Italian Renaissance Art
The top three points about the subject are:
- The patrons of the art where more important than the artists themselves. In a high proportion of cases, works were commisioned rather than produced by an artis on his/her own initiative
- Religious subjects where the majority, but not all, of the finished works- not aesthetics
- Repetition was far more pervasive that the surviving art suggests
Some Points to KEEP in mind about Italian Renaissance Art:
- Italy did not exist in the Renaissance. There were no Italians, only Venettian, Florentines, Romans, etc. This fragmentation greatly affected the art
- The history has traditionally been represented as a series of biographies of the artists. This is problematic
- Modern image of the solitary-atis genius hs little place in the Renaissance
- Only a small percentage of all the works of art produced in the Renaissance survives
- Contrary to what we see today, the works were not always stationary
- Contractual arragements were common between artists and patrons and sometimes between master artists and their apprentices.
- Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (first published in 1550) provided the dominanat critical and historical framework for understanding Italian Renaissance Art
- Giorgio Vasari was the most underated artist, and will get a special mention on my behalf
- The works fall mostly into one of these categories: wall paintings, panel paintings, oil paintings, sculptures, drawings, architecture, and prints.
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