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Resme Nasıl Bakılır? - Giotto’dan Chagall’a Resim ve Ressamlar
Resme bakmak konusunda yeni bir görme biçimi geliştiren, Rönesans resminin öncüsü Giotto di Bondone’den yirminci yüzyılın fantastik sanatının fikir babası sayılan Marc Chagall’a kadar pek çok ressamın eserlerinin ele alındığı Resme Nasıl Bakılır? Giotto’dan Chagall’a Resim ve Ressamlar sanat tarihçisi Lionello Venturi’nin günceliğini halen koruyan metinleri arasında yer alıyor. Venturi, gelişim süreci içinde sanatın ve sanatı görme biçimlerinin geçirdiği evrimi yalın bir anlatım ve açıklamalı yorumlarıyla inceliyor.
Sanatın dinle ilişkisini ele alarak başlayan kitap, soyut ve fantastik sanatın öne çıktığı dönemlere kadar geçen süreçte izleyicinin resme bakışındaki değişime dair kapsamlı bilgiler veriyor. Metinde, sanatta fiziksel güzellik ve ahlaki güzellik kavramlarının nasıl yorumlandığı da anlatılıyor. Sanatla ilgilenen her okura hitap eden Resme Nasıl Bakılır? Giotto’dan Chagall’a Resim ve Ressamlar Rönesans-Modernizm ekseninde resim okuması yapmak isteyenler için nitelikli bir kılavuz olma niteliği taşıyor.
Sanatın dinle ilişkisini ele alarak başlayan kitap, soyut ve fantastik sanatın öne çıktığı dönemlere kadar geçen süreçte izleyicinin resme bakışındaki değişime dair kapsamlı bilgiler veriyor. Metinde, sanatta fiziksel güzellik ve ahlaki güzellik kavramlarının nasıl yorumlandığı da anlatılıyor. Sanatla ilgilenen her okura hitap eden Resme Nasıl Bakılır? Giotto’dan Chagall’a Resim ve Ressamlar Rönesans-Modernizm ekseninde resim okuması yapmak isteyenler için nitelikli bir kılavuz olma niteliği taşıyor.
- GenresArt
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 27, 2024
Rahatsız edici seviyede kötü bir çevirisi var ve yazarın çok sert ve taraflı bir duruşu olduğunu düşünüyorum Millet’yi eleştirdiği kısım mesela?? gerçekten okuması zordu yarım bırakmak istemediğim için bitirdim
June 18, 2020
I have finished a Turkish version, and honestly it has changed how I see a painting. First, one should admit that the writer is seriously biased and has strong opinions harshly criticizing different standpoints. Those opinions are not only about particular paintings but the definition and purpose of art, and the artistic view in general. It indeed doesn't have to be something negative and I really enjoy seeing the art from Venturi's eyes.
The book presents the progress in the art through decades chapter by chapter diving deep into particular paintings from several masters. You witness both technical improvements and change in overall themes and beliefs around the deviating social, cultural, and political atmosphere, and their impact on the artists' sense of the world. Each chapter introduces a few paintings that are (arguably) the best representatives of the chapter's theme. Sometimes he picks them only to discuss what-not-to-do with occasionally harsh critics. Venturi compares the paintings and their master's artistic view for a better comprehension of the selected theme, and also the technical details one should realize.
Here you can take a sip from each chapter. I continue to add one as I finish.
Chapter 1: God and Human
Artists: Giotto (1267-1337), Coppo Di Marcovaldo (1225-1276), Bonaventura Berlinghieri (1228-1274), Simone Martini (1284-1344)
This chapter solely concentrates on Giotto as he brings realism to the religious paintings and revolutionized the "holiness" theme focusing on plasticity and volume. The objects in his paintings, from the rocks to clothes, look very tangible and that gives a much more concrete image to the overall abstract themes. Giotto creates such realistic effects via colors, while the proportions of the objects can be distorted to emphasize what or who actually matters in the painting. This is the essence of his style and does not hinder him to be referred to as the founder, as Venturi states, of Western Realism in painting. He, in this sense, brings the "human", the real observable one, to the center of the theme. The difference between the concrete and the abstract, the realistic and the symbolic, is well-presented here via a comparison between Giotto's paintings and Marcovoldo, Berlinghieri, and Simone Martini. The use of colors, tones, light, even subjects depicted in the paintings changes how we perceive the "holy one" that is simply the human and humanly values for Giotto, even he draws Jesus.
