Jenna Aiello - Renaissance Videos

ALBRECHT DURER: IMAGE OF A MASTER

Durer was born in germany in 1471. He exercised his powerful influence on the art of northern Europe. gothic art of germany was opened up to new ideas from the renaissance. He did a self portrait when he was 13 using silver point. He was extremely talented. His talent for portraits was very evident when he was 19; he enjoyed painting hands. He carefully observed the process of aging. His mother bore 18 children and buried 15 of them. Before she died in 1514, Durer made a charcoal picture of her and the process of aging was very evident. In 1489, he went out on his travels, working as a painter. His woodcuts that he was talented in helped him survive his travels. A touch of narcissism was seen in his work. After being summoned back to Germany, he was married to a wealthy 15 year old girl. However, he was soon back on his travels. But this him, it was to Italy. His journey over the Alps awakened the appeal of landscape in his work. He was the first true landscape artist in Europe. He grasped the mod of landscape, the glow of evening light on water and the clouds hugging the sun. He visited Venice, which was a mecca for artists. He visited as many painter studios that he could but this wasn’t a problem because he was already famous through his prints. A theme he chose to paint was rosary. Famous artists came to visit him while others were threatening him because of his talents. He was always dedicated craftsman. From the Venetians he learned how to imply brushstrokes without color to imply light. He searched for what seemed to be the perfect form. He did a self portrait to represent perfection and symmetry. Upon his return to Germany, he found himself being treated as a noble citizen. He was a member of the great council of the city. Much of his success in printmaking lay in giving visual aspects to prints. He could reach a much wider public. Prints depicting the life of the Virgin Mary were extremely popular. He also made prints of scenes from daily life. Peasants of market and experiments with new technique are evident in his work. Durer was constantly learning and refining his art. 

Just as art is always changing and advancing, so are the artists who create these works. Durer traveled from Germany to Italy and while doing so, different cultures had an influence in his work. We can relate this to Baroque art of the Renaissance transforming to Neo-Platoism and portraying a reflection on politics. His work and ideas spread just as Greek art did to now relate to Renaissance art. Ideas are always furthered whether it be through travels or changing times. 

LEONARDO DA VINCI: THE MIND OF THE RENAISSANCE

Da Vinci demonstrated exceptional gifts from his infancy. He showed a passion for drawing when he was young. Tuscany was in a full artistic Renaissance. His sensitivity developed as he grew older; he observed faces and hand gestures as well as motions of the soul. He left Vinci when he was a adolescent and moved to Florence. There he apprenticed with Andrea del Verrocchio. He will be the ideal model for Botticelli, another artist in the studio. The greater your knowledge the most your work will be deserving of praise. He was the first to make an actual landscape. With his hatching effect, he conveys density and transparency. He studied the exploration of the true. “Motion is made of two natures, one is material and one is spiritual.” He was entrusted with painting an angel in one of his masters pictures. He needed to require the expertise of an engineer. His speed of thought leads him from technical problems to philosophical ideas. When he was 20, he was accepted into the painters guild. In the new interpretation of the Annunciation, he depicted a Virgin Mary that was already pregnant. He showed a great love for animals and it outraged by man’s cruelty towards them. The first portrait painted reflected all things that make him unique. Treatment of the light in the landscape is very clear. he also studied machines both to understand them and improve them and create more complex ones. He made endless drawing and sketches and got a commission for a creation of a large alter piece. As his work progressed, you can see different elements. Faces, gestures, feelings set in motion by the divine child can all be seen. To one side, a young man turns away; the painting remained unfinished. Leonardo was sent to Milan as a musician. He is commissioned to present a work made by himself. He introduced himself as a military engineer and boasts of his inventions and skills. He undertook works that were full of symbolism. He organized entertainment and shows at the court. His machinery gives him a chance to experiment with his mechanical inventions. The Duke of Milan commissions a portrait of his young mistress. He became the official court painter. “Painting relates to the 10 attributes of sight.” A painting must represent two things; man and what passes in his soul, the first is easy but the second it hard. He drew up lists of words and delves into their meaning and writes down notes about them. He transformed himself into the artist of science. “The eye is the window to the soul; all the images of the universe are contained in this tiny space; this is the miracle by dilating the blurred images; the optic nerve is like a cord transmitting images to the brain.” Da Vinci proposed a city on many levels to promote health, in a city like Milan where it was slowly falling. A witness relays that he spent his work early and spend hours studying and pondering. “When the painters mind his alive, his hands create harmony and proportion at that very moment.” “Geometry embraces everything in the universe.” Since his arrival in Milan, his mission was to create energy and invention. His plan was to make a horse casting 7ft high. In 1499, he left Milan where he had spent 17 years. In Venice, he discovered the equestrian statue. The Venetian republic appeals to the visitors ingenuity. He studied ways to bar access to the lagoon. He even had ideas for an underwater attack for divers to sink the enemy ships. He now traveled through central Italy as an architect and engineer. He proposed building a bridge. Upon returning to Florence, he was respected and renowned. People flocked to admire Da Vinci’s talent. He captures the motion of the soul in this Florentine lady; the Mona Lisa. Because of his search for perfection he can never being himself to see his works are finished. In 1513, he returned back to the Vatican. He devotes himself to research and many inventions. He continued experimenting on the construction of mirrors. He produced as personal piece, John the Baptist. He traveled to France in response to an invitation. He made his home with the title of painter, engineer and architect to the king. He proposed large scale hydraulic work. He planned a new capital. He continued to perfect the works that he brought with him. He died May 2, 1519 when he was 67 years old. Legend says that he died in the arms of the king. 

