Art
Beauty Embedded In History
Renaissance
1400 A.D. - 1700 A. D.
Produced By: Victoria Mcgreg0r
Ideal Beauty
Throughout the early Renaissance, images portrayed the ideal beauty through the persons’ clothing and through symbolism. Mary at Her Devotions, Hours of Mary Burgundy, for example, shows the fashion trends arising such as the pointy hats, having ones hair up, and wearing decadent clothing. While this time period started to evolve into subjects of painting other than religious ones, religion was still a large part of their lives, their art, and the way people lived their lives.
With the increase of accuracy came a change in the art world and the idea of ideal beauty. The fifteenth century still held a lot of religious ideals so in art and in the outside world, it was still rare to see a woman with her hair down or exposed except for a few exceptions, but these were considered someone a good, pagan woman did not want to be like. Artists started to get perspective and illusion right as well as learn one point perspective and therefore their art rhetoric became more accurate and clear because people could relate to it more and it was more convincing and persuasive. The ideal beauty is shown through what they are wearing, which showcases their wealth, but the most interesting thing is that people in art are starting not to face the viewers. Artists learned how to hide the imperfections and injuries on the side of his face by just showing us a profile. This is a “photoshoped” kind of image, which shows that that all throughout time, the wealthy or powerful have always wanted the public to see them in a perfect, false light.
Rhetoric
Religion, and art that showed it, provided the rhetoric of how to live ones life because it persuaded people, especially women, to dress a certain way, have their hair up to show they are a classy woman, and overall, their place in society. The art world is showing arts rhetoric at this time and persuading women that this is the ideal way to be and dress. The rhetoric proved to persuade women especially to show their wealth in clothing, be pious, and be faithful to religion and thus the inundation of “perfect” images into all of society had begun thanks to the increase of technology and spread of knowledge.
The rhetoric of art during the Renaissance begins to convince people that their imperfections can be done away with thanks to the help of a skilled artist and this new technology is communicating to women especially, that if something is wrong, it can be fixed so that the false idea that they want presented can still be possible. The rhetoric remains the same throughout most of the Renaissance, always convincing women and men to expect a certain image.
Technology
“Printmaking emerged in Europe at the end of the fourteenth century with the development of the printing presses and the increased [manufacturers] and wider availability of paper” (Stokstad 589). But movable type printing was created in Germany and this invention allowed identical copies of books and art to be spread, thus changing the intellectual and spiritual life of Europe. This new technology helped support artists, provided new jobs for them, and also allowed more people throughout Europe to see the ideal beauty and understand arts’ rhetoric of this time period.
Throughout this time, there wasn’t a big technological breakthrough, but the main event was ability to look back to the classical past for inspiration, (Stokstad 594). These discoveries allowed artists to learn more about how to paint and sculpt more accurately, taught artists new techniques, and gave artists a sense of purpose and a better place in society. Thanks to these new discoveries, people had a new aim in life, to live a rich, noble, and productive life, within the framework of Christianity of course, but always bettering themselves. For the art world, a big break through that affected how paintings were done and how beauty was portrayed was when fifteenth century Italian artists developed linear perspective. This made paintings seem more accurate and interesting, as well as more 3-D. Also, technology allowed the ideas to be communicated more easily and for the rhetoric of art to affect more people.
History
Fifteenth century northern Europe experienced the rise of wealthy merchants who gained their power though individual accomplishment rather than familial ties. (Stokstad 561). At this time a new sense of humanism, an outlook on the importance of human rather than supernatural or divine matters, and personal achievement became important. This time period is considered the early Renaissance, and due to the economic growth allowing the middle class to rise, they supported scholarship, literature, and creativity, resulting in what we call the Renaissance today.
During this early Renaissance time period, women, especially women artists, still received little education. It was not open to them and therefore, women had to learn to paint from their husbands or fathers. Also during this transitional period from the dark ages to the Renaissance, technology was evolving, as it always does, and this time it specifically affected the art world. During the early fifteenth century, still considered the early Renaissance, woodcut printing and engraving was. The people of this time, “proudly saw their own era as a third age characterized by a revival, rebirth or renaissance, when humanity began to emerge from what they erroneously saw as intellectual and cultural stagnation to appreciate once more the achievement of the ancients and the value of rational, scientific investigation”(Stokstad 594).
Throughout this high Renaissance, the role of artists was changing and they now had a voice in society and therefore the rhetoric of their art and what they portray as an ideal beauty now had much more associated with it. This time period was still a difficult time for women though because the status’ came to men more easily. High Renaissance art, which flourished for about 35 years, from the early 1490s to 1527, when Rome was sacked by imperial troops, revolves around three towering figures: Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Michelangelo (1475–1564), and Raphael (1483–1520)” (Renaissance art). They all got their start in Florence but moved to different parts of Italy. Their influence spread even beyond Italy and they are still remembered today.
The Art
During the medieval times, artists had lost a lot of the techniques done before them and their art is considered rudimentary, inaccurate, and flat looking. But during the Renaissance time, artists had a new interest in the natural world that resulted in the close observation to detail when recording birds, plants, and animals with perfect accuracy. They began to apply this same technique to objects and people also (Stokstad 562). This new style first emerged in the late fourteenth century from southern France. This new ideal beauty for art is characterized by slender, gracefully posed figures whose delicate features are framed by masses of curling hair and extraordinarily complex headdresses. Learning new techniques and having artists be a large part of society allowed arts’ influence to spread and allowed art to be a topic everyone could know about.
