Post #4 - High Italian Renaissance Art

            In this comparative analysis, I’ll be comparing Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli for my representation of the Early Renaissance era.  Against this piece, I’ll also talk about the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci for the High Renaissance period.  Both of these paintings have similar aspects that help the transition from each time period to the next.  One reason I have chosen to use these two pieces against each other is because while they both symbolize an individual woman, they vary widely in elements that build the classical antiquity that brings these paintings to life.

            Like I mentioned, they’re both representing a woman that is viewed highly in society.  Both of the females are brighter in contrast to their foreground to help draw focus to their faces.  While in today’s standards, these women would appeal as not as beautiful, but for the timeframe, these women were considered to be some of the most gorgeous women of the time, an ideal that others that would make comparable.

            On the contrary, these are vastly wide differences between these two that have shaped the eras.  Looking at the Birth of Venus piece, we notice that Venus is not alone in the scenery, while being accompanied by other figures.  However, the location and placement of Venus in this painting is key on bringing the focal point towards the middle, where she is standing covering herself.  While she remains nude in the painting, it draws attention to the fact that she is representing beauty and sexuality.  The coloring in this piece is very cool, but also has a lot of brighter and medium shades of greens and blues, which leaves a more exaggerated feeling the viewer.  Venus seems to look more content with the events that are taking place, while her face doesn’t appear to give off any indication of darkness.  I think that this piece has dynamic unity at the same time, lacks it.  This is because we still pay close attention to Venus for reasons explained, but yet at the same time, she is not entirely alone throughout the painting.

            What makes this different from the Early Renaissance painting is the fact that like described during the reading; she is represented through dynamic unity.  Which means that she is the only thing being represented in this painting.  This is different than Early Renaissance because it focuses directly on the woman in this portrait.  Which also leads to very different focuses when composing the piece, since it relies on detail within the facial qualities.  On the other hand, with the Birth of Venus, it relies on the entire composition that pulls everything together, which leaves some slack in having to detail each face to the same extent.  Mona Lisa is also very modestly dressed, without revealing her entire body, leaving a more moderate response to this article.  While the  colors within this painting are also very neutral, and mostly darker hues.  This has been considered to be a rather dark painting that makes it unable to identify the feeling that Mona Lisa was trying to portray through her portrait.  It leaves a mysterious feeling to it’s audience that has made this a very controversial painting over the centuries.

Post #3 - Formal Analysis

     In this formal analysis, I’d like to talk about The Battle of the Nudes, an engraving by Antonio del Pollaiuolo.  Although some may find this piece rather odd and unsettling, I can’t help but be simply fascinated by the amount of detail and realism that has been incorporated into this engraving.  My initial thoughts of when I study this piece of art is overwhelming, it leaves so much to the imagination, almost as if the artist wanted his audience to build their own conclusions on it.  I feel like this could be attributed to the lack of color within it.

        Something that has really drawn my attention to this piece is the level of sophistication and extreme detail that del Pollaiuolo expresses.  There are a wide use of lines, which vary in size, depth, and width.  Each has its own purpose to highlight certain parts of the male figure or the foliage displayed in the background.  It can be clearly displayed how each figure of the fighting males is moving in a certain way to extend and contract each muscle group.  In the book, it talks about how this piece of a perfect example of classical sculpture and anatomical research, and I couldn’t agree more.  During the fifteenth century, artists were still developing and experimenting with new ways to paint, engrave, and even sculpture, but this level of anatomical experimentation takes it to an entirely new level.  One solid piece to support this would be to look at the figures in the piece that have a weapon drawn or are in the act of swinging their weapon of choice.  Now take a look at the figure in the bottom right that appears to be injured from the battle.  We can clearly see that the muscles are not as defined as the figures that are still caught in the heat of the battle.  I find this as a fascinating part of the artist’s background, since there are people today that are still having a hard time grasping the concept of human anatomy within artwork, and this was created centuries ago.  In my opinion, del Pollaiuolo was ahead of his time with highlighting pieces of human anatomy.

 

     Though this piece looks quite amazing in a picture within a book, I can only imagine what it would look like in a person.  With this being said, another thing that really stands out is the absence of color.  While this may appear to be a more tasteless piece to some, it really draws my attention and leaves me in a moment of thought.  Like I mentioned before, it really leaves a lot of emphasis on the viewer, who is left to draw their own conclusions based on the colorless battle scene.  It helps highlight the muscle definition as we can see the lighter engraves help bring out the abdominal and oblique muscles. 

