Renaissance artists and their paintings. Great Renaissance Artists
Italy is a country that has always been famous for its artists. The great masters who once lived in Italy glorified art throughout the world. We can say for sure that if it were not for the Italian artists, sculptors and architects, the world would look very different today. The most significant in Italian art, of course, is considered. Italy in the Renaissance or Renaissance reached an unprecedented rise and prosperity. Talented Artists, sculptors, inventors, real geniuses who appeared in those days are still known to every schoolchild. Their art, creativity, ideas, developments today are considered classics, the core on which they are built world art and culture.
One of the most famous geniuses the Italian Renaissance is, of course, a great Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519). Da Vinci was so gifted that he achieved great success in many areas of activity, including the visual arts and science. Another famous artist who is a recognized master is Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510). Botticelli's paintings are a real gift to humanity. Today, his dense are in the most famous museums in the world and are truly priceless. No less famous than Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli is Rafael Santi(1483-1520), who lived for 38 years, and during this time managed to create a whole layer of stunning painting, which became one of the brightest examples of the Early Renaissance. Another great genius of the Italian Renaissance is no doubt Michelangelo Buonarotti(1475-1564). In addition to painting, Michelangelo was engaged in sculpture, architecture and poetry, and achieved great results in these arts. The statue of Michelangelo called "David" is considered an unsurpassed masterpiece, an example of the highest achievement of the art of sculpture.
In addition to the artists mentioned above, the greatest artists of Italy of the Renaissance were such masters as Antonello da Messina, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Jacopo Tintoretto, Domenico Fetti, Bernardo Strozzi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi and others. . All of them were a prime example delightful Venetian school painting. The Florentine school of Italian painting includes such artists as: Masaccio, Andrea del Verrocchio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Benozzo Gozzoli, Sandro Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Piero di Cosimo, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolommeo, Andrea del Sarto.
To list all the artists who worked during the Renaissance as well as during the late Renaissance, and after centuries, which became known to the whole world and glorified the art of painting, developed the basic principles and laws that underlie all types and genres of fine arts, it will probably take several volumes to write, but this list is enough to understand that The great Italian artists are the very art that we know, that we love and that we will appreciate forever!
Paintings by great Italian artists
Andrea Mantegna - Fresco in the Camera degli Sposi
Giorgione - Three Philosophers
Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa
Nicolas Poussin - The Magnanimity of Scipio
Paolo Veronese - Battle of Lepanto
Renaissance Italian painting is a truly grandiose phenomenon. Such a number of brilliant names did not know any of the subsequent eras, not one of national schools. It is no coincidence that in subsequent centuries, artists invariably drew experience and inspiration from the fine arts of the Italian Renaissance.
In the Renaissance system of views, a special role belonged to the fine arts. A man during the Renaissance felt himself capable of knowing the world, but at first the world itself seemed to him, as in the Middle Ages, a grandiose work of art, a creation the greatest artist- God.
Masaccio "Trinity" 1426-1428 Church of Santa Maria Novella Thanks to the skillful use of chiaroscuro and knowledge of the laws of perspective, Masaccio gave the image a life of credibility. "Trinity" (1425-1428).
Thus, the image of the world was considered one of the ways of its knowledge. The development of a direct perspective system made painting the most “humanized” kind of art – the viewer’s eye became a “reference point” in the “space” of the picture. The emergence and spread of oil paints opened a promising path for the development of tonal and light principles.
Battle of San Romano (1440-1450), Extremely compositionally complex, innovative paintings by Uccello often did not find understanding among contemporaries.
Painting of Florence, Siena and Perugia.
of great importance in the development of Italian visual arts Florentine painting of the early Renaissance played, actively experimenting in the field of spatial perspective. The ability to convey the relationship of real space on a plane raised the social status of the artist highly, transferring him from the position of a modest artisan-decorator to the category of a scientist geometer, comprehending the laws of the structure of the world.
