Mini
post 2
Jingsong
Feng
When we
mention the artistic works in Renaissance period, what is the first word coming
to your mind? Religion, human beings, or reality, warfare? All these words are
related strongly to the artistic works in Renaissance period. Using a simple
sentence to conclude, that is --rediscover classical culture. There are
thousands of works which are famous and unforgettable, so I will choose four of
them to introduce.
The first
one is Donatello's bronze David (c. 1440), which was the first work to revive
the ancient tradition of nude sculpture. Donatello uses the corresponding composition method created by the ancient Greeks to show people an image of a
teenager with very accurate body proportion and structure. The biblical figure
is no longer a conceptual symbol, but a living, flesh-and-blood being.
Considering about the background, it will go back to 10th century BC, in that
time, during the reign of king Herod of Israel, the philistines launched an
invasion. One day, the young David went to visit his brother who was serving in
the army. Hearing that Goliath was so arrogant, he insisted on king Herod's
permission to kill Goliath to take revenge for an insult. The incompetent Herod
was pleased. When David came out, he bellowed and hit Goliath on the head with
a sling (which also known as five stones. When the stunned giant fell to the
ground, David deftly drew his sword and cut off Goliath's head. Donatello's
sculpture of the young David is the expression of this episode.
In my opinion, Donatello’s David was a symbol of the spirit about peace, loving and seeking freedom which the people of Florence has. The proportions of David's body parts meet the ideal standards of classical art; Its posture obeys "center of gravity shifts" modelling rule, appear relaxed and natural. David is in a state of complex meditation, and his contemplative gaze seems to discover the beauty and power of man himself. This discovery and recognition of the value of human beings themselves is the fundamental spirit of the Renaissance.
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Masaccio, The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint John and donors, c.1426-1428
The second one is Masaccio’s Trinity with the Virgin, St. John The Evangelist, and Donors, looking at this painting there are six people in the picture. In the middle are the father and the son. At the lower left of the cross stands the virgin Mary, dressed in a black robe, holding out her right hand as if in prayer for Jesus. Exactly opposite to the virgin is St. John the Baptist, who clasped his hands on his chest and turned his face reverently towards Jesus on the cross, witnessing Jesus' suffering for the world. Outside them, on each side, a benefactor was kneeling, and they folded their hands and held them up in front of their chests, their faces reverent and solemn. The painter used the principle of perspective accurately, and the three-dimensional effect was obvious. In addition, the painter is quite unique in the treatment of color and layout. For example, the clothes of the four people at the bottom of the picture are cross matched with each other. The clothes of the virgin on the left and the clothes donated on the right are black, while those of St. John and the clothes donated on the left are red. The pale body of Jesus is set off against the white pillars and the red and black clothes to highlight the image of the figure, thus making the picture more vivid and realistic.
Although Masaccio only
lived for 27 years, he combined realistic expression techniques with humanistic
spirit, which first set off the painting revolution in Italy at the beginning
of the Renaissance, and he blazed a road of realistic painting for Italy that
no painter could reach.
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Iglesia de Santo Tomé, Toledo, Spain
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The third artist is El Greco, El Greco is best known today as one of the great painters of medieval Spain. He is a portrait painter who specialized in religious painting and created many altars for churches in Toledo and elsewhere. His work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, is the best one which can express his artistic style well. El Greco divides the painting into two parts, the first half showing the count being recalled to heaven and the second half showing the burial. At the top of the picture, the angel was flying over the head of the nobleman. Holding the soul of count Orgaz in her hand, she rose slowly. The virgin Mary and John were depicted at the top, while the white figure standing at the top was god Jesus. Analyzing the colors he used, El Greco mainly used the silver grey, white, yellow, blue to regard as dazzling color to portray armor and offerings, while the Orgaz’s shiny armor and the dark gray tone in the sky is real and unreal visual contrast, in the same time its gorgeous colors and brush strokes of texture effect, built the religious world of a mysterious character image thin and pale face, make the whole painting to enhance the scene of solemn and noble feeling, in addition to the prospect of silver and gold, it is characterized by deep red with a strong drab to foil. In a word, the subject is that this is the best Christian interpretation of death, divine death and wonderful rebirth.
The whole picture is a
contrast between Heaven and man’s world, all the elements are showing in a
unique harmony, El Greco’s work became a well-known gift and influenced many
later artists, such as Picasso.
The last one is Hieronymus
Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, which is my favorite work in
Renaissance period, the whole work is divided into four parts from the outside
to the inside. When the whole triptych is closed, what can be seen from the
outside is a scene in the "genesis". When the picture is slowly
unfolded, amazing scenes will appear before our eyes. From left to right, the
triptych is respectively "Eden", "paradise on earth" and
"hell". The three scenes are connected: they share the same horizon,
with water bodies of similar colors, while the apple grove on the far right of
the garden of Eden continues to the earthly paradise, dividing the picture into
upper and lower parts. Also, it shows four rivers emptying into a lake,
consistent with the biblical description. When we watch on the left side, there
are only three people showing up—Jesus, Adam and Eve, which is the scene in
Bible, boring and monotonous. At the central side, it is our man’s world, which
is filled with people, seduce and lust. Zoom in more details, the elves pour
the spring to a naked man by a strange blue strawberry, or several couples are
enjoying others nudity or appearance. In the right side, it is a cruel and
violent scene in hell, people in there are screeching and crying, they feel
hurt and desperate. Also, the color he used are dark and fire red in hell,
while it is green and peaceful bright in man’s world and heaven. There is an
interesting thing in hell that human beings should be hunters, but here is the
animal tease, abuse the object. Mice, rabbits, fat pigs, birds, dogs, dressed
in human clothes, seemed to perform the functions of punishing fallen human
beings in place of god. When we fold the intra-panels, it is a beginning scene
when the God created the world and were watching the world. Those human beings
are experiencing happiness, lust, entertainment, or desperation, boiled, dismemberment.
Bosch's
works, together with his earthly paradise, brought him noble recognition and
great fame during his lifetime, and from a modern point of view, Bosch's
paintings were certainly quite out of the ordinary in his time. But when we
consider Bosch's solid life, his stable faith, and the fact that he was popular
with the aristocracy, we can conclude that his paintings met certain standards
and were understandable to the intellectuals of his time.
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Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden
of Earthly Delights, oil on oak panels, 205.5 cm × 384.9 cm (81 in × 152 in),
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Citations
Stokstad, Marilyn,
and Michael Watt Cothren. Art History. Sixth ed., II, Pearson, 2018.
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