2-7-2024
Today in class we discussed that art is not as simple as making a wall more interesting, and to understand what the art is doing and why it was created you have too look at it in the context of everything. For example, in Italy as discussed in class today, the four things surrounding a square or center of an Italian town are a church, monumental building and executions, all the things, boiled down are government, state and the people of this place… all these things have an affect on art because they affect the people and the economy and the politics that in turn decide who and how much art is being made.
We also discussed the way buildings can have meaning.The use of Strong Stone(a name of stone, not a description) for the construction of a new town hall in Florence gave the idea that the new government was strong, and the building had architectural similarities to a castle such as crenelations.
The church as an idea is also represents as the virgen Mary…inside the church, the alter that the virgen Mary sits on in the piece of art over the alter often looks like a building. Signifying this same idea.
The shift from a more frontal dead on view of saint Francis to the more contrapposto pose of marry in the large house shaped alter pieces is interesting to consider a similar Trend from sculptures in Egypt shifting to sculptures in Greece.