The century of ColumbusWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
The century of Columbus
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Renaissance
Leigh Hunt, in his article on him in the "Catholic Encyclopaedia,"
emphasizes the far-reaching influence which Correggio's work had over
artists after his time and how deeply the principles of his art
prevailed in painting and sculpture in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries over all Italy and France.
"Correggio is the most skilful artist since the ancient Greeks in the
art of foreshortening; and, indeed, he was master of every technical
device in painting, being the first to introduce the rules of aerial
perspective. Radiant light floods his pictures and is so delicately
graded that it passes subtly into shade with that play of reflections
among the shadows which gives transparency in every modulation. This
is _chiaroscuro_. Even in Allegri's earliest works it was prominent,
and later he became the acknowledged master of it. His refined feeling
made Correggio paint the nude as though from a vision of ideal beauty;
the sensuous in life he made pure and beautiful; earthly pleasures he
spiritualized, and gave expression of mental beauty, the very
culmination of true art. His angel pictures {68} are a cry of _Sursum
Corda_. The age in which he lived and worked was partly responsible
for this; but his modesty, his retiring disposition, his fondness for
solitude, his ideal homelife, his piety and the fellowship of the
Benedictine monks contributed far more to it."
A very great painter of Columbus' Century, though he is usually
thought of as of a later period, was Jacopo Robusti, whom we know as
Tintoretto. According to Ridolfi, himself born almost on the date of
Tintoretto's death, the artist was born in 1512, though later dates up
to 1520 have been assumed for him. Like many of the other great
workers of the Renaissance, he too lived to be at least seventy-five
and probably well beyond eighty. The same store of energy that enabled
him to accomplish his work gave him length of days. He was the son of
a dyer, and, as a boy, was fond of drawing, finding the colors used by
his father valuable for practice in painting. While he lived at a time
when many of the great painters of the Renaissance were at work, he
was not deeply influenced by them, but fortunately for himself
developed his own genius. He is famous for his drawing, his power over
which he owed to dissection, drawing from life and from models draped
and lighted in various ways, some of them suspended from the ceiling
so as to get the correct prospective of flying figures. He invented an
ingenious device, a rectangular framework with strings across it
which, held before the eye, taught how to measure the proportions
accurately. While Venetian painters generally are famous for their
coloring, Tintoretto is the master of them all in drawing and one of
the world's greatest artists in Italy.
[Illustration: GOSSAERT, VIRGIN AND CHILD JESUS (ITALIAN INFLUENCE
OVER FLEMISH)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account