Renaissance Art for Dummies?

Old Jun 12th, 2002, 08:47 PM
  #1  
Kelly
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Renaissance Art for Dummies?

I am looking forward to my trip to Italy this fall very much. However, to put it plainly I am an art idiot.
I am planning to go to the Uffizi and Accademia in Florence.
My question is-How can I learn more about the art I am going to see, so it is more than a pretty picture to me?
 
Old Jun 12th, 2002, 09:16 PM
  #2  
elvira
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The library. Spend a Saturday looking through the books on Italian art, especially the big picture books. The descriptions are usually succinct, and you can see the paintings in some detail. If you can find a book for children, even better - the descriptions are in layman's terms, and there's usually fun things to look for like "how many feet do you see?" which gets you looking at details. I once found a children's book on Picasso, and learned more from that than any of the big fancy books on his works.

In the museums, do try to see as much as you can, but take 10 or 15 mins in front of ONE painting and really look at it (doesn't have to be one of the "famous" ones - just find one you like). How did he make it look like candlelight? What's that guy in the purple hat smirking at? What's written on the book she's holding? You'll come away having "seen" the painting, and a better eye for other paintings.

The best part about art? You can hate it; just because everyone else oohs and aahs over a work of art doesn't mean you have to. If you think the subject matter is boring or the figures look idiotic, you can dislike the painting. And somewhere, as you're walking around, you'll see IT - the painting that just takes you over and draws you in. You won't be able to put into words why, but you'll know it.
 
Old Jun 12th, 2002, 09:16 PM
  #3  
art
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Rick Steves book "Mona Winks" has guided walks through the major museums; I think they might be included in his guidebooks too. They are informative without being overwhelming - a place to start. He also published an art book - "Europe 101" maybe? Check your library.
 
Old Jun 13th, 2002, 04:49 AM
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dean
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I am not a fan of Rick Steves. His smugness drives me nuts and I never have found anything profound or surprising in his guides. He is a cheapskate and places way too much emphasis on being frugal. I would reccomend a copy of the Blue Guide for Tuscany. Do not attempt to read it cover to cover, but use it when you get somewhere to find out what you are looking at. Fodors is also a great resource for the highlights. ROugh guide would be an alternative to the blue guide and it has more commentary than does the blue guide. I sometimes find their editorializing to be a little strong. We always have both the Blue and Rough guides (and sore backs from lugging them both around!)
 
Old Jun 13th, 2002, 10:02 AM
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Jen
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Kelly, you might also check out if a community college or university near you offers any art history courses you could take before going. I travelled through Europe several times without any education in art history, and I nonetheless enjoyed the art, picking up my knowledge as I went along. To get more out of it, though, I would recommend either trying a course or just reading up on it--the library is a great bet (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a book called "Art History for Dummies!). I did enjoy the Rick Steves guides, but they are fairly superficial. Also, if you enjoy reading related fiction, there are two novels recently published about Artemisia Gentileschi, a female Italian Renaissance painter--the one by Alexandra Lapierre is quite good.
 
Old Jun 13th, 2002, 10:25 AM
  #6  
elaine
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Kelly
There is a book in the "Dummy" series called "Art for Dummies" and the section on Renaissance art is pretty helpful. The book was written by T Hoving who used to be the director of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC; it's opinionated but informative.

I also found it tremendously helpful before my first trip to Italy to brush up on some Christian dogma. There is a wonderful book called "The Oxford Guide to Christian Art and Architecture." It is too heavy I think to want to pack and take with you, but as pre-trip reading that book, or something like it can help you learn to recognize who's who in Renaissance paintings which are mostly religious in nature. Saints are usually pictured with attributes, either the instrument of martyrdom or something notable in his/her life.
For example, a man holding keys
(to Heaven) is always Saint Peter.
In Venice, Saint Mark's Winged Lion is everywhere. etc etc
I became quite proud of myself in being able to know who was who in the many paintings with titles such as "Madonna and Child with Saints."
 
