Four Masters

The Drawings of Michelangelo

 1. Explain why you selected each of the FOUR videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose this video, because Michelangelo is one of the great “masters.” It’s hard not to admire his life’s work and want to know more about him as a person. I’m also very intrigued by his creation process, so to speak. His sketches and studies for the Sistine Chapel are amazing.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

-Michelangelo was truly a creator and drew his entire life.

-Few of his drawings remain today, but he himself destroyed most of them. He was very self-critical and didn’t want anyone to see his mistakes or failures.

-Michelangelo was apprenticed to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, where he spent most of his time drawing and adapted several of Ghirlandaio’s drawing techniques.

-Taught himself how to sculpt. In the late 1490’s, he created the Pieta.

-He had a great anatomical knowledge of the body. His drawings depict an emotional attachment with the figures and subjects he was drawing.

-In 1501, Michelangelo carved the statue David out of marble.

-The male nude was the focus of Michelangelo’s expression in which he sought to refine over and over again, seeking perfection.

-In 1508, he begins painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  His drawings depict the planning and carrying out of the greatest commission of his life.

-In 1516, Michelangelo designed the Medici family church of San Lorenzo, which eventually became the family tomb. Most of his studies for this commission still remain and can be compared to the actual structure. The figures ‘day’ and ‘night’ can be seen on top of one of the Medici’s tombs.

-His drawings depicted an affection and appreciation for young men and the male figure. His expressions through poetry and sonnets also show Michelangelo’s passion.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

This video relates to the text, because Michelangelo’s work was integral to the Renaissance period. He fully embodies everything a ‘Renaissance man’ stood for and maintained. He was a painter, drawer, sculptor, poet, etc. His work also represents the rebirth of the classical Roman and Greek style from antiquity. His work is so widely known and influenced so many artists from his time and onward.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

Michelangelo is really an inspirational creator. I liked this video, because it really showed his process of creation. He began with rough sketching and studies and those can be compared to the actualization of his pieces. The way he portrayed the human figure, even in positions that aren’t quite possible, is rather amazing. I felt as though the video really gave insight into the period of the Renaissance and how the artworks being created during that time were emotional and religiously driven. 

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

 1. Explain why you selected each of the FOUR videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I also chose this video on da Vinci, as he is considered a great ‘master.’ It’s interesting to see the history of his life and works.  

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

-Being a very curious child and teen, da Vinci goes to Florence at a young age and studies under the painter Andrea del Verrocchio.

-Leonardo first becomes a master of perspective, and then human proportions and animals. He also studies architecture. He draws these things from life to create a sense of realism and naturalism. He was also the first to make a landscape the main focus of a drawing.

-He undergoes the “exploration of the true,” between the spiritual and the material. He eventually surpasses Verrocchio and begins to make his own creations.

-He studies machines to improve them and to create even more complex ones.

- He is sent to Milan to work as a musician. He organizes entertainments and shows at the court and experiments with inventions and theatrical machinery.

-Da Vinci develops urban projects for the city of Milan, recently ravaged by plague.

-Dissects the human body and records his findings in intricate anatomical drawings.

-Carries a heavy mental process when creating. He thinks about his paintings for days without actually working on them. To him, proportion and balance must flow from the artist’s knowledge of his subjects. He focuses on beauty and harmony.

-Leonardo is appointed chief engineer in the service of Cesare Borgia.

-He returns to Florence in 1503, while the public flocks to see his paintings in which they see earthly beings transformed into heavenly creatures such as the Mona Lisa.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

With Leonardo also being a ‘Renaissance man’, he was very talented and mastered several skills. He had a close observation of nature, studied cadavers and anatomy, theories of beauty and proportion— all things that fueled his painting, architecture, and innovations.  He was an intellectual, as well as an artist, also interested in mathematics and science. His work was viewed as almost miraculous. These are all things directly associated with the Renaissance period and style.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

It is apparent in Da Vinci’s work how he idealized beauty and sought to create a balance between beauty and harmony. He was successful in so many ways, yet didn’t consider himself an educated man. He intertwined the concepts of science with art. He merged so many topics and areas that before had been separated, showing that everything is connected in life and nature. 

