FIRST EDITION

THE AESTHETICS
OF ART
U N D E R S TA N D I N G W H AT W E S E E

By Liza Renia Papi

St. John’s University
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CONTENTS
V FOREWORD

VII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IX PREFACE

1 INTRODUCTION

9 CHAPTER 1: Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400–1600)

1 The Birthplace of the Renaissance  9
2 Humanism, Individualism, and Secularism 10
3 Concepts of Perspective: Perspective Drawing, New Way of
Looking at Nature 13
4 The Principles of Optics and Visual Perception 15
5 Artistic Innovation that Characterized the Renaissance 21
6 How Philosophy Influenced Art and How Art Influenced Math and Science 24
7 How the Italian Renaissance Influenced the Mexican Muralists 27
8 New Perspective, Structure, and Social View 31
9 Color Wheel 34

41 CHAPTER 2: How to Look at and Approach a Work of Art

1 Breaking Away From Art Tradition 44
2 Observing Composition, Balance, and Symmetry 47
3 Drawing 51
4 Printmaking 56
5 Photography 60

79 CHAPTER 3: Modernism
1 Impressionism 80
2 Art Nouveau 87
3 Expressionism 96
4 Abstractionism, a New Way of Seeing 104
5 Cubism 112
6 Futurism 120
7 Constructivism and Suprematism 122
8 Dadaism 124
 9 Surrealism 134
10 Op-Art 138
11 Abstract Expressionism, Postwar Abstract Painting 139

149 CHAPTER 4: Post-Modernism

1 Avant-Garde Art 148
2 Neo-Abstract Expressionism 149
3 Minimalism 155
4 Pop Art 162
5 Performance Art 166
6 Conceptual Art, Installation Art 170
7 Feminist Art 174
8 Graffiti 179
9 Public Art 192

215 CHAPTER 5: Decoding the Art: The Visual Analysis

1 Contemporary Art 218
2 Neo-Contemporary Realism 225
3 Neo-Abstract Futurism 229
4 Digital Art, Computer Art 236

241 APPENDIX A: TIMELINE: THE EARLIER RENAISSANCE, FLORENCE, ITALY

242 APPENDIX B: TIMELINE: MODERN TIME 1890

243 APPENDIX C: TIMELINE: CONTEMPORARY WORLD

244 GLOSSARY
FOREWORD
Although some consider visual art a realm that should be universally understood, many people
in fact find art to be remarkably mute without a bit of supportive assistance. In her new book,
The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See, Liza Renia Papi seeks to arm the would-be viewer
with the tools needed to confidently approach varied works of art. She provides the content and
context that can be brought to the viewing experience to bolster knowledge and confidence and
encourage observation and interpretation—in short, to get an artwork to “speak” to us.
Papi offers a fully loaded tool kit to connect the viewer with art through the ages. We will
each still come away with different insights and preferences, but we can go into the experience of
looking at art with a support structure and a gentle and knowledgeable guide who is cheering us
on.

Sharon Vatsky
Director of School and Family Programs
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T hanks to my mother, Lair Bronzon Papi, for early reading encouragement and for making
us trust in education; and to my aunt, Hymirene Papi de Guimaraens, for her philosophical
essays and inspiration.
Thank you also to my professors and advisers: Alcídio M. Mafra, PhD; George N. Preston,
PhD; Harriet Senie, PhD; Michael Smith, Ph.D.; Christopher Yates, Ph.D.; George Smith, Ph.D.;
and Simonetta Moro, Ph.D.
I would also like to offer my thanks for the support and care from Professor Belenna Lauto at
St. Johns University; for all the editing from my friend Barbara Turkewitz; for the great help from
James Flager and my special student and friend Macalai Soriano Ramos; and for the support and
love from my kids, Mourrice Omena Papi and Kristi Ashely Collom.
PREFACE
T h way we both see and perceive the world in general and art in particular is very personal,
but there are ways of seeing and observing that can help us recognize and understand what
we see. This book is about how to look at and understand art, how to describe it and to make
connections. The purpose is not to teach how to write an essay; however, writing is crucially
important. Writing observations helps to develop powers of observation and provide data on
which to base opinions. The focus resulting from writing creates possibilities and dimensionality
from original observations. Suggestions for creating better analytical essays are included to help
undergraduate students amplify their visual thinking.
Our focus is on twentieth- and twenty-first-century art in the Americas and Europe. We will be
helped on this journey by a review of Italian Renaissance basic perspective rules; Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe’s Theory of Colors; as well as such theories as Rudolf Arnheim’s Visual Perception.
For example, understanding Leonard da Vinci’s scientific and mathematical concepts and how
artists understood and used them will help us understand beauty and the aesthetics of art as it
transitions to abstraction at the end of the nineteenth century.
Attention, observation, and how we formulate questions are fundamental to our understanding
of art. After the class discussion on each school of art, students will write individual short essays
about what they saw, how they understand an understanding of art criticism, as the
it, and how and why each art movement meaning of artwork differs depending on
made a difference. its significance to the viewer.
In Writing About Art, Henry Sayre states, We will start the twentieth century by
“Writing will help to organize your thoughts briefly reviewing some elemental factors
and feelings about the visual world.” I rec- that transformed the way of seeing and
ommend his books, as well as a book by the thinking at the turn of the century. Some
same name by my dear Professor Marjorie of these factors, such as Sigmund Freud’s
Munsterberg, where she explains differ- theory of the unconscious (which influ-
ent approaches undergraduate students enced the surrealists) and Albert Einstein’s
encounter in art history classes. In each theory of relativity (which changed our
chapter, she outlines the characteristics of ideas about matter with the knowledge
one type of visual or historical analysis and of atoms) transformed society and all the
briefly explains its history and development. arts. One of the first artists to question
Passages by well-known art historians pro- the laws of perspective was Paul Cézanne
vide examples of each method. Appendices (1839–1906), who simplified his work so it
III and IV include sample student papers, became almost abstract as he flattened the
accompanied by her comments and sug- forms.
gested changes. Another important cultural factor was
I will use her method of providing the first World’s Fair, held in Paris in 1900.
examples of students’ essays as a reference. The World’s Fair influenced many artists
These examples will serve to give students such as Georges Braque (1882–1963), who
an opportunity to read first-hand essays for the first time had the opportunity to
that will clarify what makes a paper a “B” or see a variety of art, including African art.
an “A” and why. It will also provide insight When nineteen-year-old Pablo Picasso
into differences in the way students look at (1881–1973), who was living in Barcelona
and understand art as well as how different at that time, went to Paris to see the exhibi-
opinions and vocabulary can be. tion, he saw his first African mask. He was
Also, I used some useful comments from impressed by the simplification of forms.
the value-creating educator Tsunesaburo Seven years later, he went to Dahomey and
Makiguchi (1871–1944), who believed that the French and Belgian Congos in Africa.
rather than provide knowledge itself, we It seems that when Picasso visited France’s
must encourage the joy and excitement Museé d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro for
that arise from learning. The art critics African art, like Cézanne, he questioned
Roger Fry, Clement Greenberg, and Robert the classic laws of perspective. We will see
Hughes are included in this book to provide

x| How to Speak Art

these trends when we discuss his painting collage, paper cutting, and printmaking,
Les Demoiselles, finished in 1907. creating their own ways of solving
In addition to Cubism, we will take a problems of perspective, negative and
look at other abstract art movements that positive space, color, balance, and optical
came from Europe later, such as Dadaism, illusion. I perceived that these workshops
Bauhaus, and Op-Art. The period between help students with motor skills and visual
1900 and post–World War II marked a thinking; students interacted in a physical
turning point for many famous abstract way to create solutions, allowing them to
artists from all over the world. We will understand the abstraction in Bauhaus or
study the American abstract expressionism Rudolf Arnheim’s principles of art and
developed in New York in the 1940s. From visual perception, as well as other theories
there, we will navigate through the 1960s that were often difficult for undergraduates
with Pop Art, Graffiti in the 1970s, Feminist to truly understand.
Art, Conceptual Art, Environmental Art, This book also provides a tool kit: a
Public Art, until our time of Contemporary glossary of essential terms to expand art
Digital Art. vocabulary; a list of important styles and
This class is unique because as art artists; step-by-step directions of art forms;
appreciation, classwork laboratories are a museum guide; and links to websites
performed, which are hands-on activities related to the art forms or art movements.
related to the art style being studied. These Art is everywhere, even in our bodies,
workshops resulted from a decade of trying how we do things, and the way we present
to encourage students to connect with art ourselves. I hope this book increases your
styles and art techniques by interacting curiosity, understanding, and joy about art.
directly with the new experience. Students
invented and constructed their own in- Liza Renia Papi
terpretations using drawings, watercolor,

