Examples Of Renaissance Art

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Renaissance means 'rebirth,' implying a revival of classical culture. How did artists of the Renaissance revive classical art and ideals? How did they move beyond the example of Greek and Roman art? Renaissance art refers to the revival of art and architecture in Europe between 1400 and 1600, centered in Italy. The term Renaissance is a French term for rebirth, and is used to mark a period of broad cultural achievements. There are two principal components of the Renaissance style: a revival of the classical forms originally developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and an intensified concern of the value of man’s life on earth, which is humanism. In the era before Renaissance, life and art was centered around “afterlife,” where living…show more content…
As a result, the painted surface was regarded as a window on the natural world, and it became the task of painters to portray this world in their art. Art suddenly is focused on te portrayal of realistic world, instead of the ideal world. Depiction on real life objects was focused, whereas Greek and Roman used ideal measurements to create art. Consequently, painters began to devote themselves more rigorously to the rendition of landscape of careful depiction of trees, flowers, plants, distant mountains, and cloud-filled skies. Renaissance painters also have great desire to recapture antiquity and its mythology. They believed that the ancient Greeks had superior knowledge and their myths held hidden truths. Mythology became a common subject matter during the beginning of the Renaissance. Many of the subject matter were borrowed from Greek and Roman art as well. While many of Renaissance art have content that was borrowed from Roman and Greek art, there art focus was shifted towards the individual in society, which is humanism. Devotional art of Christian orientation became classically humanized. Classical artistic principles, including…show more content…
The sculpture David will be compared and contrasted since both artists depicted a bronze sculpture of David. Donatello’s David created a balance between Classicism and realism by presenting a very real image of an Italian peasant boy in the form of a Classical nude figure. However, while Donatello was inspired by Classical figures, he chose to represent David as a barely developed adolescent boy whose arms appeared weak due to the lack of muscles. David himself also seems skeptical of his deed as he glances down towards his body. Through this we could see that Donatello was coming out of the medieval mindset where the Human Body itself was considered to be evil and something to be ashamed of, never heroic. While he seems to be reacting against this notion by making David nude, his depicted him as a boy who looks downward. On the other hand, Verrocchio’s David looks like a proud and strong boy that is dressed in modern parade clothes. In Verrocchio's David, we see a strong contrast to Donatello's. Although both artists choose to portray David as an adolescent, Verrocchio's brave man "appears somewhat older and excludes pride and self-confidence rather than a dreamy gaze of disbelief" (Fichner-Rathus 334). Donatello balanced realistic elements with an idealized classically inspired torso whereas Verrocchio's goal was absolutely
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