This next video covers Renaissance Venice,
so we'll be focusing in on an area in Northern Italy.
This is an aerial view of Venice to
give the sense that clearly it is a city of canals.
We've got the Grand Canal, which cuts through Venice -- right here. This is where some of the
main
palazzi [palaces] were. The main piazza of Venice is down here, where you find the church and
of San Marco [St. Mark's],
where the Doge's Palace was located and still is
located. But just to give you a sense of how it's a space
very much dominated by water.
To orient again geographically, Venice is right up here.
We'll be emphasizing the fact that this is a city that had
very important involvement in trade and mercantile activities -- so moving
between the East and West.
It was a key city between the area of the east and trade from the east,
and then area of the West and also Northern Europe, too.
So Venice was very important as this mercantile center, and as this bridge
between east and west.
So, thinking a little bit about these Byzantine
influences in Venice, and thinking about some of
the mercantile activities that may have taken place there. I just wanted to note
that Constantinople is located over here. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks will come
in
and sack the city, and so this leads to a lot of Greeks
leaving the city of Constantinople heading over to Venice, so
that leads to a new cultural influx and influence coming into Venice.
The trade from the East, again, is an influence. The Fourth Crusade in 1204
also was an influence between east and west,
and Venice also possessed a number of
Greek colonies, so, for example, they controlled the island of Crete down here.
This was an important trading outpost, and so it was significant for their
wealth and trade to control these types of islands.
Just having a look at the kind of architecture one might see in Venice.
we are seeing some
nice Gothic tracery here in a photograph, and then just comparing it to a drawing
from one of the notebooks
of Jacopo Bellni. Jacopo Bellni is really
considered one of the founders of the Venetian early Renaissance school.
His family members Gentile Bellini, Giovanni Bellini --
usually considered to be his sons although the family
tree is a little sketchy. He is really considered to be
one of the early contributors to the Renaissance style in Venice.
So, if we have a look at this page from one of his artist notebooks,
we can see that he's working on one point perspective. He's creating a very
dramatic perspective scheme
with the vanishing point coming right about here. You can
the type of archways and loggias were actually quite typical for Venice at
that time.
He's adding some classical style relief sculpture to the structures, as well.
The balconies are quite typical for Venice,
so just to compare that to an actual scene from Venice over here.
Those elaborate window cuttings where you can see
the trefoil and quartrefoil frames were quite common in Venice.
So, what we're seeing here is the beginning of what we would consider
a hybrid-type image that was very, very common
in Venice, so this combination of Gothic tracery,
and then more Renaissance style. And the scene here is "The Flagellation" so
that would be at the beating of Christ -- he's attached to a column here --
before the Crucifixion. But really what Jacopo Bellini is doing here
in about 1450 is working on his perspective
scheme. Of course it is a Christian subject, but it really is relegated to
-- although if the center the composition -- it's very, very difficult to
see, so
just something to keep in mind. This is probably more for his own
experimentation in perspective.
There books were, however, given as gifts. These were
an impressive objects once they were completed, and the drawings are highly
finished. These aren't initial sketches.
So ideas of hybridity are important to keep in mind -- especially in Venice
combining all the different traditions in this mercantile city so this idea of
hybridity
derives from primarily Latin American Studies,
but can be applied to other cultures and it "argues that cultures are inherently
hybrid or mixed,
and that they are not self-contained, and the product of intermixing and exchange."
And Venice is definitely a great case study for this. Another example by
Jacopo Bellini
is the Virgin and Child -- a work of art that is in the
Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA) coming from
1465, approximately, and it demonstrates some nice mixing between East and West.
because you actually have Greek lettering,
traditional for Byzantine icons -- so icons for objects, spiritual religious
objects that were important for prayer and devotion,
very holy objects. So you can see some of the traditional Greek lettering
that one would often see an icon,
but also you can see there is Latin lettering,
so you have a nice combination of Greek and Latin. Latin is traditionally Western;
Greek is more Eastern European,
so you see the two blending in this nice hybrid example.
The style itself is very Renaissance. In fact, Jacopo seems to be quoting
a sculpture by Donatello -- a relief sculpture
that shows some nice drapery, nice affection between mother and child.
These individuals seem very westernized in the ideal
Italian way. They preferred blonde hair this time, so it does seem that
the style the Madonna and Child has become very
Renaissance Western with this substantial body, fleshy type
of child, rather than the flattened style we tend to see in the Byzantine period,
but the root of this really is the Byzantine icon. The tradition of
representing the Madonna and Child. So,
"Theotokos" means the "bearer of God." And that's what
the Virgin was declared to be, and then she
"The mother of God" so reinforcing the idea of the mother of God. And then the Latin
begins the Hail Mary prayer.
