Idealism and Education

4.3. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

• Painting and sculpture reflected humanism; landscapes, cities, human body and portraits were realistically represented.            New pictorial techniques: perspective and oil paints.

• NEW INTERESTS

• The new interests of society was reflected in the characteristics of style:

• Idealism and serenity: tried to reflect reality. Influenced by the ideas of a Greek philosopher Plato, aimed to portray an ideal beauty (no emotions). This idealism can be seen in works of Botticelli and Raphael Sanzio, Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo portrayed intense emotions in his works.

• The human body: Anatomy of the human body. The revived the nude as a subject, an example are the Venuses by Giorgione and Titian or the paintings in the Sistine Chapel and the statue of David by Michelangelo.

• The search for balance and proportion: studied the elements of a scene and arranged them symmetrically, they often used a pyramidal composition. The figures were portrayed in proportion.

• NEW TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS

• Sculpture; more expensive materials like marble were used. Reliefs were replaced by freestanding sculptures (3D representations).

• Ancients techniques continued to be used in painting such as frescoes on walls and tempera on wooden panels. The new oil technique was adopted and used to paint on cloth canvasses.

• NEW SUBJECTS

• Themes related to Christianity, mythological themes were adopted from Classical Antiquity.

• More portraits, demand from nobles, clergy and the upper bourgeoisie. Equestrian portraits also became popular.

• Nature, landscapes and buildings substituted the gold backgrounds of the Gothic artists and became the defining feature of all compositions; they were portrayed with enormous accuracy and detail.

 5.THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE

• Flemish painting: the bourgeoisie in this region were very rich people and they wanted to be represented and shown their position in society. The oil painting techniques was used by Jan Van Eyck, Peter Brueghel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch.

• German painting: Albrecht Durer and Matthias Grunewald made important paintings and woodcutting.

• French architecture: the castles were used as palace and were decorated with luxury.