Naturalism in Renaissance Art History

Naturalism in Renaissance Art History


The Naturalism in art is the depiction of realistic objects and figures. Artists achieved this realistic technique through the use of perspective, light and shadow, which gives figures a sense of three dimensional space along with individualist facial expressions. All of these techniques allowed the artists like Giotto and Rogier to provide the viewer with a window into another space that is vivid and very logically constructed, similar to how the world around us is. In the Lamentation and the Deposition, both Giotto and Rogier bring an unprecedented degree of naturalism to these scenes from the Passion of Christ, intensifying the emotional effect.
In Giotto’s Lamentation, Giotto realistically renders each person’s facial expression. Figures closest to Jesus Christ, like Mary seem to have the most intense reactions of passion and remorse, figures farther away have a more philosophical and reserved reaction to his death. Flying above, angels show similar faces of remorse. These facial expressions in the painting accurately portray the emotions felt by the people at the time of the lamentation of Christ, which is important as it allows for the audience to connect to the characters in the painting. Due to the impeccable use of naturalism, the viewer experiences the deep emotional essence of the Passion of Christ.
Giotto uses light and shadow to depict the figures logically and this gives them a sense of three dimensionality. He deftly uses light and darkness to show the drapery folds in each figure’s clothing. The details in the clothing are not only a realistic representation of how drapery actually looks like, but they also show that there is volume underneath the clothing. The clothing shows a naturalistic approach to evince space being occupied in the painting. Additionally, we can see convincing light and shadow on the hill and the tree in the middle ground behind the individuals. This realistic play of light and shadow gives the illusion that the...

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