My apprenticeship continues

I spent some time in the 15th century this past weekend with the intention of learning about art and artists, but I came away with a much richer knowledge of the intricate and simple worlds within which these paintings were created.

A screen shot from Google Art Project: Botticelli's Birth of Venus, 1486

The path I followed was through Masterpieces in Detail by the Hagens which I ordered as an art resource through our Cooperative Collection Development program. Turns out it is a tour de force historical resource as well.

Again and again, as the authors analyzed components and imagery, they revealed striking background about day-to-day life, the influence of commerce and banking, volatile religious swings, warring factions; an almost detective-like reconstruction of the context that allowed, cultivated, or provoked the paintings themselves. And all the while, in the eye of this sweep of history, these patient hands and disciplined eyes (like Botticelli's) distilling or forsaking their present to create these icons which still have the power to humble us.