The
Italian
Renaissance
was the birth of Western art
as it is known today. When
asked
to
think
of
“great”
paintings, minds often conjure
Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona
Lisa,” Michelangelo’s program
on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel or Sandro Botticelli’s
“The Birth of Venus.” These
works
were
revolutionary,
especially compared to the
Byzantine iconography which
they succeeded. It brought a
new emphasis on naturalism
and
modeling,
an
attempt
to show nature as it is (or,
perhaps, as better than it is).
The Renaissance also saw the
invention of the one-point —
or linear — perspective, one of
the many techniques that made
their mark on art history. The
era saw a momentary return
to the artistic origins of the
ancients, a re-birth of the
aptitude for creation found in
antiquity.
But
the
“Mona
Lisa”
is
more than a pretty picture
—
Renaissance
works
are
important to art and society
today. Art has implications
and it can be a tool to help
individuals interface with the
world.
“The thing about art is that
it can give us opportunities
and incentives to look at things
differently,” History of Art
Professor
Thomas
Willette
wrote in an email interview

with The Daily.
In the Renaissance, art was
often sacred: as a devotional
object to aid worship, but more
importantly as a guidebook. Art
was a visual depiction of how
to be a good Catholic; most, if
not all, art coming from the
Italian Renaissance was by and
for Catholics. Art was deeply
intertwined with religion, and
thus secular themes in art were
not well received. Nudity in the
Sistine Chapel, for instance,
was seen as so distasteful
that the church had some of

Michelangelo’s
fresco
work
painted over after his death.
The Italian aristocracy was
dependent on and often a part of
the church. Even independent
patronage was often done by
members of the clergy.
Recent history has shown
that religion remains a powerful
cultural force, guiding politics

and
international
relations.
Tensions
in
Israel
and
Palestine, as well as in the Gulf
and on the Arabian Peninsula
can all be attributed in part to
religion. Contemporary art may
be able to play a mediating role,
or art historians may look back
upon today and see religious/
sectarian loyalty in the art of
our time. “Contemporary art
is capable of mitigating the
kinds of political and cultural
tensions that are, rightly or
wrongly, justified by claims
about religious tradition and

identity. It can do so by showing
us
thought
experiments
in
which the spiritual side of
religion is pried loose from
the political and cultural hot-
button issues that have become
opportunistically attached to
religion,” Willette wrote.
The Renaissance also saw a
new importance placed on the

artist. Today, the person behind
the art matters a great deal.
Artists like Damien Hirst and
Jeff Koons are currently active
and worth fortunes on their
names alone. Artists as celebrity
figures are evident in the recent
past (Warhol, for example), but
present-day
artist-celebrities
are few and far between. The
large personalities who take a
business-like approach to art
(Koons worked on Wall Street
for a time) crowd the scene and
may doom the less networking-
savvy artists to the shadows.
The Italian Renaissance saw an
increased emphasis on the artist
themself. In some cases, the
artist was able to rise through
social ranks and interact with
the aristocracy. Jeff Koons may
be a particularly worthwhile
case to examine. “Artists in the
early modern period … earned
their livings either as clients of
wealthy patrons or through the
market,” Willette wrote. “Very
few rose to the kind of social
status enjoyed by a Raphael or
a Michelangelo, who were able
to work almost like modern-
day contractors. That kind of
independence requires a lot of
fame and a lot of connections in
high places. The vast majority
of artists were members of
trade guilds and took orders
for bespoken work, often never
meeting the people who paid
them. The idea that artists were
highly respected during the
Renaissance is mostly a myth
created
by
wishful-thinking
artists and art-lovers in the 19th
century,
particularly
during
what we call the Romantic
period. The mass-celebrity and
wealth that big-name artists
can command now did not
exist before the international
art
market
became
highly
developed, so that is largely a
phenomenon of the 19th and
especially the 20th century.”
One
key
Enlightenment
thinker was Johann Joachim
Winckelmann. He looked to
the Greeks as creating art of
“noble simplicity and quiet
grandeur.” His focus was on
art that improved upon nature,
rather than merely copying it.
Naturalism was not his ideal,
but rather idealization of the
natural forms. This interest in
the superstructural beauty of
nature, composed of the ideal
parts of other forms, calls
to mind the story of Zeuxis,
painting Helen of Troy via
the
fragmented
images
of
several different models. This
idealization
certainly
has
implications in terms of self-
image, and these implications
should not be ignored. The
other question, however, is in
this constant self-referentiality.
Winckelmann looked to the
Greeks, and myths like the one

