The Renaissance

We all know the famous Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, but what do these names have to do with the Renaissance Art Movement? These famous names were all part of the great masters of early Renaissance art. Their talents included sculpture, painting, architecture, music and drawing, while also diving into sciences and literature. Throughout this time individual expression and worldly experience became the main themes of the century inspiring many budding artists to come.

The Renaissance was a time of growth in the liberal arts. It started in the Italian City states as trading brought huge profits to all the city states, especially to Venice and Genoa. Due to the profits from trading, and to the regrowth of some other industries that had been devastated by the social upheavals of the fourteenth century, the Italian city-states became extremely prosperous. The richest in Italy who were the ones benefiting from this prosperity, such as the Medicis, became great patrons of the arts, allowing art to flourish in Italy as it had never done since Greco-Roman times. Because of individualism and humanism, Renaissance art started to emphasize mathematical perspective to art which gave art an element of 3D. New thinkers with new ideas also started to emerge such as Petrarch, who promoted humanism, the belief in the power of the individual and in the revival of ancient Greco-Roman texts and beliefs. The High Renaissance

Art during the Italian Renaissance differed from art during the Middle Ages. The two have contrasting characteristics and concepts. To the people in the medieval world, religion was their life. Everything in daily life focused around the church and God (Modern World 164). Medieval culture influenced the arts; this was evident in the religious themes. During the Italian Renaissance, painters and other artists focused on the portrayal of a more humanistic way of life. Renaissance artists’ work portrayed realism with “lifelike human figures in their paintings” (Modern World 164). Renaissance artists wanted to express ancient Greek and Roman cultures in their work (Modern World 162). Italian Renaissance

Throughout the renaissance and outburst of creativity took place. Unlike Medieval paintings, Renaissance painters represented realism (pg. 328). In order to make these painting lifelike, a new technique was learned, which was, perspective. This taught the artists that making distant objects smaller and arranging objects in certain ways the painters can create the illusions of depth on a flat canvas (pg. 329). Painting by the artist named Giotto were so lifelike that people would try to brush off the fly he created in the painting. These talented artists were what created the High Renaissance. This took place during the 1400’s to 1500’s. Four incredible artists stood out during this time. They were, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, and Titan. These names are still familiar in today’s society. For example, Da Vinci created the mural The Last Supper and not to forget he painted the Mona Lisa, which is very popular to this day (pg. 329). Also, Michelangelo helped design St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which is also very famous in today’s world. These impressive artists caused many excellent painting and sculptures which not only affected the people’s creativity during the renaissance, but still to this day has affected people's point of view of the renaissance and the amazing artwork

During the Renaissance, all that changed. Artists then included an emphasis on human beings and the environment, which shown that this is indication of changes in their culture at the time. "Renaissance individualism and realism found their greatest and most lasting representation in the visual arts" (Walker 77).

The word Renaissance means “rebirth” in French. It began in Italy and spread to Europe and lasted from the 1300s to the 1600s. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, culture began to flower. There was three different types of art during the Renaissance, Classical Art, Medieval Art, and Renaissance Art. Classical Art lasted from 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E., artists valued balance and harmony, in the painting there was little background or sense of perspective. While Medieval Art lasted from 500 to 1300 C.E., and those art was religious, showing Jesus, saints, and people from the Bible, the artists also had the more important people larger than the rest. Also, Renaissance Art lasted from 1300s to early 1600s, but this art showed religious and nonreligious scenes, scenes showed real people doing daily tasks.

Before the Renaissance, art was all about religion, and lacked emotions and details. Renaissance Art had stronger emotions, well defined

The High Renaissance is the main period in which people recall upon hearing of the Renaissance -- famous Renaissance artists and works were created during this time. Many of the defining characteristics of Renaissance art, such as perspective and realism, were refined in their technical forms during the High Renaissance. They were mastered by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in Rome under papal commissions, due to Florence’s relevancy declining. The earlier Renaissance contained mostly rediscoveries of the works created in Antiquity, and the growing stylistic distinctions between