THE DRAWINGS OF MICHAELANGELO

All his life, Michaelangelo drew. He was born in Florence and was apprentice to Ghirlandaio. Much of his activities were centered on drawing. The comparison of Michaelangelo and Grirlandaio’s drawings show the similarity in both of their works. However, Michaelangelo’s works are much more advanced, however still holding the same ideas. He uses his drawings as a stalk of ideas that he can return to. He keeps his paper and reuses it and carries it with him. He learned to paint and draw from Ghirlandaio but taught himself how to sculpt. The Pieta is his only signed sculpture. We can see how much he learned about classical art through this sculpture. He was interested in what sculpture means and expressed it in a different medium. His knowledge of the human body was staggering and his anatomical knowledge was amazing. The lines were very chiseled like with many strokes. He had admiration  for the sculptures of antiquity. He was called back to Florence to work on what we know as David. The greatest inspiration he gives is how you can use the body. His genius blends details taken from life mixed with abstract. He works and reworks the figure in a constant search for perfection. The male nude was the focal point of expression for the next 60 years when referring to Michaelangelo. It isn’t beauty in itself. In 1508, he started the decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The drawings tell the story of drawing and carrying out the greatest commission of his life. However, you can see from early drawings of the most famous painting on the chapel that the drawing of Adam isn’t lifelike. It is nearly impossible for the human body to fit that curve depicted in the work. By 1516, he was back in Florence. The Pope called him to work on a church. He was to design a facade but switched to family tombs. He designed four tombs for the chapel. The architecture and most of the sculptures were designed by Michaelangelo in the chapel honoring the Medici. He drew not just a body but a marble sculpture of a body with a particular light. His concern for the back of the sculpture was about the angle from which it would be viewed as well as the detail. His design of the chapel was never fully realized. In 1527, Michaelangelo stopped work on the chapel. His passionate response the beauty of the male body was masked by the Christian faith. The Last Judgement was one of Michaelangelo’s last works. He believed in the reality of heaven and hell. This work required him to find a new way to represent the human body. There is no difference in the bodies of the saved and those of the damned. The drawings show him working out how to cope with masked and tangled bodies. He also tested the limits of what he could portray through the body. The Last Judgement shows his turing to become increasingly aware of his own mortality. His crucifixion drawings explore his feelings of hope and dread as he approached death. He went to a place of meditation and coexistence. These late drawings are a reflection of his own death and his private thoughts of the death of Christ and the impact of the death of Christ. 

