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.