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Monday, October 25, 2010

La Primavera



This painting is named "La Primavera" and was painted by Boticelli in 1478. Unlike the paintings of the middle ages, this painting does not relate to religion. Instead, this painting mainly relates to pure fantasy and human desire. From the big transition of styles of art, you can tell that the Church was losing power. During the early parts of the Renaissance, all art was required to have a religious, holy message behind it. However, as the Renaissance progressed, people began to break away from the church and so did the style. Gods of the ancient Greek times with no base of Christianity. An example of this is how Aphrodite/Venus is "the center of attention" in this picture. Another way of how art broke away from its religious basis is how intimate images were used. A some-what intimate image in this painting is Eros, Aphrodite/Venus's naked flying son. When this painting was first displayed to the public, some people were very pleased, however some people were very unhappy. People such as Savanarola wanted artists like Botticelli to quit their artwork and Savanarola ended up pursuing his goal by hosting the Bonfire of Vanities. However, the ideas of Botticelli's painting "La Primavera" survived and the style of art was revived toward the end of the Renaissance and the Church's viewpoint of Art, almost lost all control.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Driving Forces of the Renaissance


“Which one driving force do you think was the most crucial in creating the Renaissance's explosion of ideas? Why?”

I believe that the greatest driving force during the renaissance was rivalry. Rivalry was the greatest driving force, because it motivated the richest families of Italy to patronize artists to create unique things to brag about with other Italian city-states. Also, by patronizing those artists, ancient knowledge was re-discovered and the economy improved making each and every city-state flourish.