Super Artists In Renaissance Art

During the Renaissance, there were hundreds of thousands of people who could be labeled as artists; there are also quite a few of those people who could be labeled as successful and especially talented artists. There are only a handful, however of artists who could be labeled “super artists” by Martin Kemp, or individuals who could be labeled as “creative genius”. In his book titled Life of Raphael, Giorgio Vasari wrote that, “Nature created [Raphael] as a gift to the world.” As time looks back on the Renaissance, were these “super artists” individuals who helped the current understanding of the Renaissance, or did they instead hinder today’s view of the time period? Individuals who were strong enough artists to be labeled “super” were individuals …show more content…
When discussing the impacts of the label of “individual creative genius”, there are also powerful ways that these super-artists shaped the Renaissance period through this label. These artists had impeccable talents. When looking at the work done by Raphael including his image entitled The Healing of the Lame Man (Campbell and Cole, 2012, Image 13.15, pp. 381), what is seen is “the breadth of pictorial conception that is matched by an exquisite balancing of parts, another legacy by Raphael” (Chipps Smith, 2004, pp. 303). And when viewing the work done by Michelangelo, “no previous sculptor had managed to conceive and execute a work with four full-length figures in a single piece of marble” (Campbell and Cole, 2012, pp. 475). Especially Durer showed his talents, “you might swear that rule, square, or compass had been employed to draw lines, which he, in fact, drew with the brush, or very often with pencil or pen, unaided by artificial means, to the great marvel of those who watched him” (Richardson, 2007, pp. 25). “He would draw separately, not only the different parts of a composition, but even the different parts of bodies, which, when joined together, agreed with one another so well that nothing could have fitted better” (Richardson, 2007, pp. 25). All of these aspects can be seen in his artwork entitled Adam and Eve of 1504 (Campbell and Cole, 2012, Image 12.55, pp. …show more content…
And this was a subject of great wonder to distinguished painters, who, from their own great experience, could understand the beauty of the thing” (Richardson, 2007, pp. 25-26). This great artist then influences other great artists just as Raphael looked to the art of Leonardo and Durer looked to the art of Bellini “by presenting the Virgin and Child enthroned in outdoor light, Durer was seeking comparison with Bellini’s San Zaccaria altarpiece, which he had studied closely” (Campbell and Cole, 2012, pp. 365), These great artists then went on to influence many other artists whom followed them. “Foreshortened limbs of foreground figures were a specialty of Michelangelo’s followers” (Campbell and Cole, 2012, pp. 502). Finally all of the great artists of the historical time period are lumped together, studied, admired, and their techniques copied. One example may be Annibale Carracci’s The Marriage of St Catherine image (Campbell and Cole, 2012, Image 20.8, pp. 592) “Where Annibale departs both from Leonardo and from Correggio is in his attention to surfaces, especially textiles. The crossed velvet panels that form the borders of the angel’s robe have a tactility worthy of Titian; Annibale differentiates this sharply from the silk of the