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Botticelli's Influence On The Renaissance

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I was assigned Botticelli, one of the great masters from the Early Renaissance. Botticelli was known for his highly realistic, especially for the time, religious paintings and being a member of the Golden Age art movement in the 15th century. He utilized a style known as “Gothic Realism” where flight of fancies and interpretation were not taken on the works of art, but rather accurately depicting scenes with realistic surroundings and figures were what was optimal to translate to the viewers. It could be said that the study of the antiques that Botticelli did that influenced his work, influenced the whole Renaissance period as we saw much more evidence of realism taking a role into paintings, sculptures, etc. Unlike many masters, which he became …show more content…

These were just a few of his pagan paintings before the Bonfire of the Vanities where he began focusing on Christian paintings. I wanted to depict another pagan myth, the story of Persephone the Queen of the Underworld, as this was the subject matter I enjoyed most from Botticelli. Originally I wanted to depict the anatomy of a goddess by creating an incision in Persephone’s stomach revealing an avocado inside, originally a pomegranate to stay in theme of the myth, as she stood posed naked that was common in older paintings of naked god-like figures. I chose to work in pastels for this project as it most closely resembled tempra, both being oil based. I began by emulating his style by prepping the work with an underdrawing and painting to get the finer details, such as the hyper realistic flowing hair that was common to his paintings of women, as well as making the whole background pure black which was similar to his portrait paintings. After that was complete I began laying down another layer of detailing with different vibrant colors that I saw in his paintings such as orange, yellow, and pink. Finally I laid down the thin base layer for the skin and hair and began smudging everything with tissue and q-tips to get the softer look that was common to his paintings. Ultimately I’m not particularly proud of this piece but I don’t hate

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