Renaissance Art Historical Overview

Since ancient Roman times, the tradition of illusion in painting has fascinated artists and viewers. As early as the first century B.C., artists attempted to create the illusion of volume and depth on the flat surface of a painting. From your study of Greek sculpture, you are aware that ancient artists developed keen skills in the depiction of the human figure. The naturalizing tendencies of the Greeks were copied by Roman artists, and the Romans developed their own styles of representation based on the observation of nature. In this reproduction of Woman with a Veil from Pompeii, you can see the painter's efforts to create the illusion of a three-dimensional figure standing in space. The light source in the painting, which comes from the left, models a degree of volume. However, the figure exists in a very shallow shelf of space and lacks weight and mass. The early efforts of the ancients to depict reality on the flat surface of a painting diasppears, however, with the fall of the Roman empire and the subsequent turmoil of the Middle Ages.

Woman with a Veil, Roman fresco, Pompeii, c.50 BCE

Early Christian Art

The pagan-centered images of the Greco-Roman world were naturalistic and based on the direct observation of material things. Gradually, during the Early Christian era, this naturalism gave way to static, stylizied images of religious figures. This change was in part a direct result of the Christian domination of the Roman Empire and the Church's desire to stress the religious aspects of life rather than the real or material aspects of the previous pagan socities.

The Good Shepard, mosaic, Ravenna, c. 425-26 CE

In order to teach Christian ideas and dogma to largely illiterate masses, the Church dictated that artists create simplified and direct images of scenes from the scriptures to serve as easily understood symbols for religious teaching.

The early Christian church was quite uneasy with works of art. It feared that the faithful would worship the images themselves rather than what they represented. During the 8th century, Emperor Leo III launched a campaign of iconoclism against visual images. Widespread destruction of devotional pictures followed, and those who defended visual images were persecuted.

After a period of roughly sixty years, visual images were restored to religious practices; however, depictions of sacred figures in paintings grew increasingly ephemeral and unworldy. Typically, in early Christian and Medieval art, religious figures were depicted in the realm of the spiritual--existing in no specific place or time. All efforts to render space, volume or mass in painting gave way to a focus on the creation of symbols of the devine.

Virgin and Child Enthroned, early 7th century CE

The Middle Ages

The period known as the Middle Ages is 1,000 or so years that span the time between the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance in the 15th century. Due to the breakdown of the central governing power, Europe underwent a period of immense change. The resulting social organization of feudalism placed the Church and secular leaders in a system of mutual support. Church officials and the nobility emerged as the principal patrons of art.

Manuscript paintings epotimize the aesthetic qualities of the art of the Middle Ages. Books were an important part of Christian life during the period. One of the main tasks of religious centers was to produce authoratative copies of religious texts. Sumptous illustrations accompanied the written texts, and the highly refined iconography demonstrated the intellectual interests of the artists. Books also played a key role in the transmission of artistic styles and cultural information from one region to another.

Despite the Church's interest in the conveyence of religious ideas through visual images, the method of depicting religious events remained stylized and somewhat abstract. Images during this period of time were based on prototypes dictated by church officials, and the depictions of religious scenes were somewhat standardized and static. Not until the emergence of the Gothic style of the 12th century did artists attempt to imbue scenes with the naturalism of material life. Through visual symbols the art of the Middle Ages operated through subtle allegory, while the art of the subsequent Renaissance operated through clear narrative.

Christ Washing the Feet of Peter, from the Gospel Book of Otto III, c. 1000

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