Art from Baroque Period through the Postmodern Era
Renaissance art history began as civic history; it was an expression of civic pride. The first such history was Filippo Villani's De origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus, written about 1381-82. Florentine artists revived an art that was almost dead, Villani asserts, just as Dante had restored poetry after its decline in the Middle Ages. The revival was begun by Cimabue and completed by Giotto, who equalled the ancient painters in fame and even surpassed them in skill and talent. After Giotto came his followers, Stefano, Taddeo Gaddi, and Maso, uomini illustri all, who, together with notable jurists, poets, musicians, theologians, physicians, orators, and others, made Florence the preeminent city of Italy.
Cino Rinuccini, following Villani, published an honor-roll of Florence's famous men, among them, artists. And Cristoforo Landino wrote in the same vein in a better known work that appeared in 1481; the Preface to his Commentary to the Divine Comedy contains a recapitulation of the painting of the classical world that is followed by a brief history of modern art, which is to say Florentine art, beginning with Cimabue and Giotto and enumerating the contributions of the masters of the quattrocento: Masaccio, Lippi, Castagno, Uccello, Fra Angelico, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Desiderio, Ghiberti, and the two Rossellini.
Though in no sense a history, Alberti's De pictura of 1435-36, like these works, contains a list--a much abbreviated one--of great Florentine artists: Brunelleschi, Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Ghiberti, and Masaccio. And, more important, the list is part of an encomium similar in type to those mentioned: Brunelleschi, like Villani's Giotto, ha...
... middle of paper ...
...quality of the architecture in these countries is best seen in the work of Neumann and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. From Europe the baroque spread across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. Gradually the massive forms of the baroque yielded to the lighter, more graceful outlines of the rococo.
References
Baxandall, M., Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial Composition, 1350-1450, Oxford, 1971. Bellori, G.P., Le vite detpittori, scultori et architetti modern), Rome, 1672. ed. E. Borea, intro. G. Previtali, Turin, 1976.
Goldstein, C., Visual Fact over Verbal Fiction: A Study of the Carracci and the Criticism, Theory, and Practice of Painting in Renaissance and Baroque Italy, Cambridge, 1988.
Malvasia, C.C., Felsina pittrice: Vite de'pittori Bolognesi (Bologna, 1678), ed. M. Brascaglia, Bologna,1971.
In the essay “Naturalism and the Venetian ‘Poesia’: Grafting, Metaphor, and Embodiment in Giorgione, Titian, and the Campagnolas,” Campbell explains the role of poetic painting, poesia, in Venetian artwork during the 1500s. Titian personally used the term poesia when he “[referred] to paintings he was making for [King Philip II] with subject matter derived from the ancient poets.” Poesia now refers to a type of sixteenth century Venetian painting, which Giorgione and Titian initiated and used within their works. Campbell’s main argument is that poesia is not simply aesthetic or reflective of poetry, but rather “grounded in the process of making – and in making meaning – rather than in an aesthetics of self-sufficiency or self-referentiality.” Like poetry, it is not self-contained; meaning lies outside of the work, within the interpretations of the viewers. He discusses the idea of grafting in poetry and how the same grafting model is utilized in the visual arts. Different images, such as pagan figures and contemporary figures and settings, are juxtaposed to create visual discordance and give an intrinsic meaning to the viewer. Campbell then uses many examples of writing, poetry, engravings, and paintings to explore his argument and the connections between artists during the 1500s.
Johnson, Geraldine A. Renaissance Art, A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
As his career continued, Bellini became known for his landscapes and naturalistic depiction of light. Giovanni founded the Venetian school of painting, and lived to see his students succeed and even some of them become more famous than he himself was. His life ended in Venice in 1516, but his contributions to Renaissance art would live forever. Bellini brought a new level of realism and nature to art, innovative subject matter, and a new sensuousness in both form and color. Giovanni’s personal attitudes and styles predetermined the special nature of Venic...
Adamo, Rossella Vodret, and Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio. Caravaggio: The Complete Works. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2010. Print.
Tiziano Vecellio was an artist in the 1400’s - 1500s. He completed paintings like “Women with a mirror, Man with glove, and Cruxifiction. He lived somewhere in the 1400s and 1500’s although we do not know when. He was known for his use of color. In this paper I will argue that Tiziano Vecellio was a true renaissance artist. I’m going to argue this through his life, and artwork.
