The Contrast and Influence of Michelangelo and Da Vinci Charity Alexander ART 101: Art Appreciation Mrs. Willis February 08, 2013 The Contrast Page 1 In a world where the art of the past is considered to influence both the past and the future artists of the age, one would be remised to not include an examination of the works of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. These two artists greatly influenced the art and artists of the 16th century in Italy and Europe. Their works have been examined and used as examples of various techniques and subject matters. The first set of works to examine would be that of Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan and Da Vinci’s Lady with the Ermine. In Michelangelo’s Leda and the Swan, the subject matter is the story of how Zeus, a Greek god, took the form of a swan and seduced Leda, who then gave birth to two children of Zeus, Helen and Polydeuces.
Leonardo was an inventor and an innovator, always looking for a better way to do things. In addition, he was, one of the most influential painters of the High Renaissance. The key to understanding the revolutionary qualities of The Last Supper lies in the fact that, in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, Leonardo was engaged in creating an entirely new style of painting. He was involved in working out a solution to a problem that had confronted Florentine painters during the preceding century: the opposition "between a view which took the first function of art to be that of rationally and objectively describing physical
This rebirthing period brought forward a new culture of humanistic values of Christianity, new ideas in science, philosophy, and politics as well as in literature and the fine arts. This was also a time of hierarchy, whereas, the social status of your parents deemed your place in society. In this Renaissance period of history, we find such great painting artist such as Leonardo Da Vinci, known for his painting of “The Last Supper” and the “Mona Lisa.” His work has demonstrated distinction and precision of the humanistic side of the characters in his paintings. It has great definition in the details of emotion and expression, included in the facial features, attire and surroundings. He captures the realism in both paintings.
Art Analysis Paper-Sacred Theme Paintings During the research for the Scavenger Hunt class paper, the Sacred Realm theme was selected as the theme to be discussed and analyzed. A comparison analysis of the two paintings by Sano di Pietro's Madonna and Child (15th Century) and Pietro Cavallini's The Most Holy Mother of God (13th Century) revealed that even when they are of different time periods they possess very interesting similarities. These paintings were selected because they both use the Madonna and Child as their main focus, and contain themes that correspond perfectly with the Sacred Realm theme, as stated in the progress report previously submitted and in the text book, Living with Art by Getlein (Getlein 50). Pietro Cavallini was the most dominant painter in Rome when Giotto worked there at the close of the 13th century (Eimerl 86). Sano di Pietro was also highly regarded in his time: Sano di Pietro was one of the most prolific and successful Sienese painters, the head of a workshop that satisfied the demands of civic and religious institutions in the city as well as those of private devotion.
Leonardo experimented with oils in his paintings along with versatile colors to build up depth and layers. Leonard is later referred to the Duke of Milan by Lorenzo de' Medici were he paints the most famous fresco in history "The Last Supper" and later going on to another famous piece "Mona Lisa". After the passing of Leonardo it was discovered that he had many ideas of machines, tanks and helicopters that could be based on todays ingenuity. Leonardo was even curious about plant and animal life, studying anatomy with corpses that also involved in dissection and research. Leonardo displayed very advanced ideas that are common
It is also a natural expression of a culture at a certain point in its time, a culture that is confident of its own tradition, but at the same time adds something that is slipping away. A German art historian by the name of Friedrich Hauser identified the style-category as "Neo-Attic". "Neo-Attic" consists of reliefs molded on decorative vessels and plaques, having figure and drapery style that looked for its "classic" models. David was a winner of the Grand Prix and also became very fortunate to be the court painter of Napoleon. David is very famous for his work of art called Oath of the Horatti.
), there’s a tremendous amount of detail put into it, and perhaps one of the most defining features of it is that it has got the patron in it. Since it was commissioned by someone besides the church, they wanted to be put in the piece of art that they paid to be painted. The patrons of the altarpiece appear on the far left side, as if they were part of the scene itself. Now we have Italian renaissance art. Some defining characteristics of it are that it is very classical (drapery tends to cling to the body, revealing the perfection of all the idealized bodies), they used plenty of linear perspective (whereas Northern art was more medieval, so they didn’t much care for that), they liked using illusions in their work, and they didn’t have patrons in their work because the church usually commissioned all the art.
3. The speaker does establish credibility. As being defined in The American Heritage, Dictionary of the English Language (2010), credibility means the quality, capability or power to elicit belief. In the speech, the speaker manages to influence the audience. The first painting mentioned, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer, the speaker made a research on the painting.
Leonardo da Vinci is one individual who has changed global history. He was a leading artist and intellectual of the Italian Renaissance. He is known for his enduring works of “The Last Supper” & “The Mona Lisa” to mention a few. He was concerned with the laws of science and nature which greatly informed his work as a painter, sculpture and inventor. His ideas and work influenced countless artists.
Giovanni de Predis was one of the few artist who absorbed da Vinci's principles of natural shadowing of facial projection under soft direct light, and frontal position as seen in Leonardo's The Mona-Lisa (Fig 2). Such portrait raises many questions like who is this female depicted and what is she looking at? Was this female an important figure in Giovanni’s time? What does the cherries symbolizes? Why is the background black?