Human Case

When we talk about the arts we refer to how it is expressed in terms of the visual: sculptures, paintings, design - all works expressing realism & human emotion, moving & stirring those who gaze in its beauty & almost ghostly appeal. The final product however was rooted in methods & philosophies. For example, Leonardo da Vinci's paintings on human form take on his view of the 'perfect man' via his knowledge of ancient times. His Vitruvian Man is a perspective of methods & proportion using science & mathematics infused with the skill of rendering the human body.

The artist Masaccio of Tomasso Cassai developed techniques to render light & plasticism in paintings, a humanist foundation that were later followed by the likes of Raphael and his friends Donatello, Brunelleschi & Alberti all of them students of Renaissance master Giotto. His work, 'The Madonna & the Child" now on display at the National art Gallery in London was once the altarpiece of the Carmelite Church in Pisa - influences of Roman & Greek 'emotions' can be felt in his work while from afar his painting seem like a sculpture, as shadow & light play to create dimensions in his work.

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi or Donatello his colleague on the other hand concentrated in creating perspectival illusionism especially in Bas relief or shallow sculptures although he is equally as gifted in paintings much as Alberti or Masaccio. His style & rendition in sculpting came to the attention of the Medicis who commissioned him for various works in Florence. The Bronze David in the courtyard of the Medici Palazzo was among his first works in Florence & this buoyed the Medicis even more, his David was the first free standing nude since the ancient times. Soon Donatello became a prized Medici artist. Of course, Raphael's "St. George & the Dragon" and Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" & the "Last Supper" shared more than center stage with Masaccio's & Donatello's work. Michelangelo's paintings of the dome of the Sistine Chapel fused religion & high renaissance art, classics that live to this day. Much of Baroque paintings & art coincide with that of Late renaissance as covered above. Bear in mind however that late renaissance & early Baroque encouraged the advent of the 'Rococo' style, the use of forms in