{"id":330,"date":"2015-10-13T20:52:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T20:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/zelixart102\/?post_type=chapter&p=330"},"modified":"2015-12-16T15:58:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T15:58:28","slug":"introduction-to-venetian-painting","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/atd-herkimer-arthistory2\/chapter\/introduction-to-venetian-painting\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Venetian Painting","rendered":"Introduction to Venetian Painting"},"content":{"raw":"You've already seen this page, but please take this time to brush up on what you've learned.\r\n

Venice\u2014Another World<\/h2>\r\nPetrarch, the fourteenth-century Tuscan poet, called Venice a mundus alter<\/em> or \"another world,\" and the city of canals really is different from other Renaissance centers like Florence or Rome.\r\n\r\nVenice is a cluster of islands, connected by bridges and canals, and until the mid-nineteenth century the only way to reach the city was by boat. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Venice suffered numerous outbreaks of the plague and engaged in major wars, such as the War of the League of Cambrai. But it also boasted a stable republican government led by a Doge<\/em> (meaning \"Duke\" in the local dialect), wealth from trade, and a unique location as a gateway between Europe and Byzantium.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_190\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"Bird's-eye-view Figure 1. Bird's-eye-view of Venice[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_192\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"One Figure 2. The Grand Canal in modern Venice[\/caption]\r\n

The Venetian Style<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_194\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"A Figure 3. The reflections in a canal in Venice[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPainting in Early and High Renaissance Venice is largely grouped around the Bellini family: Jacopo, the father, Giovanni and Gentile, his sons, and Andrea Mantegna, a brother-in-law. Giorgione may have trained in the Bellini workshop and Titian was apprenticed there as a boy.\r\n\r\nThe Bellinis and their peers developed a particularly Venetian style of painting characterized by deep, rich colors, an emphasis on patterns and surfaces, and a strong interest in the effects of light.\r\n\r\nWhile Venetian painters knew about linear perspective and used the technique in their paintings, depth is just as often suggested by gradually shifting colors and the play of light and shadow. Maybe Venetian painters were inspired by the glittering gold mosaics and atmospheric light in the grand Cathedral of San Marco, founded in the 11th century? Or maybe they looked to the watery cityscape and the shifting reflections on the surfaces of the canals?\r\n

Oil Paint<\/h2>\r\nThe Venetian trade networks helped to shape local painting practices. Ships from the East brought luxurious, exotic pigments, while traders from Northern Europe imported the new technique of oil painting. Giovanni Bellini combined the two by the 1460s\u201370s. In the next few decades, oil paint largely supplanted tempera, a quick-drying paint bound by egg yolk that produced a flat, opaque surface. (Botticelli\u2019s\u00a0Birth of Venus<\/i>\u00a0is one example of tempera paint).\r\n\r\nTo achieve deep tones, Venetian painters would prepare a panel with a smooth white ground and then slowly build up layer-upon-layer of oil paint. Since oil dries slowly, the colors could be blended together to achieve subtle gradations. (See this effect in the rosy flush of the\u00a0Venus of Urbino\u2019s<\/i>\u00a0cheeks by Titian\u00a0or in the blue-orange clouds in Giorgione\u2019s\u00a0Adoration of the Shepherds<\/i>.) Plus, when oil paint dries it stays somewhat translucent. As a result, all of those thin layers reflect light and the surface shines. Painting conservators have even found that Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian added ground-up glass to their pigments to better reflect light.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_196\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"A Figure 4. Titian, Venus of Urbino<\/em>, 1538, oil on canvas, 119.20 \u00d7 165.50 cm (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)[\/caption]\r\n

Venetian Painting in the Sixteenth\u00a0Century<\/h2>\r\nOver the next century Venetian painters pursued innovative compositional approaches, like asymmetry, and they introduced new subjects, such as landscapes and female nudes. The increasing use of pliable canvas over solid wood panels encouraged looser brushstrokes. Painters also experimented more with the textural differences produced by thick versus thin application of paint.\r\n\r\nIn the Late Renaissance Titian\u2019s mastery was rivaled by Tintoretto and Veronese. Each attempted to out-paint the other with increasingly dynamic and sensual subjects for local churches and international patrons. (Phillip II of Spain was particularly enamored with Titian\u2019s mythological nudes.) The trio transformed saintly stories into relatable human drama (Veronese\u2019s\u00a0The Dream of St. Helena<\/i>), captured the wit and wealth of portrait subjects (Titian\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of a Man<\/i>), and interpreted nature through mythological tales (Tintoretto\u2019s\u00a0The Origin of the Milky Way<\/i>).","rendered":"

