Renaissance: Linear Perspective

The Mona Lisa is a very popular, and well known oil painting, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. The painting is quite simple, it presents a portrait of a woman sitting in front of a distant landscape. Her face is expressionless; she is looking off to the side with a faint smirk. Similar to other Renaissance paintings, Mona is drawn with almost no personality or thought. The influence of the Mona Lisa on the Renaissance, and even modern day, has been enormous. This is because of the expression of realism. Mona’s smile represents more of a human-like expression rather than supernatural.

As we continue to progress through the years of art, I am continually impressed by the progression of styles and techniques, as well as their ability to take the best of the "old" and combine it with the "new." I find that Italian Renaissance art is no exception to this progression, experimenting with new ways of twisting and tweaking artistic styles of their fellow Europeans. Some of the characteristics the Italians share with their neighbors include a strong focus on creating an illusion of reality, focusing on recording the details of life accurately. One of the greatest differences, however, is the concept of accomplishing this through a more "mathematical" technique called linear perspective. The polished, weighted, lifelike figures interacted

The new emphasis on learning, especially via direct observation of the natural world, led to new artistic techniques that allowed artists to mimic those of the ancients. The Early Renaissance was, therefore, a progression of observing the works of the ancients, and undergoing a new process of trial-and-error learning from prior mistakes and tracing the path of artistic creation. The aim of the artists was to better their abilities at portraying human characteristics, both physical and emotional, while creating a more ideal finished product, something that was as significant in presence as the natural world itself. Much progress was made in these campaigns during the Early Renaissance, and the emergence of the High Renaissance was characterized by the true mastery of the method of creating mankind’s body and emotions[1], and an artwork as balanced as nature itself. Jean Hey’s “The Annunciation” demonstrates the product of this final Renaissance transition.

The Renaissance also brought drastic changes to the artistic world. The decisive break with medieval tradition occurred in Florence, Italy in 1420 with the invention of linear perspective. This innovation made it possible to represent three-dimensional space on a flat surface. In previous years, objects had been represented on the canvas as one-dimensional. This paralleled the one-dimensional thinking of the time and served to create rigid and unrealistic portrayals in art. Another ideal that evolved was the culmination of harmony and proportion. The human form was seriously analyzed for the first time. Careful attention was payed to minute details such as the shape of muscles and how they looked as they moved. This led to a more realistic and accurate reproduction of the human body. During the Renaissance "...the medieval aspects of the Christian religion were swept away, especially by the violent surge of the Reformation: No other artist managed, as Michelangelo did, to portray this change in his works..." (Heusinger 3).

The Italians may not have had detailed frescos and vivid colors; however they were the leaders in creating a harmonious scale between the landscape and the objects or figures that adorned it. They developed a focused on perspective and made their art a science. They used mathematical measurements and thus the piece was given a great deal of depth and realism. The fresco appears to be an extended recessed space in the room. In Angelico’s piece, linear perspective is created by the placement and angles of the walls. The edge of the porch, the base of the first column and the lines of the bench establish a linear perspective. Italian painters also focused on the studying of classical art and architecture. In Angelico’s piece, the arches supported by the stance of the ionic columns show the interest and study that the Italians adapted into their work. The Northern Renaissance painters eventually incorporated perspective in their work. Van Eyck used intuitive perspective, making objects appear smaller and closer together as they are placed further in the distance to create the feeling of depth in his piece.

The introduction of perspective to the world of art has significantly changed the way art is created. Painting’s like Masaccio’s “The Holy Trinity and The Virgin” have “played a pivotal role in the history of art as both a definitive example of Early Renaissance linear perspective and as a kind of prophetic forerunner of the prospective method discussed nearly a century later by Leon Battista Alberti” (Aiken 171). According to Jane Andrew Aiken, Perspective hadn’t really been used much when the time “The Holy Trinity and The Virgin” had been revealed to the world. The painting had definitely received a notice by many connoisseurs of art for its different painting style and focus of topic. Religion was an obvious main focus during the time Masaccio had done this piece and the fact that he had drawn about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ had caught many people’s eyes. The use of perspective in Masaccio’s “The Holy Trinity and The Virgin” causes the depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to be the main focus in the artwork and give a sense of depth to the painting to the viewers despite their point of view.

From each ends of the table, the hallway appears to recede and the imagined lines meet behind the head of Christ where the vanishing point of the picture is. Leonardo Da Vinci skillfully applied the technique of linear perspective to give a sense of space of a hallway on a flat surface. Leonardo Da Vinci succeeds in drawing viewers into the picture by creating an illusion of depth. However, even while we are drawn into the scene, the long white table acts as a barrier between viewers and the otherworldly realm where Christ and his apostles are.

