Renaissance Sculptures

Have you ever seen Renaissance sculpture?  If you have, then you can see how it is different from the sculptures before that time. During the Middle Ages before the Renaissance, they sculpted people less realistically.  In Italy during the Renaissance, sculptors had the idea of bringing back the style of ancient Greek and Roman art.  In this post, I am going to talk about aspects of Renaissance sculpture and examples of art with those aspects.

The statues in the Renaissance had three important characteristics.  First of all, the sculptors used their own individual styles.  This was called individualism.  Second of all, they used something called naturalism.  Naturalism was when sculptors made their sculptures look realistic or like how people actually are.  To make their sculptures look realistic, they had to use different kinds of techniques.  Some of the techniques sculptors used were accurate proportions and anatomy of the human body.  They also used drapery in the folds of the clothing or perspective to show layers in sculptures.  Lastly, they usually portrayed classical topics from Greek and Roman works of art or scenes from the Bible.  Overall, these characteristics demonstrate how Renaissance sculptures were different from sculptures before them.

The sculptures in the Renaissance were made using specific materials.  One material they used were different kinds of metals.  Some of the metals they used were bronze and sometimes gold. Another material they used was stone like marble and sandstone. Yet other materials they used were wood and terracotta which is a kind of clay.  These six materials were the most popular during the Renaissance period.

Michelangelo’s David demonstrates all the different aspects of Renaissance sculpture.  For instance, it has the correct proportions except for the fact that the head is a bit big because you are supposed to look at it from below. In that way, it uses a sense of perspective because it looks accurate.  In addition, it is a religious topic because the story of David slaying a giant comes from the Old Testament. Another key aspect that makes it like other Renaissance sculptures is that this sculpture is made out of marble.  The marble is called carrara from the mountains around Carrara, Italy.  All in all, this sculpture is a prime example of Renaissance art.

Michelangelo's David at the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy

Donatello’s David is also an excellent example of Renaissance sculpture.  The first thing to notice is the proportions on this David are also very accurate.  For example, the giant’s head is bigger than David’s head.  Also, the parts of David’s body are accurately proportioned.  A second important fact is that it tells the religious story of the David who slayed a Giant.  A third important fact is that it is made out of bronze, a type of metal.  That is one of the frequently used materials from the Renaissance.  In summary, this sculpture also shows similar aspects of Renaissance sculpture.

Donatello's David  at the Barghello Museum, Florence, Italy

The bronze David and the marble David are similar all sorts of different ways.  The bronze David the marble David are both standing in a special stance.  It is called contraposto.  Contraposto is when the person is leaning their weight onto one leg while the other leg is bent.  They also both are putting their bodies in a comfortable position like real people.  Both the bronze and marble Davids are very humble looking --they are not smiling, they are looking down, and they look serious.  They are both holding a slingshot because in the story of David and the giant Goliath he knocks out the Giant and cuts off his head.  Though in many ways they are similar, in other ways they are different.  The bronze David looks younger and less strong.  The statue of the bronze David portrays David after slaying the giant while the marble David portrays him thinking about slaying the giant.  Certainly by how I’m calling them, it is obvious that one is bronze and the other is marble.  One of the less important differences is that the bronze David is smaller than the marble David.  For the most part, these differences show that Renaissance artists’ works of art were very individual.

Out of the two statues my favorite was Michelangelo’s David.  Michelangelo’s David was cool because it was so big that when I walked below it, I felt tiny.  What I also liked a lot about this David was that it was so realistic.  I really liked how you could see all of the veins and then look on your body to find them.  The tendons were also very interesting.  My favorite tendon was the distal bicep tendon.  It is the tendon on the inside part of the elbow.  All of these features are why I am most interested in Michelangelo’s David.

Given these examples, you can see how Renaissance sculpture was so realistic.  After the Renaissance, people understood how to sculpt people and things in a very natural way. They also took pride in their individual works of art.  These characteristics help people appreciate Renaissance art today.