Zephyros
Magistrate
Part 1 - Nudity of Jesus
The thousand years of European history known as the Middle Ages were followed by the period known as the Renaissance (1400 - 1600). The term means ªrebirth´ a reference to a renewed interest in the Classical world of Greece and Rome. The influence of Classical subject matter is evident in the numbers of nudes and mythological figures in Renaissance art.
Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the works of art created a more believable, human space.
They were part of a transition from spiritual Gothic art to the three-dimensional space that became characteristic of the Italian Renaissance.
Mathematics and science, derived from a renewed study of classical Greek and Roman works, encouraged the systematic understanding of the world. Renaissance artists used and refined new systems of perspective to translate their careful observations more consistently into realistic artistic representations.
For S. Spirito in Florence Michelangelo made a wooden crucifix, put over the lunette above the high altar to please the prior, who gave him suitable rooms, where he was able, by frequently dissecting dead bodies, to study anatomy, and thereby he began to perfect his great design ... and even Christ resurected is displayed nude by an artwork Michelangelo.
Brunelleschi's Crucifix is a wooden sculpture preserved in the Gondi Chapel of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, dated to about 1410-1415.
According to Vasari it was carved in response to the wooden crucifix by Donatello at Santa Croce church in Florence, after Brunelleschi had criticized its exaggerated naturalism, calling it a »peasant on the cross« instead of the body of Jesus Christ, in all its parts the most perfect man who ever lived.
The wooden crucifix in the church of Santa Croce is Donatello at his finest. The bearded face of the dead Christ, with his tanned skin and ropey musculature, makes him incredibly true to life. This is an enormous step in realism, a far cry from the sweet, perfected faces of Christ done by other artists. Christís face is sorrowfully compelling, and so life-like that (according to Vasari) the artist Brunelleschi accused Donatello of having crucified a peasant. What makes this work so extraordinary is Donatelloís willingness to forgo what would have been considered a beautiful or successful work of art in favor of a more realistic figure.
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note @ Cristo della Minerva (Michelangelo): As Steinberg notes, artists like Michelangelo sometimes depicted the resurrected Jesus fully nude - a fact that later curators have sometimes tried to cover up - and the reason for this nudity is that the resurrected Jesus has restored humanity to the innocence that Adam and Eve once enjoyed before the Fall: ªHow then could he who restores human nature to sinlessness be shamed by the sexual factor in his humanity?´
This link between the innocence of Adam and the nudity of the resurrected Christ is echoed in the baptismal practices of the early Church. As noted above, converts were baptized in the nude back then, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem says they did this in imitation of Christís death; but he also says that they were baptized nude in imitation of ìthe first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed. »Similarly, St. John Chrysostom, in his Baptismal Instructions, told the early Christians that they were baptized naked to ìremind you of your former nakedness, when you were in paradise and you were not ashamed.«
Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmch...rth-death-and-resurrection.html#ixzz3Tc9H7hUO
attached Files:
Jesus - Brunelleschi - (1).jpg
Jesus - Brunelleschi - (2).jpg
Jesus - Donatello - (1).JPG
Jesus - Donatello - (2).JPG
Jesus - Donatello - (3).JPG
Jesus - Michelangelo - (1).JPG
Jesus - Michelangelo - (2).jpg
Jesus - Michelangelo - (3).jpg
Jesus - Michelangelo - (4).JPG
Jesus - Michelangelo - (5).jpg
The thousand years of European history known as the Middle Ages were followed by the period known as the Renaissance (1400 - 1600). The term means ªrebirth´ a reference to a renewed interest in the Classical world of Greece and Rome. The influence of Classical subject matter is evident in the numbers of nudes and mythological figures in Renaissance art.
Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the works of art created a more believable, human space.
They were part of a transition from spiritual Gothic art to the three-dimensional space that became characteristic of the Italian Renaissance.
Mathematics and science, derived from a renewed study of classical Greek and Roman works, encouraged the systematic understanding of the world. Renaissance artists used and refined new systems of perspective to translate their careful observations more consistently into realistic artistic representations.
For S. Spirito in Florence Michelangelo made a wooden crucifix, put over the lunette above the high altar to please the prior, who gave him suitable rooms, where he was able, by frequently dissecting dead bodies, to study anatomy, and thereby he began to perfect his great design ... and even Christ resurected is displayed nude by an artwork Michelangelo.
Brunelleschi's Crucifix is a wooden sculpture preserved in the Gondi Chapel of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, dated to about 1410-1415.
According to Vasari it was carved in response to the wooden crucifix by Donatello at Santa Croce church in Florence, after Brunelleschi had criticized its exaggerated naturalism, calling it a »peasant on the cross« instead of the body of Jesus Christ, in all its parts the most perfect man who ever lived.
The wooden crucifix in the church of Santa Croce is Donatello at his finest. The bearded face of the dead Christ, with his tanned skin and ropey musculature, makes him incredibly true to life. This is an enormous step in realism, a far cry from the sweet, perfected faces of Christ done by other artists. Christís face is sorrowfully compelling, and so life-like that (according to Vasari) the artist Brunelleschi accused Donatello of having crucified a peasant. What makes this work so extraordinary is Donatelloís willingness to forgo what would have been considered a beautiful or successful work of art in favor of a more realistic figure.
___________________
note @ Cristo della Minerva (Michelangelo): As Steinberg notes, artists like Michelangelo sometimes depicted the resurrected Jesus fully nude - a fact that later curators have sometimes tried to cover up - and the reason for this nudity is that the resurrected Jesus has restored humanity to the innocence that Adam and Eve once enjoyed before the Fall: ªHow then could he who restores human nature to sinlessness be shamed by the sexual factor in his humanity?´
This link between the innocence of Adam and the nudity of the resurrected Christ is echoed in the baptismal practices of the early Church. As noted above, converts were baptized in the nude back then, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem says they did this in imitation of Christís death; but he also says that they were baptized nude in imitation of ìthe first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed. »Similarly, St. John Chrysostom, in his Baptismal Instructions, told the early Christians that they were baptized naked to ìremind you of your former nakedness, when you were in paradise and you were not ashamed.«
Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmch...rth-death-and-resurrection.html#ixzz3Tc9H7hUO
attached Files:
Jesus - Brunelleschi - (1).jpg
Jesus - Brunelleschi - (2).jpg
Jesus - Donatello - (1).JPG
Jesus - Donatello - (2).JPG
Jesus - Donatello - (3).JPG
Jesus - Michelangelo - (1).JPG
Jesus - Michelangelo - (2).jpg
Jesus - Michelangelo - (3).jpg
Jesus - Michelangelo - (4).JPG
Jesus - Michelangelo - (5).jpg