Leonardo is known as the man for the High Renaissance, which is the sixteenth century artistic styles developed in Florence and Rome, as innovations in art begin to create the realistic appearances of people. The Last Supper is one of his best-known artworks, and shows realism throughout each person’s varying facial emotions towards Christ and perspective lines add depth and lighting differentiations. Whereas the portrait of Mona Lisa illustrates sfumato usage, the different landscape background as contrast, and the additional smirk of emotion to promote the realistic features of an individual. All in all, Leonardo da Vinci was famous because of his diverse fields of accomplishments, but his painting career progressed the extent of artists capabilities through his realistic effects upon his audiences with his scientific approach portrayed in The Last Supper, Mona Lisa, and other works like Madonna of the

Painting had many idolized from the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations with works of vibrant, bright colors projected onto various canvases demonstrating natural beauty, architecture, and depictions of great cultural icons, such as the many figures of Greek mythology. New artists, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and many others had viewed classical pieces and set out to honor their ancient counterparts and to create their own style. Ideologically, artists became more centralized on the topic of the church, which is seen in many works, regardless of the patronage received from the actual papacy. New and past canvases and tools were introduced and reintroduced such as oil paintings, a prime example of Renaissance painting, fresco, involving pigments being mixed with water and applied to plaster, murals becoming more popular, etc. Techniques were also engineered to design and create the likes of astounding art which had never been seen before, such as perspective painting to create more detailed and dimensioned works as in Raphael’s “School of Athens.” Sfumato was another renowned technique made famous by Da Vinci which involved moving away from set, geometric borders and instead involved the use of mixing tones to create hazy outlines, exhibited in probably

The word ‘Renaissance’ is French for ‘Rebirth’. The Renaissance is a period in European history which signifies the rebirth of classical learning and rediscovery. The best possible way to get a grasp about what the Renaissance was all about is to compare it to a previous age. The middle ages for example, could be defined as a spiritual age. In contrast, the Renaissance was a secular age which was more man-centered rather than God-centered. The Renaissance is said to have begun in Italy as early as the 14th century immediately after the middle ages. Since the fall of Rome, the religious thought took a downward spiral and there seemed to be a lack of creativity and originality. Renaissance artists and scholars wanted to bring back the classical past by emulating the human form in the most realistic way possible. Their interests in God, the heaven and the Saints began to fade away and they became more self-centered. They began to think about themselves and wanted to explore their surroundings and daily lives and incorporate it into their work. Artists began to sign their paintings and even paint themselves in it. Whereas, authors began to write memoirs –stories about their lives.

The height of the renaissance was the moment when the simple idea of an artist became one and the same with a genius. The high renaissance principles were considered to have had been attained by the mastery of three inspiring and influential men known as Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo. Being the Italian architect and painter of this time, Raphael’s work was well-liked for its lucidity form and visual

Mannerism was huge in Italy. One of the greatest pieces created in this style was Leonardo’s ‘Mona Lisa’. Leonardo uses mysterious elements for the background, it recalls one of his other lesser known paintings named ‘Madonna of the Rocks’. The reason this piece is so fascinating is because Leonardo finished very few of his works. He did, however have a notebook of “Renaissance Drawings”. Since Leonardo was an architect as well as an artist, this led him to create some of the greatest technology man has ever known. They also resembled his ideas of what the Renaissance meant to him and the ideas he gained from this re-birth. Some of Leonardo’s tactics are still used today. Take cutaways for example. This style of imagery was used long before the age of X-Rays. Leonardo was not the only one with Renaissance Drawings. It was common for a lot of Renaissance artists to have notebooks full of drawings. Artists usually used silverpoint stylus when drawing in their notebook. For other works, artists used different materials (ink pen, chalk, charcoal, brush, graphite/lead). This has lead me to believe that artists used different materials to create different moods, and to give each piece a different meaning. Another big name in the Renaissance was Raphael (Raffaello Santi). It is said that Raphael mostly likely learned his tactics and roots of Renaissance art from his father, Giovanni Santi.

The Renaissance Era was a time known as rebirth. Though the renaissance era had many problems, the people during that time period had been able adjust. This era directed people toward the way of better living. It allowed them to further their knowledge and gather ideas. The English Renaissance changed the lives of the people who lived during darker times. This time period motivated many people born during this time to become greater things.

The art of the Renaissance was influenced by both ancient Greek and Roman culture as well as the humanism movement. The subjects of works of art were no longer limited to royal and religious figures, nor were they over idealized portrayals. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa exemplifies this trend. Working with the new medium of oil and his mastery of light, contrast, and sfumato, da Vinci created the most famous painting in the world; a work where subject and background compliment each other to form a perfect union.