly influenced art, especially when we consider composition, the perspective as well as the subject matter. Many new artistic styles were also developed during this period.
Painting
Painters during the renaissance period were loyal to certain jurisdictions and had diplomatic stature in such cities. They were also credited with the dissemination of philosophical ideas. Florence remains as the place where renaissance painting was born. Renaissance painting in Italy can be broadly divided into four main periods. These are Proto-Renaissance, Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, and Mannerism. Proto-renaissance is characterized by the life of Giotto di Bondone and goes ahead to include Taddeo Gaddi, painter Orcagna and Altichiero. Early renaissance was credited with people like Ucello, Verrocchio, painter Fra Angelico Masaccio. Piero Della Francesca is also a notable figure during early renaissance. High renaissance was crowned by Pontormo, painter Tintoretto and Andrea Sarto. Mannerism refers to a time of art in Europe and it took place after high renaissance in Italy.
Proto-Renaissance
Art in Tuscany in the thirteenth century was dictated by two people who had mastered the style of Byzantine. These people were Duccio who was from Siena and Cimabue, who originated from Florence. These painters appeared to have specialized in religious paintings. These painters together with their contemporaries who included Coppo di Marcovaldo and Guido from Siena, not excluding an anonymous painter who referred to himself as the Master of St. Bernardino, followed a formal manner of painting. Their style borrowed a lot from icon painting which had anciently been the tradition. Their paintings were fixed to the subject matter. These painters directed their paintings towards naturalism.
Giotto who was a shepherd hailed from Florence. He became an apprentice to Cimabue and distinguished himself as an outstanding artist during his time. Giotto was greatly inspired by the works of Pietro Cavallini who was a Roman. His work was distinct from the rest since his paintings were not based on painterly traditions but instead he relied on his own observation of nature and life. He did not rely much on the Byzantine style. His figures were three dimensional and appeared to be standing squarely on the surface or ground. Another feature of his figures is that they had discernible anatomy. They were also clothed with garments that had weight and a recognizable structure. The key feature that distinguished figure by Giotto from the others was the fact that his figures had emotions. He initiated what came to be known as narrative pictures. He painted Orgnissanti Madonna which is preserved at Uffizi Gallery along with Santa Trinita Madonna by Cimabue and Ruccellai Madonna by Duccio. Giotto had a keen eye on the naturalistic perspective of his paintings.
The contemporaries of Giotto, those who had been influenced by his work adopted his trends. His students always seemed to lay some emphasis on the naturalistic perspective of their paintings. His students excelled in painting that none of them rose to his caliber. Taddeo Gaddi is credited with having produced a large painting depicting night scene, a first of its kind. This painting was at Baroncelli chapel and was named Annunciation to the Shepherds.
The theme of last judgment was a characteristic of medieval churches. It was painted on the door and wall towards the west. The survivors of the Black Death that occurred in 1348 focused on approaching death in absolution. They portrayed the fact that death cannot be avoided and they also depicted the punishment that was awaiting sinners. In these pictures they tried to imagine the kind of suffering that was in hell, and as such their paintings were full of grim. Key among these paintings was triumph of Death which was the work of Orcagna, who had been a student of Giotto. Orcagna, Francesco Traini and Buonamico Buffalmacco were noted to have had profound interest on salvation as the subject matter in their paintings. Giusto de Menabuoi together with Altichiero were among the most renown fresco painters in Padua as the fourteenth century neared its end. Giusto is credited with the work he did at Cathedrals Baptistery, where he made decorations that depicted a theme about the creation of humanity, their downfall and subsequent salvation. His work was of a very high quality but he was not able to bring out emotions clearly.
In Florence, Andrea Bonaiuti in his fresco Allegory of the Active and Triumphant Church, tried to depict the function the church plays in the course of the redemption process. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, International Gothic had come out as the style that employed in Tuscan paintings. This style can be recognized in the paintings of Ambrogio Lorenzetti alongside Pietro. These painters formalized their figures with grace as well as sweetness. Simone Martini together with Gentile da Fabriano mastered this art and their works were very rich in detail and were also elegant. At the onset of the fifteenth century, Fra Angelico is very notable as he ushered in Renaissance and exiting the style of International Gothic.
Early Renaissance painting
In 1401 at Florence, Quattrocento -an art on bronze doors at St. Johns Baptistery. To come up with this artistic masterpiece, artists were drawn up to a competition and Ghiberti did not disappoint as one of the most talented artists of his time. He thus won a tender to cast his artistic impression on the Baptistery doors. This was no easy task as he managed to complete the initial set of doors after a 27 year period. It is after this instance that he was assigned the duty of finishing the remaining set. This was a job that took him more than 50 years to complete. Linear perspective was a concept that seemed to be in application during the designing of these doors. This masterpiece came to be a credit to the city and their artists were also much respected.
In 1426, fresco paintings were initiated at the Brancacci Chapel by Masaccio alongside Masolino. Masaccio appeared to have borrowed a lot from the works of Giotto and as such incorporated naturalism in his paintings. He demonstrated that he understood anatomy, linear perspective, light, foreshortening as well as drapery. One of his notable paintings was the depiction of the time when Adam and his wife Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. This masterpiece was realistic and appeared to have taken into consideration the emotion. Masaccio was not able to complete his work at the Chapel because of his sudden demise at the tender age of 26. Filippino Lippi took over to complete what he had left undone. Though he died at a very young age, the aspects that he had employed in his artistic work came to be very helpful to some of the great artists in the order of Michelangelo alongside Leonardo da Vinci.
