vince’s ear

Around the time of the Golden Age of Illustration, with illustrators such as Rackham, Sime, and Dulac making a name for themselves, a Czech artist was emerging with a style which would encompass all types of graphic art and help change the art world of Paris.

Alphonse Mucha was a leading exponent of Art Nouveau, a style which fancied itself as a reaction against some of the academic art which was popular toward the end of the nineteenth century. French for “New art,” this style got its name from a gallery in Paris which focused on modern art in the forms of decorative tapestries, modern furniture and other forms of design and art objects. Along with painters such as Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha helped to popularize the decorative style. Creating art which was often consumerist and borderline kitsch, the movement meant to make decorative art from anything and everything.

Like his illustrator contemporaries, Mucha had his art beginnings as an illustrator for cheap and popular magazines. His art appealed to the public in forms such as posters and advertisements for plays and consumer products. With an emphasis on decoration, his art was known for its sweeping contours and flowing lines of clothing with flowers or stars throughout the composition, which often included attractive young girls as centerpieces. Several of his works include four panels of a central theme such as Stars (seen above) and the Four Seasons.

Mucha never saw himself as a famous artist and rejected his fame. He was more interested in his Czech homeland. Considered his most important work, toward the end of his career he worked on the Slav Epic, a series of huge paintings depicting the history of the Slavic people. When Germany invaded his country in 1939 he was arrested and interrogated, making the artist very ill from which he never fully recovered. By the time of his death Art Nouveau had been considered outdated. However Jiri Mucha, Alphonse’s son, helped to draw attention to his father as he wrote about him.

In the 1960s a Mucha revival was seen in such examples as the posters of the artist duo Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, who designed posters for bands such as Pink Floyd. The editor in chief of Marvel Comics has used a Mucha style in designing covers and posters. Graphic artists of today could learn a thing or two about the advertisements and posters of Alphonse Mucha, from a day when everything was designed by hand without the help of a computer.

Jean Fouquet was the leading painter and most important artist in France during the early Renaissance. He was a master of panel painting and illuminated manuscripts, the illustrating of ancient texts with designs usually in gold or silver. He is also apparently the inventor of miniature painting. He is considered the first well-defined personality in all of French art.

Jean Fouquet was a painter of royal portraits very early in his career. Between 1437 Fouquet traveled to Rome where he met with perspective artists such as Fra Angelico, Domenico Veneziano, and Piero della Fransesca. Here he studied contemporary Italian painting and ancient art. He also completed a portrait of Pope Eugenius IV. Upon returning to the French court he combined the naturalistic detail of the Van Eycks, which was the basis for the French style, with the monumental spatiality of the Tuscan art he learned on his travels. With this blending of the styles, Fouquet became the founder of a new French School. His aim was to evolve from the Gothic traditions and develop a new figurative language, the highest pictorial expression of humanism in France.

One of the most important Fouquet paintings is the Melun Diptych with a portrait of Étienne Chevalier, the executor of King Charles VII’s will. with his patron saint Saint Stephen on the left with a unique Madonna and Child on the right. The Madonna is a portrait of Agnès Sorel, the favorite of King Charles VII. The Madonna is shown with infant on lap and one breast exposed ready to feed. She holds the baby as she looks down at him, as he points with his left hand. In the background are red and blue angels

Jean Fouquet was a very notable artist not just in French history but in all of Renaissance art. For one he is the first artist to complete an independent self portrait in the fifteenth century. This self portrait is a valuable medallion painted in gold on a black background and shows the artist looking forward out at the viewer. It resembles other coins and medallions of the period but is unique in that all the coins or medals always showed the figure in profile. He is also the greatest miniaturist in all of art history. Many of these miniatures were meant to be part of his illuminated manuscripts. His miniatures are noted for their highly detailed settings along with their realistic natural detail. The costumes on the subject are finely painted and contain refined gold leafing with gold dust making garments literally shine.

