Water color study '08
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Duality of Art During Renaissance and Mannerist Movements
Renaissance and Mannerism were two overlapping art movements of the 14th to late 16th centuries. These two movements had much in common and coincided chronologically and stylistically. The Renaissance movement lasted the longest dating from 14th to 16th century while Mannerism developed in early 15th century to then fade away into the early 17th century, (due to gaining popularity of the Baroque style painting). The main contrast I'd like to make about these two movements is the duality of the art at that point of time.
Firstly you need to understand the definition of these two movements. Renaissance art was a more naturalistic style of painting, artist like Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein had very naturalistic styles and aimed to have their art as high definition as possible. Durer would paint with mostly dry on dry watercolors, working very tight and defined which is very a-typical of modern watercolor painting. Renaissance painting wasn't just about definition, it was also about accurate color use, proportion, and perspective as close to realism as possible. Where as Mannerism was all about expressive color, meaning, and humanity; and although the paintings would be very accurate and believable they would also be clearly off in color and proportion, (in many cases) intentionally. A big part of Mannerism was the idea of moving away from the very strict art of Renaissance Painting. Mannerism was more stylistic and loose, artists like Leonardo Davinci would push different muscles or features of the human form, this in combination of unique color use made a faintly surreal yet believable style of painting.
Now that these two styles have been identified I want to address the Duality of art at this time in history tied into my own preference of painting style. The time that these two movements coincide is when Renaissance painting is at it's highest and Mannerism is its counterpart with it's much more painterly and less doctrinated style. They may seem like opposite ends of the spectrum but in my opinion they over lap by at least 90%. The styles may be very different but the reality is Mannerism came out of Renaissance painting, it just became less legalistic and strict. Artists allowed art to become more painterly, less focus on rules and perspective, and used more expressive color. I relate this to my art in that I take a realist aproach, but I find just as much beauty in the stroke of a brush as I do in the definition of an object. My art contains a duality of realism and impressionism and meets half way, just as much of the art during the time the Renaissance and Mannerist movements overlap tends to have qualities of both expressive color and highly defined acurate forms.
Firstly you need to understand the definition of these two movements. Renaissance art was a more naturalistic style of painting, artist like Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein had very naturalistic styles and aimed to have their art as high definition as possible. Durer would paint with mostly dry on dry watercolors, working very tight and defined which is very a-typical of modern watercolor painting. Renaissance painting wasn't just about definition, it was also about accurate color use, proportion, and perspective as close to realism as possible. Where as Mannerism was all about expressive color, meaning, and humanity; and although the paintings would be very accurate and believable they would also be clearly off in color and proportion, (in many cases) intentionally. A big part of Mannerism was the idea of moving away from the very strict art of Renaissance Painting. Mannerism was more stylistic and loose, artists like Leonardo Davinci would push different muscles or features of the human form, this in combination of unique color use made a faintly surreal yet believable style of painting.
Now that these two styles have been identified I want to address the Duality of art at this time in history tied into my own preference of painting style. The time that these two movements coincide is when Renaissance painting is at it's highest and Mannerism is its counterpart with it's much more painterly and less doctrinated style. They may seem like opposite ends of the spectrum but in my opinion they over lap by at least 90%. The styles may be very different but the reality is Mannerism came out of Renaissance painting, it just became less legalistic and strict. Artists allowed art to become more painterly, less focus on rules and perspective, and used more expressive color. I relate this to my art in that I take a realist aproach, but I find just as much beauty in the stroke of a brush as I do in the definition of an object. My art contains a duality of realism and impressionism and meets half way, just as much of the art during the time the Renaissance and Mannerist movements overlap tends to have qualities of both expressive color and highly defined acurate forms.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
