Click image above for reviews or to buy this Taschen book about Van Eyck and his work
Art history resources to accompany the book by Remy Dean
Showing posts with label Return of the Humanists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Return of the Humanists. Show all posts
Sunday, 15 April 2012
Jan Van Eyck: Ghent Altarpiece (1432)
A good set of images of this altar piece at Olga's abc Gallery
Sandro Botticelli: The Birth of Venus (1485)
Click image below for reviews or to buy this quality edition from Prestel
Leonardo (di ser Piero) da Vinci: Vitruvian Man (circa 1490)
image from Wikimedia Commons
Click image above for reviews or to buy this compact book with reproductions of all Leonardo's major works
Hieronymus Bosch: The Garden of Earthly Delights (circa 1500)
image from Wikimedia Commons
When closed, the piece presents an image of a crystal sphere, with God at the top looking down upon the earthly realm he has created, represented by a disc at the equator of the sphere. Of course, the ‘flat earth’ theory was no longer convincing and when the panels are opened up, amongst the many strange and wonderful things revealed is an array of exotic fruits, which had then been recently discovered in the New World during the voyages of Columbus.
The left panel shows God introducing Eve to Adam in the garden of Eden, populated with many animals and fantastical beasts including an albino giraffe, an elephant, a three-headed oriental pheasant, a unicorn and its seahorse equivalent. All seems well, but there is a couple of tiny details that imply that harmony is about to be lost: in the background an animal devours a gazelle and in the foreground a cat carries away its prey in its jaws.
The middle panel shows a scene of orgiastic revelry where the participants have given themselves over, with admirable gusto, to the sensual pleasures. Here too, there are many fantastical animals, including giant birds and some of the people are enjoying the pleasurable sensation of naked flesh against downy feathers. (You know you want to, but you know it’s wrong!) Several others stroke fish or balance fruit on various parts of their bodies, one man offers his behind as a receptacle for wild flowers… In the background a rider flies on a griffin whilst below men and women frolic with merfolk in a decorative lake. The real animals are all drawn with exceptional attention to detail – Bosch is one of the earliest artists known to sketch ‘in the field’ as a visual exercise in itself. The fantasy creatures are all drawn with exceptional imagination. Aspects of the landscape are equally inventive, fusing symbolism into biomorphic forms inspired by fruits, anatomy, architecture and alchemical apparatus. There are transparent tubes and glass bubbles in which people sit.
The third panel shows Hell and what awaits those who have surrendered to the sensual pleasures. In the centre of this composition is a half-tree-half-man figure, afloat on a tar-black lake. On his head is a disc supporting an object that is an amalgamation of internal organ and bagpipes. In the background the cities of the earth are laid waste by war, burning and in ruins. A pack of reptilian hounds tug at the entrails of a fallen knight, whilst one of his comrades is run through by a winged demon. The theme of cleaving and penetration recurs throughout the image and has been foreshadowed in the other two panels. In this final part of the narrative the interaction with animals is less consensual as people are eaten by bird creatures, nibbled at by clothed rabbits and attempt to repel the amorous advances of a sow-nun.
The hallucinogenic irreverence of much of the imagery would have been astonishing at the time, and was obviously commissioned by a forward thinking patron and executed with great fervour by the hugely imaginative artist. Not only is the content inventive, the composition is advanced with a strong rhythm of form and visual continuity linking the three panels as a single narrative composition. The technical aspects are also highly advanced and the mixing and application of the paints was done with great skill and attention, meaning that the work has survived in much better condition than most other works from the same era.
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Click image above for more info or to buy this book focussing on Bosch's masterpiece
Albrecht Durer: Self Portrait at 28 (1500)
Click image above for reviews or to buy this 'deluxe' edition
(or click here for a 'value' alternative from Taschen)
Albrecht Durer: Study of Praying Hands (1508)
image from Wikimedia Commons
Informative article analysing this work from a historical and medical context.
