Prestezza

Last updated

In art, prestezza is a painting technique that utilizes rapid brushstrokes to make impressions of faces and objects as opposed to painting them out in detail. [1] The technique allows for faster painting and makes the undercoat an integral part of the painting itself.

Contents

History

The Renaissance painter Tintoretto first developed the method to increase the output of his workshop.

Renaissance European cultural period, 14th to 17th century

The Renaissance was a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to Modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a long Renaissance put its beginning in the 1300s and its end in the 1600s. The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages.

Tintoretto 16th-century Italian painter of the Renaissance

Tintoretto was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with which he painted, and the unprecedented boldness of his brushwork. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso. His work is characterised by his muscular figures, dramatic gestures and bold use of perspective, in the Mannerist style.

The prestezza method consists of three steps:

At first the artist applied a brown undercoat, using a color that was used for etching technology, on the canvas. Thereafter he made a rough drawing using white colour, very often like a sketch. Then the actual painting process started. [2]

Tintoretto believed that increased artistic output at lower cost would be more profitable than his meticulous, multi-layered brushwork of his former employer, Titian. [2] Tintoretto relied on quick execution, flexible pricing, and high turnover to fill the market gap left by Titian's exclusively high-end patrons However, the prestezza technique's unfinished look was unsatisfactory to many patrons. [1] For example, the use of the technique in Raising of Lazarus resulted in "...movements [which] are indicated by broad movements of the brush. ...[t]he background area is hidden in shadow, which allows the painter to indicate with minimum definition the presence of twenty figures required by the contract signed by his patron." [3] Vasari described the end result as, "[he] has left as finished works sketches still so rough that the brush-strokes may be seen." [4] Tintoretto's refusal to redo his delivered work and led to customer alienation. Still, he enjoyed a level of success comparable to other leading Venetian painters. [3]

Titian 16th-century Italian painter

Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian painter during the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno,. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.

The effect can be observed in several of Tintoretto's paintings:

Related Research Articles

Mannerism style of European art

Mannerism, also known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century.

Giorgio Vasari Italian painter, architect, writer and historian

Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, architect, writer, and historian, most famous today for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing. He was also the first to use the term "Renaissance" in print.

Giovanni Bellini 15th and 16th-century Italian Renaissance painter

Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. His father was Jacopo Bellini, his brother was Gentile Bellini, and his brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna. He was considered to have revolutionized Venetian painting, moving it towards a more sensuous and colouristic style. Through the use of clear, slow-drying oil paints, Giovanni created deep, rich tints and detailed shadings. His sumptuous coloring and fluent, atmospheric landscapes had a great effect on the Venetian painting school, especially on his pupils Giorgione and Titian.

Paolo Veronese Italian painter of the Renaissance

Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese, was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as The Wedding at Cana (1563) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573). Included with Titian, a generation older, and Tintoretto, a decade senior, Veronese is one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" and the Late Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerism, Paolo Veronese developed a naturalist style of painting, influenced by Titian.

Academic art style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies of art

Academic art, or academicism or academism, is a style of painting, sculpture, and architecture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which was practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and the art that followed these two movements in the attempt to synthesize both of their styles, and which is best reflected by the paintings of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Thomas Couture, and Hans Makart. In this context it is often called "academism", "academicism", "art pompier" (pejoratively), and "eclecticism", and sometimes linked with "historicism" and "syncretism".

Sebastiano del Piombo 16th-century Italian painter

Sebastiano del Piombo was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school. He belongs both to the painting school of his native city, Venice, where he made significant contributions before he left for Rome in 1511, and that of Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life, and whose style he thoroughly adopted.

Carlo Ridolfi Italian writer and painter

Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period.

<i>The Elevation of the Cross</i> (Rubens) triptych by Peter Paul Rubens in Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp

The Elevation of the Cross is the name of two paintings, a very large triptych in oil on panel and a much smaller oil on paper painting. Both pieces were painted by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp, Belgium, the original in 1610 and the latter in 1638.

Palma il Giovane Italian Mannerist painter from Venice

Iacopo Negretti, best known as Jacopo or Giacomo Palma il Giovane or simply Palma Giovane, was an Italian painter from Venice and a notable exponent of the Venetian school.

