Veronese Research Part 3, Marriage at Cana

     Veronese's Marriage in Cana was completed in 1563 for the refectory (communal dining room in a religious setting) of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The piece depicts a story from the New Testament about the 7th miracle performed by Christ. In the story Mary and Christ are invited to a wedding in Cana and as the wine ran out, Jesus ordered his servants to fetch jugs of water which he transformed into wine. I've had the privilege of seeing this piece in person and remember being awestruck by the size and detail of this canvas. At 21'10''x32'6'' it is the largest canvas in the Louvre! It has been hanging there since Napoleon acquired it from Venice in 1797.The pictures don't do the piece justice, but here's a picture anyways.

Marriage at Cana                                                                    San Giorgio Maggiore

  
     The scene is broken down into 3 horizontal areas. The forground contains the feast itself, with Christ and Mary in the center, barely noticeable in the center surrounded by tantalizing dishes of food, animals, and countless vignettes of earthly revelry. The higher terrace, as separated by a balustrade, features more figures engaging in acts of revelry. In the background sits a campanile (bell-tower with or without multiple bells inside) against a vibrant blue sky, as is expected in a Veronese piece.
     For a piece that is meant to be religious in nature, very little emphasis is placed on Christ and Mary. They easily blend into the crowd; only differentiated by slight halos. None of the figures seem to pay much attention, if any, to the miracle that is taking place. Veronese himself can be seen playing a viola, paying no attention to Christ. Perhaps this is his commentary on his position on the importance of religion.
     It seems that Veronese was more interested in painting and decoration than religious messages being elevated in his work. In fact it seems that luxurious materials and indulgent consumption of food and drink is elevated above all else by Veronese's spectacle of color and attention to detail in the ornate clothing and still life depiction of the meal itself.
  


Hartt, Frederick, and David Wilkins. History of Italian Renaissance Art. 7th. London: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

Veronese Research Project Entry 2

     "Paolo's former master became a limping imitator of his pupil" (Freedberg, 386) 

     This statement Freedberg refers, harshly, to Veronese's teacher in his early stages of painting. Although Badile is considered a minor painter in history, it is hard to discount his work altogether, as it is believed his naturalistic style strongly influenced Veronese's later, matured style. It is, of course, possible that his naturalism came from other sources, Badile would have been the most likely to influence him in this way. 

     More research is needed on my part to find specific and concrete examples of Badile's naturalistic influence. I plan on seeking out more information to share here, as I find this dynamic between teacher and student very interesting. It seems difficult to determine who is truly the teacher here.

     In my opinion, "Feast in the House of Levi" completed in 1573, may be evidence for naturalism pervading the artist's style. Veronese was originally commissioned for a dominican friary by the name of Basilica di anti Giovanni e Paolo as a last supper scene. The scene, possibly in an act of commitment to realism, includes many figures that aren't considered religious as well as animals. The painting was deemed inappropriate and renamed "Feast in the House of Levi", as it was not an appropriate depiction of Christ.

Veronese Research Project

     Paolo Veronese was born in 1528 in Verona. His father was a stonecutter. In his youth he apprenticed for local artist, Antonio Badile. Veronese moved to Venice in 1551 to pursue a career in painting. Upon reaching Venice, Veronese would have had to choose between the sweeping classicism of Titian, or the new mannerist style of Tintoretto. His early works reflect his favoritism for classic style.

     In 1552, Veronese completed The Temptation of St Anthony. The Rominism in this work is apparent in the attention payed to underdrawings and solidarity of the figures. The figures are muscular, accurate, and suggest strongly that they are fully occupying the space they reside in. Little attention is payed to color. The pallet is dark and earthy compared to this artists later works. Below I've attached a beautiful underdrawing for this piece which exemplifies Veronese's emphasis on disegno. Note the attention payed to the figures occupying their space with a dynamism portrayed by the writhing contrapposto  of each figure. This is ,no doubt, a product of Veronese choosing classism early on in his career. The reclining figure, however, foreshadows Veronese's later transition to a contemporary mannerist style.

Discussion 4 Michelangelo and Leonardo

      Both Leonardo and Michelangelo are considered masters of their mediums. Although they are often grouped together in academic settings as masters of the renaissance, the two artists held some very different ideas in terms of portraying beauty, abstraction, and the supremacy of painting or sculpture.
     While Michelangelo believed ideal physical beauty had the ability to elevate  subject matter to an appropriate representation of ideas, Leonardo believed beauty is built in to nature and the further the artist gets from nature, the further the artist departs form true beauty. Michelangelo would study many models and composite their best features in order to portray a single figure, such as the virgin Mary. His figures are academic in their accuracy regarding muscular form, but there is no assumption that any of his figures are singular people, depicted as nature created them. In contrast, Leonardo went so far as to  say re-creating nature in paint is to share in God's divine creation and the less realistic, the less Godly and beautiful the art was.
     This departure from nature, condemned by Leonardo, is embraced by Michelangelo as the only way to portray idea. His figures are not meant to be representations of nature, but perfected versions of the natural world. These versions serve to portray creations of the mind rather than the products of a tangible world. This portrayal of idea is a Neoplatonic idea.
     Leonardo prefers paint over sculpture because he feels it is the only way to realistically portray nature in all its atmosphere and detail. Michelangelo, on the other hand, was influenced strongly by the Neoplatonic notion of idea and preferred releasing these ideas from the stone with his chisel.

