Giovanni Bellini was born in Venice, Italy around 1430. He was the son of Jacopo Bellini, an esteemed painter at the time, and probably began his career along side his brother as an assistant in his father’s workshop. Though his artwork was influenced by many of his friends and relatives, Giovanni possessed certain qualities in his compositions which set him apart from the others. He blended the styles of both his father and brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, with his own subtle appreciation of color and light, the high regard he held for the detail of natural landscape, along with the very direct human empathy he placed in his painting. These components of Bellini’s personal style became foundational to the character of all Venetian Renaissance Art. Bellini later developed a sensuous coloristic manner in his work which became yet another characteristic he contributed to the Venetian Renaissance Art.
Giovanni used tempera as medium in his early paintings but later switched to using oil paints instead. He was always a painter of natural light, even amongst different mediums. When he made the switch, it brought both a greater maturity and individual style to Bellini’s work.
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...
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...al Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. This source provided information on the elements of Bellini's, "Feast of the gods". This information was used in the analysis of the work.
Turner, Jane. "Bellini, Giovanni." The Dictionary of Art. Vol. 3. New York: Grove, 1996. 657-68. Print. This book provided a wealth of knowledge and information regarding everything involving the artist Giovanni Bellini. The information was extremely detailed and was used in writing both the biography and analyses.
The Venetian Renaissance: Giovanni Bellini & Titian's The Feast of the Gods. Perf. Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Stephen Zucker. Smarthistory.org. Smart History. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. This video was very informational in providing expert opinions on Bellini's painting, "Feast of the gods". This source was used in providing professional criticism on this painting.
At first glance, the pottery appears to be somewhat simple but it does have a unique appeal. The calm, innocent, and humble appearance while in a painful moment is unprecedented, and it was enough to let the viewer admire and fall in love with this sculpture and its meaning. The distinctive character of glazed terracotta is the smooth, bright, often polychrome cover that has largely contributed to the success of such artifacts, and which recalls, in its plastic compositions, the works by Verrocchio and Filippo Lippi. However, Giovanni‘s art in this sculpture is elegant, remarkable, and a mix of the sophisticated religious themes with antique mannerisms and with the monumental emphasis.
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
As a student of Duccio di Buoninsegna who was an Italian artist and actively worked in the city of Siena, Tuscany, Simone Martini's most famous painting "The Annunciation and the Two Saints" (1333) (Fig. 1) shows influence of the Sienese style of painting at a time when Byzantine art was very popular in the 14th century (Kleiner, 2010:387). This is made evident by the expansive use of gold in the background space behind the figures and flowing throughout the panelled-painting, the attention paid particularly to decorative pattern, as well as the detail and subtle use of sinuous line and rich colours to create pattern, which are all characteristics of Sienese-styled religious iconography. The painting is considered very beautiful, executed with tight, elegant brushstrokes and bears a medieval interest in the representation of the supernatural and spiritual.
A rediscover of their history and recognition of early Greek philosophers changed the way that the influential families and Princes, in Italy, considered themselves. Their way of thinking of the Devine and need to promote one’s own aspirations through sponsorship of the arts, as well as, civic duty became not only fashionable but important to progress in the city states. Although Donatello’s David and Botticelli’s Primavera are master pieces in their own right, their influence on future generations of artists cannot be ignored. The spark that ignited the fire which we call the Renaissance was a transformation of societies thinking and values to a Humanistic approach to one duties to society and the church. These two works are a reflection of the changing attitudes which would eventually change all of
Hartt, Frederick, and David G. Wilkins. History of Italian Renaissance art . 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2006.
...elli made a big difference in Florence, Italy. He worked for the famous Medici family. The Medici family was very important in the Renaissance. They controlled the Florence city and they were very wealthy. They valued him very much. Since Botticelli’s paintings were known for their poetic feeling, they either told a story or showed a famous scene from a mythological or religious subject. The masterpieces never had anything to do with science or nature. Not all of the characters were real they just had to stand for a purpose in the painting. Botticelli’s master Fra Filippo Lippi impacted his life by getting him to start to paint pictures. Without his assistance he would have never learned to paint any of the famous masterpieces in the Renaissance. He learned about mythological subjects and how to use decorative details. Lippi got him to be the gifted artist he was.
Adamo, Rossella Vodret, and Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio. Caravaggio: The Complete Works. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2010. Print.
Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian, was an Italian 16th century Venetian painter. Biographies were written when Titian was alive; however his birthday is still unknown. One account was written by a close friend of his, Lodovico Dolce who says in his book, “Dialogue on Painting” that Titian was about twenty years old in 1507 when he was working on his painting “Fondaco dei Tedeschi.” However, in a letter Titian wrote to the king of Spain in 1571 he claims to be ninety-five years old, putting his birth year in 1477. If this was true, Titian would have been around one-hundred years old at the time of his death. Based off of the chronology of his works, it is more likely that Titian was born around 1490 and died in 1576. When Titian was about ten years old, he and his brother went to Venice to live with their uncle and to start an apprenticeship with a painter. At this time two of the leading artists were Giovanni Bellini and Gentile Bellini. Sebastian Zuccato, a family friend and painter arranged for the two to work with these two painters. While working with the Bellini’s, Titian was introduced to Giorgio da Castelfranco, later known as Giorgione. Titian and Giorgione collaborated on many works and he was a major influence on Titian’s tonal approach to painting as well as his landscape style. The two artists worked in such a similar manner that the line between them has been hard to distinguish. It is hardest to tell the two apart in their pastoral landscapes in which the beauty of nature is celebrated alongside love and music. With Giorgione dying in 1510 and Giovanni Bellini dying in 1516 Titian no longer faced any rivals in the Venetian School. It was at this time that Titian moved on from his early Giorgionesqu...
Ambrogio Antonio Alciati (1878 - 1929)—Ambrogio Antonio Alciati was born in the town of Vercelli in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Alciati was from a poor family and his father was not around in the first six years of his life. His mother struggled to raise the young Alciati and she was a working artist herself. She made a living from designing insignias and votive drawings. Alciati was very talented as a young boy and the Hospice of the Poor in Vercelli was quite impressed with his artistic skills. The Hospice allowed the 9-year old Alciati to attend the Institute of Fine Arts at Vercelli, while he was in primary school. Realizing the potential of his talented skills, Alciati’s teacher at the Institute encouraged him to take day classes. Alciati received a scholarship from the municipality of Vercelli to attend the prestigious Brera Academy in Milan.
Guido was working as an artist at a time when the overall style of painting was changing. This process of change had begun around a hundred years ago with the works of Giotto who gave his paintings a three-dimensional feel, and his characters emoted more than those in the old Byzantine art style. Even though Giotto had kickstarted the Italian Renaissance style, Guido pioneered many of the stylistic trends that distinguish it.
Why is Giovanni Bellini such an important and influential artist during the 15th century? Giovanni Bellini, the father of the Venetian Renaissance, was a skilled artist who mastered the technique of using oil paints. He was born into a family of artists, and worked closely with his brother. He founded a High Renaissance painting school, and was able to influence his pupils with his beautiful works of religious paintings and portraits. His life as a painter was beneficial, because without him art may not have moved into a more coloristic and sensuous style, which developed through his creations of detailed shadings and rich tints through the use of slow drying oil paints. Giovanni Bellini’s eagerness to explore more styles and techniques revolutionized
The 14th century we saw a shift in focus toward rebirth and a collaboration of Byzantine style influential in Italian renaissance artwork portrayed during this time. Giotto di Bondone, a Florence painter, made a large contribution in the artwork found within Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy. Through the influence of Cimabue, Giotto’s most famous paintings within the chapel aligned to tell a story. In addition, Simone Martini a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna took a more conservative approach in his international gothic style portrayed in Siena’s Cathedral, Siena, Italy. While both painters may have depicted practicality in their styles we see many features that make their work unique.
Interestingly, he also refers to Donatello as a ‘craftsman’. The correlation between the artist or sculptor and craftsman is an important aspect in Italian Renaissance art. The craftsman was something more than just an artist. This person was talented and considered by others in Italian Renaissance society as exceptional or as Vasari’s title suggests, ‘the most excellent’. They were also tradespeople rather than just artists. This is because they created works for other people, which often meant they expressed other people’s ideas. Through an analysis of Vasari’s biography on Donatello, this essay will explore the importance of culture in Renaissance Italian society, an examination of Vasari’s biography of Donatello as a historical document and the ways in which Vasari portrays Donatello, which ultimately was significant for future Renaissance craftsmen. This paper will analyze the life of Donatello through Vasari’s The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects to show the importance of Donatello not only as an artist but also as a
Brown, Patricia Fortini. Art and Life In Renaissance Venice. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.
Leonardo da Vinci is the artist who set the tone of this revival (Sachs 7). He was born on April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy (Sachs 10). At an early age, Leonardo’s father taught him basic Latin, grammar, and mathematics (Sachs 10). Due to the limited knowledge historians have on his education, how he obtained his artistic ability is uncertain (Sachs 10). He traveled often in order to find inspiration (Sachs 8). At this time in Italy, “divided into city-states, a man’s