From Renaissance Workshops to Warhol's Factory and Beyond

For the longest time, art was made in workshops. During the Renaissance these workshops were at the centre of the art world. They produced paintings, frescos, sculptures, and other forms of art. 

These workshops had a certain hierarchy. At the head of the workshop would be the master. It was under his name that works were produced, even if he never touched the work himself. Under him were his assistants, and under them were apprentices.

Workshops functioned not only as little factories of art, but also as schools of art. Young boys often as young as seven or eight years of age were placed in workshops to learn a trade. 

As an apprentice one would be given small tasks which would grow to larger more important ones. Making brushes, mixing paints, cleaning the workshop. As one moved to being an assistant, one would start with minor parts of a work of art. As one’s talent developed, one was given larger parts of a piece to work on. If one showed particular talent in one area (such as painting hands), one would work on those areas of a commissioned work. 

If an assistant was clearly gifted enough, he could once old enough ask to become a master himself. This would usually require him to complete a “master piece” of his own, on his own time. His first responsibility was to his master and the workshop. 

If the assistant’s master piece was considered of good enough quality, the assistant would be recognized buy both his master and the guild that governed his particular art form. The young assistant could then open his own workshop, and the process would renew itself.

This process for making art lasted for centuries from antiquity on. It is in the Renaissance however that we moved from the idea of “artisans” to “artists”. As time would go on artists would become far more “individual”, and art became a much less collaborative effort. 

Lately however certain contemporary artists, such as Andy Warhol (pictured in his “Factory” above), in the 1960s, and Jeff Koons today, had or have “workshops”. It would be easy on the surface to compare the two, however though they have similarities, they are in fact very different enterprises.

Perhaps the name of Warhol’s workshop “The Factory”, is a rather appropriate term. Though it could be said that Renaissance workshops were art factories as such, they were also art schools. With apprentices and assistants spending much of their young lives working and learning from the master and other artisans in the workshop.

Warhol’s “Factory” was a work place, a social gathering spot for other artists. It was more about image and producing works to be sold to a larger public, than the workshops of the Renaissance.

Already trained artists would work, for pay in the workshop silkscreening and painting works that would be signed by Warhol. In Koons modern day workshop, many of the people who either work for pay or work as interns (for free) are graduates of art schools. They are just there to produce art, much like assembly line workers. Koons is sometimes criticized in today’s “artist centered” art world, for not even touching the works he signs his name to, something that would have been considered normal in the quatrocento in Florence. 

Lorenzo Ghiberti and the Gates of Paradise

Above we have an image of the Old Testament scene of David and Goliath, from Lorenzo's Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise" which his workshop produces for the Cathedral of Florence's Baptistry in the periods of 1425-52. (From a catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition in 2008).

The question could be asked is how is this such a good example of the innovation in art that happened during the Italian Renaissance. Well first and foremost it is all about about (quite literally) perspective.

If one was to look at this bronze relief, the first thing we notice is that there is a great sense of depth. This is done by giving the objects in the foreground more detail and relief. David and some of the other soldiers are quite literally "jumping" off.  The armour on Goliath, David (who is decapitating the giant), and the other soldiers in front of the scene is given much more detail. We can see the individual pieces of the armour, medals, and layers of clothing underneath.

If we look at the town in the back, it  literally seems to be fading into the distance. This is done by making those objects flatter and less detailed. They are almost blurry, like how we see objects in the distance with our own eyes. This was a huge innovation in art. During medieval times almost all, carvings, reliefs, paintings and drawings had little or no perspective to them. Importance was placed more on the importance of the subject matter itself, than to where it was located. Had this door been cast 100 years earlier, David being the "hero" of the scene would have been given more prominence, and there would have been no real attention played to the perspective of "depth"as such.

Also important to note is the armour of the soldiers has a "classical" style to it. In fact it is very Classical Roman in style. The Renaissance saw quite literally a "rebirth" of interest in all things pertaining to the "classical" era of Rome and Greece. For Ghiberti to have chosen this type of armour, when the story of David and Goliath would have been far removed from that actual time period, starts to give us an idea of how influential the style of Rome and Greece of antiquity would have over the art of the Renaissance.
Fifty years later (in the period of 1501-1504), Michelangelo would create one of his most famous sculptures on the same subject of "David", in the style of a Greek or Roman nude, as a prime example of "antiquity's" influence on art of this time.

Art History?

As part of my Art History class, we are meant to explore and discuss art. What is art? Why do we study the history of art? How do paintings, sculptures, photographs or any other art form become part of the "canon" of art? How did art develop in both subject matter and technique from the Renaissance to modern times Hopefully this blog will help to answer some of these questions.