I chose The Drawings of Michelangelo because I love his frescoes on the Sistine Chapel and I admire the tedious work that created that masterpiece. Many of Michelangelo’s drawings are gone by his own hand. He did not want people to see his hesitations and second-guessing. He apprenticed with Ghirlandaio, which he learned to sketch out space and used simplified abstractions for the figures. He was also taught how to use cross- hatching to create drapery of clothing. He taught himself to sculpt and learned by examples of classical art. He had more knowledge of the human body than classical artists so his work shows muscle and bone underneath the flesh. In created David, which took him two years to sculpt. In 1508, he was commissioned by Pope Julius II to do the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Medici commissioned him to do the family tomb in San Lorenzo. He took in perspective the angle of the viewer when he created it. He sculpted the veins in the body just as the drawings had them but never finished due to political unrest and he went in hiding. In Last Judgment, Christ is shown airy and three-dimensional: the saved and damned are not shown differently, they all have humanistic feel. This fresco depicts violence and brutality. It is believed he is questioning his own mortality. In the 1560s, as he approached his death, he felt hope and dread and the need for redemption.
I chose La Primavera video because I like Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Her flowing hair and how she is trying to cover herself intrigues me. Also, Adobe Illustrator used Venus as their icon for a few years. This video was about another painting La Primavera, which is still a mystery today. It was a very large piece that was 10 feet wide. It had nine figures from Classical mythology, which are Mercury, 3 Graces, Venus, Cupid, Flora, Chloris, and Zephyr. He threw out the restriction of Christian art but this painting could depict Venus as the Virgin Mary and Cupid as the Christ child. Lorenzo II commissioned this piece for his nephew and his new wife. This was built into a sofa bed in the bedroom of the couple. Botticelli used egg tempera to achieve the flesh tones and lead white for finer details. The painting consists of a darker them of the rape of Chloris by Zephyr. Flowers in the meadow are depicted like the real flower and there is a belief the flowers have a symbolic theme of marriage and love. This painting has so many connotations; I don’t believe anyone can be wrong. It is suppose to touch you by its beauty and intellectualism.
I chose The Power of Art: Caravaggio because I didn’t know much about him and now I wish I didn’t because he was mentally unstable. He tangled with the law most of his life and used his art to get out of trouble. He lived in cheap rooms, had drunken nights, and was always on the fly. His art was of the here and now, he never drew and went straight to the canvas. Young Sick Bacchus is a portrait of himself, which he represents himself of the god Bacchus. His skin is green and the grapes are starting to rot. He makes a god a human. Calling of Saint Matthew creates a real event not just a scene. He makes a sacred painting out of squalid. He covers Christ up so his finger is emphasized. Martyrdom of Saint Matthew is a brutal assault in an alley. The light is on the sinner and viewers look at it as if they are running away from the event. He work began to be too offensive and indecent for the Church. He paints David with the Head of Goliath to give to Cardinal Scipione Borghese for pardoning him so he could finally return home. He paints himself as Goliath. It is believed that is how he saw himself, the villain. It is believed he did this painting to recognize the person he was and faces the truth about himself.
I chose Albrecht Dürer: Image of a Master because I don’t know much about him and he was from the North where the Renaissance took longer to reach. He is known as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance. He enjoyed painting portraits and hands and showing age in the faces. He was very skilled in his woodcuts and was his main source of income. He learned the art of perspective and perfect form. He traveled a lot and began to paint beautiful landscapes. In Venice, he painted the Festival of the Rosary, it had fresh, bright colors and he included himself in the back. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was a woodcut that shows support for Martin Luther. It shows stormy weather and the death that was occurring because of the conflict. He finally adapted to copper plates; which gave him greater chance to create lights and darks.
Every video gives greater depth into each artist and who influences them. They also talk more in-depth about certain works more than what the book tells us. The videos paint the artists are real people not just people we read about in art history books. I enjoyed all the videos. Artists are usually unique people but Caravaggio was off his rocker. They also gave us a chance to see more of the Renaissance art and the characteristics of it: bright colors, perspective, lights and darks, and nudes. Dürer was interesting because he did more woodcuts and etchings than paintings. It was nice to see a different medium done in the Renaissance.
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