1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,340 Hi, everyone. 2 00:00:01,370 --> 00:00:06,300 Our next activity consists of commenting a piece of art. 3 00:00:06,330 --> 00:00:07,780 Have you ever done it? 4 00:00:07,810 --> 00:00:09,060 Maybe not? 5 00:00:09,090 --> 00:00:13,620 Don't worry, it's not very difficult, just a bit challenging. 6 00:00:13,650 --> 00:00:19,280 The only thing you need to know is the different steps I'm giving you 7 00:00:19,310 --> 00:00:25,120 in this guide and also look carefully at the masterpiece. 8 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:26,780 To make it even easier, 9 00:00:26,810 --> 00:00:32,860 I have created this video to help you and give you the instruction needed. 10 00:00:32,890 --> 00:00:36,420 To begin with, it's important to remember 11 00:00:36,450 --> 00:00:41,920 that to comment a piece of art, we need to cover three main points. 12 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,700 Identification, analysis, and context. 13 00:00:45,730 --> 00:00:51,040 Each one is crucial in the commentary, so let's start. 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,920 The first part is identification. 15 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,980 It's like the idea of a piece of art. 16 00:00:59,010 --> 00:01:03,020 They're very basic details such as name, 17 00:01:03,050 --> 00:01:10,770 author, date when it was created, location, and the artistic style. 18 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:15,700 Obviously, you need to do some research to find these details. 19 00:01:15,730 --> 00:01:21,400 Here, there is example of a piece of art. 20 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:27,490 In this case, the title is David, the author, Donatello. 21 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:33,290 The date it was created between 1430 and 1440. 22 00:01:33,320 --> 00:01:37,570 The location it's in Florence in the Bergalo Museum, 23 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:44,120 and the artistic style is the Renaissance, exactly the quattrocento. 24 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:50,660 For you, it's going to be a bit tricky to know the artistic style 25 00:01:50,690 --> 00:01:56,490 since the Renaissance is the only one we have studied so far in this unit. 26 00:01:56,520 --> 00:02:01,880 But it's very important to distinguish between the two periods 27 00:02:01,910 --> 00:02:06,020 of the Renaissance, quattrocento and King Quattrocento. 28 00:02:06,050 --> 00:02:07,180 To know it. 29 00:02:07,210 --> 00:02:13,940 You just need to see what's the century in which it was created. 30 00:02:13,970 --> 00:02:18,730 If it was created during the 15th century should be Quattrocento. 31 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:25,040 Or if it was created during the 16th century should be King Quattrocento. 32 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:31,760 Another way to know it is try to find in the present presentation of the unit, 33 00:02:31,790 --> 00:02:38,920 the modern age, to which period the author belongs to, and you can get it. 34 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:41,730 The second part, 35 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:46,700 and the one that shows your real knowledge of the unit, is the analysis. 36 00:02:46,730 --> 00:02:51,610 There are two types of analysis, technical and thematic. 37 00:02:51,640 --> 00:02:55,180 We're starting by the technical features. 38 00:02:55,210 --> 00:03:02,380 They include the artistic elements you are seeing in the image, for example, 39 00:03:02,410 --> 00:03:07,900 the material used, the main colors, the expression, etc. 40 00:03:07,930 --> 00:03:10,320 As well as the techniques used 41 00:03:10,350 --> 00:03:15,760 by the author in the shape or in the depth of the figure. 42 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,160 However, the analysis for an architectural 43 00:03:19,190 --> 00:03:24,500 building is not the same than for a sculpture or a painting. 44 00:03:24,530 --> 00:03:27,880 That's why I have created this table 45 00:03:27,910 --> 00:03:33,400 to get to know the features to command characteristic field. 46 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:36,100 Let's see the example. 47 00:03:36,130 --> 00:03:38,660 In this table, there are three columns 48 00:03:38,690 --> 00:03:47,200 and you need to focus on just the points in each column depending on if you are 49 00:03:47,230 --> 00:03:51,140 commenting an architecture, a sculpture, or a painting. 50 00:03:51,170 --> 00:03:54,420 In our case, as David from Donatello, 51 00:03:54,450 --> 00:03:59,180 it's a sculpture, we need to focus on the different points, 52 00:03:59,210 --> 00:04:04,740 the material used, use, the shape, the movement, the expression, 53 00:04:04,770 --> 00:04:10,440 or if it represents an idealistic or a realistic human. 54 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:16,100 Here is the example I have done for you. 55 00:04:16,130 --> 00:04:18,260 The material used is bronze. 56 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,940 We can appreciate the shape of a young man. 57 00:04:21,970 --> 00:04:27,860 There is a slight movement of the hip to generate movement, contrapostal. 58 00:04:27,890 --> 00:04:31,740 The composition is naked, so knowing realism in the body. 59 00:04:31,770 --> 00:04:38,440 A lso, we can appreciate some expression in his eyes. 60 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:43,980 The other type of analysis is the thematic, 61 00:04:44,010 --> 00:04:50,520 which is basically find story behind the piece and talk a bit about it. 62 00:04:54,280 --> 00:04:59,980 Themes can be religious, mythological, or portraits. 