Contribution of Renaissance Florence Artists

A number of months ago I began listening to audiobooks. At the time this was one of the few activities I could do with my concussion.  Well here we are months later and although I can now engage in a wider variety of activities, I'm still listening to audiobooks.  I'm hooked on historical and historical  audiobooks. It has now become my listening choice when I paint. I'm now listening to the "Italian Renaissance" which is part of the "The Great Courses: Renaissance and Early Modern History". It's interesting how the effects of the Italian Renaissance are still with us today, from the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael to the immortal writings of Petrarch and Machiavelli. This book covers the why there was such an artistic, cultural, and intellectual explosion in Italy at the start of the 14th century, especially in Florence.

Florence chose to invest so much of their surplus capital in art and learning.  Artists such as Donatello and Brunelleschi developed the principles of linear perspective, which permitted the creation of a three-dimensional image on a two dimensional plane. This not only contributed to art, it became the foundation of modern cartography and, hence, the voyages of discovery, because objects could be put in correctly calibrated relative space and distances could be precisely mapped. 

There are numerous audiobooks on famous artists that I will some day listen to.  I'm fascinated by their journey.

This past week, I started and completed a small painting with lemons and blue bowls.  These two colours are great together.  They seem to make each other pop.

Here is that painting,

Now onto crystal and candy I go

Have a great week,
Danielle