Giotto di Bondone, known as Giotto, was born 1276 in Vespignano, Italy and died on January 8, 1337 in Florence, Italy. He is known as the most important Italian painter of the 14th century. His work points “to the innovations of the Renaissance style that developed a century later” (Murray). For the past seven centuries Giotto has been respected as the first of the great Italian masters and the father of European painting. Little of his life and works are actually documented, so “attributions and a stylistic chronology of his paintings remain problematic and often highly speculative” (Murray).
Many believe that Giotto is the pupil of Cimabue, who was also a Florentine painter and creator of mosaics. Cimabue and Giotto’s styles were so similar that a connection seems inevitable. While Giotto may have learned much from Cimabue, it is clear that much of his astounding innovation came from his own genius mind. When looking at Giotto’s work, it is clear that his exclusive subject matter is
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His initial innovations spread throughout Italy and eventually Europe like wildfire, winning him lifelong fame and attracting any number of enthusiastic followers and imitators. At the time, Giotto’s methods were ground-breaking and he spent most of his time very slowly refining them. His earliest known work, at the Church of St. Francis in Assisi, does not outstandingly differ from his final work at the Campanile in Florence. Giotto's techniques ranged from the non-stylized, immense, emotional, authentic-looking way of painting humans, to the bright and colorful scenery substituted for traditionally "holy" colors. He is also credited with his dedication to naturalism which made him the definitive artist of his time. His informal title of father of the Renaissance is not undeserved and di Bondone's style remains one of the most significant contributions in the history of
It is a long-with-standing stereotype that Italians love to gamble. This is true. My great grandfather, Pasquale Giovannone, played the riskiest hand of cards when he immigrated to the United States as an illegal stowaway at the age of thirteen. He forged a life for himself amidst the ever-changing social and political shifts of the early nineteenth century. The legacy he left would later lead to the birth of my father, John Giovannone, in Northern New Jersey in 1962.
Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli also known as Giampietrino spent the vast majority of his known career developing drawings and paintings of nude women from roman mythology under the leadership of the great Leonardo Da Vinci. Under the influential scope of Leonardo, Giampietrino replicated myriad artworks of leonardo’s displaying the importance of honoring the great artists of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially those such as Leonardo who remain a significant figure in the discourse of the canon of art in contemporary art society. Although he developed his own techniques and manipulations to refine his own work and bring forth a change in the development of the renaissance and baroque style of art, Giampietrino closely followed the methods taught in the Lombard school of art and those of his mentor Leonardo Da Vinci. Giampietrino’s similar style of painting to Leonardo can cogently be seen in his painting Lucretia and a plethora of other paintings, which convey the influence of the Lombard school from the incorporated formal elements such as color, form, content, and subjec...
Raphael Sanizo, usually known just by his first name, was born in 1483 in Urbino, Italy. He was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. He was celebreated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. He was very productive in his life, but had an early death at the age of thirty-seven years old, letting his rival Michelangelo take the reins on the art world. He is one of the great masters of his time. He died on March 28 of 1483 at the age of thirty-seven years old.
Giorgione or Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco was born in 1477 or 1478, the exact date is not known, in Castelfranco. Even though there were no more than about twenty paintings officially associated with him, of which only about six are attributed to him without doubt, his originality was so powerful that these few works have come to represent not only the first stage in the Venice High Renaissance, but a new trend in Italian art as well. Surviving documentation of his life and work is sparse.
One similarity between Giotto's and Cimabue's painting are that they show Madonna sitting on a throne with Jesus on her left side. Madonna and Jesus are also in the upper center of the painting surrounded by prophets and angels. The centers of paintings during the time were usually reserved for the Virgin Mary or Christ. (7) In both pieces, the angels and prophets are split equally on both sides of the paintings. Sometimes artists would place the same number of figures on one both sides, so as not to disturb the compositional consistency. This fundamental of symmetry had to be maintained in Byzantine art.
"Leonardo da Vinci paintings stand out from the work of his peers and contemporaries due to his paintings’ unique effect on viewers, ultimately caused by his impressive scientific approach toward his work." Doc. 3 Due to da Vinci's anatomical and physical studies, he was able to achieve the idea of light and shadow along with perspective. This technique is displayed in two of his most popular creations, The Last Super and the Mona Lisa,...
These paintings are famous for a variety of qualities which have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by aficionados and critics (“Leonardo Da Vinci.” Biography Online.) Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are the innovative techniques which he used in laying on the paint, and his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology. These combined with his interest in physiognomy and the way in which humans register emotion in expression and gesture and his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition, blend with subtle gradation of tone (“Simplifying a Genius.”). All these techniques are evident his most famous painted works: the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the Virgin of the Rocks (“The Secret Revealed: How to Look at Italian Renaissance Painting.”
