N, Flemish and Italian Art
An Exploration of Early Renaissance Paintingin Northern Flemish art and Italian art. The Renaissance was a time of great change, a time that would change the face of Europe forever. This change was well deserved by the people of Europe. They had been stuck in Medieval times which had been a time of darkness for the people. The Renaissance brought on a change in every part of European life. The change started to shift how people thought they should live their lives. Instead of fearing life, people were beginning to reveal in all the great pleasures that life could bring to them. No longer did the people fear the church as much as they once did. Because of this, new thoughts of how everyday life was to be conducted started to evolve. People now were beginning to think differently about how the government was to be run, thoughts changed about the church, people were now beginning to live in larger cities, the way commerce was conducted was changing, the rise of the middle class had began, and most importantly for us, the face of art was reborn from the ashes of stifled creativity that had been lost to the world for a 1000 years. Even though the world of art was being reborn in all of Europe, different regions of Europe
Another reason why Jan is able to get more vibrant and clear representations is that, when using oil paint you have days to work with the media, and you can mix and blend colors a lot easier. Also, the way each of them dealt with the human figure, and how they chose to depict Adam and Eve being thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Even more interesting is that Masaccio was conscious of this and used it to his advantage. One reason is that, with oils, Jan is able to get much more vivid and detailed painting than what Masaccio can get with using the fresco method. Jan's seems very stiff and emotionless, and Masaccio's feels much looser and full of emotion. One thing also to notice about the artists is that Jan describes what his sees, but Masaccio is more of an imitator of what he sees. Jan wanted to use what most artists from the 15th century in Northern Europe, and that was oil based paints on wood panel. Flemish artists make the male and female bodies slightly skinner with the exception of the female's belly, which is usually depicted more round to suggest fertility. For me, both of paintings have their interesting characteristics. It is interesting to think that there are actually ways that you can stereotype gender gestures. Masaccio is concerned with what he sees but just imitates what he sees, he is more concerned with the whole of the painting then every small detail. For Masaccio, using lime water and pigment on plaster made it much harder to create great detail and deep colors in his paintings. By contrast, Masaccio used what Italian artists had used for a long time, and that was fresco. Why is that? Well, with oils you can get wider ranges of colors and richer colors.
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Eve Kane,
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