tuscany # 59-62 ~ living in a make-believe world, pt. 2
Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 11:41AM 
Details ~ Duomo - Pienza, Tuscany • click to embiggen
Madonna(s) with Child ~ Duomo - Pienza, Tuscany • click to embiggenIt would fair to state that in every era artists dealt in cliches of one kind or another. One of the favorite Renaissance era cliched themes was Madonna with Child - if there's one of these paintings in Italy, there's, say, a zillion of them hanging all over the place.
The ones pictured here are in the Duomo in Pienze. They are 3 of the 4 - each by a different prominent Renaissance master from the Sienese School - commissioned by Pope Pius II for his newly constructed Duomo in his newly constructed village in Pienze (named by himself for himself - Pio's town, AKA - pope's town).
The Sienese School of painting (13th-15th century) rivaled that of Florence for a period of time. Its trademark look was toward decorative beauty primarily depicting miraculous events with dreamlike coloration. In a way they were the color-saturated, hue & saturation to-the-max, no-relation-to-the-real, cliched-iconic-image-practitioners of their day. Their paintings were certainly fanciful.
So, who knows - maybe someday in the future all of those color-saturated, hue & saturation to-the-max, no-relation-to-the-real, cliched-iconic-image pictures (photography-wise, Landscape Division) of today will be hanging in our National Cathedrals, AKA (according to Ken Burns) National Parks, where they will be revered as treasures from the past.
Reader Comments (4)
Have you seen Religulous yet? Saw it last night...very funny.
actually I thought there were 5 of the madonna & child paintings. It was not until I was looking at the third one that I said to myself "Hey, every painting in this place is the Madonna and Child!" I then pointed it out to Gravitas. I guess the pope really loved his mother.
A big part of the reason I gave up my belief in catholicism a long time ago was the feeling I had that, as a woman, I did not have a fighting chance in a religion that worshipped virgin birth. Glorify birth - fine. Glorify virgins - fine. But don't expect me to do both.
I was pondering the over saturated image, and reasons for doing so, when I had the thought that usually we see this type of colour treatment in cartoons.
This makes me think that over saturating images is a self enforced dumbing down. On the back of a desire to control. Perhaps subconsciously the need to show their own hand means they are unable to show the reality, which is quite independent of people with cameras.
@ The Wife- I think there may be a special place in hell for me as I am neither a virgin nor a mother, oh dear!
:-)
@ Gravitas- I reckon the fires of hell will be over saturated:-)
Good job I don't subscribe to religion.