Born in Padua, the leading center of humanism in northern Italy, Andrea Mantegna, in true humanist fashion, attained a knowledge of classical Antiquity and Roman archaeology. At an early age, he apprenticed under Fransesco Squarcione, an avid studier of ancient Roman arts and sculpture. Being a favorite pupil of Squarcione, Mantegna no doubt was encouraged to study ancient Roman sculpture, as was evident in the sculptural style of his paintings, with their stony figures and metallic landscapes. Studying while Donatello and Paolo Uccello were in town led Mantegna to delve into the new developments of perspective and other styles. The best example of his skill with perspective can be seen in the Camera degli Sposi with its sotto in su illusion.

His first major work was for the frescoes of the Ovetari Chapel of the Eremetani church in Padua, which he worked on as part of a group of several painters but finished most of the work alone. These frescoes show his skill of expressing classical motifs along with a mastery of foreshortening. One of the most dramatic examples of this effect as well as most dramatic in all of the frescoes is the worm’s-eye view of Saint Led To His Execution, which creates a large and prominent setting.

Andrea Mantegna moved away from Padua at a young age most likely following a dispute with his former teacher, who he later claimed had stolen some of his works and taken credit for. He moved to Mantua and answered a call by Duke Ludovico II to take the job of court painter in the House of Gonzaga. He executed the Camera degli Sposi with a style which was later emulated by Correggio and predicted Baroque design. During this time he executed the first Saint Sebastian and completed some architectural designs and decorations. While as court painter, Mantegna would radically change the artistic style of the court. He changed the style from Gothic fantastical to humanist, with an emphasis on archaeology and perspective. His interest in archaeology would be seen when the Ludovico II Gonzaga commissioned nine large canvasses to represent the triumphs of Caesar.

The Dead Christ (seen above) shows Mantegna’s excellent use of foreshortening with the dramatic view of the dead body from the feet. It was painted toward the end of his life around 1500 and was most likely meant for his own funerary chapel. It is remarkable not only for the composition with its extreme foreshortening, but it is also one of the few works on canvas of the time. The highly detailed corpse shows the wounds of the crucified Christ. The body dominates the majority of the pictorial space with the mourners barely visible tucked away in the corner. The colors are very somber and dead. It is a fantastic and sad painting, marking the end of a dark period in his life after the recent banishment of his son, and his own inevitable demise.

Andrea Mantegna would later highly influence artists like Correggio especially with his ceiling designs, which were used for centuries to come. Other artists were inspired by his works, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, as well as his brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini. When Mantegna died, the Gonzaga court went into mourning, and received tributes from all over Italy which, along with the acclaim, were more than any artist had received before.

The artist known as Donatello was one of the most important sculptors in Italy in the fifteenth century. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance. His innovative styles, including making shadow relief sculptures, involved the newly discovered developments in perspectival illusion. Like many budding artists of the time, Donatello had his artistic beginnings in goldsmith. Soon, however, he moved to Rome where he met and studied with the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. The two men together laid the foundation for the emerging Italian Renaissance, while Brunelleschi was taking measurements of the Pantheon Dome and Donatello was developing his style. Their work was characteristic of the spirit of the Renaissance and both the architecture of one and the sculpture of the other would have a profound effect of the painters of the era.

Donatello’s work was innovative and creatively unique. The enormous Saint John the Evangelist, with its realistic humanity, marked a change from late Gothic styles to an age where naturalism and the rendering of human feelings was sought. While the head was still idealized like earlier sculpture, the hands, and legs are very realistic. He also created the first known use of central-point perspective with the bas-relief Saint George and the Dragon. The technique known as stiaciatto, a form of bas-relief, was invented by Donatello and has been explained as “drawing in marble.” In his works following these, mostly niche works and other sculpture for cathedrals, his expression became more and more realistic as well as emotionally charged. He freely used classical examples for inspiration and used themes from the Antique.

In the 1420s , partnering with Michelozzo, he produced a funerary monument for the Antipope John XXIII. This would highly influence tomb design, with its use of classical architectural designs, along with the Three Virtues and Madonna and Child. It was considered to be “picturesque classicism.” Donatello created in 1445 to 1450 the first equestrian monument since classic times. The Gattamallata horseback rider was made for the Piazza del Santo and was made around the same time as the High Altar of the Santo.

