Renaissance and other historical periods

Renaissance Art

The relationship between patronage and art

During Early and High Renaissance of Italy, it was through the vehicle of patronage was the key fashion in which an artist established his artistic identity as well as established himself economically. For instance, in considering Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus," it is important to remember that this vision is not an individualistic picture of a an artist living outside of his society. Rather, the patron who commissioned the Botticelli painting for his country villa was a member of the rich and powerful family of the Medici, and demanded that certain artistic standards and ideals be reflected in the work. (Sandro Bottecelli, Webart, "The Birth of Venus (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/botticelli/venus/)

The Medici family had a fascination not so much with tale of Venus, but with the Neoplatonic philosophy of beauty this female form had the potential to represent. Venus, it was thought, and all beautifual and idealized human forms were supposed to be the "symbols of mystery through which the divine message of beauty came into the world." The harmonious nature of the composition of Venus combined with the lack of solidity of the figures in the work celebratates the beauty of the woman's form and the Medici's belief in a Neoplatonic world of the mythic forms whereby which understanding beauty, human beings understand the truth of God bathed in golden light. Bottecelli made this philosophy visual in his works.

In contrast, Jan Van Eyck's famous 1434 "The Arnolfini Wedding" seems at first glance seem to come from another time frame as well as a different nation. Even though merely originates from the Northern part of Europe during the Renasance instead of using images to embody the ideals of his patrons, real individuals are portrayed, although they are also used as symbolic entities. In the Northern Rennsaiance, patrons desired that artists give themselves as real individuals significant, cultural markings of greatness, such as the women's padded fertility in this picture. The greater social insecurity of the Northern aristocracy demanded this, in contrast to the old, learned Medici clan. In Van Eyck's work, the artist's presence is more humbly recoded in the form of his hidden signature in the potrait rather than taking on the position of mythologizing his patron. Thus patronage existed during this time frame during the Northern artistic flourishing, but the desired manner of influence upon the artist was personal, rather htan setting the ideals of a clan in mythic form. (Van Eyck, (http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/e/eyck_van/jan/15arnolf/index.html)

The later philosophy of aristic Mannerism complete rejected the harmony and beauty of both the Italian Rennisance and the influence of wealthy patronage present in both Northern and Southern Rennasiances. Instead, Mannerism stressed the individual vision of the artist, often at the expense of the influence of the patrons. For instance, the artist El Greco rejected the Rennasance stress upon the individual of the world or of myth, and preferred the extremities of individualistic religious experience, as can be seen in the 1577 "The Spoliation, or Christ Stripped of His Garments," of El Greco. (El Greco, (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/greco/)Even when he received patronage, El Greco was willing to disappoint his patron's demands in service of his own vision.

B. The relationship between what defined the style of the Italian vs. The Northern Renaissance?

The striking differences between the style of the Renaissance in Italy and that in the North is perhaps best exemplified in the bodies of the Venus of Botticelli in "The Birth of Venus," and the Arnolfini woman of Van Eyck. Venus is naked, and proud of her nakedness, as she is beautiful and an example of the beauty of the human form. But the woman of "The Arnolfini Wedding" is clothed, and looks downward rather than at the viewer. The idealization of perfection of the Italian Renaissance and the attainability of that perfection in the human body strikes a clear contrast against the idealized yet still very temporal and real portrayal of an actual female individual in these two styles.

Even Botticelli's "The Madonna with the Child" (also known as" The Madonna with the Book," (http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/b/botticel/madonna/index.html) has a sensuous perfection that recalls the mythic statues of Greece and Rome, rather than of the medieval art that immediately preceded it historically. Although the subject matter of the Northern Renaissance touched upon religious works as well, the emphasis was on the ordinariness of the Christian figures and iconography, rather than their extraordinary qualities, in direct response to the horror often evidenced at the first manifestation of Italian art experienced by travelers from the North to the South whom wished to trade with their Italian far-off neighbors.

For instance, "The Madonna with Canon van der Paele" of 1436, although Van Eyck painted her relatively close to Botticelli's work in time, reduces the figure's importance in size relative to the Italian artist's, although retaining her centrality in the placement of the other individuals in the work. She looks away, rather than at the viewer, however, and her appearance is not of a beautiful woman, but an ordinary housewife with trailing garments and clothes, and a rather pale, doughy face. Like the Arnolfini woman, her clothing is far more brilliant than her complexion. (Van Eyck, (http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/e/eyck_van/jan/21paele/index.html)

C. Classical Subject Matter

Classicism is omnipresent in all art of the Renaissance of Italy. The beauty idealized in human form in works such as Botticelli's "Primavera," for instance does not merely pay tribute to the loveliness of the human form. It reflects the Neoplatonic belief in the ideal of the cave, whereby all human beings strive imperfectly to take the imperfect images of the world and to cast their eyes not upon the shadows of reality, but to seek to apprehend the forms that more perfectly symbolize the ideals of God (Botticelli, "Primavera," above. http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/b/botticel/allegory/index.html) The shadowy figures that allegorically represent the springtime of pagan humanity's understanding of God suggest the shadowy way all human beings will perceive the world until the last judgment.