63 00:05:00,010 --> 00:05:05,740 Religious, from the Virgin Mary to any biblical episode. 64 00:05:05,770 --> 00:05:09,740 Methological, some myths of the ancient 65 00:05:09,770 --> 00:05:17,660 Greeks or Romans such as Apollo stories, Venus news stories or some others, 66 00:05:17,690 --> 00:05:24,280 or portraits representing a specific person of the time. 67 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,560 Furthermore, we should identify the purpose or 68 00:05:27,590 --> 00:05:33,220 the meaning of the creation, which consists of explaining the myth 69 00:05:33,250 --> 00:05:40,060 or the religious episode, or even the people represented in the portrait. 70 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:41,560 Who are they? 71 00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:48,740 Here, there is an example of the masterpiece commentin 72 00:05:48,770 --> 00:05:55,540 g, It's David was a little sephiric who fought against giant goliath. 73 00:05:55,570 --> 00:05:57,700 It's a biblical episode. 74 00:05:57,730 --> 00:06:01,340 So the theme is religious. 75 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,340 The importance, the meaning of this episode 76 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:12,760 is that faith is more important than strength when fighting a battle. 77 00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:18,380 Finally, the third part is the context. 78 00:06:18,410 --> 00:06:19,780 In this section, 79 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:25,420 you need to relate the piece of art with the historical period of its creation 80 00:06:25,450 --> 00:06:31,260 and to comment the main characteristics of the artistic style. 81 00:06:31,290 --> 00:06:37,180 You need to mention firstly, the historical period the piece belongs to. 82 00:06:37,210 --> 00:06:40,540 Then explain briefly about the economic, 83 00:06:40,570 --> 00:06:44,540 social and cultural relevant aspect of that time. 84 00:06:44,570 --> 00:06:50,060 To do so, you need to find it in the presentation of the modern age again. 85 00:06:50,090 --> 00:06:55,500 After that, the artistic characteristic of the Renaissance should be commented. 86 00:06:55,530 --> 00:07:01,700 For example, artists were looking for proportion and ideal beauty. 87 00:07:01,730 --> 00:07:06,340 Artists gained prestige and they were promoted by patrons. 88 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:12,980 They took Roman and Greek art as model and so on. 89 00:07:13,010 --> 00:07:17,940 Finally, very briefly, mention a bit about its legacy. 90 00:07:17,970 --> 00:07:22,560 If there are more examples of this theme, or if nowadays it's a very important 91 00:07:22,590 --> 00:07:26,240 masterpiece visited by thousands of tourists. 92 00:07:26,270 --> 00:07:31,580 Again, in here, obviously, some research is required. 93 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:36,980 This is how a piece of art is commented. 94 00:07:37,010 --> 00:07:44,600 Here it's the example given of the David in the context section. 95 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,080 Basically, that's all you need to do. 96 00:07:48,100 --> 00:07:53,300 However, maybe you will find difficult to see few things 97 00:07:53,330 --> 00:08:02,000 in the painting specifically or in some architecture pieces of art. 98 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,620 I have created for that the following slides 99 00:08:06,650 --> 00:08:10,400 in which I have included some basic details. 100 00:08:10,640 --> 00:08:13,740 If you want to see if a painting has depth 101 00:08:13,770 --> 00:08:17,180 or not, and now the type of perspective used, 102 00:08:17,210 --> 00:08:24,000 because I'm saying you that most Renaissance paintings have perspective, 103 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:27,300 you need to look carefully at the painting. 104 00:08:27,330 --> 00:08:32,180 In this example, look at the painting, the School of Athens by Raphael Sancho. 105 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:33,840 Carefully. 106 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:43,620 Focus your sight on the place where your eyes go directly without any intention. 107 00:08:43,650 --> 00:08:53,200 What's that place where are you looking at without any intention to do it? 108 00:08:57,320 --> 00:08:59,580 Probably it's here, right? Or there? 109 00:08:59,610 --> 00:09:00,620 Or there? 110 00:09:00,650 --> 00:09:05,580 Yes, somewhere in the middle of these key 111 00:09:05,610 --> 00:09:10,040 main figures who are plateau and Aristotle. 112 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:17,820 Yeah, you have discovered the vanishing point. 113 00:09:17,850 --> 00:09:20,100 The vanishing point of an image 114 00:09:20,130 --> 00:09:24,780 is the point in which all lines converse together. 115 00:09:24,810 --> 00:09:28,340 All the lines departs from that point 116 00:09:28,370 --> 00:09:34,500 and organize the rest of the figures and the painting itself. 117 00:09:34,530 --> 00:09:39,980 It allows painters to generate depth and depth in paintings. 118 00:09:40,010 --> 00:09:49,240 In that case, depth is generated with the large corridor and the sky at the back. 119 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:57,740 However, the linear perspective wasn't the only one during that time. 120 00:09:57,760 --> 00:09:58,640 There was another technique.