8 CHARACTERISTICS of the painting in the ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance it's a cultural movement arisen in Italy in the centuries XV and XVI assuming the rebirth of classical ideals and values ​​after the dark years of the Middle Ages. A time when the church and the nobles imposed their power on the peasants to dominate them and control access to knowledge. A performance that contrasted with the classical era in which the ancient Greeks and Romans turned to the development of science, politics and philosophy.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you the characteristics of painting in the Italian Renaissance to learn more about this influential and disruptive artistic style.

Index

1. What is Renaissance art?
2. Characteristics of Italian Renaissance painting
3. Examples of Italian Renaissance painting

At the beginning of the 15th century, Italy, cradle of the Renaissance, it experienced a huge cultural renaissance that was accompanied by a renaissance that affected all sectors of society. A movement that moved away from everything that the Gothic and Romanesque meant, turning into

The renaissance artists they were completely immersed in the study of the Humanities, creating all kinds of works: architecture, philosophy, science, painting, mathematics, sculpture, etc., in an attempt to be complete artists. Their innovative work had a great impact and even today they continue to influence all creative and cultural spheres of today.

The Renaissance has several stages, from an early Renaissance, the Quattrocento, to the High Renaissance, Mannerism and that of the Baroque.

Urban life and commerce are at the base of the development of Italian cities in the 15th century. A cosmopolitan environment in which the first workshops of the great Renaissance painters arose. Florence, Venice or Rome They thus became religious, military, political and cultural centers. The Renaissance painters went from the panel to the canvas, replacing the tempera with oil, a technique that allowed more plastic possibilities and that was already used in Flemish Gothic painting.

Between the main characteristics of painting in the Italian Renaissance stand out:

1. Italian masters created large murals, also working with the fresco technique.
2. Their compositions are balanced, symmetrical and being inspired by geometric shapes.
3. They introduce the perspective What new visual representation system. A mathematically based representation of depth of space. A way of integrating all the elements of the painting, already foreshadowed in the Gothic, and that manages to make the characters stop having a flat background to be represented within architectural spaces and with different distances and planes. The depth is achieved thanks to the lines that converge at a vanishing point located within the plane
4. Another characteristic of painting in the Italian Renaissance is that the line will predominate over the color, conceiving the drawing as the father of the visual arts. Thus, both the school of Florence during the Quattrocento, and the school of Rome (Cinquecento), the drawing predominates in the contour and the design of the figures, making a more secondary use of the Colour. It will not be until Mannerism, the Venetian school, when color begins to impose itself on the drawing. The color has shades and gradations contrasting with the flat colors of the Gothic and offering the figures a sculptural aspect.
5. After the artistic techniques evolve and more revolutionary methods appear. Thus, in addition to linear point perspective, there is also a taste for naturalistic and anatomical details, the proportion, the chiaroscuro and the trompe l'oeil to create illusions.
6. The themes are also new, evolving from traditional religious stories to new battle scenes, portraits and representations of common peoples. Art is no longer only a way to elevate the devotional, being a way of reflecting the events and people of its time, showing historical episodes. On the other hand, the themes are often idealized, contrasting with the naturalism and realism of the Baroque.
7. The humanistic philosophy influences the Renaissance painters and leads them to emphasize the relationship of man with the world, God and the universe, considering that it is not exclusive to the Church. Thus, art had a more personal, expressive and individualistic aspect.
8. The patronage it is imposed as a form of protection and protection of the artistic career of painters. Thus, in this new patronage pattern, the artist manages to separate himself from the Church and the monarchy. New patrons like the Medici family will ask artists to produce historical works in new and bolder ways.

Now that we know the characteristics of painting in the Renaissance in Italy, we are going to discover some examples of this art so that you can better understand the style.

Most of the great works of the early Renaissance are large religious frescoes like the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel by Masaccio or the works of other Renaissance fresco masters such as Fra Lippi, Fra Angelico, Pierro della Francesca, Alessandro Botticelli and Andrea Mantegna. All of them used these new techniques such as perspective, foreshortening, the flowing line of the Florentine style, naturalism and anatomical detail, and trompe l'oeil.

At this time the oil painting, like in the Sibiu Crucifixion by Antonello da Messina (1454-1455) or the Flagellation of Christ, (c. 1455) by Pierro della Francesca.

Regarding the topics, it is appreciated new topics in the frescoes by Andrea del Castagno, Cfamous men and women iclo (c. 1449-51), a work showing portraits of three Tuscan poets, three famous women of antiquity, and three military commanders from Florence.

The portraits of noble families they were also in great demand, as seen in the Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (1465-1472) by Piero della Francesca, while Ghirlandaio pioneered portraiture as his Portrait of an old man. Man with his grandson (1490).

For his part, Paolo Uccello pioneered battle painting with his famous Roman battle (1435-1460) depicting the battle of 1432 between Florence and Siena.

Image: Brancacci Chapel by Masaccio

Image source: Sibiu Crucifixion by Antonello da Messina

If you want to read more articles similar to Painting in the Italian Renaissance: characteristics, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.

• VVAA, (2002) Art in Renaissance Italy, Akal
• Chastel, André (2005) The Italian Renaissance, Akal
• Holmes, George (1994), Florence, Rome and the origins of the Renaissance, Akal