Art history: major periods and movements

Art History

The renaissance period was an important period in terms of culture, history and most importantly art. Art became a way to express ones views in politics, religion and society simply because one could imply subtle images or symbols that could convey their thoughts and opinions. There were many things therefore that inspired various artists in their art work. This paper will focus on Leonardo da Vinci as an artist where he drew his inspiration to for his art work. Leonardo started art around 1469 through apprenticeship from his father to the Verrocchio workshop. Leonardo quickly mastered the art and soon became god at it mastering the challenges that came with perspective art. He was a very famous artist and was known for many paintings in history such as the last supper, monalissa, the baptism of Christ, the annunciation, the battle of Aghiari and many more (Michalko, 2011).

Renaissance Italy was termed as being behind from the culture of photographs and cinema that is seen. Leonardo had the urge to bring out a universal language in his paintings. He used perspective, baroque alongside other realistic elements in his work. Leonardo tried his best to create renditions of his life through his art work. This he did in a culture that was previously flooded with paintings that were highly figurative as well as strange religious paintings. Leonardo had had a bold and fresh desire to paint things in a realistic way. He made a call to objectivity which became standard for other painters that came after him in the 16th century. Leonardo took a scientific study of light and shadow as they existed in nature. Through this he came to a realization that objects were not just mere things that were made up of outlines but in the real sense they were actually three dimensional bodies that were defined by shadow and light. Chiaroscuro was what this technique was known as and it gave Leonardo's paintings a lifelike quality that was soft which made paintings that had been done before look flat and cartoony. he also saw the detail of an object as well as its color was changing as it receded far into a distance. Leonardo was a perfectionist and therefore he went into the world of science so that he would be able to make an improvement on his art work.

He got inspiration for his paintings in the study of nature and anatomy which he portrayed in his paintings which turned out stunning and realistic .he dissected the human body which led to remarkable accurate figure. Since he was the first artist to look into studies related with physical proportions of men, women and children he used these studies into the determination of a human figure that was ideal. Unlike other artists Leonardo never got carried away into painting muscular bodies that were ridiculous like other artists did. Leonardo held the belief that artists should not only be aware of rules of perspective but they should also be familiar with the laws of nature.