Art And The Renaissance

The Renaissance was a revival of education, art, architecture, and the overall well being and importance of humans. This was a time where new ideas were spread due to the invention of the printing press and the new stress on Humanistic Education. It began in fourteenth century Italy, and was called the “age of accelerated change.” (Sherman, 292) This was a huge change in comparison from the time period that Europe had just left behind. The Middle Ages were a dark time that was filled with sickness, serfdom, and an overwhelming lack of culture. In contrast the Renaissance was a place that was filled with culture, specifically, the Italian art from this period is still renowned today in museums like the Louvre and the Musee d 'Orsay. Some of …show more content…
A patron was a person who had the money and chose to support and artist or an scholar. In this case many chose to support artists. This system was a way for both the buyer and the artist to move up in the economic world. The artists would be paid to paint what the patron asked for and the patron would have a new beautiful piece of art that they could use to display their wealth. For all people this was a form of social mobility (Sherman, 296). One well known patron was Isabella d’Este. Isabella was a daughter of a duke, she was lucky enough to be a woman who was supplied a good education and was able to use it in a more public way. After her arranged marriage she became involved in diplomacy and helping her husband run the State. Isabella worked at great lengths to acquire a painting from Leonardo da Vinci. Isabella is a prime example of a noble person who wanted to increase their life by supporting the “right” artists. In her letter, Isabella almost begs Da Vinci to paint something for her and makes it very clear that she is willing to pay a large amount of money for the painting. “If you will consent to gratify this our great desire, remember that apart from the payment, which you shall fix yourself, we shall remain so deeply obliged to you that our sole desire will be to do what you wish…” (Sherman, Document 10.1). Overall the patron system was a major player in the increase of art and the respect …show more content…
They were also often upper or middle class children. The reason why lower class children were not selected to be artist was because of the fact that even though social mobility existed, it was not present enough for it to be reasonable for a lower class boy to pursue the arts. The art supplies were expensive, and without knowing the right people gaining an apprenticeship would be very difficult. In another case of social connections without the support of a patron the lower class artist would take on the title of a starving artist quite literally. The middle and upper class children were often shipped to become an apprentice to an artisan. One artist was Sandro Botticelli, who was most famous for his painting The Birth of Venus. By the age of 13 the young boy was working as an apprentice, this was a right of passage for the young men and the future artists were finding their place in the world. Another artist who was an apprentice was Michelangelo who is most famous for his painting of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was later in life referred to as The Divine One (Sherman, 309). Women on the other hand were not always supported if they wanted to become artists. Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana were exceptions to this, they each had support from their fathers who were either wealthy aristocrats, as they were in Anguissola’s case, or they were artisans, as they were in