jmcoffin

Changing Times

The renaissance gave birth to a slew of new ideas, technologies, mathematical concepts, and artistic innovations. During these changing times, several artists emerged that are still infamous today from their works writings and especially through their remanding art. This blog attempts to answer the question regarding what made the differences in art from the 13th to the 14th century?

Emerging from the middle ages the cultural emphasis of the time had a fluctuation from being primarily religious orientated into a humanistic movement, which was reflective in artistic renditions. Artists have been our key into knowing what technologies and happenings have occurred throughout the centuries in addition to the historic record.
In terms of the renaissance, there were dramatic shifts seen in artistic representations. Firstly, what they were painting with changed from an egg based quick drying coloring to oil based paint. The oil paint assisted artists in layering and also gave them additional time to work since the paint was slow drying, which also assisted in adding depth to paintings.

Innovations in math also assisted artists in terms of creating actual representations of subject material and eliminating the hieratic scale that was typically used in Middle age religious works. Typically in the 13th century, paintings were mostly religious with icons having a halo around their heads and being drawn on a larger scale than their surrounding counterparts (through use of the hieratic scale). With the current movement being more humanist based, religious figures were drawn to actual size and put back into a normalized environment versus that of gold clamor it was previously depicted in.

The humanistic movement, which centered on a more earthly basis as opposed to that of the heavens, was directly reflected in art as preciously mentioned. Specifically, religious depictions were now drawn to a normal scale; religious figures were depicted without halos, and in everyday environments. This also meant that there was a new shift towards accurate representations of the environment as well as architecture.

A few representations of the changing times include Madonna and Child with St. John (1523/1525) that shows evidence of typical 14th century religious paintings, and Jacopa di Cione Madonna and Child in Glory (1360/65) which is painted in gold and the use of the hieratic scale is evident.

References
"Humanism in the Renaissance." The Renaissance Connection. 10 Dec. 2008 .