Whoa, this is Sweet!

Found this video today which features an art museum in Seoul, South Korea where the paintings come to life and talk to you! Several of this paintings are Renaissance paintings including da Vinci's Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as well as Jan Van Eyck's The Arnolfini Marriage. This video isn't in english but regardless this is awesome!

Nintendo Renaissance Art!

First and foremost if you haven't heard the web browsing device called Stumbleupon, I would highly recommend it. I must warn you though it will consume your life. Check out the link to get more info.

I was stumbling today and found this website that recreated Renaissance art with Nintendo characters into them. Its rather interesting to see the Last Supper with all Nintendo characters! Hit the "Nintendo" link to see more!

Lets Talk Composition

Look at that triangular composition!

Again, we need to get the boring stuff out of the way before we get started. Typically when we look at a piece of Renaissance art or any piece of art really we will see some sort of geometric composition. Artist try to incorporate some sort of geometric composition into their piece because it is more aesthetically pleasing. In Renaissance art more than not we will find triangular composition.

If you are confused as to what I am talking about, let me explain it in the simplest terms. Artist place the subject or other parts of their piece in a geometric structure in order to be more pleasing to the eye and also to create movement, your eyes will flow from one aspect of the piece to the next.

Lets look at one of the most famous paintings from the Renaissance that I am sure everyone is at least a little familiar with. This is the Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Notice that the focal point of this piece is obviously her face, but notice that your eyes move from her face down to where her arms rest. Leonardo made this piece with triangular composition because it gives the piece a strong balance. There are also other triangles to be found in this piece, for example look at her eyes as the base coming down to the point at her mouth.

Before We Begin...

Now before we begin to dwell into this subject, I feel as if there is some background information that you need to be aware of. After all, how can you understand Renaissance art if you don't know what the Renaissance even is?

For this blog we are going to focus on the European Renaissance and heavily into the Italian Renaissance. So what is the Renaissance you ask? The Renaissance was a cultural movement in Europe that began roughly in the 14th century that lasted until the 17th century. This movement saw reform in the areas of intellect, as people began to look back at classical Greek and Roman manuscripts as well as art, and science.

This was not always the case though. Before this time period came the Middle Ages. The best way I can describe this period is people viewed their lives as: Life is short, and then you die. This was the attitude of the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages times were dark, people typically didn't enjoy life.

The Renaissance was said to be born in Florence, Italy. People began to view their lives as a gift from God to be enjoyed. Suddenly the attitude went from "This is the only thing I can do with my life," to "What else can I do to make my life more enjoyable?" It is said that the Renaissance was the bridge from the Middle Ages to the modern world.

A work of art from the Middle Ages, notice the
dark and drab colors and lack of realistic human form.

An example of art from the Renaissance.
Look at the difference between the two pieces.

I can't stress enough that the people of this time were beginning to actually enjoy their lives, they wanted to learn all that they could, colors went from dark and dreary to live and colorful. Specifically we can see this through their art. Typically during the Middle Ages art was only used to tell stories for the church, but we find during the Renaissance artist were making pieces just for the sake of doing it.

Alright enough of this history lesson, I just thought we needed some background information so I wasn't completely throwing you into the storm without a little preparation. I hope this will give you a little more insight to the time period.

Why Such a Boring Subject?

I admit from the outside looking in, this subject seems extremely boring. You are probably thinking why would this kid want to torture himself for a whole semester of college? What kind of frat boy likes art, especially art that's seven centuries old? 

Thought this was appropriate.

I was once in your seat, staring at the words "Renaissance Art" on a high school white board, fighting off the urge to sleep. What is this teacher talking about?  Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael are the names of crime-fighting turtles, not artists. Spare me. When is lunch?

Luckily for me, I had a crazy awesome teacher that could make a cardboard box look like the Playboy Mansion. She showed me that there was much more to be found than just some paint on a canvas. Every work of art told a story, some simple, some rather complicated, but they were all interesting. From history to conspiracy theories there is so much behind one piece. It's truly amazing what one could do with the resources they had during that time. 

I realize that I probably haven't sparked your interest at all, but believe me, I will eventually. If you were like me, you know nothing of what is to come. I know that not everyone will find this interesting, but I promise if you keep an open mind you will find that what was once a boring subject will be pretty freaking cool. At the very least if you ever find yourself in a heated debate over Renaissance art, you could refer back to this blog.

 

NEW BLOG!

Welcome to my first blog ever created! I am creating this blog for my Composition 112 class at Northwest Missouri State University. With this blog I will dive into the exciting world of Renaissance Art! I know this topic seems pretty boring, but I think you will come to find it to be rather interesting as there is much that lies below the surface of this topic. Hope you find my blog interesting!