Origins of Roman Renaissance

The first week of exploring Rome was filled with an incredible amount of art and knowledge from what seemed like countless amounts of buildings and sites. In reality, however, we barely scratched the surface of what this great and immense city has to offer. Italy is known for being the birthplace of the Renaissance, a movement in the 14th to 17th century that focused on realism and capturing human emotion in art.

We started exploring this movement by visiting the earliest forms of art found in Rome. The sculpture, architecture, and carving works of the classical Romans. We see people beautifully represented on the Arch of Constantine as well as the Arch of Titus as the events that the arches are built for are carved into the sides and attic of the structures. We see these figures depicting the conquests, the glory, the "triumphs" of Roman leaders which is where we get the name, Triumphal arch. We see these scenes in a 2D space with no perception but carved in 3D objects. This represents the first steps towards humanism in art accomplished by renaissance artists much later on. 

Moving forward in the time scale we saw a number of frescoes, or wall paintings, as well as mosaics. Frescoes are found in churches along the walls and more famously, the ceiling. before the renaissance in what is called the "Dark Ages," these frescoes were flat and did not possess the dynamics of church paintings we see today. The most common of this time were apse works, the most famous of which that we saw was the one in Santa Maria in Trastevere, which were mosaic paintings usually with gold leaf tiles incorporated into the work. These works have also been considered Byzantine. They all follow a few standard motifs: Jesus with a halo and cross surrounded by disciples and/or other saints related to the church the work was made in, Sheep coming from Bethlehem and Jerusalem moving toward the center where the lamb of god stands, also with a cross and halo, and the usually tell a story, either of the Virgin Mary, or the Resurrection, or any other biblical trope. You can see in these pieces small and subtle attempts at humanism, with minimalist movement in legs and arms and where the gaze of each figure is drawn.

These works throughout time lead to the renaissance movement in the 14th century where we see frescoes with extreme detail to human expression and movement. The Gesu showcases this art style in full force in every direction you look.

 The Fresco by Filippino Lippi in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is a shining example of human expression, perception, depicting a vase 3D space on a 2D surface, warm vibrant colors, and other aspects of realism.

- Jimmy Guardiola