Module 9 Video Reviews

I chose to view the Albrecht Durer video because I was not very familiar with his work.  I was curious and wanted to learn more.  I chose the Leonardo da Vinci video, because I find da Vinci to be fascinating and brilliant.  This made me want to learn even more about him, and his artwork.  I learned a great deal from the Albrecht Durer video.  Durer was a portrait artist that was extremely interested in the process of aging.  He would paint almost exact replicas of his muses, showing their age ruthlessly.  When traveling through Italy, Durer became fascinated with the idea of landscape.  He was, in fact, the first landscape artist there.  Durer was commissioned by German’s to make murals for their church.  His painting was an enormous success.  He painted with fresh, bright colors, and even included himself in the background.  Durer used wood cuts to explore how to construct the perfect form.  I also learned a great deal from the interesting Leonardo da Vinci video.  Leonardo apprenticed at an adolescent age under Andrea del Verocchio.  Da Vinci’s earlier work and musings focused around the exploration of what was true.  For example, he centered mainly on the physiology of man and animals.  Leonardo was a brilliant man and with these very technical drawings, came philosophical musings/ predictions about life, shape, proportion, nature, and beauty.  Da Vinci was truly a Renaissance man.  He was a brilliant painter, architect, thinker, drawer, engineer, and much more.  His talent was otherworldly, as was the nature of his work.The videos about Leonardo and Durer relate to the readings in the text for Chapter 16.  Both videos explore the artistic period/style called the High Renaissance, as this is the time in which both men were popular.  The videos showed how, especially for Leonardo, this was a time where theological thought triumphed over realism, and where there was a shift back to vibrant colors, contrasting light, and heavenly/dream-like paintings.  Durer’s video explores the development of the landscape painting, as the text did.   These videos add depth and understanding to the readings because they allowed you to really get to know the artists.  The videos let you see inside their heads, get to know what kind of people they were, see where their interests lied, and discover how their personal lives affected their work, etc.