Beginning Of The Early Renaissance

The early Renaissance began about the time Barbarian painted the Adoration of the Magi. His purpose was to use a gorgeous surface using a rainbow of colors and adding a display of gold for the aristocrats of the time. This was to separate his works from the Gothic style of the past. Soon an artist named Mosaic began his career and changed nearly everything about painting. The frescos that he painted used episodes all In the same painting, not Just one subject. The figures were highlighted with light at an angle against a dark background, giving the illusion of a cultural relief and adding the visual effect of 3 dimensions.

He used light to give human figures and fabric a form which enhanced the visual realism. The figures were arranged in a circular group, shown in a landscape with a foreground and a background with blurring lines to give distance and depth making it more realistic in nature. Mosaic also began using mathematical proportions for buildings, and figures in his compositions. This became Realism based on observation and based also on mathematics to lad the pictorial organization. Evolving from this came more 3 emotional forms, perspective which had little to do with math, and the arrangement of solid forms In space.

Linear perspective began during this time as a new technique, this Is when there Is a vanishing point with receding lines. Advance used this technique In his “The Last Supper” to create a measurable realistic space which enhanced the realism of the Renaissance style. Donate was one of the finest sculptors of this period and thought methodically in a new way, the body provides the framework on which fabric drapes, therefore it must be considered first. This pioneered the “realism” in sculpture.

Early Renaissance Architecture was known by the characteristics of a sculptor Fillip Brucellosis. After a trips to Rome this Artist/turned Architect began developing the system of geometric linear perspective. He also solved the architectural problem of construction of a dome for the unfinished Cathedral of Florence. This was 140 feet wide and coot not be bullet with buttresses as the smaller domes had been. He was the first person In history to accomplish building a raised dome, designed googol section, the also using a double shell to the dome with a skeleton of 24 ribs.

For visual stability he added a lantern on top. This man had to invent machines to help him accomplish this feat. His style deviated from the usual series of round arches supported by flat columns with pilasters that hold a flat untreatable. The style stressed horizontals, symmetry, classical elements of the time such as Corinthian capitals, pilasters and windows topped by pediments. This man began “logic” in design and used the same clarity in the San Lorenz (Basilicas Church) and Santos Spirits (another Basilicas Church.

He began changing the proportions of buildings consistently using 1:2. This meant that the nave was twice as high as it was wide and the arcade and clerestory were of equal height. In summation the height of the arcade was equal to the width of the nave. He was the first to use a Renaissance split placing faith In reason rather than emotions. Using shapes such as squares or round domes to cover space, he began a new style. The interiors of his churches used dark pilasters on light walls which

Architects use proportion to create harmonium masses and special volumes. Rhythm was used in the Renaissance by Leon Battista Alberta used it to articulate the fade of the Church of Santa Andrea. The repeating vertical rhythm of pilasters marks off one quarter intervals across the front which also includes the logic as mentioned before. Surrealism was not exactly a style but a way of life. The surrealists appreciated the logic of dreams the mystery of the unconscious, and the lure of the bizarre, the irrational and the marvelous.

This era began in the early sass’s and basically began with the use of real objects and transforming them into an unreal state. One example is Oppenheim Object (Luncheon in Fur), a teacup covered in fur, along with the saucer and spoon realistic but not for use. Salvador Dali was probably the most famous as one of his paintings (The Persistence of Memory) sometimes described as melted watches, the forms are precise but could not be real. It seems to portray that time stopped but is also melting away.

This tends to be fantasy, which would be the opposite of the Renaissance Period which would be considered realism. Another example would be Joan Mirror’s Carnival of the Harlequin which can offer a Surrealist view off Spanish painting. This Mirror fantasy world is filled with little creatures including animals and fish, with insects and a snake or two as well as abstract forms that appear to be attending a party. The imagery here is cheerful. It is in contrast to the utter stillness of the Dali work that was mentioned before. The movement and lively dreams in this work is lighthearted and bright in color.