The Transformation And Advancement Of Renaissance Art

Over time, art has evolved and changed in meaning. However, one specific period created a revolutionary and permanent world shift known as the Renaissance (“Renaissance Style”). This profound era, during the 15th and 16th centuries, marked a fundamental change in artistic and creative visions and gave way to the transformation of traditional thought and action. Patterns and notions shifted into new techniques and structures of craft (Rosand 386, 388). During the rebirth that was the Renaissance, many great artists revolutionized the different genres of art that influence the world today.

The variety of art dexterity an aspiring artist could pursue was endless. But, before they could continue with one stylistically, they had to train as an apprentice. At this point, they were taught by a professional artisan to master a range of techniques. The art they created was distinguished by harmony, balance, and the profundity of ideas (Cole 22). During the Renaissance, great artisans discovered more technical methods of art and averted away from common, bland, depthless pieces (“Renaissance”). Even architecture rejected the style of Gothic in favor of forms inspired by antiquity and historical juncture (Rosand 387).

Renaissance art was greatly influenced by ancient Roman and Greek models (Osmond). The remains of different civilizations were the inspiration for paintings, architecture, sculpture, and writing (“Renaissance Style”). These aged styles began altering city design, especially building quality. Additionally, artisans began possessing a growing interest in landscapes, and used them in different images, sometimes adding still life in the foreground (Cole 34). One example is Wolfgang Stechow Bruegel, who was an Italian artist well known for his depiction of everyday life from the southern countries (Kallen 66). Art evolved from ancient times and transformed into something new and exclusive.

As art became more beloved, a forceful demand for religious images, mainly Christian, began to grow. Most artists remained loyal to the church and used religion as the base of their art (Rosand 387). However, some more independent artists wanted to focus on naturalism, displaying subtle beauty and nature (“Renaissance Art”). Details were meant to look effortless and unforced, creating the effect of softness and charm.

With this new era came new interpretations of art. Artists wanted to design flowery and nature-based creations. Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the individual and the elegance and mystery of the natural world. It expressed classical ideals of refinement, serenity, and harmony (“Renaissance Art”). They achieved this by utilizing vibrant colors and bold linear styles, which all contributed to creating naturalistic images (Cole 10). These icons could be of religion, rituals, marriage, birth, and family life. Extreme detail was used in every painting and image to construct a real and natural piece of work. Some artists portrayed emotion through the foreground characters, and they used landscaping in the backgrounds to display depth and perspective (Kallen 39, 43, 53). In the end, art changed to show the reality of the world, and to change humanity’s place in it (Osmond).

Light and perspective alter what the mind recognizes, so painters attempted to perceive how the concept worked and how to manipulate it (“Renaissance Style”). There are laws of perspective and techniques for painting (“Renaissance” 178). Linear perspective grants the observer to influence the power over what is seen. To use linear perspective, artists must first view the canvas as an open window, which was considered a plane with its core eye level to the spectator. As they experimented with this, artists grasped more about dimensions. A single vanishing point portrayed the depth of the room (Osmond). Artists studied light and investigated perspective, using the order and details of nature. Depth is affected by value and shadow, and there are foreground and background in every painting (“Renaissance Style”). Naturalism is about 3D space and tangibility (Osmond).

Artists used math and science to give life to their masterpieces, discovering a way to recreate precisely what the eye identifies handling geometric relations and mathematical proportions (Kallen 53). Didactic symbols were developed to identify characters, events, and ideas (Osmond). Artisans wanted to generate equilibrium between geometry and naturalism, and stuck to the authentic canvases; plastered church walls, palace walls, and wood panels. Painters no longer organized flat shapes by importance, instead using them to create 3D illusions of space, such as a long hallway or room, using mathematical precision (Rosand 932, 388).

Color and light were greatly emphasized. Changes in tone, color, and value transformed images. If an object was farther away, the more muted the color and vise versa. With the consistent light, depth could be conveyed in sense (Osmond). Paintings became softer, contours and surfaces blurred more, and they embraced shadow (Rosand 391). Contemporary artists used color in place of lines as the main ingredient to their paintings (Cole 46). They also used light and shadow to convey physical relationships between figures and the landscape (“Renaissance Art”).

In sculpting, artists based their creations on human anatomy carving stone to appear lifelike and paid very close attention to every detail (Rosand 390) (Murphy and Matthews 32). Many artists studied humans very particularly so they could have more precise human proportions, and focused on the cemetricallity of the human figure. Pursuing sculpture required great skill, strength, tenacity, and artistic vision considering the tools they had (Kallen 47, 30).

Another new material was oil paints. Oil painting allowed artists to rework the image because it did not dry like a fresco painting on plaster (“Renaissance Art”). Oil had many more purposes than tempera, paints that artists had originally used. It allowed variation of light, texture, tone, and value. Oil paints could be thinned with other oils or with turpentine and layered to create different effects and hues (“Renaissance Style”). Northern artists perfected oil paints that were not affected by moisture and lasted long periods of time. Formerly, oil paints were made from egg yolk mixed with pigments, but ended up looking flat, cracked, and dried too quickly. However, later artists mixed them with natural oils blended with resin, which allowed flexibility, slow drying, and blendability (Kallen 56, 53).

Artists completely innovated art techniques and materials that were founded during the Renaissance, the era that sparked tradition to shift, creating new techniques and materials. This fundamental change will forever be remembered as the advancement in art and creativity. Art took a different turn and traditional thought and action transformed into something new. The Renaissance created a revolutionary world alteration that changed art meaning and influences the world today.

Works Cited

1. Cole, Allison. Renaissance. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2000.
2. Kallen, Stuart A. Renaissance Art. Gale Cengage Learning, 2008.
3. Murphy, Lauren, and Rupert Matthews. “Renaissance Art.” Art and Culture of the Renaissance
4. World, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2010, pp. 32-33.
5. Osmond, Susan Fegley. “The Renaissance Mind Mirrored in Art.” World and I, News World Communications, December 1998, p.18, General OneFile.
6. “Renaissance.” Compton’s by Britannica, vol. 20, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008, p.178.
7. “Renaissance Art.” History, A and E Television Networks, 19 Sept. 2018, www.history.com/topics/renaissance/renaissance-art.
8. “Renaissance Style.” TheArtist, Made in Dubai, 2018, www.theartist.me/art-movement/renaissance-style/.
9. Rosand, David. “Renaissance Art and Architecture.” Encyclopedia Americana, international ed., vol. 23, Scholastic Library Publishing, 2006, pp. 386-401.