Tiziano Vecelli - Essay Example

Artist Research Paper: Tiziano Vecelli Introduction An artist research is an investigative context of study conducted on a specific artist to enable one to better understand an artist or an artwork. “Better understanding” here referring to identifying the biography of the artist, their inception into art, their preferred conceptual frameworks, classification of their artwork, and just any attribute that makes them unique. All these are made possible by analyzing several of their works and evaluating them, from where one can get the period or style that the artist applied. The development of the following study text focuses on renowned Italian artist Tiziano Vecelli, of which the herein mentioned concepts of artist research will be applied in better understanding him. Tiziano Vecelli, popularly known as Titian, was born in the uncertain 1488 to 1490 period in Venice, Italy, and spent his lifetime influencing art until his death. At the young age of 12, he was sent to apprentice as an artist under Gentille Bellini and later Giovanni Bellini who were the masters of art at that time. After Giovanni’s death, he ascended to be the king of painting in Italy, accumulating crowns amounting to 20 and being exempted from paying taxes for his unique talent. He was the undisputed master of painting in the Venetian painting school for 60 years. His final 26 years were spent for service to Phillip II where he was a portrait artist, and where his unique attribute of keeping paintings for long periods and retouching them from time to time was discovered. He died of fever in 1576 during the Venice plague. Some of the most famous paintings he did include The Assumption of the Virgin and The Venus of Urbino wherein this discussion will evaluate both. The Venus of Urbino painting is oil on canvas measuring 119.2 by 165.5 centimeters on a landscape plane. It is estimated to have been done around 1538 as a gift from the Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo to his wife. According to “Venus of Urbino by Titan” (2013), it represented eroticism, motherhood and fidelity. The painting is that of a young maiden in her nude lying on her back facing the foreground. She lies on a maroon bed with dark patterns covered in a white sheet. On her right palm she clutches a bouquet and her face is calm with bright eyes. Her golden hair, plaited at the ends straddles over her right should and her breasts point upwards and outwards from each other. In the midground, still on the bed is a puppy which is in deep sleep, and in the background; a dark banner to the left. On the right is a woman facing down a girl who seems to be looking for something inside an open trunk placed adjacent to a window that opens to a column overlapping a tree and a distant evening sky. Figure 1: The Venus of Urbino The Assumption of the Virgin painting measures 690 by 360 centimeters in a portrait plane with an arched-at-the frame with carved golden floral decorations. It is oil on panel and is estimated to have been created around 1516 to 1518. In the painting’s foreground is a crowd of men and women in unrest, all of who seem to be struggling to reach out to a cloud above them. The cloud has a female figure standing on it surrounded by small children who resemble cupid’s winged form. To the far right behind the children is a group of women staring straight at the female figure who is seemingly the virgin. There are two children under the cloud supporting it. Above the virgin’s head is an elderly figure of a man cushioned between a cupid-like child with wings on the left, and another winged figure to the right. These two seem to be pushing the male figure away from above the virgin’s head, and he appears not to like it. The far background has an upper golden sky and a lower calm and cloudy sky. Figure 2: The Assumption of the Virgin In evaluating the two paintings, similarities dominate more than the differences. The most outstanding similarity is the use of proportion in which case it is realistic; all parts are in proportion to each other. In addition, the finest details of the figures and objects are well captured and are life-life, not to mention that they are in three-dimension. The use of light also presents similarities in that the colors used respond to the effects of light; fading with its increase, darkening with less light. This effect helps in creating the 3-D effect and illusion of depth. Nudity is evident in both paintings; The Assumption of the Virgin has some nude children and The Venus of Urbino is in her white nudes. There is much emphasis on the natural environment where the distant landscapes are captured in their ideal colors, and where other forms of nature appear in the picture, they are neither distorted nor avoided but are captured in as much reality as can allow. The only evident difference is in the choice of working area, which is panel versus canvas, and the framing. These are not evaluative attributes since the painted work is mostly what determines placement of the concept in a particular context. From the evaluations above, one can justify with sufficient evidence that both pieces are unique and almost similar, and most importantly that Titian was a renaissance artist. This is supported by the fact that both of his works contain major features of features attributed to renaissance works, not to mention the time period. According to Richardson, Lymberopoulou &Woods (2007), renaissance works had qualities such as emphasizing on nature, containing religious and non-religious scenes, showing people in real life scenarios, capturing the finest details, preferring nude figures with much show of anatomy, and the colors were adhering to the effects of light. Renaissance artist also painted on panels, canvas and wood, preferring it over tempera colors. Assuming that I did not have any knowledge regarding the attributes of renaissance artwork, I would still marvel at some of the qualities displayed by both paintings. The most capturing being how real the scenes appear; children are just children, there is clear capturing of facial expressions, the clothes and skin tones are so real, and the skies look so real that one can feel the warmth of an evening golden sky or the cool of a calm cloudy sky. I further adore the use of perspective as it makes one feel like they can “enter” the paintings. However, the most fascinating thing about the works is that unlike some paintings where [unnecessary] background objects are blurred or omitted, Titian captured the very last leaf in the viewfinder although they did not add much to the overall subject. Concisely, Tiziano Vecelli’s works are still the best renaissance paintings I have encountered so far. Conclusion In summing up, one can identify the process of artist research and how it works to categorize an artist in a particular clause. This study text brought out Titian’s background history including his introduction to painting and his far-fetched success as a master of renaissance painting. The evaluation of his two pieces provides similarities in style, medium, and concepts. These combined, it is possible to tell from which art period that an artist’s work is drawn from, as Titians case provided that he was a renaissance artist. In short, the artist research caters for providing an in-depth understanding of an artist. Finally, the artist research reveals that an artist is identified by their works and developmental path to being an artist; Tiziano Vecelli portrayed his master skills from the age of ten. References Richardson, C. M., Lymberopoulou, A., & Woods, K. (2007). Renaissance art reconsidered. New Haven [Conn.: Yale University Press. “Venus of Urbino by Titan. (2013).” Uffizi.org. Retrieved on 30 March, 2014 from http://www.uffizi.org/artworks/venus-of-urbino-by-titian/ Read More