Renaissance Art Research Paper

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The characteristics that delineate what Renaissance Art is considered to be include individualism, perspective, realism, and the appreciation of the classics. These are a culmination of the standards for the creation of Renaissance Art. These characteristics are what made Renaissance Art because they stemmed from an attempt to recreate the natural world's appearance with rationale and science (Stockstad 306). Michelangelo's David portrays the human body with realism but also with the self-assurance and idealization of the human body as personified in Renaissance pride (Sherman, Salisbury 311). The creation of linear perspective appeared and paintings were transformed from two-dimensional to all but three-dimensional in appearance. Sculptors …show more content…

Michelangelo's David was the most sizable nude created in its day since antiquity (Sherman, Salisbury 311). Architects renewed features of classical architecture which involved classical orders, elaborate motifs from ruined Roman temples, and borrowed designs (Stockstad 306). The Gothic style was eschewed from favor and was replaced with a need to reinvent the resplendence of the classical Greek and Roman architecture (Sherman, Salisbury 309).

Raphael's School of Athens portrays the characteristic of individualism through the persons that are gathered in the painting (Euclid, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle). Great philosophers are seen throughout having what one can only image to be profound conversations of existentialism. Individualism held the compelling belief that individuals had the cognition to choose right and wrong and that they had the capacity to act on these choices (Sherman, Salisbury 293). The philosophers being chosen to be the subject of the painting expresses the best of society whose choices followed the emphasis and celebration of humans and their achievements …show more content…

10.11). This fresco uses linear perspective to create the appearance of three-dimensional space (Sherman, Salisbury 312). The Trinity fresco's intention was to create the semblance of a stone funerary monument and altar table set in a deep framed niche in the wall (Stockstad 327). There is a tiered effect drawing the eye up towards the center of the painting. The people on the outside left and right are facing inward and the viewer's eye follows their viewpoint which brings the viewers attention further into the painting and the main focal point. The arch brings in the viewer's eye inward as well, creating a frame in itself. An artist named Brunelleschi calculated the mathematical ratios by which things seemed to get smaller as they recede from view which led him to know how large to paint each thing in his grid to attain a realistic appearance of receding space (Sherman, Salisbury 312). Masaccio knew of Brunelleschi's perspective experiments and architectural style which is illustrated in this painting (Stockstad 327). Stylistic innovations take a period of time to be amply recognized and Masaccio's gift for the portrayal of weight, volume, and consistent lighting, and spatial integration were best comprehended by later generations of painters (Stockstad

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