Angelico is an artist of the deepest faith. His Madonnas are the ideal of spiritual beauty and piety.
Brunelleschi in the early 1420s created two paintings with views of Florence, which delighted his contemporaries with illusory accuracy, but they could only be looked at with the help of an ingenious system of mirrors and windows. Reproducing the depth of space for a real viewer on any board or wall while maintaining the optical unity of the image requires not only knowledge, but also the experience and intuition of a highly professional painter. All these qualities were possessed by Masaccio (1401-1428). Painted by him in 1427-1428. The Brancacci Chapel in the Florentine church of Santa Maria del Carmine immediately became a kind of school for artists.
Piero della Francesca became famous for his amazing color skills.
A passionate admirer of Masaccio was Uccello (1397-1475) - a real singer of details. The artist would spend his nights sketching some small detail from a complex perspective, such as the structure of a flying bird's plumage. Another follower of Masaccio, the master of severe lapidary forms, Andrea del Castagno (circa 1421-1457), became most famous for painting the hall of the Villa Carducci, depicting, among other things, the condottiere Pippo Spano, a Spaniard who became the ruler of Croatia at the end of his life.
Mantegna's style is distinguished by sculpturalness in the transfer of three-dimensional forms. "Judith" (circa 1490).
The sculpturally powerful figure of a warrior who can effortlessly bend a steel blade confidently invades the space of the hall. Castagno achieved this impression by moving the right hand and left foot of his character beyond the decorative frame of the fresco.
However, not all Florentine painters of the first half of the 15th century. were fond of conveying perspective. Thus, the artist-monk Beato Angelico (circa 1400-1455) was mainly inspired by the miniature of the XIV century.
In Giorgione, the landscape takes on an unprecedented significance. "Thunderstorm" (1507-1508).
Florentine painting of the middle of the century, compared with the previous period, is more calm, but less serious. Masaccio sanctified earthly existence in his frescoes, now? the most sacred stories are immersed in worldly prose: such is the whole world of painting by Fra Filippo Lippi, inhabited by pretty, cheerful, but by no means sublime madonnas and angels; such is the intricately luxurious spectacle of the procession of the Magi, presented in 1459 on the walls of the Medici house chapel by the artist Benozzo Gozzoli. The brilliant and tragic finale of the Florentine early Renaissance was embodied in the painting of Botticelli.
Painting by Titian became the pinnacle of the Venetian school. "Venus Urban" (1538).
The painting of Siena is most originally represented by Sasseta, the author of the painting “Procession of the Magi”. It has a bright fairy tale artistic language does not interfere with bold picturesque finds. The contrast between the thick enamel paints of the foreground and the gentle brightening tones near the horizon is one of the first attempts to depict space with purely pictorial means.
This task was only possible for Piero della Francesca (c. 1420-1462), perhaps the greatest of the Quattrocento painters. Having been trained in Florence, however, he developed his own creative manner. If the Florentines put man at the center of the depicted universe, then Piero believed that man is only an organic link big world nature, the latter, with all its diversity, is subject to the law of number. The proportions of the human body, the forms of nature, the latter, with all its diversity, is subject to the law of number. the proportions of the human body, the forms of nature, the real geometry of the pictorial plane are related by the artist: the figure of Christ with its grateful, “growing” head is consonant with the vertical of the tree trunk; the lush spherical crown of the tree is naturally inscribed in the semicircle of the completion of the composition.
The pinnacle of Piero della Francesca's work was the frescoes in the altar of the church of San Francesco in Arezzo (1452-1466). They are devoted to a rather rare topic - the history of the Life-Giving Tree, brought to Earth from Eden by the first people, which was then destined to become an instrument of Christ's execution - and the greatest of the relics of the Christian world. The idea of painting as a visual deception is alien to the artist. The master appreciates the natural, even the surface of the wall on which he writes, turning its plane into a support for his majestically austere compositions. He avoids complex personal characteristics: his characters are of the same type, for they are only actors in the universal performance. In many creative examples, Piero della Francesca returned to the experience of Giotto, but in understanding color, he was ahead of his contemporaries by centuries. Painters are accustomed to using color as a mechanical “coloring” of finished lines or shapes. In Pierrot, the form was born from subtle color gradations. His palette is inexhaustibly rich. The artist's eye notices not only the natural color of objects, but also the coloring of the air by sunlight; a slightly distinguishable silvery tint gives Pierrot's palette amazing fidelity, lightness to forms, space-depth.
The school of painters of Perugia suddenly and brightly flourished in recent decades 15th century Local artists were famous primarily as masters of decorative paintings. Very characteristic are the frescoes of the so-called Borgia apartments in the papal palace in Rome (1493). Their author Pinturicchio (circa 1454-1513) creates a bright and intricate decor, where every detail is thought out, from colored floor tiles to bright blue gilded ceilings. Perugino (1445/1452-1523) worked in a more strict and calm manner. In an effort to distract the viewer, this master willingly replicated fine, but the same type of motifs: dreamily meek faces, light arched architecture, “Easter” landscapes with thin trees.
Painting of Northern Italy and Venice
The painting of the masters of Northern Italy went through its own stages, different from other schools. If Florentine painting, in general, turned to the mind, depicted primarily three-dimensional bodies, and the masters of Central Italy focused on feelings and solved mainly spatial problems, then the main sphere of aesthetic influence for the artists of the northern Italian school is imagination, its leading theme is substance: the plastic texture of objects , air and light. During the first third of the fifteenth century the feudal centers of northern Italy (Ferrara, Verona, Mantua) were included in the orbit of the so-called "International" Gothic. The main stylistic problems of this trend - sensitivity to natural phenomena, virtuoso possession of the line - found expression in the work of Pisanello (1395-1455). In the portrait of a princess from the Ferrara house d’Este (1430s), the master set off the gentle tranquility of the girl’s face, placing it against a contrasting background of dark and hard foliage dotted with bright quivering spots of flowers and butterflies.
Bellini is one of the most remarkable portrait painters of his time. "Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan" (1501-1505).
The role of the center of Renaissance culture in the 1430s. acquired Padua, a city with a rich antique past, in 1406 attached to the Venetian possessions. Along with its ancient university, Padua became famous for the workshop of Francesca Squarcione, a self-taught painter, a deep connoisseur of ancient monuments, who created a real academy, where up to 100 young men studied painting at the same time, and among them the adopted son of Squarcione Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), the largest master of the northern Italian Quattrocento, combining lifelikeness with vivid fantasy in his works.
In the painting of Venice, radical changes occurred with the arrival here of the South Italian artist Antonello da Messina (circa 1430-1479). Giovanni Bellini (circa 1430-1516) played a major role in shaping the original style of the Venetian school. He laid the basis of his manner coloristic principle. The soft harmony of the artist's light-filled colors is akin to his favorite simple idyllic scenes, where the rural evening landscape plays a significant role.
The heyday of the Venetian school of painting fell on the first half of the XVI century, when the great Giorgione (1477-1510) and Titian (1488/1490-1576) worked. Giorgione created his own pictorial genre - "poetry". These paintings were written by him on the orders of private individuals and unsubscribed from the modern European art with its bassyness. The basis of them figurative system- the whimsical fantasy of the author, and not any event gleaned from historical or literary source. Titian, inherited the lyricism of Giorgione, combined it with a healthy sensuality and an active perception of being. In the work of this master, the Venetian High Renaissance found expression.
Italian Renaissance Painting - Giotto, Masaccio, Angelico, Titian and Giorgione updated: July 2, 2017 by: website
During the Renaissance, many changes and discoveries take place. New continents are explored, trade develops, important things are invented, such as paper, a marine compass, gunpowder and many others. Changes in painting were also of great importance. Renaissance paintings gained immense popularity.
The main styles and trends in the works of masters
The period was one of the most fruitful in the history of art. Masterpieces of a huge number of outstanding masters can be found today in various art centers. Innovators appeared in Florence in the first half of the fifteenth century. Their Renaissance paintings marked the beginning of a new era in art history.
At this time, science and art become very closely linked. Artists scientists sought to master the physical world. Painters tried to use more accurate ideas about human body. Many artists strove for realism. The style begins with Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, which he painted over the course of nearly four years.
One of the most famous works
It was painted in 1490 for the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The canvas represents the last meal of Jesus with his disciples before he was captured and killed. Contemporaries watching the artist's work during this period noted how he could paint from morning to evening without even stopping to eat. And then he could abandon his painting for several days and not approach it at all.
The artist was very worried about the image of Christ himself and the traitor Judas. When the picture was finally completed, it was rightfully recognized as a masterpiece. " The Last Supper"and to this day is one of the most popular. Renaissance reproductions have always been in great demand, but this masterpiece is marked by countless copies.
A recognized masterpiece, or the mysterious smile of a woman
Among the works created by Leonardo in the sixteenth century is a portrait called "Mona Lisa", or "La Gioconda". In the modern era, this is perhaps the most famous painting in the world. She became popular mainly because of the elusive smile on the face of the woman depicted on the canvas. What led to such a mystery? skillful work masters, the ability to shade the corners of the eyes and mouth so skillfully? The exact nature of this smile cannot be determined until now.
Out of competition and other details of this picture. It is worth paying attention to the hands and eyes of a woman: with what accuracy the artist reacted to the smallest details of the canvas when writing it. No less interesting is the dramatic landscape in the background of the picture, a world in which everything seems to be in a state of flux.
Another famous representative of painting
Not less than famous representative Renaissance - Sandro Botticelli. This is a great Italian painter. His Renaissance paintings are also hugely popular among a wide range spectators. "Adoration of the Magi", "Madonna and Child on the Throne", "Annunciation" - these works by Botticelli, dedicated to religious themes, have become the artist's great achievements.
Another one notable work master - "Madonna Magnificat". She became famous during the years of Sandro's life, as evidenced by numerous reproductions. Similar paintings in the form of a circle were quite in demand in Florence of the fifteenth century.
A new turn in the work of the painter
Beginning in 1490, Sandro changed his style. It becomes more ascetic, the combination of colors is now much more restrained, dark tones often prevail. The new approach of the creator to writing his works is perfectly noticeable in the "Coronation of Mary", "Lamentation of Christ" and other canvases depicting the Madonna and the Child.
The masterpieces painted by Sandro Botticelli at that time, for example, the portrait of Dante, are devoid of landscape and interior backgrounds. One of the artist's no less significant creations is "Mystical Christmas". The picture was painted under the influence of the troubles that took place at the end of 1500 in Italy. Many paintings by Renaissance artists not only gained popularity, they became an example for the next generation of painters.
An artist whose canvases are surrounded by an aura of admiration
Rafael Santi da Urbino was not only but also an architect. His Renaissance paintings are admired for their clarity of form, simplicity of composition, and visual achievement of the ideal of human greatness. Along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he is one of the traditional trinity of the greatest masters of this period.
He lived a relatively short life, only 37 years old. But during this time he created a huge number of his masterpieces. Some of his works are in the Vatican Palace in Rome. Not all viewers can see with their own eyes the paintings of Renaissance artists. Photos of these masterpieces are available to everyone (some of them are presented in this article).
The most famous works of Raphael
From 1504 to 1507, Raphael created a whole series of Madonnas. The paintings are distinguished by bewitching beauty, wisdom and at the same time a kind of enlightened sadness. His most famous painting was " Sistine Madonna". She is depicted soaring in the sky and smoothly descending to the people with the Baby in her arms. It was this movement that the artist was able to depict very skillfully.
