Module 9

I selected Velazquez and Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master because I have not heard of them before, and I have heard of the other artists.

In Velazquez, I learned that the artist Velazquez was a painter that “caught real time” making people look in paintings as they look in that moment; in real time. He painted what he wanted to paint. His only friend was the king and his only love was the king’s wife. Velazquez was a court painter that only painted for the king. He was one of the only Spanish painters to paint myths. He used light to create a focal point in his paintings. He created a way of painting court jesters, “human freaks”, with deformities so that you saw through them, and did not focus on their deformities.

In Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master, I learned that Albrecht Durer inspired the Renaissance in Germany. Durer enjoyed painting hands and he also carefully observed the process of aging. During his journey through the Alps, Durer used the mountain range many times as his backgrounds. From the venetians he learned how to implore the finest brush strokes without color to achieve the effect of solid form simply with light and shadow. Durer learned how to do proportions from Leonardo Da Vinci, by breaking down pictures into grids and then recreating that picture on a smaller grid. Durer was constantly learning and refining his art. Albrecht Durer’s Meloncolia art was what brought him most of his fame. 

In the text, it tells how Velazquez used light to create drama and emphasis. Light also serves here to organize and unify a complex space. Velazquez used these features like Caravaggio did.

It was Albrecht Durer who more than any other artist attempted to fuse Italian ideas and discoveries with the Northern love of meticulous observation. In Durer’s view, Northern art had relied too heavily on instinct and lacked a firm grounding in theory and science. 

I did not really like learning about Velazquez and I think this is because I do not like the Baroque period. I really liked learning about Durer who painted during the Renaissance period. Through both of these videos, I learned how artists place feeling into their artwork and try to get people to see the paintings as the artists sees the art.