Time Traveling Art Historian

Time Traveling, Art Historian, Book Chapters 1-3
Art Historian of the twenty first century. I am most fascinated with the arts and culture of the Early Italian and Northern European Renaissance, but also the Early 20th Century. After many years in development, I finally have created the most advanced technology to date. I successfully designed and manufactured a time travel machine. And with this time travel machine I am going to travel to these time periods to gather information about specific works of art and the artists that created them. I will reflect the ideas, values, beliefs and desires that have characterized each of these societies, and reflect on how these influenced the art of its respected era. Although, I will travel to other ancient civilizations other that these three civilizations to complete the final chapters of my book of travels and experiences, but I am revealing the first three chapters of my book now, and only to you! I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 1: Italian Renaissance and the Mona Lisa As I began to plan my travels, I had to decide where to go first. Then I thought, nothing could be better than to see the world’s most famous piece of visual art, the Mona Lisa. This is oil on poplar wood panel painted by Leonardo da Vinci between the years 1503–1506 and ranks among Leonardo 's finest work of art. (Mona Lisa, 1987).
In the early middle ages, all types of arts were influenced by religion, and so this was the topic of most art. The late middle ages showed more naturalism in the arts and art took a more secular turn instead of being focused on religion only. The human figure and a depiction on the physical world and three dimensional space and mass became important. This continued to the arts of Renaissance.
The Renaissance changed the way people thought of themselves. They were no longer just part of a larger religious group, there was the notion of the individual self. The Renaissance literally meaning “rebirth” began in Florence, when artists such Donatello and Brunelleshi turned to ancient Roman art and architecture for inspiration. There was a reinvention of the civilizations and ideals of classical Greece and Rome (Benton and DiYanni, 2008 pg.307). The period c.1500–20, known as the High Renaissance, is when artistic focus shifted from Florence to Rome, there classicism and Christianity converged, and this was highly influential on the arts. Since there was major concentration on humanism, a new self-consciousness arose about style. Humanist in general, appreciated beauty, in nature and in human endeavor.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) also known as a “Renaissance Man” because he was talented in a wide range of endeavors, was born and raised in Florence, Italy. He was known as a painter of portraits, and religious and historical works, but also as a sculptor (Benton and DiYanni, 2008). Sometime after returning to Florence after being forced to leave, Leonardo began the Mona Lisa.
As I study this masterpiece, I can see Leonardo’s fascination with nature as I view the Landscaping behind her. This is the first instance of portrait on landscape. See, it is said Leonardo had a life-long fascination with the effects of wind and water on the environment (Benton and DiYanni,2008). Mona Lisa is seated in the midst of an open loggia with the landscape stretching out towards an icy mountain range. She appears relaxed and natural, presented in half-length, with the hands showing, her hair line and her clothing symbolize nobility. Everything about her posture speaks reservation and silence. (Aspect Art, 2009). It is clear to me that Leonardo’s inspiration for, the portrait of Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini, came from the fashion of the time while still honoring the classical, humanist and naturalist ways in which he was taught in Florence. Leonardo was known for trying new things. Most interesting and what makes this painting so famous in our culture is her smile. Expression is what Leonardo believed showed the intention of one’s soul. The overall I get a kind of natural attraction to her. She almost comes alive.
When Painting the Mona Lisa, Leonardo elevated himself into another station of artist, those that create new forms and perspectives and really set a standard for portraiture in his time. As much as I would like to stand in her glory longer, I must continue my travels.
Chapter 2: The Northern European Renaissance and Shakespeare The year is set to 1603. Traveling to Shakespeare’s Globe Playhouse built in London, this theatre was in operation from 1599-1613. The 3 storey, 3000 capacity Globe Theatre, co-owned by William Shakespeare became almost as famous as the playwright himself (Absolute Shakespeare,2005). During its years in operation, this playhouse staged visual art and literature from who is considered today as the greatest writer in the English language. I’m traveling to the Globe to attend one of Shakespeare 's best-known, most-imitated, and most-analyzed plays, Hamlet. .
We already know that in the Late Middle ages, art took a more secular turn, but complete separation of the church and stage did not occur until the middle of the fifteenth century. Hamlet was written at a time of religious upheaval, and in the wake of the English Reformation, the play is Catholic and Protestant. The play has a religious connection to arts in previous civilizations since most of the arts before the Renaissance was religious. Along with the religious influence, there were the ideas of Italy, where all art was infused with humanistic and classic values, combined with indigenous developments to produce The Northern European Renaissance. In the sixteenth century is when drama became reflections of everyday life.