“While some may deem Leonardo da Vinci paintings tame in their total effect on our society’s modern sensibilities, his development of techniques that immersed the viewer in the world of the painting, and the impact of those techniques cannot be understated.”1

The first time I viewed Caravaggio’s artwork I experience a powerful image with several artistic styles used. This is the sacrifice of Isaac that is located in the Holy Bible. God ordered Abraham to take his son to the top of the mountain to perform the sacrifice. As Abraham proceeds, an angel rushes down from the heavens to stop Abraham. The painting is frozen at this exact moment. Caravaggio is a master Italian painter and it is visually represented here. This specific piece of art is a wonderful example of simple strategies artists to this day still use.

The rise of Mannerism occurred between 1520 and 1610. Mannerism “describes a style characterized by virtuosity in execution, artificiality, and affectation” (Fiero 41). Artists during this time “brought a new level of inventive fantasy and psychological intensity”(Fiero 43). Some of the characteristics that made up the Mannerist period were artificiality, lighting or perspective, and unnatural settings. Many artists’ works “mirrored the self-conscious spirituality and deep insecurity generated by Europe’s religious wars and political rivalries” (Fiero 43). An art piece that reflects this time period is Jacopo Tintoretto’s The Last Supper. In his painting, Tintoretto leaves behind the use of linear perspective, which was popular during the High Renaissance. In the painting, “clouds of angels flutter spectrally at the ceiling, and phosphorescent halos seem to electrify the agitated figures of the apostles” (Fiero 45). Tintoretto’s inclusion of the angels flying around portrays the characteristic of

With the continuous growth of paintings and artists, prestige for art increased dramatically to the point in which religious aspects were shown through landscapes, portraits, and temperas. This then allowed the creation of new styles and mathematical input that manifested everyday life with religious aspects. One such artist was Giovanni Bellini who introduced bright, rich, strong colors into his palette and landscapes that expressed the happiness, calmness, and prosperity that Italy carried throughout the Renaissance. These characteristics and styles of paintings subsequently became a popular Venetian cornerstone. Other important figures in the Italian Renaissance that demonstrated the movement?s ideas through their ingenious paintings and architectural methods were Pier Della Francesca and Leon Battista Alberti. Francesca, who was and expert in mathematics, developed the art form of perspective. Alberti, on the other hand, as an architect developed the pediment which became popular throughout the entire Renaissance. His monasteries and churches depicted many of the religious ideas, as evident in one of his famous works, the Santa Maria Novella. All in all, the use of the common religious themes such as the annunciation, adoration, Crucifixion, and the popular Madonna

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born in Milan, Italy in 1571. The Italian Baroque artist is commonly referred to as simply Caravaggio, as this was the town in northern Italy his family moved to in 1576 to escape a plague. Realism, naturalism, and theatrical use of chiaroscuro are characteristic of his paintings. This dramatic shift from light to dark became known as tenebrism. He often painted straight onto canvas with minimal preparation and created scenes that appear to be an expansion of real space. I begin with a brief biography of Caravaggio, followed by a purely formal analysis of Salome Receives the Head of John the Baptist. Next I provide the story and history behind the subjects of the painting. I conclude with an analysis of the painting’s symbolism and meaning.

When viewing art, you are only seeing the completed work; you see what the artist wants you to see whether that be a painting, sculptures, or even architecture. The artist has an idea and their artwork is the fruition of that idea in real life. In this course, we have studied the first marks on a cave wall to paintings so realistic even a picture wouldn’t compare. However, throughout our time studying these great works we have only seen the culmination of their art, the moment these artists decided their work was complete. The unique perspective the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer,” provides is the in-between, Michelangelo’s journey from an idea to a tangible piece of artwork. His drawings and sketches exhibited through this event are incomplete, some just basic sketches and others extremely detailed, highlighting his process of creation instead of the complete idea. By studying Michelangelo’s drawings, we see the man behind the art, offering a more personal, unpolished look into this great artist’s brain.

“’Mona Lisa’, oil painting on a popular wood panel by the Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer Leonardo Da Vinci, probably the world’s most famous painting” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). This painting has become so important to many people. “Five centuries after its creation, the Mona Lisa remains a touchstone for people around the world” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). There are even different versions of the Mona Lisa. “At least a dozen excellent replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, many of them by the master’s students” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica).

Fine art in the Renaissance reaches unprecedented heyday. This is due to the economic upsurge, with a huge shift that has occurred in the minds of people who have turned to the cult of earthly life and beauty. The visual art of the Renaissance in many ways represents a contrast to the medieval. It marks the emergence of realism for a long time determined the development of European artistic culture. This affected not only the spread of secular images, the development of portrait and landscape or a new, sometimes almost genre interpretation of religious subjects, but also in the radical renewal of the entire artistic system. In the Renaissance, an objective image of the world was seen by the eyes of a man, so one of the important problems facing artists was the problem of space. In Italy, already in the first half of the century, a scientific theory of linear perspective based on geometry and optics was created.