Renaissance Paintings

The Rennaissance was a time period of tremendous change. Huge things started to happen and people's lives and ways of thinking would never be the same ever again. The rennaissance was a period in which logical and thought out ideas and science gained power. No more did people think that certain phenomena occured because God willed it or anything other reason that doen't really explain things. People learned to think about themselves since indivisualism surfaced and spread. The Roman Catholic Church also began to lose much of its power. All this can be seen in the paintings that were drawn during the rennaissance. Lets take a look at this painting from the high rennaissance era, 1475–1525 (the rennaissance was broken up into 3 parts):

  

The Betrothal of the Virgin

By: Raphael (1504)

What do you notice about this painting that is completely different than Medieval art? If you said depth,  more realistic, vanishing point, and other realistic things, then you are right! During the rennaissance many techniques were developed to change the medieval ideas of religion and almost surrealistic figures. Rennaissance art captured the scene in all its glory. Due to the fact that science and logic began to resurface, paintings reflected that revival. Paintings were realistic. Shadows were correctly placed and the veiw was such that things got smaller the further away they were. Also, no single subject was painted to be the extreme center of the universe. There was always something happening in the background that had some relevance. In this painting the virgin, Mary, is being married to Joseph. It shows the group up close but there are people just walking by in the background. In Medieval paintings there would never be anyone just walking by Mary and Joseph. This completley symbolized the change in people's attitudes towards religon. People became more worldly, mundane, that they would just walk past Mary and Joseph getting married! No longer was Mary a revered being that was held by angels, she was now a person who was getting married and only a few people were invited-or cared! so this painting by Raphael is a perfect example of how the rennaissance changed people's ideas and attitudes towards their lives. Also this is the begining of a revolution. A revolution that made it possible to depict, through art, the lives and emotions of people. Even though people did do a kind of art like that before, it was eradicated by waves of religion that caused painters to abandon the world for the heavens and hells in their paintings. 
  Some people who read my posts may ask, "why are you posting about the history of paintings?" I say that I want to and these people, who painted these peices, want to have people know the society of their times. I was inspired by two things; obligation and intrigue. I have always looked at art work as oil or paint on canvas, but now I realize that people were painting the ideals and feelings of their societies, not just pretty shapes. And I hope that I'm helping to spread at least my interpretation of their ideas that are portrayed in these paintings.