Preface | xi
INTRODUCTION
W hen writing about art, undergraduate students most often comment on the value of
the work as “good,” “very good,” “excellent,” or “the artist did a good job.” Instead
of giving assessments or compliments, I would like to recommend we describe what we see.
Writing a formal analysis, we analyze the artwork just as we find it; we seek an explanation of
the visual structure as described by professors Marjorie Munsterberg and Henry M. Sayre. 1 In
1958, Marshall B. Davidson, the editor of publications at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York, wrote in the introduction to the museum’s 1958 Seminar Art Catalog that “we can
honestly delight from a painting without knowing anything about art. But passive acceptance of
this pleasure in the presence of a first-rate work of art will not begin to suggest the satisfactions
that reward an active and informed approach.” In response to this assessment, the Metropolitan
Museum decided the same year to create a series of workshops/seminars for the public to inves-
tigate some of the same questions we still find relevant: “What is art?” and “What has become
of the relationship between artists and observer today as compared to earlier civilizations?” 2
These two questions were repeated by other art institutions throughout the United States and
became the basis of a new way of understanding art. Additionally, scholars began researching
the historical background of artistic works, creating a historical analysis that revealed social and

1 Marjorie Munsterberg, Writing About Art, www.writingaboutart.org.

2 e Marshall B. Davidson, Seminar Art Catalog, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: 1958), 7–8.
political issues, both from when the art was three kinds of experiences that we are still
created and the periods thereafter. interested in understanding. These three
Is anything that a human being creates aspects are balance, proportion, and per-
considered “art”? In a classic definition, art spective. Marguerite Zorach (1887–1968)
is the expression or application of human provides a good example of classical com-
creative skill and imagination, typically in a position (see Fig. 0.02). Her use of vertical
visual form such as painting or sculpture, black elements draws the observer’s atten-
producing works to be appreciated primarily tion to the white spaces in the middle that
for their beauty or emotional power. Does are her focus.
painting refer only to a layer of pigments In the early 1900s, Rudolf Arnheim
applied to a surface? Or is a painting a (1904–2007) began a discipline explicitly
projection of the person who painted it? I created to help the viewer understand
recommend that each person question any what they were seeing. Originally trained
and all definitions we try to present on our in psychology, he took his knowledge of
understanding of art. the way humans see the world and applied
We will not seek to answer these ques- it to formal art comprehension. His book,
tions as we go forward. They are for you Visual Thinking, first published in Germany,
to ponder if you want. Today the questions later translated and available in the United
have changed. Today, virtually everyone States in 1969, discussed his method of
involved with art institutions asks viewers: “looking at an artwork.” Since 1928, he
What do you see … ? had written about and discussed his belief
During the Renaissance, we see the be- that a painting begins with a subject but, as
ginning of a hierarchical structure imposed in abstract painting, the object is only the
by the church and the political leaders on point of departure, and he contended that
the composition of paintings. The analyt- one of the benefits of studying art is that
ical device used to describe this hierarchy it develops attention and teaches people
was a triangle, which was used to bring or- to think critically. His process requires the
ganization and harmony to the painting and viewer to maintain a questioning mood or
to allow people to understand the relative frame of mind and orient themselves to
importance of the object therein. collect the data needed to find meaning.
The Renaissance triangle, while not Seeing and comprehending what has been seen are
generally used in contemporary or modern two different aspects of the same mental process, he
art in the hierarchical fashion, is still useful argued: when the eyes meet a particular picture for
for discussing art, in that it provides a the first time, they are faced with the challenge of the
structure for talking about what we see. new situation; they have to orient themselves, they
The triangle (see Fig. 0.01) symbolizes have to find a structure that will lead the mind to

2 | How to Speak Art

FIG. 0.01 FIG. 0.02
Triangle composition organization Marguerite Zorach, Memories of My California Childhood, c. 1921
Oil on canvas, 30 × 25 in
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Marguerite Zorach / Public Domain.

the picture’s meaning. He also believed that art and how they relate to each other. Typically,
was visual thinking, a means of expression.3 a formal analysis describes the formal
elements utilized in the painting, like color,
Formal Analysis shapes, and lines, and then discusses any
effects achieved by these elements.
When performing a formal analysis of any
work of art, the core is a visual description
Visual Description Analysis
of the work and an analysis of the elements
1. Identify the artist, the time.
3 Rudolf Arnheim, Visual Thinking (Oakland, CA:
University of California Press, 1969), 254–55.

Introduction | 3
2. Identify technique/media (acrylic, oil, ­fresco Once your own formal analysis is com-
… ) and format (mural, scroll, screen). plete and you have gained an understanding
3. Identify style, a manner or a meth- of what you see and understand from a
od of painting (classic, Cubism, work of art, you can expand your under-
Expressionism, Dadaism, etc.). standing by researching the writings of the
4. Describe what is actually seen (elements artist, others artists, and art critics. Seeing
of the piece). how others respond to these works does
5. Describe how the elements are organized not invalidate your assessment but can aid
(shape, space, light, dark, balanced, in understanding the more complex ways
symmetrical, asymmetrical). a piece can be understood. This foray into
6. Describe perspective (aerial, linear). thinking critically—which is to say, constantly
7. Describe kinds of colors used and the asking questions and comparing opinions—
impact or mood created. can become a formidable tool in other life
8. Discuss how the work affects the viewer endeavors. Henry M. Sayre wrote that critical
and explain why. thinking is an exercise in discovery, that it is de-
9. Conclude the analysis with your as- signed to uncover possibilities, not necessarily certain
sessment of the success of the art at truths.4 Naming a technique is not adequate;
conveying the ideas, thoughts, world- for example, noting that a work uses an ae-
view, and concepts of the artist as rial perspective fails if it neglects to explain
understood from the piece itself. why or how it is being used and its impact
on that particular artistic endeavor.
It is often useful to employ terms like As an example, Paul Cézanne (1839–
foreground, middle ground, and background to 1906) challenges the Renaissance orthodoxy
describe where figures or objects on a on perspective and creates art with different
canvas are relative to the depth of work and vanishing-point perspectives in the same
to explain perspective and space. Types of plane, allowing objects to be independent
brushstrokes, colors, and textures will help within the space and sometimes almost ab-
provide descriptions of the work. stract (see Fig. 0.03). English artist and art
It is also recommended that the analysis critic Roger Fry (1866–1934) wrote that “in
include comparisons between main works, Cézanne there is … conscience.”5 Fry had
both by the same artist and by other artists. compared influences of Cézanne with his
These comparisons serve to sharpen the friends, the writer Emil Zola (1840–1902)
understanding of the work by forcing a
focus on differences and/or similarities that 4 Henry M Sayre, Writing About Art (Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2008), Introduction.
may prove important. 5 Roger Fry, Cezanne, Study of His Development
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 25.

4 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

FIG. 0.03
Paul Cézanne, La Montagne Saint Victoire, oil on canvas, 25 × 32 in., c.1885–1887.
Paul Cézanne / Public Domain.

and Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), saying: Braque (1882–1963), who also eliminated
“Zola has perhaps more importance than depth in their works.
has generally been allowed. Cézanne was Formal analysis, historical analysis, or
destined to recreate for the modern world, iconography has rules and expectations for
not in terms of reminiscence of past works the subject matter to be included. The goal
of art but as a new potent reality. They of this type of analysis is to investigate the
were children of the Romantic movement, meaning of a particular work at the time
they shared the sublime and heroic faith in of its creation. It concentrates on subject
art which that movement engendered, its matter, function, price, culture, and historic
devotion and absolutism.” (Fry 1989, 5, 87). period. Historical analysis data are gathered
Cézanne’s later works emphasize the from critics, historians, period newspapers,
geometric shapes of his subjects, a short journals, diaries, and any other primary or
step from early Cubism (see Fig. 0.04). His secondary sources but do not depend upon
work influenced the early Cubist works of the viewer’s explanation of what they see,
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) and Georges except that which the viewer may find in the
art, social, or political clues.

