Victorian Painting

The second half of the 19th century has been called the positivist age and one of the most fascinating periods in history. It has been an age of faith in the positive consequences of what can be achieved through the close observation of the natural and human realms.

The spirit of 19th century England could be personified through Queen Victoria and it's known as the Victorian era. It is covering the eclectic period of 64-year reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. British Empire became the most powerful, and England the most modern, and wealthy country in the World.

The faith that science and its objective methods could solve all human problems was not novel.The idea of human progress had been gradually maturing. The world was truly progressing at break-neck speed, with new inventions, ideas, and advancements - scientific, literary, and social - developing. The middle class became self-made men and women who reaped of profits. Prosperity brought a large number of art consumers, with money to spend on art.

When most people think of the Victorian era, high fashion, gilded age, rich with elegance, splendor, and romance, strict etiquette, and plush or eclectic decorating styles come to mind - but it was so much more than that. Victorian era covers Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. Classicism, with the accurate and apparently objective description of the ordinary, observable world, was specially viewed as the opposite of Romanticism. Paintings of the Romantic school were focused on spontaneous expression of emotion over reason and often depicted dramatic events in brilliant color. Impressionism, a school of painting that developed in the late 19th century, was characterized by transitory visual expressions that focused on the changing effects of light and color. Post-Impressionism was developed as a reaction to the limitations of Impressionism. Victorian art was shown in the full range of artistic developments, from the development of photography to the application of new technologies in architecture.

In the midst of these artistic movements, painters Dante Rossetti and William Holman Hunt formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. The avant-garde artists banded together with the common vision of recapturing the style of painting that preceded Raphael, famed artist of the Italian Renaissance. The brotherhood rejected the conventions of industrialized England, especially the creative principles of art instruction at the Royal Academy. Rather, the artists focused on painting directly from nature, thereby producing colorful, detailed, and almost photographic representations. The painters sought to transform Realism with typological symbolism, by drawing on the poetry and literature of William Shakespeare and their own contemporaries.
Read More...

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, "at the third hour of the night" in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in the territory of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci, a Florentine notary, and Caterina, a peasant who may have been a slave from the Middle East. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, "da Vinci" simply meaning "of Vinci": his full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, son of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci."

Leonard's early life has been the subject of historical conjecture. Vasari, the 16th century biographer of Renaissance painters tells of how a local peasant requested that Ser Piero ask his talented son to paint a picture on a round plaque. Leonardo responded with a painting of snakes spitting fire which was so terrifying that Ser Piero sold it to a Florentine art dealer, who sold it to the Duke of Milan.Meanwhile, having made a profit, Ser Piero bought a plaque decorated with a heart pierced by an arrow, which he gave to the peasant.

In 1466, at the age of fourteen, Leonardo was apprenticed to one of the most successful artists of his day, Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio. Verrocchio's workshop was at the centre of the intellectual currents of Florence, assuring the young Leonardo of an education in the humanities. Other famous painters apprenticed or associated with the workshop include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo would have been exposed to a vast range of technical skills and had the opportunity to learn drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling.

Much of the painted production of Verrocchio's workshop was done by his employees. According to Vasari, Leonardo collaborated with Verrocchio on his Baptism of Christ, painting the young angel holding Jesus' robe in a manner that was so far superior to his master's that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again. This is probably an exaggeration. On close examination, the painting reveals much that has been painted or touched up over the tempera using the new technique of oil paint, the landscape, the rocks that can be seen through the brown mountain stream and much of the figure of Jesus bearing witness to the hand of Leonardo.

Leonardo himself may have been the model for two works by Verrocchio, including the bronze statue of David in the Bargello and the Archangel Michael in Tobias and the Angel.

By 1472, at the age of twenty, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine, but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate with him. Leonardo's earliest known dated work is a drawing in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on 5 August 1473.

Court records of 1476 show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy, and acquitted. From that date until 1478 there is no record of his work or even of his whereabouts, although it is assumed that Leonardo had his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1481. He was commissioned to paint an altarpiece in 1478 for the Chapel of St Bernard and The Adoration of the Magi in 1481 for the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto.

In 1482 Leonardo helped secure peace between Lorenzo de' Medici and Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. Leonardo wrote a letter to Ludovico, describing his engineering and painting skill. He created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse's head, with which he was sent to Milan.

Leonardo continued work in Milan between 1482 and 1499. He was commissioned to paint the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. While living in Milan between 1493 and 1495 Leonardo listed a woman called Caterina among his dependents in his taxation documents. When she died in 1495, her list of funeral expenditure suggests that she was his mother.

His work for Ludovico included floats and pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for Milan Cathedral and a model for a huge equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, Ludovico's predecessor. Leonardo modelled a huge horse in clay, which became known as the "Gran Cavallo", and surpassed in size the two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance. Seventy tons of bronze were set aside for casting it. The monument remained unfinished for several years, which was not unusual for Leonardo. In 1492 the model was completed, and Leonardo was making detailed plans for its casting. Michelangelo rudely implied that Leonardo was unable to cast it. In November 1494 Ludovico gave the bronze to be used for cannons to defend the city from invasion by Charles VIII.

