GEORGE NISTA: LECTURES
I am frequently asked to give talks on various areas of art history. These include aspects of the Renaissance or Baroque, aspects of Sculpture and or Architecture, and other influences on my work by travel and culture.
The following are some titles:
To the Renaissance artist, Nature was paramount. For the Florentine, a picture was made up of shape with color added. Drawing was the true means by which the artist understood the world and could get his concept down on the page. Extremely detailed preparation/investigation was employed to get close to nature. To the Venetian, a picture was composed of a shape fused with color. It was an exploratory process to capture the effects of light on a surface and render the true appearance of an object in Nature. He would start without so much as an underdrawing and begin applying paint. Michelangelo was the supreme genius of the Florentine school bringing drawing to the level of the sublime, while Titian was the undisputed master of Color, Light, and Space in Venice.
When it seemed as though the limits of the two schools had been reached and art was devolving into Mannerist extremes, it was due to the genius of the Carracci, a provincial family from Bologna, to restore Painting to the right track to bring about the spectacular era of Baroque illusionism.
This talk will focus primarily on the work of Paolo Veronese, court painter to the Venetian aristocracy, and his collaboration with the architect Andrea Palladio.
The late 16th c. in Venice was a time of great prosperity and the high point of an exhaustive investigation of the literature, art, and theater of the antique world. Humanism, the belief in the dignity and value of human action, was the philosophy it lived by. Venice felt itself to be on a continuum with the ancient world. Classic form was recognized as the best means to that end. Both Veronese and Palladio were well versed in the culture of that world, and conversant with the artistic forms and precepts of the ancients. They (along with others) gave La Serenissima a means to express itself as a center of wealth and power.
Together they created a sophisticated visual language well suited to the grandeur, ostentation, and dignity sought by their contemporaries for the aristocratic life “all’ antica”.
La pratica dell’ Ascetismo é sempre stata molto rispettata nella Chiesa Cattolica. Il più famoso asceta sarebbe San Giovanni Battista. Papa Celestino, nato Pietro Angelerio, eremita, seguace di San Giovanni, fu eletto papa nel anno 1294. Egli era la grande speranza per una Chiesa nei guai.
Ma c’é un dilemma fondamentale rispetto alla vita fuori dalla società, una vita che rimane “dentro” di sé, che non é vissuta in comunità. Così si metta la spiritualità contro la politica. Quello era il problema che preoccupava Papa Celestino ed era la causa della sua abdicazione.
Niccolò V era totalmente un altro tipo di uomo. Lui guardava alla Chiesa come ad un grande edificio il cui lavoro era aiutare, come il pastore del gregge, la gente a salvarsi. La filosofia era: “Rinforzare la fede debole della popolazione attraverso le meravigliose opere tutte intorno ad essa”. Voleva che Roma diventasse casa di letteratura e arte con monumenti degni della capitale della Cristianità.
Gli otto anni del suo Papato sono di massima importanza nella storia della Politica, della Scienza, e della Letteratura per la civilizzazione dell’ occidente. Nell’ anno 1453 ha introdotto lo spirito della Rinascimento con il piano per Roma che ha cominciato con: le fortificazioni, il pavimentare le strade, e ristabilire il rifornimento dell’ acqua -- la cosa più importante. Nel Medioevo le persone dipendevano da pozzi, cisterne, oppure dall’acqua gialla del Tevere. Con Niccolò gli acquedotti ricostruiti hanno aiutato a fare Roma la grande città che é diventata.
NeoPlatonism helped create his most famous works. As a believer in the Renaissance “Religion of Beauty”, Michelangelo would imagine and realize the Ideal Man in the “David”, bring together the ancient “Sibyls and Old Testament Prophets” who foresaw the coming of Christ in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, come to understand the triumph of eternal life over death with the Medici Tomb memorial, and illustrate one man’s struggle to overcome despair and define a relationship with Christ through the “Slaves”, the “Captives“and the later Pietà. This talk will follow Michelangelo’s career from High Renaissance master to inventor of Mannerism, and finally precursor of the Baroque.