Introduction | 5
FIG. 0.04
Paul Cézanne, Mill at the River, oil on canvas, 31 × 49 (1900–1906)
Paul Cézanne / Public Domain.

Standard questions utilized in these 6. What does the artist appear to be saying
types of analysis include: about the images that he or she has
created?
1. When was the work done? 7. What can we learn about the period
2. What social event(s) were important during which the art was created?
during that time? Looking at the work, what can we learn
3. Does the scene tell a story? Is there a about the clothing, stature, occupa-
message in the work? tions, street life, home life, food, battle,
4. Does the title provide any insights? weaponry, technology?
5. Is the depiction evocative of other
events, either from the period during We interpret and find meanings in art in
which the art was created or earlier diverse ways. Professor Munsterberg stated
periods? that there are many other ways to relate a

6 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

work to history, though, involving different Image Credits
elements of the period from which it came. Fig. 0.02: Marguerite Zorach / Copyright in
One of them is an iconographic analysis, the Public Domain.
which establishes the meaning a work of Fig. 0.03: Paul Cézanne/Copyright in the
art had at the time it was made. She further Public Domain.
explains that this methodology is not as Fig. 0.04: Paul Cézanne/Copyright in the
simple as it sounds, because people tend to Public Domain.
see what they “know” is there.6

6 Marjorie Munsterberg, “Iconographic

Analysis,” Writing About Art (2009), http://
writingaboutart.org/pages/iconographi-
canalysis.html.

Introduction | 7
ch 1

CONCEPTS FROM RENAISSANCE

IN FLORENCE, ITALY (1400­­–1600)

T his chapter takes a look at some concepts during the Italian Renaissance period that changed
our way of seeing. It is imperative that we keep in mind the origins of some basic concepts
to be able to develop better theses.

1. The Birthplace of the Renaissance

The birthplace of the Renaissance was in Florence or Firenze, Italy, c. 1400 and it was a “reviv-
al” or, as the word Renaissance means, a “rebirth” of classical civilization and learning about
Greek and Roman culture and philosophy. Just before this period (c. 1370), important innovators
and authors such as Dante Alighieri (c. 1265–1321) and Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) lived,
and the first stirrings of Renaissance art were to be seen, notably in the realism of Giotto di
Bondone. The Italian Renaissance has two periods: the Earlier Renaissance, c. 1400, and the High
Renaissance, which is traditionally taken period. Some of the greatest thinkers,
to begin in the 1490s. Some authors divide philosophers, and artists lived during the
Italian Renaissance painting into four periods: Renaissance, such as Michelangelo, Sandro
the Proto-Renaissance (c. 1300–1400), the Botticelli, Raphael, Filippo Brunelleschi,
Early Renaissance (c. 1400–1475), the High Tintoretto, Leonardo da Vinci, and
Renaissance (c. 1475–1525), and Mannerism Saint Thomas Aquinas, who introduced
(c. 1525–1600). Observe that the lives of Aristotelian philosophy to Christianity in
individual artists during the Renaissance the thirteenth century. Unfortunately, we
and their personal styles overlapped the will not be able to review all of the great
different periods. concepts that influenced our contemporary
In Athens, Greece, the philosopher perception. They created the formation of
Plato (c. 428 BC–c. 348 BC) was the first that style in the arts that are still used as a
to explore the philosophy of art and aes- touchstone of aesthetic quality today. This
thetics, along with a great appreciation for concept is a result of Plato’s philosophy of
beauty. He was a student of Socrates (c. beauty, a vision that has been a source of
470/469 BC–c. 399 BC) and a teacher of inspiration to all Western culture.1
Aristotle (c. 384 BC–c. 322 BC). Beauty is
Plato’s example of a Form because it bears
every mark of its evolution. Plato’s phi- 1 For more on Plato and the concept of beauty,
see The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.Plato.
losophy influenced Aristotle, who became
stanford.edu.
a philosopher leader in the later medieval

2. Humanism, Individualism, and Secularism

After the period known as the Medieval Humanism focuses on the studies of
Era, scholars and thinkers switched their human capabilities; it is a rediscovery of
focus from heaven and earth and the ulti- Latin and Greek literary texts and the first
mate search for salvation to the earth and critical analysis of texts. By the mid-fif-
humans. Renaissance thinkers promoted teenth century, humanism described a
three main ideas: humanism, individualism, curriculum that consisted of grammar,
and secularism. rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry, and

10 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

history. An example of the humanist period
is a work by Florence-born Sandro Botticelli
(1445–1510): Primavera (c. 1482), tempera
on panel. It is an icon of grace, portraying
mythological figures. It is one of the most
written-about and controversial paintings
in the world.2 In literature, Niccolò de
Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469–1527) was
considered one of the most influential
Italian philosophers. He was one of the
main founders of modern political science.
His most famous work was The Prince.3
Individualism highlights the accom-
plishment of the individual—the ideal is
to show a person who has talent in many FIG. 1.01
fields. And secularism stands for a change Giotto di Bondone, Adoration of the Magi, c.1320. The
for those who struggle to get from heaven MET, NYC.
to the position of a person on Earth.
Before the Renaissance were the Middle
Ages, a time that most scholars see as one of when art was inspired by religion and thinkers
darkness and confusion. Giotto di Bondone focused on theology, the artist was paid by the
(1266–1337, Fig 1.01) was an Italian painter number of figures within the composition.
and architect from Florence who began to During the Renaissance or Proto-
express human forms as more “illusionistic” Renaissance, new studies were made, this
over a two-dimensional space. He created a time focusing on humanities and science.
full-body “realistic” figure, contradicting the This movement started when the ancient
restriction of his clients. During that time, Greek and Roman philosophers and artists
were rediscovered. As the prestige of the
church and the papacy began to decline,
2 His most influential works were Primavera and The
literature was written in national languages or
Birth of Venus.
the vernacular, instead of Latin. This allowed
3 Niccolò de Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469–1527). literature to feel more “human.” One of the
Italian diplomat, theorist, and philosopher; wrote Il most influential writers at that time was Dante
Principe, or The Prince, published in 1532. It was writ-
ten in an Italian Tuscan dialect as nonfiction political
Alighieri (1265–1321), born in Florence and
science. Sometimes it is claimed to be one of the first Giotto’s contemporary. His most famous
works of modern philosophy. work was The Divine Comedy (c. 1308) an epic

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 11

poem in three parts (Inferno, Purgatorio, and elongated proportions of figures, such as in
Paradiso), written in a Tuscan dialect and in El Greco’s (1541–1614) Baptism, Alessandro
which he criticized the church and society.4 Allori’s (1535–1607) Susanna and the Elders,
However, during the Early Renaissance, or Tintoretto’s (1518–1594) The Last Supper.
the first changes associated with the Another factor was the advancement
Renaissance occurred in Florence. In 1400, of math and science, which involved
the city had a population of sixty thousand astronomers such as Nicolaus Copernicus
and was a self-governed, independent (1473–1543) and Galileo Galilei (1554–
city-state. It was the home of the most 1642), who used the Renaissance ideas of
powerful merchants and bankers who scientific experimentation to argue against
became the controllers of the city. Many the church that the earth was not the center
rich families, such as that of Giovanni de’ of the universe.5 Later, the French philoso-
Medici (1360–1429), supported artists and pher François-Marie Arouet, also known as
intellectuals. The advancement of math Voltaire (1694–1778), created an intellectual
and science helped Europeans explore the
world as never before. In 1492, Christopher
Columbus led a series of overseas voyages
from Spain to North America and estab-
lished colonies and trade.
The High Renaissance is different
from the Early Renaissance in many ways;
one of them is that the painted figures
started to become so real, so human, that
it was hard to tell if they were angels or
spiritual figures. The High Renaissance FIG. 1.02
was also characterized by Mannerism from One circle is NOT bigger than the other. They are the
same size because of the perspective.
1520 to 1580, when the Baroque style
began to replace it. One characteristic of
Mannerism is the dramatic gestures and
5 Galileo Galilei (1554–1642). His 1632 book
4 See Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), English Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogo
artist and poet who painted the famous Paolo and sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo) compares the
Francesca da Rimini in 1855 (watercolor triptych Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic
symbolizing the lovers Paolo and Francesca from system. It was published under formal license of the
Dante Aligheri’s Inferno, Canto V); currently housed Inquisition. It was translated into Latin as Systema
at Tate Britain. Rossetti’s art was characterized by its Cosmicum (English: Cosmic System) in 1635 by Mathias
sensuality and its medieval revivalism. Bernegger. In 1633, Galilei was convicted of heresy
based on what he wrote in the book.

