At the beginning of the 15th century, Italy experienced a cultural rebirth, and began to emerge from the cultural standstill that was the Dark Ages. Many artists from Florence, Italy spurred a resurgence of the arts. In this new environment the wealthier people of Florence began to fully immerse themselves in the studies of the humanities. Early Renaissance artists began to shift focus to architecture, philosophy, theology, mathematics, science, and design. The innovations that emerged in art during this period would launch the human race out of the dark hole of the Middle Ages, and continue to influence creative and cultural aspects today. The painting style of the Early Renaissance was a drastic change of the flat-planed and two-dimensional artworks of the Dark Ages. This new style included methods such as one point linear perspective, a new style of shallow carving to create atmospheric effect and foreshortening. The most important thing about the style of painting in the early renaissance was the new focus on realism, bodies were painted in more realistic postures and poses, faces became more life-like, and figures began to express real emotions. Greater effort was also put into realistic 'depth' in paintings, using scientific perspective. The early renaissance lead into the high renaissance which brought us painters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian.
Sandro Botticelli was born 1445 in Florence, Italy and died May 17, 1510. Painter Lippi taught Botticelli his techniques. From Lippi Botticelli acquired the painting skills and characteristics representative of the time period. He also acquired a certain pallet that contained paler hues that is still visible even after he developed his own strong and resonant color schemes. After Lippi left, Botticelli worked to improve the comparatively soft, frail figure style he had learned from his teacher. However, he replaced Lippi’s delicate approach with naturalism. The subjects in his paintings are defined with thin lines that have flow and are loose and wispy, which creates a lighter appearance in the image, while also suggests the character's mood, pose, and facial expression. Later in his career he mastered the ability to integrate figure and setting into magnificent compositions and to draw the human form with great reality. Botticelli is the earliest European artist whose secular paintings are equal or superior in importance to his religious paintings. In his later life he continued to receive commissions for paintings. But the absence of any further commissions and the tentativeness of his last drawings makes people believe he died of sickness. Upon his death in 1510 he was buried in the Church of Ognissanti. About 50 paintings survive that are either wholly or partly from his own hand. The majority of his collection is in The Uffizi Gallery in Florence Italy.
The Botticelli painting I picked was La Primavera with focus on the subject Flora. I picked this photo because compared to a lot of the other Reticence painters and paintings this painting contains lighter lines and a paler color pallet. The Primavera, is currently in the Uffizi Museum in Florence. The meaning of the painting is unknown, but speculation is that it was created for an important wedding in 1482. Flora is the Roman Goddess of flowering plants, especially those that bear fruit. Flora is also known as the Goddess of Spring, hence, the name of the painting. The light colors of the painting and the flow of the painting highlight the characteristics of the season and subject matter. The Painting in its entirety is an 8 by 124 inch tempera on panel painting. The painting features a story told from right to left, on the right Zephyrus is featured, kidnapping and possessing the nymph Chloris, whom he later marries. Zephyrus transforms Choris into a deity; who is Flora the goddess of Spring, who is seen scattering roses on the ground beside Zephyrus and Choris. In the middle is Venus, like Flora, she looks back at the viewer. The trees behind her form a broken arch to catch the viewer’s eye. In the air above her is Cupid is aiming his bow. On the left of the painting there is the Three Graces; Aglaia, who represents elegance, brightness and splendor, Thalia, who represents youth, beauty and good cheer, and Euphrosyne, who represents mirth and joyfulness. In the painting they are all joining hands and dancing. At the very left, Mercury ,dressed also in red, raises his hand towards some wispy gray clouds. There is a lot of debate over the meaning of the painting but it is generally agreed that at least at one level the painting is a mythological story of the fertility of the world.
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