Medici: Relationship between the patron and artist

The title says it all. Following the documentary on the Medici, I'm am going to talk about the relationship between the patron and the artist.

The Medici seems to be one very influential family during the Renaissance. Indeed, many artists we know of today have worked for them. Everybody knows about Michelangelo or Donatello (ok, some mainly because of the Ninja Turtles, but still, they know them) for example.

While I watched the documentary, one comment struck me. It said that the Patron let the artist ''free''. He didn't care about their temper, and he didn't care about what he was doing with their time. When they knew an artist could deliver the work well, he was understanding and accepting these traits.

I was surprised to hear that actually. I would have thought that this king of patronage wouldn't have allowed this. Now I think they were nice in some ways. Yet the artist was not considered an artist on its own, but still, to me, the patron considered them as such and also as important. If they were talented, it was important for them to keep them and treat them well. Its seems like the family understood that sometimes people can't work well if they are forced to do so. It was also a good thing for them to accept their temper for the same reasons. It was a wise choice.

As it was also said,  not all the patrons would have accepted such things. It seemed like the Medici were one of his own kind for this. This is surprising from the idea we have from the powerful families.

This kind of relationship still happens today, but doesn't work for everybody. If a patron would act like that with me, maybe not so many things would be done at the end. When you run a lot of projects, its easy to forget about what has to be done. It can be also hard to know where the priorities are.
In the artistic field, it is sometimes hard to work when other people asks you to, but sometimes you really have to give yourself a kick to get things done. Keeping your own reputation good is a motivation there, but sometimes it is not enough.
Also, If people are working alone, its even harder to manage this. We must learn to say no, even if the job is appealing. If you take too much, you are just going to get lost. I have experienced it!
This is not something that, I guess, was too common during the Renaissance as artists had workshops.
Today, the society is a little bit more egocentric for that. Our society wouldn't understand such way of working.

Bokeh!

Just a little break for 

BOKEH!

It kind of looks like Cyrillic writing to me right now. Guess I'm getting tired.

Because Bokeh is cool!

Critique on the Bernini Video

I finally watched the entire documentary on Bernini's life.

I didn't knew that artist before, it was nice to discover his work and know more about who collaborated into building parts of the Vatican.

I think it was a funny documentary. As well as documenting Bernini's life, it was overdramatized. The personification of the characters were pushed to its limits for this kind of documentary. For example is Bernini's mother. She was useless in the story and the way they portrayed her was more coming out from imagination than from realism. They made her be rude and sufficient, speaking very small but rough comments and quotes throughout the film. The way they presented the characters was also awkward. They did as if the actors playing in the film really were the people they played. It is a documentary, not a movie. When they presented Borromini, they presented the actor as: "Here is Boromini. He is like this, and that and also like this". They refereed to the actor too much for me, in the words they chose.

I felt, at some points, that I was given too much useless information. Some little parts could have been cut off or just explained differently. Again, I would have cut off Bernini's mother comments. Some aspects of his personal life were also useless. It was good to talk about some, but too much is like not enough.

Another funny aspect were the bad jokes, or quotes, the narrator was trying to fit through. Some comments he made were completely useless, moving us away from the main information, the main purpose of this film. It also seemed to me that he was putting a lot of himself into the documentary.

I'm still happy that I got to watch that documentary, I learned new things and I also know a new artist whom, I think, was important in Art History. He is not as well known to the public, but going to Rome and being able to know who made several sculpture and a part of the Vatican is always nice. Knowing about his story is knowing more about what we see today. It makes everything more interesting and now I have great, overdramatized stories to tell my friends or family if they go there someday!

If I compare, I think the Medici documentary we have watched before was more professionally done than this one. It surely was less entertaining and funny though.

A Mistake in the Titanic Movie!

Here is just a small blog post about something I noticed while watching Titanic.
I tried to make a screen capture of the scene but the program didn't allow it, so no picture will be shown to prove my point. You will have to watch Titanic again (yes again, who has never watched Titanic?)


Ok , description of the scene:


Right after she boarded the ship, Rose unpacked her belongings. We see her unpacking several paintings.


What the paintings are:

Les Demoiselles D'Avigon by Picasso or I should say, according to wikipedia Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. 
This name might be quite complicated to fit on a driver's licence.

Portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler   by Picasso (I'm not sue about this one, I brought the movie back to the video club, so I cant verify, but it looked like a portrait)

And one that seems like on of the Water Lilies by Monet. ( I just saw picture of him and even though I didn't have a preconceived idea about what this man did look like, I didn't expected him to look like this) 

The biggest mistake is: 


The ship sank, these paintings are then gone forever! No one would have had those in their collection now and we wouldn't be there to ''worship'' them. Also, the Picasso's painting would never have been known has they were created not so long before 1912. 


I know the movie wanted to bring back historical facts about this time but still, I thought it was funny to see this. 


Another thing that bothers me: Was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon not known in Europe in 1912? I'm not sure about this fact, but I know it got out in France in the 1920's, so sure, the painting couldn't have sunk with the ship. 