Giorgio Vasari’s book The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects was written as a second edition in 1568. It is a collection of written accounts that Vasari thought were the best and most esteemed artists in the Renaissance, which specifically focuses on North Italian cities such as Florence and Milan. This primary source is a tool that gives the reader an understanding of the ways in which Italian Renaissance artists lived their lives. The Lives is also important because it is considered the first book to focus on art history. Barolsky states that Vasari’s Lives is “a foundational text in the history of art history” (Barolsky 33). Vasari, in many ways paved the way as an art historian for others in the future by writing
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).
Undoubtedly, the early fourteenth century was a highly creative period in Italy which saw many magnificent works created. It was a time, also known as the “Proto-Renaissance” (1280-1400) where Italian scholars and artists were reawakened to the ideas of classical Roman culture. The main types of art practised during the “Trecento” (thirteen hundreds) included tempera panel painting, fresco painting, book painting, relief sculpture and mosaics.
In the article “Conditions of Trade,” Michael Baxandall explains the interaction serving of both fifteenth- century Italian painting and text on how the interpretation of social history from the style of pictures in a historical period, pre-eminently examine the early Renaissance painting. Baxandall looks not only on the explanation of how the style of painting is reflected in a society, but also engages in the visual skills and habits that develop out of daily life. The author examines the central focus on markets, material visual practices, and the concept of the Renaissance period overlooking art as an institution. He observes a Renaissance painting, which relate the experience of activities such as preaching, dancing, and assessing. The author considers discussions of a wide variety of artistic painters, for instance, Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, Stefano di Giovanni, Sandro Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, and numerous others. He defines and exemplifies concepts used in contemporary critic of the painting, and in the assembled basic equipment needed to discover the fifteenth- century art. Therefore this introductory to the fifteenth- century Italian painting and arise behind the social history, argues that the two are interconnected and that the conditions of the time helped shape the distinctive elements in the artists painting style. Through the institutional authorization Baxandall looks at integration in social, cultural and visual evaluation in a way that shows not only the visual art in social construction, but how it plays a major role in social orders in many ways, from interaction to larger social structural orders.
As the seventeenth century began the Catholic Church was having a hard time bringing back the people who were swept away by the protestant reformation. The conflict between the protestant had a big influence on art. (Baroque Art) The church decided to appeal to the human emotion and feeling. They did so by introducing a style called Baroque. Baroque was first developed in Rome and it was dedicated to furthering the aims of Counter Reformation. Baroque was first used in Italy than later spread to the north. In this paper I will argue that the Italian Baroque pieces were more detailed and captured the personality of the figure, in contrast and comparison to Northern Baroque pieces that aimed to produce a sense of excitement and to move viewers in an emotional sense leaving them in awe. I will prove this by talking about the different artwork and pieces of Italian Baroque art versus Northern Baroque Art.
...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.
The paintings by Duccio and Giotto firmly set in place a benchmark for where artwork in the years around 1300 began to develop. These artworks show how paintings began to evolve into more symbolic, naturalistic, and dramatic scenes, depicting events in life and religion. The paintings of Duccio and Giotto are similar in the sense that their paintings were then, in the sense of more modern words, “special effects” of their time. They show vivid colors with meaning and symbolism, atmospheric characters that exist in space, and composition that is well thought out. Overall, these two artists become a pinnacle of art that illustrates Italian paintings in the years around 1300.
...t they are because the Baroque period encompasses so many different types of art with very few similarities. These religious, political, and socio-economic aspects, along with many others, facilitated the breadth of Baroque art. Baroque art can range from the theatrical, dramatic, and ornate to the simple and monochromatic, simply based on the artist, the commissioner, and the context. Baroque art varies so greatly because it encompasses so many countries and areas in one small time frame. While the countries included in the Baroque label share many qualities and characteristics, each is different and was working through its own setbacks and successes. Because the failures and successes varied from country to country, so did the art as each country chose to represent this time period in a way that they felt would preserve their ideals for future generations.
Additionally, the styles changed; from Rococo, which was meant to represent the aristocratic power and the “style that (…) and ignored the lower classes” (Cullen), to Neoclassicism, which had a special emphasis on the Roman civilization’s virtues, and also to Romanticism, which performs a celebration of the individual and of freedom. Obviously, also the subject matter that inspired the paintings has changed as wel...
Larmann, R., & Shields, M. (2011). Art of Renaissance and Baroque Europe (1400–1750). Gateways to Art (pp. 376-97). New York: W.W. Norton.