At the start of the Second Italian War in 1499, the invading French troops used the life-size clay model for the "Gran Cavallo" for target practice. With Ludovico Sforza overthrown, Leonardo, with his assistant Salai and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli, fled Milan for Venice, where he was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.

On his return to Florence in 1500, he and his household were guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata and were provided with a workshop where, according to Vasari, Leonardo created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist, a work that won such admiration that "men and women, young and old" flocked to see it "as if they were attending a great festival". In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron. He returned to Florence where he rejoined the Guild of St Luke on 18 October 1503, and spent two years designing and painting a great mural of The Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria, with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, The Battle of Cascina. In Florence in 1504, he was part of a committee formed to relocate, against the artist's will, Michelangelo's statue of David.

In 1506 he returned to Milan. Many of Leonardo's most prominent pupils or followers in painting either knew or worked with him in Milan, including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Marco D'Oggione. However, he did not stay in Milan for long because his father had died in 1504, and in 1507 he was back in Florence trying to sort out problems with his brothers over his father's estate. By 1508 he was back in Milan, living in his own house in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.

From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere in the Vatican in Rome, where Raphael and Michelangelo were both active at the time. In October 1515, François I of France recaptured Milan. On 19th December, Leonardo was present at the meeting of Francois I and Pope Leo X, which took place in Bologna. It was for Francois that Leonardo was commissioned to make a mechanical lion which could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies. In 1516, he entered François' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé near the king's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise. It was here that he spent the last three years of his life, accompanied by his friend and apprentice, Count Francesco Melzi, supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi.

Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, France, on May 2, 1519. François I had become a close friend. Vasari records that the King held Leonardo's head in his arms as he died, although this story, beloved by the French and portrayed in romantic paintings by Ingres, Ménageot and other French artists, may be legend rather than fact. Vasari also tells us that in his last days, Leonardo sent for a priest to make his confession and to receive the Holy Sacrament. In accordance to his will, sixty beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving as well as money, Leonardo's paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo also remembered his other long-time pupil and companion, Salai and his servant Battista di Vilussis, who each received half of Leonardo's vineyards, his brothers who received land, and his serving woman who received a black cloak of good stuff with a fur edge.

Some twenty years after Leonardo's death, François was reported by the goldsmith and sculptor Benevenuto Cellini as saying: "There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher."
Read More...

Oil Painting: Solvents and Resins

Solvents are added to oil paints to temporarily change the way they work and are designed to evaporate evenly and totally as the oil paint dries. (Technically, the more correct term is diluents, as not all are solvents, but it's not the term commonly used.) Solvents are also used to dissolve resins, making mediums, cleaning up, and for cleaning brushes. It is essential to use solvents in a well-ventilated room and remember that they are flammable (catch fire easily).

Turpentine is the traditional solvent used in oil painting. It's based on tree resin and has a fast evaporation rate, releasing harmful vapors. It can also be absorbed through healthy skin. Use only artist quality turpentine as the industrial variety you find in hardware stores probably contains impurities; it should be colorless, like water. Also known as spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, genuine turpentine, English turpentine, distilled turpentine, double rectified turpentine, or simply turps.

Mineral spirits is based on petroleum and has a moderate evaporation rate, releasing harmful vapors. It is said not to absorbed through healthy skin, but it's sensible to take precautions, especially if you've sensitive skin. Mineral spirits is less expensive than turpentine. Some people react less to mineral spirits than to turpentine. Mineral spirits is a stronger solvent than odorless mineral spirits. Also known as white spirits.

Odorless mineral spirits is based on petroleum and has a moderate evaporation rate. It is said not to absorbed through healthy skin, but it's sensible to take precautions, especially if you've sensitive skin. Odorless mineral spirits is, unsurprisingly, more expensive than normal mineral spirits as it has had some of the harmful aromatic solvents removed. Brands include Turpenoid, Thin-ex, Gamsol.

Despite the more pleasant smell of citrus-based thinners, don't simply assume they don't give off any harmful vapors -- check what the product is made from. Look for something like Zest-It, which is made from food-grade citrus oil combined with a non-toxic, non-flammable solvent. (Of course, if you get migraines from oranges, this would not be a good thing to use!)

Alkyd-based Mediums: If you want to speed up the drying time of your oil paint, consider using an alkyd-based medium such as Liquin (W&N) or Galkyd (Gamlin).

Tip: Test the quality of a solvent by putting a little on a drop of paper and letting it evaporate. If it doesn't leave any resident, stain, or smell, it should be good enough for oil painting.

Resins are used to increase the gloss of oil paint, reduce the color and drying time of a medium, and add body to drying oils. The most commonly used is a natural resin known as Damar, which should be mixed with turpentine as it will not thoroughly dissolve when mixed with mineral spirits. Damar can also be used as a varnish.

Read More...

Invention of the Paint Tube

In the small museum on art materials at the Winsor & Newton factory in London, one of the displays is about the invention of the paint tube. Buying paint in a tube is something we take for granted these days, being able to reach out and instantly have some fresh paint in however many colors we have bought. In fact, the squeezable tube with a screw-on lid is the one thing invented for art materials that found its way into everyday life. Think about how many things come in this container, toothpaste, ointments and creams, even food pastes.