The altar contained reliefs with highly perspectival scenes with crowded figures which would later influence painters such as Andrea Mantegna and Michael Pacher. His works such as David (seen above) , Judith and Holofernes, and Mary Magdalene possessed an expressive quality never before seen. He was highly influential in all the arts in Italy over the next century and his power of expression remained unmatched, perhaps until Michelangelo came along.

Giorgione is the recognized name of the Venetian painter Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco. As a musician and a poet, his work is known for its poetic nature with warm atmospheres which convey strong sense of moods. Much of his life’s work was executed as frescoes which unfortunately have not survived. Very little of his documented life and artwork survives today, with many of the paintings previously credited to him having been disproved and only six legitimate paintings from which to gather what the man was all about. Therefore the artist known as Giorgione remains to this day very much a mystery.

Much of what we know about Giorgione comes from the famous Italian biographer Giorgio Vasari, who included the Venetian artist. He grew up in a small town outside Venice, Castelfranco, with his name sometimes appearing as Zorzon, or “Big George.” He moved into the city of Venice at a young age and apprenticed under the painter Giovanni Bellini, and later learned much of the ideas of the “outsider” artists Albrect Dürer and Leonardo. He gained quick fame and produced all of his famous works in the first decade of the sixteenth century. His big ticket came when he was commissioned for an altarpiece in his home town of Castelfranco for the cathedral Veneto, at which he portrayed a serene countryside with a spacious view bathed in natural light. Soon after he established a successful workshop and received commissions for frescoes all around Venice. This was what would have been the start of a prolific career at the rate he was going, but unfortunately the plague would cut his life short and he died at the age of 33.

Giorgione’s work was varied in subjects ranging from portraits and religious subjects set in huge landscapes, to philosophical works with themes of moral allegories, and the three ages of man. Some paintings include erotic nude females reclining, or other busts of women, concerts, and subjects from mythology. Some seemingly secular paintings could have religious references such as the “Three Philosophers” (seen above). This unique composition shows philosophers of different ages who appear to be traveling but have stopped on the edge of the woods. The youngest sits and ponders, oblivious to the others and his surroundings. While the other two are having a conversation, the young one sits and looks out into the countryside, and ponders as if expecting an epiphany. It has been suggested this is a reference to the Three Magi on their way to see the birth of Jesus, and can be interpreted as the travel in one’s life through different stages.

Another work which has fascinated and perplexed students of the art of the era is the Tempest. It has been interpreted by scholars with differing opinions and its meanings and symbolism still remains enigmatic. Even the name The Tempest is not known for sure to be the original title, but given later based on the composition. It shows a dark landscape with a city in the background and a bolt of lightening striking above. Seated on the right of the canvas is a woman feeding a child gazing out at the viewer. Gazing at her is a man dressed in red holding a staff, on the far left of the painting. The prevailing theory on the picture is that is represents Adam and Eve soon after the Expulsion. The bolt of lightning can possibly the sword of the Archangel. Giorgione was known to be a remarkable landscapist and often included the beauty and wonder of nature in his works. He is one of the first artists to assign such a leading role to the wonder of the natural world.

The painter known as Titian led a long and successful career characterized by inventiveness and mastery of color. He was born and worked in Venice and apprenticed under Giovanni Bellini, just as fellow Venetian Giorgione had. Titian worked with Giorgione and is even thought to have helped finished Geiorgione’s enigmatic masterpiece The Tempest. By 1515 Titian had surpassed Giorgione and all the rest of his contemporaries and was considered the leader and master of the Venetian school. Throughout his long life he would be praised by intellectual circles and sought after by droves of collectors and members of the royal courts.