Andrea Schiavone Italian painter

Andrea Meldolla, also known as Andrea Schiavone or Andrea Lo Schiavone was an Italian Renaissance painter and etcher, born in present-day Croatia, active mainly in the city of Venice. His style combined Mannerist elements, a relative rarity in Venice, with much influence from the mainstream of Venetian painting, especially Titian.

Italian Renaissance painting art movement

Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.

Jacques Blanchard French painter

Jacques Blanchard (1600–1638), also known as Jacques Blanchart, was a French baroque painter who was born in Paris. He was raised and taught by his uncle, the painter Nicolas Bollery. Jacques’s brother and son, Jean-Baptiste Blanchard and Gabriel Blanchard (1630–1704), respectively were also painters.

Domenico Tintoretto Italian painter

Domenico Robusti, also known as Domenico Tintoretto, was an Italian painter from Venice. He grew up under the tutelage of his father, the renowned painter Jacopo Tintoretto.

<i>Schilder-boeck</i> Dutch art history book by Karel van Mander

Het Schilder-Boeck or Schilderboek is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into English as 'The Book of Painters' or 'The Book of Painting' and sometimes as 'The Book on Picturing'. Het Schilder-Boeck consists of six parts and is considered one of the principal sources on the history of art and art theory in the 15th and 16th century Low Countries. The book was very well received and sold well. Karel van Mander died two years after its publication. A second posthumous edition, which included a brief, anonymous biography of van Mander was published in 1618. This second edition was translated by Hessel Miedema into English and published in 1994-1997 together with a facsimile of the original and 5 volumes of notes on the text.

<i>Self-Portrait</i> (Titian, Berlin) painting by Titian

Self-Portrait is an oil on canvas self-portrait by the Venetian painter Titian, dated c. 1546–47. While he is known to have painted a number of independent self-portraits in various formats, this is one of only two painted examples to survive. The other is in Madrid, dated c. 1560. Both share a somber and reserved pallet, although this example is richer in tonal variation and colour harmonisation.

<i>Venus, Adonis and Cupid</i> painting by Annibale Carracci

Venus, Adonis and Cupid is a painting created c. 1595 by Annibale Carracci. The painting is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Annibale Carracci was one of the most well known Italian Baroque painters of the seventeenth century. The Carracci brothers established an academy of art called Accademia degli Incamminati, which pioneered the development of Bolognese Painting. Annibale Carracci and Caravaggio were among the most influential artists of this century, who through their unique artistic styles led to the transition from Mannerist to Baroque. Annibale was born in Bologna in 1560 and died in Rome in 1609.

<i>The Abduction of Europa</i> (Rembrandt) 1632 painting by Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn's The Abduction of Europa (1632) is one of his rare mythological subject paintings. The work is oil on canvas and now located in the J. Paul Getty Museum. The inspiration for the painting is Ovid's Metamorphoses, part of which tells the tale of Zeus's seduction and capture of Europa. The painting shows a coastal scene with Europa being carried away in rough waters by a bull while her friends remain on shore with expressions of horror. Rembrandt combined his knowledge of classical literature with the interests of the patron in order to create this allegorical work. The use of an ancient myth to impart a contemporary thought and his portrayal of the scene using the High Baroque style are two strong aspects of the work.

<i>Susanna and the Elders</i> (Tintoretto) painting by Tintoretto

Susanna and the Elders is a painting by Venetian painter Jacopo Robusti (1518–1594). Robusti, also known as Tintoretto or Il Furioso, for the energy and "fury" with which he painted, depicted both sacred and profane subjects in a period known as the Venetian “golden century”.

References

  1. 1 2 Johnson, Paul. Art: A New History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, p. 290.
  2. 1 2 Martin Kupp, Jamie Anderson, Jörg Reckhenrich, The Fine Art of Success: How Learning Great Art Can Create Great Business, Wiley, 2011.
  3. 1 2 Nichols, Tom. Tintoretto: Tradition and Identity. Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 107.
  4. Vasari, Giorgio. The Lives of the Artists. Translated with an introduction and notes by J.C. and P Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 1991.