RENAISSANCE HUMANISM

Renaissance Humanism

Renaissance Humanism

Introduction

The culmination of the one thousand years that comprised the middle Ages was the Black Plague that broke out during the mid fourteenth century. In effect, it weakened even further the already susceptible population, whose health was already undermined by natural disasters, famine and war. Perhaps unexpectedly, the focus of survivors of the plague began to shift away from preparation for the afterlife and towards fully exploring this life. They found inspiration from the ancient texts and arts of Rome and Greece, and rekindled the study of the human condition (Gordon 2006). The developing views became more optimistic than the previous medieval beliefs. The renewed interest on the classics, as well as the severely reduced urban centres, helped to spawn a new society with greater freedoms and economic opportunities. Soon the middle class began to thrive and became the new patrons of the arts.

Discussion

As artists searched for a more systematic method for the accurate portrayal of the natural world, the architect Brunelleschi and artist Alberti helped to codify the ideal proportions that were both aesthetically pleasing and classically inspired. Their resulting treatises greatly assisted other artists in their quest for individual beauty.

One of the great innovators of the Early Renaissance period was the sculptor Donatello. With each piece he took his experimentation with form and technical approach further. Towards the end of his life, he was commissioned to create a piece for the Florence Baptistry.

As he was battling a long-term illness and contemplating his own mortality, he stepped away from idealized beauty to create the tortured image of Mary Magdalen. Her image of sunken eyes, emaciated body and ascetic garments elicits an emotional response from the viewer. Jesus is reported to have exorcised seven demons from Mary Magdalen. Instead of a portrait of an aged Mary, perhaps Donatello has created a Mary weary from demonic possession, in the moment before Jesus saves her (Visser 2006). Despite the uncertainty of what instant this illustrates in Mary Magdalen's life, beneath her weathered appearance lays the divine beauty of unwavering faith. Unlike many sculptors of the time, Donatello decided against using marble and opted to carve and paint wood. The medium itself caused turbulence among the art cognoscenti.

As the affluence of the Italian middle class began to expand in the High Renaissance period, commissions for non-secular images emerged. Completed in 1506, Leonardo da Vinci painted one of the world's most renowned portraits, the Mona Lisa. Most likely it was a portrait of a prominent Florentine merchant's wife, the twenty-four year old Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo (Franz 2000). If commissioned by the merchant, he never received the painting as Leonardo kept it in his possession for the remainder of his life.

Some have seen a facial similarity between the Mona Lisa and other paintings, such as St. John the Baptist.Vasari, however, wrote about the portrait, and described it, without ever having seen it; the painting was already in France in Vasari's ...