Beginning roughly around the year 1400 an era in Europe began; one that would shape the ideas and the lives of men. This era of rebirth or renaissance came within the fifteenth century through the revival of classical texts. One central effect of the Renaissance was the production of a new intellectual idea: humanism. Humanism being defined as a, “[t]erm invented in the 19th century. . . [regarding] developments relating to the revival of Classical literature and learning in European culture from roughly 1300 to 1600” left its mark on all of Europe leaving nothing untouched not even the artist. Both northern and southern art would be affected by humanism but in different ways ranging from changes in the human form, new choices of topic and new religious purpose.
Southern art refers to the art created in what is today Italy however, at the time Italy consisted of many separate and often warring nations. This peninsula held two important advantages which affected the way Italy did art: Rome and Venice. Italy began to produce a kind of art very literally affected by humanism. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries both the human form and the subject itself moved from two-dimensional religious settings to ideal depictions of mythology. It is in Italy that names such as Brunelleschi and Donatello went to Rome to study the lessons of antiquity concerning architecture and the human form; this directly resulting in Brunelleschi's dome and arches even Donatello’s Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata and his David. All are examples to the revival of antiquities’ ways. These lessons from the ancients developed a new type of beauty. Haughton describes this affect, “The idealized figures of Florentine art are a composite of perf...
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... welcome a new style: Mannerism defined as a being bridge between the Renaissance and Baroque periods . As time propelled Europeans forward there is no doubt that the ancients’ influence was not finished, it would continue to affect the art and the culture of Europe for many generations to come.
Works Cited
Duke, James O. "Humanism." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.library.acaweb.org/subscriber/article/grove/art/T039396 (accessed February 12, 2011).
Haughton, Neil. 2004. "Perceptions of beauty in Renaissance art." Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 3, no. 4: 229-233. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 12, 2011).
Wundram, Manfred. "Mannerism." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. http://0-www.oxfordartonline.com.library.acaweb.org/subscriber/article/grove/art/T053829 (accessed February 12, 2011).
Nauert, Charles G., Jr. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.
Humanism is a stance of thought conferring to the major importance to people rather than heavenly or mystical matters. Humanists believe that trauma is the possible importance and goodness of human beings and pursue exclusively on balanced habits of resolving human problems; “The Renaissance stressed the natural and the human. It emphasized the pleasures of life, glorified the human body, and celebrated education” (139). In the Renaissance era, most of the humanists were Christian. There were well-known scholars that were attracted in conserving and learning from traditional texts and have precise translations of the Bible. In the Renaissance era and the age of humanism, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini was a debated sculpture
The subject of The School of Athens is humanistic in and of itself. The Textbook Defines humanism in the glossary as “A philosophy emphasizing the worth of the individual, the rational abilities of humankind, and the human potential for good. During the Italian Renaissance, humanism was part of a movement that encouraged study of the classical cultures of Greece and Rome.” In this fresco, Raphael represents the worth and achievements of individuals, as well as the greatness of classical culture. The School of Athen...
Johnson, Geraldine A. Renaissance Art, A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
During the 15th century, Northern Europe as well as Italy witnessed a serious revival of drawing accompanied by sculpture, painting and architecture. This revival was termed as the Renaissance. The revival effected major changes onto the representation of pictorial space on these two regions. These changes on that occurred on pictorial space representation were mostly driven by new idea of “Humanism”. Humanism philosophy practically outwitted religious and secular belief. As a result, the philosophy shifted a lot f importance to the dignity and value of the individual (Prescott, 2005; Fuga, 2006).
During the renaissance, there was a renewed interest in the arts, and the traditional views of society came into question. People began to explore the power of the human mind. A term often used to describe the increasing interest in the powers of the human mind is humanism. Generally, humanism stresses the individual's creative, reasoning, and aesthetic powers. However, during the Renaissance, individual ideas about humanism differed.
During the time of Bramante the type of artwork most prominent was based on humanistic values, which were based on ancient roman models (garn). High Renaissance art originated in Florence in the early 15th century and thence spread throughout most of the Italian peninsula; by the end of the 16th century the new style pervaded almost all of Europe, gradually replacing the Gothic style of the late Middle Ages (brit). The Tempietto is an example of the style that Bramante sculpted with. The Tempietto is located on Janiculum hill overlooking the Vatican in Rome (garner). The Tempietto is named that be...