12 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

movement called The Enlightenment, separation of church and state based on the
celebrating human reason, freedom of Renaissance ideologies.
religion, freedom of expression, and the

3. Concepts of Perspective: Perspective Drawing, New Way

of Looking at Nature

Perspective drawing is a technique used

to present three-dimensional images on a
two-dimensional plane. This concept was
first used in architecture by Leon Baptista
Alberti (1404–72) and Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377–1446). For five hundred years, per-
spective drawing remained one of the prin-
ciples of Western art until it was challenged
by the ideas of the cubists at the start of
the twentieth century. Linear perspective
deals with the organization of shapes in
space, as in Fig. 1.03 (Christ Among Doctors,
fifteenth century, artist not known). Before
the Renaissance, paintings were flat and
more symbolic than “real.” Aerial perspec-
tive shows atmospheric effects using tones
and colors. The size of each element was
defined by the social and religious status
and wasn’t dependent on the relation with
the environment. For instance, we see that
the circle on the left is bigger than the circle FIG. 1.03
on the right because they’re compared side
Christ among the Doctors. Catalan, Spanish, tempera
by side. But in reality, they are the same size; and gold on wood, fifteenth century, the MET, NYC.
the distance makes the second circle looks

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 13

smaller (see Figure 1.02) . This process can just the principles of linear and atmospheric
be seen clearly in many works from the perspectives that influenced art.
Middle Ages. The Middle Ages’ mathematicians (c.
569 BC–c. 475 BC), Euclid (c. 325 BC–c.
New Way of Looking at 265 BC), and Archimedes (c. 287 BC–c. 212
Nature BC) had disappeared for a hundred years
until the fourteenth century, when Europe
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) created
started to consider some of their theories.
a new way of looking at nature and new
After Europe survived the epidemic plague
ways of understanding ourselves in relation
that eliminated one-third of its population,
to life and nature, as William Wray wrote
a new era of financial well-being occurred.
in the introduction to Barber’s book on
Renaissance thinkers created a new way
Leonardo da Vinci.6 In the process, he
of combining or linking the science world
created a way of thinking that did much to
with the artistic world. During this time of
lay the foundations for the modern world.
change, the science and art concepts such
Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) wrote on da
as Number Sequences, Golden Ratio, Proportion,
Vinci: “Leonardo was so heretical a cast of
and Linear Perspective emerged, and studies
mind, he conformed to no religion whatev-
of art, architecture, and mathematics were
er, accounting it perchance much better to
forever changed.
be a philosopher than Christian.” He was in
fact one of the few artists who developed
further the concepts of math, science, per-
the foundation of art historical writing. Heinrich
spective, and proportion.7 Here we will see Wöllflin (1864–1945) followed in his footsteps.
Wöllflin was an important Swiss art historian influen-
6 William Wray, in the introduction to Barrington tial in the development of formal analysis. He wrote
Barber’s Through the Eyes of Leonardo da Vinci Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance,
(Gramercy/Random House, 2004), 7. translated from the 8th German Edition (Benno
7 Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), Italian painter, archi- Schwabe & Co, Basle 1948) by Peter and Linda
tect, writer, and historian. His book, Lives of the Most Murray (London: Phaidon Press, 1952, 2nd ed, 1953).
Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, is considered

14 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

4. The Principles of Optics and Visual Perception

Camera Obscura: Linear applied to build up a “dark chamber,” or

Perspective and Aerial or camera obscura (c. 1850).
Atmospheric Perspective Decades later, in the beginning of the
One of the first studies of the principles of twentieth century, another concept of
optics and visual perception was made by visual perception was developed by Rudolf
Alhazen, Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham Arnheim, who developed the psychology
(965–c. 1040). He was born in Iraq and was and ability to interpret the surrounding
a scientist, mathematician, astronomer, and environment by processing information
the first theoretical physicist. He did not ap- that is contained in visible light. In Visual
ply his visual-perception studies to art, but Perception, Arnheim used science, personal
Renaissance artists used his theory to under- bias, intuition, and expression to under-
stand perspectiva, or perspective. Alhazen stand art. Later, with his theory of Visual
explained that when we see an object, what Thinking, he challenges the difference
we see is the light reflected from that object, between thinking versus perceiving and
which became known as the theorem of intellect versus intuition.9
Ibn Haytham (see Fig. 1.04). The eye takes
in light reflected from objects; in another
words, without light, our eyes would not be His works on geometric subjects were at Bibliothéque
able to see anything.8 This same theory is Nationale, Paris, France, in 1834, and at Bodleian Library
at the University of Oxford, England.

8 Alhazen, Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham 9 Rudolf Arnheim, Visual Perception (Berkeley and
(965–c. 1040) wrote the Book of Optics, 1011–1021. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1954),

FIG. 1.04
Theorem of al-Haitham

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 15

 Brunelleschi’s Camera
Obscura
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446,) was
one of the first architects and sculptors to
apply the camera obscura in Florence, Italy,
developing the linear perspective, c. 1420.
He used two panels two create his theory;
for one panel, he painted the San Giovanni
Baptistery and drilled a hole in the middle
of the panel. The second panel was a mir-
ror that reflected the painting.10 One could
see the painting and then the real baptistery
church from the hole in the panel. Today, FIG. 1.05
those principles are explained to primary
Filippo Brunelleschi’s camera obscura
school students to understand what and
how they can see things (Fig. 1.05). one of its walls. This camera has been used
The camera obscura, or pinhole camera, by scientists and artists such as Leonard
(Fig. 1.06) was created early in the nine- da Vinci, Leon Baptista Alberti, Johannes
teenth century. The first photography cam- Vermeer, and many other famous painters
era was inspired by these visual principles who developed perspective in their work.11
as Alhazen developed his system of visual Another Brunelleschi contemporary who
perception c. 1020: the eye is like a camera applied perspective was the sculptor Donato
in which the film is a curved sheet of nerve di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (1386–1466),
tissue called the retina. The camera obscura known as Donatello.
created by Brunelleschi in the fourteenth
century is a sealed box with a pinhole on
Linear Perspective
233. Second edition published in 1974, focusing on Linear perspective can also be demonstrated
the field of art and psychology. by using two circles: the circle on the right
is in front of the circle on the left. Even so,
10 Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) was an archi-
tect and engineer of the Italian Renaissance; he was
the circle on the right appears to be larger;
also famous for engineering the dome of the Florence
Cathedral, 1419. He developed the linear perspective;
however, the first paintings with accurate linear 11 Linear Perspective: “Brunelleschi’s Experiment,”
perspective are attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. Smarthistory, smarthistory.khanacademy.org/
1290–1348), Siena, Italy. Brunelleschi.html.

16 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

 During the sixteenth century, artists such
Image has been omitted due as Juan de Flandes (1460–1519), who was
to copyright restrictions. born in the Netherlands and lived in Spain
from 1496 to 1519, developed a mathemat-
ical concept to understand and to apply
perspective. Here, in the painting Marriage
Feast at Cana (Fig. 1.07), Christ turns water
into wine, his first miracle; it is one of the
FIG. 1.06 forty-six panels Flandes made of the life of
Camera Obscura, artist unknown, c.1850.
Christ. Flandes used linear perspective: one-
point perspective using the convex mirror
in fact, both circles are the same size. The in the background (seen behind the married
transfer of Alhazen’s ideas to art supported
the development of linear perspective, rep-
resenting the three-dimensional perspective
on a two-dimensional surface. Many artists
from different countries in Europe, such as
the Spanish (Catalan) painters who used to
lived in the north of Spain and had influ-
ence from Middle Eastern Muslim, French,
and Italian artists before and during the
fifteenth century, used orthogonal lines to
create dimension in their paintings. The
Moors, or medieval Muslims, invaded this
area in Spain c. 711 and called the territory
Al-Andalus. Maybe for this reason the
Catalan artists in the north of Spain were
isolated from the rest of Europe. Later,
during the Baroque and Neoclassical peri-
ods, Spain produced important artists such
as Diego Velázquez (1599–1660), Francisco
Goya (1746–1828), and many others. As we FIG. 1.07
saw before, the composition has its balance
Juan Flandes, Marriage Feast at Cana, 1500–1504,
based on hierarchy and not on the objects The MET, NYC.
in relation to each other.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 17

