The Renaissance Begins
A time for rebirth

A Review of History

• Humanism - To be concerned with things human
  • Human Condition in context to the physical world is of primary concern
  • Classical Greece and Rome
• Spiritualism - To be concerned with things spiritual
  • Human Condition in context to the abstract world is of primary concern
  • Medieval
• Renaissance - Rebirth of classical humanism
  • Rediscovers Classical Humanism in art and literature
  • Fuses Christian spiritualism with classical humanism
  • Moses as Olympian god
    

Christian Humanism

• Abstract theology replaced by humanism
• Christian narratives made human
• Pieta - Pity or lamentation
  • Sorrow of a grieving mother over the death of a son
  • Crucifixion of Christ made more human
• Holy Family - Mother Mary, infant Christ and other figures associated with the narrative
• Rediscovery of the classical nude - David
  

Protestant Reformation

• An invitation to debate reforms becomes a new religious order
• Protestant - Those whom practiced Christianity outside of the official Catholic Church
• The faith reformed in context to the 16th century
• Catholic vs Protestant art

New Painting Techniques

• Oil paint emerges as the dominate medium allowing for techniques such as glazing
• Perspective - Illusion of a 3rd dimension on a 2 dimensional plane
  • Foreshortening - Perspective applied to a single object
  • Vanishing Point - The point that foreshortened lines converge
    

Full-sized art works may be seen under Lecture Images

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter