The Renaissance and the Middle Ages
During the Renaissance, many European scholars and artists, especially in Italy, studied the learning and art of ancient Greece and Rome. They wanted to recapture the spirit of the Greek and Roman cultures in their own artistic, literary, and philosophic works. The Renaissance thus represented a rebirth of these cultures and is therefore also known as the "revival of antiquity or the revival of learning." The influence of the Renaissance on future generations was to prove immense in many fields-from art and literature to education, political science, and history. Because of this fact, most scholars have for hundreds of years agreed that the modern era of human history with the Renaissance.
During the Middle Ages, painters and sculptors tried to give their works a spiritual quality. They wanted viewers to concentrate on the deep religious meaning of their painting and sculpture. They were not concerned with making their subjects appear natural or life-like. But Renaissance painters and sculptures, like Renaissance writers, wanted to portray people and nature realistically.
Architects of the Middle Ages designed huge cathedrals to emphasize the majesty and grandeur of God. Renaissance architects designed buildings on a smaller scale to help make people aware of their own powers and dignity.
The influence of Renaissance painters, sculptors, and architects has been particularly strong. The artists of Florence and Rome set enduring standards for painting in the Western World. For hundreds of years, painters have traveled to Florence to admire the frescoes of Giotto and Masaccio. They have visited Rome to study the paintings of Raphael and Michelangelo. The works of Donatello and Michelangelo have inspired sculptors for generations. The beautifully scaled buildings of Brunelleschi and other Renaissance architects still serve as models for architects.
Medieval artists painted human figures that looked stiff and unrealistic and which often served symbolic religious purpose. But Renaissance artists stressed the beauty of the human body. They tried to capture the dignity and majesty of human beings in life-like paintings and sculptures.
Brunelleschi was the first Renaissance architect to revive the ancient Roman style of architecture. He incorporated arches, columns, and other elements of classical architecture into his designs. One of his best known buildings is the beautifully and harmoniously proportional Pazzi chapel in Florence. The chapel which had begun in 1492, was one of the first buildings designed in the new Renaissance style. Brunelleschi was also the first Renaissance artist to use linear perspective, a mathematical system in which painters could show space and depth on the a flat surface.
If we browse through the pages of our history, the purpose of creating sculpture has been to produce works of art that are as permanent as possible, that's why end works were usually produced in durable and frequently expensive materials, primarily bronze and stone such as marble, limestone and granite. More rarely precious materials such as gold, silver, jade, and ivory were used for sculpture for wider consumption, including woods such as oak, box and lime, terra cotta and other cast metals such as pewter and spelter.
Sculptors are constantly searching for new ways to make art and for new materials to use. Despite durability being the usual objective, some sculpture is deliberately short lived. Examples include ice and sand sculpture.