RENAISSANCE ART: CHARACTERISTICS, PAINTING, ARCHITECTURE - ART - 2025

The Renaissance art is an artistic style that includes painting, sculpture and architecture that emerged in Europe around the year 1400; specifically in Italy. Art was one of the main exponents of the European Renaissance. At this stage, artists who still have renown, such as Boticelli, Giotto and van der Weyden, began to be recognized.

This stage in human history is called the Renaissance because it was a period that presented a series of significant improvements in literary, philosophical, musical and scientific works. It was a period that originated in Italy at the end of medieval Europe, before spreading to the rest of the continent.

The movement was based primarily on a combination of medieval aspects of the time and modern ideas that began to emerge in the early 15th century.

The period brought about a change in Europe that altered the social course of humanity in a positive way, and laid the foundations for the development of modern societies.

General characteristics

Influence of Greek art

One of the main factors that influenced the cultural change in the perception of art was the influence of Greek sculpture and painting. In fact, many aspects of the Renaissance are quite similar to those that were present in the artistic works of Greece.

This occurred after Italian artists of the time studied Greek texts, works, and art to use as inspiration for their creations. The one who influenced this change in the perception of art was Petrarca, a famous Italian artist of the 14th century.

This gave rise to a movement that was not only based on the adaptation of human culture to a post-medieval era, but also adhered to the traditional principles of ancient works that marked a before and after in art.

Humanism

Most of the art produced in the Renaissance was inspired by the philosophical belief of humanism. By itself, humanism had already played an important role in achieving countless achievements in ancient Greece, such as the emergence of democratic ideas in politics.

This belief helped artists to put aside the religious influence that was usually embodied in the works of the time.

In fact, the introduction of humanism to the artistic world caused more importance to be given to the representation of actions considered as sins and to speak more openly of religion.

Humanism also caused more attention to be paid to the details of people's features in the painting.

The works of the Renaissance were focused on the humanistic belief that correct actions were the key to happiness, but the religious influence that this concept could have was left aside.

Improved painting

During the 15th century a number of renowned Dutch painters developed improvements to the way oil painting was created. During the Renaissance period, Italian artists used new Dutch techniques to improve their paintings.

This phenomenon had effects on the quality and duration of artistic works, in addition to having brought significant changes to painting on a world scale.

In addition, the Renaissance occurred in large part thanks to the presence of brilliant Italian characters. Many of these came to be considered the best of all time in terms of influence, such as Piero della Francesca and Donatello.

The presence of these artists made the quality of art in general improve incredibly, as even less renowned painters were inspired by the emergence of new techniques to improve their own creations.

Commercial renaissance

The Renaissance was enhanced by the new capacity of the regions to trade with their own natural assets.

In other words, each region developed an export trading system that made its wealth increase significantly.

In addition, Florence became a very important cultural center at the time thanks to the inauguration of the Medici Bank, which incredibly enhanced the wealth of the city and opened countless doors to Italian artists.

The reunion of classical texts

One of the main influences on Renaissance literature was the reappearance of medieval texts that had been lost in the Dark Ages of humanity.

The literary people who studied these texts used their influences to improve their works and give an antique touch to the movement, which by then was contemporary.

Influence of Christianity

Although the works created during the Renaissance period were not tied to the criticism of the Catholic Church, the Christian religion served as a positive influence for several of the exponents of this cultural movement.

Among them was Erasmus, the Dutch literary man, who used Christianity in the first four centuries as an inspiration for his works.

Aesthetic principles

In addition to sacred images, many of the works of Renaissance artists dealt with themes such as marriage, birth, or daily family life.

Italy's middle class sought to imitate the aristocracy to raise social status, and one of the ways was by buying art for their homes.

Although architectural works and sculptures were closely linked to ancient Greek and Roman culture, Renaissance painting had a number of particular characteristics that made it unique.

One of these is proportion as the main tool of art. Previously, it was common to ignore the real proportions of human beings when composing a painting, as other aspects were given more relevance. However, this changed with the incorporation of humanism into the philosophy of the artists.

The perspective technique was also accompanied by foreshortening. This technique consists of painting an object much closer than it really is, to change the visual focus of whoever is appreciating the work.

Da Vinci was the first Italian artist to coin the term known today as sfumato. This technique was applied to give a three-dimensional perspective to Renaissance painting. This was accomplished by making a subtle color transition between the edges of each object and the background landscape.

