In the Middle Ages, Renaissance art became a huge influence. The idea of expanding civilization and cultural expansions eventually led to humanism beliefs. Renaissance Artworks such as, The Money Lender and His Wife, School of Athens, Creation of Adam, and David are four sample pieces that accurately portray the humanities of the Renaissance. “The Money Lender of His Wife,” by Matsys focuses on a man who is busy weighing the pearls, pieces of gold coins and jewels on the table while this is distracting his wife from reading, which may show as a Bible.
The moral aspect of this painting shows the shiny gold coins and pearls symbolically representing lust, which has distracted the wife from her devotion of spiritual reading. Matsys also cleverly added the color white for purity of the Virgin as the wife’s hat cloth. As well as the objects in the background highlights the true meaning of this painting. “The growth of capitalism is but one more example of the trend toward individualism that characterized a transitional period in a European society that was busily rebuilding itself to match the new view of reality” (LAMM. 8).
The effects of capitalism, experimentation, the enlightenment and original thinkers dramatically caused the possibilities of individualism drifting away from virtual values of the church. This portrays to how the humanities of the Renaissance really came to be. School of Athens by Urbino shows all of the greatest scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and thinkers of ancient Rome from people who lived in different time periods in one painting.
There’s Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, and Ptolemy who depicts the changing world of true reality that is overwhelmingly unchanging. This work of art created by Urbino issues us a challenge of becoming the philosophers like them, to change the world by expanding and creating new ideas. “The four giant wall murals depicting the four branches of human knowledge and wisdom: theology, law, poetry, and philosophy- is itself a summary of Renaissance humanism” (LAMM. 48). The Creation of Adam by Simoni influences the development of Western art.
Adam and God who is the main focus of the painting represent the birth of human race. “God is depicted as an elderly, yet muscular, man with grey hair and a long beard. Rather than wearing royal garments and depicted as an all-powerful ruler, he wears only a light tunic. The red and blue colors show that something is significant and important in the painting. The white on God shows purity and importance as well. In the other hand, Adam is depicting his posture as a lack of response to “God’s imminent touch. “This touch will not only give life to Adam, but will give life to all mankind. The young children or angels surrounding God are Eve’s offspring, which is us; the future generation “the birth of life. ”
The David by Bardi shows a well-known biblical storyline of David’s victorious battle against Goliath. The statute clearly shows Goliath’s cut-off head from which David struck him with a stone from his slingshot and victoriously chopped his head off with his sword. Back in the Renaissance, people loved and looked up to nudity, paled skin, and feminism.
As well as the Tuscan shepherd’s cap and the warrior boots emphasizes such feminism. David is typically represented as a king, given as a strong man, but in Bardi’s view he obviously viewed David has a young, non-muscular and innocent boy. On such modeled classical sculptural type, “David’s triumph symbolizes Christ’s victory over death, but Bardi’s intentions remains a tantalizing mystery” (LAMM. 30). Bardi’s creation also “depicts the flowing lines and the balance of tension and relaxation” (LAMM. 0) on David’s body, which was famous and classical back in the Renaissance. Choosing these four uniquely art pieces fitly represents the Renaissance in our text book because they all depict on how the Renaissance was definitely a distinct era. It inspires the belief of humanism and enlightening ideas that had changed the world greatly. In our current culture we can learn about the Renaissance way of valuing their culture by art. It illustrates an accurate portrayal of the humanities of the Renaissance.
