Renaissance TOK

The cultural and philosophical ambiance of the Renaissance is perhaps most evident in its sculpture; the philosophy of humanism provided an impetus for a restoration and later emulation of the conceptions of beauty and perfection characteristic of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Influenced by individualist principles, early Renaissance sculpture was marked by a greater and more meticulous understanding of the human body. Donatello’s David brought to Italian culture a revival of the free-standing nude, prompting an appreciation for perfected human anatomy that is palpable throughout the remainder of the Renaissance and still noticeable in the artistic context of Western culture that follows. The peculiarity of the bronze statue from those of the preceding Middle Ages is archetypically Renaissance in nature; David's pose is nonchalant and his expression pensive, neither of which seems to coincide with the narrative chapter; the Biblical hero's soft body and lack of pronounced muscular development is often interpreted as uncharacteristically effeminate. While the statue’s nudity can be explain in terms of Biblical anthology, as David was said to have refused to wear armor to his battle with Goliath, the accessories in which he is clad seem nonsensical contextually—a laurel on his hat indicates that David was a poet, and the hat on his head is of a foppish Renaissance design. Perhaps most controversially, the statue’s presence has been interpreted as homosexual in nature; while homosexuality was usual in classical antiquity, during the time of the Renaissance such “sodomy” was illicit and believed to be heathen in nature. Donatello show's here, truly, a coalescence of Christian narrative with both the glory of ancient artists and the contemp...

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...sities and courts. This association with academia was in part credible to the inherent nature of the motif itself—the ends of the columns resemble that of a scroll, and architects applied this comparison literally. The final style, the Doric column, was the most masculine as well as the least detailed of the triad. They were used for buildings that had a simpler design to create a more geometric and less decorated look. However, while each column was commonly connoted with a certain application and impression, the use of each style was not set in stone: each sort of column could be used as the architect or patron pleased, depending on what they wanted or how much they could afford. Suffice it to say that such detail in architecture was often relevant only to those of high-class society during the Renaissance, as only the wealthy had money to worry about such things.