AP European History

Renaissance Art
The Renaissance was a time of explosive cultural change that was dramatically reflected in the art and by the artists of the period. During this time, which spanned from the 1400’s up to Michelangelo’s generation of artists in the 1550’s, many aspects of art advanced, including the way wart was made, why it was made, and the artist himself. It was a time of dramatic transition; a time that had its beginnings with Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise and would reach its glorious pinnacle in the form of The Sistine Chapel’s The Last Judgement.
The Gothic artistic style of the Medieval era immediately precedes the period that would come to be known as the Renaissance. Grotto’s painting, The Kiss of Judas, a Gothic archetype, is a good example of pre-Renaissance art. The piece is static, Christian themed, with a narrative scene. The beginning stirrings of change can be seen in Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise. It is a transitory piece, containing elements of both Gothic and Renaissance art. The idea of splitting it up into separate panels in order to tell a narrative is in Gothic style. If one looks closer at the panel of Adam and Eve, one can find Renaissance influence in the way Ghiberti used the depth of the relief to structure the narrative. In the Jacob and Esau panel, one can also observe how the artist used a vanishing point for structure. The Renaissance later developed the idea of a unified whole, in contrast with the Gothic style of dividing up each piece of art into various narrative sections.
Another mode of art in which one can observe the differences between Gothic and Renaissance influence is that of portraiture. In the Gothic portrait, Portrait of a Princess, the subject is in perfect profile. She is an aristocratic individual—they were the only members of society who had their portraits painted. The portrait is brightly lit, the woman’s features are sharp, and the artist focused on the elaborate and ornamental details of her dress. The Arnolfini Marriage by Jan Van Eyeck demonstrates the drastic changes made in this mode of art during the Renaissance. The Arnolfini Marriage is the first full length double portrait ever created. Rather than have the subjects sit in a pose, he painted them interacting in a private moment in the bedroom. Van Eyeck developed the use of oil painting. Using this paint he was able to make his paintings softer, experiment with light, and add depth and texture. Not only did the Renaissance spark a difference in how portraits were painted, but it also changed who the subjects were. A rising middle class began to emerge in the Renaissance, and they too wanted their portraits made. It should be noted that despite the drastic changes invoked by the Renaissance’s influence in this painting, this portrait still shows Gothic elements. Lining the mirror are sectioned scenes representing the Ten Commandments.
In addition to a shift of style, different applications of art were introduced in the Renaissance. The Amolfini Marriage, for example, is thought to serve as a marriage document. Jan Van Eyeck placed himself in the portrait, and rather than just sign his name, he wrote “Jan Van Eyeck was here”. With these words he signed himself as a witness to the scene in the painting, and bridged the gap between artist and subject. With a change in purpose came a change in commissioners. The Royal Court served as the main source of demand. Artists had to be multipurpose to fit the court’s needs. They had to be able to do anything from illustrating books to painting playing cards.
With all of these changes in the artistic craft, the artist himself changed. In the 15th century self-portraiture came about. One can observe the way the Renaissance affected the painter by referencing Albrecht Dürer’s two self portraits made in 1498 and 1500. The contrasting elements of these two paintings reveal a lot about the painter himself. In his 1498 painting, Dürer utilizes the Gothic style. He paints himself in a posed, three-quarter view, with his hands in his lap. His features and lighting are both very sharp, like in Portrait of a Princess. In his 1500 self-portrait, Dürer applies a Renaissance approach. He is face on, and the painting focuses only on him, not his environment. His hand rests on the front of his jacket in an act of stroking the cloth. With this simple positioning of the hand Dürer is able to capture his self-indulgent nature in the painting. Rather than focus on the aesthetics of the painting, he focuses on capturing himself, who he is, in the portrait. Self-portraiture allowed the artist to consider himself as an individual, separate from the craft. It gave the artist the ability to reproduce himself.
With a new style of art came a new type of artist. Leonardo DaVinci is notorious not only for his art, but for who he was. Through humanism he was able to separate himself from his art. He studied the body in depth, focusing on anatomical accuracy. His extensive study of nature, methods of which included digging up graves to study dead bodies, allowed him to capture human anatomy in a way unprecedented. His artwork also incorporated natural movement, in contrast to the static, posed paintings of the Medieval Ages. Leonardo’s The Battle of Anghiari is a prime example of Renaissance art. It focuses on the unity of the figures in the painting. All of the characters, though living their own narrative, are brought together in this piece. They intertwine, even though they do not all necessarily directly interact with each other. All the figures are in movement, in stark contrast to the stiffness of Gothic art. Michelangelo’s Buonarroti Battle and Battle of Cascina both also employ this concept. The figures contain the narrative, and none is left out of the unified whole.
One can observe a summation of all of these changes in Renaissance art by looking at Michelangelo’s David, Raphael’s School of Athens, and Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s David incorporates Humanism, Classicism, and Naturalism. It is anatomically correct, except for the enlarged head and hands. Michelangelo took care to alter those proportions so that the sculpture would look natural when viewed from below. School of Athens represents two ideas of the Renaissance—the ideal form, represented by Plato pointing upwards, and the real form, represented by Aristotle pointing towards the earth. Raphael placed notorious Renaissance artists into this piece of art. Plato was painted as DaVinci, and Heroditus is painted as Michelangelo. This painting also shows architecture from the Renaissance, using perspective to bring attention to those details. Renaissance art came to a pinnacle in The Sistine Chapel, specifically in The Last Judgment. What Michelangelo created in The Sistine Chapel is considered to be the greatest accomplishment of an artist in history. One might say that never again will an artist be able to accomplish something as magnificent. Certainly, it awes and speaks as eloquently to us today as the day the finishing brushstroke was applied.
by: Elisabeth Morant

Posted on October 16th, 2007 by Ms. Laurie Rojas
Filed under: Art History