Years ago, this is not something I would have notice, at all. I had modern art history classes this semester that allowed me to think about it more when I saw the paintings in the movie. 


Now the real question is:


Why did I spent 3 hours of my time to watch Titanic after so many years? 
Well, BECAUSE! 






Journal entry written on Saturday, Decembrr 3rd 
Its colder in Decembrr then in December. I bet I'm not the only one who noticed that.

Creative Teams

Written 2011/10/30

I would like to come back on my first blog post. I talked about Jeff Koons and his use of the workshop process. As I said, his idea of a workshop is really useful considering the amount of time it needs to complete a piece of work. During the Renaissance, this process was also used for this reason. At that time, it took so many years to complete one work. 

In my entry, I also made a comparison between the workshop and the creative team. This is something I want to talk about today. 

As a freelance photographer, I realize that it is mandatory to build my own creative team. Nothing big can be achieved on my own. It takes too much time and too much energy. I used to work alone and got tired really fast and frustrated. I spend so much time looking on different websites for new ideas, great images etc. and every time I am amazed by the quality of work I see. When I look back at my own work after that, I get really frustrated. My own isn't as polished as theirs. But why? Yes, I need more experience, its obvious and it is something I have no choice but to go through, but also, the fact that I am working on my own makes me forget about important details. I cant see everything at once and I am not good at everything. If I want to do a fashion shoot, sure I will need a makeup artist, stylist etc. to complete my work. I am not specialized in that field of work. I am the photographer, my job is to understand light, composition and technical photography aspects so I can achieve my goal in having a breathtaking image. Their job is to make sure the clothes are well placed, the makeup fits the model etc. This is one job I can't do at the same time as taking pictures. Moreover, the final result will look way much more professional if professionals to their own jobs. Its logic!

So well, I think I will start looking for a creative team. The more we will work together, the best the results are gonna be, the more I will improve. Also, the more people there are in a team, the more ideas we have. Together, we can build something big!

As a last example of how useful it is to work with other people is me getting involved in the Bishop's Photo Club. I am now the Vice President of the club. The head of the photo club and we complete each other. Without each other, the club would go nowhere. 

After the Test

This week I wrote an entry about my future exam, now I will write about my past exam. 

The exam went well, but I didn't have the mark I hoped I would. I made stupid mistakes as not writing Florence twice. I also have problem explaining things. Well, I know I wouldn't be good as a teacher. 

I said I had links to remember words or important information. We did a group study just before the exam and we mixed our links to create new ones. It was very funny and it made absolutely no sense. 

Mary Anne came up with Ambassadors: Ass adore, adoring ass 

We had different ideas with Vellum. I said Vallorum (Star Wars again) Mary Anne saif Venom (closer to the real word) and I can't remember what Linsday said.

I finally made a sentence with some of these: ''We are adoring Jar Jar Bink's ass while smoking tomatoes''. This cannot be translated I think! 

Before the Test

I just finished studying for tomorrow's exam and I actually think it's funny. This post will not be directly on a subkect we learned in class, but in a method of study. 

I was never someone who liked to study. Actually, the first time I really studied is when I was 15 after I failed a biology class. Even though I loved this course, I was allergic to opening my books. This was until I failed more than one test and got a really bad mark for my whole semester. I forced myself in doing so, having no other choice. I drew the parts of the body and wrote and wrote and wrote until I knew the subject really well. It worked, I had a very good result on my tests later. Still, other than biology, I never felt the need to study.

University is then a big change in the way I approach things. I study, maybe sometimes a little last minute, but it is never as worst as in Cegep. I also write good essays, which is surprising coming from me. I'm not a bad writer, but I was lazy before. Now, I spend more time for school than anything else. But let's say that I dont work and its the first time it happens. I'm work sick and I have good reasons to be. I promised myself I wouldn't work while at university. I have all my life to work after. 

Now I have to find tips and tricks for studying. I wrote down over and over what I remember from my study sheet. I do that until I memorize everything. The funny part is how I memorize the words or names I don't know. I made links between things to be able to remember easily. Sometimes it makes no sense at all, but I still think it's very funny and I hope I will remember all of this tomorrow. 

So here are a few examples. I also notice it is useful to speak more than one language for that. 

• Georg GISZE makes me think of Gisele, my mother's name.
• Hans Holbein didn't have panels
• Rogier van der Weyden = Jar Jar Binks. Yes! Jar Jar Binks! Weyden = Dayden. Den = day in slovakian so then Dayday = jour jour in french, then ... Jar Jar! Easy! 
• All places are Santa Maria
• Dürer love himself, and ugly doctors
• Sfumato: Fumer des tomates. I'm laughing at this one and my cat is staring at me with eyes that says: ''Ok, time to leave NOW!''
• Brancacci = brankar which means goaler in slovakian. 

I hope I will be alright for my exam and I hope I wont make stupid mistakes or mixing words I learned from what words really are!