The artistic style of an era depends on three major factors: race, environment, and era. — Danner, Philosophy of Art
Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) Italian painter
The carpenter's son, Mantegna, italy's first professional painter, set up a workshop in Padua at the age of 17 to make a living selling paintings on orders.
He is an outstanding representative of the Padua school, known as a prolific mural painter, whose works show a preoccupation with monumental shapes, a strong sense of volume, and a penchant for heroic figures, emphasizing a sense of separation and impact, both of which present unforgettable tough and dignified beauty, and the works are awe-inspiring.
His main exploits were the invention of the use of perspective to control space in the field of frescoes, and the opening up of the decorative style of zenith painting, which was later played to the extreme by the more powerful Michelangelo.
The masterpiece is the famous but unpopular "Mourning Christ", which depicts christ to be dressed, with the front and back of the feet from large to small to the viewer, looking more like a sleeping tired mercenary captain than like the god of the holy light.
This unfathomable painter, with all his artistic power, conquered this invincible man.
San Sebastian is one of his most iconic masterpieces. Saint Sebastian was a Roman martyr in biblical legend who preached in the Roman army before being arrested by the anti-Christian Roman emperor and ordered him to be shot dead with a stray arrow.
Mantegna uses this figure to honor the victims who sacrificed their lives for the rights of the people, focusing on the portrayal of humanity in the real world.
"Banas Hill" was written when he was 65 years old. Mount Barnas is where the goddess of literature and art led by Apollo lived. The sun god Apollo was both a master of light and literature, and he was himself a musical god.
Zeus gave his nine muses, the goddess of literature and art, to Apollo, and they lived in Mount Banas, singing and dancing all day long, chanting and painting, and Mount Banas became the birthplace of literature and art.
The painter only uses mythological themes to use rich colors to depict natural beauty, human beauty and joyful scenes in the world.
Vasali once commented: "Mantegna has always believed that good ancient sculptures are so perfect that things in nature cannot reach this state. The lines of his work are so sharp that they seem to be closer to stone statues than to those of human flesh. ”
In his later years, Mantegna was miserable, in poor health, grumpy, and heavily indebted, so he had to sell his house and retire, and his works inevitably became more melancholy and darker, but still dignified, still exquisitely lyrical, still with awe-inspiring mystery.
Friends placed a bust bronze statue in front of his mausoleum, carving the angry genius who had devoted himself to art for half a century, weathered and suffered.
The inscription on the base of the tombstone reads: "Those who desire immortality should pay for their lives!" ”