Post #8 – Lecture – Renaissance Modern and Abstract Art

The Renaissance would begin in Italy, between the 14th and 16th centuries. During this period, the Roman Catholic Church started losing power. People began to question after three popes claimed to be the real pope and started favoring the old Naturalism over following religions. The Renaissance practically spread and influenced other countries like wildfire. The "Three Masters" of this period were Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Oddly enough, Leonardo never documented his experimental paintings and designs. Meanwhile, Michelangelo’s best work has to be "The 16th Chapel", a ceiling full of religious artwork. Raphael was apparently the youngest of the three masters.  Leonardo Da Vinci was one of many "High Renaissance artists" in these days. He worked on creating the deadliest war weapons, despite loving nature and animals, and felt that science and art were together. He would also create the Vitruvian Man in 1490. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, poet, and architect who studied what the human body was like. His technique involves applying plaster, drawing cartoons (figures on paper) over the plaster, then patting charcoals along the lines, and painting within the lines. He created The Last Judgement, Battle of the Centaurs, and David, which took four years (from 1401 to 1404) to complete. David soon became Michelangelo’s most famous sculpture, weighing 12,478 lbs.. Raphael studied with the Duke of the Royal’s Court and was most famous for his humanistic paintings: Madonna of the Goldfinch, and The School of Athens. As time pasted, Linear Perspective was expanded upon, presenting mathematically accurate imagery. In early Renaissance art, many forms of art would be learned and experimented with. Pilgrimages were early paintings that showcased what people saw along their journeys. Frescoes were watercolor paintings that showed religious events of the past. Mannerism used rich, bright colors and moved away from realism. The later Industrial Revolution and its Modernistic Art would give birth to major changes from 1760 - 1840. New technology in the forms of  railroads and steam trains would be born from bigger and better factories through mechanized manufacturing and mass-production. Modernism was a “break from the past,” a search for new forms of expression; new ways to make art. Impressionists were people whose art pieces were rejected by the Academia and later created their own galleries full of their abstract art. Abstract art was basically "art that was ahead of its time." Édouard Manet was also a massively influential artist for Impressionists, especially with his own abstract art: Bar at the Folies-Bergère painting. Followers of Impressionists would learn of this art style and utilize it to create their own arts. They focused more on nature, less “movement”, less religion, and more light and vibrant atmospheres in Impressionist art.

DISCUSSION:

Modernism has no true definition, but it mainly suggests "moving on from past traditions". It is a movement, against the Renaissance, to change art. Impressionists were avant-garde artists who would create abstract art, free of religious figures and rules. Walter Benjamin, Marxist and German/Jewish philosopher, would suggest that mass production is removing the "aura" of works of art. Clement Greenburg would state that paintings should be two-dimensional, and sculptures should be three-dimensional. Greenburg also found himself interested in Jackson Pollack's "drip/action painting" and Picasso's depressive painting; abstract art. Little by little, we are eliminating the ways of the Renaissance. Over time, many variants of art would be born from Modernism.