ARTIFACT GALLERY

Medieval-2020 Art

QUESTION OF THE DAY

How did worldview change from Pre-Renaissance to 2020?

How do artifacts reflect their culture?

PAGES

Pre-Renaissance
Renaissance
Reformation
Enlightenment
2020 Art

PRE-RENAISSANCE

Worldview

People are followers of God, sinful
Dependent upon God, asking for mercy
Serving God (going to church, praying, giving money to church)
Authority of truth - God, king

Artifact Analysis

<Madonna of Milk>

During the period of Pre-Renaissance, most of the paintings that were drawn are portraits of Madonna (Jesus' mother) and baby Jesus. This is because people during Pre-Renaissance thought they are sinners and they need to be saved by God. Also, they thought God is the authority of truth and the most powerful existence. Therefore, a lot of artists drew portraits of Jesus and his mother. Also, we can see from the artifact that baby Jesus' face that the face of Jesus looks like a middle-aged man. This is because of people's belief that Jesus is fully-developed even when he was just born.

RENAISSANCE

Worldview

People are awesome, valuable

People are rational

People are capable of learning

Authority of truth - Humanist ideas, Greek and Roman

Artifact Analysis

<Birth of Venus>, <David>, <School of Athens>, <Mona Lisa>, <Triumph of the Virtues>

First of all, all of these 5 paintings are reflecting the culture and worldview of the Renaissance that people are awesome. We can this in these paintings because all of them has humanist ideas in them. They all depicted humans as beautiful existence and they drew humans with good detail, which showed that humans are valuable.

Also, if we look at each art closer, we can see that most of the paintings used an art technique called perspective, which helps to make artwork more three-dimensional. We can see this in the 4 paintings as we can see the paintings seem real because the background seems really getting far. One of the most important ideas during the Renaissance was humanism which values humans. This idea is well-shown in the artifact because all of them depicted humans' body with good details.

REFORMATION

Worldview

People are sinners created in God's image
People are in need of salvation through God
People can serve God by hardworking
Authority of truth - God, God's world (Bible)

Artifact Analysis

<Woman Holding Balance>

People during the period of Reformation believed they are sinners (like Pre-Renaissance) but they thought the only way to reach out to God is reading Bible, and by trying their best at their jobs. Therefore, a lot of Reformation artists drew people doing their ordinary jobs in their daily life. Another famous reformation art is 'The Peasant'. This artwork is also describing people's ordinary life. From that, we can know the view of people during the Reformation created a big impact on Reformation arts.

Also, from this picture, we can know that this woman is just a woman, not God or religious figures. This is another characteristic of Reformation paintings. They didn't use many religious figures even though they still believed God was the most important existence in the world and people should be saved through God.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Worldview

Sought for a scientific way to solve problems

Deism: God created the world, but not intervene in world

Rationalism: only what can be proven is true

Naturalism: physical world is all that exists

Individualism: individual and their rights matter more than those in groups

Progress: man, discovering and following laws of society can perfect society

Artifact Analysis

<A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery>

During the period of the Enlightenment, people didn't rely on God as much as did during the Pre-Renaissance and Renaissance. Instead of relying on God, they believed that things that can be proven logically are only the truth and physical world is something that only exists.

By understanding concepts of Deism, rationalism, naturalism, individualism, and progress, we can know that something like science flourished during the period of Enlightenment.

2020 ART

Worldview

As society developed and people got their freedom of religion, the idea of relying on God and asking for mercy didn't flourish a lot. Also, since a major event, COVID-19 occurred during 2020, there was something called mask art in 2020.

Artifact Analysis

<Mask Art>

As we know, a disease called COVID-19 stroke the world in 2020. In 2020, May 21th, this contest of mask art started. In 2020, people had to wear masks in order to avoid being infected by the virus. Therefore, people during 2020 started a contest where they can design a mask in order to overcome this pandemic more easily.

COMPARISON

Comparison & Summary

Pre-Renaissance

Worldview: people are sinners, God is the authority for truth

Artifact: they drew portraits of Jesus and his mother, Madonna, and depicted baby Jesus' face as a middle-aged man.

Reformation

Worldview: people are again sinners created in God's image, Bible is the authority for truth

Artifact: since people believed they can be saved and they can glorify God by doing their jobs, artists drew people doing their ordinary jobs.

2020 Art

Worldview: freedom of religion, COVID-19

Artifact: since people in 2020 should wear mask in order to avoid the virus, people drew things on the mask in order to overcome the pandemic more easily.

Renaissance

Worldview: people are awesome, God is still authority for truth

Artifact: they still drew religious figures. They also used a technique called perspective and they drew humans beautifully and depicted humans' bodies with good details.

Enlightenment

Worldview: sought for a scientific reason to solve a problem, and science is authority for truth

Artifact: since people believed only thing that can be proven is the truth, artist drew something that is real, such as scientific objects.