FIG. 1.08
Sandro Botticelli, The Last Miracle and Death of St. Zenobius, c. 1500.

couple) as a vanish point to organize the orthogonal lines; these lines are not parallel
space, which conveyed the idea of depth on on the canvas but in the real world, as in
a two-dimensional surface. Sandro Botticelli’s (1445–1510) The Last
Miracle and Death of St. Zenobius (Fig. 1.08).
Illusion of Depth or The orthogonal lines convert to a vanish
Perspective point (v.p.) on the center of the horizon
line (see Fig. 1.09). The same structure had
In the Renaissance, many artists were also
been used in the High Renaissance. An ex-
scientists; they developed the art of painting
ample is Raphael’s painting School of Athens
with two fields of study: anatomy (to make
(1509–11), a fresco in which he emphasizes
the human body more real) and perspective
classical harmony and idealism.12 The
to make the space more real where the
horizontal lines also seem to get smaller the
human body was positioned. Renaissance
artists also needed to apply mathematical
rules to create an illusion of depth or per-
spective in their realistic paintings. 12 Sanzio da Urbino, Raphael (1483–1520). Italian
How is a correct linear perspective with painter of the High Renaissance. The School of
one or more points of view created? One of Athens, or Scuola di Atene, 1509–1510, is one of his
most famous Renaissance paintings. It was Raphael’s
the basic rules is that objects appear smaller commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms
at farther distances. This mathematical illu- now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostic
sion can be created on a flat surface using Palace in Vatican City, Rome.

18 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

 and refers to the effect the atmosphere has
on the appearance of an object when it is
viewed from distance. The lightness and
darkness of areas in a painting, graded from
white to black, create the illusion of space;
the vanishing point is the lighter point in
the background (see Fig. 1.10).
Chiaroscuro in art is the use of strong
FIG. 1.9 contrasts between light and dark, affect-
Graphic—Aerial Perspective—landscape
ing the whole composition as with more
dimension. While tone was an important
closer they are to the horizon, where they feature of paintings of the medieval period,
meet as converging lines. chiaroscuro was not. It became important to
painters only in the fifteenth century, when
Aerial or Atmospheric they achieved a sense of volume, trans-
Perspective forming the depiction of three-dimensional
Aerial or atmospheric perspective is space. Renaissance painters incorporated
when distant objects are lighter in color aerial perspective into their paintings to

Image has been omitted due to copyright restrictions.

FIG. 1.10
Atmospheric perspective using landscape photography. The scale to the right corresponds to the shades
in the photograph. Notice how the bottom of the photo is darker and it becomes lighter as the eye
travels to the top.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 19

achieve realistic landscapes and still lifes, observer is to the reflective surface, the
to illustrate fables, and for portraits. See, longer the reflections will appear. For
for example, El Greco’s Allegory (Fig. 1.11), example, a viewer observing a lake from a
where the main figure, in the middle of the hilltop will see the reflections of objects on
composition, is lightened, concentrating all the far side of the lake as shorter in length,
the attention toward the center and giving as opposed to a viewer observing from the
depth to the chiaroscuro painting. shoreline, as shown in da Vinci’s Ginevra de
Another Renaissance way of creating Benci (1474–1478, Fig. 1.12); thus, values
depth was working with basic observa- and colors are neutralized. For example, if
tions, diminishing size and details of the we observe an object reflected in water or
object, using contrast, and by lightening the a lake, the object looks smaller. The higher
overall surface, such as water, the shorter the observer is from the reflective point, the
the reflections will appear. The closer the smaller it looks.

FIG. 1.11 FIG. 1.12

El Greco. Allegory, Boy Lighting Candle in Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci, oil on wood,
Company of Ape and Fool (Fábula). 1474–78.

20 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

5. Artistic Innovation That Characterized the Renaissance

Number Sequence and is equal to the ratio of the large piece.

Golden Ratio Renaissance architects used this formu-
By studying the ancient Greeks and lation to design buildings and paintings,
Romans, Renaissance artists discovered the such as Leonard da Vinci’s (1452–1519)
divine proportion (or the golden ratio or The Annunciation (1472–1475, Fig. 1.13 and
number sequence), which is a mathematical 1.14). A golden rectangle, for instance, is
formulation based on nature to organize five times as wide as it is high. Da Vinci was
the space proportionally. It has inspired this able to create effects that he saw in nature
age of balance and creativity. using the golden ratio rectangle; the same is
The golden ratio formulation: the ratio the structure of Botticelli’s Venus and Mars
of the whole segment to the larger piece (Fig. 1.15).

FIG. 1.13 FIG. 1.14

Da Vinci, Annunciation, tempera on wood, Galleria Circle with
degli Uffizi, Florence, 1472–75. triangle inside-
Aerial Perspective

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 21

 FIG. 1.15
Botticelli, Venus and Mars, c. 1485.

The golden triangle shows how the Proportion), which was illustrated by da
proportions are based on the division Vinci.
from nature. Many authors claim that if The ancient Egyptians and Greeks
a rectangle is drawn around the face of knew about the golden ratio, regarded as
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the ratio an aesthetic ratio. They incorporated it and
of the height to width of that rectangle many other math theories such as the 3:4:5
is equal to the golden ratio. No docu- triangle as it was developed later by Piero
mentation exists to indicate that da Vinci della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci.
consciously used the golden ratio in the In the 1900s, many modern artists such
composition of the Mona Lisa nor where as Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher used
precisely the rectangle should be drawn. these theories of the ratio and the triangle
The same is applied to his Vitruvian Man organization. The first to write about the
(c. 1490); the proportions of the figure golden ratio were the Greek mathemati-
do actually match with the golden ratio. cians Pythagoras and Euclid in the fifth
Nevertheless, one has to acknowledge century BC.
the fact that da Vinci was a close personal Objects in nature reflect the golden
friend of Luca Pacioli, who published a ratio. Leonardo Pisano Bigollo, also
three-volume treatise on the golden ratio known as Fibonacci (c. 1170–c. 1250), was
entitled De Divina Proportione (On Divine an Italian mathematician who was best

22 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

known for spreading the Hindu-Arabic the original pair in one year, assuming
numeral system in Europe. His 1202 com- it is their nature to give birth to another
position, Liber Abaci, or Book of Calculation, pair? His calculation was up to one year of
named sequences of numbers after him. observation—the first month: 1 + 1 = 2,
Fibonacci numbers are the sequence of then 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, and
numbers whose sums are of the previous after 12 months = 377. Fibonacci created
two numbers. He began the sequence these number sequences to help divide a
with 0, 1, 1, 2, and developed the ques- space proportionally. The parts reflect and
tion based on natural reproduction: how synchronize with the whole see Fig. 1.16A
many pairs of rabbits can be bred from and Fig. 1.16B.

FIG. 1.16A
Shell

FIG. 1.16B
Fibonacci Divine Proportion

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 23

6.How Philosophy Influenced Art and How Art Influenced
Math and Science

Giovanni Pico della Platonic Academy or Florentine Academy,

Mirandola/Agrippa and the which was founded after Gemistus Pletho
Pentagram/Pacioli’s Divine reintroduced Plato’s thoughts to Western
Proportion/Patronage, Artists, Europe in 1438. Cosimo de’ Medici was the
and Rules patron led by Masilio Ficino (1433–1499),
In the Renaissance, art, philosophy, and humanist philosopher, astrologer, and
science were closely connected. As a a reviver of Neoplatonism. Important
scientist, Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) members were Angelo Ambrogini, or
had no formal education in Latin and Poliziano (1454–1494), Cristoforo Landino
mathematics and did not attend a univer- (1424–1498), Pico della Mirandola, and
sity. Because of these factors, his scientific Gebtile de’ Becchi (1420–1497). The acad-
studies were largely ignored by other schol- emy would proceed to translate into Latin
ars. Leonardo’s approach to science was all of Plato’s works, the Enneads, and many
one of intense observation and detailed other Platonic works.13
recording. His journals give insight into
his investigative processes. Da Vinci was Agrippa and the Pentagram
one of the first artists to dissect corpses, Another strong influence during the
and he was a fundamentally different kind Renaissance was Heinrich Cornelius
of scientist from other scholars and other Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535, Fig.
scientists who followed his theorizing and 1.17), a German philosopher, theologian,
hypothesizing, integrating the arts and
particularly painting. His contemporary 13 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494).
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) When he traveled to Perugia, he was introduced to
the mystical Hebrew Kabbalah, which fascinated
is one of the best-known philosophers of him, as it did the late classical Hermetic writers. He
the Renaissance. He wrote Oration on the finished his Oration on the Dignity of Man to accompa-
Dignity of Man, which is known as the better ny his 900 Theses and traveled to Rome to continue his
plan to defend them. He had Conclusiones Philosophicae,
philosophical text of the fifteenth century
Cabalasticae et Theologicae published in December 1486
and has been called the “Manifesto of the in Rome and offered to pay the expenses of any
Renaissance.” Mirandola was part of the scholars who came to Rome to debate them publicly.

