Two Renaissance Paintings

Paper Summary:

Some painting styles are associated with certain regions and certain time periods, and in the Renaissance, artists from certain cities would express their version of a style and even a subject matter. Two such instances from the Venetian area in the sixteenth century are discussed in this paper, both at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The first is "Mars and Venus United by Love" (c. 1570) painted by Paolo Veronese, a mythological subject; and the second is "The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes" (c. 1545-50) painted by Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti).

From the Paper:

" Mars is identified by his armaments, though in this case he is identified primarily by the uniform he wears and by the helmet that is on the ground by his feet. His sword is being used by one of the cupids, who used it to keep the horse to the right from moving forward. The weight of the painting shifts the eye to the left side of the frame, as does the lighter coloring of Venus's skin and her chemise, which is tossed across a wall. Against her skin, the darker head of Mars is framed as he gazes down at the Cupid who is tying Venus's leg to that of Mars, suggesting that the title of the painting is to be taken literally. Venus is also watching her Cupid with some indulgence as the knot is tied. The three primary figures in the painting, then, are all shifted to the left, and the way the two principals are gazing forward at the Cupid in the lower left corner causes the viewer as well to shift his or her eyes in that direction and so to see the tying of the knot, the central action of the painting. Additionally, the curve of Mars's back as he leans to the left matches the slight shift of Venus's body to the right to form an arch over the Cupid. Mars holds a dark cloak, which drapes across Venus's lap, and the darkness of the cloak allows the whiteness of Venus's leg and Cupid's skin and wings to stand out even more in the lower corner."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Loh, Maria H. "New and Improved: Repetition as Originality in Italian Baroque Practice and Theory." The Art Bulletin, Volume 86, Issue 3 (2004), 477.
• Lucie-Smith, Edward. Art and Civilization. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992.
• Tietze, Hans. Tintoretto: the Paintings and Drawings. London: Phaidon Press, 1948.
• "Uffizi Paolo Veronese." http://www.televisual.net/ uffizi/p_verone.html.
• Vyverberg, Henry. The Living Tradition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.

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