Renaissance Art—Paintings

From the 1450's to the 1600's, a new stage of art started.  It was called the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.” People in Europe started to have the idea of recreating the realism of Roman art.  Before the Renaissance, during the Middle Ages, artists made people look unrealistic, flat and awkwardly shaped.  For example, people’s bodies are in impossible positions. Their backs may be too straight, or their necks are too long. To make things look more realistic, Renaissance artists developed special techniques. 

Medieval Madonna and Child (by Cimabue, c.1285)

Renaissance Mother and Child (by Filippo Lippi, c. 1464)

One technique that Renaissance artists used was called linear perspective.  Linear perspective lets the artist create depth in a painting.  In the center of the painting there is a place called the vanishing point.  Actually, it is usually in the center of the painting but it doesn’t have to be.  The vanishing point can be wherever the artist wants observers to direct their focus.  The vanishing point also establishes the point of view in a painting.  As objects approach the vanishing point they get smaller and when they get closer to the viewer they look bigger. That makes the painting look three-dimensional.

School of Athens (Raphael, 1518)

Artists also created depth in paintings with a technique called foreshortening. Foreshortening emphasizes linear perspective on the body.  When artists are trying to show someone’s hand reaching towards you, for example, they would draw the hand large and then make the arm get smaller and smaller until it is accurate to the size of the person’s body.  Comic book artists use foreshortening, too, to show action in a picture.

Lamentation Over the Dead Christ (Mantegna, 1480)

Spiderman (Marvel Comics)

Artists also use light to create depth.  Chiaroscuro is the technique that uses light and shadow to create a sense of where things are compared to the direction of the light. By shading objects you can see their three-dimensional shape.  Chiaroscuro is also used to show emotion.  For example if you see dark shadows around someone you might feel sadness, anger, or fear.

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (by Caravaggio, 1601)

Putting these techniques together, Renaissance artists created art with emotion and realism. You can see real people from their times and you can imagine what people were feeling about God. You can see how people during the Renaissance were focusing on how everyone is a person. With these paintings we can understand the new ideas people had about life.