My impression when I looked at all pictures in this chapter is, Giotto's pieces reflect the more sincere and warmer side of the holiness which you can find yourself. Martini's and Berlinghieri's samples, on the other hand, kinda make me nutate and start to pray in the church. This is their intention though. The modest representation of the theme by Giotto, I believe, brings the transcendent one down to earth and helps me to see myself right in the picture.
Chapter 2: Discovery of Human
Artists: Masaccio (1401-1428), Pierro della Francesca (1415-1492), Antonio Pollaiolo (1429-1498), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
The chapter takes us to Florence through the Renaissance when the human and its physical appearance is rediscovered both scientifically and artistically. It is then used to represent the power, dynamism, harmony, and elegance in paintings. First, Masaccio showed his belief and admiration towards humankind by glorifying the human body in massive proportions and higher contrasts (with the atmosphere and background). His abstraction on that very physical human strengthens his story-telling emphasizing the vitality of the human there. As Venturi puts then, Pierro della Francesco perceives the human as a part of a larger composition and improves his portrayal by geometric perspective and shading instead of the plasticity of high volumes. That more theoretical approach, on the other hand, hinders the dynamism. Pollaiolo brings the energy back by leveraging anatomical details (of the human body) to show the motion in a rich environmental context. There, both nature and humans are more alive as the parts of an acting stage. In the same period, Botticelli slows down that tempo a little bit and focus on the line meticulously. In this sense, his pieces write poems in elegance rather than telling a thrilling story. Lastly, the mastership of Leonardo molded the human figure into the scene and breaks the hierarchy in-between. Contours are indefinite now and light and shadow drive the portrayal as a whole, in a more transient, pictorial look.
It is the volume for Masaccio, the perspective for Francesco, the anatomy and motion for Pollaiolo, the elegance and lines for Boticelli, and the wholeness and shadingfor Leonardo da Vinci. Each painting in the chapter represents a milestone, a transition in the artistic perception of the Era. At the same time, they give invaluable insights for the style of the artists that give me a framework -as my mind sees things through a bunch of frameworks most of the time- to perceive their art. Here was very important for me to understand the paradigm shifts in Art during the Renaissance.
Chapter 3: Ivory Tower
Artists: Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898)
Even though four paintings from three famous painters are introduced in this chapter, Venturi uses all those examples to show Raffaello's genius and his seek of the ideal beauty. In his pieces, he creates both plastic and pictorial effect; and uses both geometry and patterns. Reflecting the spirit of Ancient Greek, he believed the ideal beauty could be found in geometrical harmony. Apart from the technical superiority of his paintings, the aliveness (thanks to the harmony between plastic and pictorial senses) elevates them in comparison to Ingres's painting (as given in the chapter) in the same theme. The School of Athens, for instance, having several historical figures in a magnificent and highly symmetrical stage, shows Raffaello's worship of classical philosophy and culture, artistic talent through overall geometrical composition and details, and creativity and imagination with amusing minutiae.
Raffaello's real success, as far as I see here, is creating his technical and artistic masterpieces without losing his creativity, imagination, or his "soul". Ingres and Chavannes, being other famous painters mostly following the same academic discipline and sharing Raffaello's admiration of the Classics, could not reflect the similar creative essence in their pieces. As Venturi summarizes, "Art for art's sake" has not worked for all the painters the same.
Chapter 4: Discovery of Nature
Artists: Giorgione (1478-1510), Tiziano Vecellio (1490-1576), Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), El Greco (1541-1614)
The perception of human, as an essential and inevitable part of the universe, had been changing at the end of the 15th century. Firstly, Giorgione focused on nature's itself and depicted human as a trivial being in the presence of mother nature. Venetian painters, like Giorgione, had been using coloring more effectively than their Florentine counterparts. Instead of toning a color for shading, they had used a range of colors for light and shadow and created a different pictorial form because the grandioseness of nature would be revealed with such generous use of colors. Tiziano had followed the same principles as well; however, he had used colors to feature the natural phenomena and to rank them pari passu with the human figures. His use of weak contours and the volume effect can be also seen in Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. In the following paintings, Tiziano had mastered his pictorial form by use of colors and shading. Both Giorgione and Tiziano's artistic styles perfectly show the difference between realist Venetian school and idealist Florentine school represented by Leonardo and Michelangelo.
