face model: Melissa Mendes
aperture: f/4.5
shutter: 1/50
ISO speed: 200
camera: Sony SLT-A33
The painting from the Renaissance I chose to Photoshop
my friend Melissa’s face into, was The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Vinci, Italy, on April
15, 1452. The first four years of his life were spent in a small village
near Vinci with his mother, Caterina. After 1457, he lived in his father's
family, which soon moved to Florence. Leonardo became an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor
Andrea del Verrocchio at the age of 15, until 1480. His first known work, which
he painted as an assistant, is the angel, kneeling on the left of the
Verrocchio's picture The Baptism of Christ (c.1472-1475). Verrocchio, it is
said, was so impressed by the implications of his pupil's genius that he gave
up painting.By the age of 20, he qualified as a master artist in the
Guild of St. Luke and established his own workshop. Leonardo’s most well-known
painting, arguably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, was
a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507.
Leonardo
has been called a genius and the archetypal Renaissance man, as his talents
extended far beyond his artistic works. Like many leaders of Renaissance
humanism, he did not see a divide between science and art, as he drew some of
the first body structure drawings on record, such as a fetus in utero, the
heart and vascular system, sex organs, and other bone and muscular structures. His
observations and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and
drawings, including designs for flying machines, plant studies, war machinery,
anatomy and architecture. His ideas were mainly theoretical explanations, and
were rarely experimental, as they were laid out in exacting detail. One of his
last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its
chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies.
The virgin and child with St. Anne is an oil painting on
wood, measuring 168x130 cm, by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1510. The original is
currently located at Musee de Louvre, Paris. This painting shows St. Anne, her
daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus Christ. Christ is shown grappling
with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion whilst the Virgin tries to
restrain him. The painting was commissioned as the
high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, with its
theme keeping Leonardo preoccupied for a long time. Leonardo first explored the
topic of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne around about 1498.
Renaissance Changing Art
The meaning
of the time period “Renaissance” is rebirth. The Renaissance occurred during
the 14th and 17th centuries. The artists of the
Renaissance looked back to those before them while
incorporating a greater sense of light and color through new mediums. This time
period’s artistic movement was the most contributed to development of art as a
whole. Prior to the renaissance, the paintings appeared flat and lacked luster,
with subjects lacking depth and perspective and religious in nature. Artists
had the same position in society as any other skilled craftsmen and were given as
much respect as carpenters and goldsmiths. The Renaissance was the beginning to
a new interest in Greek and Roman culture, which led to and explosion in
knowledge about the human for along with innovations in mathematics and
science. All creations of God and the human form in particular, were suddenly respected
as a testament to God’s great power and perfection. The nude human form, linear
perspective, atmospheric perspective, and a new found interest in observing the
natural world represent the movement of the creations. Artists of the
Renaissance were elevated in social status, and their works were viewed as
miraculous creations that were greatly inspired, rather than looked upon as
crafts.
