The Madonna and Child is a piece that uses many techniques used during the Renaissance period such as one point perspective, balance, use of geometric design, and religious themes. While the Madonna and Child is very different from the first piece of art that I chose to analyze Buddha Seated in Meditation as both works of art use different mediums, come from different historical periods, and have different religious influences the artists both used symmetry and balance and religious themes while completing their works. The colors used by Raphael in this painting are very bright colors. In this particular painting Raphael used primary colors ,this painting is polychromatic in that it uses many different colors. The used of red and green and yellow adds contracts as red and green are on the opposite side of the color wheel.
In comparing and contrasting Cimabue’s and Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned, the artist’s main idea of Madonna sitting on the throne is the same, however the forms used greatly differ. Both artists paint with a Gothic and Byzantine style with noticeable halos on the angels and a gold background. When contrasting these two pieces of art, the main difference is the placement of the figures of Madonna in each painting. In Cimabue’s, the Madonna looks as if she is sitting solidly, and the angels appear to be “stacked” around her in parallel form. In Giotto’s artwork, the angels in front appear closer, as the angels in the back row seem farther away giving an appearance of surrounding the Madonna.
Ghirlandaio also uses chiaroscuro, a technique where modeling of dark and light is used to create the illusion of three dimensions. This technique can be seen in the folds of the clothing that the virgin and the saints are wearing. Ghirlandaio also uses classical architecture in the background. There are also examples of iconography or religious interpretation of the content of images. The golden halos over the heads of the figures symbolize their religious important.
The Calling of Saint Matthew created by Caravaggio, brings out emotional effects by manipulating the light on the piece. With all the subjects in the scene, without the lighting, it would be difficult to point out the focus or the focal point of the painting. If all the people were visible as clearly as Matthew is, then the piece looses its meaning and emphasis of what is going on. By highlighting certain elements, and darkening others, he created large contrasts between the two side by side to bring even more emphasis on the main people, mainly by highlighting Matthew. Just like in a motion picture, lighting is used to create a sense of evil, passion, hope, etc.
Northern renaissance mostly focused on religious ideas. They were more concern with reform the church and adopt the path of early Christian church. Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece (closed), Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent and Rogier vander Weyden’s Deposition also show this concept. Also northern renaissance art artist were more realistic than Italian renaissance artists. Their painting didn’t have Greek gods but real people.
The North faced a more austere and miserable environment which is somewhat represented in their work whereas the south were more focused on bringing out the religious imagery of the Bible in their artists works. This is probably one of the main differences in the work of Northern & Southern art. We can see above that the work of Northerners such as Hieronymus Boche and Albrecht Diirer is more abstract in comparison to the paintings of someone such as Raphael who we can see has decided to go for a more realistic approach. Why is this? It seems that the main reason to take into account is the fact that the church commissioned nearly all the works that were done by Southern artists meaning that the pictures were to be displayed in churches and on stained glass windows etc.
Although these two paintings share a number of characteristics, there are by far more contrasts. Giotto’s style of painting is more naturalistic than that of Virgin and Child. Giotto had many influences, but Giovanni Cimabue is probably his greatest. The similarities between Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets and Giotto’s piece are striking. It seems that Giotto used Ciambue’s work as a framework for his painting, and improved upon it.
It helps by making the most important part of the picture stand out to the viewers and capturing their attention. There are three main paintings done by Degas, Renoir, and Monet—a few of the painters that helped build up Impressionism to a point of prominence—that contain all of these characteristics. In Edgar Degas’ painting, Prima Ballerina, the most important part of it is the ballerina. Degas was able to make this quite obvious by blurring and distorting the people and scenery behind her. Degas also used very light pastel colors in the background to make the ballerina stand out more in the painting, as well as making her seem like she is letting off light and making the work seem, in general, much more relaxing and carefree.
It creates a balance between the two sides (bottom) of the portrait. There is a contrast between light and dark. The chiaroscuro technique which involves the use of smaller amounts of shadow especially around her face. The bright colors used are definitely the first thing that please me the most in this artwork. Color is fragmented
In addition, the arched and meandering lines ending in husk motifs that flank the top shell in Watteau's design have been placed lower, and some of the smallest ornamental details have been omitted. The artist used reversed copies of the prints by Cr6py and showed remarkable dexterity in cutting out very fine decoration. Allegorical figures derived from another series of French prints were pasted on either side of the door frames and in the central niche (Figures 25-27). Symbolizing seven months, these figures represent various gods and goddesses with their symbols and signs of the zodiac in a fanciful architectural frame. From left to right, starting with the left-hand door, we see Vulcan as September and Minerva as October.