High Renaissance and Baroque Period Art - Essay Example

 I chose two artists out of preference from the High Renaissance and the Baroque period because so much change occurred in the style of painting and the difference of painting on wood and canvases. The use of canvas let the artist use more expression and choose wider subject matter. Canvas became more available in the Baroque period and they became larger. The High Renaissance was a period of wealthy patronage. Artists were part of the court who were employed to paint portraits of nobles and royalty. They portrayed them in flattering terms, glorifying their position in life. It was still a time where artists were expected to portray their subjects with qualities of Greek gods and goddesses or of the Virgin. Beauty was a marble like face and symmetry. The better artist portrayed their subjects, the higher their position was in the courts. In the Baroque period, it was just the opposite. Realism was the most important aspect. Two artists have been chosen to compared the marble like quality of portraits and the realism of the portraits within a hundred year period. The two artists also had a different social standing. Bronzino had a patron who told him what to paint. Velazquez was the principle court artist of the Queen and King of Spain. He traveled all over Europe. Bronzino had a sadness in his paintings, Velazquez showed life and movement. Bronzino who was a court artist, painted his subjects with similar expressions. The long hands showed character and personality. His specialty were portraits. Where he changed was in detail. In the painting, Portrait of a Young Man, 1530's, the boy's skin is marble like to resemble a statue resembling Venus. This painting was done in oil but on wood. Canvas was very expenses as it was made of animal skin in the Renaissance. This young adolescent was flattered by the clothes he wore, the way he stood and the book he held in his hand. Where Bronzino diverged from the norm is the incredible shadowing on the right side of the portrait. It makes us think that he did this purposely as the boy has one eye going towards the shadow but if you look at other portraits, none of the eyes are going in the same direction.. The detail of his clothing almost gives you a feeling of the touch. The carvings on the chair and the table are magnificent. You can feel the wood. They almost represent a man and a woman. In studying a Portrait of a Young Man, Bronzino uses a technique that is used from Leonardo De Vinci up to the 20th century. He uses the same geometrical lines or even the same background for other portraits. Ugolino Martelli. 1535 which was done oil on wood. is a young man with the same vertical lines as Portrait of a Young Man. His face has the same shadowing effect. It is important to speak about the full background. Ugolino Martelli. 1535 has a background with a balcony and two other windows. The interesting point is the fact that he used the same points to draw pillars and what looks like a balcony in Portrait of Bartolomeo Panciatichi. 1540. The material used in this painting was tempera on wood which was a mixture of pigment with egg yolk. In these three paintings, other parallels can be drawn. They are all holding books. The two young boys have marble skin and exquisite black clothes showing the richness of their families. third dimensional background for three other paintings. Their eyes are not looking in the same direction. This artist was chosen of the Italian Renaissance as a portrait artist who could not paint exact likeness because he had to flatter his subjects. (Haughton 233) The next period in art history, the Spanish Baroque period allowed its artists to paint more realistically. Two portraits have been chosen and one large painting Diego Velasquez, Portrait of Juan de Pareja, 1650 has far more freedom than Brozino in his work. He was the court's principle painter and considered a diplomat as he traveled for the king. This painting was chosen to compare first to the Portrait of the Young Man. When Velasquez was in Rome to paint the Pope Innocent X, he wanted to practice, he did a life portrait from his assistant, slave, mulatto painter Juan de Pareja." (Rousseau 1) There is such realism in his facial expression, the sweat on his face, the hole in his painter's smock, the beard, the bushy hair. This is the complete contrary to the Portraits of Bronzino. The only thing that seems better one hundred years before is the wonderful use of the hands. As this painting was to practice for the painting of Portrait of Innocent X. It is interesting to compare the two. The facial expression was the same. The look of the eyes and the turn of the head were the same as only one ear could be seen. In both paintings, the imperfection of the skin was painted. This was unheard of in Bronzino's portraits. Pope Innocent does not look happy. He does look realistic. It must have been a hot day as we see sweat on his face. One of the last paintings of Velazquez, Las Meninas 1656-1657 oil on canvas was painted of the princess of the king and queen of Spain. There was one done in detail and the larger one which is 2 meters by 3 meters (approx). This painting has a lot of surprises. If you look at the back wall, you see a mirror. In the mirror there is a portrait of a man and a wife, it has been proven that the man and the wife are the king and queen. Velazquez is shown painting a large canvas. He wanted to give the effect that the children were watching him paint. The realism of the dog gives the viewer a desire to pet him. The girls are also looking at someone or people. Are they curtseying? Have the King and Queen just walked into the room? Velazquez wanted his painting to have movement and to tell a story. Paintings in the Renaissance did not tell realistic stories. They were mythological or biblical stories. Word Count: 1041 Works Cited Fahy, Everett, "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum: An Exhibition and a Catalogue." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 10, 431-443 (June, 1971). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1971. Web: http://www.metmuseum.org/publications/bulletins/1/pdf/3258561.pdf.bannered.pdf Gasta, Chad, "The Politics of Painting: Velazquez and Diplomacy in the Court of Philip IV", Letras Hispanas,Volume 3, Issue 2, 20. 2006 Haughton, Neil, Perception of beauty in Renaissance art Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 3, 229-233 London: Blackwell Publishing LTD 2004 http://www.pdfreference.com/Perceptions-of-beauty-in-Renaissance-art Rousseau, Theodore Juan de Pareja by diego Velazquez, An Appreciation of the Portrait The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/publications/bulletins/1/pdf/3258521.pdf.bannered.pdf Paintings Used Portrait of Bartolomeao Pannciatichi. 1540 Tempera on Wood Portrait of a Young Man 1540. Oil on wood Portrait of a Man holding a Statuette. 1545-1555. oil on wood transferred to canvas Velazquez, DIego. Juan de Pareja. 1650. Oil on canvas Velazquez, DIego. Portrait of Innocent X 1650 Oil on canvas Velazquez Diego. Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor), 1656-1657. Oil on Canvas Portraiture of race of time of beauty of class. Read More