You’ve already seen this page, but please take this time to brush up on what you’ve learned.<\/p>\n

Venice\u2014Another World<\/h2>\n

Petrarch, the fourteenth-century Tuscan poet, called Venice a mundus alter<\/em> or “another world,” and the city of canals really is different from other Renaissance centers like Florence or Rome.<\/p>\n

Venice is a cluster of islands, connected by bridges and canals, and until the mid-nineteenth century the only way to reach the city was by boat. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Venice suffered numerous outbreaks of the plague and engaged in major wars, such as the War of the League of Cambrai. But it also boasted a stable republican government led by a Doge<\/em> (meaning “Duke” in the local dialect), wealth from trade, and a unique location as a gateway between Europe and Byzantium.<\/p>\n

\"Bird's-eye-view<\/p>\n

Figure 1. Bird’s-eye-view of Venice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

Figure 2. The Grand Canal in modern Venice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Venetian Style<\/h2>\n
\"A<\/p>\n

Figure 3. The reflections in a canal in Venice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Painting in Early and High Renaissance Venice is largely grouped around the Bellini family: Jacopo, the father, Giovanni and Gentile, his sons, and Andrea Mantegna, a brother-in-law. Giorgione may have trained in the Bellini workshop and Titian was apprenticed there as a boy.<\/p>\n

The Bellinis and their peers developed a particularly Venetian style of painting characterized by deep, rich colors, an emphasis on patterns and surfaces, and a strong interest in the effects of light.<\/p>\n

While Venetian painters knew about linear perspective and used the technique in their paintings, depth is just as often suggested by gradually shifting colors and the play of light and shadow. Maybe Venetian painters were inspired by the glittering gold mosaics and atmospheric light in the grand Cathedral of San Marco, founded in the 11th century? Or maybe they looked to the watery cityscape and the shifting reflections on the surfaces of the canals?<\/p>\n

Oil Paint<\/h2>\n

The Venetian trade networks helped to shape local painting practices. Ships from the East brought luxurious, exotic pigments, while traders from Northern Europe imported the new technique of oil painting. Giovanni Bellini combined the two by the 1460s\u201370s. In the next few decades, oil paint largely supplanted tempera, a quick-drying paint bound by egg yolk that produced a flat, opaque surface. (Botticelli\u2019s\u00a0Birth of Venus<\/i>\u00a0is one example of tempera paint).<\/p>\n

To achieve deep tones, Venetian painters would prepare a panel with a smooth white ground and then slowly build up layer-upon-layer of oil paint. Since oil dries slowly, the colors could be blended together to achieve subtle gradations. (See this effect in the rosy flush of the\u00a0Venus of Urbino\u2019s<\/i>\u00a0cheeks by Titian\u00a0or in the blue-orange clouds in Giorgione\u2019s\u00a0Adoration of the Shepherds<\/i>.) Plus, when oil paint dries it stays somewhat translucent. As a result, all of those thin layers reflect light and the surface shines. Painting conservators have even found that Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian added ground-up glass to their pigments to better reflect light.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Figure 4. Titian, Venus of Urbino<\/em>, 1538, oil on canvas, 119.20 \u00d7 165.50 cm (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Venetian Painting in the Sixteenth\u00a0Century<\/h2>\n

Over the next century Venetian painters pursued innovative compositional approaches, like asymmetry, and they introduced new subjects, such as landscapes and female nudes. The increasing use of pliable canvas over solid wood panels encouraged looser brushstrokes. Painters also experimented more with the textural differences produced by thick versus thin application of paint.<\/p>\n

In the Late Renaissance Titian\u2019s mastery was rivaled by Tintoretto and Veronese. Each attempted to out-paint the other with increasingly dynamic and sensual subjects for local churches and international patrons. (Phillip II of Spain was particularly enamored with Titian\u2019s mythological nudes.) The trio transformed saintly stories into relatable human drama (Veronese\u2019s\u00a0The Dream of St. Helena<\/i>), captured the wit and wealth of portrait subjects (Titian\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of a Man<\/i>), and interpreted nature through mythological tales (Tintoretto\u2019s\u00a0The Origin of the Milky Way<\/i>).<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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