The Renaissance era

Graphic design contains many effects on the past art movements. The Renaissance era took place primarily the late 15th century and early 16th century and contained a realistic notion that is prevalent today.

This era contained many influential artists, one being Leonardo de Vinci. According to the Museum of Science, “Leonardo believed that the artist must know not just the rules of perspective, but all the laws of nature. The eye, he believed, was the perfect instrument for learning these laws, and the artist the perfect person to illustrate them.”

According to Connolly, this meaning that even in the days of the 16th century, some artists were developing skills that are present today. da Vinci, being a perfectionist, believed that people should appear realistic in nature and apparent in art. His fascination with anatomy emerged in his realistic paintings, and his dissections of the human body paved the way for remarkably accurate figures. da Vinci was the first artist to study and accurately present the physical proportions of men, women and children. In contrast to his contemporaries — Michelangelo for example — da Vinci didn’t portray people with unrealistic muscular bodies.

Michelangelo’s famous work consists of the statue of David and The Creation of Man painting, which is a fragment of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. His style is seen largely in sculpture and in the Sistine Chapel. He saw the notion of nature as an enemy that needed to be overcome. He felt the need for figures to appear forceful and dynamic, Cole states.

Europe, as a whole, during the Renaissance era was in a transitional period. Johann Gutenberg refined a press that reformed communication, and some say that he primarily created the notion of mass media with his technology that allowed for the middle class to purchase publications (Ryan).

Renaissance artists inspired generations of creativity through their experimentations that hadn’t been seen before.