Video Review: Module 9

1. Explain why you selected each of the FOUR videos you choose from the selection listed above.

The Drawings of Michelangelo

• ·        Drawings show his hesitations/ thought process.
• ·        His apprenticeship would be centered on drawing and learning how to express weight with line.
• ·        The mixture of strong vertical lines and hatching/dense cross hatching give a sense of great volume/ mass.
• ·        His drawings were an experimental stage before sculpture to see how different forms could or couldn’t take place.
• ·        You can use the body as a physical equivalent for yearnings, inexpressible feelings, and imagination.
• ·        He would blend visuals from life with abstract ideas to achieve perfection.
• ·        Drawings tell the story of the planning and carrying out of the Sistine Chapel.
• ·        His passionate response to male form and intense Christian faith were driving forces to his art.
• ·        Drawings test the limits of what he can portray in the paintings. (The Last Judgment)
• ·        His deepest concerns about death and his own mortality are shown in his 1560 drawings of the crucifixes.

I selected this video for this week because last week I traveled to Paris from Stockholm and had the amazing opportunity to visit the Louve and see some of Micheal Angelo's work.

This couldn't have been a more relevant time for me to visit this museum and see his work the Dying Slave, because we read about it in the book. We also read about his many talents and accomplishments throughout life. This video contributed even more to the text and my experience at the Louve because it gave a deeper perspective of the inner working of his mind and his thought process, especially by showing his initial drawings and sketches for some of his work. I know much more about him, and even have a much greater respect for him as an artist after this week. 

Leonardo da Vinci: The mind of the Renaissance

• ·        From a young age he showed a passion for drawing.  
• ·        He was obsessed with thought, he did mirror writing in his youth, concerned constantly with form and how things worked.
• ·        He was an observer with a hunger for knowledge and understanding.
• ·        Became an apprentice to Andrea del Verrochio in Florence by age 12
• ·        Da Vinci Draws from life – explores the truth through mastering perspective and proportion.
• ·        Combined perfect qualities from several subjects to create the ideal image.
• ·        To achieve motion he believed you must use two elements: spiritual (power of thought) material (comes from body).
• ·        Worked for the Medici family, did court paintings.
• ·        He believed there was no distinction between fine arts and mechanical arts.
• ·        He loved exploring mechanics – striving to improve them – make them work better.
• ·        He believed in replacing the driving forces of man/ animals in mechanics with natural elements.
• ·        “If you waste your life the only trace you leave will be smoke in the air or foam on the water”
• ·        He was an apprentice, painter, musician, military engineer, court painter, city planner, anatomist, engineer, sculptor, and inventor.
• ·        Intense thinker – hours/days studying or reflecting
• ·        With his work he transformed earthly creatures into heavenly beings.
• ·        He never considered his works finished.
• ·        He aspired to link Florence to the sea with a man-made canal– isolating Pisa.
• ·        He often gave the same faint smile on faces of his subjects.
• ·        Became painter, architect, and engineer for the King of France.
• ·        Haunted by “dark prophesies” towards the end of his life, died at age of 61 in 1519
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•       I selected this video because I also got to see some of da Vinci's works at the Louve in Paris. I was amazed by the crowd's obsession with the Mona Lisa there, and how some of his other, quite arguably more impressive works, received far less attention. I wanted to watch this video to learn even more about what kind of artist I was witnessing the work of. 
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•       This video related to the text because we read a lot about his multiple talents and this went more into each one. I like how this movie didn't take as much time focusing on the Mona Lisa as the book, as he had far more and greater accomplishments than the one he might be most famous for. 
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• Albrect Derer

• ·        He did silver paint drawings and portraits with which he was very talented.
• ·        Enjoyed drawing and painting hands.
• ·        Grasped mood of landscape – drew him to several different places
• o   Germany, Italy, specifically Venice.
• ·        He was impacted by Venetian art
• ·        Searched for the perfect form, researched perspective.
• ·        He achieved bright colors with enamel finish by using 4-6 layers of paint.
• ·        Includes himself in background of his Venetian masterpiece.
• ·        His own face used for perfection, lived in a very large house fit for his respected status, some considered this somewhat vain.
• ·        He was specifically talented at creating light and shadow in portraiture.
• ·        Learned from da Vinci’s research.
• ·        Used print and wood cuts to create a supply of his work.
• ·        He, Like da Vinci, searched for the perfect form.
• ·        He gave political support for Marin Luther through wood cuts prints.
• ·        He also showed a religious side with paintings such as The Passion
• ·        He also created many prints of daily life, with these he experimented with new techniques.
• ·        Constantly learning/ refining his art.
• ·        Painting of 4 apostles – shows his need for sophistication with his engraving on copper. 
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•       I selected this video because I knew very little about this artist and his works. 
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•       This video related to the text because it talked about Venetian art which was an influence for many artists during the renaissance. We also discussed the obsession with finding the perfect form or idealized form in the text a lot which Derer also aspired to do. He, like many artists we discussed in the book worked on religious as well as non religious works such as portraiture.

Velzquez

• ·        Painter for King Phillip IV of Spain
• ·        His paintings “capture the moment” depicting light and air, making elements appear timeless such as in his painting of Prince Don Carlos.
• ·        He was rewarded with order that confirmed nobility.
• ·        Studied Italian paintings in Venice, Rome, etc.
• ·        Return to Madrid with a deeper understanding of his own abilities
• ·        Paints actions happening – moments in time.
• ·        Painted slowly at a leisurely pace, he let works mature in his studio, taking years, sometimes a lifetime, to complete masterpieces.
• ·        He believed in the “Artlessness” of  nature, not arrangement
• ·        Married to Dona Juana Pacheo for life
• o   She died within a week of his death.
• o   Possessions indicate what kind of private life they shared.
• ·        Elegance, depth, and perspective are used in his landscapes and subject matter.
• ·        He was an idealist who gave a vantage point ‘above reality.’
• o   Uses geometric figures rather than actual shapes
• o   Used his “mind’s eye” to create backgrounds – not reproduction piece for piece.
• ·        His palace Jester paintings were Baroque opposites.
• ·        Has to balance the humanity of his subjects without taking away the realistic nature of their physical features. For this he used light and color. Painting not of but inside the character.
• ·        Lifted above their condition, leaves in the flaws but gives them beauty in their humanity.
• ·        They are human neither because nor despite their physical flaws
• o   Gives them his own sense of grace and beauty.
• ·        Not a colorist, he has minimal interest in colors. For him it was more about where and how much emphasis there will be.
• ·        Simple messages (Religious) require simple colors.
• ·        Painted some of his most notable works in Spain.
• ·        Used Impressionism – figures blurred in outline.
• ·        Las Hilanderas was a mannerist work of his.
• ·        Captures reality and truth with his ‘web’ of expertise giving his subjects natural and comfortable settings.
• ·        He became great friends with the King, thankful for the freedom and creativity that was made available by him. 
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•       I chose this video also because I knew very little about this artist. I found him to be the most different from other artists we studied in the text because he used a 'mind's eye' rather than the image or landscape right in front of him to copy piece for piece. I was impressed and intrigued by his lack of interest in color, unlike other artists of his time we studied that relied very much on color to create perspective. 

I enjoyed the films I watched this week. They added depth and understanding to both what I learned in the books, and to many of the art works I have the privilege of seeing at the museums this week in France. They gave examples of the concepts we studied such as linear perspective and ideal form. The videos also gave me a better idea for who these artists were and what their personalities were like.