mentioned above. In the same
manner,
Bronzino
referred
to the Belvedere Torso when
painting “Portrait of Cosimo I
de’ Medici as Orpheus” from
1537 to 1539. Marcel Duchamp
took an actual print of the
Mona Lisa and edited it for

his “L.H.O.O.Q.” in 1919. This
inspiration from the past is
common and noteworthy.
Winckelmann looked to the
Greeks for artistic perfection
in the same way artists during
the Italian Renaissance looked
to antiquity for inspiration
and subject matter. Today’s
art refers to antiquity in many
ways; new revelations about
once-painted
marble
statues
may change the significance
of
antiquities
themselves.
“What we are learning about
the original coloring of ancient
Greek and Roman statues is
not entirely new, but various
technical
refinements,
now
assisted by digital media, have
made it possible to create
and
disseminate
striking
hypothetical reconstructions of
the appearances of such works,
(I stress hypothetical), and
many people today seem to like
the idea. Remember a few years
back when it became fashionable
to think that dinosaurs were
probably brightly colored, like
today’s birds, and not all dusky
dark green and brown?” Willete
wrote. “Fortunately, we have
a bit more evidence where the
coloring
of
ancient
marble
statues
is
concerned.
The
popular
traveling
exhibition
“Gods in Color: Polychromy
in
the
Ancient
World”
is
probably
an
annoyance
to
white supremacist groups like
Identity Evropa, who have been
recruiting a lot of statuary to
their cause in recent years,
but I can’t agree with those
who think that taking the
white stone men away from
white supremacists is the main
reason to get excited about the
investigation of polychromy in
antiquity. Besides, no amount
of color and vivid patterning
can change the fact that most

people living in ancient Greece
or ancient Rome were slaves.”
The proliferation of art in
the Renaissance would not have
occurred without institutional
and individual patronage. The
Catholic
church,
clergymen
and wealthy families like the
Medici clan spent immense
amounts of money on art,
sculpture
and
architecture.
Art was a status symbol, as it
remains in some regard today.
The work of artists who have
been inducted to the canon of
Western art is worth millions.
Supporting
artists
—
in
contemporary times and in the
recent — is a difficult task. The
starving artist trope is not a lie.
In Enlightenment-era France,
as well as in Renaissance Italy,
the state was a huge provider
of arts patronage. While the
United States has the National
Endowment
for
the
Arts,
patronage is not given the same
importance. This has its pros
and cons. While the state has
no say in what contemporary
art is, it does leave important
projects
with
cultural
and
societal significance unfunded.
“The
U.S.
government
can
become a significant patron
of art, perhaps even on a par
with the court of Louis XIV,
but many changes in our ruling
culture and institutions will
have to start coming about,
and I don’t see any evidence of
that at the moment. The Works
Progress Administration was
a highly successful New Deal
agency, and it did a lot of good
without any help from the art
market, but that was the 1930s
and early ’40s, when many
people evidently believed that
1) the imaginative experience
of art can help to make one a
better person, and 2) the state is
capable of assisting our better
angels. Neither of these ideas
seems to have much credibility
today,” Willette wrote on the
issue.
The
Italian
Renaissance
continues
to
offer
valuable
lessons
to
this
day.
The
revolutionary nature of art is
not constant, and the evolution
of contemporary art is fluid
and enigmatic. To gain better
insight into contemporary art,
and the interaction of art with
society today, it is beneficial to
understand the roots of Western
art and note the differences
between 15th century Italy,
18th century France and 21st
century America. Art is always
in a renaissance. Stagnancy
recoils at the sight of the artist.
There will always be something
new in art, and it is worthwhile
to understand the past to better
understand self-referentiality,
new impacts of old themes
and the role of the artist in
contemporary society.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
b-side
Thursday, March 14, 2019 — 5B

Contemporary visual art
and the Italian Renaissance

ROSS ORGIEFSKY
Daily Arts Writer

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

B-SIDE SECONDARY

When
fashion
designer
Gianni Versace was murdered
outside
of
his
luxurious
mansion
in
Miami
Beach,
Florida, the devastated fashion
world
assumed
the
iconic
brand was dead. With the
house’s fearless leader gone at
a mere 50 years, designers and
style connoisseurs alike were

prepared to leave his brand in
the dust. After all, in fashion,
one day you’re in, as for the
next day … well you know the
rest.
The atelier was in shock.
His death came before the
knockout that was the Versace
Ready-to-Wear
collection
at Milan Fashion Week in
1991, where model icons like
Naomi Campbell and Cindy
Crawford
walked
down
the runway as a force to be
reckoned with, singing along

