FREE ESSAY ON THEMES OF ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ART

THEMES OF ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ART

Themes of Italian Renaissance Art
As the fourteenth century ushered out the Middle 
Ages in Italy, a new period of cultural flowering began, 
known as the Renaissance. This period in history was 
famous for its revival of classical themes and the merging 
of these themes with the Catholic Church. These themes of 
humanism, naturalism, individualism, classicism, and 
learning and reason appeared in every aspect of the Italian 
Renaissance, most particularly in its art. 
Humanism can be defined as the idea that human 
beings are the primary measure of all things (Fleming, 
29). Renaissance art showed a renewed interest in man who 
was depicted in Renaissance art as the center of the 
world. Pico della Mirandola said that, there is nothing 
to be seen more wonderful than man. (Fleming, 284) This 
could almost be taken as a motto for Renaissance art. 
Michelangelo's David clearly supports Mirandola's statement. 
Since Renaissance art focused on representing 
tangible, human figures, rather than depicting scenes from 
the Bible in order to praise God, the artists had to think 
in more natural, scientific terms. Artists became familiar 
with mathematics and the concept of space, as well as 
anatomy. Lorenzo Ghiberti studied the anatomical 
proportions of the body, Filippo Brunelleschi was 
interested in mathematics in architecture, Leone Battista 
Alberti, who was skilled in painting, sculpture and 
architecture, stressed the study of mathematics as the 
underlying principle of the arts (Fleming, 285). Leonardo 
also looked at the geometric proportions of the human body 
(Calder, 197). In painting, but especially in sculpture, 
artists were inspired to express the structural forms of 
the body beneath its external appearance. Their anatomical 
studies opened the way to the modeling and the movements of 
the human body. In painting, naturalism meant a more 
realistic representation of everyday objects. In Fra 
Angelico's Annunciation, he shows an exact reproduction of 
Tuscan botany (Wallace, 237). Also, the concept of space 
was important. In painting, figures were placed in a more 
normal relationship to the space they occupied. 
Human figures tended to become more personal and 
individual. Three clear examples of that are Donatello's 
David, and Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Last Supper, in which 
the twelve different expressions of the apostles were 
shown. Every statue, every portrait was an individual 
person who made a profound impression. Mary and the angel 
Gabriel became very human in Fra Angelico's Madonna 
(Wallace, 45). Even when placed in a group, every 
individual figure stood out separately, as in Boticelli's 
Adoration of the Magi. One form of art representing the 
individual was the portrait. Wealthy families and 
individuals commissioned artists to create statues and 
paintings. High regard for individual personality is 
demonstrated in the number and quality of portraits painted 
at this time (Flemming, 286). 
Italian Renaissance humanism were motivated by a 
rediscovery of the values of Greco-Roman civilization. An 
example of architectural revival is Bramante's Tempietto, a 
small temple built where St. Peter is said to have been 
crucified. Bramante later got a chance to build on a much 
greater scale: St. Peter's Basilica. Clearly using 
classical civilizations as his model Bramante said of St. 
Peter's, I shall place the Pantheon on top of the Basilica 
of Constantine. (Flemming, 309-310) Other architects went 
back to the central-type churches modeled on the Pantheon, 
rather than the rectangular basilica that had evolved over 
the centuries. They revived classical orders and 
blueprints. Decorative motifs were derived directly form 
ancient sacophagi, reliefs, and carved gems. Sculptors 
revisited the possibilities of the nude. Painters, 
however, didn't have the classical references that 
sculptors had, so they used mythological subjects. 
With all of the studying and learning of art in the 
Renaissance, it would be of little wonder that the subject 
of some of the art was learning itself. The most famous 
example of this is Raphael's School of Athens. Raphael, 
along with Michelangelo, was placed in the painting among 
the ranks of artist-scholars. As members of a 
philosophical circle intent on reconciling the views of 
Plato and Aristotle, Raphael and his friends reasoned that 
Plato and Aristotle were saying the same thing in different 
words. The two philosophers were placed on either side of 
the central. On Plato's side, there was a statue of 
Apollo, the god of poetry. On Aristotle's side there was 
one of Athena, goddess of reason. Spreading outward on 
either side were groups corresponding to the separate 
schools of thought within the two major divisions (Barrett, 
87). 
No matter what theme of the Italian Renaissance is 
named, there is always some example of a corresponding art 
manifestation of it. For humanism it was David, for 
naturalism it was Annunciation, for individualism, it was 
The Last Supper, for classicism, it was St. Peter's 
Basilica, and for learning and reason, it was The School of 
Athens. It was these themes, which dominated every other 
aspect of the Renaissance, that dominated the artistic 
aspect.
Works Cited 
Barrett, Maurice. Raphael. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1965 
Calder, Ritchie. Leonardo and the Age of the Eye. New 
York: Simon, 1970 
Coughlan, Robert. The World of Michelangelo: 1475-1564. 
New York: Time-Life, 1966 
Flemming, William. Arts and Ideas. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 
1995 
Walace, Robert. Fra Anglelico and His Work. Chicago: 
Williamson, 1966