Themes of Romantic Music and Renaissance Painting - Essay Example

Themes of Romantic Music and Renaissance Painting Themes of Romantic Music and Renaissance Painting The period between the 14th to around 17th century is considerably the renaissance period. During this period, there are notable developments that gradually took effect and resulted to revolutionizing some aspect of art sectors, for example, those relating to music and paintings. The renaissance period is remarkably marked with the upcoming of various artists from both sectors of music. Personalities in the likes of Mozart, Beethoven, and J. S Bach all existed at this period where the revolution of art was taking place and extending to its dynamism. In order to denote art in this period, some common characteristics contributed to the development of certain aspects of other art forms. A branch of music developed during the renaissance period called romantic music; romantic music had themes that could be associated with the paintings at this time. Despite the themes that had commonness with the renaissance painting, there are also other attributes of this painting movement distinctively different from those of romantic music. The branch of romantic music comes from the once existing movement known as romanticism. The term romanticism is derived from the word romance; many as the typical romance of flowers, hearts and infatuations have mistaken the term in many instances. By the romanticism values, the movement had its values rooted on the glorification of things or elements such as survival, ideals, hope and heroism, this as opposed to physical thing that the word later became popular by many. The renaissance painting as an elemental establishment of art develops in Italy in 1400. This art developed in Italy as a distinctive style parallel to other form of art as philosophy, science and music. The art initiated as an art form that was only associated with royalty, later on the art came to spread to the rest of Europe. The art form came to affect other European based artists transforming their work and their patrons’. Common and distinct features towards the development of these arts are certain when considering how they were established and their elements transferred. A common value that romantic music appreciatively adds on the development of renaissance painting is the period that the two art elements came to existence. By romantic music having existed at the same century as that which renaissance paintings did, it was inevitable that the value of romantic music were relayed through the work of fine art as the artists of that time postulated. An artist like Leonardo da Vinci was known to express and relay emotion on painting canvas, being an artist who appreciated the element of romantic music he could then bring himself to supplement romantic music with paintings effectively. A denoted development such as the invention of musical instruments during the 17th century is a value that effectively influenced the development of renaissance painting. Instruments such as the piano and the guitar are elements that represent music. This element of music representation then reciprocated as renaissance artists could then assign a music instruments incorporating it in their paintings to represent musical paintings. A very famous painting of a man playing a guitar; by Fiery Lombard done in 1590’s in Rome is a representation of this type of paintings inspired by musical instruments. A theme appreciated as that that facilitated the renaissance paintings is religion. Many artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci had a very strong religious background; therefore, in some of their paintings, they most likely choose to incorporate religious elements in their paintings. The initiation of the renaissance paintings was in Italy known to have a very strong religious background. Many renaissance artists having come from the religious the renaissance background of Rome incorporated religion in most of their works as well. The ecclesiastical background of artists can then be given attributes of being influential towards the paintings (Plantinga, 1984, 3). Romantic music was subject to patronage that effectively facilitated the development of renaissance paintings. During the early 17th century, music is the form of art that received direct patronage (Plantinga, 1984, 6). This is because; music was relatively an expensive form of entertainment. There are instances where celebrations were carried in either courts or churches; it is from such institutions that music received patronage. Great artists and performers in the likeness of J.S Bach found their places from such performances. Some artists engaged in both romantic music and paintings. For this purpose, these artists supplemented the forms of these arts they undertook with the patronage they received. An artist, who did music majorly, could then incorporate the patronage he received in the paintings, which he did partly. Thus as the romantic music was being developed in these times, renaissance paintings developed as well. Some artists were known to major in music in their early works, after sometimes they ventured and majored in artwork and painting which they came renowned for compared to their earlier works in music. This development then facilitated the growth of paintings especially during the renaissance period. There was the adaptation of classical aspects that were adapted in the romantic period, these aspects then were influential towards the development of renaissance paintings. The romantic period succeeded the classical period. In the transition from the classic period into the romantic period of music, some aspects were retained and incorporated. In the works of some renaissance artists, there are notable traces that are evident from the past classical period. A theme that was commonly associated with the romantic period was darkness; the portrayal of darkness signified the negative aspects such as death. Comparing, the portrayal of darkness in music themes using certain tunes were relative to the mannerism renaissance art portrayed it. This element from both art works can be said to have been supplementary to each other since in the art forms. In renaissance art, the depiction of death incorporated dark shading in the background to supplement the message. In music, there was depiction of darkness in instances such as performances where the music performances were under dark background to bring out the theme. The distinctions that can be established between the romantic music and the renaissance painting are reveling considering their background and development. One distinction that can be denoted is the progenitor of each of the art forms (Plantinga, 1984, 13). From the themes that were established, some had distinctive values in the concerns of these two art forms. A theme such as darkness in music and painting had difference to some extent. In renaissance painting the use of darkness could be used to portray other elements like mystery or time, this was different in music where the use of darkness was majorly significant of death. To denote the elements associated in art were much easier in paintings compared to music, this was majorly aimed to pass different forms of information and ideas by the artists. A theme that had some distinctive value that could be denoted from the two art forms is religion. At the renaissance period, there are aspects of religion that people undertook and incorporated in artwork. The renaissance period started in Italy, which had its religious roots backed in catholic. From this aspect, most of the artists that were from this religious denomination were involved in the art forms that depicted some elements on the Catholic Church. This is comparative to such paintings that there was the use of mythological gods depicted in the same century as the renaissance period. A theme such as romantic love was common in both the renaissance paintings and romantic music. The distinctive value can then be awarded to the extent by which deductions could be made of one being more effective in terms of relaying the message intended. During the renaissance period there were ways by which the artists could relay the message of romantic information by use of color on the portraits made. Use of such colors, which were representative of romantic love, was used. Artists at this period then chose such colors as red and white, which represented love and harmony in their paintings. The use of facial expressions in paintings also could be used by artists to bring out the element of love in a painting. This contrasted to the portrayal of love as a theme in romantic music where there are different forms of representation. The use of soft tones in performances was commonly associated with romanticism as to signify the element of love. This clearly establishes how the theme of love was depicted from the view of music and from the view of painting form of art. Artists of different movements used various styles in which had the similarity of communication to the audience the piece of art was meant to. From the revolutionary movement there are traces of elements of the arts seen being transferred from one movement to the other. Different themes were incorporated in various art forms and some depicted to pass similar information and communicate at the same level from different dimensions. It is from a keen perception that one could appreciate the themes incorporated in the various forms of art. Bibliography PLANTINGA, L. (1984). Romantic music: a history of musical style in nineteenth-century Europe. New York, W.W. Norton. Read More