The Da Vinci Code

Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist during the 16th century and is remembered as one of the best portrait artists during his time. He was born in 1497 in Augsburg into a family of famous artists, including his father, uncle, and older brother. Hans Holbein the Younger learned to paint from his famous artistic father, Hans Holbein the Elder. Hans Holbein the Younger painted over 150 portraits, as well as created woodcuts and designed clothing for royalty during his lifetime. In 1515,…

Artist and writer Giorgio Vasari once wrote, “Domenico di Tommaso del Ghirlandaio, who can be called one of the principal artists and one of the most excellent masters of his age because of the merits, grandeur, and multitude of his works, was created by nature herself to become a painter” (Wiesner-Hanks 117-120). Vasari’s quotation provides powerful insight into the life of one of the most beloved painters from Florence in the fifteenth century. In Old Man and Young, Domenico Ghirlandaio…

Paint crayons are the medium of choice for graffiti artists who create magnificent, legal public art that upgrades our cities. Paint crayons provide brilliant colors along with easy handling so you can control your line perfectly. The fresh, oil paint remains brilliant for years and can be applied to almost any surface, whether smooth, rough, wet, oily or dirty. The industrial uses for paint crayons have been known for years, but why let them have all the fun? Artists who provide public…

Leonardo Da Vinci is, was, and always will be an innovator and renowned artist in all forms of the word. His works of art and masterfully created inventions helped develop a platform for machines, architecture, and painting styles we use today. Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Vinci Italy near Florence in 1452 to a wealthy father and peasant mother, he died in 1519. As a child, Da Vinci loved to be out in nature which sparked his curiosity and inspiration for his innovative creations and paintings…

Imagine a herd of sheep with no shepherd, a band of rats with no piper, or a hive with no queen bee. In all of the scenarios, there is unmitigated chaos and uncontrollable disorder due to the lack of a unifying purpose. A world filled with followers would be similar, with everyone ready to conform but with no path to follow, and would lead to an unproductive and aimless society. On the other hand, imagine a pack of only alpha wolves or a pride consisting solely of dominant lions. Such a society…

Many city state like like Florence and Sienna became republic which allowed the people to vote. Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted the first panoramic landscape in the western art. In the painting it showed the well governed state and how the merchant doing there business. When the black plague came around to some region it was a moment that boosted economic growth. A city state who start to dominate after the black plague was Florence which is known as the home of the Renaissance. The Renaissance time…

Emerson worked on many writing forms but many people will say that he is most famous for his poems and essays. Some of the things he enjoyed writing about the most were religion, freedom, social stances, and nature. The main topic he incorporated into Self-Reliance was greatness, and the fact that “to be simple is to be great”. These things talk about how you should take care of yourself, but also how others see your role in life. Through his work, some of his most famous opinions were that…

Leonardo de Vinci wanted to depict his art in the way our eye sees it in its natural environment. He was fascinated with the human eye and the painter’s depiction of light and shadows and felt they went hand in hand. For an artist to truly obtain the proper perspective of its object or subject it takes a great deal of practice (Dwight). What is the linear perspective to show the mathematically correct size of an object? What must the painter know to capture the effects of light and shadow on…

While at the Carnegie museum I saw a couple of paintings that caught my eye and made me take a deeper look at them. The very first painting that did this was Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Leonard, Jerome, John the Baptist, and Francis. This painting is by Nicolo di Maestro Antonio d’Ancona. It caught my eye because even though it was created in during the Renaissance; it still has a lot of details, beautiful colors, and meaning. The throne that Madonna is sitting on, and the entire…

Pope Julius II goal was to extend the authority of the papal and to make the papacy have true power over the military force and political authority in Italy. Julius hired Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a very important place that held the place of the new popes that are eventually elected. This reflects upon Julius because he wanted to spread the papacy out into the country. Therefore it was the purpose of building the Sistine Chapel. Julius wanted to continue…