While Roman commissions were based on ecclesiastical tradition and continuity, Netherlandish art was defined by the thriving market economy. The city of Bruges became the centre of European painting due to its status as the centre of European market economy. The production of art in Venice, like Bruges, was defined by its geographical position as the most important trading centre between Western Europe and the East.
Rome and Art for Popes
Rome offered artists great opportunities of patronage and inspiration they could draw from the remnants of its antique past. Fra Angelico's frscoes in the Chapel of pope Nicholas V at the Vatican Palace demonstrate that in Rome, like in Florence, the iconographic programme and the technique had to conform to the function and location an art work was intended for.
While the frescoes in San Marco in Florence painted by Fra Angelico under tha patronage of the Medici were realized with superb finesse, the papal commission had to be conceived differently. The iconography was designed to convey the authority of Rome and Pope founded on the tradition of apostolic succession of popes and to emphasize the significance of the investiture ceremonies that took place in the chapel. Fra Angelico chose suitable papal imagery and a technique that would reinforce the effectiveness of the message.
Artistic Innovation in Bruges
The favourable economic position of Bruges allowed artists to produce commissioned works of art and ready made items for the open market. The demand was high because of the quality of craftsmanship and sophisticated marketing startegies and this, in turn, was closely bound up with with trade routes leading through Bruges, and guild system with high standard of training and strict quality control measures.
Bruges as the trade port facilitated the import of the best materials which helped to foster artistic innovation. It had a unique multicultural milieu with a diverse international clientele prepared to buy art. The specific characteristics of art originating in Bruges generated interest in the artists active in the city and in turn, this positive situation encouraged the local artists to develop those specific qualities and capitalise on them by accommodating to the requirements of the art market.
Fusion of Eastern Tradition and Western Innovation in Venice
The power and prosperity acquired through its trading made Venice the centre of arts at the intersection of great trade routes. The Venetian art production was influenced by the cultural diversity and wealth which intensified artistic innovation.
Giovanni Bellini's Madonna Greca embodies the influence of the Byzantine art on Venice. The painting's simple composition, austere expression ann linear conception are reminiscent of the Byzantine icons such as Madonna Nikopoia that Bellini would have been likely to see in San Marco church.
The culture of Byzantium merged with the Venetian culture and Venice became the centre of Greek learning after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 when Byzantine scholars found refuge in Venice. The presence of the Greeks and lack of any remains of antiquity impacted on Venetian art and the way artists conceived their work, as in Bellini's case. What Vasari praised about Florentine art - perspective and drawing, form and line - were absent in Venetian art.
The location of Venice as a city built on sea also contributed to the distinctive characteristics of its art. The misty atmosphere and flickering light inspired artists to catch the effects of light on the air and water and the priority was given to colour in order to create paintings that were sensuous rather than rational or intellectual. Madonna Greca was a private devotional painting and as such in keeping with the Venetian - Byzantine tradition, resembling a Byzantine icon in composition and execute in the Venetian style of painterly brushwork.
Source:
- Carol M. Richardson, Locating Renaissance Art, Yale University Press, 2007
Zuzana Minarikova - I live in London and work in publishing in Bloomsbury which is an exciting part of London, full of museums, galleries, bookshops and ...