While paintings in the Renaissance and beyond still had a ways to go in terms of technique and perspective, the progress made in Italy during this time period was astounding. Painters were able to convey emotions and feelings like never before, showing the world that they could transport them to scenes they had only seen in flat, Byzantine images. In a time of straining to make art look real, the use of perspective was the key.
When the art of the Renaissance began showing humans, man inquired the who? what? and why? of humanity. The “David”, by Michelangelo, pictured a man that had profound effects. (Doc 10) Art depicting man, woman, child, etc. piqued the curious of how man should be. Fulfilling one’s highest potential or becoming each his/her own, now slinked into everyday books, paper, even speeches.(Doc 9) Each individual determined that life was to be something more than, for example, religion, and that all could define their destiny. Literature examined various ways to learn a wide vari...
Haughton, N. (2004). Perception of beauty in Renaissance art. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 3(4), 229-233. doi: 10.1111/j.1473-2310.2004.00142.x
During the late sixteenth century a new style of art, known as Mannerist, emerged through out Italy as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Mannerist distorted art was justified because it served mid way between the ideal, natural, symmetrical and the real, artificial, and unbalanced. The religious and political upheaval lead to the distinct Mannerist style know for being stylish, cultured, and elegant. Mannerist art is thought provoking, asking the viewer to ponder and respond to the spatial challenges and meaning found in the painting, sculpture, and architectural work. Mannerist painting and sculpture are characterized by complicated compositions, distorted figure styles, and complex allegorical interpretations. Meanwhile Mannerist architecture often employs classical elements in a new and unusual way that defies traditional formulas.
Artists in the Renaissance aided the continuation of Renaissance ideals. Renaissance art, including paintings, sculptures, and architecture,...
Roman art was also deeply influenced by the art of the Hellenistic world, which had spread to southern Italy and Sicily through the Greek colonies there. The Etruscans and Babylonians can also be seen as inspirations. “With the founding of the Republic, the term Roman art was virtually synonymous with the art of the city of Rome, which still bore the stamp of its Etruscan art” (Honour and Fleming,1999). During the last two centuries, notably that of Greece, Roman art shook off its dependence on Etruscan art. In the last two centuries before Christ, a distinctive Roman manner of building, sculpting, and painting emerged. Indeed, because of the extraordinary geographical extent of the Roman Empire and the number of diverse populations encompassed within its boundaries, “the art and architecture of the Romans was always eclectic and is characterized by varying styles attributable to differing regional tastes and the...
The Italian Renaissance included some of the greatest artists we have ever seen from Leonard Da Vinci, to Michelangelo, and Raphael. The Renaissance took place from the late thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and is know as the ‘rebirth’. The idea that the rebirth of the arts after being asleep for a thousand years is an amazing thing to grasp. This time brought back light to liberal arts, which were on the brink of being extinct. (Murray 2) What is also interesting about art during this time was that most of the art had Christian in its roots, for example, Botticelli’s The Allegory of Spring (Faure 1) is said to have had a Christian interpretation. (Murray) “Every Italian artist, willingly took the title of architect, sculptor, and painter” (Faure 2). At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Italian painters had asked the Flemish painters for their secret techniques because the Italians felt like the language of painting was one that was always meant for them. (Faure 4) The sculptors claimed their inspiration from ancient works. Lastly the Renaissance introduced idea of individualism, which helped the Italians get away from everything that was going on during that time. Art during the Renaissance included painting, sculpting and architecture, all of which were an important part in expressing the idea of individualism and making art what is is today.
The Renaissance, which is a word from the French for “rebirth”, was the term that was created in the nineteenth century to describe the revival of arts under the impact of models from ancient Rome and Greece. The Renaissance started in Italy in the fourteenth century, and flourished and spread all over the country and the world in the fifteenth century[ Osmond, Susan Fegley. ‘The Renaissance Mind Mirrored in Art’. The World and I, 1998.]. It was a cultural movement that was initiated by a group of educational reformers who was called humanists.