His royal portraits such as Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg would be a model for future royal portraits and would be a much copied composition throughout the Baroque period. By 1520 his fame began to spread and received commissions not only in his hometown of Venice, but in the royal courts of Gonzaga and Este. This would make him one of the most acclaimed portrait artists in all of Europe. In 1533, after meeting Emperor Charles V Titian entered a relationship with the Spanish court that would last over thirty years. In the 1540s Titian visited Rome where he met Michelangelo during the starts of Mannerism. After leaving Rome he returned to Venice where he isolated himself from the mainstream, aside from a few visits to Charles V. His later works show a free handled style and superb use of patches of color to render form.

Besides some remarkable religious subjects such as the Assumption and the Pietá, much of Titian’s work comes from mythological and classical inspirations. One of his most well noted masterpieces is the Sacred and Profane Love (seen above) which was painted in 1514 and really put him on the map, helping to surpass Bellini as “Painter to the Republic.” It shows two woman representing the two types of love, who, despite the connotations of the title, do not call for a choice of the two, but rather a balance. The clothed woman on the left represents marriage and Earthly love. Marriage is a central point of the painting as it was a wedding gift of Nicolò Aurelio to his new bride Laura Bagarotto. The woman is not a portrait of Laura, but is meant to be an allegory of marriage in general. The whole theme represents fertility and love, with small details such as a pair of rabbits visible in the near background. The other woman is virtually nude and holds a lamp signifying eternal love on a more spiritual level. Cupid quietly stirs water between the two woman in a sarcophagus depicting a violent death, perhaps as a reference to the recent hanging of Laura’s father. The fact that water is being stirred in such a sarcophagus symbolizes how love can emerge and be reborn even from death.

Albrecht Dürer was a universal artist with an open minded attitude which was the epitome of what the Renaissance was all about. Energetic, creative, and highly talented he constantly sought out new themes, ideas and techniques. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1471, and was a painter, printmaker, mathematician, and overall intellectual. He is probably best known for his prints and engravings which include the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the famous Melencolia I, as well as his series on the Passions of Christ. He was also trained in goldsmith, and was an outstanding watercolorist.

At the age of nineteen Dürer finished an apprenticeship and traveled to Basel, Strasburg, and Vienna as well as to Venice further his academic studies. These trips would introduce him to European perspectives of figurative art, but more importantly let him witness firsthand the height of the splendor of the Italian Renaissance. During his treks he completed a number of excellent landscape drawings and watercolor paintings. On his return to Venice he studied Venetian contemporary painters such as Giovanni Bellini, who he idolized. His first major painting “The Festival of the Rose Gardens,” was meant to rival any Italian painting in its brilliant use of color. At a very young age he was considered to be the leading artist in Nuremberg. His self assurance and confidence is evident is his self portrait of 1500, when he painted himself in the likeness of Jesus Christ, so sure of his place in society, if not just a little cocky.

Like his Italian contemporary Leonardo, Albrecht Dürer was fascinated by the world around him and studied science and nature intensely. Some of his watercolors show a high attention to detail to nature, such as his “A Young Hare,” showing a precise depiction of a rabbit, with every last fur and whisker. He was also a brilliant mathematician, including his knowledge in his works such as Melencholia I showing an order -4 “magic square” mathematical arrangement of numbers. The table gives the sum of 34 in all directions, with the two numbers in the bottom center being 15 and 14, 1514 being the year it was made.

One of Dürer’s favorite subjects is the Madonna. The Mother of God with Baby Jesus, often surrounded by cherubim and angels appears again and again in the artist’s work. In his rendering of the Madonnas and other religious theme, he portrayed his subjects with a beauty which was both ideal and natural at the same time. He would often receive religious commissions for triptychs and altarpieces where he would include portraits of the patrons and donors in the form of saints or pious worshipers. It was not uncommon as well to see a self portrait of the artist in scenes of all types, showing a confident and attractive man who took pride in his appearance.

In his later life Albrecht Dürer attempted to interpret some of the social and religious transformations he had witnessed throughout his wide experience and travels across Europe. Although he had enjoyed success from a young age, in his later years the artist thought he was more unknown and anxiously attempted to make himself noticed again. He began to acknowledge the limits of art and humanity and took a gloomier and embittered outlook of life. He died in 1528 after a successful career, leaving a legacy of influencing many major artists in the years to come.

Antonio Allegri would take the name of his home town Corregio, as his own. He was born in the town of his namesake near the city of Reggio Emilia, in the Po Valley in northern Italy, and would eventually become the leader of the Parma School. His fluid and luminous style was characterized by soft expressions and a bold use of perspective, and was a precursor to the Baroque and eventually Rococo. His paintings were both beautiful and elegant and were similar to the emerging Mannerist style.

In 1516 Corregio moved to the city of Parma where he befriended Michelangelo Anselmi, and later married Girolama Francesca di Braghetis. In the year of his marriage, in 1519 he received his first commission for the ceiling of the dining salon of the mother superior of the convent of Saint Paul. The work consists of an oculus, or round opening, with a group of cherubim playfully floating above, marble images below that, with Diana frescoed at the fireplace. The work is reminiscent of the secular frescoes of the Villa Farnesina in Rome.

Like the oculus with the cherubim, Correggio’s work is known to be full of illusions, including the method of sotto in su, or “seen from below.” After completed the Saint Paul frescoes, he painted the Vision of Saint John on Patmos for the dome of the church of Saint John the Evangelist of Parma, which shows a series of receding clouds with a foreground of Christ appearing to descend to the floor, with apostles on the border stretching out. Below the scene are the Four Evangelists, Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. After the Vision of Saint John, Correggio decorated the Cathedral of Parma with another illusion showing the Assumption of the Virgin, ascending to the sky past an infinite series of layers with angels.

Aside from his wonderful ceiling decorations of churches and cathedrals, Corregio is known for his remarkable interpretations of mythological subjects as well, particularly the Loves of Jupiter from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The series was commissioned by Frederico II Gonzaga of Mantua originally to decorate the Ovid room in his palace, but eventually were given as a gift to Charles V. The series consists of five paintings: Leda and the Swan, Danaë, Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle with its partner painting Jupiter and Io, and Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (seen above). Particularly imaginative and impressive is Jupiter and Io which shows Jupiter taking the form of a cloud to embrace and kiss the nymph Io. The cloud is soft and seems to softly embrace the nymph who in turn submits irresistibly. In the Ganymede painting, Jupiter has taken the form of an eagle and scoops the Ganymede off his feet, who in turn seems to embrace the eagle with love and acceptance of his fate.

Paintings such as the Gaymede as well as his many illusion works seem to foreshadow the Mannerist and Baroque styles with the imaginary replacing natural reality. In truth these styles could possibly have been born with inspirations from Correggio.

Along with Donatello, Alberti, and Masaccio, Filippo Brunelleschi was responsible for creating the Renaissance style in Florence in the 15th century. He is certainly the principle architect of the Renaissance and one of the most famous to come out of Florence. Little is known about the man’s early life except that he was originally trained as a goldsmith. Historians are uncertain why exactly this unlikely architect emerged from such a beginning. One story tells that he was beaten in a competition for the doors of the baptisery of the Florence Cathedral. His failure to produce a gilded bronze panel with sufficient technical skill could possibly have forced him to seek his true calling.

Filippo Brunelleschi’s first architectural commission came from the Foundling Hospital, which was part of the goldsmith guild he had belonged to. The building was made to be dignified and plain with no displays of marble or decorative inlays. It is the first building in Florence to reference classical antiquity. This style was most likely inspired from the architect’s earlier trips with his friend Donatello to ancient Rome to study the ruins.

Soon after this his work was in demand and received commissions across the board such as the dome for the Cathedral of Florence the Santa Maria del Fiore with a very large dome. The Santa Maria del Fiore posed interesting problems in that no dome of that size has been attempted with all the construction problems including scaffolding. So a commission was started to design the best dome and once again Brunelleschi faced off with his earlier rival Lorenzo Ghiberti. This time it was Brunelleschi who won. The planning and building of the dome would occupy most the remainder of Brunelleshi’s life. In the end he succeeded from a technical skill, which included inventions inspired by the republication of the Roman architect Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture. Much of his success was also due to his attention to mathematical detail and knowledge of engineering.

Though architecture was his forte, Brunelleschi’s interests were varied. He not only invented practical architectural devices for buildings and construction, but other thing s as well such as a contrivance to display puppet show-like theatrical subjects in churches. He had a brief and unfortunate stint as a shipbuilder when he designed a huge ship which sank on its maiden voyage. He would be highly influential in other arts such as sculpture and painting. A polychrome wooden crucifix survives which is thought to have been completed with Donatello. Brunelleschi is supposed to have said to his friend, “Christ was most delicate in every part,” a motto in essence equating moral goodness with formal beauty which would be adopted as commonplace Renaissance theory. Painting benefited from Brunelleshi from two panels he painted which showed the first instance of placing objects in a pictorial field with a single vanishing point.

Born Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi in 1445, the Florentine better known as Sandro Botticelli would become a leading painter in the humanist circles of Lorenzo the Magnificent. His painting Primavera (seen above) became a symbol of Lorenzo’s court, and became one of his most famous and recognized works, along with The Birth of Venus, both of which are arguably the most notable works of Renaissance Florentine art.

Taking ideas from classical secular texts, the two paintings are in true humanist form. Venus, the goddess of Love, appears as the center of attention in both paintings- the main subject in the Birth of Venus, and as part of a larger scene in Primavera. The Primavera or Allegory of Spring was painted for the cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Lorenzo di Pierfransesco de’ Medici. It is designed as an appreciation of beauty and an encouragement of virtue. It is rich in complex symbolism, and can be read in part as a scene unfolding. The light characters contrast heavily against the dark background of a forest, although the idealized characters themselves show little contrast, with soft shadows characteristic of Botticelli’s style.

In the center we see an emphasized Goddess of Love, with a hovering cupid above ready to shoot an arrow of passion. The Venus is the most highly contrasted with a light gown and light red robe standing in front of a dark green bush, which contrasts with the blue midday sky beyond. This sequence of contrast is reminiscent of Leonardo’s early Florence paintings. To the far left we see a scantily clad Mercury who guards the garden with helmet, sword, and winged shoes, while pointing to touch the clouds. Next to Mercury are the three dancing figures of the three Graces, nearly naked save for transparent robes. Such garments as these, painted with very thin layers of paint mixed with linseed oil, would be considered profane and the reason many of Botticelli’s paintings were burned. The Graces are meant to be fairly seductive, and dance a rondel, while in the sights of Cupid’s bow. The Grace on the right is clearly Caterina Sforza, who appears in the portrait Catherine of Alexandria. On the right side of Venus we see a group of three figures. Zephyrus, the god of the winds, lusts after and pursues the nymph Chloris, who stumbles to the left and is transformed into Flora, the Goddess of Spring, who spreads flowers across the garden.

The highly detailed Primavera (about 150 botanical species are accurately portrayed) painted with beautiful precision and style, along with The Birth of Venus and other religious works, put Botticelli as the leader of the Florentine school. His fame at the time called for the commissions of many prominent patrons of the Medici circle including big name such as Arnolfini, Tanis, and Portinaris. He was commissioned for panels on the Sistene Chapel’s walls, which would unfortunately be shadowed by Michelangelo’s magnificent ceiling.

Botticelli’s fortune and fame would not last forever as was evident with the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Lorenzo’s death would affect many painters besides Botticelli and turned the Florentine culture on its head. Troublesome speakers such as the monk Girolamo Savonarola would rouse political unrest in the city. The recent years were deemed improper and immoral and the people were called on to be penitent and meditative. This resulted in the burning of books and artwork, which included several of Sandro Botticelli’s works which were deemed improper and profane. Savonarola was eventually burned at the stake himself, and his followers eventually dispersed, but the ordeal would have a profound effect and cause a nervous breakdown for our Florentine master. Still painting, though not as much, his later years show a desperation in his work. He eventually died in May, 1510.