The Importance Of Perspective During The Renaissance Era

At the crest of the Church of the Gesù in Rome, an aureate burst attracts an equivalent infinity of attention to the infinity of light that it emits. Borne of Italian baroque painter Giovanni Battista “Baciccio” Gaulli, this aureate burst is the center of the illusionistic ceiling fresco Triumph of the Name of Jesus. It is initially unclear what is being beheld, but it demands attention nonetheless. By simultaneously depicting and inciting the spectacle of this aureate burst, Gaulli arouses a discussion of the nature of visual representation and the fundamental role of a viewer. Gaulli asserts his position as an artist and emphasizes the viewer’s duty to an image—and to an artist—by demanding the viewer to include themselves among the enamored

The Renaissance changed everyone’s view of the world, in multiple subjects, helping them understand perspective, realize their relation to God, and recognize their beauty, along with the universe’s beauty. Art was one of the biggest differences in the Renaissance. The change in this area was drastic

Masaccio’s famous religious painting, “The Holy Trinity”, is known for the engagement of linear perspective to create an image that goes beyond just paint on canvas, (or should I say wall?) by creating the illusion of depth. This painting addresses many religious concepts by setting up different levels and layers in the constructed space. The characters depicted are made up of four groups of human figures, which include the Trinity (God the father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit), the Virgin Mary and Saint John, a pair of donors, and a skeleton on a tomb at the bottom of the picture. There is an apparent point of separation, which is made clear due to each group being on separate levels. Their difference in power is fundamental feature in

“No painter can paint well without a thorough knowledge of geometry” (qtd. in Butterfield 27). The Italian Renaissance is famous for its art which includes unique style of painting and sculpting, however, the Renaissance made significant remark on the use of scientific techniques which also can be considered as the influence of classical ideas. Although, classical ideas were not advanced like in the Renaissance, it provided the foundation for the Renaissance to revive it again. The Italian Renaissance transformed the manner of viewing the arts. Before, most people in Italy were bounded by religious thoughts and beliefs. Renaissance helped people to shift their mind and behavior towards the secular ideas, instead of vague ideology like

The Italian Renaissance was one of the most colorful, vital, and exciting times in history. Renaissance eventually comes from the French word "Renaistre," meaning "to be born again." The Renaissance was a revival or a rebirth of cultural awareness and learning among art, law, language, literature, philosophy, science, and mathematics. This period took place between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Renaissance in Italy flourished in the 15th century and spread throughout most of Europe in the 16th century.

Another major idea during the Renaissance was discovering new techniques that allowed artists to portray more accurate and realistic works instead of fanciful and abstract supernaturals. Perspective was the biggest discovery of the time period, but many aspects went into such work. Proportion and foreshortening were two crucial skills needed to achieve perspective. Proportion is the correspondence of a singular part to the entire whole, and foreshortening is the shortening of lines used to create depth. Sfumato, the blending of varying tones, was also utilized in artwork to create depth. In the famous painting “Mona Lisa”, artist Leonardo Da Vinci used sfumato to project a three dimensional illusion to the viewer. Other techniques such as chiaroscuro, the contrasting of light and dark, were

DBQ Essay The Renaissance changed many people's opinion on earth, the universe, and man, in ways like no other time period has. The ways they did so was by an increase in technology, knowledge, and reasoning. There was an increase in artist and scientist and they look to discover the secrets of the world that we did not know during this time. The Renaissance changed man's view of man by increased knowledge, use of reason, technological advancement, and the drifting of religion.

The last way of how the Renaissance changed man's view of the world was because of its science observation. Many new, and very important discoveries and inventions were made during the Renaissance. People would no longer look at the church for answers, they would instead conduct their own experiments. An example of this is Copernicus' theory that the planets moved around the sun, and the sun was the center not the earth. Before this people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, and everything orbited around it.

Along with the different kinds of techniques of art, a shift in artistic themes occurred due to a change in the artist’s perception of life and their values. The Renaissance is an era that was home to some of the most influential artists of all time – Michelangelo Buonarotti, Raffaello Sanzio, and Leonardo di Vinci were few of the many. One main characteristic

Aside from linear perspective, Calabrese incorporates other geometrical forms throughout the composition. One is the circle at the foreground of the painting, which Calabrese offers the audience to complete. More outstanding is the triangle that occupies the majority of the space. John’s body, parallel to his staff, begs the viewer to trace the triangle from his eyes, across the woman and the lamb in the foreground, up the staff, and through to his hand. This triangle is significant in its symbolism of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. The message here is clear; through Jesus, the lamb, one will be saved. It is also interesting that Calabrese places John between the lamb and his hand. It coincides with the paintings’ function as an altar piece in that John serves as an intercessor to the Divine. Through him, one has access to Jesus, and therefore God. The geometrical lines and shapes add to the painting’s dynamism and contribute to the optimistic promise the painting conveys.

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 great thing about art, is that there are multiple portrayals of one idea but, the artist’s own personal style allows one to feel something that another may not. Early Renaissance painters, Giotto di Bondone and Duccio di Buoninsegna established their own unique style to depict a biblical scene known as, The Betrayal of Christ. Through a close analysis of each artist’s representation of, The Betrayal of Christ, one is able to compare and contrast the artists own understanding of the scene through their attention to detail, character, and space throughout the painting. When examining these two works, one will have a stronger emotional response towards Giotto’s interpretation rather Duccio’s, due to his methods of handling organization, figures, and space.

Art in the Medieval Times was dreary and bland. Many works of art were solely about God or holy figures. The most obvious change from the Renaissance to Medieval Times was the arts, according to Document A and also that “One begins to know the names of the artists ... feel stronger emotions in the subjects”. This shows that Renaissance art not only changed in style, in changed in how it made the viewer feel when seeing the art. Similarly, in Document A, Renaissance art is described as “new artistic styles would echo the broader movements and interests of the new age.…”. As compared to Medieval Times, the style of art became something similar to the time that people could relate to. In the Medieval Times, art was just meant to extol God’s many feats. People who viewed the painting were supposed to put that style of art on a pedestal. Medieval art was supposed to be worshipped, not so much understood. The individual in the Medieval Times was supposed to take away from the painting that the only thing that mattered in their life was the Roman Catholic church and God already had a plan for their lives. But in comparison, Renaissance art was supposed to empower and help people of the time to understand themselves and the fact that they can change their own lives.

Generally believed to have begun in Florence, the Renaissance – also known as the ‘Rebirth’ – was a period of reviving interest in classical art and the beginning of scientific revolution. The Renaissance period did not begin abruptly; instead, it was an idea that took shape since the time of the painter Giotto (Gombrich 2007). In the early Renaissance period, Giotto experimented with and laid the foundation for painting with perspective, a method that was refined and perfected by later painters and sculptors. The period towards the end of the fifteenth century was known as the High Renaissance. It was the apex of artistic innovations, techniques, and productions. The height of the

The present work is focused on undertaking an in-depth analysis of two famous religious paintings: The Virgin and Child by Barnaba da Modena, an Italian painter from the fourteenth century, and The Elevation of the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens, a seventeenth century Flemish artist and diplomat. Following, by comparison, a thorough account of the two works' features, careful observation reveals more than one interpretation.