Early Renaissance in Italy

In the fifteenth-century Northern Renaissance art was composed of religious figures and they were created with such naturalism. Viewing art from Italy they still use naturalism and religious figures, but they also add other qualities to their art. Such as idealism and humanism. They even paint the Gods and Goddesses as well. Plato’s writings were popular in Italy and the artwork is a representation of his idealism.

In the painting by Sandro Botticelli “Birth of Venus” you can see a great deal of idealism and you also see naturalism. Venus is the roman Goddess of love. The painting tells the story of the birth of Venus and how she was blown to shore on a shell. In the painting you can see depth and balance in the painting.  Early renaissance created balance, depth, harmony and perfection. Also had an interest in illusionism.

There is one main figure in the center, Venus, and there are figures on each side of her, Zephyr’s on the left and a woman on the right.  Zephyr’s is the one blowing Venus to shore and the woman is welcoming her and is giving her a cloak. The two figures on each side of Venus give the painting more balance. Your eye looks at Venus first because she is in the center, and she is the most important in the painting. While your eye travels outward towards the others you gain more of the painting and its story.

The shoreline in the back gives you a sense that there is depth to the photograph. You can see that the use of colors also helps the effect of depth. The use of the whites, blues, and greens in the sea gives the viewer a sense of movement. The waves in the painting don’t look very natural they are more stylized. The waves being stylized show us again that there is that use of idealism. The leaves on the trees show this as well. There is so much perfection in the leaves and the waves that it takes away from the naturalism. The horizon line is fuzzier and has a bluish tint, and makes it seem further away. You can probably say that maybe the depth of this painting is just an illusion. That might be true but not everything is illusionistic.

Along with balance there is harmonious lines that create a triangle. The use of lines gives a movement from figure to figure; they move your eye throughout the painting. Since Zephyr is leaning in towards Venus and the woman is also leaning in towards her this created that sense of the triangle. The composition of the painting has more energy than just the figure of Venus. The lines of Venus seem to lead out into the other objects, which create that movement of energy.

A nude young woman with gold hair illustrates Venus. Botticelli’s Venus is one of the first non-biblical female nudes. People being nude is said to be classical and it celebrates the human body, along with idealism.  Woman in the nude is usually associated with sexuality. The convention Venus pudica is the modest Venus, you can see her trying to cover up her breast with her hands, and she is even using her hair to cover her genitalia. Her trying to cover herself up draws attention to her sexuality. In the painting you see Venus standing on a shell. She is standing with her legs slightly bent and this creates that weight shift which makes her look more naturalistic. She looks very naturalistic in her stance but her body still seems to have a great deal of perfection. Her hair also shows great perfection how it is blowing in the wind and its long and gold. Her golden hair sweeps gracefully over her body to hide her modesty.  Zephyr and the woman also show the idealism in the painting along with the waves and the roses, and leaves on the trees. The waves and the leaves are paint with such detail that they are more idealistic.

Early renaissance art has both naturalism and idealism, you can tell because everything looks so real but yet the people just look so perfect. Idealism came to play when people read the works of Plato. There are many works of art in the early renaissance that had balance, depth, harmony and perfection. As you can see in Botticelli’s painting the “Birth of Venus.”