COMPAIRING ARTISTIC PERIODS
RENAISSANCE ART AND MANNERISM ART
WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY

IWT1 TASK1
COMPARING ARTISTIC PERIODS

The Renaissance period was from roughly the 14th century to the 17th century of the common era (CE) beginning in Italy later spreading throughout Europe. The word Renaissance comes from the original Italian word "Rinascimento" or "rinascere" which means "to be reborn" according to Harper (2012).
The influence of the Renaissance movement can be observed in art, music, science, religion, politics, philosophy, literature, as well as other areas of intellectual inquiry. The Renaissance brought about a way of thinking focused on the bettering the person and having a well rounded and educated person in all aspects of the humanities as mentioned earlier. One theory as to the reason for this shift was the devastation brought on by the "Black Death" or Plague causing people to think more about their lives on Earth, as opposed to the afterlife or their spirituality (Wikipedia 2012).
One distinguishing trait of Renaissance art is development and use of realistic perspective in paintings and renderings which more closely resemble how a natural scene or surroundings appeared. One such painting that demonstrates this perspective is "The San Zaccaria Altarpiece" by Giovanni Bellini (WGA, 2012 / Struth, 1995). The arch vaults and floor show a realistic perspective of how the Madonna and Saints may have actually appeared. Each of the characters within this painting have relative proportions to themselves and each other the lighting and shadowing are realistic and uniform throughout the work. Another trait of Renaissance is the study of light, shadow, and their interaction with the human body and a desire to depict the beauty of nature such as the works of Leonardo da Vinci.
Mannerism is a form of European art that began to emerge around 1520