Saturday, November 10, 2012
Light in Renaissance Art
As we discussed in class in the past week or two, the role of light in art was one of the main things that grew in the renaissance period. Cimabue, Giotto's mentor, did not really use much light at all, but then when you look at Giotto's art, you can start to see a source of light in his artwork. Then, when you look at Massaccio's Expulsion from the Garden, there is an obvious source of light and an obvious use of perspective. Then, continuing on the Michelangelo and Raphael, the use of light is basically perfected. They both used it masterfully, and to see how much art changed in 2 centuries is quite amazing.
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There are many instances of light manipulation throughout the history of art. It seems like from the beginning of time art became slowly better and better (I realize "better" is a matter of opinion.) But what I am saying is we have come a long way from cave paintings (although I probably couldn't even do that.) Once humanity reached periods of renaissance, the focus on art and it's quality boomed so that there was a more noticeable difference between the centuries. Now we are so advanced that just having a realistic piece isn't really impressive anymore. That's what I think created the wave of modern art, the fact that people wanted more from art than just a pretty picture. I got way off topic there but pretty much what I am trying to say is that there have been great increases in the techniques used, such as light, to create better pieces of art through the centuries.
The fact that artists were able to use light to emphasize certain aspects of their artwork is quite intriguing. When juxtaposed to the way Da Vinci used chiascuro and sfumato is very interesting, as we see that some artists used light to emphasize their subjects and others used the massive presence of darkness, and therefore limited, but noticeable, amount of light. I think this difference in uses of light can represent and illustrate the way that artists "matured" and learned more techniques over the years.
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