Comparison paper
The topic of discussion today is on the Last Supper. Not the actual event but two distinct works of art that come to mind when one imagines what it would have been like to be present during the momentous event. The works of art that I am referring to are Andrea Del Castagno’s Last Supper and The Last Supper done by Leonardo da Vinci. Both are exquisite and inspiring works of art. There are however many differences between the two. Through the course of this paper I will explore some of the differences and similarities. The location, medium and opinions of the final product. Noted by the fourteenth-century monk Ludolph of Saxony, ‘The Last Supper, the revelation of the betrayal, entered the heart of each Apostle like a knife, causes each to reflect on his inner life and, for some, his eventual martyrdom (Hartt 264). As depicted in the bible the Last Supper took place in an upper room of a house in Jerusalem, which neither painting accurately portrays. It is very hard to say which one truly represents the emotions of all involved. One thing however is for sure, emotion was certainly captured.
Castagno’s Last Supper is said to be completed around 1445-50 it is a fresco on the end wall of a refectory, the Cenacolo of Sant’ Apollonia, Florence (Turner 101). There are religious paintings all around the Last Supper, above is the Resurrection, Crucifixion, and Entombment. God the father rises behind, and while he is in the picture plane close to the surface of the fresco, incongruously he also appears to stand on a ledge or tomb affixed to the back wall (Turner 102). There seems to be a spatial inconsistency but more than likely it was deliberate. The chapel is designed to offer a very detailed optical illusion; therefore the space could be seen as a heavenly chapel. The ionic image of the trinity itself is a truth for all times and all places (Turner 102). Because of the content and belief of what is taking place the painting is not considered to be explained from any one particular point of view. Castagno never intended to recreate what the Bible refers to as an upper room of a house in Jerusalem. In fact, it seems to be an independent construction one story high and roofed with Tuscan tiles, its front wall removed in the convention of a stage (Hartt 237). The rich paneling of veined marble and porphyry squares in a white marble enframement is i...
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...up in the situation that all you would need to do is look out the window and a greater understanding is right there waiting for you. This is truly a larger than life painting with human beings acting and feeling on a more righteous level than us.
Both paintings express emotion and inspire the imagination. Figure design, expressions, three-dimensionality, and illusionistic messages may be some of the differences between the two; however there is one main similarity, recognition. Recognition: of the fulfillment of prophecy, of the nature of Christ, the consequences of their belief; that they were no longer involved merely in a sectarian argument with a purely local significance, but were present at the birth of a new conception of the meaning and nature of God which was to shatter the fabric of their lives and bring most of them face to face with violent death (Murray 7). Other than technical and style differences the paintings could be summed up with those words. The paintings are very different but unfortunately I don’t see how other than personal opinion someone could feel that one has more significance than the other. I feel it is up to the observer to decide for themselves.
La Pietà of Giovanni Della Robbia is amazing religious glazed and painted terracotta dated 1510-1520. It was mainly intended to introduce the meaning of the Bible story to large and mainly illiterate audiences. One of the things that this image can tell us about life in western civilization is how much the artists were focused on translating the bible and trying to understand it without the help of the Catholic Church through art and humanism. La Pietà is one of the richest and best known collections of Della Robbia sculptures at the springtime of the renaissance. The creator of the sculpture is Giovanni Della Robbia; the first and epic of a dynasty of important pottery artists, decorators, potters, and terracotta workers. Della Robbia developed a unique pottery glaze that made his creations much more durable in the outdoors and therefore much suitable for use on the exterior of buildings. This was an extraordinarily formal and refined technique that immediately met with great success, so much so that the Della Robbia family’s work flourished for over one hundred years. It uniquely combines archaeometric and stylistic time-related information about the renaissance age in Western Civilization. In its context, La Pietà was created in the 15th century, the renaissance age , when there was a surge in artistic, literary, and scientific activity , especially in Florence, the third largest city in Europe, an independent republic where the Italian Renaissance began, and a banking and commercial capital after London and Constantinople. The renaissance era when this sculptured was created was also marked by few major events such as: religious problems in church, Erasmus publishing Greek edition of the New Treatment ...