Albrect Durer: Image of a Master

 1. Explain why you selected each of the FOUR videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose this video because I don’t really know that much about this German artist. I was interested to learn more. 

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned

-Was the dominant Northern European artist during the Renaissance.

-He introduced a lot of the forms and ideas from the Italian Renaissance to Germany, which was still dominated by the Gothic style.

-Durer had an exceptional gift for portraiture and did many traditional wood cuts. He portrayed animals that had never been seen before.  

-He travels to Italy to study the works of the Renaissance.

-Durer is considered the first landscape artist. Influenced by the Venetian artists, his painting and woodcuts evolve as he researches perspective and seeks perfect form. He paints with watercolors and gouache.

-Durer returns to Germany and begins to follow the Protestant Reformation.

-He makes a living off of his prints and starts a printing workshop in which he begins to mass print his work in support of Martin Luther. He still creates prints of daily life as well.

-Constantly learning and refining his art, the cultural need for sophistication leads Durer away from traditional woodcuts to the subtleties of engraving on copper.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

This video especially shows the slow spread of the Renaissance ideals from Italy up north through Europe. It also shows the political changes that were so rapidly changing life in Europe and how it affected the art that was being created. It’s also interesting to see how the technology and techniques have also changed as well.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

This film was OK. Durer certainly was in a league of his own in terms of print making. He also connected Northern Europe to the Renaissance. It’s interesting to compare the perspective of his life and work with the most known Renaissance men- Michelangelo and Leondardo, who were all living and working at the same time, but in completely different worlds. 

Velazquez

 1. Explain why you selected each of the FOUR videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose this video, because I know very little about Spanish art and Velazquez’s portraits leave him sort o elusive.

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

-Born in Seville and named court painter by King Phillip IV of Spain.

-Little is known about his life, but his paintings are timeless. He creates mostly portrait artworks.

-Velazquez’s only friend throughout his entire life was the King and only had one love, his wife. He loved literature and the arts, but lived his life around art and painting. He painted whatever he wanted, as well as what the King wanted.

-He is heavily influenced by the Italian masters, where most of his work is based on an earlier age, and the works of other artists. He visits Italy and copies several of the master’s pieces. He returns to Spain and becomes more aware of his own deficits. He maintains a sense of ‘artlessness.’

-Dona Juana Pacheco is Velazquez’s wife, whom is loyal and remains by his side throughout their lives. He creates a portrait of her entitled, Sybil.

-"Prince Baltazar Carlos" on horseback reveals a childhood vulnerability and fundamental truth for which Velazquez is famous. He expresses abstract ideals in his paintings of the hunt.

-Velazquez is an idealist from a vantage point above reality. He uses his creativity to capture the essence of a King whose personality is characterized by regality and duty, but whose inner person is filled with movement and emotion.  

-Velazquez paints the palace jesters for the pleasure of king, but reveals a sense of grandeur locked in the body of a deformed person. He accomplishes this through the balance of light and color.

-Velazquez paints these pictures of deformed individuals with great sympathy and insight that reveals an artistic and psychological breakthrough.

-In the portrait of sculptor Juan Martinez Montanez, Velazquez paints with little interest in color. His few religious paintings outclass the religious painters with a simple message revealed in simple colors.

-Paintings of the Villa Medici in Rome reveal a tactile reality and roots of Impressionism. Returning to Spain, Velazquez paints his finest works like Las Meninas and Phillip IV.

-Las Hilanderas, painted over a long period of time, is an interpretation of the myth of Minerva and Arachne. Velazquez captures the truth with his technical expertise.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

I think this video relates to the readings in the text, because he showed the possibility of individualism in artwork throughout the Baroque period. Even though he was a really significant portrait artist, his work also held cultural and historical significance. His work also became a model for realist and impressionist painters.

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I thought this film was nice. It gave some create insight to the intriguing life of Velazquez and his work. He seemed to have a very personal, emotional attachment to his work and committed his life to creating artworks. His work seems to have a subtle emotion, with highly contrasted darks and lights - typical of the Baroque period style. Velázquez uses light to create drama and emphasis, but light also serves here to organize and unify a complex space.