Albrecht Durer: Melancholia (1514)
Website for an exhibition of Durer's work with an interpretation of some of his symbolism
Click image above for reviews or to buy this overview of all Durer's engravings, etchings and drypoints
Matthias Grünewald: Isenheim Altarpiece (1506 – 1515)
image from Wikimedia Commons
Leonardo (di ser Piero) da Vinci: Anatomical Sketches (early 1500s)
images from Wikimedia Commons
Click image below for reviews or to buy this book containing reproductions of a selection of Da Vinci's anatomical sketches
Leonardo (di ser Piero) da Vinci: Mona Lisa aka La Gioconda (1503 – 1519)
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| image from Wikimedia Commons |
Well, yes.
It may not be to your taste, but it embodies many technical innovations that had not been seen before, though have been used by nearly all portrait painters since. It also has an enigma surrounding it and lots of entertaining stories and speculation. It has become more than a historically important work of art, being elevated to the status of cultural icon, a ‘household name’.
When it was first shown to the public, many people thought that some magic had been used in its making, that somehow a real woman had been captured in oils, her very soul animating the picture… This was due to some very clever effects that Leonardo had discovered and incorporated into the work. As you look at the Mona Lisa, a couple of things become apparent. She is looking at you. Wherever you move, her gaze follows.Also, she seems to move! Her shoulders appear to relax and her face changes its expression. The famous ‘Mona Lisa smile’ was definitely there, now as you look it seems to dissolve. You realise that she is not actually smiling, but maybe about to. Her expression goes through several changes, one moment she looks as if she is about to laugh, the next she is getting bored, then there is a little seductive knowing upon those lips… It is as if she is responding to the presence of the viewer.
Magic? Perhaps.
The effects are all the results of clever painting developed from a scientific understanding of the ways in which we see and respond to each other. The eyes follow the viewer simply because they are looking straight out of the canvas and therefore will appear to be looking back at the viewer whatever angle they are observed from.
The changing expression is a little cleverer. Leonardo worked out that we, as humans, are very quick to recognise each other and also to interpret the mood of another. Almost in an instant we know if our friend is relaxed or troubled, happy or sad. Through observation and many study sketches, he discovered that there were six main points that we key into in order to recognise individuals. They are the corners of the eyes, the edges of the nostrils and the sides of the mouth where the lips meet. These six points on the face change their relation to each other to express our mood. The obvious expressions of frown and smile make a big difference to these measurements. More subtle moods are expressed in an ever-changing array of slight differences. Nowadays, these subtle changes are called ‘micro-expressions’ and prove to be invaluable to psychologists in assessing patients and in police interviewing techniques. The six eye-nose-mouth key points are at the core of state-of-the-art facial recognition software used in the airports and stations of today.
Knowing this, Leonardo painted these parts of Mona Lisa’s face indistinctly. He subtly smudged them using a technique that would become known as sfumato – which is Italian for ‘smokey’. So when we look at her face, our brains instinctively key into these six features, but cannot discern them accurately. We cannot tell, for sure, what her expression is. So our interpretation of her mood is affected by a subjective point of view – by our own moods and reactions.
There is another visual trick that gives an illusion of movement. The horizon of the landscape does not quite line up behind the figure. It is very slightly skewed, whilst her shoulders are painted level. Again, Leonardo knew that our brains would struggle with this conflicting visual information. We know that the horizon should line up, so we read it as level. This then causes us to interpret the shoulders as being on a slant, which they are not. As our brain corrects this it creates an illusion of movement as if the figure shuffles a little bit in its frame.
These techniques were introduced here by Leonardo De Vinci, obviously resulting from extended experimentation and the many changes he made during the painting process over fifteen years. They were so stunningly effective that nearly all great portrait painters from this point onwards employed them, particularly the use of sfumato. These innovations were the initial reasons why the painting garnered so much fame and attention, though the fame was to grow further yet.
