Renaissance Art Research Paper

Ryan Hernandez

Professor Kelly Emick

Art 111

6 November 2017

Stylized Focus

    Art has many styles, shapes, forms, and meanings. The way people perceive art is very different from one another. Prehistoric, ancient, byzantine, and renaissance art are all different eras that produced some of the first and some of the best art. The renaissance era is the greatest era for art known to man. Even though some of the art pieces are similar, prehistoric, ancient, byzantine, and renaissance art all focused on completely different areas of work. The artists were also alive at different times in history which had an effect on their creative process.

    Prehistoric art has been dated back to about 30,000 B.C. The first known art pieces were found in western

Europe. The oldest, most well-known prehistoric sculpture was found in Willendorf, Austria. It is a 4 inch sculpture, believed to be a women, carved out of limestone called the Venus of Willendorf. The sculpture is dated back to around 25,000 and 21,000 B.C. The sculpture has very stylized features and not much detail. Her torso, head, thighs, and breasts are bulbous oval shapes which emphasizes her body mass. The Venus of Willendorf is also theorized to be a fertility goddess. Some scholars speculate that the emphasis of her pelvis and breasts represent fertility.
    Another prehistoric piece of art is the Lascaux cave paintings. These are believed to be from about 15,000 B.C. The Lascaux paintings are one of the first cave paintings ever created by man. The paintings depict animals that could found on the landscape, but it does not show any vegetation or environment. The purpose of the paintings are unknown, but some believe that the paintings were a representation of the animals they hunted to survive.
    Early prehistoric art was based on humanity. The Venus of Willendorf focused on the value of human form. The artist wanted to represent how life was at the time. The Lascaux cave paintings share the same meaning. Whoever the artist was wanted to capture what was important to humans at the time. Animals were a very big part of their diet and their life which is why they focused on that in their paintings.
    From the earliest times Egyptian art was developed in the service of the king. Ancient Egyptian art was first created to show that the king was a god. The art-forms were first of all worked out by the master craftsmen in the Pharaoh’s court. Their ideas and fashions were then followed carefully by lesser craftsmen who worked for ordinary Egyptians.