This work has been highly acclaimed by many famous critics, and they all came to the same conclusion that it is indeed rare and unusual. All Renaissance paintings have a long history. But it has become most popular due to its endless wanderings since its inception. After going through numerous trials, she finally took her rightful place among the expositions of the Dresden Museum.
Renaissance paintings. Photos of famous paintings
And another famous Italian painter, sculptor, and also an architect who had a huge impact on the development of Western art is Michelangelo di Simoni. Despite the fact that he is known mainly as a sculptor, there are beautiful works his painting. And the most significant of them is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This work was carried out for four years. The space covers about five hundred square meters and contains more than three hundred figures. In the very center are nine episodes from the book of Genesis, divided into several groups. The creation of the earth, the creation of man and his fall. Among the most famous paintings on the ceiling are "The Creation of Adam" and "Adam and Eve".
His most famous work is The Last Judgment. It was made on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. The fresco depicts the second coming of Jesus Christ. Here Michelangelo ignores the standard artistic conventions in the writing of Jesus. He depicted him with a massive muscular body structure, young and beardless.
The Meaning of Religion, or the Art of the Renaissance
Italian Renaissance paintings became the basis for the development of Western art. Many of the popular works of this generation of creators have a huge impact on artists that continues to this day. The great artists of that period focused on religious topics, often worked on the orders of wealthy patrons, including the Pope himself.
Religion literally permeated everyday life people of this era, deeply embedded in the minds of artists. Almost all religious canvases are in museums and art repositories, but reproductions of Renaissance paintings related not only to this subject can be found in many institutions and even ordinary houses. People will endlessly admire the work famous masters of that period.
The first forerunners of Renaissance art appeared in Italy in the 14th century. Artists of this time, Pietro Cavallini (1259-1344), Simone Martini (1284-1344) and (primarily) Giotto
(1267-1337) when creating paintings of traditional religious subjects, they began to use new artistic techniques: building a three-dimensional composition, using the landscape in the background, which allowed them to make the images more realistic, lively. This sharply distinguished their work from the previous iconographic tradition, replete with conventions in the image.
The term is used to refer to their work. Proto-Renaissance (1300s - "Trecento")
.
Giotto di Bondone
(c. 1267-1337) - Italian painter and architect of the Proto-Renaissance era. One of the key figures in the history of Western art. Having overcome the Byzantine icon-painting tradition, he became the true founder of the Italian school of painting, developed a completely new approach to depicting space. Giotto's works were inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo.
Early Renaissance (1400s - "Quattrocento").
At the beginning of the 15th century Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377-1446), Florentine scholar and architect.
Brunelleschi wanted to make the perception of the terms and theaters reconstructed by him more visual and tried to create geometrically perspective pictures from his plans for a certain point of view. In these searches, direct perspective.
This allowed the artists to get perfect images of three-dimensional space on a flat canvas of the picture.
_________Another important step towards the Renaissance was the emergence of non-religious, secular art. Portrait and landscape established themselves as independent genres. Even religious subjects acquired a different interpretation - Renaissance artists began to consider their characters as heroes with pronounced individual traits and human motivation for actions.
The most famous artists of this period are Masaccio (1401-1428), Masolino (1383-1440), Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), Piero Della Francesco (1420-1492), Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506), Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516), Antonello da Messina (1430-1479), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), Sandro Botticelli (1447-1515).
Masaccio
(1401-1428) - the famous Italian painter, the largest master of the Florentine school, the reformer of painting of the Quattrocento era.
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| Fresco. Miracle with the stater. |
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| Painting. crucifixion. |
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| Fresco. History of the Queen of Sheba. Church of San Francesco in Arezzo |
Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510) - great Italian painter, representative of the Florentine school of painting.
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| Spring. |
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| Birth of Venus. |
High Renaissance ("Cinquecento").
The highest flowering of Renaissance art came for the first quarter of the 16th century.
Works Sansovino (1486-1570), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Rafael Santi (1483-1520), Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564), Giorgione (1476-1510), Titian (1477-1576), Antonio Correggio (1489-1534) constitute the golden fund of European art.
Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci (Florence) (1452-1519) - Italian artist (painter, sculptor, architect) and scientist (anatomist, naturalist), inventor, writer.
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| self-portrait |
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| Lady with an ermine. 1490. Czartoryski Museum, Krakow |
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| Mona Lisa (1503-1505/1506) |
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| Madonna Litta. 1490-1491. Hermitage Museum. |
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| Madonna Benois (Madonna with a flower). 1478-1480 |
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| Madonna with a Carnation. 1478 |
During his life, Leonardo da Vinci made thousands of notes and drawings on anatomy, but did not publish his work. Making an autopsy of the bodies of people and animals, he accurately conveyed the structure of the skeleton and internal organs, including small parts. According to professor of clinical anatomy Peter Abrams, scientific work da Vinci was 300 years ahead of her time and in many ways surpassed the famous Grey's Anatomy.
List of inventions, both real and attributed to him:
parachute, toolescovo castle,bicycle, tankh, llight portable bridges for the army, pprojector, toatapult, robot, dvohlenz telescope.
Later, these innovations were developed Rafael Santi (1483-1520) - a great painter, graphic artist and architect, a representative of the Umbrian school.
| Self-portrait. 1483 |
Michelangelo di Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni(1475-1564) - Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, thinker.
Paintings and sculptures by Michelangelo Buonarotti are full of heroic pathos and, at the same time, a tragic sense of the crisis of humanism. His paintings glorify the strength and power of man, the beauty of his body, while emphasizing his loneliness in the world.
The genius of Michelangelo left an imprint not only on the art of the Renaissance, but also on all further world culture. His activities are mainly related to two Italian cities- Florence and Rome.
However, the artist was able to realize his most grandiose plans precisely in painting, where he acted as a true innovator of color and form.
By order of Pope Julius II, he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), representing the biblical story from the creation of the world to the flood and including more than 300 figures. In 1534-1541, in the same Sistine Chapel for Pope Paul III, he performed the grandiose, dramatic fresco The Last Judgment.
Sistine Chapel 3D.
The work of Giorgione and Titian is distinguished by an interest in the landscape, the poeticization of the plot. Both artists achieved great skill in the art of portraiture, with which they conveyed character and richness. inner world their characters.
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco ( Giorgione) (1476 / 147-1510) - Italian artist, representative of the Venetian school of painting.
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| Sleeping Venus. 1510 |
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| Judith. 1504 |
Titian painted pictures on biblical and mythological subjects, he became famous as a portrait painter. He was commissioned by kings and popes, cardinals, dukes and princes. Titian was not even thirty years old when he was recognized as the best painter in Venice.
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| Self-portrait. 1567 |
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| Venus Urbinskaya. 1538 |
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| Portrait of Tommaso Mosti. 1520 |
Late Renaissance.
After the sack of Rome by imperial troops in 1527 Italian Renaissance enters a period of crisis. Already in the work of the late Raphael, a new artistic line is outlined, called mannerism.
This era is characterized by overstretched and broken lines, elongated or even deformed figures, often naked, tension and unnatural poses, unusual or bizarre effects associated with size, lighting or perspective, the use of a caustic chromatic scale, overloaded composition, etc. The first masters mannerism Parmigianino
, Pontormo
, Bronzino-
lived and worked at the court of the dukes of the Medici house in Florence. Later, Mannerist fashion spread throughout Italy and beyond.
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola
(Parmigianino
- "inhabitant of Parma") (1503-1540,) Italian artist and engraver, representative of mannerism.
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| Self-portrait. 1540 |
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| Portrait of a woman. 1530. |
Pontormo (1494-1557) - Italian painter, representative of the Florentine school, one of the founders of mannerism.
Mannerism was replaced by art in the 1590s baroque (transitional figures - Tintoretto And El Greco ).
