Relationships between two historical art periods

Humanities, Discuss the Relationships Between Two Historical Art Periods

The Renaissance and Ancient Greece

The social order is constantly experiencing progress as a result of its tendency to move forward by making use of earlier ideas. The masses generally modify earlier ideas with the purpose of creating new ones, as each period throughout history was inspired from period before it. The classical period was one of the most influential eras in the history of mankind and it is only safe to say that it inspired a series of attitudes in the Western world. Early Greek history has fueled thinking in several domains and much of the ideas present in the contemporary society originate there.

Classical Greece marked a period of maturity when regarding matters both from an intellectual and from an artistic point-of-view. Athens and Sparta experienced significant cultural achievements during the period and secured their position in the Hellenistic world by concepts that were revolutionary for the time. It was obvious, by the fifth century B.C., that conditions had changed and that the Greek community was determined to change much of its thinking. "Greek artists of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. attained a manner of representation that conveys a vitality of life as well as a sense of permanence, clarity, and harmony" (The Art of Classical Greece (ca. 480 -- 323 B.C.)).

Bronze was often the choice of artists when considering statues, as they expressed much interest in its ductility and in the fact that it could be used to create beautiful forms. Even with this, there are very few fifth century B.C. sculptures in the present, as most of them were either destroyed through time or were stolen by Romans.

Vase painting was an important concept in Ancient Greece because it provided artists with the opportunity to discover more concerning the human body. As artists struggled to create artwork that was as beautiful as it could possibly be, they started to focus on devising effective methods to represent the human body more realistically. These artists wanted concepts like clarity and harmony to be dominant ideas in their works and got actively involved in making great achievements in representing the body, both with clothes and without clothes, and both at rest or moving.

Vase painters like Douris, Makron, and Kleophrades played important roles in assisting society experience progress and they virtually enabled the masses to focus on the complexity of the human mind while trying to find ways to make true representations of the human body.

The Renaissance period was meant to mark the fact that people wanted to go back to their roots by focusing on uninhibited periods that actually encouraged creativity of the highest levels. "It was in Italy, surrounded by the ruins of the ancient world, that men first dreamed of reviving the spirit of classical antiquity" (Graham-Dixon 12). People practically came to the conclusion that their society was negatively affected by the Dark Ages and that it was essential for them to develop ways of combating this concept.

Individuals during the Renaissance believed that the best method to raise public awareness while influencing the masses to focus on the importance of art was to search for the lost values that were once present in Greece and Rome. The language of classic architecture seemed the most important at the time, as it embodied a series of ideas, ranging from painting to sculpture and showed intriguing aspects of human thinking. The term renaissance was meant to stand as a hallmark concerning

One of the most important mistakes that people make when trying to find parallels between the Renaissance and the Classical period is that they look at the latter from the perspective of the former. The masses are typically inclined to believe that the Renaissance says all there is to say with regard to Classical Greece, as it was practically inspired from Ancient times and as Renaissance artists were well-acquainted with thinking in the classical period. Even with the fact that this is partly true, the reality is that Ancient Greece was very complex and that Italians did not necessarily expressed interest in matters that they considered the Renaissance to have nothing to do with.

Both the Renaissance and the Classical Period promote the belief that it is essential for art to display a naturalistic perspective concerning the world. Even with this, the former is very different because it was created in an environment that was heavily affected by Christian thinking. "In stressing the dangers to art of certain types of Christian enthusiasm, Vasari failed to acknowledge adequately the other side of the coin: the positive, galvanic part played by the church in the history of art down the centuries" (Graham-Dixon 13).

To a certain degree, one might be inclined to believe that the Renaissance was inspired to a greater level by the Dark Ages than it was inspired by the Classical Period. Individuals in Italy were practically determined to do everything in their power in order to be certain that society would acknowledge the negative effects caused by the Dark Ages and they considered that adopting attitudes expressed in the more liberal Ancient Greece the masses would be enabled to look at life from a different perspective.