The female form in the high renaissance.

Realism is a bond that continues from the early renaissance to the high renaissance. In the early renaissance the paintings gain technologically in thin layers of oil paints and glazes which cause depth but they also start to have backgrounds that add space, form, line, texture, the start to become about men and who they are where they come from. We begin to chart our family’s heritage with a portrait of each important member back to the beginning of human history in the eyes of the church and men. In the High renaissance there is more than just a flat portrait of the world and side views of men. There is the gained knowledge of the actual physical appearance of the female form and men and women gain a three dimensional appearance. From a side view portrait to a three quarter pose the artists are becoming more exposed to the true carnal knowledge of who we are and they begin to have a greater understanding of the physical form. It is striking how much knowledge is gained about the human body and the visual aspect of the female form. Knowledge and experience begin to bring humans to a closer view of the world around them and the gestures of who we are.

We begin to see just how little the artists may have know about the female form in one of the works of Michelangelo’s Figures of Day and Night on the tomb of Giuliano De’Medici (pg. 648). Here the breasts of the female figure are hard round masses with disfigured nipples that have been carved over the pectoral muscle of a male form. This gives them the appearance of being more of a tumor than a soft round mass that many of us in current times know so well. While from this extremely muscular figure that is very obviously that of a male we may have to chalk that up to the inability to get the church to allow for female models, or perhaps as it has been hinted he was no so into the females. However considering that we as humans have always had issues with the exposure of the female body to the eyes of men this would be the most likely explanation. After all how many of us still have relations in the dark?

Also there are many other works with more physically corrected images of the female form is toward the end of this chapter shows in a truer form in the Allegory with Venus and Cupid. Here we see the soft gentle curves of their bodies of Venus and her lover in sensual contact. While in the background we are confronted with the turbulences of love in the wake of desire. This suggests that the artist Bronzino was more experienced with and knowledgeable about the female form.  His models seemed to have been more relaxed and willing to be portrayed in their most intimate moments of tenderness.  The female figure in this work is a more visually accurate representation.

Finally, while it can be argued that the use is grouping, depth of field, the golden triangle, and layers of paint that give paintings the realism of sculpture are the greatest advances of the renaissance period as a whole I think that the most important advancement may have been the realistic portrayal of the female form. For the first time in the history of art women’s bodies were no longer a representation based off of the male ideal and carved as perceived by the artist. Instead they were based off of real women whom were portrayed as either the goddess mother Mary or as the sensual temptation that is brought to mind by the goddess Venus. Soft yielding females in comparison with the solid masculine forms pieced together from the nude male forms with vague ideas of the forms that should be beneath the cloth that covers.