During class we discussed the Master of Frankfurt’s piece, Portrait of the Artist and his wife which was believed to be a self portrait. It was interesting how he chose to paint the fly on the women’s head as a way to show off his painting skills. It kind of looks like a fly landed on the image instead of being painted on. Then we talked about representation of art. We looked at different sculptures of the ideal body and how they change over time and how the Italians liked to improve their art over time, as seen by Giotto vs. Cimabue’s Enthroned Madonna. Giotto improved depth and made it more naturalistic.
We also started discussing Leonardo da Vinci and how he was a true renaissance man in the way that he was interested in many different subject matters such as nature, art, geometry and proportions. He made Vitruvios, the infamous image of the man inside the circle and square showing ideal proportions. He was also left handed, which caused him to have to write backwards as to not smudge the ink, which i found interesting.