Early Renaissance


Hello from Roma!! On June eighth I spent the day learning about early renaissance art. Our first stop was Santa Maria in Trastevere. Here we learned that art is a narrative meant to translate the stories of it's people. The first example given to us here at the Santa Maria.
The image in  in question is the mosaic of the Correnation of the Virgin. It is in  some ways relatable to the Byzentine in that it has a gold background. This type of background is meant to represent the transendent heavenly realms. The image has some stillness and two-dimentionalqualities to it, while only lightly drawing to the three dimentionalism that will later be what will be most well known as Renaissance art. The mosaic itself depicts Jesus and Mary enthroned at his right hand side. The hand of god is coming down over Jesus's head and below him is the lamb of God imagery from the book of Revelation.

The next stop on our exploration of the day was the church of St. Cecelia. They say that her body was found uncorrupt. It's crazy that we went there because I was obssesed with her when we were younger because I always wabted to be a musician. Of course her church was the first one we've been to yet were music was playing. By now her remains are buried in the church but there is a sculpture of her under the alter in supposedly the same position in which she died.

http://www.wga.hu/art/c/cavallin/lastjudg/01lastju.jpg

We went to see the fragmented fresco of the last judgement that is there. A fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. This fresco depicts Jesus as the last judge in the final days spoken of in revelation. Mary and the aposteles are around him as the final intersessors for us humans begging him to let us into heaven if we deserve it. Personally I hated this fresco because I hate the idea of the Last Judgement. I believe hierarchy is an ego trap and that a true God of love and forgiveness would never pass judgment in such a way. Alas, it is incredibly blasphamousin the Catholic tradition to believe this. Aside from my spiritual misgivings towards the iconography of the fresco, it is incredibly beautiful. This painting is not as still as the mosaic found at the Santa Maria. The faces are turned with shadow under the chin giving them three dimentions. This is a clear step away from the stillness of Byzentine art.

The next stop on our trip was the Tempietto, which is a site of holy Christian topography made by Donato Bramante. This temple was supposed to mark the spot where St. Peter was crusified but now we know this isn't accurate.




Isebella and Ferdenand of Spain were the patrons of this temple. It is in a circular shape because the circular form represented the fact that this was the site where St. Peter was martyered. He utilized ideal geometry in the constuction of this temple. This means that within it, one can find order, balance, symetry and harmony all throughout it's construction. This was done because the people of the Renaissance era believed that even if one could not spot the geometry, walking into a building that utilized such perfect geometry would allow them to resonate at a frequency that was closer to that of the divinity of God.

That was it for the first week of art history! Tune in next week for more <3

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