Art Blog #1 - Masaccio

The Renaissance period was a time of "renewal" of art.  This statement though is a kind of double edged sword.  It can be read two different ways.  One way would be that art was being explored once again and that people were creating new sculptures, paintings, scientifically at work, etc.  The second way that it can be read is, during the medieval period there was no creation of any kind of artwork at all, which is a complete falsehood, so a better statement would then have to be, the Renaissance period was a time of innovations in the realm of art.

As we think through the famous painters within the Renaissance period, we can check off the names of Donatello, or Leonardo, or perhaps Raphael, these are all very valid and great artists of the time, but there is one little known artist that is seldom heard about, Masaccio.  Born in 1401, the most famous piece of work that was created by him was the Brancaccio Chapel in Florence.  But, what really makes the artwork produced stand out is the introduction of the three dimensional appearance that accompanies his work.  This was a serious step for artwork.  Throughout time, in order to make anything appear life like or in three dimensions, one would have to create a sculpture depicting the person or event that was wanted.  Through trial and error Masaccio had discovered how to apply this concept to paper.  

This is an image from one of the walls that Masaccio painted in the Brancaccio Chapel, located in Florence, Italy.  As we can see here the people seem to “pop” out at us, and we can see that it is clearly defined that there are people that are standing in front of others, the ability to create shadows on the floors, giving the people a sort of “substance” of being real.  Although it is hard to not apply what we know now to what has happened in the past, this is as clear and real, in the realm of depicting people in the 15^th century.  We have the ability to take photographs of people now, that show a clarity that people during the Renaissance period would only dream of, but the innovation and introduction of three dimensional artwork, other than sculptures, was but a dream to people prior to 1400.  With Masaccio’s innovation, other artists began to apply this technique to their work, most notably Leonardo Di Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Is it really that the Renaissance period was a time of “art explosion,” as is thought today, or is it rather that during this time period there was more innovations in artwork than before hand?  Think with me for a moment and we will see that during the medieval period the focus of artwork was centered around great cathedrals for the Roman Catholic Church, and with the Renaissance there was more of an emphasis on the artwork contained within the cathedrals, to bring a “face lift” to the inside walls, instead of the bleak grey stone.