Life:

Raffaello Santi is a Famous Italian painter, who was born in 1483, Urbino.he had a nice family and had a good time in childhood, it formed his modest gentle personality. His father was an artist and teach him drawing when he was a child, a few years later he learned from Pietro Perugino. However, his parent died before his 11 years old.

in 1504, he decided stayed in Florence. At the same time, he painted “the “Marriage of the Virgin ”, this work even surpassed Perugino, and all his painting of virgin all show gentle mother. He is influenced by local thoughts and also learns the composition of Leonardo da Vinci and the body expression and style of Michelangelo.

1509, He was invited by the Pope Julius II to paint the Vatican frescoes. The murals in the signature hall are the most outstanding. those murals represent theology, philosophy, poetics and jurisprudence, respectively. Many good paintings also came out at the same time.

Style development:

In Raphael’s early life, he is strongly influenced by his master, Pietro Perugino. This can be seen by comparing his “Marriage of the Virgin” to Perugino’s “Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter”.

In Florence, Raphael’s art style develops a lot. For example, Raphael creates more works in pen and ink, his drawings have more figures, and the sense of movement becomes more powerful. Now, those are usually considered as the influence of the local awakening humanism and the other Florentine artist, such as Leonardo da Vici.

In later years, Raphael’s works show that he had deeply learned in Venetian art. His oil paintings and fresco paintings display that he paid more attention to colour and light, which is the main characteristics of Venetian art. Furthermore, some the ranges of impasto in his oil paintings are unprecedented, thus this is assumed as the rare innovation of Raphael.

Personal opinion

Raphael’s art represents the human awakening in humanism. His figure drawings are not like the earlier artists’ empty figures. Those of Raphael’s paintings are more accompanied by human thoughts and spirits because he more focused on the individuals depicting. In his drawings, each of his characters is considered as a living person but not only a copy of a human. This method made him a soft style in early and created more and more vivid figures after he arrived Florence

References

https://www.artble.com/artists/raphael/more_information/style_and_technique
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Raffaello_-Spozalizio-_Web_Gallery_of_Art.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Raffael_026.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/%22The_School_of_Athens%22_by_Raffaello_Sanzio_da_Urbino.jpg

Life

Birth: Hugo van der Goes does not have an exact record for his birth but he is usually considered as born at Ghent or its environs in around 1440.

Early: Nothing documented about Hugo van der Goes, until he became a master in the painters’ guild of Ghent in1467. In the future years, he was required to make some decorations for events like papal blazons. For instance, 1468, van der Goes created decorations in the town of Bruges for celebrating the marriage between Charles the Bold and Margaret of York. Thereafter, he became more and more famous.

Highpoint: In around 1477, Van der Goes had achieved sizable reputations and secured important commissions from the Burgundian court, the church, and the rich peoples. However, Van der Goes choose to be a frater conversus (a lay brother) when it was the peak of his career. At the monastery, he had certain privileges such as allowed to continue to drink wine and to work on the painting.

Death: Hugo van der Goes died in the Rood Klooster in 1482. According to the cloister chronicler Ofhuys, Hugo van der Goes was suffering in an acute depression. After Hugo van der Goes unsuccessfully tried to suicide, his companions brought him back to Brussels and then to the Rood Klooster. Unfortunately, he died shortly thereafter and was buried in the atrium of the cloister.

Art Style

The early styles of Hugo van der Goes’s works are usually considered as a kind of illusionism which uses rich colours and a single vanishing-point perspective to build up a detailed description in pictures. For example, the centre panel of the Portinari Altarpiece.

In addition, the Portinari Altarpiece is the sole of surviving works that can be confidently linked to Hugo van der Goes. Later, his style pays more attention to the artificiality which built by the limited range of colours and the expressive distortion of figures as well as space. Afterward, he is also an important artist in portrait drawing. He made the portrait more real by increasing the details and shadings on the face and then let them look at something to make those characters look like having an experience of vision. Those developing techniques of the portrait drawing are usually considered as an individually cognitive awakening of human beings in those periods.

In my opinion, Hugo ver der Goe was one of the first pioneers who begin to challenge the unexplored region of art. However, he was still only one of the traditional artists who work for the church. Although there are a few changes in the portrait drawing and overall composition, most of his works still tightly connect with the style of Christian art. There is nothing much about his personal art pursuit and understanding in the inner of his works. He had not really expressed his thoughts and cognition in his arts yet. All in all, Hugo ver der Goe who is good enough as a successful artist in the early Renaissance.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monforte_Altarpiece https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoration_of_the_Shepherds_(Hugo_van_der_Goes)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portinari_Altarpiece

Historical Background

First of all, let’s start from a little bit of Chinese information for this period. Han dynasty is the golden age of China when Europe is in the middle of the Classical period. Han dynasty mainly includes Western Han (206 BC–9 AD) and Eastern Han (25AD–220 AD), they are named differently because of the position of the central government. It is interrupted for a few years by Wang Mang, the nephew of grand empress dowager in that time. Mainly, we will learn some knowledge about tools and technology from the Western Han dynasty.

