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180
History
4.3. Painting and sculpture
New interests
The artists reflected the new interests of society. This was reflected in the following
characteristics of style:
❚
Idealism and serenity
: painters and sculptors tried to reflect reality. At the same time,
influenced by the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato, they aimed to portray an ideal
beauty. This idealism can be seen in the perfect faces and bodies depicted by artists
like
Botticelli
and
Raphael Sanzio
,
who were both famous for their
Madonnas,
or virgins, with angelic faces; and
Leonardo da Vinci
(whose work
Mona Lisa
has
become one most famous portraits of feminine beauty).
Michelangelo
differed from
the others because he portrayed intense emotions in his works.
❚
The human body
:
the Italian painters and sculptors were interested in the anatomy
of the human body. They revived the
nude
as a subject, which had been abandoned
in the Middle Ages. Examples of this are the Venuses by
Giorgione
and
Titian
(both
from the Venetian school) or the paintings in the Sistine Chapel and the statue of
David, which are both by Michelangelo.
❚
The search for balance and proportion
:
Renaissance artists studied the elements
of a scene and arranged them symmetrically, in an order that guided the view of
the observer. They often used a
pyramidal composition
.
The figures were portrayed
in proportion, although once again, Michelangelo broke with this convention by
introducing imbalance in his works.
New techniques and materials
❚
In the case of
sculpture
, more expensive materials like
marble
were used more
frequently. Reliefs were replaced by
freestanding
sculptures (three dimensional
representations), which could be contemplated from all angles.
❚
Ancient techniques continued to be used in
painting
, such as
frescoes
on walls
and
tempera
on wooden panels. However, eventually the new
oil
technique was
adopted (consisting of mixing oil with mineral pigments) and used to paint on cloth
canvasses
7
.
New subjects
Some of the new themes adopted during the Italian Renaissance were the following:
❚
In addition to themes related to Christianity, mythological themes were adopted from
Classical Antiquity
.
❚
More
portraits
were painted due to the increase in demand from nobles, clergy and
the upper bourgeoisie. Equestrian portraits also became popular.
❚
Nature
,
landscapes
and
buildings
substituted the gold backgrounds of the Gothic
artists and became the defining feature of all compositions. They were portrayed with
enormous accuracy and detail.
Sculpture
and
painting
also reflected the
new mentality
. This can be seen in the
way the subjects (
landscapes
,
cities
, the
human body
and
portraits
) were realistically
represented. New pictorial techniques were also adopted, such as
perspective
and the
use of
oil paints
.
Mona Lisa
by Leonardo de Vinci (top) and
The
piety by Michelangelo,
two of the best examples
of Renaissance ideal beauty
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canvas:
a piece of cloth used for oil
painting
8
blur (
v
):
to make less clear
