The Dirty Renaissance
The Dirty Renaissance
The Renaissance period is one in the art world that is held just short of the second coming. This “reawakening” is characterized by a renewed interest in human-centered classical art, literature, and learning. Many famous artists and thus pieces of artwork came out of this period, which are still studied by students of art and by professional artists. Famous pieces suck as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the Sistine Chapel were created in this period of art. It is easy to study these pieces of artwork by simply reading about them in textbooks, or looking at pictures of them on the internet. However, what has happened to the actual original pieces of artwork that the artists created? It would seem that with the technology that we have now, we could easily restore and clean these historical pieces of art, right? The process of restoration and conservation of these pieces of art is not always an easy process, and can possibly create more damage than it is actually worth. People want to be able to actually see the historic paintings in person today, centuries after they were created. If no attempts were ever made to restore the paintings from the Renaissance, all that we would have left would be these pictures in books and on the web. This is a worldwide issue, that affects not only artists all over the world, but also students and teachers of art throughout the globe, who also would not want to lose huge pieces of history from such a great era in the world of art. One of the most famous pieces of art that came out of the Renaissance was Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Da Vinci painted The Last Supper on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco or wall painting. This type of painting can not altered as the artist works, so Da Vinci sealed the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso and mastic, then painted onto the sealing layer with tempera. This method of painting has not been able to endure
The Renaissance period is one in the art world that is held just short of the second coming. This “reawakening” is characterized by a renewed interest in human-centered classical art, literature, and learning. Many famous artists and thus pieces of artwork came out of this period, which are still studied by students of art and by professional artists. Famous pieces suck as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and the Sistine Chapel were created in this period of art. It is easy to study these pieces of artwork by simply reading about them in textbooks, or looking at pictures of them on the internet. However, what has happened to the actual original pieces of artwork that the artists created? It would seem that with the technology that we have now, we could easily restore and clean these historical pieces of art, right? The process of restoration and conservation of these pieces of art is not always an easy process, and can possibly create more damage than it is actually worth. People want to be able to actually see the historic paintings in person today, centuries after they were created. If no attempts were ever made to restore the paintings from the Renaissance, all that we would have left would be these pictures in books and on the web. This is a worldwide issue, that affects not only artists all over the world, but also students and teachers of art throughout the globe, who also would not want to lose huge pieces of history from such a great era in the world of art. One of the most famous pieces of art that came out of the Renaissance was Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Da Vinci painted The Last Supper on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco or wall painting. This type of painting can not altered as the artist works, so Da Vinci sealed the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso and mastic, then painted onto the sealing layer with tempera. This method of painting has not been able to endure