Author: Oliver Beardsley (Page 3 of 3)

Class four-19-Feb-2024

In class we discussed the Quattrocento and the uptick of the study of  literature, art and ideas from the past in this time. With moveable type and the print press, ore books were made, but at first were still expensive die to the high cost it took to make paper. The city of Florence was having a moment, filled with guilds of differing perfusions. (Judges, wool, wool cloth, silk/metal sculptures, doctors, stone and wood sculptures.) 

These guilds would oversee the making of art pieces for public display or different buildings. One example is the the wool guild creating a competition to chose the artist to make bronze doors for the baptistry of Florence. The loser of the competition was Brunelleschi, he then focused on architecture, traveling to Rome to gain inspiration from the proportions of the ancient buildings, built with 1 to 2 ratio. Brunelleschi developed the method of depicting space called linear perspective to sketch the buildings he was observing for inspiration. Brunelleschi then incorporated the use of the proportions in the building of the dome of the cathedral in Florence and a hospital to name a few. The duoma is inspired from the dome of the pantheon, but the gothic style of the time produced a more elongated result. 

stemming from Brunelleschi’s method of linear perspective we analyzed the technique. A horizon line which sis at eye level is all the possible vanishing points lines stem from that towards the viewer in a cone shape to form lines perpendicular to the view plane while parallel lines cross those lines at 90 degrees to form a grid in which the subject can be rendered in perspective

In todays class, we discussed the affect of changing mediums, from tempura based painting to oil painting which started to gain popularity in  the Netherlands with artists like Jon Van Eyck who was something of a special artist. He was rumored to have invented oil paint however this is not true, but this show his masterful skill in the medium. As the excellent painter he was he was also part of the the court and was sent on missions by the duke of burgundy to look for a wife for him, among other things. 

Oil painting gave the painter more Tim etc work on the piece as it was slow drying. This allowed for immense detail. The paint also gave a more layered apparent with more vivid color compared to tempura. With more time to work on more detail in painting, symbolism in these paintings was disguised. This is somethings I found rally fun to think about, as it seemed artists where competing with each other to find more cleaver ways of disguising symbolism within their paintings.  In line with a similar idea is thinking about how the artist is including themself in their paintings as well. An example of this is jan van Eyck including what is though to be his reflection in a mirror. It has a very where’s Waldo-esque feeling about that’s very playful.

Today in class we discussed Giotto’s improvements on rendering a believable space. He moves away from abstract ideas that represent something real and instead paints something as it truly appears. For example the folds of the virgin Marys garment are represented with shadow and highlight by Giotto rather then shimmering gild lines by Cimebue. We also compared the world of Giotto to Duccio of Siena. Giottos paintings bring you up close and into the scene he is portraying while Duccio’s paintings are more of a detailed overview of an event with more detail but form farther away. Duccio’s compositions is something from a higher point than the people in the painting while Giotto’s perspective is level with that of the people in the painting. 

Another theme overwind in class today is how the state of a kingdom could be seen by the paints of the kingdom… paintings portraying prosperity in the form of busy markets, well kept country sides and people in harmony showed a “good” kingdom. 

In the north, symbolism in painting became more sneaky, and shown through common objects as paintings became more realistic representations of nature. 

These more realistic representation of life can bee seen in Callander books possessed  by John, duke of berry, brother to the king of France king Charles the 5th and Philip the bold, duke of burgundy. He collected these books as a status symbol, but they also showed off his kingdom and possessions as he was a great collector of art and other things such as castles. His brother, Philip married himself into getting all the land go Belgium because the lack of a male heir. 

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.