Swane Cho

Third Midterm Section 1
Propaganda requires thought and organization for its success. It needs a solid vision so that the desired social achievement is reached. Therefore, art is considered to be a part of political, social and religious contexts. It is a means of communication to a mass group of people, so that ideologies may be linked within society. Throughout history, wealthy and strong societies used art as a function to control the structures of society and its identification politically, socially and religiously.
During Venetia’s and Rome’s renaissance, each city used art as propaganda to further their desired message among the people. In Venetia’s case, they believed they were superior to Rome and Florence due to their commercial sea trading power. They were wealthy and had political self-sufficiency and an individual identity from the spoils of war and trade. Their wealth translated into the display of the arts. Venetians did a lot to exploit the propaganda of their continuous conflict between the Turks. It was to display the power of their military ability and capability. Also, propaganda was used to uphold themselves as the main defenders of the Christian faith against Islam’s further expansion. Ultimately, while they promoted religious contexts, Venetians wanted their commercial power to be revealed.
Venice wanted a clear figuration of their state. They had a visualization of a political ideal and they wanted to bring that imagery to life. The sharpened portrait it had of itself was exploited to its people. The characteristic of a solid political stability of their republic government, founded upon order, constitution and law was displayed. Venice created their own myth surrounding their city. The republic government of Venetia created distorted truths or fictions that didn’t have real legitimacy. These mythologies were portrayed through symbolic images that displayed the Republic. For example, the symbolism of the winged lion as their patron saint or the personification of Venetia and the personifications of the virtues that makes up its Republic government. For example, Veronese’s artwork, “Venice enthroned between Justice and Peace” portrays all these iconic images. The scene of the enthronement of a real Venice or the manifestation of Justice and Peace are in no way realistic, yet it creates a political, social and religious message of Venice’s power to the people. The figuring and realistic portrayal of Venice is their basis of creating a concept of the state.
Their very operation surrounding their propaganda was focused upon the structure of their government. Venice portrayed the idea of the state through abstract usage of art. Evidently, myths and realities are completely different. The Venetian myths of their societal and political structures were a contradiction to the reality of Venice. The propaganda was deceptive and gave a misconceived representation of their city. Propaganda through images and art is a smart tactic to represent reality in the form of myths.
Similarly, popes used propaganda to also create an image of themselves as powerful, intelligible and great rules of the Church. Papal propaganda supported the pretensions of the papal authority. Shifting from historical basis, they resorted to propaganda that was purely literal and allegorical. Popes were mostly interested only in power and wealth for themselves. The political propaganda was created due to the papacy’s fear of other religious and secular rivals. The rivals placed immense pressure on popes to produces messages that presented arts that showed its prominent status. Overall, they tried to justify their right to rule.
In example, Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the artwork of “Giving the Keys to Peter” by Perugino to uphold his authority. He was determined to establish the Papacy as a political power. The art work had a religious context at the surface of the painting, yet it manipulated the audience to see this significant historical event as one that places the authority of the Pope as the center. Sixtus made sure the scene of Jesus and Saint Peter’s exchange of the keys to the kingdom of heaven was emphasized with the very clarity of the church in the background to emphasize the succession of Saint Peter’s power given from Jesus to the Popes. With the likes of Venice’s use to aim at a political ideology of their city, Popes aimed to create a political ideology of the church and the city, based entirely on false basis’ and myths. There is an unwillingness to show the truth and there is no full historical or scriptural basis.
In the sense of using propaganda to uphold a false reality and a certain ideology, the Papal state and Venetians were quite similar. Although, I do believe the Papal states used propaganda for a means to benefit their own selves. More than desiring to create a stable city or desiring to benefit others, I find that they promoted propaganda to lift up their own authority and name. Simply put, they wanted to stay in authority for their own self-exaltation and power. While, I do believe Venice initiated propaganda for the sake of trying to reassure and promote their Republic structure to the people.