钱范（QianFan）

The Coin mould of Western Han Dynasty

Qian Fan is the mould for the production of coins in Western Han dynasty. Its material mainly can be pottery, stone, copper, iron, or lead. When casting coins, usually covering a Qian Fan with the other one or a flat board, and then injecting molten bronze into the hole. The inside ditches will drainage bronze liquid into each cell. After cooling, the coins will be taken down and separated. Due to the different methods, the coins which made by two combined moulds will have the pattern on both sides but the coins made with one flat board will have one side smooth.

长信宫灯（Chang Xin Gong Deng）

The Oil Lamp of Chang Xin Palace

Before Western Han dynasty, most of the Chinese oil lamps is a bracket for only holding the oil. However, in Western Han dynasty, people begin to consider the smoke produced by the burned oil because it smells bad and seriously damages the indoor furniture that the partial colour will be darkened. Therefore, the ancient Chinese designed this type of lamp that can collect the smoke into its inside. Chang Xin Gong Deng is a palace lamp, its name is from the inscription on it which writes about its owner’s palace. Its appearance is a palace maid holding a lamp, but it is hollow inside. Fire burns in the lamp part and people can control the light’s direction and brightness by the handle on it. Smoke will follow its sleeve into the body and become dirt. Its head and right arm are detachable which make people can easily clean it.

耧车(Lou Che)

The Plough in Western Han dynasty

Han dynasty largely improved the agricultural efficiency; one part of it is resulted by the development of the farming method, the other reason is the investment of plough in Western Han dynasty. Lou Che is the oldest seeding machine in China, which also revolutionarily increased the farming speed by simultaneously performing ditching, sowing, fertilizing, covering, suppressing.

When farming, Lou Che is fixed at a cow or other animals and pulled forward. Seeds are put in the box, and they will be sowed into the ground through the inside of the wood strips. It sowing speed is controllable in order to ensure the seed can be averagely lined into the soil. By the later historic record in Eastern Han dynasty, one person and one cow, their finished farming area can achieve one Qing (about 6.66 km2) per day.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty https://new.qq.com/omn/20181128/20181128C04R0Z.html
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%92%B1%E8%8C%83
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%92%B1%E8%8C%83 https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E4%BF%A1%E5%AE%AE%E7%87%88
https://baike.baidu.com/tashuo/topic?topicId=d6e5cbd731ac38efbb964ff0 https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/2143112561389621508?bd_page_type=0&pu=&init=middle
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%80%AC
https://www.zhihu.com/question/291766752
http://www.i3done.com/course/4996.html http://zjbwg.cdstm.cn/index.phpm=sevenbooks&a=Showall&picid=793&i=2&placeid=144&typeid=75
http://www.meitianshe.cn/wenhua/baike-7.html

Self-grading：7/10

I used C to guide people to read this spread, the inspiration came from the realization that “Calgary” and “China” are both having C as their initial letters. I want to introduce myself to other people as a Chinese international student who has already had enough living experience in Canada. The other C words furthermore described me in detail about my interest and ability. The whole spread was made with a lot of Chinese elements. The central C is a broken Chinese ancient copper coin. The line patterns are the traditional Chinese decoration since the Bronze age. The beast face in the middle of the right page is my own creation referring to the beast face on the Chinese bronze. Those, especially the bronze, are something that people rarely mentioned when they think of Chinese style, thus I want to display this neglected Chinese art. I like to share with others the knowledge that I know can be helpful to gain more understanding about China and to have more different views about art and the world. On the sides, I used my Chinese and English names to make a symmetrical view building a balanced sense in my spread. I think this can help people easier to remember my name.

During making this Yearbook spread, I learned a lot about the overall coordination. In the beginning, I just had the idea of “C”, I thought this can be a good idea as the foundation to start designing this spread and add something else. However, after I had the sketch, I just realize that this spread is limited by its size that cannot contain so much information I want to say. Then the symmetric view came on the top as my main designing goal to help the whole spread having an obvious outline. This change helped me very much in the next step of making the context. I delated a lot of extra information but just kept the idea of “Five C words”. This experience can be helpful in the future when I truly having some creation related to this kind of stuff.

This spread is less in colour because I initially wanted to make the style that focuses more on holistic. It was also the reason for the repeated Chinese “S-like” pattern. However, the final vision looks too monotonous and lesses the power in creating a strong first impression.