Out of all the different artistic styles and periods of art that we covered this quarter, my favorite by far was the early Italian Renaissance along with the High Italian Renaissance periods. I enjoyed these two periods a lot because of the humanist influences during this time. I like how the rise of humanism focused on the celebration of human achievement, greatly changing the subject matter and the way in which it was portrayed. I also like how the rise of humanism helped artists become more renowned so that they started to get recognition for the work which they produced.
One of my favorite pieces from the Early Renaissance period that also had some humanist influences was Ghiberti’s Florence Baptistery “East Doors.” I liked how the original east door that got moved to the northern end of the building, originally were contracted to him because of a competition. The competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi was interesting because it showed two amazing artists facing off against each other to get a job. I liked the sense of competition between artists such as Ghiberti and Brunelleschi facing off because I feel as though people do some of their best work when they know they are competing against someone else. In the end Ghiberti’s style was definitely more fitting for the door which is why he was chosen over Brunelleschi. I really liked Ghiberti’s eastern doors because of the amount of detail that he put into the panels. He did an amazing job of using illusionism to give the panels a sense of depth and space. This piece also shows the effects that humanism had on him through the use of his self-portrait being portrayed on the door along with the Latin inscription “Made with wonderful skill by Lorenzo Ghiberti.” This inscription not only boasted of his amazing talent, but also showed that he was a well-educated artist through the use of a Latin inscription. All of the different factors that encompass this piece of art were very fun and exciting to learn about.
I really had a lot of fun learning about the background behind the different pieces of art and the story of the artists. I definitely found the historical context behind the art to be more interesting than the visual details themselves. That being said, I still found the visual details and elements within the works of art to still be fun to look at and discover. For example I found the information about Ghiberti and Brunelleschi having a competition over the contract of the Florence Babestry doors to be more fun to learn about than looking at how illusionism was used to help create a sense of depth within his work. But both aspects were still very exciting and fun to learn about.
Overall, I feel as though all the art we discussed this quarter did a good job of representing fun and exciting historical background along with showing interesting and visual details and styles. In the end my favorite history and visual details within the renaissance fell within the Early and High Renaissance of the South due to the humanistic influences and interesting background stories on the artists and their work.
