David / Rembrandt Michelangelo's David was commissioned as a public monument by the government of Florence. In this context we might be invited to imagine David as a symbol of Florence itself: the Tuscan city is tiny compared with Rome, and in Michelangelo's lifetime Florence was also much smaller than the closer Italian city of Venice. Although Florence is the larger city in the twenty-first century, this was not true in Michelangelo's day. The population of Florence was estimated at 37,000 in 1427 and 60,000 in 1552: while Venice had a population of 180,000 in 1490. (Sources: John Najemy, A History of Florence 1200-1575; J.J. Norich, A History of Venice.) In other words, the idea of a physically-unprepossessing hero favored by God to defeat a much larger enemy -- the story of David and Goliath -- might very well have appealed to Florentines as a civic symbol of themselves. Florence...
This is presumably the reason why Goliath is not depicted at all. This is in contrast to Donatello's earlier David, which Michelangelo would have known, and which provides an interesting influence and counterpoint to Michelangelo's more famous David. Donatello's David, cast in bronze, was the first freestanding sculptural depiction of a male nude since ancient Rome -- Michelangelo's David could not have been naked as he is if Donatello's had not been…
Italian Renaissance Renaissance ("Rebirth") refers to the period after the Middle Ages when a series of dynamic intellectual, cultural and artistic movements from the 14th to 16th century catapulted Europe towards rapid development leading to the Age of Enlightenment, the industrial revolution and the modern time. During this rich period of exciting developments in arts, sciences and politics, Italy was the major catalyst and became the cultural leader of Europe. It
People were traveling to lands like Jerusalem or Egypt, the Greek Islands and to cities like Barcelona, Lisbon or Bruges. Merchandise and aliens were bringing along traditions and civilizations different from their own. Another factor that influenced a cultural unity in Italy during the Renaissance was according to Welch the claim of being the inheritor of Rome every major Italian city had. The culture of the antiquity, Latin or Greek
Italian Renaissance brought humanity into a golden age of artistic expression and the rejuvenation of humanism as a philosophy and a way of looking at the world. (Italian Renaissance, 1) The re-discovery of many ancient Greek and Roman texts allowed architects, artists, historians, and scientists to build upon the greatest achievements of man from the ancient world. After centuries of feudalism and a strong Catholic Church, wealthy elites began to
However, there was also an embrace of past, existing forms of Mediterranean literary ideals, such as the Italian sonnet form that became the Elizabethan sonnet form. The latter modified the original Italian sonnet's rhythmical constraints for the English language. The focus upon Italy was not simply intellectual but was also aesthetic. The ideal of the beauty of Italy, and the passionate atmosphere of the land is evidenced in such plays
I had a lot to learn from Giorgione. Having been taught in the fresco technique by Ghirlandaio, I was not acquainted much with oil painting and did not truly know the mastery of this type of painting. How to mix the oil and the paints so that one was in enough quantity? More so, how to use enough oil so as to obtain the right amount of darkness or pale
The two seem to be squaring off in generosity, each inviting the other to go before him to make obeisance. The postures and figures in the crowd range of arrogance to humility. A figure on the left appears to be frowning haughtily at the scene before him as though he could not possibly give up his dignity to bow before such a poor family. The fact that the setting is
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