The last emblematic technique of the Renaissance was chiaroscuro, which combined strong light tones with low light tones to create a three-dimensional perspective, much like sfumato.

Painting

characteristics

Classicism and realism

Classicism was one of the trends used by artists of the Renaissance period to determine the method of their works.

Classicism was a technique that advocated sticking to the classical arts, seeking to create works that were simple, aesthetically balanced, clear to the eye and using Western traditions.

In addition, the works advocated physical realism, a fundamental characteristic brought by humanist philosophy.

Mannerism

As the Renaissance era drew to a close, painters began to abandon classicism and stick to Mannerism.

This technique sought to express a little more complexity in the works, so that the physical forms of the objects tended to be painted more distorted than was customary at the beginning of the movement.

Catholicism

One of the reasons why there are so many works of art with scenes from Catholicism is because during this period the Catholic Church commissioned several paintings to Italian artists.

The Renaissance painting movement was characterized by having several allegorical works of the Catholic religion.

Representatives

The main painters of the Renaissance were Italians. However, as the movement spread throughout Europe, other important figures emerged, particularly in the Netherlands and Spain.

Leonardo da Vinci, main exponent of the Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci

Possibly the most recognized artist of the Renaissance today. Da Vinci created unique works that became important world heritage sites, such as the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper.

In addition, he was one of the most important figures of the Renaissance, contributing innovative knowledge in various areas of science and social studies.

Sandro Botticelli

Botticelli was one of the leading artists of the early Renaissance. It was from the Florence school and was part of the Golden Age of 16th century Italian painters. He dedicated himself to painting mythological and religious works.

Miguel Angel

Michelangelo was an Italian painter, sculptor and architect who is possibly one of the Renaissance authors with the best preserved works since then.

He created works such as The Last Judgment and painted one of the most imposing artistic creations in history: the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Bruegel

Pieter Bruegel was a Dutch painter and one of the leading exponents of Renaissance painting in his country. He dedicated himself to creating landscapes and everyday scenes, depicting various everyday scenes and the seasons of the year.

El greco

El Greco was a Greek-Hispanic painter who used to sign his paintings in Greek. He was the main and most important representative of the Spanish Renaissance, and used a dramatic and expressionist style. He is considered the precursor of both Cubism and Expressionism.

Main works

- The Adoration of the Lamb of God, Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, 1430.

- Marriage of the Arnolfini, Jan Van Eyck, 1434

- Spring, Sandro Botticelli, 1470s.

- The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci, 1496.

-The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, 1510.

- The School of Athens, Raphael, 1511.

Architecture

characteristics

Deferral with the Gothic style

The ideas of the Renaissance architects went against the Gothic ideas of creating structures with a high level of complexity in their design and great height.

Instead, they stuck to the classic ideas of making clean structures that were as simple as possible. This led to the creation of rounded architecture.

Renaissance building

Reasons

The exterior of Renaissance buildings used to be adorned with classical motifs such as columns and arches.

In order to create these motifs, the exteriors used to be quite flat, serving as a kind of canvas to later be adorned. The ideas of ancient traditional art were clearly reflected on these surfaces.

Buildings

The most common buildings of the time were churches, urban mansions, and exclusive country mansions. Many of the best known designs in Renaissance architecture were created by the Italian artist Palladio.

Representatives

Brunelleschi

This author is recognized as one of the most important architects in history, in addition to being considered the first engineer of modern times.

He was one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance and one of the first artists to act as planners and builders of his own works.

He is recognized mainly for developing a technique capable of representing with extreme efficiency the linear perspective, common in the Renaissance period.

Alberti

Alberti is called the exemplary man of the Renaissance period. He contributed various ideas to various humanistic fields, complementing each other to create a unique style of the time.

He is usually recognized for his work on architectural facades, as it was the area in which he stood out the most.

Twine

Donato Bramante was the first architect to introduce the artistic style of Renaissance architecture to Milan, in addition to bringing the style of the late Renaissance period to Rome. He even designed the Basilica of Saint Peter, a work that was later executed by Michelangelo himself.

Antonio da Sangallo

Sangallo created one of the most important works of the Renaissance period in Italy; in fact, he is mainly recognized for creating the Palazzo Farnese, the building where the prestigious Farnese family lived.

