Neoclassicism and Renaissance

Since the dawn of humanity, art has been a component of life. For many years, people have produced, seen, admired, and critiqued art. As the artist seeks to convey a concept or feelings to the audience, art is a distinctive work that catches the attention. As a result, the purpose and form of art vary according to the artist's ability, creativity, and period of creation (Zirpolo, 2016). The history of art is divided into numerous eras with a wide range of artistic styles. The Renaissance and Neoclassicism periods of art are examined in this essay. It will contrast and analyze the traits of their styles, the social factors that influenced them, and their historical importance. The Renaissance period was characterized by exploration and expansiveness as it was the time of rebirth or recovery of art. It originated in Italy and linked to the rebirth of ancient times or the Greco-Roman Civilization. The age of Renaissance elapsed over two centuries, between 1350 and 1550 (Adams, 2013). Additionally, it was a recovery period from the Middle Ages and the disasters related to Black Death, social, economic and political crises. The intellectuals saw this as a time to recover from the dark ages, also known as the lack of classical culture. Therefore, this era had great changes such as technological innovations and geographical discoveries, which increased economic developments and exposed the western world to the European and global markets (Adams, 2013). Also, significant changes in music, literature, art and religion changed the ancient system.

Some of the renowned artists that contributed to the advent and development of the Renaissance art were Sistine Chapel, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and William Shakespeare. For example, Michelangelo was a famous artist in history who played a vital role in the achievement of the Renaissance art (Adams, 2013). This Italian sculptor, poet, and painter adopted various unconventional styles of art that contributed to the progress of the western art of that period and introduced versatility in art forms. He created several masterpieces that represented Renaissance art that depicted social, political and cultural issues. For instance, he created the marble statue of a naked male called David (Shashank, 2011). The figure signified the biblical hero, David, who was favored in the Florentine art. The statue of David also depicted the political aspect of the state and its warning glare in the eye towards Rome symbolized the defense of the civil freedom of the Florentine Republic that was threatened by the surrounding powerful countries during that era (Shashank, 2011). The statue is renowned and excellent piece reflecting the social and political conditions of the Renaissance Era.

The Renaissance period also had old works that inspired the new techniques used to represent old ideas. In this time, the cultural movement took place between the modern and the classical periods of art. With the invention of the printing press, people accessed the written word in an unprecedented manner, changing society forever as people started to look at the natural order of things (Thamrin et al., 2016). The Church lost a lot of influence when translated Bibles were available to people other than clergy or royalty. There were also significant developments in various art forms as most artists reflected the culture of the societies. For instance, the Mona Lisa a notable work of this time was created by Leonardo da Vinci that sits in the Louvre represents a portrait of Lisa Del Giocondo who was from a wealthy family but was not special (Shashank, 2011). She was not an attractive woman of that period, but her picture shows how Renaissance art was more of average and ordinary individuals than the royalty.

While the Renaissance period involved the rebirth of art, the Neoclassicism, also called the Enlightenment Era, was the revival time for Renaissance and classic periods. The era span from the late 1600’s to the end of the 1700’s, and was characterized the greatest political changes in the history. The artists mainly focused on recreating and exploring the classic art, the Roman and Greek styles (Zirpolo, 2016). They emphasized on reviving the classic antiquity, which inspired pieces of art to create in this period that showed people’s opposition towards abusive practices. With higher literacy rates compared to the previous Renaissance period, individuals advocated for religious tolerance and introduced the Declaration of Independence to reform science and advance knowledge (Keohane, 2017). Therefore, the secular views replaced spiritual understanding, and industrial revolution led to the establishment of factories.

The Neoclassicism period gave rise to artists such as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Paradise Lost by John Milton, and Psyche statue by Antonio Canova who introduced unique architecture reminiscent in Ancient Greece and Rome and refined the classical and Renaissance art. For instance, Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice (Bush, 2016). His pieces of art indicated a refinement of the ancient art. The statue Psyche Revised by Cupid Kiss offers an excellent example of the artist’s devotion to love and depiction of complex emotions during the Neoclassical Era (Adams, 2013). The piece shows god Cupid’s love and the affection and tenderness by kissing the lifeless Psyche to bring it to life. This masterpiece expresses the Roman style of showing love and delicate emotions in art, which is an important characteristic of the Neoclassical Movement.