            Since this piece has no sort of added color to it, it expresses different levels of aspect through the shading of the engraving.  As we can see, the foliage in the background appears to be a lot darker than the male figures fighting.  We can also depict that the figures that are standing are carved much lighter than the figures that are closer to the ground.  Since there is no use of other colors, I feel Antonio del Pollaiuolo has used other resources to highlight where our focal point should be drawn to, which has added a deeper level of aspect and depth.

 

     Another key component that has been added is the false illusion of movement.  If we were to take a few seconds to study over this engraving, it would appear as if the naked male figures in this piece are actually in motion has they are lunging their weapons at each other.  It is also noticed that all the figures in this piece appear to be the same person, or have equally as noticeable qualities.  Whether this is a symbolic meaning or if the artist simply made all the male figures appear the same, it is still highly impressive to illustrate each character so closely through different muscle tensions.  Overall, I found this as a fascinating piece and a rather refreshing change from all the commonly publicized paintings that most people think of when it comes to Renaissance Italy in the fifteenth century.

Post #2 - Northern Renaissance Documentary

            During the rebirth of Northern Renaissance, artists took a different approach to their masterpieces.  Paintings and sculptures were the most popular forms during this era, and it countered what was presented in earlier times prior to this.  Although these pieces were attributed and influenced by the church, they contained more than just figures, they presented a story that could be aesthetically portrayed.  Famous artists such as the Jan Van Eyck from the documentary, not only created marvelous pieces that would flourish, but he invented a new way to approach the techniques of painting.  One of the most remarkable things that Van Eyck did in the film was creating images that not only reflected the light in the suggested areas, but he complimented it with the lighting that would directly affect the painting in reality.  This was something that nobody had ever been exposed to before.

            As the paintings and sculptures were widely popular, they had reason to stand out as much as they did back then to even today.  Within the documentary, they explained how each sculpture was almost embellished with its own personality, its own detail that separated each sculpture so much more from its accompanying pieces.  This gave character to each sculpture as it emphasized space and realism through each particular little detail.

            It appears that the influence of these works have changed drastically from prior forms, as they now focused on things that were now demanded by churches and patrons, which transformed the aspect of painting from a hobby to a highly respected career.  While religious forms of art were still desired, they found new ways to depict how they could make these images or stories come to life.  Another high value that was influenced in this time was patrons having artists painting portraits of themselves or regarding their family, which became overly popular in the 15^th century.

            However, when paintings became the newest standard of artwork, Van Eyck’s career really took off.  It was the first time that painters were now heavily commissioned for their work from their patrons, and it opened new doors for artistic creativity.  As mentioned, there were many influences that directed how paintings were to be crafted.  Religious pieces such as the early alter-pieces have always played a large role in Renaissance art, but it gave artists the opportunity to express more than just one image, instead a collection of images that elaborated a story.  They also focused on creating images that were of everyday events that played an important role in Renaissance culture and sometimes even reflected art of an accomplished victory during a battle.  But soon after this stage, many painters transformed their skills into portrait paintings, usually suggested by the patron of the artist at the time.

            One thing that I believe really separated North Renaissance from the rest was the extreme attention to detail that the artists put into their masterpieces.  It was here that figures like Van Eyck really etched a name in what could be considered even in today’s standards as artwork that has more detail than a photograph.

Art 236 - Introduction Post

A little introductory about myself: my name is Kyle Gromala and I am continuing on with my Art History classes just as most of you are.  I'm currently seeking a degree in Fine Arts / Photography.  I'm currently a junior here at Central and am trying to decide if I will pursue grad school when the time comes or join the working world.

When I think of Renaissance Art, so many things come to mind.  As we know, it was a great breakthrough with artwork and experimentation, but it was also a turning point when people started thinking in a new and unusual way.  Artists went against what others thought as farfetched and continued to do it anyway, revolutionizing certain techniques that have been popularized even in today's society.  Although I am not very familiar with too much Renaissance art specifically, (which I know will change over the next few weeks) I do know that it was an era of creativity and exploration.  Such examples were the large named artists that everyone and their grandmothers know about such as Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Giotto.  These artists didn't become legends for no reason, they changed the face of the artistic world.  New aspects were constantly being introduced into this time frame, such as the integration of three-point perspectives, which continued to protrude through famous paintings and canvases amongst many emerging artists.  I am looking forward to this class quite a bit more than Medieval and Ancient History because of all the new aspects and ideas that were expressed during this era.  It was truly a time of brilliance and expressive creativity.