The Influence of Renaissance on Art and Architecture - Assignment Example

The Influence of Renaissance on Art and Architecture Around the 15th century a new era had begun in the world. It was known as the period of Renaissance and this period ultimately culminated to the modern period. The influence of Renaissance was witnessed in all walks of art and architecture. During that era works of art became intellectually much enriched. The period between 15th to the early 20th century have produced imminent painters like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Pondering over the works of art the aim of this paper is to compare and contrast two great pieces of art namely, “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. “The Last Supper” was one of the famous piece of work by Leonardo Da Vinci and the work was completed in the year 1498. A very important feature of the painting was that the depiction of the characters was very human in nature. Even the technique used to develop the painting is also praise worthy because Vinci has represented the theme of his painting in a wonderful manner because all the characters present in the painting directs their attention to towards the head of Christ. It can be said that the painting was the best example of the one point perspective ever created. (Esaak). The subject matter of the painting remains that Jesus has his last meal with all his disciples before he is crucified. Leonardo’s work can be said to have more humanistic approaches because he tries to divorce his piece of work from the religious aspects. It in fact makes the viewer aware that Leonardo was a painter who was more concerned with the artistic and humanistic values of his paintings. During that period it was very common to form localized versions of religion and as a result we saw that even Leonardo Da Vinci had formed his own version of religion and so his painting has certain contradictions with the depiction in the Gospel. (Cline, 3). One of the most noteworthy contributions of Michelangelo was his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A significant feature of the Michelangelo’s work was that he wanted to represent opposite forces in his work like the spirit and the flesh or night and day. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is resplendent with the stories of the Genesis and other stories of the Gospel. Again here we get the reflection of the Renaissance feature that is emphasis on humanness which Michelangelo does by painting a child’s face on the adult body of Adam to express Adam’s surprise and wonder after being created. The painter here moves away from the traditional Biblical story. (Wilder, 165 and 167). Both in Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo we can observe the features of renaissance. These Renaissance men were essentially lovers of beauty either in man or in the nature. They wanted to express the beauty that is embedded in the creations of the world. It is true that religion had a lot of importance in the lives of men but people during the period of Renaissance had a life which was not much influenced by religion and such an attitude was reflected through paintings and other works of art. (Cairns, 255). As a result both “The Last Supper” by Vinci and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo reflect that they were more concerned with the humanness of the emotions and they wanted to reflect spontaneous emotions of the human beings and did not want to curb human feelings with the force of religion. It has already been studied earlier that Vinci in “The Last Supper” wanted to depict the Disciples of Christ more like people of the real world and that is why he did away with the halo which was supposed to be present around each of the members except Judas. Moreover according to the Gospel, Judas was supposed to be placed in a special direction but Leonardo had kept the position of Judas similar to that of other disciples so that he could make his work more real. On the other hand we can witness the humanness depicted by Michelangelo in his work by placing a child’s face on the adult body of Adam. This he did so that he is accurately able to express the innocence and the element of surprise which Adam undergoes after being created in this world. With such a diversion from the Biblical story he wanted people to relate to the element of surprise which an individual experiences at being exposed to something which is completely new. Vinci in his painting of “The Last Supper” had infused some amount of drama moving away from the traditional features of the Last Supper. He wanted to reflect his interpretation through his painting. He tries to reflect the emotional turmoil which the disciples undergone after Jesus had announced that one of his disciples would betray him. Vinci has successfully portrayed their emotions through their gestures and bodily postures. Even the table which he had painted was a reflection of the Renaissance art in Italy. There is also an intellectual touch in the painting because Vinci had shown Christ in a luminous landscape to express his divine status and hence could do away with the conventional halo. (Paoletti and Radke, 370 and 372). Similarly we can say that even in the paintings of the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo had infused a lot of intellect. Through his paintings he had tried to show his Neo-Platonist doctrine. The paintings were such that one had to read the history in a reverse order. He has tried to show that although in this world we begin with our bodily existence but it finally comes to end with the body being integrated with God that is he tried to say that ultimately the spirit continues its existence. (Estep, 39). Thus we can say that in both the works namely, “The Last Supper” and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel, the artists have tried to infuse a lot of philosophical content and both the works were intellectually enriched. It is true that Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo were ultimate products of the Renaissance but there were also differences between the two great maestros. For example Da Vinci incorporated a lot of scientific evolutions in his work and Michelangelo reflected more of passion into his work. Another aspect which differentiated the two men were that Michelangelo gave more attention to the physical aspects of his characters for example in the Sistine Chapel he focused on the child’s face of Adam to give his message to the viewers but Vinci on the contrary gave more attention to the psychological aspects and it becomes evident if we consider “The Last Supper”, where he tried to portray the theme of one point perspective by making all the characters look at Jesus so that after careful observation it becomes clear to the viewers that the main theme of the painting is certainly Jesus Christ. Both Da Vinci and Michelangelo were contemporary to each other and consequently Michelangelo considered himself as the rival of Vinci. Some of the other differences which can be seen between both the artists and is well reflected in “The Last Supper” as well as the paintings of the Sistine Chapel were that Vinci used more of veiled obscure images in his work whereas Michelangelo used clearer lines and images in his paintings. (Roddis and Leviton, 59). Vinci concentrated more on the psychological aspects is evident from the fact that he used more of obscure images this is because he wanted to throw insight to the fact human psychology is not very clear it is rather difficult to decipher the psychology of the individuals. On the contrary the fact that Michelangelo concentrated more on the anatomical features become clear as he focuses more on the clear lines. Thus here we can conclude that the main feature of difference which was reflected in the works of the great artists were the physical representations of emotions and psychological interpretations of emotions. “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci and the paintings of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo stand as epitomes of the Renaissance art work. It is true that both the artists had different means. One used more of passion whereas the other used more of philosophy but both of them were highly impressed by the spirit of Renaissance and that is the reason we witness a lot of similarities between the two works. Both the works aims to explore the humanness of individuals. They wanted their works to reflect human beings more closely. It was their attempt to make the people relate more to their pieces of work. In both the paintings we can see that the artists wanted to bring forth the greater philosophies of life but in a more subtle manner. We can conclude saying both the pieces of art closely reflect the feature of the period and at the same time successfully represents the fact that they were created by two different individuals who had different world view. Works Cited 1. Cairns, Earle. Christianity through the centuries: a history of the Christian church. Michigan: Zondervan, 1996. 2. Cline, Austin. “Last Supper, painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, 1498”. About.com: Agnosticism/Atheism. retrieved on July 21, 2009, from: http://atheism.about.com/od/imagegalleries/ig/Leonardo-Da-Vinci/Last-Supper--Da-Vinci.htm 3. Esaak, Shelley. “Leonardo da Vinci - The Last Supper”. About.com: Art History, retrieved on July 21, 2009, from: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/leonardo/a/last_supper.htm 4. Estep, William. Renaissance and Reformation. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1986. 5. Paoletti, John and Radke, Gary. Art in Renaissance Italy. UK: Laurence King Publishing, 2005. 6. Roddis, Miles and Leviton, Alex. Tuscany & Umbria. Lonely Planet, 2006. 7. Wilder, Jesse. Art history for dummies. For Dummies, 2007. Read More