Jacopo Robusti, better known as Tintoretto (1518 or 1519-1594) - painter of the Venetian school of the late Renaissance.
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| The Last Supper. 1592-1594. Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. |
El Greco ("Greek" Domenikos Theotokopoulos ) (1541—1614) - spanish artist. By origin - a Greek, a native of the island of Crete.
El Greco had no contemporary followers, and his genius was rediscovered almost 300 years after his death.
El Greco studied in the workshop of Titian, but, however, his painting technique differs significantly from that of his teacher. The works of El Greco are characterized by speed and expressiveness of execution, which bring them closer to modern painting.
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| Christ on the cross. OK. 1577. Private collection. |
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| Trinity. 1579 Prado. |
When looking at pictures renaissance, it is impossible not to admire the clarity of the lines, the beautiful color palette and, most importantly, the incredible realism of the transmitted images. Modern scientists puzzled for a long time how the masters of that time managed to create such masterpieces, because there is no written evidence of the intricacies and secrets of the performance technique. English artist and photographer David Hockney claims to have unraveled the mystery of the Renaissance painters who knew how to paint "living" pictures.
If we compare different time periods in the history of painting, it becomes clear that during the Renaissance (the turn of the 14th-15th centuries), paintings "suddenly" became much more realistic than before. Looking at them, it seems that the characters are about to sigh, and sunbeams will play on the objects.
The question begs itself: did the Renaissance artists suddenly learn to draw better, and the paintings began to turn out more voluminous? Tried to answer this question famous artist graphic artist and photographer David Hockney ( David Hockney).
In this study, he was helped by the painting by Jan van Eyck "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". On the canvas you can find a lot of curious details, and yet it was written in 1434. Particular attention is drawn to the mirror on the wall and the candlestick under the ceiling, which looks amazingly realistic. David Hockney managed to get a similar candlestick and tried to draw it. Much to the surprise of the artist, it turned out to be quite difficult to depict this object in perspective, and even the glare of light must be conveyed in such a way that it is clear that this is the brilliance of metal. By the way, before the Renaissance, no one took up the image of glare on a metal surface.
When the 3D model of the candlestick was recreated, Hockney made sure that Van Eyck's painting showed it in perspective with a single vanishing point. But the catch was that the 15th century did not have a camera obscura with a lens (an optical device with which you can create a projection).
David Hockney puzzled over how Van Eyck managed to achieve such realism in his canvases. But one day he drew attention to the image of a mirror in the picture. It was convex. It is worth noting that in those days the mirrors were concave, because the masters were not yet able to “glue” the tin lining to the flat surface of the glass. To get a mirror in the 15th century, molten tin was poured into a glass flask, and then the top was cut off, leaving a concave shiny bottom. David Hockney realized that Van Eyck used a concave mirror through which he looked in order to draw subjects as realistically as possible.
In the 1500s, craftsmen learned how to make large quality lenses. They were inserted into a camera obscura, which made it possible to obtain a projection of any size. This was a real revolution in technology. realistic image. That's just most of the people in the pictures "became" left-handed. The thing is that the direct projection of the lens when using a camera obscura is mirrored. In the painting by Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten "Declaration of Love (The Violent Cook)", written around 1665-1670, all the characters are left-handed. A man and a woman are holding a glass and a bottle in their left hand, the old man in the background is also shaking their left finger at them. Even the monkey uses its left paw to look under a woman's dress.
To obtain a correct, proportional image, it was necessary to accurately set the mirror into which the lens was directed. But not all artists managed to do it perfectly, and then there were few high-quality mirrors. Because of this, in some paintings you can see how the proportions were not respected: small heads, large shoulders or legs.
The use of optical devices by artists in no way detracts from their talent. Thanks to the achieved realism of Renaissance paintings, modern inhabitants now know what people and household items of that time looked like.
Medieval artists tried not only to achieve realism in their paintings, but also to encrypt special symbols in them. So, a magnificent masterpiece by Titian