While Giorgione and Tiziano from Venetian ecole look like to-the-point examples for the theme discovery of nature, I really cannot understand why Michelangelo, who is a pure idealist, is presented here. Even though the comparison between his plastic form (inspired by sculptures) and Venetians' pictorial form might be a representative example to show the paradigm shift in the art, it marginally deviates from the theme. The same for El Greco. His advanced use of shading and colors gave several masterpieces in metaphysical themes, apparently not in natural themes. The only way-out for this incomprehensibility is accepting nature as anything but human. Still, the chapter has no thematic consistency.
Chapter 5: Ideal Value of Bright Reality
Artists: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1572-1610), Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Tiziano Vecellio (1490-1576), Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1559-1660)
Chapter 6: Art and Illustration
Artists: Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Jean François Millet (1814-1875), Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Chapter 7: Awakening of Nature
Artists: John Constable (1776-1837), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Chapter 8: Modern Physical Beauty
Artists: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Chapter 9: Modern Ethical Beauty
Artists: Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
Chapter 10: Abstract and Fantastic Art
Artists: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Georges Braque (1882-1963), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), John Marin (1870-1953), Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
The book presents the progress in the art through decades chapter by chapter diving deep into particular paintings from several masters. You witness both technical improvements and change in overall themes and beliefs around the deviating social, cultural, and political atmosphere, and their impact on the artists' sense of the world. Each chapter introduces a few paintings that are (arguably) the best representatives of the chapter's theme. Sometimes he picks them only to discuss what-not-to-do with occasionally harsh critics. Venturi compares the paintings and their master's artistic view for a better comprehension of the selected theme, and also the technical details one should realize.
Here you can take a sip from each chapter. I continue to add one as I finish.
Chapter 1: God and Human
Artists: Giotto (1267-1337), Coppo Di Marcovaldo (1225-1276), Bonaventura Berlinghieri (1228-1274), Simone Martini (1284-1344)
This chapter solely concentrates on Giotto as he brings realism to the religious paintings and revolutionized the "holiness" theme focusing on plasticity and volume. The objects in his paintings, from the rocks to clothes, look very tangible and that gives a much more concrete image to the overall abstract themes. Giotto creates such realistic effects via colors, while the proportions of the objects can be distorted to emphasize what or who actually matters in the painting. This is the essence of his style and does not hinder him to be referred to as the founder, as Venturi states, of Western Realism in painting. He, in this sense, brings the "human", the real observable one, to the center of the theme. The difference between the concrete and the abstract, the realistic and the symbolic, is well-presented here via a comparison between Giotto's paintings and Marcovoldo, Berlinghieri, and Simone Martini. The use of colors, tones, light, even subjects depicted in the paintings changes how we perceive the "holy one" that is simply the human and humanly values for Giotto, even he draws Jesus.
My impression when I looked at all pictures in this chapter is, Giotto's pieces reflect the more sincere and warmer side of the holiness which you can find yourself. Martini's and Berlinghieri's samples, on the other hand, kinda make me nutate and start to pray in the church. This is their intention though. The modest representation of the theme by Giotto, I believe, brings the transcendent one down to earth and helps me to see myself right in the picture.
Chapter 2: Discovery of Human
Artists: Masaccio (1401-1428), Pierro della Francesca (1415-1492), Antonio Pollaiolo (1429-1498), Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
The chapter takes us to Florence through the Renaissance when the human and its physical appearance is rediscovered both scientifically and artistically. It is then used to represent the power, dynamism, harmony, and elegance in paintings. First, Masaccio showed his belief and admiration towards humankind by glorifying the human body in massive proportions and higher contrasts (with the atmosphere and background). His abstraction on that very physical human strengthens his story-telling emphasizing the vitality of the human there. As Venturi puts then, Pierro della Francesco perceives the human as a part of a larger composition and improves his portrayal by geometric perspective and shading instead of the plasticity of high volumes. That more theoretical approach, on the other hand, hinders the dynamism. Pollaiolo brings the energy back by leveraging anatomical details (of the human body) to show the motion in a rich environmental context. There, both nature and humans are more alive as the parts of an acting stage. In the same period, Botticelli slows down that tempo a little bit and focus on the line meticulously. In this sense, his pieces write poems in elegance rather than telling a thrilling story. Lastly, the mastership of Leonardo molded the human figure into the scene and breaks the hierarchy in-between. Contours are indefinite now and light and shadow drive the portrayal as a whole, in a more transient, pictorial look.
It is the volume for Masaccio, the perspective for Francesco, the anatomy and motion for Pollaiolo, the elegance and lines for Boticelli, and the wholeness and shadingfor Leonardo da Vinci. Each painting in the chapter represents a milestone, a transition in the artistic perception of the Era. At the same time, they give invaluable insights for the style of the artists that give me a framework -as my mind sees things through a bunch of frameworks most of the time- to perceive their art. Here was very important for me to understand the paradigm shifts in Art during the Renaissance.