to George Michael’s ‘Freedom’,
all sporting bold colors and
silhouettes: a style that can
only be associated with the
work of Gianni Versace.
It seemed artistic moments
like
this
were
no
longer
going to be a product of the
renowned brand. Yet, how is
it that today, in 2019, Versace
is just as integral as it was
in
the
’90s?
The
answer:
Versace never really died. The
iconic namesake was never
tarnished, in fact the entire

house completely embodies the
renaissance: In every corner of
the Versace legacy from the
evolution of Donatella Versace
to the overall aesthetic of the
brand’s recognizable pattern,
color and silhouettes, Versace
essentially started the trend of
rebirth.
Model
powerhouses
like
Gigi
Hadid
and
Shalom
Harlow regularly walk the
Versace runway, and they do so
proudly. Although the loss of
fashion genius Gianni Versace
was a setback, instead of
giving up and abandoning what
remained of Versace’s legacy,
the entire atelier used this
loss and change to completely
revolutionize the brand, the
center of this revolution being
Donatella Versace.
Initially the muse for the
company, Donatella Versace
was her brother’s main source
of inspiration. At the time of
her brother’s death she was not
completely involved with the
designing of the luxury items,
but rather the Versace poster
child. But it is her shift in roles
that completely defines Versace
as the renaissance. Donatella
Versace took what she knew
about the company’s tradition
and maintained it, embracing
the changes and rebirth that
came with her face as the new
brand of the company. Ads for
the company’s 2019 collections
embrace the concept of change
and breaking from tradition.
In an interview with The
New
York
Times,
Versace
explains the pressure she felt
to keep Versace relevant after
her brothers passing and how
to ensure their customers the

brand would survive. In reality,
instead of hiding behind the
death of her brother, Versace
pushed the brand further. “I
like branding, all the time.
It’s what I do,” said Versace.
Where she could have stepped
down, Donatella Versace gave
customers and designers no
excuses
not
to
remember
the
Versace
name,
playing
with
patterns
and
layers
so bold, one has no choice
not to stop and remember a
Versace design or textile. To
this day, Donatella Versace
is revamping what her late
brother created, redesigning
the iconic leather strap for
the dress she wore in 1994 —
undoubtedly remembered as
one of the most iconic pieces
of its time — for the 2019
Fall/Winter
collection.
In
2017, she even nodded to the
aforementioned
1991
Milan
show, paying tribute to iconic
Gianni Versace by inviting
models from the 1991 show
to walk the runway in classic
Versace
prints,
including
butterflies and Vogue covers.
So, while Gianni’s Versace
textiles have always visually
and aesthetically embodied the
renaissance — never straying
from the boldest of patterns
or layering — making even
those most unfamiliar with
fashion recognize a Versace
print or silhouette, the true
embodiment of the renaissance
lies in the strategy of branding
that Donatella Versace has
focused in on so clearly that, 22
years later, the Versace atelier
is still the key to luxury and
extravagance in fashion and
style. In today’s fashion world,

consumers and designers are
constantly encouraged to purge
their fashion palettes, clearing
room in closets and on sewing
tables for new pieces and
collections. Versace could have
easily taken the traditional
route, dividing the work of her
brother Gianni from what she
would create after his death.
She could have completely
rebranded the Versace atelier,
but she chose to make her
company even more bold and
unforgettable, a strategy that
has in turn branded Versace as
one of the most consistent and
powerful fashion houses in the
industry.
When the phrase renaissance
in fashion comes to mind, I
would argue Versace’s oriental
prints are the exact visual
depiction of this era, the word
change a close second thought.
Yet Donatella Versace’s own
renaissance
involved
little
change, rather a focus on
the existing, a choice that
completely
revolutionized
fashion, a world where we are
constantly ready to consume
something new in order to
abandon the old. The rebirth
of Versace under Donatella’s
name
did
not
require
completely going back to the
drawing board for an entirely
new
aesthetic,
and,
lucky
for the fashion world, a new
wave of Versace was never
born. There were just constant
reminders of the Versace name
and focus on expanding the
existing, pushing for something
even bolder. A telltale that
consistency can, against all
odds, activate change: A true,
modern renaissance.

GETTY IMAGES
From tragedy to triumph,
or the evolution of Versace

MARGARET SHERIDAN
Daily Style Editor

B-SIDE: STYLE

The era saw a momentary return to the
artistic origins of the ancients, a rebirth
of the aptitude of creation found in
antiquity.

The Italian
Renaissance saw
an increased
emphasis on the
artist themself.