The French word renaissance, meaning
rebirth, is used to describe a period of Western European history between the
15th and 17th centuries. Before the Renaissance, Europeans lived in a period we
call the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, Europeans were concerned with the
church and religion, and everyone's activities centered around getting to
heaven rather than life here on earth. The Black Death, a plague that killed
one third of Europe's people, made daily European life scary and dangerous. To
escape the danger, at least in their minds, people turned to God and the
church.
Europe emerged from the Middle Ages and experienced
financial, artistic, social, scientific and political growth. The Renaissance
was a rebirth that occurred throughout most of Europe but the changes that we associate
with the Renaissance first occurred in the Italian city of Florence. Locate Florence on
a map for students.
Much of the financial growth that occurred during
the Renaissance was used to support the creation of art and architecture. New
materials, subjects and techniques established during the Renaissance remain
with us today. New trade routes across the Atlantic Ocean aided by innovations
in navigation and cartography led explorers to sources of exotic foods, spices,
silks, gold and silver. Significant inventions and advancements were made in
mathematics, machinery, medicine, astronomy and physics.
As we studied in class, artists as Piero de lla
Francesca, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci made portraits order by different patrons
of the art. The way they represented these people was according to the personal
interpretation of the painter. So I want you to look for a portrait of this
time made by any of these painters and try to guess the point of view and
personality of the subject that appears. Write between 8 to 10 lines answering
questions as:
- What do you see (visual inventory of the work)?
- What is the subject of the portrait wearing?
- What does the clothing tell us about the subject?
- Where is the subject situated? Home? Restaurant? Pub? How can you tell?
- What other items do you see in the background? What do they tell us about the subject?
- What time of day is it? How can you tell? Is this important? Why or why not?
- How do you think the subject of this portrait feels? How can you tell?
- Can you describe his personality by looking at him?
I chose the portrait painted by Da Vinci named “Lady with an ermine”.
ResponderEliminarI see a white woman that dresses elegantly and holds a very unusual animal: an ermine.
The clothes of the woman tell us that the most probable thing was that she was a member of a rich family, maybe she was a relative of a very important family.
There´s no specific place where this painting could take place because the background is absolutely black, there´s no clues for us to determine a scene where this woman could had been.
We can´t know if the painting is situated during the day or the night because of the situation of the dark background.
There´s no way for me no know about her personality, but because of her smile I would say she is a gentle woman and a serious one; a woman with good manners. The painting transmits me no emotions, it tells me nothing interesting. All I see is a woman holding an innocent ermione.
Paint: "Christ Crowned with Thorns" by Titian.
ResponderEliminarThere are five persons trying to kill Christ, and Christ is suffering and waiting for the moment. Christ is wearing some rags that cover his down body, some of the killers are wearing rags too, but there is one person wearing better clothes, maybe he was an important person. The clothes tell us that Christ has not been well treated. I don´t know exactly where they are, but i think it´s a kind of prision. There is a lamp that makes me think that there was an important and very big place or castle. There is almost the night, it`s important because it shows the darkness of the action. Christ is suffering but in calm, just waiting and thinking maybe. We can see that some of the characters don´t want to kill Christ but maybe they have been selected to do that, it seems like they were insecure and repentant.