Thanks to international trade, the Italian aristocracy, upper class, and upper middle class grew incredibly wealthy through economic development. One of the most famous families from this era is the Medici family of Florence, Italy. The Medici became so rich that they invested, unlike many of today’s billionaires, in the Arts and the study of ancient Greek and Roman classics, leaving a lasting impact on architecture, art, literature, philosophy, society, and politics.
Let’s explore how ancient Greek and Roman culture shaped the art of the Renaissance:
Examine and compare these three masterpieces.
- On the left is a close-up of Madonna and Child from an altarpiece by the Italian Gothic and Trecento period painter Duccio di Buoninsegna’s “Maestà” from 1310.
- In the center is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Madonna of the Spinning Wheel” from 1500.
- On the right is a close-up of Adam from the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck’s masterpiece “The Ghent Altarpiece” from 1430.
Renaissance art captures emotions through realistic facial expressions, making the characters appear like real people. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mary is portrayed as a beautiful woman, while Baby Jesus looks like a lively infant, playing with a cross and unable to sit still. Adam has wild, long curly hair, exudes masculinity, and seems ready to step out of the artwork. In contrast, Medieval art lacks depth, movement, and natural facial expressions, giving it a stiff, flat, and unrealistic appearance. The intended message is that these are Holy figures, distinct from ordinary people.
The work above is an antique Roman fresco from the city Pompeii in southern Italy.
– Io wearing bovine horns watched over by Argos on Hera’s orders – (around 63-79 AD)
The fresco illustrates the Greek myth of Io, a priestess of Hera who was transformed into a cow and guarded by the giant Argos, as ordered by Hera to prevent Zeus from seducing her.
Naturalism
Although this was painted 2,000 years ago, it appears remarkably natural and realistic. During the Renaissance, inspired by classical painting, a style emerged that aimed to depict subjects as realistically as possible. This style is known as naturalism.
Medieval paintings were predominantly Christian in theme, characterized by flat figures with expressionless, statue-like faces. Space and backgrounds were seldom portrayed, and when included, buildings appeared flat and figures seemed to float. In contrast, Renaissance art introduced more realistic and expressive figures. The main characteristic of Renaissance painting is naturalism. In the Trecento post, I mentioned Giotto, who marked the beginning of this movement. The influence of naturalism resulted in a rise in the depiction of nude figures in paintings and sculptures, a subject that was challenging to portray within the rigid Christian framework of the Middle Ages.
Let’s look at four sculptures. The influence of Classical Greece on the Renaissance is unmistakable, especially when you contrast it with the distinct styles of the Middle Ages.
The Classical Greek sculpture is the Apollo Belvedere, dating back to around 330 BC. The Medieval piece is a German sculpture from approximately 1420. The Renaissance sculptures include Donatello’s David from 1440 on the left and Michelangelo’s David from 1504 on the right.
perspective
In painting, we observe the use of perspective, a technique that creates the illusion of three-dimensionality and realism.
On the left is Ugolino da Siena’s “The Last Supper” from 1325, and on the right is Raphael’s Italian masterpiece “The School of Athens” from 1509.
emotional expression
Another fascinating aspect of the Renaissance is its emphasis on emotional expression.
As mentioned earlier, Christianity played a dominant role in the Middle Ages, shaping a world focused on God and the church. The Renaissance aimed to revive humanism, drawing inspiration from the human-centered ideals of ancient Greece and Rome.
In painting, humanism is reflected in the emotional expression of figures. In medieval art, figures are shown in stiff poses, lacking expression, and with identical faces. Renaissance paintings, however, portray each figure with a unique face, conveying their inner emotions through facial expressions and gestures.
Architecture
The architecture also reflected elements of ancient Greek style. For example, the Church of Sant’Andrea in Mantua, designed by architect Leon Battista Alberti, was completed in 1494.
Music
How did this influence Renaissance music? Let’s take a look.
In my post No.1 Gregorian Chant , I began by exploring the origins of music. I wrote:
“People played music when they felt happy, sad, or scared. Music always had a special purpose, like sharing joy, comforting someone, calming fears, keeping bad spirits away, or praying for rain to help crops grow. Ancient Greek thinkers, in particular, spent a lot of time studying what music meant to people’s lives. Philosophers like Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle thought deeply about music, seeing it as more than just fun. They explored how music could affect people’s thoughts, behavior, and even the universe itself.”
Classical Greek scholars explored the impact of musical expression, recognizing its ability to deeply affect emotions. They observed that some music could inspire kindness, while other types might provoke aggression. Curious about these reactions, they questioned why certain music makes people feel cheerful or angry. Their findings revealed that emotional responses are influenced by elements like tonality, scales, intervals, consonance, and dissonance. Pythagoras applied mathematics to uncover the frequencies of sound and their corresponding intervals, marking a significant breakthrough in the field of music.
Earlier, we explored humanism and emotional expression, focusing on humans as the center—their ability to express joy, love, and a range of other emotions. Similar to classical Greek musicians and Renaissance painters and philosophers, Renaissance musicians aimed to convey emotions through their music. Emotional expression is one of the defining features of Renaissance music. Like naturalism, musicians aimed to compose music in a more organic and natural style.
Do you remember isorhythms from the Ars Nova?
Isorhythms from the Ars Nova era are a fascinating technique that combines and repeats melodic and rhythmic patterns. While it’s a well-crafted method, the resulting music often feels unnatural. However, medieval musicians weren’t aiming for naturalness; their goal was to create a sense of order and control in a chaotic world, much like God’s governance over the Earth.
Renaissance musicians aimed to make music more natural and easy to understand by :
- letting rhythms flow more smoothly (the opposite of isorhythms) , much like naturalism in painting.
- Inspired by literature (Petrarch), they shaped phrases and accents like sentences, giving melodies a sense of speech.
- They also added depth by using homophonic textures, placing melody in the foreground with a harmony in the background, much like perspective in painting.
- Additionally, they explored consonances and dissonances through intervals and harmonies influenced by classical Greek scholars.
By the mid-Renaissance, Italy emerged as the cultural and artistic epicenter. The Italian church and nobility extensively employed composers, particularly those from the Netherlands and Flanders, known as the Flemish school.
As cathedrals grew larger, their choirs and organs expanded as well, resulting in louder and majestic music.
Around 1450, Gutenberg introduced a revolutionary printing technique using a press. Before this, all music had to be handwritten, but the ability to print music allowed new compositions to spread rapidly across Europe, accelerating musical advancements like never before!
The Protestant Reformation, initiated by Luther in 1517 against the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, was a significant event that also greatly influenced music. I’ll delve into this in more detail another time.