The following are some titles:
- Le Fontane di Roma: A Brief Walking Tour of the Fountains of Rome with Highlights of Surrounding Buildings and Sculptures
- Mannerism, Baroque, and the Influence of the Theater on Art
- Disegno vs Colorito: Il Paragone or How the Carracci saved Western Art from Mannerism and Ushered in the Baroque
To the Renaissance artist, Nature was paramount. For the Florentine, a picture was made up of shape with color added. Drawing was the true means by which the artist understood the world and could get his concept down on the page. Extremely detailed preparation/investigation was employed to get close to nature. To the Venetian, a picture was composed of a shape fused with color. It was an exploratory process to capture the effects of light on a surface and render the true appearance of an object in Nature. He would start without so much as an underdrawing and begin applying paint. Michelangelo was the supreme genius of the Florentine school bringing drawing to the level of the sublime, while Titian was the undisputed master of Color, Light, and Space in Venice.
When it seemed as though the limits of the two schools had been reached and art was devolving into Mannerist extremes, it was due to the genius of the Carracci, a provincial family from Bologna, to restore Painting to the right track to bring about the spectacular era of Baroque illusionism.
- The Autumn of the Renaissance: Veronese, Palladio and Classical Theater
This talk will focus primarily on the work of Paolo Veronese, court painter to the Venetian aristocracy, and his collaboration with the architect Andrea Palladio.
The late 16th c. in Venice was a time of great prosperity and the high point of an exhaustive investigation of the literature, art, and theater of the antique world. Humanism, the belief in the dignity and value of human action, was the philosophy it lived by. Venice felt itself to be on a continuum with the ancient world. Classic form was recognized as the best means to that end. Both Veronese and Palladio were well versed in the culture of that world, and conversant with the artistic forms and precepts of the ancients. They (along with others) gave La Serenissima a means to express itself as a center of wealth and power.
Together they created a sophisticated visual language well suited to the grandeur, ostentation, and dignity sought by their contemporaries for the aristocratic life “all’ antica”.
- Taking Commissions: My job as Sculptor/Designer
- Celestino V e Nicolò V: Paragone
La pratica dell’ Ascetismo é sempre stata molto rispettata nella Chiesa Cattolica. Il più famoso asceta sarebbe San Giovanni Battista. Papa Celestino, nato Pietro Angelerio, eremita, seguace di San Giovanni, fu eletto papa nel anno 1294. Egli era la grande speranza per una Chiesa nei guai.
Ma c’é un dilemma fondamentale rispetto alla vita fuori dalla società, una vita che rimane “dentro” di sé, che non é vissuta in comunità. Così si metta la spiritualità contro la politica. Quello era il problema che preoccupava Papa Celestino ed era la causa della sua abdicazione.
Niccolò V era totalmente un altro tipo di uomo. Lui guardava alla Chiesa come ad un grande edificio il cui lavoro era aiutare, come il pastore del gregge, la gente a salvarsi. La filosofia era: “Rinforzare la fede debole della popolazione attraverso le meravigliose opere tutte intorno ad essa”. Voleva che Roma diventasse casa di letteratura e arte con monumenti degni della capitale della Cristianità.
Gli otto anni del suo Papato sono di massima importanza nella storia della Politica, della Scienza, e della Letteratura per la civilizzazione dell’ occidente. Nell’ anno 1453 ha introdotto lo spirito della Rinascimento con il piano per Roma che ha cominciato con: le fortificazioni, il pavimentare le strade, e ristabilire il rifornimento dell’ acqua -- la cosa più importante. Nel Medioevo le persone dipendevano da pozzi, cisterne, oppure dall’acqua gialla del Tevere. Con Niccolò gli acquedotti ricostruiti hanno aiutato a fare Roma la grande città che é diventata.
- God, the Beautiful, and Michelangelo: the Influence of Neoplatonism on the Renaissance
NeoPlatonism helped create his most famous works. As a believer in the Renaissance “Religion of Beauty”, Michelangelo would imagine and realize the Ideal Man in the “David”, bring together the ancient “Sibyls and Old Testament Prophets” who foresaw the coming of Christ in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, come to understand the triumph of eternal life over death with the Medici Tomb memorial, and illustrate one man’s struggle to overcome despair and define a relationship with Christ through the “Slaves”, the “Captives“and the later Pietà. This talk will follow Michelangelo’s career from High Renaissance master to inventor of Mannerism, and finally precursor of the Baroque.