Roman Culture

     During the Renaissance, Roman culture became collaborative in two ways. While contemporary Christian leaders were drawing upon the ancient past to create their aesthetic and societal ideals, artists were coming together with writers, scholars, mathematicians, and sculptures to accomplish their work.
     This collaborative mentality lent itself to the innovation of Rome. The economic rise of Rome combined with Humanistic interest in the ancient past meant a colossal increase in construction in Rome at the start of the 16th century.
     Along with rebuilding the city itself, people were also able to rebuild themselves in terms of social status. Illegitimate children who were denied any inheritance could work to accumulate as much wealth as they could earn after gaining an education. Women from modest beginnings however, were limited to "high class" prostitution and some real estate investing to earn a living. High class prostitutes were differentiated from their simple colleagues by their artistic abilities such as singing and poetry reading.
     Great importance was placed on language and public speaking. Romans referred, once again, to their ancient predecessors who thought it was very important to be able to persuade and argue eloquently.
     An interest in the preservation of history and civilization arose. The first Library was established in order to collect and organize knowledge for future generations.
    By 1600 Rome didn't look like a conquered city at all, but instead a glimmering statement of innovation by way of appreciating and studying antiquity.

Humanism Discussion

     Humanism focused on studying ideas from antiquity rather than purely religious knowledge. The upper class became very intrigued by their ancient ancestors and held themselves in high esteem, feeling that they had a likeness to Plato, Aristotle, and other great thinkers from antiquity. The ruling class thought they could be better leaders if they spent years studying ideas from antiquity. Learning Latin was a crucial component of a humanistic education. Unfortunately, a humanistic education demanded years of rigorous study that middle and lower class people couldn't afford.
     I was surprised to learn that doctors and laborers were held in low esteem and were regarded as simple money making professionals. In my opinion, people who dedicate themselves to a trade are the bread and butter of a society. Academia couldn't exist if everyone was responsible for building their own homes and healing their own sick. It is atop the shoulders of laborers and tradesmen that the ruling elite stand, so I find their mentality towards the middle class quite conceded.
     However arrogant their outlook on laborers seems, I must admit I admire the value placed on eloquence, grammar, and language at this time. Our society could benefit from this mentality. We live in a time that enables us to publish our thoughts by the click of a button. It seems that the art of language is somewhat lost today. We rarely craft letters to our loved ones, because we can text or e-mail anyone in an instant. Instead of prioritizing and organizing our thoughts, we have the ability to post every mundane, insignificant detail of our life on Facebook without thinking it through. I believe we could all benefit from being trained to craft our thoughts and words with more care and precision than we often do.
     We have the ability to access the entirety of human knowledge on a device that fits in our pockets and we use it to look at cat videos, see what our friends are doing all the time, and fight with strangers. It's interesting to contemplate what Leonardo could have accomplished with a resource as powerful as the internet. But who knows, maybe his accomplishments were better facilitated in a time without such useless and tempting distractions.

Leonardo Da Vinci Discussion

     Hello! I'd like to start off by saying I found this book far more interesting than I originally expected. I must admit I jumped around quite a bit, but I kept within the theme of Leonardo's fascination with anatomy.
     Leonardo believed that understanding anatomy was just as important to an artist as to a draughtsman. He was extremely passionate about discovering how the body works and went to great lengths to acquire new knowledge about the human body. Today when we picture an autopsy, we picture a clean body that has been very well preserved. Although still eerie or discomforting, we can go into an autopsy knowing that the procedure is safe, widely accepted, and likely been done before. In Leonardo's case the cadavers were unrefrigerated, the procedure was frowned upon by many, and nobody including him knew exactly what to expect. I admire his bravery and determination in seeking out the components of life in such morbid conditions.
     Leonardo's early studies were more metaphysical in nature than what we would now consider "scientific". His intricate diagrams of a human skull attempt to locate where the soul is located. He believed it all to be in the one organ (the brain) rather than housed throughout the entire body, as some suspected.
    Later notes on dissection tended to be far more quantitative. He performed a dissection on an old man and a young boy and noted all the differences in their flesh. He concluded that the heart was the primary circulatory organ, rather than the liver, which some believed it to be. He compared the heart to the pit of a peach in the way it draws nutrients in though a series of interlinked capillaries.
    Towards the end of his life, his studies were a captivating combination of metaphysics and quantitative notes. He dissected a mother and her unborn fetus. He describes the fetus as a creature having no soul of its own and being completely dependent on the mother. He accounts for unborn babies dying at the time of their mothers because they have no soul of their own.
     These studies were very controversial within the Catholic church and his studies were later hindered.  It is unknown whether Leonardo stopped dissecting or if he simply resorted to using his own space, rather than the local hospital which had previously granted him special permission to perform his studies.