Friday, November 2, 2012
Perfection
Each period has its own style of artwork, which influences the next form to come, however it seems to me that each period has a distinctive style in their interpretation of a "perfect representation" of figures. Starting with the hellenistic period which believed in ideal forms and rationalism, then to the hellenic period that was focused around realism, to Roman period which combined characteristics of the periods before and used pictorial images to represent figures along with a focus of family life, and finally the Renaissance period that depicted divinity with vanishing points and emphasis on light as a metaphor for the greater being, shows how each era had an ideal way to depict the beliefs at the time. I find it interesting how the social circumstances of the time influenced the type of art work created and caused it to progressively change.
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4 comments:
I agree with you Tejas, indeed each different society had their own form of art and I believe that as each society progressed through history, their form of art become more and more perfect, at least in their eyes. Maybe as each group of people looked back upon the previous era, they thought that the way sculptures and paintings were made were "old school" and "antique", therefore, this caused an increase in the interest of artists to form new techniques and therefore drove the creation of new forms of art and new forms of "perfection".
I agree. I also found it interesting that each society built upon the other societies that came before them to edit and mold the accomplishments of their predecessors to fit their new standards and ideals. The Romans, for example, built their art work using techniques and ideas from Greek ideals, but edited the art to make it "better" and more Roman. This pattern has continued throughout history and can be seen in the development of the art from the Florentine Renaissance. Each new artist developed and perfected techniques of their predecessors (chiaroscuro, perspective, vanishing points, etc...) to ultimately design and accomplish the ideal Renaissance qualities in art.
One of the things that I find so captivating about High Renaissance art is that it seems to combine the emphasis on realism and physical perfection from Classical art and the emphasis on spiritual perfection from Mideival art. I think Michaelangelo's David is a prime example. The subject matter is religious and emphasizes spiritual perfection, as David was described as "a man after God's own heart." Yet the style in which Michaelangelo portrays him in an overtly classical style, idealizing David's physical form.
As far as Michaelangelo's "David" goes, I think the reason that David was idealized in this case was because he was thought to be the protector of Florence, Otherwise, i completely agree with the idea that Renaissance art combined the techniques of realism and spiritual perfection as these characteristics can commonly be seen in the frescoes. Could it also be the medium that the art was being made by? We saw that youtube video in class where the speaker talks about the "golden period" when making frescoes in which the paint has to be applied in order to create a proper fresco. Given the limited amount of time and pigments available, it would be very difficult to create a more realistic depiction of the subject matter, however this is not the issue with sculpture - so maybe this is another reason that Michaelangelo's "David" is more idealized in physical form.
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