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Ancient Influences on Renaissance Art |
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written
by heberj / 09.20.2004 |
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Personal Observations |
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The subject of art influence is actually an interesting one when you get to the point of actually recognizing the influences in other works. This came for me in a big way in the Villa Borghese Museum when I was staring at a large painting, only to realize that the figure depicted was an exact copy of the Belvedere Torso. Of course he had a full body, but to see his torso section as an exact replica gave me a sense of fulfillment. Besides being able to see such a direct influence as a mimicked pose, the general artistic styles and goals that were strived for throughout the renaissance as well as ancient times are now also much more apparent.
The other very interesting idea that was raised through this topic was that of restoration. While wandering around Rome and especially Pompeii one can see buildings that definitely were reconstructed since the age of Ancient Rome. This leads inherently to the question of how much should be reconstructed, how is it known to be the correct reconstruction, or are only original pieces to be used or should newly fabricated ones be used too? These issues are the exact same that have come up with the ancient sculptures found, only more often these came up when the sculptures were found in the 14th and 15th century. Sometimes the statues were restored and as seen through the story of the Laocoon very often these restoration attempts were done incorrectly. Eventually the correct arm was found for the Laocoon, though by this time parts of the original statue had been cut away and had to be reattached as well. This issue seems to be very widespread, though not very well resolved; at least it seems that preservationism has led us to be more cautious than our Renaissance forefathers.
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