Originally artists made up their own paint (or, rather, the studio apprentice did) using the pigments they bought. The first ready-made paint was sold by colormen in pig's bladders, which you punched a hole in to get the paint out and then sealed with a tack. The next invention was a glass syringe, with the plunger squeezing the paint out, invented by the English artist James Hams in 1822. Then in 1841 the American portrait painter John Goffe Rand invented the squeezable or collapsible metal tube.

Rand took out patents in 1841 London, and in America (on 11 September 1841) for his Improvement in the Construction of Vessels or Apparatus for Preserving Paint.
Read More...

The sign as a gesture of Ethics

True artist is always someone with more open eyes on the world, gives us a vision of reality is not trivial, but a critical rereading, a reinterpretation that poetry can sometimes be too sharp.

The Modern Art, as well as Conceptual Art, Body Art, Pop Art, etc.. Has always opened a gap between it and reality, has always marked a distance. The waiver illusionism realistic and aware of the deformation of objects have been constant for many decades now.

In this society of false myths, fast communication, through the bombing of the mass media and internet, but for the most trivial, shouting from time to nothing, there are only two ways: either to praise the "blank page" Mallarmé's education to silence, not to add more chaos to chaos, or the reinterpretation original, poetic and detached from external reality. In this big bang painting by Francesco de Marco takes on the character of an intimate conversation, the sign of individuality, of solitude and reflection.
His works evoke the "depth psychology" of Nietzsche and Freud, as we have shown that the clear and manifest psychic life often does that veil and distort the real reasons for the feelings and actions.

Behind the conscious life of man is the transparent veil of the unconscious. The themes dear to him are the female figure, the sunflowers, the landscape. Evokes the passive condition of man and machinist in a society made up only of conventions.They accentuate the dramatic aspects and the painting takes on the role of a complaint.
The painting is not "pretty", or results in key formalist or purely visual element, it is not appealing or asking consent, or to indulge aestheticism is a sign, it's color is evocative force. It is uncompromising.

His painting is both communication and language. Communication is one of a kind abstract, taken as a pretext. It is there but is rejected. The landscape is not realistic, the faces are not exactly the figures, and the Tsunami is a sinister, violent, improviser blue mark that identifies with the horror and death. Three sunflowers are both three flowers on a yellow background and a perfect abstract, perhaps deadly gear.

The crowd is a group of people, but an aggregation of masks, the review of "human types" of sadness, of awe, of ambiguity, of falsehood, the sneer, the melancholy, of which emerges, even if only a hope for mankind: a simple smile. Painting of deep introspection, also addresses "the question and the logic of the Superman", with the red circle hung or supported by a slender rod gray. The strength of the sign addresses the issue of balance and gravity, gravity, and stability with the red bottom, unstable equilibrium with the red top, depending on how each feels to hang the picture.

The color palette emphasizes the contrast, the rich articulation, lack of perspective.In other works also as "The reed" or "The Neverland", he shows a compositional and technical unparalleled happiness, for the sign and the loose coupling and strong color and the message goes far beyond the visual perception. The latest works are not looking, but found himself in deeper and then ourselves. The sign becomes material. In order not to lead to technical improvements, working with the spatula.What matters is the composition in its entirety and the ability to grasp the idea immediately and fix.

Looking through the cracks of our everyday experience, Francis de Marco shows us the gaps in our lives and moving along that thread, already traveled by van Gogh, from all over the German Expressionism, Nolde, Kirkner, Munch, Ensor, up toPollock, Fontana and the last Bacon, suggests that to get to the "Truth" and "Beauty", ethics and aesthetics, the way is also the explanation of a drama that can find their own artistic practice in its catharsis .
Is still true artist who, by the newspaper and a condition of space and time, transfers the problems of man to the highest level by giving the characters of universality and indicating those values where everyone, without distinction, and deep, we recognize.
Read More...

Francis de Marco - Group Exhibition of Painters Tricesimani

Meeting Francis De Marco in his studio near Udine, in the natural beauty of the ancient hills of Friuli and a tower that collects inside the works of an artistic able to renew the act sought through a planning or instinctual intellectual and emotional in which are interwoven colors, words, feelings, regrets, to emphasize a style that consists of different styles of magic in his eyes become curious and attentive musicality and poetry.

This combination, which is inseparable in his personality, translates between present and future moments of his soul lived giving pause for reflection onomatopoeic: the sounds seem to take the canvas, while the lights of a sunrise or a sunset become a "place- non-place "of the reception.
The artist welcomes and converses with the newspaper, but it does not exhaust the immediacy of the work of delicate or vigorous brushstrokes, aware that a 'will call another painting of him in either an indefinite space of a morning or l' course of a night.

Art for de Marco is the most beautiful journey is more important, an inner journey that allows him to relate and engage with others, a profound truth that the reading of his works (portraits, landscapes, visual and informal) is the essence and the essentiality of his painting. Of him also involves the dream dimension that goes far beyond the real one, because sometimes it's true.
The perfect synthesis of music and poetry is therefore the ability to translate what his eye perceives space and time: fading images depicting the many faces and feelings of human nature. Warm colors, cool, shy and bright, along with lines, points and segments make up the grammar of signs dear to the artist, who has a dowry communicability uncommon.
A chromatic scale, his, able to remember the great artists of the past, through abstraction, to the avant-garde futurism without resorting to the heavy covering of imitation at all costs.

Perhaps de Marco does not imitate even if it is taken from the same world that revolves around and never has suggested reflection but also momentum, reality and appearance, body and mind. A relentless work and precious, never irreverent, always full of new stimuli that reward her, even her style, because many are the stories and some stories seem as if the artist-child would somehow still talking to the man- artist.
So the creative fervor comes to light and artistic impulses are renewed by their very existence, but the choreography is never the same.
Now look at forever, now the waves of the sea, then will rest on the hills and wait for the 'dawn of a new day.
Read More...

The Art Of Tribal Face Painting

Remember, the Indians are preparing for war in western movies? Tribal face painting was offered long before the bile and expressive face paintings in today's society. It 'still possible, respected face painting of American Indians in the area of festivals in the United States is seen today.

Tribal face painting is not alone and has never been but a prelude to war. It 'is included in many types of festivals in other countries. Tribes have faces for weddings, religious reasons, celebrations of new birth, victory over successful hunt, and as a way to paint their help fire stories.

Native American tribes have their face painting seriously. They developed their own paints from earthy materials, such as roots, berries, bark and clay. (Woe to him who is the potential for severe allergic reactions to these natural substances!) The colors of her make-up instead of meanings, such as: red for war, black for living (sounds strange, but true) , white for peace, green for night vision, yellow for mourning.

African tribal art made with relevance as well, with a spiritual significance. Red blood, and fire is associated with sexuality.

Aboriginal art face is used in ceremonies. The Tiwi tribe in practice initiation rites in Australia for children with tribal face painting as part of their performances. Yanyuwa people in the Northern Territory of Australia practice rituals on a beach. They paint their faces and bodies with ocher clay and enact the deeds of the mythical beings of the past. Then rinse in water to develop people. (For more information about the true clay is reddish-brown or yellow ocher containing iron, is used as a pigment).

Hunters from around the world, not to those who are limited as tribal, often paint their faces with camouflage paint. Dedicated American hunters believe firmly in the art of camouflage from head to toe! Tribal hunters can paint their faces and bodies of signal they are going to hunt or to distinguish them in their group, such as those who do the hunting for food.

In Kenya, Kikuyu men don highly stylized headdresses and wear face paint for warrior dances.

A place, a person is almost certain to see painted faces, is located in a parade or a festival. There is a Japanese festival called Shichi-go-san, instead of November 15.And 'for girls aged between 3 and 7 and boys aged between 3 and 5 Parents bring their children to shrines for special blessings for healthy growth. The boys wear dresses. The girls wear kimonos. Often you will see, Japanese dolls dressed in brightly colored kimonos, wearing wooden clogs called geta. Their faces will be painted entirely white except for red lips. The hair will be decorated with floral ornaments.

The tribes have also been known to paint the faces of wooden masks for dances.They wear costumes, often with painted designs on the arms, chest and legs. In general, there are the shoes worn in the dances and the dances often tell stories or celebrations.
Read More...

10 World's Most Famous Painting (part 2)

5. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer January

This is a plain portrait of a girl, probably before her marriage. The lack of background and color displays tears drop pearl earrings.











4. Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre Auguste Renoir

The painting depicts a group of Renoir's friends relaxing on the balcony along the Seine River. In this painting Renoir has captured the joy of the middle class of late 19th-century France, this is a painting of life that brings happiness and joy to any room.






3. The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, the Vienna master painted the painting Kiss in 1907. This painting illustrates some surrounded by a gold blanket and ornaments share a passion when sliding - the perfect kiss.













2. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

One painting that is currently best known, Van Gogh's Starry Night is a classic painting that calls the emotions of peace in the church tower to the wild abandon of color used for the sky that night.









1. Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

Mona Lisa, the world's most famous painting, owned by the French government and hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The painting shows a woman looking at viewer with what is often described as "enigmatic smile". Mona Lisa is probably the most famous in the history of art; several other works of art are as romantic, celebrated, or reproduced. Read More...

10 World's Most Famous Painting (part 1)

10. From the Lake by Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keefe spent her days at Lake George, New York in the early 1900s, which has inspired much of his work. This painting shows the gentle waves and ripples of Lake George.

9. The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

Perhaps the most famous painting by Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory was created in 1931 and now displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Dali introduced the melting pocket watches in this sheet. You also can see in the middle of painting the human figure.






8. The Dream by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso pioneered the modern art movement called Cubism and is widely recognized as the most important artists of the 20th century.














7. Corner of the Garden at Montgeron by Claude Monet

This famous painting by Monet was originally created in 1877. Known as the classic Impressionist Monet. At Angle Park in Montgeron, Monet has captured the ever-changing nature of light and color.







6. Café Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh

In this painting Van Gogh depicts a cafe in Arles, then Cafe Terrace and today it is called Cafe van Gogh. Unique style of painting to Van Gogh with warm colors and depth of perspective Read More...

Photography

Soon after photography had been born in the early 1830s, endless discussions whether photography was an art or a technique began. For some, the birth of photography foretold the end of painting, drawing, lithography, engravings and prints, but many artists maintained that a machine could never produce a work of art.

Throughout the 19th century, photography was used for many different purposes. Photography was used for the first time for the photographic police files after the overthrow of the Paris Commune (1871). Scientists Muybridge and Marey used photography to break down movement. Painter Degas made use of photographs for his paintings. A great number of unknown photographers set up their shops and produced posed portraits, and explorers compiled albums of pictures taken in distant lands. Photography was ideally suited to recording the problems of modern life. One who contributed importantly to its rich documentary tradition was Eugene Atget.

But photographers consistently espoused the idea that photography was an art. They shared the belief that photography was a set of physical and chemical operations in which the artist played a key part by measuring, filtering and softening matter, shade and light, and specially by choosing subjects and settings. In the 1890s in Europe and the United States, these photographers were known as pictorialists - they were retouching their works with brushes.

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film.[1] Typically, a lens is used to focus the light reflected or emitted from objects into a real image on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a timed exposure. The result in an electronic image sensor is an electrical charge at each pixel, which is electronically processed and stored in a digital image file for subsequent display or processing. The result in a photographic emulsion is an invisible latent image, which is later chemically developed into a visible image, either negative or positive depending on the purpose of the photographic material and the method of processing. A negative image on film is traditionally used to photographically create a positive image on a paper base, known as a print, either by using an enlarger or by contact printing.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the American photographers Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz responded to this movement of pictorialists by advocating a return to a pure form of photography, with no interference other than framing the subject. The magazine Camera Work contributed to the dissemination of photographs in this school, such as the pictures of Paul Strand.

Read More...

Renaissance Painting

Renaissance marks the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the rise of the Modern world. It represents a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries. Early Renaissance, mostly in Italy, bridges the art period during the fifteenth century, between the Middle Ages and the High Renaissance in Italy. It is generally known that Renaissance matured in Northen Europe later, in 16th century.

The term renaissance means rebirth and is used to mark an era of broad cultural achievement as a result of renewed interest in the classical art and ideas of Ancient Greece and Rome. The main idea of rebirth lies at the belief that through the study of the intellectual and artistic treasures of the Greco-Roman antiquity, inspired by Humanism, can be reached the artistic greatness, wisdom and enlightenment.

The rediscovery of classical world radically altered the art of painting. By the year 1500, the Renaissance revived ancient forms and content. The spiritual content of painting changed - subjects from Roman history and mythology were borrowed. Devotional art of Christian orientation became classically humanized. Classical artistic principles, including harmonious proportion, realistic expression, and rational postures were emulated.

During this artistic period two regions of Western Europe were particularly active: Flanders and Italy. Most of the Early Renaissance works in northern Europe were produced between 1420 and 1550.

Renaissance art is the painting, sculpture and decorative arts of that period of European history known as the Renaissance, emerging as a distinct style in Italy in about 1400, in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy, literature, music and science. Renaissance art, perceived as a "rebirth" of ancient traditions, took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity, but transformed that tradition by the absorption of recent developments in the art of Northern Europe and by application of contemporary scientific knowledge. Renaissance art, with Renaissance Humanist philosophy, spread throughout Europe, affecting both artists and their patrons with the development of new techniques and new artistic sensibilities. Renaissance art marks the transition of Europe from the medieval period to the Early modern age.

The 'birth' of new interest in Classical Greco-Latin world, that artistic revolution of the Early Renaissance matured to what is now known as the High Renaissance. There has never been growth as lovely as that of painting in Florence and Rome, of the end of 15th and early 16th centuries. High Renaissance in Italy is the climax of Renaissance art, from 1500-1525. It is also considered as a sort of natural evolution of Italian Humanism (Umanesimo.

It has been characterized by explosion of creative genius. Painting especially reached its peak of technical competence, rich artistic imagination and heroic composition. The main characteristics of High Renaissance painting are harmony and balance in construction.

Italian High Renaissance artists achieved ideal of harmony and balance comparable with the works of ancient Greece or Rome. Renaissance Classicism was a form of art that removed the extraneous detail and showed the world as it was. Forms, colors and proportions, light and shade effects, spatial harmony, composition, perspective, anatomy - all are handled with total control and a level of accomplishment for which there are no real precedents.

We find it in the works of the greatest artists ever known: the mighty Florentines, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; the Umbrian, Raffaello Sanzio; along with the great Venetian masters Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese.

Read More...

Islamic Painting

Although there has been a tradition of wall-paintings, especially in the Persianate world, the best-surviving and highest developed form of painting in the Islamic world is the miniature in illuminated manuscripts, or later as a single page for inclusion in a muraqqa or bound album of miniatures and calligraphy. The tradition of the Persian miniature has been dominant since about the 13th century, strongly influencing the Ottoman miniature of Turkey and the Mughal miniature in India. Miniatures were especially an art of the court, and because they were not seen in public, constraints on the depiction of the human figure were much more relaxed, and indeed miniatures often contain great numbers of small figures, and from the 16th century portraits of single ones.

The largest commissions were usually classics of Persian poetry such as the epic Shahnameh, although the Mughals and Ottomans both produced lavish manuscripts of more recent history with the autobiographies of the Mughal emperors, and more purely military chronicles of Turkish conquests. Portraits of rulers developed in the 16th century, and later in Persia, then becoming very popular. Mughal portraits, normally in profile, are very finely drawn in a realist style, while the best Ottoman ones are vigorously stylized. Album miniatures typically featured picnic scenes, portraits of individuals or (in India especially) animals, or idealized youthful beauties of either sex.

Chinese influences included the early adoption of the vertical format natural to a book, which led to the development of a birds-eye view where a very carefully depicted background of hilly landscape or palace buildings rises up to leave only a small area of sky. The figures are arranged in different planes on the background, with recession (distance from the viewer) indicated by placing more distant figures higher up in the space, but at essentially the same size. The colours, which are often very well preserved, are strongly contrasting, bright and clear. The tradition reached a climax in the 16th and early 17th centuries, but continued until the early 19th century, and has been revived in the 20th.

Unlike the strong tradition of portraying the human figure in Christian art, Islamic art is often associated with the arabesque style. Early Islam forbade the painting of human beings, including the Prophet, as Muslims believe this tempts followers of the Prophet to idolatry. A prohibition against depicting representational images in religious art, as well as the naturally decorative nature of Arabic script, led to the use of calligraphic decorations, which usually involved repeating geometrical patterns that expressed ideals of order and nature. It was used on religious architecture, carpets, and handwritten documents.

The Arabesque, one of aspects of Islamic art, usually found decorating the walls of mosques, is an elaborate application of repeating geometric forms that often echo the forms of plants and animals. The choice of which geometric forms are to be used and how they are to be formatted is based upon the Islamic view of the world. To Muslims, these forms, taken together, constitute an infinite pattern that extends beyond the visible material world, they in fact symbolize the infinite, and therefore nature of the creation of the one God (Allah).

Geometric artwork in the form of the Arabesque was not widely used in the Islamic world until the golden age of Islam came into full bloom. During this time, ancient texts were translated from Greek and Latin into Arabic. Like the following Renaissance in Europe, math, science, literature and history were infused into the Islamic world with great, mostly positive repercussions. The works of Plato and especially of Euclid became popular among the literate. It was Euclid's geometry along with the foundations of trigonometry codified by Pythagoras that became the impetus of the art form that was to become the Arabesque. Plato's ideas about the existence of a separate reality that was perfect in form and function and crystalline in character also contributed to the development of the Arabesque.

To the adherents of Islam, the Arabesque is symbolic of their united faith and the way in which traditional Islamic cultures view the world. There are two modes to Arabesque art:

The first mode recalls the principles that govern the order of the world. These principles include the bare basics of what makes objects structurally sound and, by extension.

The second mode is based upon the flowing nature of plant forms. This mode recalls the feminine nature of life giving.

In addition, upon inspection of the many examples of Arabesque art, some can argue that there is a third mode, the mode of Arabic calligraphy. But calligraphy (as seen by the Muslims) is a visible expression of the highest art of all; the art of the spoken word - the transmittal of thoughts and of history. In Islam, the most important document to be transmitted orally is, of course, the Qur'an. Proverbs and complete passages from the Qur'an can be seen today in Arabesque art.

The coming together of these three forms creates the Arabesque, and this is a reflection of unity arising from diversity (a basic tenet of Islam). The Arabesque can also be equally thought of as both art and science, some say. The artwork is at the same time mathematically precise, aesthetically pleasing, and symbolic. So due to this duality of creation, they say, the artistic part of this equation can be further subdivided into both secular and religious artwork. However, for many Muslims there is no distinction; all forms of art, the natural world, mathematics and science are all creations of God and therefore are reflections of the same thing (God's will expressed through His Creation). In other words, man can discover the geometric forms that constitute the Arabesque, but these forms always existed before as part of God's creation.

Read More...

Graffiti

Graffiti is a type of deliberate marking on property, both private and public. It can take the form of pictures, drawings, words, or any decorations inscribed on any surface usually outside walls and sidewalks. When done without the property owner's consent, it constitutes illegal vandalism.

The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, etc., found on the walls of ancient sepulchers or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Usage of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism. The earliest forms of graffiti date back to 30,000 BCE in the form of prehistoric cave paintings and pictographs using tools such as Animal bones and pigments. These illustrations were often placed in ceremonial and sacred locations inside of the caves. The images drawn on the walls showed scenes of animal wildlife and hunting expeditions in most circumstances. This form of graffiti is subject to disagreement considering it is likely that members of prehistoric society endorsed the creation of these illustrations.

The only known source of the Safaitic language, a form of proto-Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE.

Graffiti has existed at least since the days of ancient civilizations. Graffiti originally was the term used for inscriptions, figure drawings, etc., found on the walls of ancient sepulchers or ruins, as in the Catacombs, or at Pompeii.

In the modern era, in early 1970s young New Yorkers, belonging to the black and Puerto Rican communities, started to adopt tags - signatures and signs made with aerosol sprays and markers in public places. Tags started to cover the city's walls, buses and, above all, subway trains, with spectacular "whole car" works covering entire trains. Tags, like screen names, are sometimes chosen to reflect some qualities of the writer. Some tags also contain subtle and often cryptic messages.

The first modern identified tagger in New York was Taki. The Greek-American artist signed himself Taki 183 (probably the number of his apartment block). At the same time the "grafs" also made their appearance. These were real urban frescoes painted with spray-paint. Futura 2000, Dust and Pink all earned recognition and fame, although their celebrity was limited to the hip-hop culture and its circles.

The difference between tagging and graffiti is arguable, but some say it's a clear one: tagging is gang-motivated and/or meant as vandalism (illegal) or viewed as too vulgar or controversial to have public value; while graffiti can be viewed as creative expression, whether charged with political meaning or not.

Read More...

Dadaism Painting

Dadaism or Dada is a post-World War I cultural movement in visual art as well as literature (mainly poetry), theatre and graphic design. The movement was, among other things, a protest against the barbarism of the War and what Dadaists believed was an oppressive intellectual rigidity in both art and everyday society; its works were characterized by a deliberate irrationality and the rejection of the prevailing standards of art. It influenced later movements including Surrealism..

According to its proponents, Dada was not art; it was anti-art. For everything that art stood for, Dada was to represent the opposite. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored them. If art is to have at least an implicit or latent message, Dada strives to have no meaning--interpretation of Dada is dependent entirely on the viewer. If art is to appeal to sensibilities, Dada offends. Perhaps it is then ironic that Dada is an influential movement in Modern art. Dada became a commentary on art and the world, thus becoming art itself.

Characteristic of Dada's work is here and not illusion or absence of illusion. Which is then expressed in bentukmain games, mystical, something that caused asudden mental shock, there are also signs of damage that has been there,according to the nature of the war environment.

The artists of the Dada movement had become disillusioned by art, art history and history in general. Many of them were veterans of World War I and had grown cynical of humanity after seeing what men were capable of doing to each other on the battlefields of Europe. Thus they became attracted to a nihilistic view of the world (they thought that nothing mankind had achieved was worthwhile, not even art), and created art in which chance and randomness formed the basis of creation. The basis of Dada is nonsense. With the order of the world destroyed by World War I, Dada was a way to express the confusion that was felt by many people as their world was turned upside down.

Dada is the groundwork to abstract art and sound poetry, a starting point for performance art, a prelude to postmodernism, an influence on pop art, a celebration of antiart to be later embraced for anarcho-political uses in the 1960s and the movement that lay the foundation for Surrealism.

Read More...

Naturalism Painting

Painting skills that rely heavily on hand so that the result looks natural, just like thecolor photography.

Naturalism commonly refers to the philosophical belief that the natural universe is a closed system and that only natural laws and forces (as opposed to supernatural ones) operate in the universe, and that either nothing exists beyond the natural universe or, if it does, it does not affect the natural universe. Followers of naturalism (naturalists) assert that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the natural universe, that the universe is a product of these laws and that the goal of science is to discover and publish them systematically.

Note that the term "naturalist" is also used to describe a person involved with the scientific study of (or education about) nature and the natural world (particularly fields of botany and zoology), as distinct from someone holding any specific philosophical position. In this sense "naturalist" and "ecologist" may often be synonymous.

Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. The Realism movement of the 19th century advocated naturalism in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have adopted a similar approach over the centuries. One example of Naturalism is the artwork of American artist William Bliss Baker, whose landscape paintings are considered some of the best examples of the naturalist movement.

Another example is the French Albert Charpin, from the Barbizon School,with his paintings of sheep in their natural settings. An important part of the naturalist movement was its Darwinian perspective of life and its view of the futility of man up against the forces of nature.

Naturalism began in the early Renaissance, and developed itself further throughout the Renaissance, such as with the Florentine School.

Naturalism is a type of art that pays attention to very accurate and precise details, and portrays things as they are.

Some writers restrict the terms "Naturalism" and "Realism" for use as labels for period styles of the middle and late nineteenth century in Europe and America, thus making available the terms "naturalism" and "realism," all lowercase, for tendencies of art of any period so long as the works strive for an accurate representation of the visible world.

All art is conventional, but artists following the tendency "naturalism" profess a belief in the importance of producing works that mimic the visible world as closely as possible.

Read More...

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born in Spain on October 25, 1881. His full name Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuseno Maria de los remedies Ciprano de la Santasima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso. The name of Pablo Picasso is one of the longest name ever recorded for an artistor anyone for that matter. His name is a combination of respect for Spanish saintsand Christian and family heritage. There are some important names of saints and the beloved family, her mother and father's name, the rest is a combination ofideas and personal characteristics, which the Spanish people believe is the best thing to put in the name was born. No doubt, a rose by any other name is still arose, and Pablo Picasso with his name that said, in the grandest of fashion.

The artistic genius of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) has impacted the development of modern and contemporary art with unparalleled magnitude. His prolific output includes over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, theater sets and costumes that convey myriad intellectual, political, social, and amorous messages. His creative styles transcend realism and abstraction, Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. Born in Malaga, Spain, in 1881, Picasso studied art briefly in Madrid in 1897, then in Barcelona in 1899, where he became closely associated with a group of modernist poets, writers, and artists who gathered at the café Els Quatre Gats (The Four Cats), including the Catalan Carlos Casagemas (1880–1901).

When Pablo Picasso was born, the midwife thought that he was born in a state ofdying and leaving a baby genius on the table and the pediatrician did not thinkanymore. The midwife then went to Pablo's mother to report the sad news, andmiracles were reported at the time. Uncle Pablo is also the physician who delivered the baby. Dr. Don Salvador is given credit for saving the life of Pablonewborn. The years of early childhood development and education Picasso filledwith wonders. The first word she's saying is 'Piz' or 'pencil', in Spanish. If this is not a guide to future work and the young Picasso's career path, then it's like to have a label on his back that says "candidates artists" will be more apparent.