The mystery surrounding the subject has helped the enigma. Just who was this lady of Giaconda? It is thought that the painting was started when a merchant, Francesco del Giocondo, commissioned Leonardo to paint a portrait of his wife, Mona Lisa, sometime after their wedding in 1495. There is no record of the commission ever being delivered. It is thought that Leonardo continued to work on the portrait, introducing his revolutionary techniques.
Another theory suggests that the portrait gradually metamorphosed into a self portrait. Some art historians have compared self portraits of Loenardo to the face of Mona Lisa and found that the eye-nose-mouth key points line up very closely. Could this be Leonardo the transvestite? A more likely explanation is that, in order to continue the experimental development, he needed a model and his own face would have been the most easily available, and cheapest, for consistent visual reference.
The theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 was headline news around the world as was its recovery two years later. It was reported missing by another artist who had gone to the Louvre in order to paint a study of it and found its hanging place empty. Apparently it had been stolen the day before, but visitors and guards had presumed it had been removed to be photographed or have some restoration work done. Later the empty frame was found discarded.
During the investigation, Guillaume Apollinaire, one of the most influential critics and cultural commentators in the history of French art was arrested as a suspect and held for five days of questioning before being released without charge. Eventually, the culprit revealed himself when he attempted to sell the Mona Lisa to an Italian antiques dealer. Vincenzo Peruggia, an ex-employee of the Louvre, had apparently stolen the Mona Lisa in an opportunistic crime when he had found himself alone in its presence, with no guards, cleaners or visitors in sight. After his arrest, he explained that his motive was to return the painting to its rightful home in Italy. The Mona Lisa, now with a tear in its canvas, was displayed in a short tour of Italian museums before eventually being returned to the Louvre in Paris for repair and continued display with improved security.
It is through news stories, media, postcards, posters, word of mouth, cultural references, imagination and the world wide web, that most people know of the Mona Lisa. Although thousands of people visit the Louvre in Paris to see the work, far more people know it through reproductions, prints and scans. Oddly, from its theft in 1911 until its return at the end of 1913, the Louvre reported a steady stream of visitors who came to look at the blank wall space it once occupied… Accidentally, the Mona Lisa became the first work of Conceptual Art, existing as an idea, separate from the object of representation.
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| conspicuous (and conceptual) in its absence... |
MORE:
The Leonardo Da Vinci pages at the Artchive, with notes and examples of other important works
Click image above for reviews or to buy this book tracking a detailed history of Da Vinci's masterpiece
Michelangelo (di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni): Pietà (1499)
image from Wikimedia Commons
Another image of this sculpture (isolated from its background) from the Michelangelo pages at Olga's abc Gallery
Michelangelo (di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni): David (1504)
image from Wikimedia Commons
Click image above for reviews or to buy this catalogue focussing on Michelangelo's figure drawings
(Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) ‘Raphael’: The School of Athens (1511)
A web page explaining who some of the people depicted here are...
Click image above for reviews or to buy this Taschen overview of Raphael's life and works
Michelangelo (di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni): Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508 – 1512) and Sistine Chapel Altar Wall, The Last Judgement (1536 – 1541)
image from Wikimedia Commons
This would have been the most prestigious commission for any artist of the time, to be employed by the Pope (Julius the Second) to decorate a major chapel in St Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo initially turned it down! He wanted to concentrate on sculptural commissions, one of which was for the Pope’s own tomb. The Pope, though, would accept no refusal and after negotiations eventually convinced Michelangelo to take up the commission. It seems the winning factor was that the Pope agreed to allow Michelangelo artistic freedom to decide what he would paint on the ceiling and how he would portray it. The Pope insisted that the images be rich in meaning, but otherwise left the content at the discretion of the artist, subject to continual review and approval, of course. Another clause of the contract was that Michelangelo be allowed to work exclusively on the project. The writer Vasari tells us that Michelangelo worked solo on the paintings, not even allowing assistants to grind and mix his pigments.
Michelangelo went direct to the texts for inspirations and interpreted them in his own way. Traditionally, artists would look to other treatments of the same figure or subject in sacred art and base their versions on similar poses and compositions – a ‘hangover’ from icon paintings that followed the template approach. Michelangelo invented a dazzling array of new poses and painted dynamic figures that were not based on established iconography or Classical postures. The narrative he illustrated was a dramatic re-telling of Genesis from Creation, with a Zeus-like God separating day from the night, to the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, then the story of Noah and the Great Flood and on to the First Covenant with Moses.
Michelangelo also designed his own scaffold and platform system that could be moved as he painted each section, with suspended sheeting to catch drips of plaster and paint. He worked at close quarters, standing to apply the plaster and paint, though sometimes laying down to view the work. The fresco technique he employed required fast work as the final layer of plaster had to be freshly smoothed and the paints applied before it dried. This ensured the pigments sunk in and would be less likely to fade, peel or crack. With this technique, any errors could not be erased or corrected. If a mistake was made, the plaster would have to be hacked away and a new layer added before painting again.
Click image above for reviews or to buy this definitive pictorial record of all Michelangelo's known works
After completing the ceiling, there was an interval of twenty-four years before he added the Last Judgment scene on the wall above the altar. This was commissioned by Pope Paul the Third and again Michelangelo was given artistic freedom. At the centre of the huge fresco is the muscular and masculine figure of Jesus, surrounded by many saints with sinners being cast back down. This dynamic swirl of floating and falling figures became a model for Last Judgment scenes. Although Michelangelo was allowed to paint according to his own design, another artist was soon sent in to cover up anything ‘too Greek’. Daniele da Volterra, a pupil of Michelangelo was given the job of painting loincloths and drapery around the figures to cover any nudity. Presumably no one could reach the ceiling, and so many of those figures remained naked, in the Classical tradition.
image from Wikimedia Commons
Pieter Bruegel (The Elder): Winter aka January aka The Return of the Hunt aka Hunters in the Snow (1565)
Bruegel was perhaps the first of the Social Realist painters. He earned the nickname, ‘Peasant Bruegel’ because he chose to feature aspects of peasant life in an almost documentary style. He was said to spend much of his time living amongst peasants as research. Although he shared some interests with other Renaissance artists of the time, such as the human condition, he flew in the face of fashion and did not model his figure painting on the Classical style.
This work was part of a series depicting the months of the year that was probably inspired by the calendar pages from Gothic books of hours. One distinguishing aspect of this, and many of Bruegel’s landscapes, is the ‘wide-angle’ elevated view that seems to open up the scene and invite the viewer to step into it. In this composition the line of trees on the left give a visual rhythm that leads us into the scene and also emphasises the heavy trudge of the hunters as they return from what appears to be an unsuccessful hunt – it is January and game is no longer as easily tracked down. They pass a group of women preparing a fire outside the inn, presumably to roast the disappointing spoils of the hunt. Many of the figures have their backs to the viewer and although the people and the realities of their way of life are the subject of the work, they are not individually. They are everyman and everywoman. Though the scene is realistically ‘harsh’, there is also a majestic beauty to the vast whiteness of the land and the image has often been reproduced on Christmas cards.
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Click image below for reviews or to buy this book focussing on 12 key works by Bruegel
Michelangelo Merisi ‘Caravaggio’: Stigmatisation of St Francis (1596)
Good image of this painting with a detail view can be found at the Artchive's Caravaggio pages
Click image above for reviews or to buy this extensive, definitive biography of Caravaggio by Andrew Graham-Dixon
Michelangelo Merisi ‘Caravaggio’: Decapitation of John the Baptist (1608)
Click image below for reviews or to buy this Taschen overview of Caravaggio's life and works
Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (1652)
Click image below for more info or to buy this very thorough academic book that places Bernini and his work into context
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