attitude of Dutch
Luca della Robbia – devotional service to art
The whole long life of Luke della Robbia was dedicated to serving the arts. The sculptor was born in Florence in 1399 or 1400. He made many works that rightfully occupy a prominent place in the history of the sculpture of the Renaissance. Luka della Robbia’s hard work, his devotion to art was emphasized by one of his first biographers, D. Vasari: “… completely leaving the jewelry business, he (Luca della Robbia) gave himself up to sculpture and did not do anything else, working with a chisel all day nights And he did it with such diligence that, often feeling at night that his legs were frozen, he, in order not to depart from the drawing, warmed them, shoved them into a basket with chips … ” Continue reading
Konstantin Meunier – an artist who glorified the proletariat
The life of the Belgian master Constantin Meunier is not eventful. But his creative biography is unusual. He began as a sculptor, visiting the class of the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and the workshop of Sh. O. Freken, a follower of classicism. Then for many years engaged in painting. Only at the age of 50 he returned to sculpture – a unique case in the history of Western European art of that era.
At the same time, Meunier continued to work as a painter, creating major works in 1890–1900s. The master found in painting compositional solutions, which he later transferred to sculpture. Continue reading
Venice School of Painting
The heritage of the Venetian school of painting is one of the most striking pages in the history of the Italian Renaissance. The “Pearl of the Adriatic” – a quaintly picturesque city with canals and marble palaces, spread out on 119 islands among the waters of the Gulf of Venice, was the capital of a powerful trading republic that held all trade between Europe and the countries of the East. This became the basis of the prosperity and political influence of Venice, which included part of Northern Italy, the Adriatic coast of the Balkan Peninsula, and overseas territories. She was one of the leading centers of Italian culture, typography, humanistic education. Continue reading
