My Opera
One way to understand The Renaissance
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 7:29:48 PM
One of the most fascinating periods of all is the Renaissance. Of course, when you look closer, every period is very interesting, but the Renaissace was the period of great artist's like da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bruneleschi and many others. There is a reason why we know about them. Ever since Dante's time, Chatolic curch had lost a lot of it's power and respect (due to dirty business they were in) and two things happened: (1) builders were not building "for the God himself" and therefore their name became important (for their own social benefit). Gothic builders of the chatedrals were at least as genius, but majority of them remained anonymus, because their name was not important in comparison to God's work. And (2), due to churches smaller impact, secular activities gained it's attention. Art was not just for the sake of God, but also for the sake of more human needs, such as love and even erotic needs(check out Botticelli's Birth of Venus for that matter). Many of that happened on behalf of the Medici family, which supported such activity.
The first artist that they sponsored was Filippo Brunelleschi who built the dome over the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. How did he do it? What was the paradigm underneath it?
Here is my assumption:
- first of all: the term Art was defined a lot diffent than it is today. Majority of those men were FIRST fine craftsmen and LATER on artists, which is quite oposite than today. They were struggling in workshops for days and nights, years and years to reach perfecion in their skill as painters or sculptors. There is nothing artistic about brushing and polishing marble over and over again, but all of those guys went trough that. In the process you gain detailed knowledge about material you are working with, you learn to be patient, you gain selfrespect and selfconfidence... you become a master of what you do. Only after that drill (=teach by repetition), and if you are phylosophycly skilled as well, you may become an artist. Today many want to call them selfs artists, but they have no skill at all (they might have tallent, but that is only the first half percent of what it takes for a reall renaissance man to become an artist... and today as well, IMHO). This ways are very common in Japan's traditional art practice and every day life as well (or even more).
- secondly: Renaissance artists were all-around scholars. They were interested not just in art, but also medicine, astronomy, math, music (etc), which gave them wide perspective about things... There are principles that you can learn in music and then use in architecture (and vice versa, why not?), there are things you learn in medicine and use as a sculptor... Artists with such wide knowledge are almost nonexistant today. One of them was Edvard Ravnikar, Slovenian architect.
- thirdly: They had huge financal support from their godfathers; the Medici! That too is neccecary for great things to become true. A uneducated majority of people (even nowadays) is usually not visionary enough to see so far in the future and recognise big artists of today.
So at least first two paragraphs are about what you can achive for yourself. Especially learning all-around knowledge has never been easier. With thematic blogs, Wiki, and all that stuff on the internet, we can learn things way beyond our primary qualification and reach new levels of creativity.
JOutOfStep # Wednesday, June 13, 2007 1:13:52 PM
Joseph Ottmannjosephottmann # Sunday, July 1, 2007 6:23:04 PM
broadwaygypsy # Friday, July 6, 2007 1:20:17 AM
Nikio # Friday, July 6, 2007 8:26:22 AM