24 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

 astrologer, alchemist, and writer of the
occult. Agrippa drew a man in a pentagram,
implying a relationship to the golden ratio
in his book Libri Tres de Occulta Philosophia.
Symbols of the sun and moon are in the
center, while the other five classical planets
are around the edge. Consequently, we see
the ratio as a variety of naturally occurring
forms to which we are aesthetically drawn.

Pacioli’s Divine Proportion

The most accurate study in proportion
was written by Luca Pacioli (1445–1517)
FIG. 1.17 in his book Divine Proportion (c. 1497);
Agrippa’s Pentagram. it was printed in 1509. The subject was
math and artistic proportions. The book
consists of three manuscripts: 1. Compendio

FIG. 1.18A FIG. 1.18B FIG. 1.18C

Leonardo’s Polyhedra. Divine Proportion of Divine Proportion of Letter
Human Face. M.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400–1600) | 25

 FIG. 1.19
Raphael Sanzio,
School of Athens,
1511.

Divina Proportion, where he described the fortunes and became wealthy. Consequently,
golden ratio, polygons, and perspective; 2. they had the financial means to invest in the
Vitruvius, and 3. Libellus, a translation of artistic production of sculptors, painters,
Piero della Francesca’s Latin writings on musicians, architects, writers, and others.15
the Five Regular Solids.14 Pacioli asked his European rulers and the clergy began to
friend Leonard da Vinci to illustrate the give protection and financial assistance to
book. artists and intellectuals of the time. This
payment, known as patronage, aimed to
Patronage Artists and Rulers make these patrons and bourgeois rulers
became more popular among the people
Patronage was an artist’s support from the
of the regions where they worked. Raphael
merchants and traders or patrons/rulers.
Sanzio (1483–1520) was commissioned by
With increased trade in Italy, especially with
the Vatican by Pope Julius II (1503–13) to
the East, many European traders made
paint a fresco mural in their library—the
School of Athens, (1511, Fig. 1.19). The
14 Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli, or Luca
Pacioli, or Luca di Borgo, called after his birthplace,
theme of the painting is the synthesis of
Borgo Sansepolcro, Tuscany (1445–1517), was an
Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar. He wrote 15 Francis Haskell, Patrons & Painters: Art and Society
De Divina Proportione c. 1497, Milan, Italy. in Baroque Italy (New York; Harper and Row, 1971).

26 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

Greek culture and Christian thinking. In and Genoa had significant artistic and in-
this period, it was very common for noble tellectual movements. For this reason, Italy
families or patrons to order paintings, por- has become known as the birthplace of the
traits, and sculptures from artists. As Mary Renaissance.16
Hollingsworth wrote, that Italian peninsula
was where trade had developed over this
16 Mary Hollingsworth, Patronage in Renaissance
period, resulting in a lot of places of artistic Italy: From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London:
production. Cities such as Venice, Florence, Thistle Publishing, 2014).

7. How the Italian Renaissance Influenced Mexican

Muralists

The Renaissance triangular shape structure ter dried, the colors became a permanent
composition and the technique of tem- part of it. The triangular shape was used
pera, especially fresco, influenced Mexican in painting to organize objects in a two-di-
muralists. Tempera painting was a dry pig- mensional and three-dimensional artwork,
ment diluted in water to be able to paint. as we saw before.
And fresco technique was a special plaster For centuries, the triangle helped to de-
applied over a cement wall or wooden pan- fine the important person position at the
el that was ground with several coats of top, being faithful to a hierarchal tradition
plaster in glue, and the composition was (see Raphael’s Scuola di Atene, 1511). At the
then copied from a drawing. The colors vanishing point, or v.p., in the upper cen-
were tempered with egg or vegetable albu- ter of the composition is Plato (437–347)
min. The fresco technique was used for the on the left, with Aristotle (384–322) on the
mural paintings on wet plaster. The sketch right. A sculpture of Apollo is on the left
was first copied on the plaster wall in rough upper side and one of Pallas Athene, the
outline, and the part on which the painter Goddess of Wisdom, is on the upper right
was going to work was then covered with side. Many other mathematicians and phi-
fresh plaster. The painter had to redraw losophers are posing in the middle ground
the part that had been covered by the new and foreground of the painting. The sculp-
plaster and add the colors. As the plas- tor Michelangelo Buonarroti (1498–1499)

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 27

created the world-famous Pietà in 1498 from (1886–1957), who lived in Paris from 1911
Carrera marble at Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vat- to 1920. In this period of his life, he had
ican City. Michelangelo’s interpretation of influence from his friends in Paris, the cub-
the Pietà is unprecedented in Italian sculp- ist artists, as well as from Francisco José de
ture. It is an important work, as it balances Goya (1746–1828) and El Greco (1541–
the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty, 1614) from Spain. Finally, in his visit to Ita-
using the triangle structure with naturalism. ly in 1920, he understood some of the Re-
The Renaissance tradition of triangular naissance-principle theories and techniques
shape structure as a classic composition of painting fresco. However, when Rivera
organization was changed by the modern- returned to Mexico, he no longer wanted to
ists around 1900, when many artists start- use his European-style Cubism and devel-
ed to questioned its importance. One of oped his own Postimpressionistic style. His
them was the Mexican artist Diego Rivera first mural, The Creation, (see Fig. 1.21) was
completed by 1923. It was a commission
he received for murals and public buildings
from the new Mexican government at the
Secretaria de Educacion Publica, when José
Vasconcelos became Minister of Educa-
tion. The commission was because of Rive-
ra’s preeminence in the movement known
as the Mexican Mural Renaissance.
How the Italian Renaissance influenced
Mexican muralists to a Mexican Mural Re-
naissance era is our main concern, and to

FIG. 1.20A
Bernardo Daddi, The Crucifixion, c.
1325–309. Figure 1.20B
Organization Graphic.

28 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

 FIG. 1.21
Diego Rivera, The
Creation, 1921–23.

compare the juxtaposition of the dominant was never indicative of D ­ iego Rivera truly
male in Fig. 1.22 to the dominant male in believing in the superiority of women.
Fig. 1.23. Mexican muralists provided a so- The Creation mural is historic for includ-
cial and historical view of their people, help- ing different ethnic people, especially a
ing them to understand their history. In Fig. symbol of Christ as a dark-skinned Native
1.23, the social, historic context is religious, American Indian man. Rivera wrote that
as during the Renaissance. Rivera’s first mu- “the mural was too metaphoric and subjec-
ral in Mexico City, La Creacion changed the tive for the masses.”17
social meaning of the triangle by putting its
main character in the base and elevating the 17 Diego Rivera, My Art, My Life: An Autobiography,
female characters around the main figure in with Gladys March (New York: Dover edition, 1991),
the middle. However, this artistic rendering 77. First published by the Citadel Press, New York,
1960.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 29

 FIG. 1.22A
Diego Rivera, The Arsenal, detail, fresco, 1928. Mexico
City. Arsenal was created after Diego Rivera returned
from Russia and during the Mexican Revolution in the
1920s. It is important because he used a female image,
depicted as his wife, Frida Kahlo, as an activist. She
stands in the middle of the mural, giving munition to
people. Many other well-known people were portrayed
in this composition, such as the man wearing a hat on the
left. He is David Alfaro Siqueiros, who along with Rivera
and Orozco, helped to establish Muralism in Mexico.

FIG. 1.22B
Organization Graphic.

