The Renaissance and the artists of this era Essay

In the wake of death, destruction and war came the Renaissance. The Renaissance was an era of cultural rebirth that swept across Europe during the 14th to the 17th century . This era marked the time in which man returned to their classical learning and values of ancient Rome and Greece and began to change their attitude towards religion (history.com staff). While the Renaissance is in the past it continues to live on throughout many different fields of art, theories and movements, however, paintings tend to be more symbolic of what the Renaissance era was.
The Renaissance era was faced with the hundred years war, the black death, classicism and the issues of religion, such as the distancing from church and humankind's search for the meaning of their existence and how life works. With these ongoing issues Renaissance paintings often depicted images of war, death, the values from ancient Greece and Rome and they became more secular as well. Additionally, the artist began to develop new techniques such as linear perspective, realism, depth, symmetry, and classicism. Artists also began to make use of light, detail anatomy, depict nature and focus on individuals instead of groups of people.
Leonardo Da Vinci, is one of the most famous painters and at 15 was an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio (history.com staff). He was also an inventor, scientist, doctor and philosopher and has been nicknamed "the Renaissance man" (history.com staff). Da Vinci is an artist whose paintings depicted the new art techniques that were just emerging during the Renaissance and it is shown in his painting "The Mona Lisa", arguably his most famous painting. The Mona Lisa is an oil painting on cottonwood paneling which takes advantage of numerous techniques including Leonardo's sfumato technique (totallyhistory.com staff). The sfumato technique is a type of painting which does not include lines or borders. Other techniques include precise and detailed anatomy which allows for emotions and lifelike appearance, shadowing and the use of nature as a background. In addition, this painting is a portrait which attributes to themes of secularism and individualism which were both greatly explored in the Renaissance period.
Another high Renaissance artist is Raphael, who painted the "school of Athens" in the very early 1500's. It is raphael's most famous work and is one of four frescoes on the wall of stanza (totallyhistory.com staff). The painting depicts a school filled with a total of twenty one figures including Plato and Aristotle. Raphael created this work of art to represent philosophy and Greek and Roman knowledge which is a prominent theme throughout the Renaissance (totallyhistory.com staff). Furthermore, Raphael employs a number of the common methods that Renaissance painters began using. For example, he contains a number of iconic Greek philosophers and famous Greek sculptures (totallyhistory.com staff) alluding to classicism and the central theme of knowledge. Raphael also makes use of linear perspective, depth symmetry and realism to create his painting with accuracy. Additionally, he paid particular attention to anatomy when painting both Plato and Aristotle.