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Art Essay About The Renaissance, Completed At Eton Summer School

To what extent is the Renaissance entirely new?

Date : 13/03/2012

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Megan

Uploaded by : Megan
Uploaded on : 13/03/2012
Subject : Art

The strong conscious awareness of the growth and movement into something new was the unique characteristic of the Renaissance era. The origins of this realisation are centred in ancient texts dating back to the Greek and Roman periods. Discoveries and the republishing of these classical texts, in Florence, led to the belief that these ideas and portrayals were core to progressing into the future. Petrarch wrote about the intellectual reawakening of the ancient concepts, preaching them as laws and the basis for the classical language; 'When the darkness breaks, the generations to come may contrive to find their way back to the clear splendour of the ancient past'- Petrarch. This view dragged the Florentines out of the 'dark ages' and into an exciting rebirth of the classical arts with the belief that they were venturing into something new. To discover whether the Renaissance was wholly new, it is necessary to examine the artist who set the fundamental foundations of the period; Giotto. Although not considered to be included in the Renaissance (1400-1600), Giotto (1267/75-1337) leans away from the gothic art style which dominated at this time. Understandably, there are many gothic elements scattered within his frescos, however an interest in depicting realism starts to shine through. Studying Giotto's 'Lamentation' there are strikingly clear gothic features. Lack of facial expression in the crowd makes the piece low in dynamical impact, keeping the art distant from reality and therefore purely focusing on the biblical reference from which it was taken. This approach was also used in the early classical sculptures which portrayed the Kouros in an unrealistic, expressionless way. In addition, there is an immense amount of detailing, particularly on the robes of the crowd in the lamentation, created using gold and yellowy tones - a feature widely used in gothic art. On the contrary, the beginnings of perspective can be seen through the use of articulation of space and trying to introduce an orthogonal line descending to a vanishing point. The clever arrangement of space and grouping of the characters in the image starts to create a sense of humanism and explores the relationships between the characters in the fresco, a technique used by most Renaissance artists. Giotto has started to show the relationships through the use of gestures; the closeness of Mary and Jesus in the fresco moves the gothic art movement away from the solemn, sombre, unconnected figures and introduces the innovative idea of capturing the psychological aspects of art. The progress away from cold, unrealistic figures reflects the development of the classical developments of the Kouros into sculptures becoming more dynamic and realistic. Furthermore, the careful placement of the gestures guide the viewer's eye to the central focus of the image, much like DaVinci's painting of the Last Supper where he has cleverly arranged the gestures to highlight Jesus as the important figure. These introductions of new aspects of realism urge you to generate the idea that the Renaissance is entirely new, however to determine the truth of this statement I will continue the journey deeper into the Renaissance period. Let's venture into the fifteenth century sculpture and explore the influential works of Donatello. He furthered Giotto's idea of dissecting situations and creating an emotional connection between the viewer and the figures in the paintings. He used simple elements to create powerful, dynamic structures; his sculpture of Angel Gabriel and Mary consists of such simplicity, yet seems to have so much more depth and meaning in comparison to the emotionless gothic art figures and the classical sculptures which have dynamic aspects, but do not deal with the connection between figures. This is shown through the intense eye connection he has created between the figures, as well as portraying mixed emotions through the horror of Mary's body language but the intensity and joy of her gaze with Gabriel. The stance of Mary in this sculpture is sourced from the Grecian portrayal of Venus, one hand placed upon her breast and the other at the top of her thigh. A trend can be seen during the Renaissance, in which the stances have all clearly originated from early classical sculpture using the contraposto stance. An example of this can be observed in Donatello's sculpture of David and Goliath, commissioned for the Medici, a powerful family in Florence. A desire for artists to express their knowledge of the classical era is shown through the use of orders within their art work, suggesting they are not concerned with authenticity but with flaunting correct use of the classical orders - again showing that the Renaissance thought of the ancient Greek and Roman period as the 'golden age'. The use of these orders further suggests that the Renaissance is not entirely new, however I will examine the final element from the Renaissance to gain an artistic view of the whole period - architecture. Italy experienced a fundamental change in the way that Florentines viewed architecture; the development of this was due to an influential man, Leon Battista Alberti. A moralist, lawyer, poet, playwright, musician, mathematician, scientist, painter, sculptor, architect and aesthetic theorist, Alberti had power and expertise in many different areas. He developed a rational theory of beauty, based on the elementary ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans, calling them the 'laws of nature'. His style evolved to be more archaeologically correct than that of other great Renaissance architects, such as Brunelleschi who tended to complicate the classical architecture but not take it any further. It was progressed successfully through adapting the classical architecture subtly as to capture the essence, but not to use the complete form; Alberti formed arches into architraves and used these to advance the Renaissance architecture. This can clearly be seen in the S Francesco, Rimini, begun in 1450 as he has successfully used the laws of classical architecture to enhance the Florentine structures, hence constructing a building with originality. He has kept the beautiful rhythm of a continuous steady pace, using columns much like those in Greek temples; nonetheless it would be challenging to consider the building to be just identical - thus accomplishing the vital development of new architecture. The element of imagination and originality was the essential ingredients missing from other Renaissance architects. Combining the three major elements of painting, sculpture and architecture, we gain an insight into the elementary components of the Renaissance period. Whilst developing into the future, the Renaissance have had to dig deeper into their past to uncover the laws of 'golden' art. It is easy to assume, without careful inspection, that the Renaissance artists and architects are simply stealing and reproducing old ideas: However, questioning the term 'new' allows you to open your mind into a wider world of possibilities. What can be defined as new? In the modern age, it is common practice for us to go to the shopping centre and buy some 'new' clothes. Is it new? Surely, we are just buying what has become the developed item from thousands of years of clothing produced by our ancestors? It has become apparent that to successfully develop something 'new' we have had to reach back into the past and yearn to improve and nurture the old designs. This was outstandingly recognised by the Renaissance artists; that to truly evolve and become a fresh, new generation, they had to delve into the past and use their original creations to blossom. It is frightening how simple this notion was: Renaissance men crudely identified that they do not need to create something completely new when former inventions were already the beginnings of something perfect.

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