Mod 9- Video Review

1. I chose both “Albrecht Dürer: Image of a Master” and “Velazquez”because I felt I knew the least about both artists out of the list of examples, and wanted to learn more about them. I’ve taken Art History classes where we’ve talked about Michelangelo and da Vinci, but I haven’t learned much about Velazquez and I’ve briefly learned about Durer prior to this class.

2. In “Albrecht Dürer: Image of a Master”, Durer took the art of the Middle Ages and turned it into something new, by using silverpoint, or silver on paper, then adapting to other materials. He focused on portraits, specifically  he enjoyed painting hands. He painted in a non idealized way, realistically showing wrinkles and aging. Durer turned to woodcuts, and painted landscapes of Europe through his travels. After visiting Italy, he no longer used varied sized figures in altarpieces, inspired by Venetian art at the time. All the while he was very narcissistic and vain, painting himself to be this beautiful god-like man. He could make hundreds of prints a day with his woodcuts. Often religious, he would base his income off printmaking. He then further practiced and developed the technique of engraving on copper, which he is now accosiated most with.

2. In “Velazquez”, they discussed how he was a realistic painter that focused on portraiture. He visited Venice, Italy, where he studied Michelangelo and Raphael. He was also inspired by Durer. Mythology interested him, in that it was a story that could be told over time. He worked on pieces slowly over time, taking years to finish them. He understood linear perspective; that the further ground became blurred and gray. Most of his portraits were realistic but representations. They were idealized, not individual; they were not modeled in the person, but were meant to show the individual’s own characteristics. They showed the power of each King, even looking arrogant. He then painted the “deformed” gestures for the King, where he thrived.

3. Both of these videos don’t directly relate to the text but they both explain the development of new mediums, and their effect and contribution to art of their time. Durer, using etching on copper, led to the replication of the same image, now more defined and longer lasting. Velazquez explored color and the focus on idealism and representing characters. The reading focused on the skilled painters and sculptors of the 15th to 18th centuries, like Michelangelo and da Vinci. The reading focused more on the technical terms that were developed during that time such as sfumato, or the veiling of shadows in paintings.

4. Both videos gave more specific examples of both how the artists developed and changed over time, and how they created their individual techniques. Each gave examples of how either artist’s trip to Italy changed their artwork as well. Both videos were helpful to understand what came from the 15th century artists and how the later artists took important aspects of the art and recreated it.

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