The flow of arts and philosophical thought within a definite historical cut is rather strong and significant when looking at the previous background and following effects and reflection. The more mankind urged towards progress and the notion of relevant freedom in the expression of personal views and thoughts, the more developed the spheres in which it was involved and which influenced mankind much due to the aesthetic power and coloring in each of the most prominent epochs in the history of gradual elaboration of human beings. After many attempts of people in various countries to express their own concepts of viewpoints, some of them in the very beginning of the cultural and philosophical development, mainly in the ancient world, were criticized or killed. Others were not heard.
When theological affluence drew to a hand, many of the medieval creative philosophers and people of arts were persecuted for their informal way of thinking. Some of them are Giordano Bruno, Galileo, etc. Those dark times of the medieval period showed the impossibility of some ideas striving to be the dominant and rejecting sound-mindedness among a few luminaries at that time, followed by the era full of rebirth and genius approaches found in the works of multiple artists, sculptors, philosophers, etc. The Renaissance epoch shined over the world of dull and borrowing predominant ideologies. Now one capsule with extra information on art representatives of this period and further time, along with the examples of their works, is at disposal.
The Renaissance era is known for the painting works of Da Vinci, sculptures of Michelangelo, and other prominent people having left deep footsteps in the history of mankind due to their creative thinking and openness to nature and antiquity as the main source of impression.
Florence became the great center of quattrocento (15th-century) art and art theory. The artist began to emerge from the role of artisan to participate in the active current of intellectual pursuits. Together with early humanists, artists augmented their veneration of the purely celestial realm with an appreciation of all aspects of physical nature. (The Columbia Encyclopedia 40578)
It is not surprising to find in the capsule the fragments of Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” with its hoax in the extent of the picture. Da Vinci tended to express the beauty and mystery of the woman’s beauty throughout this work just to make people think more and more about it. First glimpses of it prove the genius approach of Leonardo, who implemented the new coloring and shaping in the manner of painting. This work of a genius pretends to demonstrate the global overview of the idea of subtext in the depiction of details. His art is reflected in the pop-art stream of Andy Warhol, who imitated the image of “Mona Lisa” in his works in the modern sense.
Another representative of this era but from England, not Italy, is, of course, a person who ornamented the literate word with fullness and naturalness of soul components as well as expression of life and vivid interpretations of it. Though another example from the capsule appeared to be William Shakespeare and one of their most known works of his, “Hamlet.”
Hamlet epitomizes a characteristic theme of early Renaissance humanism, the dignity of man when he celebrates the excellence of our nature in these terms: “What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals” (2.2.293-8). (Rhu 324)
The truth of Shakespeare’s plays and the manner of their representation, along with the emergence of concrete and picturesque decorations, projected the changes in the theatrical makeup. The literature “Hamlet,” in particular, stays as a wonderful example of the Renaissance flow. The influence of his literature and dramaturgy keeps a strict eye on the extent of antique influx when describing the emotional side of people’s characters. Nevertheless, another capsule is at hand. Supposedly it will present one with the following development of the creative thought. In fact, it concerns the Baroque era, which had many common things with that of the Renaissance.
Here comes one of the most favorite works by a Flemish representative of Baroque art, Rubens, known for ‘Minerva protects Pax from Mars (‘Peace and War’).’ This masterpiece of drawing art impresses by the lines and forms of the characters on the canvas and their magnificent floridity when introspecting the picture. “The Age of Rubens” will trace the origins and development of the prevailing styles and themes in Flemish Baroque art, specifically as they relate to the religious and secular concerns of the era.” (Wieseman 54) The influence of Rubens’s art was reflected in the further perception of artists in the streams of Impressionism and modern ones.
Accompanied by the works of Theodoor van Thulden, Martin Ryckaert, Willem van Herp and others, Rubens made a great contribution to the development of the Flemish side of the Baroque painting as one of the most peculiar examples serving to nurture the good motives in the humane attitudes of people towards each other.
Gathering the entire associations with the Baroque style, one cannot but admit the flow of the new stream in music. This sort of art in the seventeenth century was created by a complex of authors who maintained and well-shaped their innovative features of personal talent into the notion of classical music. Claudio Monteverdi was one of the most outstanding composers, whose opera ‘L’Orfeo’ pretends to be the impulse for the Italian new motives in music after a long period of monotony. His music, which appeared in the capsule as well, had a great influence on the further styles being the international and one that behaves to adhere to new techniques, forms, and expressions on the whole.
Most artifacts of the Baroque style are represented in the architectural matters, which are enclosed in the wholeness of details peculiar only to this era, and those people creating new images of beautiful architecture which, due to further evaluation by John Ruskin serves to teach people. What is more, Western Europe felt the major touch of the Baroque influx when discovering the marvelous buildings, which are rightly considered to be the treasury of mankind in the historical cut.
Many works of baroque architecture were executed on a colossal scale, incorporating aspects of urban planning and landscape architecture. This is most clearly seen in Bernini’s elliptical piazza in front of St. Peter’s in Rome or in the gardens, fountains, and palace at Versailles, designed by Louis Le Vau Jules Hardouin-Mansart, and André Le Nôtre. (The Columbia Encyclopedia 4384)
The architecture of Baroque and St. Peter’s Cathedral connected the quarrels and bygone struggle between the Catholic faith and the art taking place in the medieval period of mankind. Also, there are the whole cities designed in the way Baroque fundamentals treated. Among them are: Venice, St. Petersburg, Köln, etc.
Thus, making the estimation of further influence of the Renaissance and Baroque epochs in the development of creative thinking, one can definitely point out that these two streams gave a “fresh breath” to people after long years of stubbornness, drab and poor judgment within masses due to the official church. The representatives of these two eras are still well-known among contemporary people, and, in fact, their works made impacts on different spheres of a man’s life.
References
Baroque, in Art and Architecture. (2007). In The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Renaissance. (2007). In The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Rhu, L. F. (1998). Renewing the Renaissance and Its Literature. World and I, 13, 324.
Wieseman, M. E. (1993). Baroque Art in the Age of Rubens. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), 122, 54+.