Vermeers The Music Lesson and Rubens The Three Graces Essay

Vermeers The Music Lesson and Rubens The Three Graces - Essay Example The essay "Vermeer’s The Music Lesson and Ruben’s The Three Graces" discovers Baroque Painting in Relationship to Renaissance Aesthetics. The focus is on the Vermeer’s The Music Lesson and Ruben’s The Three Graces. The way in which light and colour were used emphasized the drama that was sought after during this time. In comparing the work of the Baroque period to the work of the Renaissance, one can see a heavier and richer use of colour, while sharper uses of light and shadow combine to emphasize a climactic point of drama. In order to examine the differences between the works that was done in the Renaissance in comparison to the work done in the Baroque period, pieces with the same theme allow for clear contrasts. The Three Graces by Peter Paul Rubens reveals that the fascination with mythological subjects that was observed during the Renaissance still provided subject matter for the painters of the Baroque period. Rubens’ work allows one to obse rve that there is an emphasis on the curves of the body, the heaviness of the form accentuated with more extreme chiaroscuro. The light and dark of the painting creates a more dramatic look to the work. As well, the tones that are used provide a higher level of drama to the moment of the embrace between the three deities. When you compare the work of Rubens to the earlier works of Botticelliand Raphael, there is a distinct difference in the tension within the composition. In the works of Botticelli and Raphael, the figures are light.... Botticelli, Primavera (1485-1487) interaction creates a higher level of drama in the Rubens work from the Baroque period than in the paintings from the Renaissance period. The Baroque period provided for a more painterly approach to the artwork that was generated. The dynamism of the work was created through a less controlled performance of the act of painting, while the Renaissance had work that was done in a more linear format. According to Beardsley, the linear work of the Renaissance in comparison to the more painterly work of the Baroque â€Å"is comparable to the shift of emphasis from rhythm to harmony† (218). Where linear painting is defined by carefully rendered images that are three dimensional due to the use of carefully controlled perspective, painterly work has an element of randomness that is Figure 3. Raphael, The Three Graces (1504-1505) created through the emotions of the act of painting. According to Staiger, â€Å"Linear perspective uses the artist’s viewpoint to figure out angles of things that recede into the distance† (104). In painterly work, however, the brush strokes are applied where they feel right, rather than through a perspective that is relevant to the position of the artist. The paint strokes are more visible and have a textural effect that is not present in a more linear work of art. Johannes Vermeer did work that embraced the aesthetics of light and shadow in combination with rich toned hues. He was greatly influenced by the changes that were being made away from the aesthetics of the Renaissance period. According to Gowing, â€Å"The baroque provided the example which dominated Vermeer’s beginnings. And while other Dutch painters could carry its rhythm as a