Although both paintings portray the same concept, Cimabue’s Virgin and Child Enthroned, and Raphael’s The Madonna of the Meadows are vastly different. This is because of the different styles, and the different ways of thinking of the two time periods. Obviously these two paintings are portraying the same Christian religious subjects, Mary and the Christ Child. One very noticeable difference is the setting of the two paintings. Cimabue places Mary and Christ on a throne, with several angels surrounding them, with a gold leaf background, during this time period the gold background would have symbolized divinity, which displays the spirituality of the time. While Cimabue places Mary and Christ in heaven, on a throne, Raphael places them in a
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Virgin and Child Enthroned was painted in the Thirteenth Century, or the Gothic Era, the artists of this time period borrowed from the Byzantine style which included, gold backgrounds, flat disc haloes, and very little to no depth. Due to this, Virgin and Child Enthroned is not really naturalistic, it’s almost stylized. The depth that is shown in Cimabue’s painting, is shown through overlapping figures, and vertical perspective, which makes the angels seem as if they are floating, instead of being planted on the ground. In contrast, Raphael uses chiaroscuro, and atmospheric perspective to create depth. Chiaroscuro, is the shading of forms to give them volume, or depth, and atmospheric perspective is used in landscapes to create the illusion of distance, by having things in the distance being blurred, and lighter, with less contrast. These two techniques give and incredible sense of naturalism to The Madonna of the Meadow and other Renaissance paintings. Linear perspective is another technique used in the Renaissance to show depth, by using diagonals which converge at a vanishing point. The art produced during the Renaissance was fueled by the revival of Greek classical style, which revolved around naturalism, and the belief of …show more content…
Virgin and Child Enthroned, was painted in the Thirteenth century, at time that everything was explained through the church, and peoples spirituality, were incredibly important. So in Thirteenth Century paintings, the holy figures were meant to make you feel small, they even painted Christ as a small man, to respect his role. This way of thinking was extinguished when the plague hit, and afterwards, people started to focus on things other than the church, the human experience. Thus there was a revival of ancient philosophy, and art of the Greeks and Romans. Humanism, a philosophy surrounding the human experience, and the beauty of earth, influenced Renaissance art. This is why Raphael paints Mary and Christ on earth, wearing clothes of the time period making them seem no different than the people of the time. He depicts Christ as an actual child, and none of the figures have haloes, and there is no need for a golden throne, because of the belief that divinity is all around in nature. All of these things aid in making The Madonna of the Meadow, and other Renaissance paintings
Virgin and Child Enthroned was painted in the Thirteenth Century, or the Gothic Era, the artists of this time period borrowed from the Byzantine style which included, gold backgrounds, flat disc haloes, and very little to no depth. Due to this, Virgin and Child Enthroned is not really naturalistic, it’s almost stylized. The depth that is shown in Cimabue’s painting, is shown through overlapping figures, and vertical perspective, which makes the angels seem as if they are floating, instead of being planted on the ground. In contrast, Raphael uses chiaroscuro, and atmospheric perspective to create depth. Chiaroscuro, is the shading of forms to give them volume, or depth, and atmospheric perspective is used in landscapes to create the illusion of distance, by having things in the distance being blurred, and lighter, with less contrast. These two techniques give and incredible sense of naturalism to The Madonna of the Meadow and other Renaissance paintings. Linear perspective is another technique used in the Renaissance to show depth, by using diagonals which converge at a vanishing point. The art produced during the Renaissance was fueled by the revival of Greek classical style, which revolved around naturalism, and the belief of …show more content…
Virgin and Child Enthroned, was painted in the Thirteenth century, at time that everything was explained through the church, and peoples spirituality, were incredibly important. So in Thirteenth Century paintings, the holy figures were meant to make you feel small, they even painted Christ as a small man, to respect his role. This way of thinking was extinguished when the plague hit, and afterwards, people started to focus on things other than the church, the human experience. Thus there was a revival of ancient philosophy, and art of the Greeks and Romans. Humanism, a philosophy surrounding the human experience, and the beauty of earth, influenced Renaissance art. This is why Raphael paints Mary and Christ on earth, wearing clothes of the time period making them seem no different than the people of the time. He depicts Christ as an actual child, and none of the figures have haloes, and there is no need for a golden throne, because of the belief that divinity is all around in nature. All of these things aid in making The Madonna of the Meadow, and other Renaissance paintings