LA PRIMAVERA

There are many mixed opinions of La Primavera by Botticelli. But what is the meaning of this work? It was painted in Florence in the 1480’s. It’s scale makes an immediate impact. This isn’t a painting to be taken lightly in any sense. Primavera is spring in Italian. 9 figures appear and are all drawn from classical mythology. Venus stands in the middle and above her is cupid aiming at a group of scantily clad women which are the three graces. The young male figure is Mercury, messenger of the gods. The most puzzling figures are on the right. Two two females are an expression of a single person. They stand in a meadow of 500 flowers. But why are they all gathered together in this one group? It was Renaissance Florence that provided a guide map for the creation of this work. Botticelli was born just as the early Renaissance was reaching its peak. Some scholars believe that Lorenzo the Magnificent is seen in La Primavera. His real face wasn’t used as he is seen as more beautiful in the painting. A new pagan art was emerging in Florence. To create the Primavera, rule of Christian art had to be overlooked. There was a massive demand for religious image in art in Florence. Crucifixions were a common subject as were mother and child works. Venus was allowed her own version of the Christ child; cupid flying above. The three graces were seen as nymphs. They weren’t real nor were actual women looking like that of that time. It shows a particular grace and beauty, however unnatural. In 1498, the painting was listed in a list of household content and was given a price. It was displayed in the bedroom of a townhouse in Florence and began to Lorenzo di Piere Franchesco. It was normal to commission paintings around the time of marriage. Franchesco was married into a loveless marriage and this painting was painted for his marriage. There is a seen of a sexual sort seen on the right side of the painting. A figure is raped by the one the woman loves. The theme of rape is popular in paintings given for a new marriage. Violence is also transformed into happiness in this painting. Chloris took Flora as is wife, depicted with a smile, in the painting. It showed a happy marriage born from adversity. The painting was displayed in a bedroom of the newly married couple. The painting began life as a piece of furniture. If the subject matter were new, the techniques  used were traditional in La Primavera. The material used and methods used in the painting marked a high point in the early Renaissance. The attempt to find a key linking a connection in the painting is challenging. We are invited to reveal a riddle in this painting and that makes it very appealing to the audience. The painting it full of many many flowers, all very rich some which we can identify and others that we cannot. The figures seem to be standing in a orange growth which were very typical in the Mediterranean. Roses also depict a sense of smell. Based on the flowers, there is a mixture of seasons in the painting. The flowers revealed a shared symbolic theme; strawberries are seduction, the carnation is a flower which the bride hid on her body, other plants that dealt with marriage are also seen more in figures on the right side of the painting. After Botticelli’s death, the Primavera remained hidden. The painting emerged in the mid 19th century; when a group of British artists were looking for inspiration. They were able to study it closely and were soon using Botticelli’s style in their own work. The Song of Spring was a response from a gay artist to the Primavera. The composition was based on this. In the center of the painting is a female figure with her hands playing on a keyboard. There are two women embracing her staring in space. On the left is a young man carrying a branch of blossom. This painting carries a sense of sadness. This work enhances aspects of the Primavera that weren’t necessarily seen at first. The figure of Mercury in the painting sends many different messages, some even of homosexuality. The Primavera is a very complicated and dense painting and needs to be looked at in its episodes. However, Flora is more looked at. Her facial expression is very intriguing. She acts as the one that draws us into the picture herself.

Each of these videos carry a great significance and importance in learning about Renaissance art. Videos about Michaelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci give insights into their lives and what they went through while producing and learning about both themselves and art. They enhance our understanding of their art as well as our readings in the text. La Primavera gives us such a deep look at a very important artwork of the Renaissance. Each were very enjoyable and have contributed to my understanding of the Renaissance period.