There are similarities traced between the Renaissance and the Neoclassicism period. For instance, most philosophers and artists of both periods were followers of antiquity and humanism (Keohane, 2017). In both times, people believed the Middle Age was the time of intellectual darkness and the society was dominated by the Catholic faith and reduced human reason. Therefore, the Renaissance era involved secularization through printing, which continued even in the period of Neoclassicism (Keohane, 2017). Also, both periods were the preserve of the wealthy that instituted the small percentage of the entire population. The art of both periods used the baroque style that continued till the eighteenth century. The style emphasized power and majesty through the use of games of light and grand diagonals. Additionally, the Renaissance and the Neoclassicism periods marked the great social and political changes caused by progress and evolution of art and technological innovations (Zirpolo, 2016).

However, the two periods differ in various ways; for instance, the Renaissance philosophy assimilated Platonic ideas into Christianity through interpretation and translation. According to Keohane (2017), the people did not reject Christianity as they believed in God but only opposed the practices and policies of the Catholic Church. On the hand, enlightenment philosophers such as Diderot and Voltaire severely criticized the traditional religion and advocated for religion toleration. Tharmrin et al., (2016) noted that they supported deism, which was grounded on Newtonian World Machine that believed the existence of Mechanic who created the universe and allowed it to operate on its natural laws but did not get involved directly. The other difference was the innovations whereby the invention of printing press in the Renaissance secularized the history by diffusing humanist ideas and knowledge that de-emphasized the role of miracles and God (Thamrin et al., 2016). The Neoclassicism Era also secularized history by publishing and public reading but eliminated the emphasis on God and only focused on extending the scope of history regarding the preoccupation of humanist with politics as well as social, intellectual, cultural and economic developments.

Additionally, the Renaissance art revealed naturalism and humanism through the exposition of world’s beauty and the human body. The period used convexo-concave and salient style in art; for instance, the Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci demonstrated an ideal individual by converging together the physical and soul beauty by using the antique aesthetic standards (Parry, 2015). The Enlightenment Era, conversely, revived the classical style of the Rome and Ancient Greece, Baroque style, which was also used in the Renaissance. However, a new style, Rocco, was also introduced in the 1730s and gained great popularity during the Neoclassicism period (Parry, 2015). Rocco, a French innovation, emphasized gentleness and grace and is seen in works of prominent artist such as G. B. Tiepolo who combined Rocco and baroque to establish beautiful architectural constructions.

The earlier work, Renaissance, was significantly related to the advent of the neoclassicism era, which fostered remarkable discoveries of the scientific revolution in the 17th century (Keohane, 2017). The developments and achievements of the Renaissance were the building blocks of the Neoclassicism progress. For instance, the invention of the printing press in the Renaissance period opened a new way of looking for information to explain the order of natural things. This knowledge led to the reexamination of life aspects using application of scientific methods implemented in the neoclassicism era (Bush, 2016). The Renaissance period also introduced art styles such as Baroque, which was still used by neoclassical artists to build unique architectural constructions. Therefore, the earlier time influenced the artistic tastes and innovations of the later work. Humans are prone to traditions and developments, which was the reason that renaissance values were continued to the later era.

The two historical periods are significant in the art world as they contributed to change of society system from class-oriented, to church-oriented and finally to the human-oriented. Technological innovations in both periods made the literature available to people who could interpret it and introduce new ideas and ways of doings things naturally (Bush, 2016). The Renaissance was the beginning of the scientific method, which made why questions become natural. The Neoclassic period followed the Rococo period which was elaborate and excessive in its ornamentation (Adams, 2013). Neoclassicism brought reason, logic, and even attempted objectivity. It emphasized society over the individual, meaning that everyone should work for the common good instead of just for themselves. Therefore, both of these art periods are relevant because they both brought realism into art.







































References

Adams, L. S. (2013). A History of Western Art (pp. 1-34). New York: McGraw-Hill

Bush, D. (2016). The Renaissance and English Humanism. University of Toronto Press.

Keohane, N. O. (2017). Philosophy and the State in France: the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Princeton University Press.

Parry, G. (2015). Literary Baroque and Literary Neoclassicism. A New Companion to Milton, 55-70.

Shashank, S. (2011). Renaissance and Neoclassical Historical Arts. Retrieved on March 26, 2017, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Renaissance-and-Neoclassical-Historical-Arts&id=6137436

Thamrin, C., Hardaker, K., & Robinson, P. D. (2016). Multiple breath washout: from Renaissance to Enlightenment?. Pediatr Pulmonol, 51, 447-449.

Zirpolo, L. H. (2016). Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.