The Role Of Humanism In High Renaissance Art

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The High Renaissance (1490-1527) was a period of Italian painting that had the qualities of harmony and balance with dignified, calm movement. It was also a time when painterly techniques of linear perspective, vanishing points, shading (chiaroscuro and sfumato) and other methods of realism were mastered. There were significant changes in the development of early sixteenth century Venetian paintings, in particular, Titian’s paintings during the High Renaissance. I’ve chosen Gallery 607 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art because it has the works of Titian, who was one of the greatest Venetian artists, well known for his remarkable use of color and for his appealing renderings of the human form. Titian created rich, luminous images by layering …show more content…

Hence, instead of religious issues, humanists examined worldly subjects that the ancient Greeks and Romans had studied. This led the people of the Renaissance to become interested in other areas of science, the natural world, biology and astronomy. Humanism had direct effects on Renaissance paintings, as the artists, in particular Titian, incorporated these new ideas in his paintings. Firstly, ordinary people grew to be the same size as saints, and saints began to look more like ordinary people. Secondly, halos became fainter and eventually disappeared. Thirdly, the natural landscape began to appear as a background in paintings, unlike the Middle Ages, when artists represented figures of heaven against a gold background. In fact, the natural landscape introduced the idea of atmospheric perspective. Fourthly, artists became famous for their work, and the human body was depicted in anatomical accuracy, and frequently nude. The perfect human type had proportions, muscular structure, oval face, triangular forehead, straight nose, and balance with the weight on one hip. Lastly, the use of mathematical perspective to represent three-dimensional space in paintings was invented. These ideas that were influences from humanism, laid the foundation of how art would develop in the years that

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