In our class discussion today, we focused on 16th century art. It was interesting to discuss how in the 16th century there was a transition to an open market of art and the implications this shift had on the content of the artwork of the time period. I like the artworks we saw with “moral messages”, and the wide variety of moral agendas that can be addressed through artwork. The motif of the scale and the looming future of the last judgment in connection to material greed was an interesting concept to me. It’s interesting how religious ideals / ideas were adapted to the changing time periods in relation to economic gain and economic opportunities. 

During class we discussed The Fall of Icarus by Bruegel who often depicts scenes of moral lessons, this one being the consequence of pride and too much ambition as it goes along with the mythical story of Icarus. During this time period, people started collecting art for the artist’s name rather than just for the subject matter. This was a big change as it shows the transformation of art becoming a business and having economic value rather than just religious value. Pieces were now being made depicting landscapes, a ‘genre pieces’ depicted regular people doing regular things, having little to do with religion at all. This change also shows artist’s newfound individualism and their ability to have artistic freedom and creating their own aesthetics for what they sell. They can target who they want and paint what they want. Mass production and copies of pieces were becoming more common too, adding the economy of art beginning to grow. Massys paints The Money changer and his Wife as a message that with the increasing mercantile society, people should not lose their religious values.

Bruegel also painted proverb pieces like The Blind leading the Blind and Netherlandish Proverbs, which contains 126 proverbs in one work. He also painted peasant life and more silly pieces like Land of Cockaigne, showing a utopia world where you don’t have to work and food is brought to you. We also discussed different death depictions in works that were usually alluded by a scull being either a reflection in a mirror or as a physical being. In Grien’s Three Ages of Women and Death, he paints a woman’s life as seen by three stages, birth, mid life and death.

During class we went over Botticelli’s Primavera. It is a lush scene containing many characters and symbols that each play a role in the cohesive depiction of springtime. The painting was to be displayed outside the bed chamber and showed a rounded landscape with orange blossoming trees. Venus is seen in the center, telling the viewer they are in the garden of Venus who is also the goddess of love and marriage. Her dress is decorated with flame like decorations, which connects to Saint Lawrence who was associated with fire. Cupid, her son, is also seen in the painting. To the left, the Three Graces are seen in the common way they are often depicted. They are three sister figures who are different but similar and represent harmony as they stand with their arms connected. Zephyr is also seen to the right and he represents a soft wind and is grabbing Chloris, in which flowers are coming out of her mouth. Mercury, the god of messengers and merchants is seen raising his staff.

In the recorded lecture we talked about many themes from women in the Renaissance, to devotion and how religious scenes were depicted idealized while others were naturalistic. We studied different Book of Hours, reaffirming the idea of these little books used for praying by many noble women. They weren’t flashy and contained dense scenes of many overlapping figures with drôleries, which are added details along scenes that add the the playfulness or can add to the storytelling. Many of the religious scenes were idealized, as seen in the Flight into Egypt in Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany where the donkey does not resemble an actual donkey. Though, other pages could have fruits or plants acting as a border and they were drawn very realistically.

We also talked about women and their status in the Renaissance. Women were not able to carry much power, unless you were a nun where you lived in a society not dominated by male presense. Therefore, nuns were more likely to be artists, a male dominated occupation at the time. They owned dolls for their prayers which acted as objects of devotion. Lavinia Fontana was an example of a women, who wasn’t a nun surprisingly, and was a professional artist. She painted a self portrait that depicted her a professional as she was dressed nicely and had a maid.

In this class, we first took a look at the city Antwerp and talked about the rise of the market there and how that influences artists’ creations. Without the commission by patrons, artists obtain more freedom in their works. But also because of the absence of commission, they need to compete to ensure their works have a market. The consequence is that variety of artworks appear, and artists are forced to find their own specialized niche. The name of the artist is more emphasized and recognizable as well. We then talked a lot about the works by the artists Pieter Bruegel. In his painting Fall of Icarus, there is a moral lesson from the depiction of the falling Icarus–being hubris, i.e., having too much ambition and pride, will let you fall down eventually. What’s amazing is that, in his Netherlandish Proverbs, Bruegel presents 126 proverbs in such a single artwork. For example, the guy in the lower right who hits his head towards walls represents foolishness and an “ambitious idiot”. Because his paintings are so popular, Bruegel himself, his workshop, his son, and other artist make copies of his works, which reveals that people at that time have no problem at all on copies and copyright issues. There’s also a humanistic feature embedded in his paintings, where harmony between nature and humans is depicted and humans look so small in proportion to nature.

The term genre painting refers to paintings that depict scenes of everyday life. The moral genre is those where a moral agenda is contained. Some examples include Quentin Massys (Metsys)’s The Money Changer and His Wife, which warns people that the growing business may distract people’s attention so that they may not value religion as they should. Johannes Vermeer’s Woman with a balance also makes an interesting comparison and juxtaposition between the weighting of jewels by the woman and the weighting of souls in Last Judgement in the background painting.

What’s stood out to me finally is the skulls in mirrors, an element that appears in several paintings such as Hans Baldung Grien’s Three Ages of Woman and Death, Baldung Grien’s Vanitas, and Lukas Furtenagel’s Hans Burgkmair and his wife. This shows the metaphor of mirror–self-reflection–as well as the metaphor that “no matter what’s your status in society you are going to die eventually.”

During today’s class, we mainly discussed Antwerp and the artists that were based there. Antwerp itself was interesting to learn about because it was there that art started to be made for the market and not just commissions and patrons. Having such a market gave artists more creative freedom because their paintings were no longer being dictated by patrons. However, art meant for markets were also a gamble because it was not confirmed that their artwork would get bought. It was because of this that artists would fight or compete for sales but it was in an attempt to avoid such competition that artists would often try and find a niche that they could then refine. It was also during this time that name started to become more important because it was an identifier in the marketplace. One of the artists that resided in Antwerp and thrived in the market was Pieter Bruegel. Bruegel found his niche in that he would try and feature moral lessons in his paintings. For instance, his painting that is referred to as Fall of Icarus used Icarus’ status as a symbol of hubris to depict a lesson. At one point, Bruegel even included 126 Netherlandish proverbs into a single painting. It was also in this new marketplace that copies would appear. Bruegel, for example, copied his own composition in order to sell more copies because it was popular. Even his son would copy his composition and sell it and people had no problem with this. Copies often times would be created by the artist themselves, their workshop, or just other artists that may have liked the composition.

In class on Tuesday, we learned about multiple works of art crafted specifically with the patron in mind. The Studiolo Palazzo uses intarsia, the technique of using different color wood inlays, to create the illusion that the designs on the wood are 3-dimensional. The three-dimensionality works the best for a person who is 175 cm tall which is also the height of the patron. Additionally, works such as Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera, a work made for Lorzeno Medici when he was getting married. This work is specialized for Lorenzo through the multiple references Botticelli makes about him. For example, the abundance of oranges on the trees are a reference to the Medici’s being “physicians” since round things are the traditional shape of medicine. Additionally, there are multiple depictions of “flames” (detail) such as on Venus’s dress and the Cupid’s flaming arrow. Likewise, “flame” is also a reference to Lorenzo because Saint Lawrence is a patron to fire.

In this class, we talked about how secular art in the Renaissance was formed, where it appeared, and the ways it was composed in order to fit its uses in its contemporary environment.  We first looked at some Intarsia wood paneling, the primary example we saw was from the Duke’s house in Gubbio.  The perspective in the intricate wood paneling was set to be approximately 5’9”, and inscriptions above the paneling contained adjectives describing the Duke, demonstrating how individualized secular art was.  Furthermore, we saw how artists took care of their patrons in creating secular art, with Botticelli’s Primavera.  The painting, which was made for the patron’s wedding and carried symbolism, with the depiction of Venus, that was fitting of that.  One of the more interesting distinctions we made was with the consideration of art in the time period.  While Primavera is reminiscent of art that was on tapestries at the time, the distinction between mediums probably wouldn’t have been made by those at the time.

In this video lecture, we discussed the parts and variations of manuscripts, as well as continuing some of our discussion on gender in the Renaissance.  The manuscript made for the Queen by Jean Pucelle, we noted, is one of the most important manuscripts of the Renaissance.  What I found particularly interesting was the use of Grisaille on the medium, which meant that shading was the only form of difference (without color) on each manuscript page.  The other interesting implication from this is the fact that therefore, the page, without shading, can be interpreted as total light.  This helps the prayer book use this imagery to create borders of light around the sacred art included. We also talked about schools of illumination, in which manuscripts were produced in large complexes and schools.  What was interesting and new about these schools, is that the manuscripts produced were not personalized in the same way as earlier manuscripts we looked at – instead, they were personalized in small ways and commercialized and “mass-produced”.

In Tuesday’s class we discussed Botticelli’s Primavera, a magnificent work painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici.  The work was commissioned for Lorenzo’s wedding, and has lots of references to all the aspects of a strong marriage.  Its rich floral design is almost reminiscent of a tapestry and really envelops the viewer into the garden of Venus, which is eternally in spring.  The Zephyr at the far right of the painting represents a gentle wind, which blows the beautiful scents of the orange trees and flowers around and creates really perfect weather.  In this painting, Venus is representing love in the context of marriage (as opposed to lust), and therefore her clothes are adorned with pearls (representing purity) and flames (representing the flames of love and St. Lawrence, a play on Lorenzo, the name of the man who commissioned the work).  We also see the Cupid, her son with Mercury, the god of messengers, thieves, merchants, and eloquence flying above the garden.  This reminds viewers that in the Renaissance, marriages was done to produce a child and to merge powerful families.