In the course of the fifteenth century, artists had already set their minds on the subject of linear perspective. Certain architects like Brunelleschi alongside Alberti had come with theories about this concept. Brunelleschi is said to have taken a closer look at the piazza and also assisted Masaccio when he was creating trompe loeil niche. Paolo Uccelo was one of the artists who was obsessed with the idea of linear perspective that in his painting three Battle of San Romano, he incorporated weapons on the ground that are broken and also try to focus on distant hill to bring out this aspect. In The Flagellation of Christ, that was done in 1450, Piero della Fransesca demonstrated the fact that he had mastered the concept of linear perspective and was also able to clearly bring out light as an artistic aspect. A regular user of the concept of linear perspective in his work was Perugin and this can be noted in most of his works.
Giotto employed tonality in his attempt to exhibit form. Taddeo Gaddi, when he did his work on nocturnal scene was attempting to demonstrate how light could be used to bring out drama. Paolo Ucello later performed a series of experiments to show how light could be used to bring out a dramatic effect. This he did using his near monochrome frescoes. Piero Della Fransesca continued to study the artistic property of light. In his work Flagellatio, he demonstrates the manner in which the dissemination of light occurs from its source of origin. In the course of this work, he managed to show two sources of light in his painting with the first being internal while the other an external source. When we consider the internal source of light in his painting, we realize that the light cannot be seen but it can be calculated at least with arithmetic confidence. The concept of light in art was to be later studied by Leonardo da Vinci.
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus was greatly honored by Catholics. Her image was said to have appeared in a miraculous manner in corn market, but this was not to last long as it was destroyed in a fire incident. Bernardo Daddi later came up with an alternative image in 1330. Paintings of Madonna and Child became a common form of art in Florence. Some of the painters who came to be renowned for producing Madonnas that were to be used for prayers included Davide Ghirlandaio, Fra Angelico together with Fra Filippo. Verrocchio also came to be associated with such kind of mass productions. Botticelli is credited for creating the Madonnas for Medici. Madonnas made by Perugino were particularly sweet and different from the others. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael are some of the other notable painters who involved themselves with the production of Madonnas.
High Renaissance
As far as Florence was concerned, art was considered as a profession and the artists were paid by some private patrons. The better part of patronage was accorded by Medici family and some of their close allies like Tornabuoni, Rucellai and not excluding Sasseti. In 1946, Marsilio Ficino was hired as a human philosopher to a member of the Medici family. He was supposed to help him in the translation of the philosophy of Plato. During the renaissance period, ancient information was considered as enlightenment. Ghirlandaio continued with the painting of frescoes in Florence, notably at Sassetti Chapel and Tornabuoni Chapel. He proved to be an outstanding artist of his time.
During this period, there was an influence from Netherlands brought about by the arrival of a Flemish painter in Italy. Rogier Weyden is credited with teaching Italian artists on using oil paints. Tempera together with fresco depicted pattern but they were not able to depict natural texture in a realistic way. The Adoration of the Shepherds was imported to Florence in 1475. This was a masterpiece of Hugo Goes. This was done following the request which had been made by Portinari family. This masterpiece of artistic work challenged Ghirlandaio to come up with his own painting by borrowing some important aspects of this painting. Pope Sixtus IV chose artists from Florence in 1479 to paint frescoes at Vatican depicting lives of Jesus and Moses. The recipients of this job were Cosimo, Boticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino. They did an excellent work though some of the paintings were later destroyed. Of all these paintings, those that had been done by Perugino proved to be outstanding. This was largely due to the fact that they were clear, simple in composition, and equally beautiful.
Leonardo da Vinci came to be given the name Renaissance man. This was largely due to the fact that he had interest and was a man who was extraordinarily talented. He stood out as an icon in painting during his times. He was keen in understanding human anatomy and in more than thirty occasions he was accused of dissected cadavers to understand the connection of muscles. He depicted atmosphere in most of his works. Some of his most notable works were Mona Lisa as well as Virgin of the Rocks. He employed the use of light in combination with shades to achieve an artistic impression. He managed to add realism in the expression of human emotion. Last Supper which is one of his many works set a new way in which religious paintings were made. Leonardo taught his students how he managed to achieve emotions in his paintings and as such information was passed down.
Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to beautify Sistine Chapel in 1508. He was not willing but decided to do it just because the Pope wielded so much power at that time. He was a sculptor and he managed to come up with methods that were very complex. The work took him in excess of five years but it was marvelous since he was working alone. Michelangelo was very creative in his work. The works of Raphael marked the peak of High Renaissance. His father was a painter. Raphael combined all the aspects of art that had been used by painters before him and during his time and as such his works were a summary of what artists had achieved over time.
Mannerism is not necessarily within the scope of this document as it refers to renaissance in Europe and not necessarily Italy. Advances in Mathematics helped in the advancement of Renaissance art. Michelangelo did a lot in the way of exemplifying sculpting to express emotions. He used a chisel in his work He was among the people who set trends during the renaissance period. Renaissance was a great period for the development of art, especially that of painting. The renaissance that begun in Italy later spread to many countries in Europe. This is also the era that is associated with many paintings which have been conserved to date. The aspects of artistic impressions that were developed during this period are the same that are still being used today only that they have since been modified by advancement in technology.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment