The Period of Renaissance - Essay Example

Since time immemorial, the world has undergone many developments and enhancements in various fields. Man’s insatiable thirst for knowledge has led to innumerable inventions and innovations from the early ages and is in continuation to date. The form of art has always been a significant aspect of the life of people as it is a way of expressing and portraying the thoughts and emotions of humans through their artistic and innovative skills, characteristically in the form of paintings or sculptures. The creativity, magnificence, and sentimental influences involved in the artwork make them valuable. Different times in history have given rise to different art forms (Charles & Metcalf, 2007). One of the ancient times, known by the name of Renaissance existed from the 15th to 17th centuries and eighteenth-century art emerged under the name of neoclassical art.

Renaissance is a word that came under the derivation from the French language that means reborn. A cultural and learning rebirth that began in Florence - Italy, reached the boundaries of Europe later on. The art in this era was intensifying with a unique, exclusive, and different style in the form of paintings and sculpture making, which came under the name of Renaissance art. This period not only gave a different meaning to the field of arts but philosophy, literature, music, and science saw massive changes and improvements. Renaissance art gave birth to new forms and techniques of paintings that not only affected the artists through their work but common people similarly came affection by it (Charles & Metcalf, 2007). Renaissance artists started to make paintings on distinctive subjects and real-life images portraying human exquisiteness and life’s contentment came into focus rather than restricting themselves to only religious paintings. The artists focused on minute details of the object from different angles and distances while painting or making sculptures. The paintings of the middle ages that focused on stiff and erect bodies came into replacement by real-life paintings (Charles & Metcalf, 2007). The period of the Renaissance gave birth to indigenous artists, such as the well-known Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Leonardo da Vinci with the use of oil paint enhanced his paintings that mainly focused on landscapes, natural objects, and humans. He included microscopic details in all his paintings and one of his most admired paintings includes Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Michelangelo only targeted the human body in his artwork and the marble statue of David is his famous creation. In the High Renaissance period, Raphael also contributed to his work of art. Even, he was famous for his portraits of the nobles of that time and his renowned art includes portraits of Pope Julius II and Pope Leo X (Books, 2010).

            Looking at the other end of the spectrum, the eighteenth-century art gave birth to a new form, known as neoclassical art, generally seen in paintings, portraits, sculptures, and scenery/landscape. The advent of neoclassical art in the eighteenth century was from France. Simplicity, transparency, and realism were the key features of neoclassical art. Naturalism also came under focus in neoclassical art like Renaissance art (Books, 2010). This art form came under the influence of ancient ideas and artists integrated these inspirations with their thoughts and observations in their portraits and paintings. Representation of the themes in the form of symbols and codes became a principal aspect in the artwork of the artists to express their thoughts, emotions, and views.

Eighteenth-century paintings and portraits did not reflect the ideas of barbarism, unprofessionalism, and narrow-mindedness. Artists’ knitted their visions, dreams, and inspirations well with bright and colorful images (Buser, 2006). The era of neoclassical art has seen many skillful artists that were well-qualified, classy, and cultured. Some of the legendary artists of this time were Thomas Gainsborough and Jacques-Louis David. Thomas Gainsborough was renowned for his portraits and landscape paintings, and the painting of King George III comes under consideration as one of his best artworks. David, on the other hand, was an expert in painting nationalistic and historical subjects. During the latter half of his career, he adopted realistic themes to paint his portraits mainly on French Revolution. One of the major artworks of David that still comes under acknowledgment includes the portrait of Madame Récamier (Lewis & Lewis, 2009).

            When comparing both the art forms – a high renaissance of the 17th century and neoclassical of the 18th century, it can clearly come under the limelight that the art of the seventeenth century focused on subjective aspects of society whereas, the eighteenth century gave more importance to logic, emotions and sensual characteristics of the surroundings (Buser, 2006). The art form of the eighteenth century incorporated the art forms of the past with the ideas of their time. The themes/pictorial representation of the neoclassical paintings was rational, sensitive, opinionated, and sparkling as compared to the older art forms. In comparison to the art forms of the previous century, eighteenth-century artwork witnessed improvements in many ways, which includes paintings on materialistic subjects, and sensitive touches (Buser, 2006). The basis of renaissance art was entirely on the observations of the artists and real-life paintings without any alterations, whereas, neoclassical art focused on natural themes, as well as symbolism was a part of it (Charles & Metcalf, 2007).

            With the passage of time, the world has undergone many developments in different fields. However, art has always been an important aspect of human life as it expresses the feelings, emotions, and thoughts of people in a pictorial form. Every bygone era has observed the emergence of various art forms. The ideas and themes were different for each form, which depicted the vision and beliefs of the artists of those periods.