By most accounts, the year 1500 was in the midst of the height of the Italian Renaissance. In that year, Flemmish artist Jean Hey, known as the “Master of Moulins,” painted “The Annunciation” to adorn a section of an alter piece for his royal French patrons. The painting tells the story of the angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary to deliver the news that she will give birth to the son of God. As the story goes, Mary, an unwed woman, was initially terrified about the prospects of pregnancy, but eventually accepts her fate as God’s servant. “The Annunciation” is an oil painting on a modest canvas, three feet tall and half as wide. The setting of the painting is a study, Mary sitting at a desk in the bottom right hand corner reading, and the angel Gabriel behind her holding a golden scepter, perhaps floating and slightly off the canvas’s center to the left. Both figures are making distinct hand gestures, and a single white dove, in a glowing sphere of gold, floats directly above Mary’s head. The rest of the study is artistic but uncluttered: a tiled floor, a bed with red sheets, and Italian-style architecture. “The Annunciation” was painted at a momentous time, at what is now considered the end of the Early Renaissance (the majority of the 15th Century) and the beginning of the High Renaissance (roughly, 1495 – 1520). Because of its appropriate placement in the Renaissance’s timeline and its distinctly High Renaissance characteristics, Jean Hey’s “Annunciation” represents the culmination of the transition from the trial-and-error process of the Early Renaissance, to the technical perfection that embodied the High Renaissance. Specifically, “Annunciation” demonstrates technical advancements in the portrayal of the huma...
Differences between Leonardo’s and Rubens’s paintings of The Last Supper also arise from their layout of the events. In Leonardo’s Last Supper the layout is largely horizontal. The large table is seen in the foreground of the image with all of the figures behind it. The painting is largely symmetrical with the same number of figures on either side of Jesus. There is a one-point perspective in the painting with the focal point on Jesus’ head. This layout is much different than the layout seen in Tintoretto’s Last Supper. In Tintoretto’s painting there is much less of a structured layout. The large table is diagonal and seemingly splits the image into two separate parts. There is no symmetry seen in Tintoretto’s painting. There is one-point perspective,
Art, by definition, is “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings”. Throughout history, one way that art has been used is to reflect a multitude of ideas and beliefs. Christian beliefs and ideas have been portrayed in artwork since the beginning of Christianity, although, it was not always acceptable to do so. The idea of the final judgement is a Christian idea that has been displayed in art repeatedly in a variety of ways. Michelangelo’s fresco the Last Judgment (1536-1541) is a piece that visualizes this idea. Since the time it was finished, this significant piece found in the Sistine Chapel has been continuously critiqued and analyzed. Many Christians struggle to interpret the event of a final judgment after reading it through Scripture. In analyzing Michelangelo’s piece, it is similar difficult to determine what he exactly meant to portray and what the various part of his masterpiece represent exactly. Many have examined this piece and made different regarding what exactly the various figures and objects are supposed to represent. The diverse interpretations of this work further shows the idea that when Christian ideas are reflected through artwork, it is hard to ascertain exactly what an artist intended to demonstrate. In addition, the controversies surrounding this piece represent the idea that when Christian ideas are revealed through art, there is potential for disagreement regarding what should and should not be included in Christian art. Michelangelo’s Last Judgment is just an example of what results when Christianity is brought into art.
If someone who had no prior knowledge about art, or the elements and principles of design, were given five seconds to look at these two paintings, they’d probably say they had almost nothing in common, other than the fact that they both feature mountains, and it’d be true for those people. But, if you are someone that does know a lot of information
In the earlier painting of The Last Supper by Ugolino da Siena, there is a clear emphasis on the heavenly aspect of Jesus and the apostles. This is evident by the golden halos surrounding each of their heads. In the later painting by Leonardo da Vinci, Jesus as well as the apostles are shown in a much more human form. They have no halos surrounding their heads and the forms of their bodies is much more realistic to the actual human form.
Located in a hallway nestled between the Art of Europe and Art of Ancient Worlds wings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is the Italian Renaissance Gallery (Gallery 206). Here, Donatello’s Madonna of the Clouds and Luca della Robbia’s Virgin and child with lilies face one another, vying for museum-goers’ attention from alternate sides of the narrow gallery. Both pieces indulge ingenious techniques, original at the time of conception, to create a completely new visual experience of a very traditional biblical scene, the Virgin Mary with her child, Jesus Christ. This paper will employ close visual analysis of two 15th-century Renaissance reliefs from Florence depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus Chris in order to show how these artists used innovative
Within Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy on the top register of the nave wall stands the stunning mosaic Miracle of Loaves and Fishes. This piece—created by an unknown artist in 504 CE—depicts a miracle performed during the life of Jesus Christ in which a starving crowd was gifted with an increased supply of bread and fish. Overall, this piece tells the story of just one event in the life of Christ, with other mosaics around this piece telling other narratives from his life.
