The Reflection of Humanism in Renaissance Art

The Renaissance period was seen as a time of “rebirth,” greatly influenced by the acceptance of humanism.  Humanism wasn’t rejecting Christianity, many paintings depict religious icons as a matter of fact, but it did expand beyond portraying religious figureheads on the further interest in realism to human anatomy. We see portraiture of those who could afford it; the art work was no longer controlled by the church. Humanism in art glorified the beauty of the human body and sought to achieve realistic perspectives rather than flat, two dimensional views.

We see a strong ambition to create realistic linear and atmospheric perspectives in paintings. Before, objects and people were flat and had an unrealistic resemblance to what and who they were portraying. With the interest in humanism, however, we see carefully calculated paintings on how an object would look in real space; let us take, for example, a look at Perigino’s “The Delivery of The Key to Saint Peter.” Located on the wall of the Sistine Chapel, this fresco shows the development of linear perspective. As the people and buildings become farther away, they diminish in size and detail, just as we see in the real world. Also, when we look at the stones, we clearly see the space and size of and between each stone reducing as they disappear into the horizon. Further, the sky is not one stark color, but a gradient from blue to white as it too reaches the plane of the horizon. On a closer look at the architecture of the building, the correct use of perspective is used as well. The mid structure is facing us head on as the two on the left and right show their three dimensional properties.

Also, the use of color was greatly refined to further the illusion of depth and capture the essence of what we actually see in the three dimensional world. Perigino skillfully uses light and shadow to emphasize distance in not only the far way buildings, but in the very clothing of the people.  We see the shimmer of more luxurious fabric as appose to the duller colored. There is a direct point to where the light is coming from; we know exactly where the sun is located even though it is not actually in the scene. The desire to paint what is actually seen, to give the viewer a sense that they could simply walk into the painting was influenced by humanisms ambition for perfection.

Humanism also inspired how we see the people in this crowd. Before, they would be flat and incorrectly placed as to how their bodies and limbs would be proportionate to each other. Again, with a drive for realism, we see that when they are not facing forward and to the side, their arms and legs are (logically) not visible due to the fact that they are behind.

Humanism in art sought to reflect the real world, and, in turn, find beauty in things that were once unnoticed. Striving for this, works of art were meticulously  measured to show how we view the world we live in.