Old Jun 13th, 2002, 11:38 PM
  #7  
Maurice
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Yes - also:
The more realistic the picture, the newer. Pre-renaissance, the medieval stuff was very stilted and stylized. The person in the centre of the picture was much bigger than the lesser subjects, the little town in the background was not well-proportioned.
Watch the evolution of perspective, from the child-like drawings of buildings to the renaissance where the artists would "show off" with very realistic perspective. Also, by then the artists could realistically portray lighting etc. In the Sistine chapel, try at first glance to see which ceiling sculpting is real and which is just painted on. (Hint - most is painted).
Watch the "baroque" as the renaissance devolves into overly ornate and overworked; excessive drapery effects,etc.

Religious and classical motifs?
Guy with arrows in him - st. Sebastian
Guy naked with lion skin and club - Hercules
Bald saint with curly beard? St. Peter

Remember, in medieval times, few could read and books were handmade and hideously expensive. The wall decorations were the equivalent of "Children's bible stories" for all age groups, meant to be instructional.

Don't worry though, unless you spent ou entire school life in Catholic schools (and paid attention) and then got a classical education, you are as clueless as most other people. That's why most galleries have a paragraph or more about each picture (or buy a guidebook).

I would suggest you get the books recommended above. Make a list of the most famous artworks, so you can recognize them when you see them. It is amazing how often some works appear in our culture (Adobe Illustrator's box copies the face of Botticelli's Venus, for example; Da Vinci's Last SUpper has been copied and parodied everywhere). It is neat to see and recognize these in originals.
 
Old Jun 14th, 2002, 04:09 AM
  #8  
amy
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Kelly, the nice thing about going to Florence is that you're not looking at a mish-mash of art over two thousand years. You get to see art taken from ignorance to knowledge in a few centuries. If you truly are interested in doing this right, you will get a fabulous education with very little effort.

Elvira was on the money with the children's books (and by the way, it's a great way to find out the "must sees" of any destination, too). I took my kids to Florence when they were 8 and 13. They knew a lot about Impressionists, and of course, they knew a bit about Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. But renting a tape on the Renaissance by Sister Wendy and getting a Sister Wendy book was very helpful to them and to us adults. Sister Wendy explained how Giotto led to Leonardo. We then had some children's biographies and children's art books to bolster our approach.

The neat thing is that the Uffizzi is arranged in chronological order. You get to see the start of the "rebirth" of art and then work your way up to the truly gifted guys--Raphael, Michelangelo--who figured out everything. My youngest kept a Sister Wendy checklist (unfortunately, we also had to spend much of our time stopping her from performing Sister Wendy imitations in front of paintings highlighted in the video).

The heaviest part of our luggage is always the 20 guide books we bring. After trial and error in Florence, our most useful books once we were inside the museums were the Cadogan and Blue guides (that's not the same in every location).
 
Old Jun 14th, 2002, 05:54 AM
  #9  
Julie
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Amy, what a helpful response and what a nice approach. I wish I could see your daughter's Sister Wendy imitations. The image is adorable, especially since Sister Wendy seems so childlike herself.
 
Old Jun 14th, 2002, 06:53 AM
  #10  
artdummy
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As a fellow art idiot who nonetheless loves spending time in the National Gallery in London and the Louvre and Orsay in Paris, I fully understand your problem. Although Rick Steves is often trashed on this forum, I have found the guided museum tours in his guidebooks to be perfect for this art idiot. Yes, his guides are fairly superficial, but I have found that is what a beginner needs. They give some structure to what would otherwise be totally overwhelming to someone who knows nothing about art - because if you know nothing about art, you really don't have the faintest clue what to look at when you get to the gallery, and you can't look at every single painting in a single visit. His books give you a quick overview of some selected paintings in the gallery, and from there you can decide what you liked best and would like to learn more about. There is a new Rick Steves guidebook on Florence, and I believe I recall seeing guided tours for both the Uffizi and Accademia in the book. Find a copy at a book store or library and browsing through to see if you think that it contains the kind of information you are looking for.
 
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