'Le Picador ", created by Pablo Picasso in 1890, at age nine. The first of Picasso's work depicts a man riding a horse in the sport-bloody bull fight. The event spectacle is still popular in most areas of Spain.

The first works of Pablo Picasso paid by landlords when it cum art dealer, PereMenach. The amount agreed upon is 150 francs per month, which today is equivalent to about $ 750 USD. Not a small amount of money in those days and is one which allows the young Pablo to exercise creativity and develop personalcharacteristics, which will take him through the rest of his long life.

There is little argument that Pablo Picasso was an intelligent person, but her academic career record does not reflect this fact. Pablo has a little trouble passingthe entrance examination for admission to any institution of higher education of artthey want, from Madrid to Paris,. That is a sign that has been proven empiricallyabout the tormented artist, Pablo came out repeatedly and left school after one ortwo semesters. This does not make any difference after he became successful with "First Communion", but this is a clear sign that intelligent people sometimeshave difficulty in formal structured classroom.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realistic manner through his childhood and adolescence; during the first decade of the 20th century his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortune, making him one of the best-known figures in 20th century art.

Read More...

Fauvism Painting

Fauvism was the first of the avant-garde movements that flourished in France in the early years of the twentieth century. The Fauve painters were the first to break with impressionism as well as with older, traditional methods of perception. Their spontaneous, often subjective response to nature was expressed in bold, undisguised brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant colors directly from the tube.

Fauvism is a movement in French painting that revolutionized the concept of color in modern art. Fauves earned their name ("les fauves"-wild beasts) by shocking exhibit visitors on their first public appearance, in 1905.
At the end of the nineteenth century, neo Impressionist painters were already using pure colors, but they applied those colors to their canvases in small strokes. The fauves rejected the impressionist palette of soft, shimmering tones in favor of radical new style, full of violent color and bold distortions.
These painters never formed a movement in the strict sense of the word, but for years they would nurse a shared ambition, before each went his separate and more personal way.

Fauvism name given by a critic named LouisVauxceles are surprised to see thewild group of young artists who are exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne, 1905.According to Matisse who became a figure in this genre, Fauvism was a reaction to a post impressionime who have a sluggish and slow techniques, and also hasa less precise Devision theory. This flow is still influenced by his theory aboutimpressionisme cezane. That the order of color still have to have a strongstructure, which in the wake of the interaction between certain colors. Fauvismwas still wearing this theory but more developed again, is that the colors that, if observed, should then be in padatkan again and again though. It also determinesthe attitude that no introduction is theoretically against the colors to coco to aformation of objects. Dlam famous figures of this flow is Matisse.

Read More...

Impressionism Painting

Trying to show the impression that the capture of the object. What matters in terms of engineering is part of the impressionist great importance on the color that caused by the refraction of light, but the emphasis akdemisi line.

Impressionism is a movement in French painting, sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interest in the actual visual experience and effect of light and movement on appearance of objects.
Impressionist motto - human eye is a marvelous instrument. Impact worldwide was lasting and huge. The name 'Impressionists' came as artists embraced the nickname a conservative critic used to ridicule the whole movement. Painting 'Impression: Sunrise' by Claude Monet fathered derogatory referral. Impressionist fascination with light and movement was at the core of their art. Exposure to light and/or movement was enough to create a justifiable and fit artistic subject out of literally anything. Impressionists learned how to transcribe directly their visual sensations of nature, unconcerned with the actual depiction of physical objects in front of them. Two ideas of Impressionists are expressed here. One is that a quickly painted oil sketch most accurately records a landscape's general appearance. The second idea that art benefits from a naïve vision untainted by intellectual preconceptions was a part of both the naturalist and the realist traditions, from which their work evolved

Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes; open composition; emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time); common, ordinary subject matter; the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience; and unusual visual angles. The development of Impressionism in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media which became known as Impressionist music and Impressionist literature.

Read More...

Expressionism Painting

Trying to show emotion or sensation of deep connect with the tragedy or what happened. Another definition is the freedom of distortion of shapes and colors to give birth to emotions or states sensasidari in (both the object and the artist).

Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including painting, literature, theatre, dance, film, architecture and music.

The term is sometimes suggestive of emotional angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco are sometimes termed expressionist, though in practice the term is applied mainly to 20th-century works. The Expressionist emphasis on individual perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as naturalism and impressionism.

Expressionism developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Expressionis was opposed to academic standards that had prevailed in Europe and emphasized artist's subjective emotion, which overrides fidelity to the actual appearance of things. The subjects of expressionist works were frequently distorted, or otherwise altered. Landmarks of this movement were violent colors and exaggerated lines that helped contain intense emotional expression. Application of formal elements is vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic. Expressionist were trying to pinpoint the expression of inner experience rather than solely realistic portrayal, seeking to depict not objective reality but the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in them.

The expressionistic tradition was significantly, rose to the emergence with a series of paintings of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh from the last year and a half of his life. There was recorded his heightened emotional state. One of the earliest and most famous examples of Expressionism is Gogh's "The Starry Night." Whatever was cause, it cannot be denied that a great many artists of this period assumed that the chief function of art was to express their intense feelings to the world.

Read More...