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.