Question one A
Dating back to the renaissance and the Baroque times to date, art is considered very important in nearly every society globally. The statue of David by Michelangelo at the Accademia Gallery is among the one of the famous David’s Florence. A number of artists have come up with the creation of the likeness of David, the famous biblical hero, which is one of the main symbols of Florence. Since the times of renaissance Florence has always portrayed David as their emblem of the city. Florence wanted to project David’s strength, courage as well as youthful confidence.
During these time patrons were diversified far beyond the church to include even private individuals, city officials, and corporate commissions most of whom were sponsored by entities such as wool Giuld. These patrons did play a very critical role to the livelihood of the artists. For instance, Michelangelo version of David was a public monument commissioned by the Florentine city council.
In as much as the artists did play their roles the patrons did play a very important role in influencing how artists such as Michelangelo visualized the biblical hero David. The patrons were the financers of these artist. Most of the time artists would be forced to take commissions and complete even some work in ways different to how they would have undertook themselves.
Question one B
Michelangelo’s sculpture of David was made of marble standing seventeen feet tall. Donatello’s sculpture was made of bronze and stood approximately 5 feet 2 and half inches in length. In terms of the structure, Donatello’s version of David depicts very little when it comes to the muscle structure. This version according to more does not depict the aspect of strength. The sculpture has more of a girlish structure. Taking for instance, in the way David is standing one can notice hips slightly titled and the curved wrist around the hip. All these takes the pose of a lady.
Michelangelo’s sculpture carries a lot of realism. It depicts this can be evidenced by the muscle mass as well as the great details. Michelangelo’s sculptures show David the hero in a calm state focused and by all means ready to fight his enemy. Of all David’s sculptures Michelangelo’s carries more emotional expression the main reason why many people are in connection with Michelangelo’s version. The other stunning difference between these versions was that Donatello’s Sculpture did have the sword which David took from Goliath. Michelangelo’s version reveals the slung shot and tunic materials which David had before the fight began.
Unlike the other two versions Bernini sculptures were completely different. Bernini in his version did position David in such a way as if he was in motion. According to this version David was like in the middle of a fight with Goliath. His version expressed more anger and more masculinity of David.
All the three versions depict great courage and confidence in whatever David meant to show. They all portrayed slender fit looking body figures. With each version the attitudes seemed to be getting angrier and more determined.
Question 2A
Rembrandt’s time marked the period where art was considered something that was within reach for majority of the members of the middle class together with other types of art which was produced specifically for them. Art were open composition which were specifically aimed at mimicking the natural way of life. Rembrandt is remembered as one of great painter during his time. He changed the group portrait and added some sense of realism in them. In as much as his use of color and paintings resembled everyone else he did make addition with the way he used the light and the dark an aspect which gave his subjects the sense of physical presence. Rembrandts paintings in the long run had lessons which gave them the aspect of realism.
Question two B
Rembrandt’s style has been a great inspiration especially to the work of many artist. The official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II is one such painting. Sir William Dargie is the artist behind the painting which has been referred by many as the wattle painting (Breen, 2014). The wattle painting made use of the light and dark which brings a lot of likeness to Rembrandt’s paintings. Dargie did blackened the background of his painting something which Rembrandt did to most of his paintings. This art was very crucial in that it gave the viewers a specific purpose and more so the specific texture and details.
Nicky Philips painting is also the other painting which was inspired by Rembrandt’s style. The painting like Rembrandts is similar to a photograph frozen in time (Noland, 2016). The viewer of the painting which depicts a double portrait of Prince Harry and Prince William seem to capture the conversation between the two princes while on the other hand maintaining the brotherly connection share. The paintings make use of great texture and real life expression.
References
Breen, L. (2014). Queen Elizabeth II 'wattle painting'. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/highlights/william-dargies-wattle-painting-of-queen-elizabeth-ii [Accessed 23 Jun. 2016].
Noland, K. (2016). National Portrait Gallery Commissions New Painting of Prince William and Prince Harry. 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: http://artdaily.com/news/35465/National-Portrait-Gallery-CommissionsNew-Painting-of-Prince-William-and-Prince-Harry#.V2w6qCB9601 [Accessed 23 Jun. 2016].