Chapter 3: Ivory Tower
Artists: Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898)
Even though four paintings from three famous painters are introduced in this chapter, Venturi uses all those examples to show Raffaello's genius and his seek of the ideal beauty. In his pieces, he creates both plastic and pictorial effect; and uses both geometry and patterns. Reflecting the spirit of Ancient Greek, he believed the ideal beauty could be found in geometrical harmony. Apart from the technical superiority of his paintings, the aliveness (thanks to the harmony between plastic and pictorial senses) elevates them in comparison to Ingres's painting (as given in the chapter) in the same theme. The School of Athens, for instance, having several historical figures in a magnificent and highly symmetrical stage, shows Raffaello's worship of classical philosophy and culture, artistic talent through overall geometrical composition and details, and creativity and imagination with amusing minutiae.
Raffaello's real success, as far as I see here, is creating his technical and artistic masterpieces without losing his creativity, imagination, or his "soul". Ingres and Chavannes, being other famous painters mostly following the same academic discipline and sharing Raffaello's admiration of the Classics, could not reflect the similar creative essence in their pieces. As Venturi summarizes, "Art for art's sake" has not worked for all the painters the same.
Chapter 4: Discovery of Nature
Artists: Giorgione (1478-1510), Tiziano Vecellio (1490-1576), Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), El Greco (1541-1614)
The perception of human, as an essential and inevitable part of the universe, had been changing at the end of the 15th century. Firstly, Giorgione focused on nature's itself and depicted human as a trivial being in the presence of mother nature. Venetian painters, like Giorgione, had been using coloring more effectively than their Florentine counterparts. Instead of toning a color for shading, they had used a range of colors for light and shadow and created a different pictorial form because the grandioseness of nature would be revealed with such generous use of colors. Tiziano had followed the same principles as well; however, he had used colors to feature the natural phenomena and to rank them pari passu with the human figures. His use of weak contours and the volume effect can be also seen in Leonardo da Vinci's paintings. In the following paintings, Tiziano had mastered his pictorial form by use of colors and shading. Both Giorgione and Tiziano's artistic styles perfectly show the difference between realist Venetian school and idealist Florentine school represented by Leonardo and Michelangelo.
While Giorgione and Tiziano from Venetian ecole look like to-the-point examples for the theme discovery of nature, I really cannot understand why Michelangelo, who is a pure idealist, is presented here. Even though the comparison between his plastic form (inspired by sculptures) and Venetians' pictorial form might be a representative example to show the paradigm shift in the art, it marginally deviates from the theme. The same for El Greco. His advanced use of shading and colors gave several masterpieces in metaphysical themes, apparently not in natural themes. The only way-out for this incomprehensibility is accepting nature as anything but human. Still, the chapter has no thematic consistency.
Chapter 5: Ideal Value of Bright Reality
Artists: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1572-1610), Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Tiziano Vecellio (1490-1576), Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1559-1660)
Chapter 6: Art and Illustration
Artists: Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Jean François Millet (1814-1875), Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Chapter 7: Awakening of Nature
Artists: John Constable (1776-1837), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Chapter 8: Modern Physical Beauty
Artists: William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Chapter 9: Modern Ethical Beauty
Artists: Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
Chapter 10: Abstract and Fantastic Art
Artists: Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Georges Braque (1882-1963), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), John Marin (1870-1953), Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
August 15, 2020
Yazıldığı dönem göz önünde bulundurularak kitap içindeki bazı yargı/tespitlerin değerlendirilmesi gerek.
Kişisel anlamda çok şey öğrendiğim ve farklı bir bakış geliştirebildiğim bir okumaydı. İyi ki okudum.
Kişisel anlamda çok şey öğrendiğim ve farklı bir bakış geliştirebildiğim bir okumaydı. İyi ki okudum.
February 21, 2023
The book is incredibly informative however I’ve read it in Turkish and the publisher has edited/translated the book horribly unfortunately. Also, I’ve found the writer a bit subjective on some points.
Information: 5 stars
Editor/Publishing/Translate: 1 star
Objectivity: 3 stars
Overall: 3 stars
Information: 5 stars
Editor/Publishing/Translate: 1 star
Objectivity: 3 stars
Overall: 3 stars
March 7, 2021
Informative but the writer acts biased.
October 22, 2017
incredibly biased author
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews