Renaissance and Neoclassical Art Periods

Renaissance and Neoclassical Art Periods

Renaissance Art Period

Earlier Historical Art

The medieval historian would rightly point out here that the concern with Antiquity had never been totally eclipsed in Italy or anywhere else in Europe. Yet it was the Renaissance that examined anew the form and subject matter of surviving antique art as an entity, and realized the importance of the essential indivisibility of spirit and function. The attraction of the gods and heroes of the Classical world for Christian society had long been rooted in the belief that there were worthwhile parallels in the Antique for the virtues of the Christian world. In medieval art, we invariably find that Classical subjects are dressed in contemporary costume to equate them in a direct sense with the world and teachings of the present. In the Renaissance, by a reexamination of the visual representation of the same figures, aided by archaeological discovery which clarified the varied vocabulary of antique art, and further by the correction of corrupt texts, the Classical figure was represented more accurately and with a sense of history. This meant in turn that the early Christian saints could be viewed historically as late antique figures (Belting, 2003).

The Last Supper (1495-1498) Leonardo Da Vinci

If it has generally been asserted that Italy was the chief stage on which the Renaissance was played out, it is because it is from Italy that we possess the greatest concentration of works of art and writing about them; together, these form a cumulative achievement of a consistent kind. The lack of written commentary from northern Europe in the 15th century and the destruction of a much greater part, through centuries of religious conflict, of the North's native artistic heritage, make the lines of development less clear. The powerful city-states of late medieval Italy patronized artists in the production of objects that are an important vehicle of propaganda, in the widest sense, on behalf of rulers, governments, and local corporate bodies. The Church in each community also sought the artistic embellishment of its buildings as a means of increasing prestige vis-à-vis its neighbors. There subsequently developed a healthy competitive artistic spirit between city-states, and between corporate and individual patrons within them. This encouraged the interchange of necessary expertise when required.

Post-Renaissance Art

The Renaissance expression of order in architecture, the invitation to a spiritual response via an intellectual one, was perhaps best expressed in the concept of the centrally planned church. The visual inspiration for this came largely from the antique, from the round temples dedicated to pagan deities, but the form was sanctioned by some of the earliest Christian buildings also, particularly those commemorating death by martyrdom. Subsequently, it was the form consciously chosen by Donato Bramante (ca. 1444-1514) 1500 for his Tempietto at the church of S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome, which traditionally marked the site of the martyrdom of St Peter.

We know from 16th-century sources that Bramante intended to complete his scheme by an enclosing circular courtyard. A few years after this, the ...