Renaissance

What is Renaissance?

Renaissance is the era after the Middle Age, a time after the collapse of the Roman civilization. The word Renaissance came from a French word that means “rebirth”. The earliest expression of Renaissance is from Humanism. Humanism is where people held a great interest in the human themselves that they accentuate one’s education and literature. Because of the emphasis on education, Italy’s literature started to flourish. People like Dante started to write the New Testament and Petrarch wrote his famous poems. Humanism influences all across Europe. Art is one of the education of the Renaissance and is considered as knowledge. According to Leonardo Da Vinci, “To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else”.

What kind of elements does Renaissance art emphasize on?

Some may wonder, how is art related to science? There is a perspective in art where objects in the artwork may look realistic and 3 dimensional. Thus, the proportions were accurate where the artist can draw the distance of two objects on two dimensional things such as paper and canvas. Two principles of design developed in the Renaissance called balance and harmony as well. Balance is when the objects in the artworks appear to be symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial. It held some variation of a pattern that keeps drawings organized. Since Renaissance focus on the revival of their classical art, they mostly focus on Greek and Roman art. This is why many Greek Mythology paintings actually came from the Renaissance Era. For instance, the Birth of Venus, which is also introduced in one of our articles, was created during the time. Furthermore, under the influence of Humanism, artists like to develop the painting inwardly where it focuses on human nature instead of the decorative details other paintings have at the time.

What are some famous artists from the Renaissance?

According to Brtannica.com, during the High Renaissance, a time known as the perfect balance of stillness and movement in art. There are three classical figures: “Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael”. Leonardo focuses on all knowledge branches, Michelangelo focuses on human anatomy, and Raphael focuses on the “Classical Spirits”.

Artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci