The Human Body from the Renaissance Period to the 1st Century

In my project, I focus on how the environment affects the human body in any way, while I especially focus on the female body, the upper part of it. There are many artists of the Renaissance period that study the human body, but those that mostly fascinate me are Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. They drew the human body as inspiration, and began to portray the body realistically. The theory was identified as Realism. The artworks of Renaissance represent people in different environments and how they are affected by them.

The Renaissance is a period of time where interest in art was rediscovered, a dark period where Europeans sought after a new life, “a cultural rebirth, a renaissance”. That is where the meaning of Renaissance came from and it means ‘rebirth’ or ‘awakening’.

These new cultural movements stimulated artists, while Italy’s trade with Europe and Asia produced wealth that created a large market for art. During the period of the Renaissance, art was controlled by the Catholic Church’s rules which gave artists strict guidelines about what the finished product was to look like. Medieval art was more or less plane and did not depict the world or human beings very realistically. The strong economy during that time provided people such as bankers and merchants a lot of wealth that could be spend on works of art. In those days it was a way of showing their status. For this reason, artists were very flexible on what to choose for their works so they took advantage of it and tried new techniques and themes. Nude paintings came to the forefront in the Renaissance largely because the naked human figure represents a timeless ideal of humanity. The artists were starting to understand perspective and realistic forms. Many of the n...

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... awakening him from the illusions and cheating of the earth to a new spiritual life that is better than the earthly one. In this way, Michelangelo indicates that the earth is not a very easy-living environment for humans to be in and maybe there is a better life somewhere else. He does not have a specific technique of painting as he was more of a sculptor rather than a painter. But although he had this dismissive attitude towards painting, he proved to be a gifted painter of sacred art like the drawing on the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Once, the Pope of Rome asked him to paint the Ceiling of the Chapel. He ended painting it, in fresco, which is made by mixing sand and lime and then spread the mix over the wall. Then, the colours should be applied fast until the wall was wet and fresh. When it dried, the colours fused chemically with the lime and became permanent.