Renaissance

ルネサンス / 14th–16th century / Style / Historical Styles

A movement that rediscovered ancient proportion and the human body and fixed three dimensions on a flat surface through linear perspective. Mathematics became the common language of painting and architecture, and the norms of the next five hundred years, symmetry, the classical orders and the golden ratio, were established here.

Renaissance — Masaccio, Holy Trinity, 1425–1428 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Masaccio, Holy Trinity, 1425–1428 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Renaissance — Raphael, The School of Athens, 1511 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Raphael, The School of Athens, 1511 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Renaissance — Donato Bramante, Tempietto, c. 1502 (photo by Labicanense) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 — Donato Bramante, Tempietto, c. 1502 (photo by Labicanense) — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0

At a glance

Visual cues

One point linear perspective
The classical orders and symmetry
Composition based on the proportions of the body
A clear triangular composition

Best used for

Showing authority and balance through proportion itself
Building an image whose depth is constructed geometrically

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Dictionary entry

Type: Set Roman capitals in the proportions of inscriptions.
Composition: Steady figures and elements on a central axis and a triangle.
Material: Move from tempera to oil and build up transparent layers.
Caution: Pasting on columns and symmetry gives you stage scenery. Decide one basis for the proportions and carry it through the whole.
Further study: Brunelleschi's experiments with perspective / Alberti's On Painting / The surveying of ancient buildings and the systematizing of the orders

Related entries

Baroque (バロック)Same Historical Styles lineage.Compare Renaissance and Baroque
Neoclassicism (新古典主義)Same Historical Styles lineage.Compare Renaissance and Neoclassicism

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