Section 2 In the different artworks, Giving the Keys to Peter and Venice Enthroned by Justice and Peace, Perugino and Veronese depict the messages behind their work through the use of their individual technical intelligence. Perugino’s fresco, “Giving the Keys to Peter” is a depiction of Jesus handing the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Saint Peter. The audience can clearly see it is not only Jesus and Peter with in the painting, but there are other followers watching the scene and surrounding them. They can also visualize the depth and spacing of the painting. Perugino depicts these techniques in an amazingly proportional way. Through his impressive use of symmetry and perspective, the composition of the painting is very skillfully done. His striking technique of line provides the viewers a linear perspective which creates the appearance of depth as the lines converge at the vanishing point on the doorways of the buildings in the background. At first glance, instantly, an audience’s eye goes straight to the serene feeling given off from St. Peter’s humble acceptance of the keys, due to the lines from the pavement that all converge at the point at the center of the middle building.. From that point on, one can see the way Perugino continues the serene tone throughout his story-telling like painting. Starting with St. Peter, the viewer does not interpret Peter’s gesture as one that portrays pride or self-exaltation; rather it is a gesture that displays the sinfulness of the man. His humble kneeling conveys St. Peter’s total submission to a holy and perfect person. On the other hand, Christ is portrayed with his head slightly lowered towards Peter, showing the very essence of His grace to accept St. Peter. Also, Peter has one hand on his heart, while receiving with his other hand, the keys to heaven. From the shining brightness of the artwork to the bright sunshine to the clear colors and the exquisite details of the background buildings, the whole atmosphere displays serenity. Perugino intellectually does not create a busy and crowded story-telling, rather the scenes all appears to be on grids, which allows the audience to visually find distance between the figures from the front, middle and background. As the underlying message of the painting are coming more and more into light from just the scene at the foreground, the audiences gaze turns from the front-center of the artwork to the middle ground created through Perugino’s use of perspective to create a three-dimensional space.
In the middle ground, the audience can see two scenes of Jesus’s life unfolding. On the left is similar to the scene of Masaccio’s “Tribute Money”, while the right displays the stoning of Jesus. These figures which are scattered and separated all over the pavement in the middle ground emphasize the distance and depth between the buildings and the main group of people at the front. Not only is the depth created through Perugino’s techniques, but it emphasizes the importance of the front scene and the background, most likely because they are connected and have a significant message. On the background, there is seen three building. Based on my research, the building in the middle is said to be the church of Jerusalem, while the two arches on the right and left are similar to the arches built during ancient Rome, which was during the time of Constantine, who was the first emperor to legalize Christian faith and acknowledge papal authority, which is where we see the message coming to its fullness.
During Perugino’s time, the audience was able to understand the story behind the painting because of the religious culture; therefore Perugino seems to not only appeal to their religious knowledge but intellectual ability of interpreting the emphasis created by the depths, techniques and gestures used. Based on my research, he was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV, which brings to light the purpose of the painting. The story creates the message of papal authority. The scene of Christ handing Peter the key is meant to display the power given unto Popes, ultimately the power of bringing people to salvation. Christ and Peter are significant in portraying spiritual authority. Overall, the Biblical scene upholds the power of the popes.
Veronese’s art work, “Venice Enthroned between Justice and Peace” is the depiction of a personified Venetia. The personified Venetia is being enthroned and is ruling with the power of Justice and Peace. Based upon the composition of a bottom to top view, the audience can immediately see the royalty and strength of Venice. Although hidden in the dark, the shadow of the lion of St. Mark is visibly seen. The lion clearly represents the city of Venice and the Republic of Venice. Not only does it represent the city itself, but it seems to represent strength, pride, might and ultimately the ability and power to administer peace and justice. The qualities of this lion seem to be the very qualities Venice saw in them. Overall, above the clouds, St. Mark is enthroned to symbolize Venice, while underneath the presence of the personified and enthroned Venezia , there is the personified Justice.
The bottom top composition gives off the feeling that Justice is simply an upholder of Venice. Also, there is a huge contrast in the usage of colors between the personified Venice and Justice. While Justice has bright and royal colors, the personified Venezia has clothes of gold and red, symbolizing its power. Furthermore, Justice is walking up to the presence of Venezia with offerings in both his hands. In one hand, the audience sees a sword, which I think represents the justice upheld through war and fighting for the fairness of the Venetians, while the other hand is holding a scale. The scale symbolizes the balance created through divine order, the law and customs instigated by the city. The balance created is the equality of all Venezia’s people.
Furthermore, In the midst of Justice approaching the personified Venezia, the audience can see the personified peace walking towards Venezia in offering. Clearly, one can see that the person on the right represents peace because of the olive leaves she is carrying. During Veronese’s time, audiences knew that the olive leaves symbolized peace. Veronese’s technique of shadows to create a dark, yet defined face of Venezia displays her poise and strength as she sits in her chair of sovereignty. I find that Veronese displayed her sovereignty perfectly, not only through the background of showing her as being above the earthly world, yet creating a point of view that places Venezia at a high angle. The scene combines allegorical, political and religious elements to underline the glory of Venice. Each character in the painting symbolizes or represents the significance of its relation to Venice.
Thus, through both these paintings, the audience can truly see the skill Perugino and Veronese have to bring to light messages of religious, intellectual and social contexts. Their mastery in depths, symbolism, light and shadows shows the logical interpretations it takes to depict their paintings. Although skills and techniques are different, they show the ability to combine artistic expressions to bring the same skilled outcome.

Works Cited
"Pietro Perugino: Jesus Handing the Keys to Peter." ArtBible.info. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"Perugino: Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter." Art History the Art of History. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"Veronese." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
Hollingsworth, Mary. Patronage in Renaissance Italy: From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994. Print.
"Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance CultureHumanism."Humanism. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State, by David Rosand. Introduction."Myths of Venice: The Figuration of a State, by David Rosand. Introduction. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.