ROOT/Renaissance Overview/Early Renaissance
The Early Renaissance
The main members of the first generation of Renaissance artists were Donatello in sculpture; Filippo
Brunelleschi in architecture; and Massacio in
painting. All of these artists shared many important characteristics. The key to their
thinking was a strong belief in the abstract foundations of art and the certainty that
development and progress were not only possible . . .but essential to the life and meaning
of the arts. Ancient art was cherished, not only as an inspiring model but also as a
comparison for the artists, but also as a means by which the successes of former great
artists would be revealed. In this fashion, artists tried to review the creative process
of ancient art works rather than to merely copy the final results. Early Renaissance
artists tried to create art forms which followed with the appearance of the natural world
and with their experience of human personality and behavior. The challenge of making
accurate representations of this concept in sculpture, or the considerations of space and
the effects of light and color in painting, was approached through concentrated and
systematic investigation by the artists.
Rational investigation into these subjects was believed to be the key to success;
therefore, efforts were made to discover the correct laws of proportion for architecture
and for the representation of the human body and to organize the creation of space in a
picture. Although these artists were very observant of natural phenomena, they also tended
to invent general rules from specific observations. They made an effort to go beyond
direct tranlation of nature into laws, and decided to give the work of art some ideal,
intangible qualities, establishing a beauty and significance greater and more permanent
than that actually found in nature. These characteristics--the rendering of ideal forms
rather than literal appearance, and the concept of the physical world as the means of
beauty to be expressed--were to remain essential to the nature and development of Italian
Renaissance art.
The term Early Renaissance exemplifies virtually all of the art of the 15th century.
Florence, the home of Renaissance artistic thought, remained one of the undisputed centers
of changes that took place. Around 1450, a new generation of artists that included such
masters as Pollaiuolo and Sandro Botticelli, arose in
Florence. Other Italian cities such as Milan, Urbino, Ferrara, Venice, Padua, and Naples,
all became powerful rivals in the spreading waves of change. Leon Battista Alberti's work
in Rimini and Mantua represented the most progressive architecture of the new concept of
humanism. Also, Andrea Mantegna's paintings in Padua displayed a personal version of
linear perspective, antiquarianism, and realistic technique; and Giovanni Bellini's poetic
classicism exemplified the growing strength of the Venetian school.
By the late 15th century, the novelty of the first explosive advances of Renaissance style
had given way to a general acceptance of such basic notions as proportion, contraposto
(twisted pose), and linear perspective; thus, many artists sought means of personal
expression within this relatively timeless repertoire of style and technique. The Early
Renaissance was not, as was once believed, merely an imperfect but necessary preparation
for the perfection of High Renaissance art, but rather a period of great worth. In
perspective from the present, however, Early Renaissance painting seems to fall short of
thoroughly convincing figural representation, and its expression of human emotion is
ornate rather than real. Furthermore, the strength of individual features of a work of art
is disproportionate to the whole work of art.Related Reading
High Renaissance
Late Renaissance
Overview