POST 9: READING, GRQ, EXTRA CREDIT – RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ART

 GRQ

1. Portraiture

2. Window

3. Linear Perspective

4. Aerial Perspective

5. Masaccio

6. Brunelleschi

7. Jan van Eyck

8. Leonardo's

9. The School of Athens

10. Birth of Venus 

11. Stonebreakers

12. David

13. Modern

14. Avant Garde

15. Autonomous

16. Kitsch

Reading 

    The reading depicts art and architecture from The Renaissance Era. The reading, as well as what we studied in class, goes in depth about the progression of art during this era. While the paintings in the Byzantine era started out flat with no depth, the artists in the Renaissance era created depth to further advance their artwork. Brunelleschi was the first artist to formulate laws about linear perspective. Brunelleschi created multi dimensional artwork by having the artwork all meet up at one point. Having more depth allowed the subject featured in the paintings to be more realistic and have more movement rather than flat. 

Discussions

    My group focused on Machiavelli. Machiavellianism is a widely used negative to characterize behavior Machiavelli described in his book, the Prince. In the book, he went into detail about how dishonesty and killing innocent people is normal and effective in politics, he even went as far to endorse it. The book is about the possibility of having a new prince. In order for the original prince to keep his power, he must keep things the way they are. The new prince has a more difficult task, stabilizing his power in order to build a lasting political structure. Machiavelli suggests in the book that the social benefits of stability and security can be achieved in the face of moral corruption. He believed that a ruler must be concerned not only with their reputation but also must be willing to act immorally at the right time.

Extra Credit Discussion

    As an extra credit opportunity, my group looked into Walter Benjamin's beliefs. There are many pros and cons to mass produced art. One positive is that once art is mass produced onto merchandise and spread around the world, more people become aware of it then before. If there is a social cause to spread within the artwork, more people can learn about the message. However a con of mass produced art, is that the original artist no longer gets the credit they deserve for their work. For example, if a design is liked by another artist, they can steal that artwork and claim it as their own. A modern example of this is from Harry Styles' Love On Tour. Not many people know the bunny T-shirt is designed by an artist named Elena Fiorenza. If you go anywhere in public with the shirt, other fans will recognize the art, gaining it more popularity, but at the same time a lot of people steal the art and sell it as their own.