How to Understand Renaissance Art

The word "renaissance" means, literally, rebirth. The crumbling of medieval civilization led to the rebirth of the human spirit, and art and literature became a vital force in European culture.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Shakespeare's Works
• Art History Books
• Art Reproductions
• Airline Tickets
• Theater Tickets

Politics and Economics

1. Take note of the radical and comprehensive changes that took place in European culture during the 15th and 16th centuries. The changes brought about the demise of the Middle Ages (considered barbaric) and introduced, for the first time, the values of the modern world.
2. Know that the most important of these changes was the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the early 1450s, which allowed for the spread of literacy and the establishment of the university system.
3. Appreciate the fact that Martin Luther's ideas ' and, by extension, the Protestant Reformation ' could never have been disseminated if not for the printing press. His work became the foundation for mounting opposition to the Catholic Church's role as the sole custodian of spiritual truth, and Bibles began to be printed in vernacular languages rather than Latin.
4. Visit Florence, Italy (even if only on the Internet). It was the cradle of Renaissance thought and art, and the seat of the Medici family.
5. Learn how art patronage transferred from the church to individual families like the Medicis.
6. See the connections with the enormous changes taking place in the financial and political worlds of Northern Italy and Europe. Machiavelli's "The Prince" applied a kind of scientific analysis to politics and emancipated politics from theology and moral philosophy.
7. Know that trade expanded into the worldwide arena as textiles, mining and shipbuilding became huge and profitable industries.

Art

8. Understand the idea of linear perspective first written down by architect and writer Leon Battista Alberti. (See tips, below.)
9. Hearken back to classical antiquity. It inspired Renaissance artists, writers and thinkers with its respect for order, symmetry and proportion.
10. View the paintings of the three most famous artists of the high Renaissance: Michelangelo, da Vinci and Raphael.
11. Observe that the human form became the primary focus in Italian Renaissance paintings, whereas Northern European Renaissance painting concentrated on surface details, symbolism and light.
12. Observe that religious art began to emphasize the humanity of Christ and to depict the Virgin Mary as a humble woman instead of a gilded Madonna.
13. Read the philosophy, poetry and literature of the time. Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and anything by William Shakespeare are excellent examples of Renaissance literature.

Tips & Warnings

• Gutenberg, a goldsmith and businessman from the mining town of Mainz in southern Germany, saw the growing need for the rapid and cheap production of written documents and knew he could make money from the new printing press technology.
• Linear perspective employs a horizon line where the sky meets the ground, a vanishing point in or near the center of the horizon line, and orthogonal lines (visual rays that draw the viewer's eye to the vanishing point).

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