Compare And Contrast Grannaci And Othello

No one artist is the same as another, they may have the same style and possibly the same technique, but if they emerge spontaneously to each other there will always be some kind of difference. In the National Gallery this theory is evident, with the two artists that I will discuss, Grannaci and Uccello, hanging in the same room. Although they both belong to the ‘Early Italian Collection (c.1400 - 1500)’ and share some similarities — as many Renaissance paintings do, they are still very different works. This may be due to a number of reasons: their training, their handling of the medium, or simply the desired function of the painting. In

They are both painted on wood panels, most likely poplar as this was the most commonly used wood in Italy at the time (Carr & Leonard, 1992: p. 52). The medium is tempera, most likely varnished due to the boldness of the red and the dark hues. Other than that there is a sensitive use of colour, with the pale hues of the niche perfectly sitting between the Virgin so that her and the child are the main focus. It is a portrait of the Virgin and Child, the title most apt in this case being Madonna the Mother as she is seen here holding him lovingly and the only way we know that we are looking at a religious image is due to the presence of two halos (Benedetti, 2002). His familiarity with classical architecture is evident in the background of the painting, a shell-shaped niche surrounds the Virgin and Child creating a sense of structure. The frame itself appearing as a window which the Child jumps out of, the anxious looking Virgin holding on tightly to him like a protective parent (National Gallery of Ireland [NGI], 2015a). Like Granacci’s painting this is a very informal image, the Madonna is not enthroned, though the architectural structure may be seen as ecclesiastical, and Christ is depicted carrying out the actions of an ordinary child. It is almost as if Uccello is attempting to give us a snapshot of their daily life when Christ was still a toddler. This suggests that this would not have been a devotional painting, but for a private collection. His training, which I previously mentioned, is clear, there is a hint of Gothic grotesque in the