How Renaissance Art Trends Are Still Trending Today
The Renaissance period of history is an important topic to learn as an artist. It truly was a period of creativity and learning which we saw through the art, architecture, music, and writing of the time. But why is it so important for artists to learn about today? The Renaissance is so important because it isn’t just a time in history, but many of the revelations and creative lessons brought about in that time, still find themselves in today’s artwork.
The Renaissance has always been believed to be this period of rebirth of new ideas in the arts. And while it was, the ideas that were prominent in this period, didn’t debut during this time. The interest in more realistic depictions of the human body and exploring topics outside of the more religious subjects started in what is called the “proto-Renaissance”.
The proto-Renaissance occurred in the 13th and early 14th centuries. This period truly was the precursor to the Renaissance, also known as the High Renaissance. One of the most famous painters of this time, Giotto di Bondone(c. 1267-1337), made great advances in the techniques of representing the human body. Not only was Giotto pivotal to the proto-Renaissance(and therefore, the Renaissance later on), he was also a pivotal part of the Gothic art movement in the Middle Ages. But with the plague and many civil wars, the proto-Renaissance and its ideas got buried underneath the ruble of death, sickness, and at times a loss of hope.
But when the 15th and 16th centuries came around, the ideas of the proto-Renaissance resurfaced and we see an explosion of them! Three of the most prominent and famous artists of this time are Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. We still study and admire their work to this day!
Leonardo da Vinci is referred to as a “Renaissance man”, because of all the ideas he had during his lifetime and how he branched over multiple fields of study to explore them. He was an artist, scientist , and mathematician. Today he is largely regarded as a master in the art world. But interestingly enough, because of all his work in other areas of his life, he actually did not have much time to paint. His fame really comes from a few works he finished during his very busy life.
Michelangelo was also a great artist with a great mind. He often created vast projects that drew inspiration from the human body. And he used this inspiration to develop more emotional expression in his work!
And Raphael, was a brilliant artist who learned from both Leonardo and Michelangelo. He created beautiful works that focused on the beauty of the human body and human life. Something artists still focus on to this day
Unlike the middle ages, much of the art during the Renaissance was commissioned and purchased by wealthy merchant families who were looking to elevate their status in society and enter the aristocracy. One of the most prominent of these families was the Medici from Florence, Italy. The Medici family really cared about their reputation and regarded themselves like we see celebrity families do today. They held multiple positions of power at times in Florence, and their reach grew outward throughout Europe. One of the most notable of the Medici family was Catherine de Medici(1519-1589) who was the Queen of France. The Medici family was one of the most ambitious of these merchant families rising in the new middle class.
The Renaissance started in Italy, rooting in Florence, but by the end had moved its main scene of creativity and innovation to Rome. The Renaissance naturally met an end with the fall of Rome in 1527, which made way for the new Mannerist movement to come in. The Mannerism movement felt like a polar opposite at times to the Renaissance period, with a more artificial and opposition to the idolized naturalism of the Renaissance.
We see many of the innovations of the Renaissance today. Oil painting is still a popular medium, with many art programs not only requiring art history classes that cover the Renaissance, but also want their artists taking oil classes. With how flexible the medium is, it’s a great way to teach artists about blending and learning in general, as mistakes are not too hard to fix with the slow drying nature of oil paint.
The many innovations and growth in realism of the human body that came from the Renaissance are now part of the fundamentals that many artists either require themselves or are required by their art programs to learn to improve their work. The studies made in depicting the human body during this time, is the foundation to the way we see the human form depicted today in art.
The Renaissance is an important time in history, especially in relation to the arts, as it helped the arts grow so much. Many of the innovations of this time, are foundations of the work artists create today!