FIG. 1.23
José Clement Orozco, Struggle in the Orient: Slavery, Imperialism and Gandhi, 1930–31.
New School University, NYC. http://www.ericrosenfield.com/orozco.html

30 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

8. New Perspective, Structure, and Social View

During the Renaissance in Europe, all art (1896–1974), and José Clemente Orozco
served the church. The triangular struc- (1883–1940). Even so, many other import-
ture ensured that the highest-level religious ant artists participated in the project, such
figures dominated the upper part of the as Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991). They were
canvas. The base formed a balanced and supported by José Vasconcelos Canderón,
harmonious background from which to Minister of Education, 1914. However, be-
view the important figures who dominat- fore the new government, Gerardo Murillo
ed the upper echelon; it seeks to maintain Cornado (1875–1964), also known as Dr.
the composition’s harmony by utilizing the Atl, was considered to be the first modern
classic triangle but leaves behind its inher- Mexican muralist with the idea that Mexi-
ent hierarchy. In Daddi’s composition The can art should reflect Mexican culture. Most
Crucifixion (see Fig. 1.20A), there is almost of those artists had artistic influence from
no depth or perspective.18 Rivera’s Creation the graphic artist and printmaker José Gua-
is a new painting structure: the main figure dalupe Posada (1852–1913).
is not at the top of the composition, and Another point that influenced those
the perspective is in the top of the triangle muralists was their social/political beliefs,
organization, creating the vanishing point in which they incorporated with the Italian Re-
the middle of the composition. naissance technique of fresco and painting
Mexico had just undergone its revolu- organization structure. The muralists held
tion (1910–17), and the new government strong political views and were throughout
wanted to educate their illiterate people. their careers active in Communist parties
Rivera’s La Creacion was his first project to with Marxist tendencies. They retold the
inform the masses not only for the elite’s Mexican history to their people using their
pleasure of art. The most important artists murals. As Professor Indych-Lopez wrote:
for this project were called the “The Big “Rivera, like many of his fellow muralists,
Three,” or Los Tres Grandes: Diego Ri- was motivated to create images of the con-
vera (1886–1957), David Alfaro Siqueiros temporary urban conflicts. … While he
usually addressed this issue in his work with
18 Giotto di Bondone (1266–1337) was an Italian images focusing on peasant labor, begin-
painter and architect born in Florence in the late
ning in 1928, after an influential trip to the
Middle Ages. One of the first to contribute to the
Italian Renaissance, he introduced the technique of Soviet Union, the artist became more close-
drawing accurately from life. ly engaged to the industrial imagery. … His

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 31

 Image has been omitted due to copyright restrictions.

FIG. 1.24
David Alfaro Siqueiros, Tropical America, 1930, in Los Angeles, California. In this painting, Siqueiros portrays
Christ on the cross as a black man. His head appears almost detached from his body, hanging disproportionally to
the side. The soldiers to the right appear as though they may have just fired shots. Throughout the mural, Siqueiros
adds symbols of ancient Mexican culture. The doors appearing to the right and left of the crucified body are real
doors that open into the America Tropical Interpretive Center in Los Angeles.

awareness of the Soviet examples may have ing figure in Mexican muralism history.
made this local referent more meaningful to He also painted murals in New York and
Rivera. Drawing together iconic troops of San Francisco. Siqueiros, the most contro-
the female as worker, heroine, mother, and versial of the three, was exiled in 1932 and
agent of revolution …”19 moved to Los Angeles, where he paint-
Orozco, Rivera, Tamayo, and Sique- ed three murals, including Street Meeting at
iros also painted murals in the United the Chouinard School of Art and Tropical
States. Orozco and Rivera used the clas- America (Fig. 1.24) on the Italian Hall at Ol-
sical tradition of fresco painting, and vera Street. In contrast to Rivera’s murals
Siqueiros used innovative materials such glorifying Mexico’s heritage and Siqueiros’s
as proxylin. The murals painted in the belief in a science fiction future, the work
United States represented the worker as of Orozco was somber and full of dire
the dominant force in American cultural prophecy. He did not create any allegory to
life throughout the Depression decade. In the Mexican Revolution or any other type
the late 1920s, Orozco painted the first of war and had fear of a growing depen-
murals in the United States at Pomona Col- dency on technology in the future. Orozco
lege in Claremont. painted five social-themed murals titled A
Rivera moved to the United States in Call for Revolution and Universal Brotherhood at
1930, where he was considered the lead- the New School, in the public dining room,
12th Street, NYC. Today it is a conference
19 Anna Indych-Lopez, Diego Rivera, Murals for the room called Orozco’s Room. Orozco never
Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, 2011, 90–93. confirmed being a Communist, as Rivera

32 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

 Image has been omitted due to copyright restrictions.

FIG. 1.25
Rufino Tamayo, America, 1955, located at Dallas Museum of Art, Houston, TX.

and Siqueiros did. Even though most of resources to signal the abundance of the
these five murals reveal social violence from land. The viewer is reminded by “the fish,
Lenin to slavery to militaries, Orozco shows symbol of wealth of the sea; by a plant,
the opposite with the philosophers’ table symbol of the richness of the land; by an oil
and Gandhi as symbols of nonviolence in geyser and spring of water, symbols of our
society.20 underground resources.” (Rufino Tamayo,
In the mural America, Rufino Tamayo America Mural, 2011). Tamayo also shows
(Fig. 1.25) worked with Cubism and Fu- the unity and cultural influences in the dif-
turism styles inspired by Picasso’s Guernica. ferent races with the white and red figures
This work reveals the history and richness embracing in the top of the painting.21
of America. The main white figure in the Tropical America was painted in 1932 by
center of the piece resembles a nude fe-
male in a reclining position. Surrounding 21 Michael Brenson, “Rufino Tamayo,” New York
Times, June 25, 1991. Notes: 1. Octavio Paz, the
the figure, Tamayo has placed iconic natural Mexican poet and Nobel laureate, wrote: “If I could
express with a single word what it is that distinguishes
Tamayo from other painters of our age, I would
20 Christopher Knight wrote about America say, without a moment’s hesitation: sun. For the sun
Tropical, saying that history gets whitewashed every is in all his pictures, whether we see it or not; night
day, but Siqueiros’s América Tropical was infamously itself is for Tamayo simply the sun carbonized.” 2.
painted over within eight years of its 1932 comple- In the catalogue of an exhibition at the Marlborough
tion. The obliteration transformed it from a blistering Gallery last fall, Prof. Edward J. Sullivan, a scholar
emblem of social justice into a gnawing symbol of of Mexican art and the chairman of the department
suppression. “Art Review,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 8, of fine arts at New York University, writes that Mr.
2012. Tamayo has “consistently stood as an example of
personal freedom and liberty.”

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 33

Siqueiros; his mural became a catalyst for ployment of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco
controversy. By 1938 the mural was white- by public institutions in the United States
washed, and by 1988 The Getty Conserva- during the 1930s.22
tion Institute restored it. Today, El Pueb- Mexican muralists, who created what
lo, the place where the mural is located, is we may call the Second Renaissance ap-
dedicated to the memory of Siqueiros. The proximately from 1920 to 1940, were first
America Tropical Interpretive Center is influenced by the Italian Renaissance trian-
open to the public to analyze and discuss its gular structure and the technique of fres-
universal themes of censorship, tolerance, co. Around the 1930s, they began to paint
and social justice. in the United States, influencing muralists
In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roo- and creating strong influences on how we
sevelt established the Works Progress Ad- perceive art in the twentieth century. The
ministration (WPA) to provide employment influence of the Mexican muralists on pub-
during the Depression. During 1933, the lic art as an accessible and socially relevant
Public Works of Art Project allowed 3,600 movement continues through this day.
artists to create murals and sculptures for
public buildings. It was the US’s attitude to- 22 Hurburt, Laurance P. The Mexican Muralists in
the United States.
ward public art that in part allowed the em-

9. Color Wheel

A color wheel or color circle is an abstract Color theory is a guide to color mixing and
illustrative organization of color hues. the visual effects of a specific color combi-
It shows relationships between primary nation. Color wheel theory principles first
colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors, appeared c. 1435 in the writings of Leone
etc. The primary color wheel includes blue, Battista Alberti (1404–75) and the note-
red, and yellow. Secondary colors are green, books of Leonard da Vinci, c. 1490. Isaac
orange, and violet or purple, and the tertiary Newton created color theory principles
are red/orange, red/violet, yellow/orange, called Opticks, c. 1704, and Claude Boutet
yellow/green, blue/violet, and blue/green. (see Fig. 1.26) designed a color wheel c.
1708. The Colorist is by J. A. H. Hatt (see

34 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

 Figure 1.26
Probably, Claude Boutet’s seven-color
and twelve-color color circles, 1708.