The Italian Architects of the seventeenth century faced a huge volume of orders to carry out. The most required orders were churches. (Bazin 15) When Urban VIII became pope he asked Bernini to design a baldachino, also known as a canopy, to define the altar area. Bernini built something that was half sculpture and half architecture that had four columns that were very detailed. The columns were designed with spiraling grooves and vines made of bronze. The spiraling and decorative effects were made to symbolize the union of the new and Old Testaments, the vine of the Eucharist climbing the columns of the temple of Solomon. The Eucharist was the Christian ceremony commemorating the Last Supper. The elements of the Ionic and Corinthian orders are at the top of the columns. Angels are along the entablatu...
In the two different depictions of the scene Betrayal of Christ, Duccio and Giotto show their different styles on how they compose their paintings. The first decision into the composure of the painting would be the comparison of the size of surface they chose to paint on. Duccio in comparison to Giotto chooses to work on a wooden panel no wider than a foot, and Giotto went with a plaster surface with a width of ten feet. This detail alone lets the viewer know that Giotto’s artwork is embedded in detail and visual consumption. The size difference is the factor between who see’s it and what they see; the fine details and symbolism of the narrative will be better understood if the viewer can see every detail.
The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and composition and how these characteristics effect the narrative of a painting cannot be seen more than in comparing Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter from the Early Renaissance to Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul from the Baroque.Perugino was one of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance whose style ischaracterized by the Renaissance ideals of purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition. His approach to form in Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St.Peter was very linear. He outlined all the figures with a black line giving them a sense of stability, permanence, and power in their environment, but restricting the figures’ sense of movement. In fact, the figures seem to not move at all, but rather are merely locked at a specific moment in time by their rigid outline. Perugino’s approach to the figures’themselves is extremely humanistic and classical. He shines light on the figures in a clear, even way, keeping with the rational and uncluttered meaning of the work. His figures are all locked in a contrapposto pose engaging in intellectual conversation with their neighbor, giving a strong sense of classical rationality. The figures are repeated over and over such as this to convey a rational response and to show the viewer clarity. Perugino’s approach to space was also very rational and simple. He organizes space along three simple planes: foreground, middle ground, and background. Christ and Saint Peter occupy the center foreground and solemn choruses of saints and citizens occupy the rest of the foreground. The middle distance is filled with miscellaneous figures, which complement the front group, emphasizing its density and order, by their scattered arrangement. Buildings from the Renaissance and triumphal arches from Roman antiquity occupy the background, reinforcing the overall classical message to the
Leonardo’s version of the Last Supper was painted El fresco depicting the scene passively without emotion. The work has the supper table horizontal across the lower third and Jesus and his twelve disciples dining behind it, before a backdrop of both man made structure and natural landscape. The artwork is un-cluttered and simple. The lighting is subtle and non-dramatic. Colour is conservative and dull this is partly due to the limited paint available and the technique and decay of fresco painting. The wor...
Medieval literature is known for its use of allegory. In fact, while reading medieval texts such as Boccaccio’s The Decameron and Dante’s La Vita Nuova, it is important for readers to analyze the people, places, things, and pivotal events carefully—they have significance—a metaphorical meaning. In addition, allegory and long narratives serve as the building blocks for medieval texts; the primary purpose of the tales is to tell a story. The stories often revolve around life lessons, as well as religious virtues. Throughout the course of this paper, readers will get the opportunity to learn how Boccaccio and Dante use the image of the eaten heart as an allegorical representation of the body of Christ. The analysis of the texts will be completed
The placement of the Last Supper's table is different. Da Vinci places his table in the center, with the main people facing the viewer. On the contrary, Tintoretto places his table to the left hand side of the painting, and the main people are looking towards the other "r...
The Last Supper is one of the greatest work of art created by Italian inventor and innovator Leonardo de Vinci. The famous piece of work is located in Milan Italy on the wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Last Supper is proof of de Vinci astonishing artistic talent and vision. Da Vinci uses both, along with his perception of the Holy Scriptures, and gives reality to the last moments before Jesus’ betrayal.