So just comparing it to a Byzantine icon that did exist -- or it was part of a Byzantine style
altarpiece that existed in Venice and so you can see that exact same
lettering
over here. It clues in the viewer that they know this is a holy
object, and that they know that this is the Virgin because those would be the Greek
letters that would
tip you off. So, icons were important
media for spiritual exchange in the sixth century. They were popular in the
Byzantine
empire, and this popularity continued.
So there you can just see the comparison between
the Jacopo [Bellini] and the Donatello.
You can see that strong similarity, and even the Latin inscription
it's similar right here.
Next, just pointing out, [the work of] Giovanni Bellini.
Giovanni Bellini was probably the son of Jacopo. We talked a little about his versions of the Madonna and
Child, and here we can see
an example where it seems a little bit more
creative in how the child and mother are represented.
And this has sometimes been analyzed psychoanalytically -- thinking about
Giovanni Bellini's relationship to is another his own mother or his own family situation.
Why is the child may be being more aggressive here, or
why does the mother look kind of annoyed, but, most likely,
Giovanni Bellini here is trying to go for more playful, more affectionate style.
We can't say 100 percent, but it does seem that there was a strong demand for
this type
of image, this type of look for a painting,
and so that seems to be developing.
Bellini is giving people a lot of different options. Or Giovanni Bellini
and his father
Jacopo Bellini are giving people a lot of options. So in the [Julia] Kristeva
article that we read, it's dealing more with some the psychoanalytic
and semiotic possibilities for this image,
but most likely he's just trying to give the viewer
more variety. We're going to progress into the unified altarpiece and also
the introduction oil paint into Venice.
So, we see the altarpiece going from that multi- part polyptych
to a more unified "Sacra Conversazione" or Sacred Conversation.
And we this transition quite strongly in Venice, so
one of earlier examples -- the earliest example is probably an example by
Giovanni Bellini, but unfortunately it was a destroyed in a fire.
But there is an individual named Antonello da Messina -- Messina
is a city in Sicily --
so this means he came from the south [of Italy]. He seems to have received training
in the Flemish technique of oil painting, and then brought it to Venice or was
a key player in bringing it to Venice.
And so what we see here is some of the rich detail -- the luminous quality --
that's going to be associated with the Venetian Renaissance school.
The Venetian Renaissance School will be known as an
area where color is very much
valued. Where paint is really applied straight to the panel
and not a lot of underdrawing. So what we tend to see in Florence is an emphasis on
drawing and design
and in Venice we see an emphasis on color, so just an important thing to keep in mind.
Unfortunately, this San Cassiano altarpiece -- which we have a "sacred
conversation" so a
Virgin and Child with saints or angels and saints
-- is very much fragmented. It's been cut up into pieces,
but it shows us this traditional idea of representing the Virgin and Child similar to
those
icon images or icon-like images we just saw,
but on a grander scale that could be included on
and altar, on a large church altar. So here we see saints that were likely
particularly sacred to the church in which this was located,
and there were actually additional figures, as well, that have been cut
out.
And see a nice foreshortened arm here with the Virgin's arm extending out
to the viewer. The Christ child seemingly offering a kind gesture of
blessing. So the idea is that you're receiving some kind interaction from the
holy figures in the image
going out to the viewer. And you have some nice details allowed by the oil paint
that Antonella da Messina is exploiting.
So, for example, the shimmer of these balls here,
also the water glass, represented here, the detail on
at the brocade of the Virgin's garment. So all those things are significant to keep
in mind
because what we see is that Giovanni Bellini -- one of the painters that we saw
earlier when we were looking at Madonna and Child images alone.
Giovanni Bellini begins to learn from Antonello da Messina
how to take advantage of some of those oil techniques -- how to take advantage
the luminous quality that oil paint provides. So what we see here is called
the San Giobbe [St. Job] the altarpiece. It was probably commissioned as a
result of an epidemic plague that had come into Venice
because we do see some significant plague saints here.
So, we have St. Sebastian here. We see the arrows going into his body.
He was said to receive the arrows of the plague on behalf of the
people to protect people from the plague. Also,
St. Job, for whom it [the altarpiece] is named.
So, Job obviously went to a number trials and tribulations. He's an Old
Testament figure.
He went through these trials and tribulations as a way of testing its faith.
So clearly a plague is a way of testing one's faith,
so St. Job would be a nice person to think of.
You also have St. Francis and other holy figures,
again, in a "Sacra Conversazione" or "Sacred Conversation" --
that is, the Virgin and Child with angels and saints inserted into
a nice hybrid environment where you have the mosaics -- typical of Byzantine
style churches,
which the main church in Venice, San Marco, has this type of gold
mosaic, but then also these kind of classicizing
elements that indicate we're entering into more of a Renaissance period.
As I show you a close-up [detail] from this altarpiece, hopefully, you can see
the luminous quality that is associated with the Venetian style of painting
that Antonello helped to introduce into Venice with this
new, luminous oil paint that will
really dominate the 16th century, as we move into
the 1500s.