The art produced in the 15th and 16th centuries has been and always will be held in very high regards by our culture. A large portion of the art produced depicts intensely naturalistic portrayals of humans, which for years prior to the 15th and 16th centuries many artists were striving to create naturalistic pieces. I feel that our culture greatly admires work form the Renaissance period because the artwork was very true to life. Nowadays it is often that we see bodies being altered to fit our society’s idea of beauty, which for women is very thin and for men very muscular. Looking at much of the artwork from the Renaissance we see bodies being depicted as they truly were rather than being altered to fit an ideal. I also believe that many are drawn to this time period and to artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael because they were creating monumental large- scale pieces that while large still maintained naturalism. A large amount of time and effort were put into these pieces and when looking at them it is quite obvious. There is great intrigue for the Sistine chapel and Michelangelo due to the positions in which Michelangelo had to be in, in order to paint the ceiling and yet it came out flawless. Artwork is constantly being produced, yet many seem to be stuck on the pieces of the 15th and 16 centuries because since then there never has been anything quite like them.
Hi Carly! Welcome to 236! I look forward to working with you again.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that you brought up ideal bodies. Sometimes I wonder if our current obsession with bodies ties back to the popularity of nude figures in both the Renaissance and the ancient classical period. If bodies weren't represented so much back then, would we care as much about the body today (either in art or pop culture)? Maybe not.
I also wanted to mention one more thing. Like you said, Renaissance art is very naturalistic (especially in Northern Europe). However, we will soon see how the Italians tried to have both naturalistic and idealized figures in their art. (We'll talk about this idea more in the weeks to come.) It seems like naturalism and idealism should be at odds, but the Italians made sure that both ideas could co-exist in art. For example, Italian Renaissance figures look both proportionate and plausible, but they also look extremely perfect.
-Prof. Bowen