Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Art Masters

The change of status for artists during the Renaissance and Baroque periods was primarily due to the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. Art masters, such as Da Vinci, became art masters because of their immense talent in art, which was due to careful observation and study. These artists put so much devoted time and work into their art through these careful studies, that they created beautiful works of art that no one had seen before. Art that beautiful created an occupation out of artistic talent. After the church commissioned these talented artists, people began to take a larger interest in art. So during the Renaissance, with more and more people taking an interest in art, people besides the Catholic church started to commission art for their own wants. After the Protestant Reformation developed, the church started their own Counter-Reformation, developing Baroque art which was dynamic and complex. The Catholic insisted that art was necessary for the teaching of of Bible. The Catholic church created a vast amount of art, which was very elaborate and grand, to try to persuade people to come back to the Catholic church, and away from the Protestants. Another element that changed the status of artists was the new worldwide mercantile system. The people's income had increased vastly because of the worldwide market, therefore the people started to spend their newly found wealth on art, which created a larger number of clientele for artists, making art a much more sought after thing.

During today's world, we definitely still have art masters. Art has become more and more known and popular through the years, therefore we probably even have more art masters than 17th century Europe. Artists have created more and more different and bizarre works of art that get an immense amount of attention through all the advertisements the world has created through the years. We have popular photographers such as William Wegman and Annie Leibovitz, who has photographed almost ever popular star, causing very few people to not notice her artwork. Other artists like Andy Warhol have copies of their artwork almost everywhere, causing literally everyone to have seen his work sometime in their life.

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