Renaissance & Baroque Art

According to the lecture, humanism is a code of civil conduct and a theory of education, which teaches service to the states with no material reward a model for living not from religious dogma but for reason. I believe that humanism is the importance of being a human, their value and goodness. It also emphasizes human needs and finds ways of resolving situations. Humanism focuses on the individualism of humans. In the Crucifixion by Giotto he specifies their individuality by portraying the feellings and physical nature of the humans.To the left of the cross, is a group of soldiers debating on what shall happen to the clothes that was worn by Christ. On the right side is a righteous gathering. I noticed the emotional expressions on each of their faces which shows their personal inner thoughts and also Mary Magdelene crying at Jesus's feet. The skull beneath the cross depicts that they are in  Golgotha, "the place of the skull".

Some of the qualities of van Eyck's paintings are achieving an illusion of depth, directional light, mass, rich implied textures and the physical likeness of particular people. In most of his paintings he also uses symblism formality and vertical emphasis of the figures. In the painting the role of Mary is emphasiuzed by her royal crown being carried by the angel wearing blue. The color blue symbolizes the embodiment of heavenly grace. Mary is wearing red which symbolized the holy spirit among them keeping watch over them. On the right is Nicolas Rolin worshiping baby Jesus who is blessing him holding a globe which in this sense represents power over creation.

According to google, Baroque is relating to or denoting a style of European architecture , music, and art. it illustrated key elemenst of religious dogma in a biblical sense or in a mythilogical sense. Baroque art demonstrates great energy and feeling, and a dramatic use of light, scale, and balance.  In Rubens painting The Raising of The Cross, a light of divinity shines down on Christ's body showing that he depicted a religious subject. The way the body is set in this painting shows that it he was inspired by another artist like Michealangelo and in other ways Jan van Eyck. There is a high degree of realistic detail showing that the painiting is about ready to come to life. According to the reading, this visual dynamism, extending the action of the work into the viewer's space, marks the best Baroque painting. This means that the way he uses the styles and expresses the realism of this painting makes it great.