Big Art
2 total works
INSIGHTS INTO CHANGES OF MENTALITY AND PHILOSOPHY. HOW DO THE OBJECTS IN A STILL LIFE REFLECT THE CUSTOMS, IDEAS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE TIME? THIS IS ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WHICH NORBERT SCHNEIDER ASKS IN THIS BOOK. THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES AND THE 17TH CENTURY WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE HEYDAY OF THE STILL LIFE. IT IS AN ART FORM WHICH GIVES US VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO CHANGES OF MENTALITY AND PHILOSOPHY AS WELL AS PEOPLE'S NOTIONS OF DEATH. STILL LIFES CHART THE HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND THEIR ACCEPTANCE AS WELL AS THE GRADUAL REPLACEMENT OF THE MEDIAEVAL CONCEPT OF THE WORLD.
This work sets out to analyze some of the major works of early modern portraiture and takes a close look at 50 major works, including paintings by Jan Van Eyck, Holbein the Younger, Raphael, Mantegna and Botticelli. The portraits presented here are selected exclusively from works executed between the late Middle Ages and the 17th century - for it was then that portraiture came into its own. The portraits themselves have been chosen on the basis of their subjects' rank and profession. The value of this method of selection is its proximity to both the painters' intentions and their patrons' requirements.