Month: September 2019

High Renaissance & Mannerism

Lucas Cranach the Elder was a German painter and printmaker known for his portraits of German royalty, along with biblical scenes that portray semi-erotic nudes. Cranach’s used a fair amount of dark outlines and arabesque forms. This focus on strong contrast is brought to life through his concentration on woodcuts and engravings, rather than chiaroscuro or modeled color.

What caught my attention to do some research on Lucas Cranach was one of his portraits titled “Bildnis einer lachenden jungen Frau“, which is oil on wood. When I first saw this painting, the first thing I noticed was the woman’s cheeky smile. I thought this was interesting because I haven’t seen any other portraits where the individual is smiling during this period of time. To me, this smile makes the portrait much more interesting because it produces much more emotions rather than simply a blank face. The immediate question I get from this painting is what is she smiling about?

The earliest of his existing works date from about 1502 when he was 30 years old living in Vienna. While in Vienna, he gained the attention of Duke Friedrich III the Elector of Saxony, who assigned Cranach as a painter of his court in Wittenberg. He was a part of what is known as the German Renaissance, which included his contemporaries Matthias Grünewald, Albrecht Dürer, and Hans Holbein the Younger.

Citations

“Lucas Cranach the Elder.” Artnet, http://www.artnet.com/artists/lucas-cranach-the-elder/.

“MNAC – Museu Nacional D’Art De Catalunya.” The Ill-Matched Couple | Museu Nacional D’Art De Catalunya, https://www.museunacional.cat/en/colleccio/ill-matched-couple/lucas-cranach-el-vell/065012-000.

King, Donald, and Friedrich Thöne. “Lucas Cranach, the Elder.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucas-Cranach-the-Elder

Survey #1

As one of the first and fundamental forms of communication, writing, and typography trace their roots even back to the Upper Paleolithic times when cave paintings used symbols as a form of language. However, as the formal history says, writing has been developed by Sumerians around 3,500 B.C. As each civilization advanced, so their need for communication became more complex. From Egyptian hieroglyphics with symbols and ideograms to Ancient Greeks who used the alphabet created by Phoenicians, taken over by Romans afterward.

As there were many different civilizations evolving in typography, I will focus on the beginning of Latin. Latin had the largest impact on the world, with some of the upper case typography created at the time, which is still used to this day!

Have you ever been reading a book or an article and stumbled upon a word that looked familiar, but you weren’t too sure what it actually meant? Well, there’s a good chance that it has a Latin root word.

Latin was the parent language of a number of European languages spoken today, the most prominent being Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Romanian. It’s no surprise that bits of Latin appear in these languages, even after the Western Latin speaking half of the Roman empire fell in 476 AD, Latin continued for over a millennium as the language of the Roman Catholic church, science, philosophy, medicine, the language of law and more.

Developed from the Etruscan alphabet at some time before 600 BC, it can be traced through Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician scripts to the North Semitic alphabet used in Syria and Palestine about 1100 BC.

The earliest inscription in the Latin alphabet appears on the Praeneste Fibula, a cloak pin dating from about the 7th century BC.

The very first examples of the Latin alphabet resemble the Etruscan alphabet. Nearly all the letters were adopted with the same phonetic values and shapes. The direction of writing was like Etruscan, either right-to-left, boustrophedon, or even left-to-right for about a hundred years during the 6th century BCE. Slowly the Latin alphabet became increasingly standardized. Writing direction settled on left-to-right toward the 5th or 4th century BCE, and letter shapes became more or less the same in Latium. By Rome’s Republican period, the Latin alphabet has evolved to the modern form.

“A View of Latin Typography in Relationship to the World by Peter Biľak.” Typotheque, https://www.typotheque.com/articles/a_view_of_latin_typography.

Ancient Scripts: Latin, http://www.ancientscripts.com/latin.html.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Latin Alphabet.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-alphabet.

“The History of Typography and Its Journey Through Art.” Widewalls, https://www.widewalls.ch/typography-history-art/.

Late Gothic & Early Renaissance

During the time of the early Renaissance, numerous artists emerged creating great influence for many years to follow. One of them being Andrea Mantegna who came from the small town of Isola di Carturo, near Padua.

One of Mantegna’s most notable features is the linear sharpness and rigorous attention to detail of his art. Mantegna also stands out among Italian Renaissance painters for his complete dedication to classical scenery.

One of the single most significant influence on Mantegna’s style was the sculpture of Donatello in Padua. This influence can be seen in many of Mantegna’s work as he drew the human figure almost in sculptor-like forms.

If one wants to be one of the greats, one must learn from the greats. This is exactly what Mantegna thought. At an early age, Andrea was apprenticed to the well-known painter Francesco Squarcione, who had an art school. However, the young Mantegna soon left his master’s studio for an independent career that began when, in 1448, he was awarded part of the commission for the fresco decoration of the Ovetari chapel in the Church of the Eremitani, Padua.

“National Gallery of Art.” Artist Info, 2019, https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1507.html.

Sheard, Wendy Stedman. “Andrea Mantegna.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 Sept. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrea-Mantegna.

“Andrea Mantegna (Italian, about 1431 – 1506) (Getty Museum).” The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles, http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/636/andrea-mantegna-italian-about-1431-1506/.

Images

https://www.google.com/search?q=andrea+mantegna+artworks&rlz=1CASUUV_enCA839&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiow6Hd9tTkAhUbJDQIHV1PDn8Q_AUIEigB&biw=1366&bih=641#imgrc=nWyd0mgK-GeR0M:

https://www.google.com/search?q=andrea+mantegna+artworks&rlz=1CASUUV_enCA839&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiow6Hd9tTkAhUbJDQIHV1PDn8Q_AUIEigB&biw=1366&bih=641#imgrc=RKlZv1xm2jiaSM:

https://www.google.com/search?q=andrea+mantegna+artworks&rlz=1CASUUV_enCA839&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiow6Hd9tTkAhUbJDQIHV1PDn8Q_AUIEigB&biw=1366&bih=641#imgrc=pAPw0yS-HBxtcM: