Techniques And Theory

Italian Renaissance painting theory has always been the Motif source of today’s art theory, and the theory of technique is an important part of the painting theory.With the gradual rise of Renaissance ideas, the writing of technique theory also entered a new phase, from the late14th century to the16th century, the famous works emerged, such as Cennini’s "The Craftsman’s Handbook", Alberti’s "On Painting", Leonardo’s "On Painting", and Vasari "On Technique". From the cue of time, the writings about art by theorists have gradually extended from the specific pigment preparation and technique of operation, to the principles of technique and concept of technique. Alberti’s On Painting completed in about1435, vowed to rebuild intellectual knowledge base of art, such as the space of mathematical formulas and the relevant principles of color.The book proclaimed the first transformation of Renaissance technique theory, this transformation is an important symbol of the art as free subjects and status of the artist getting raise.In the humanists’enthusiastic discussion on painting techniques and artistic concepts, theory of painting technique gain unprecedented rate of progress. Leonardo’s technique theory absorbed the results of science of nature, the laws of mathematics, the principles of optics, air perspective, visual observation, body proportion, anatomy, has made a new breakthrough achievements; his concept of scientific naturalism in painting, and his techniques and principles of painting such as "chiaroscuro","perspective of disappearance", expressed the relationship between the art of painting and the visual cognition. After the zenith of Renaissance, Vasari’s Lives become the first record of the great works of the master and of their lives. As an introduction to the book,"On technique", undertake to pave the way for readers to get expertise, as well as provide a basis for people to understand the glorious achievements of the past masters, so the core vocabulary "design" of Vasari’s technique obtained important theoretical significance. Vasari took overall care of his masters’techniques, detailing the operation of composition, color, murals and frescoes etc., and expressed a personal point of view, especially the techniques predecessors never mentioned such as sketch, cartoon, sgraffiti, showed techniques situation and style orientation of Vasari’s era has undergone fundamental progress. In particular, he highly praised Michelangelo’s foreshortening of figures,and this not only illustrated the complexity of perspective had reached its pinnacle of the era, but it had been beyond the previous rules of mathematics theoretically. Moreover, both the identity of the painter and theorist of Vasari’s made a significant impact on his writing.With the study of the theory of painting technique and related work in this particular period, we can find it’s origin, occurrence and development. From Cennini, content, form and narrative mode of theory of technique continued to evolve,closely associated with the rise of humanism and progress of social perceptions; In social, value system of theory of technique, such as its function and meaning were also constantly changing. In the overall evolution process of the technique theory, the identity of writer played an important role in writing of technique theory in different periods. In short, the theory of painting technique elucidated the evolution of the mental imagery and artistic concepts, and this is the key reason the theory of technique should enter the field of view of art history.