Some art experts say that Renaissance art is to modern art what parents are to children. In other words, many of modern art’s basic ideas, such as perspective and the use of objects of focus, stem fro

Assignment #1: What is Modern Art?

(Student Name Here)

Strayer University

HUM 101: Art History

Professor Mayhall

March 30, 2020

What is Modern Art?

If it is true, as some art experts say, that Renaissance art is to modern art what parents are to children (John726), this assignment is a necessary attempt to show that modern art’s basic ideas, such as perspective and the use of objects of focus, stem from Renaissance masters. The purpose of this assignment is to compare art works from each period in contrasting modes and, in the end, to show what makes one piece of art modern and another not.

Modern Art Selection and Characteristics. In the category of modern art, I chose a particular painting because I wanted to explore the work of surrealist painter Joan Miro. Carnival of Harlequin (page 305) is one of the first Surrealist pictures where he uses an unbounded sense of playfulness in his work and he explores many new modern ideas such as space, where the suggested confines of a grayish-beige room teems with life of the strangest variety. Another characteristic of modern art he explores is the animating of the inanimate, when he paints a tall ladder to which an ear has been attached and, at its very top, a tiny, disembodied eye. A final, important characteristic in the painting is to spread his creatures equally across the entire surface of the painting, so our eyes do not alight in one central place and we are drawn in to the “organized dysfunction” of the Carnival atmosphere (Arnison & Mansfield, 2013, pg. 305).

Some art experts say that Renaissance art is to modern art what parents are to children. In other words, many of modern art’s basic ideas, such as perspective and the use of objects of focus, stem fro 1

14.10 Joan Miró, Carnival of Harlequin, 1924–25. Oil on canvas, 26 X 365⁄8” (66 X 93 cm). Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.

Renaissance Art Selection and Characteristics

For the Renaissance period, I chose a piece by Giotto he titled Lamentation. Although an artist of the trecento (14th century) Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337) may be called the first painter of the Renaissance. Giotto's own master, Cimabue (Cenni di Peppi) (1240-1302), seems to have painted in a style derived from Byzantine examples. That is to say a linear style, essentially flat and two-dimensional. Giotto, though he sprang from these origins, was the first to create real figures, instead of conventions standing for them, and the first to set these figures solidly in a three-dimensional space. The emphasis which Giotto laid upon form, and in particular, the form of the human body, was to remain the particular interest and preoccupation of the Florentine school. Examples of this emphasis are: (1) A reverent revival of Classical Greek/Roman art forms and styles; (2) A faith in the nobility of Man (Humanism); (3) The mastery of illusionistic painting techniques, maximizing 'depth' in a picture, including: linear perspective, foreshortening and, later, quadratura; and (4) The naturalistic realism of its faces.

Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ), c. 1304-c. 1306 – Giotto di Bondone

Summary: Renaissance vs. Modern Art.

In summary, comparing Miro’s Carnival of Harlequin in the modern period to Giotto’s Lamentation in the Renaissance period, one can easily detect the differences each artist, in his time, reveals. The realism of Giotto and the surrealism of Miro, the stark definition and detail of the characters Giotto and the blurred lines of the objects used by Miro, and the clear separation of heaven and earth of Giotto and the blending together of backgrounds and objects in every dimension by Miro, are a few of these noticeable differences.

Sources

Arnason, H.H. and Elizabeth C. Mansfield. (2013). History of modern art (7/e). Pearson.

john726. (2012, March 3). Renaissance Themes and the Modern World of Art. Retrieved March

26, 2020, from https://ageofreasonoes.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/renaissance-themes-and-the-modern-world-of-art/

Renaissance Art in Italy (c.1400-1600) History, Characteristics, Causes, Techniques. (n.d.).

Retrieved March 26, 2020, from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/renaissance-art.htm