Early Renaissance Art History

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that there are three highly significant ways in which Renaissance art can be considered a turning point for the visual arts. It shows how, first, a series of technical advances took place from the late 13th century to the early 15th century, notably a new feeling for the solidity of bodies, for the dramatic possibilities of design and composition, and the development of scientific perspective. Second, the writer explains that there is a rising interest in the classical civilizations, most importantly ancient Rome, leading to a concern to imitate classical architecture, sculpture, and as far as possible, painting. Finally, paralleling the development of new humanism in learning and scholarship, the writer points out that a change in the content of works of art can be discerned, as ideas from philosophy and literature influence both the choice of subject and the way in which it is handled.

From the Paper:

"A new individuality of style and of genre can be seen in much of the work of this period, with a breaking down of the categories of religious and devotional painting that had characterized the 14th and earlier 15th centuries. The work of Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-94) has been described as only "nominally religious," and is typified by portraits and set pieces cast in the form of religious works but with more naturalistic and humanistic dimensions than in the devotional pictures of the previous century. His "Adoration of the Shepherds" of 1485 [fig. 2] shows influences of Flemish painting in the naturalistic portraits of the figures on the right, while the careful detailing of the ancient Roman sarcophagus being used as the manger demonstrates his concern with the antique and the classical. At the other end of the spectrum from the painters who strove for realism in art was Sandro Botticelli. In Botticelli's work the quest for linear harmony that had begun with Donatello reaches a climax in such non-naturalistic exercises in contour, movement and symbolism as "Primavera, the Allegory of Spring" (c.1482)."

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