Sangallo was one of Bramante's main disciples, and his architecture was influenced by this artist.

Palladio

Andrea Palladio was an architect who developed in Renaissance Venice. His influence from ancient Roman and Greek art made him one of the most important figures in the history of architecture.

Plays

-Cathedral of Florence, Di Cambio and Brunelleschi, 1436.

-Basilica of Saint Peter, Bramante, Michelangelo, Maderno and Bernini, 1626.

-Palazzo Farnese, Antonio da Sangallo, 1534.

-The Rotunda, Palladio, 1592.

-Basilica of San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi, Miguel Ángel, 1470.

Sculpture

characteristics

Attachment to the classic

Like painting, Renaissance sculpture was generally defined by the same characteristics as pre-Middle Ages sculptures.

The features of each one were clearly inspired by classical sculpture and we sought to find a greater degree of realism in each work through anatomically proportioned carving.

David, by Michelangelo

Increase in investment

In the Renaissance period the local governments of each city (particularly Florence) made a significant investment of money in sculpture.

In turn, people who had a great economic capacity also invested large amounts of money, hiring sculptors to create personalized works.

The number of new employers interested in investing in sculpture significantly enhanced their creation, which in turn made being a sculptor a more lucrative profession.

The creation of busts was also common at this time, with renowned artists creating works of this style beginning in 1450.

It should be noted that the Church also had a high influence on sculpture, as happened with Renaissance painting. For this reason, many of the works created, when requested by the Church, were of Christian themes.

Renaissance pioneerism

Sculpture was the first of the great arts to take the step towards what is now known as the Renaissance. The creation of the sculpted doors for the Florence Cathedral is said to be the first work with clear classical influences to be created in Italy.

The creative potential of sculpture in the early Renaissance was even greater than that of painting. This was due in large part to the creative potential of one of its early exponents: Donatello.

Representatives

Donatello

Donatello was one of the most influential artists of the Renaissance thanks to the large number of original ideas he brought to sculpture.

He had an unmatched artistic talent, which allowed him to work comfortably with various materials such as bronze, wood, and clay.

He worked with several assistants and was able to develop a new method for sculpting small pieces, although his main job was creating works for architectural work.

Miguel Angel

Although Michelangelo was an influential painter, the area in which he excelled was sculpture.

He sculpted two of the most influential sculptural works in human history: La Piedad and David. The influence of Michelangelo was quite substantial in all the main branches of Renaissance art.

Lorenzo Ghiberti

Ghiberti was one of the first influential artists of the Renaissance period. He was in charge of originally creating the doors of the Baptist area of ​​the Florence Cathedral, which were named by Michelangelo himself as the Gates of Paradise.

Giambologna

Giambologna was an artist originally from what is now Belgium, but who lived and worked in Italy. He is highly acclaimed as one of the leading Mannerist artists of the Renaissance. His work with bronze and marble had a high influence on the artists of the time.

Andrea del Verrochio

Del Verrochio was one of the Renaissance artists whose influence was quite significant, but beyond his works, he is recognized for the number of artists he trained.

He owned a major art school in Florence, and this led to him training important artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Pietro Perugino.

Plays

- David, Donatello, 1440.

-Sculpture by Bartolomeo Colleoni, Andrea del Verrochio, 1488.

- David, Miguel Ángel, 1504.

- La Piedad, Miguel Ángel, 1515.

- Hercules and Neceo, Giambologna, 1599.

References

1. Renaissance, Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, 2004. Taken from encyclopedia.com
2. Italian Renaissance Art & Renaissance Artists, Renaissance Art Website, (nd). Taken from renaissanceart.org
3. Renaissance Art and Architecture, Oxford Art, (nd). Taken from oxfordartonline.com
4. The Renaissance, Western Sculpture; Encyclopaedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from brittanica.com
5. Renaissance Sculpture, Essential Humanities, 2013. Taken from essential-humanities.net
6. Renaissance Architecture, Encyclopaedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from brittanica.com
7. Renaissance Painting, Essential Humanities, 2013. Taken from essential-humanities.net
8. Renaissance Architecture, Essential Humanities, 2013. Taken from essential-humanities.net
9. Artwork names, dates and artists taken from Wikipedia in English - wikipedia.org