Lorenzo De Medici can be considered as one of the most influential men of the 13th century. His work in political affairs and administration were renowned in all Italy and his family could count on him in every aspect. Lorenzo was also a promoter of a new period called Renaissance. He was one of the first “mecenate” to explore this new way of art. In this project, I will concentrate how he developed art in Florence, giving a clear example through an Artist of that period that was working for him: Sandro Botticelli. His work “The Spring” is a well-defined example of what we can call “art in the Renaissance”, in particular for the Italian Renaissance.
In 1597 he was appointed to decorate the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. This opportunity helped present Caravaggio as a painter who paint his subjects with natural flaws and human like qualities instead of celestial qualities. This commissi...
...laced on the style and materials presented in the painting. While evaluating and comparing various paintings the author feels that at the beginning of the Renaissance era the skill level of the artist was often not acknowledged whereas materials were, but at the end of the era, skill level played a larger factor in who was chosen to complete the artwork. Therefore, fresco painting, which emerged near the end of the period, changed this so called “deposit”, along with the relationship of the artist and the patron, allowing for the talent and skill of the artist to shine.
Giotto’s Arena Chapel, Duccio’s Maestà, and Masaccio’s Trinity are only a few examples of the Church’s overarching influence on Renaissance art. Without the Church, there would have been no art. It was the increasing popularity of the Church with new orders of monks in the 1200s that created a greater need for religious images, and with more production of art, the style began to change. Religion was such an integral part of Renaissance culture that it makes sense that it would be the focus of its creativity.
The development of Italian painting in the years around the 1300 or the proto-renaissance is in some sense the rebirth of art and culture. The painters of Renaissance Italy usually attached to particular courts and with loyalties to certain cities, still explored the extensive span of Italy. Many of the Italian painters grew artistically during this time, which is noticeable in Duccio’s painting compared to Giotto’s. In the renaissance period it was highly popularized to mainly draw depictions of religious figures, which is what the concentration of Duccio’s artwork mainly was. Before the painting of the Betrayal of Christ, Duccio’s paintings were highly composed and reliant upon the ancient tradition of icon painting. In the time around 1300 Duccio took steps toward depicting images in a more naturalistic form; Whereas, Giotto, in the 1300’s, was already established as painting more three-dimensional and naturalistic forms.
The Italian Renaissance included some of the greatest artists we have ever seen from Leonard Da Vinci, to Michelangelo, and Raphael. The Renaissance took place from the late thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and is know as the ‘rebirth’. The idea that the rebirth of the arts after being asleep for a thousand years is an amazing thing to grasp. This time brought back light to liberal arts, which were on the brink of being extinct. (Murray 2) What is also interesting about art during this time was that most of the art had Christian in its roots, for example, Botticelli’s The Allegory of Spring (Faure 1) is said to have had a Christian interpretation. (Murray) “Every Italian artist, willingly took the title of architect, sculptor, and painter” (Faure 2). At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Italian painters had asked the Flemish painters for their secret techniques because the Italians felt like the language of painting was one that was always meant for them. (Faure 4) The sculptors claimed their inspiration from ancient works. Lastly the Renaissance introduced idea of individualism, which helped the Italians get away from everything that was going on during that time. Art during the Renaissance included painting, sculpting and architecture, all of which were an important part in expressing the idea of individualism and making art what is is today.
Michelangelo and Caravaggio at some point in history were the most famous artists in Rome, Italy. Michelangelo a prominent architect, poet, sculptor, and painter found his success in Italy during the High Renaissance period (1490-1527). While Caravaggio was the most popular painter in Rome and spearheaded the Baroque period (1650-1750). Artists like Caravaggio in the Baroque period turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, intensified by bold contrasts of light and dark. Michelangelo’s reputation as a painter fluctuated during the High Renaissance, but his devotion to his art and his genius undoubtedly influenced artists such as Caravaggio during the Baroque Period. However, each artist had incredibly different styles, and utilized different mediums in their most popular works of art. Despite that there are also many similarities which indicate Michaelangelo’s heavy influences on Caravaggio and Baroque Period art. The comparison will be between Michelangelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Fresco. c. 1508-1512 and Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Oil
“The painter will produce pictures of little worth if he takes for his standard the pictures of others… Giotto the Florentine, who was not content with imitating the works of Cimabue, his master… he excelled not only all the masters of his time but all those of many centuries past…” 3