Renaissance Depictions of the Crucifixion.

Renaissance Depictions of the Crucifixion

The Renaissance was known as a period of revival or rebirth of cultural awareness and learning that took place during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and, perhaps most of all, as an era of the individual. During the Renaissance, art was a branch of knowledge - a way to showcase God and his creations, science, anatomy, discoveries and to inspire people to take pleasure in the world around them. Christian art during this period was produced to enhance the worship of saintly figures by church patrons. Paintings were used, not only to tell biblical stories, but to form an emotional connection between patrons and the church. Artists during this period strived to portray events of religious importance with high drama to make a lasting impression. One such event was the crucifixion of Christ, a subject dealt with by many Renaissance artists.

One of these artists, Tommaso di Ser Giovanni de Simone Guide Cassai, better known as Masaccio, was perhaps the first great painter of the Italian renaissance. His innovations in the use of scientific perspective inaugurated the modern era in painting. Born in San Giovanni Valdarno on December, 21, 1401, Masaccio was, to quote Libero de Liberi "the youngest of all painters who were young before, during and after him who, in his few youthful years, worked the miracle of awakening in painting, breathing life into it at least real and earthy, an urgency it had never had before." Because he created a turning point in the history of painting with his own work and because he was later followed by numerous painters of great distinction, Masaccio is almost unanimously considered to be the "founder of renaissance art".

Renaissance Depictions of the Crucifixion3

One of Masaccio's most famous works is The Trinity, which was painted...