Renaissance Art

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that before the Renaissance emerged in Italy, art and architecture had a flat, stylized manner, with little realism or emotional life. The paper looks at the transition from the stylized art of the Byzantine period to the beginning of the Renaissance by focusing on the styles and subjects of painters like Giotto and Duccio in Northern Italy. The paper explains that the philosophy of early Christian art had been that all art should be religious in nature and therefore as unnatural as possible, while during the Renaissance, the human became the most important mover in the cosmic sphere and could therefore be glorified as such.

From the Paper:

"Before the Renaissance emerged in Italy, art and architecture had a flat, stylized manner. The subjects of paintings were predominantly religious in nature and had very little realism or emotional life. The Byzantine style, characterized by a rich use of color and very flat, stylized figures, had been a huge departure from the medieval art of its Northern counterparts. The Byzantine style, while still concerned with religious subjects, strove less for realism and more for the abstract and symbolic. Part of this transition had to do with the schism of the Catholic church from east and west; the other had to do with the structures and strictures of the governments in place at the time. Where England, Germany, and France were still yoked under the feudal system, Italy was emerging to be a divergent amalgam of city-states and duchies, each with their own characteristics and power structure."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 12th ed. , Ed. Levy et.al, New York: 1996.
• Kren, Emil. "Duccio di Buoninsegna".Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga.hu/bio/d/duccio/buoninse/biograph.html
• Esaak, Shelley. "Art History 101--The Proto-Renaissance". About.com http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/pre_ren.htm
• http://artlex.com/ArtLex/b/byzantine.html
• Pioch, Nicholas. "Giotto di Bondone". WebMuseum Paris. <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/giotto>

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