The Renaissance provided the tools of realist painting, but remained largely bound to religious and mythical motifs. Seventy years later, many new genres had appeared.
Cimabué
The hard road to realism: development and propagation of knowledge, how to apply it in paintings, and its benefit on visual art.
An overview starting with the sculptural folds of the late 13th century, peaking with Raphael and Rembrandt, and dissolving with Renoir and Sargent in the early 20th century.
Classical and mediaeval dress was simple, and not tailored much until after 1000 CE. Painters were also constrained by fresco and egg tempera.
In many paintings, depiction of fabrics, textiles and other clothing materials is more challenging and important than that of flesh.
How rendering of the surface texture of fabrics changed during the southern Renaissance, and new techniques were exported to the north.
Considers what exactly changed in painting in the Renaissance, and when we can establish as those dates, compared with literature, for example.
First in a new series looking at Renaissance painting from Italy, centred on Florence, shows some of the masterpieces of the ‘gap’ before the Gothic.
The Eclectic Light Company 