Fig. 1.27A and Fig. 1.27B)., nomenclature Munsell was the first to separate hue, value,
Chart # 2. Albert H. Munsell (1858–1918), and chroma into uniform, independent di-
American, wrote the book the Color Notation, mensions and was the first to systematically
1905, where he tried to explain new forms illustrate the colors in three-dimensional
of color combinations. space. See Josef Alberts and Johannes
We use a color wheel to facilitate the color Itten’s color system in Chapter 3, Bauhaus
combination we want to have without section. Some principles of organization
mixing paint to get just the color we do affecting the composition of a picture:
not want. In using a color wheel, we have
to first decide if the color we want for a • Shape and proportion. Positioning/
specific artwork will be “cool,” “warm,” or orientation/balance/harmony among
“dark” tones, and from that decision, the the elements.
colors are selected in the wheel. More spe- • The path or direction followed by the
cifically, the quantity of each color should viewer’s eye when they observe the
be equal between colors to start a mixed image. Negative space.
color combination. • Color.
Munsell specifies the color system • Contrast: the value, or degree of
in three color dimensions: hue, value or lightness and darkness, used within
lightness, and color purity or chroma. Color the picture.
systems had placed colors into a three-di- • Geometry: for example, use of the
mensional solid of one form or another, but golden mean.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 35

 Figure 1.27B
Albert H. Munsell, Color System, c. 1920.
Figure 1.27A
J.A.H. Hatt, The Colorist, 1908.
Arthur H. Hatt / Public Domain.
3. What has inspired the Renaissance age
of balance and creativity?
• Lines
4. How did the Italian Renaissance influ-
• Rhythm
ence Mexican muralists?
• Illumination
5. Why were murals important for the
• Repetition (sometimes building into
Mexican Native Indian peoples?
pattern; rhythm also comes into play,
6. Make some observations about what
as does geometry).
the background and history are for the
• Perspective
painting Cortés and Malinche (1926–27),
by José Clemente Orozco.
Critical Questions 7. What do you see in the painting?
1. Why did perspective become so im- 8. Who can you identify as the main char-
portant during the Renaissance? acter in the picture?
2. How is it possible that objects in nature 9. Where is the main character located in
reflect the golden ratio? the painting?
10. What is the vanishing point?

36 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

11. What is the story being told in this intercalating with transparent earth
painting? colors.
12. Write your own interpretation of what
Orozco thought of the Struggle in the Further Readings and
Orient and Rufino Tamayo’s America, Research
based on the evidence.
Alberts, Josef. Interaction of Color. Cambridge:
13. What are the similarities and differenc-
Yale University Press, revised 2013.
es between these stories?
Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception.
University of California Press, 2004.
Suggestions for Class Work Balderrama, Maria R. and Wilfredo Lam. Studio
1. Write a one-page analysis on Raphael’s Museum in Harlem, 1992.
School of Athens. Bloxham, Sarah. Portrait Painting: Expert Answers
2. Explain these techniques: fresco, per- to Questions Every Artist Asks. Barron’s
spective, and composition. Educational Series, 2013.
3. Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972) Chelsea, David. Extreme Perspective for Artists.
created imaginative images that give Watson-Guptill Publications, 2011.
a unique perspective on this world. (Included is a comprehensive library of
Escher studied the principle of the perspective grids on DVD, suitable for
Five Regular Solids, using in his printing or using with Photoshop and other
drawing mostly the perspective with applications.)
polyhedra. Create a drawing with two Collingwood, R.G. The Principles of Art.
points of perspective, as inspired by Dewey, John. Art as Experience. (Dewey’s lecture
Escher. An example of Escher’s work on aesthetics at Harvard). Perigee Trade,
is Metamorphosis: http://en.wikipedia. 1932. www.amazon.co.uk e-book.
org/wiki/Metamorphosis_I. Hemenway, Priya. Divine Proportion: Phi in Art,
4. Compare José Clemente Orozco’s mural Nature, and Science. Sterling, 2005.
Struggle in the Orient: Slavery, Imperialism Indych-Lopez, Anna. Muralism Without Walls:
and Gandhi and Diego Rivera’s Let Him Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the United States,
Work Who Wants to Eat with Siqueiros’s 1927–1940. University of Pittsburgh Press,
Tropical America, using the Renaissance 2009.
principles of organization and social Lucie-Smith, Edward. Latin American Art of the
historical content. 20th Century. Thames & Hudson, 1993.
5. Create your own color wheel with solid March, Gladys. My Art My Life: Diego Rivera.
primary and bright transparent colors Dover, 1991.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 37

Oles, James. David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente ican-muralists-the-big-three-oroz-
Orozco and Diego Rivera. MoMA, 2011. co-rivera-siqueiros
Quiller, Stephen. Color Choices: Making Color
Sense Out of Color Theory. Watson-Guptill Image Credits
Publications, 2002.
Fig. 1.01: Giotto di Bondone / Public
Domain.
Fig. 1.03: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Additional Sources / Public Domain.
St. Johns Library, www.stjohns.edu.library (for Fig. 1.04: Copyright © 2008 by Jidane /
rare books and articles) Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Main Public Library (www.nyclibrary.org) at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
MoMA: Museum of Modern Art (www.moma. File:Theorem_of_al-Haitham.jpg.
org) Fig. 1.05: Fillipo Brunelleschi / Public
MET: Metropolitan Museum of Art (www. Domain.
metmuseum.org) Fig. 1.07: Juan de Flandes / Public Domain.
ArtStor, www.artstor.org/news (for information Fig. 1.08: Sandro Botticelli / Public Domain.
and images) Fig. 1.10: Copyright © by Fernando Natalici.
www.britannica.com (international art) Reprinted with permission.
Fig. 1.11: El Greco / Public Domain.
Some Websites for This Fig. 1.12: Leonardo da Vinci / Public
Chapter Domain.
Fig. 1.13: Leonardo da Vinci / Public
• Discovery—The Renaissance.m4v
Domain. Adapted by Liza Renia Papi.
video
Fig. 1.15: Sandro Botticelli / Public Domain.
• www.robinurton.com/history/Re-
Adapted by Liza Renia Papi.
naissance/early
Fig. 1.16A: Copyright © 2006 by Chris
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspec-
73 / Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA
tive_(graphical)
3.0) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
• www.latinartmuseum.com
File:NautilusCutawayLogarithmicSpiral.jpg.
• Renaissance: www.artcyclopedia.
Fig. 1.16B: Dicklyon / Wikimedia
com/history/hight-renaissance
Commons / Public Domain.
• Mexican Muralists: http://
Fig. 1.17: Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa /
smar thistor y.khanacademy.org/
Public Domain.
los-tres-grandes.htmlhttp://www.
Fig. 1.18A: Leonardo da Vinci / Public
mexconnect.com/articles/1064-mex-
Domain.

38 | The Aesthetics of Art: Understanding What We See

Fig. 1.18B: Luca Pacioli / Public Domain. Fig. 1.23: Copyright © 1931 by José
Fig. 1.18C: Luca Pacioli / Public Domain. Clemente Orozco / Artist Rights Society.
Fig. 1.19: Raphael / Public Domain. Fig. 1.24: Copyright © 2008 by David
Fig. 1.20A: Bernardo Daddi / Public Alfaro Siqueiros.
Domain. Fig. 1.25: Copyright © 1955 by Rufino
Fig. 1.20B: Public Domain. Tamayo.
Fig. 1.21: Copyright © 2012 by Fig. 1.26: Claude Boutet / Public Domain.
Joaquín Martínez, (CC BY 2.0) Fig. 1.27A: J. Arthur H. Hatt / Public
at https://www.flickr.com/pho- Domain.
tos/25876167@N08/6934980195/in/ Fig. 1.27B: Copyright © 2007 by Jacob Rus,
set-72157629468667593. (CC BY-SA 3.0) at http://commons.wiki-
Fig. 1.22A: Copyright © 1928 by Diego media.org/wiki/File:Munsell-system.svg.
Rivera.

Concepts from Renaissance in Florence, Italy (1400­­–1600) | 39