Shakespeare had the Renaissance concern for human beings and the world around them. Hence his plays deal first and foremost with the human personality, passions, and problems. His specialty was in his creation of character, and his ability to translate his knowledge of human nature into dramatic speech and action. While these genres can be specifically applied to Shakespeare 's works, these derive their classifications from the plays of ancient Greek and Roman times, and the definitions of various philosophers such as Aristotle. In such works as Romeo and Juliet, the problems of love and sex are studied from many angles. Ambition is studied in Macbeth and Julius Caesar, the Tragedy in Hamlet (World History Project, 1995). Shakespeare wrote many tragedies in his career, of course Hamlet but also Othello and Macbeth. See, in Shakespeare 's day, plays were to follow the texts of Aristotle. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy is a hero of noble birth whose tragic flaw leads to his demise. And that a drama should focus on action, not character. In Hamlet, Shakespeare reverses this so that it is through the soliloquies, not the action, that the audience learns Hamlet 's motives and thoughts
The play vividly charts the course of real madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption (Savvica, 2010 para 2).
Hamlet is one of the most quoted works in the English language, and is considered one of the greatest of all literature in the world. Because of this, it is recreated over and over in later centuries. It was now time to continue my travels once again. Chapter 3: Early 20th century and Picasso
The year is set to 1937, to see Guernica by Pablo Ruiz Picasso, the single most important and least understood artist of the twentieth century. Guernica is arguably Picasso 's most famous painting.
Pablo Picasso, who lives in a huge cultural center for the arts in his time, Paris, France, agrees to paint the centerpiece for the Spanish Pavilion of the 1937 World 's Fair and it becomes modern art 's most powerful antiwar statement. In his search for inspiration for this oil on canvas mural, he is frustrated by trouble caused by politics in his homeland, Spain. Once news reached Paris of the massacre in Guernica where thousands of innocent citizens are killed by bombing and fire that destroys the city of northern Spain. Picasso began this masterpiece to commemorate the deaths of the people of Guernica, and to raise consciousness about the threat of fascism. And, as the mural toured Europe, Picasso refuses to allow it to travel to Spain until the country enjoys "public liberties and democratic institutions." In 1981, Spain 's commemorates Picasso by returning the Guernica to Picasso 's native soil in a testimony of national reconciliation. In its final journey, Picasso 's vision has served as a banner for a nation on its path toward freedom and democracy (PBS, n.d.).
The later nineteenth century trend toward abstraction of the visual world and the willingness to distort its form and color or avant-garde, became more extreme in early twentieth century art. The Dada movement went against tradition, and was referred to as a kind of anti-art, where art was embodied by chance and irrationality, and this also continued to thrive thru this time period, with a never ending quest for the new. The interest of abstraction, in the form of cubism, of the visual world is evident in paintings of this era. Another example of a painting with the cubist form of abstraction by Picasso is the Les Demoiselles d’Avignon painted in 1907. The Guernica is painted in surrealist style. Surrealism was indebted to Dada, but differed in its fascination with the realm of dreams (Benton and DiYanni, 2008).
Picasso believed color was an expressive force, in Guernica he used black white and grey with a Pieta theme. Picasso uses this theme to mourn the death of the people of Guernica much like Mary mourned Jesus in the marble sculpture, Pieta, by Michelangelo. Michelangelo believed beauty was found in the imagination. Painters often rotate or invert paintings to check balance and stability in the composition. Picasso knew from this and from his Cubist experiments that sideways or inverted imagery could have a powerful subliminal effect on the viewer and give a work hidden meanings and magical secrecy. Despite enormous interest, Picasso refused to explain Guernica 's imagery. There are many speculations as to the exact meaning of the many twisted images depicted on this painting. But it is a hallmark of Picasso 's art that any symbol can hold many, often contradictory meanings, and the precise significance of the imagery in Guernica remains ambiguous. When asked to explain his symbolism, Picasso remarked, "It isn 't up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them."(PBS, n.d. para. 11). “The horse, speared and dying, represents the fate of creativity. A bull surveys the entire scene, which represents Spain and the bullfight and the struggle of life and death. The bull also represents the Minotaur, the bull man of Greek mythology, which stands for the animalistic forces of the human psyche. The electric light bulb at the top center of the painting and the oil lamp held by the woman reaching out of the window have been much debated and represent on a fundamental level old and new ways of seeing” (Benton & DiYanni, 2008, p. 564). The painting is now recognized as an international icon for peace.

References
Aspect Art (2009) Analysis of the Mona Lisa. Retrieved on July 28, 2010 from, http://www.aspectart.com/info/da-vincis-paintings/analysis-of-the-mona-lisa
Absolute Shakespeare (2005) Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Retrieved on July 28, 2010 from,http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/globe/globe.htm
Benton, J. R., & DiYanni, R. (2008). Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jeresy: Prentice Hall.
Harris, Mark and Banton, Simon (1996) Picasso 's "Secret" Guernica. Retrieved on July 31, 2010 from, http://web.org.uk/picasso/secret_guernica.html
Mona Lisa. (1987). In The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/mheren/mona_lisa
PBS (n.d.) Guernica: Testimony of War. Retrieved on July 31, 2010 from, http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html
Renaissance art. (2005). In The Crystal Reference Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cre/renaissance_art
World History Project (1995).The Northern Renaissance. Retrieved on July 28, 2010 from, http://history-world.org/northern_renaissance.htm

References: Aspect Art (2009) Analysis of the Mona Lisa. Retrieved on July 28, 2010 from, http://www.aspectart.com/info/da-vincis-paintings/analysis-of-the-mona-lisa Absolute Shakespeare (2005) Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Retrieved on July 28, 2010 from,http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/globe/globe.htm Benton, J. R., & DiYanni, R. (2008). Arts and Culture: An Introduction to the Humanities (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jeresy: Prentice Hall. Harris, Mark and Banton, Simon (1996) Picasso 's "Secret" Guernica. Retrieved on July 31, 2010 from, http://web.org.uk/picasso/secret_guernica.html Mona Lisa. (1987). In The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/mheren/mona_lisa PBS (n.d.) Guernica: Testimony of War. Retrieved on July 31, 2010 from, http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html Renaissance art. (2005). In The Crystal Reference Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/cre/renaissance_art World History Project (1995).The Northern Renaissance. Retrieved on July 28, 2010 from, http://history-world.org/northern_renaissance.htm