The Renaissance

Visual Arts During the Renaissance

 

Art is the reflection of society; therefore, the visual arts are evolving continuously. 

However, what remains constant is that new movements develop out of a rejection of the 

current paradigm, and as a return to the classics in an innovative way. The Renaissance visual 

arts consist on a rejection of god as a center of everything, and instead, the human as a 

beautiful creation. To depict the praise to the human, art saw a return to the classics for 

inspiration; Roman and Greek sculptures and knowledge. 

 Artists training included anatomy studies now, and new techniques were developed. 

Artists like Giotto de Bondone developed the perspective technique, in order to treat the 

painting as a window to space. Leonardo Da Vinci developed the sfumato technique, 

characterized for the blurring of edges of the objects by a subtle blending of tone. The 

Renaissance also saw the development of the foreshortening effect, used to create the illusion 

of depth by shortening the lines of the object depicted. And also, the development of the 

chiaroscuro technique, strong contrast of light and dark to give the illusion of depth. 

The Renaissance was a time that influenced art beyond its time. It gave the world genius 

minds and provided knowledge and techniques that challenged the paradigms at the time.

 

 

TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED DURING THE RENAISSANCE

 

PERSPECTIVE

 

Masaccio (1401 – 1428) the first great painter of the early Renaissance period, was the first artist who 

demonstrated full command of the new rules of perspective; the figures in his paintings have volume 

and the buildings and landscapes realistically recede into the distance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tribute Money, fresco in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence (1425)

 

CHIAROSCURO

 

Technique employed in the visual arts to represent light and shadow as they define three-dimensional objects. The technique was first brought to its full potential by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th century in such paintings as his Adoration of the Magi (1481)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SFUMATO

 

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) became the most prominent practitioner of sfumato - his famous 

painting of the Mona Lisa exhibits the technique. Leonardo da Vinci described sfumato as "without 

lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MANERISM

Style of painting and sculpture, that emerged in Rome and Florence between 1510 and 1520, during the 

later years of the High Renaissance. Mannerism acts as a bridge between the idealized style of 

Renaissance art and the dramatic theatricality of the Baroque.