My first week in London, I was able to visit the National Gallery and see some of the collections on display. There was some amazing art and I can't wait to go back and see more!
Going through the National Gallery and seeing the various exhibits, there are definitely some noticeable differences between Medieval and Renaissance art. As far as differences in content go, there are a few that are quite obvious. Every painting from 1200-1400 has a central focus of very spiritual and religious things. There are countless paintings of the virgin and her child and the main content revolving around religion. The three Renaissance pictures provided demonstrate that the focus changes from religious to content of a more secular nature. School of Athens is a painting showing various people, philosophers, and knowledge of the world with a strong feeling of secularism and praise for certain people.
The variations in aesthetics are also fairly obvious. Paintings from the medieval era are brighter and more vibrant. The technique is also less realistic and has more of an abstract feel to it. In The Virgin and the Child diptych , the scale is far different from art produced at a later date. The virgin is larger than the child, yet the child does not much resemble a baby. In this case, scale may be the way to demonstrate age or importance. Paintings from the Renaissance definitely have more of a real-life feeling. The people are all sized realistically and in accordance with their surroundings. The human anatomy is far more realistic in the Renaissance era. As demonstrated by the few paintings, the content and aesthetics of art are things that are definitely altered through the ages.
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