The Virgin and Child with St. Melissa

face model: Melissa Mendes

aperture: f/4.5

shutter: 1/50

ISO speed: 200

camera: Sony SLT-A33

The painting from the Renaissance I chose to Photoshop my friend Melissa’s face into, was The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Vinci, Italy, on April 15, 1452. The first four years of his life were spent in a small village near Vinci with his mother, Caterina. After 1457, he lived in his father's family, which soon moved to Florence. Leonardo became an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio at the age of 15, until 1480. His first known work, which he painted as an assistant, is the angel, kneeling on the left of the Verrocchio's picture The Baptism of Christ (c.1472-1475). Verrocchio, it is said, was so impressed by the implications of his pupil's genius that he gave up painting.By the age of 20, he qualified as a master artist in the Guild of St. Luke and established his own workshop. Leonardo’s most well-known painting, arguably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, was a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507.

Leonardo has been called a genius and the archetypal Renaissance man, as his talents extended far beyond his artistic works. Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, he did not see a divide between science and art, as he drew some of the first body structure drawings on record, such as a fetus in utero, the heart and vascular system, sex organs, and other bone and muscular structures. His observations and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, including designs for flying machines, plant studies, war machinery, anatomy and architecture. His ideas were mainly theoretical explanations, and were rarely experimental, as they were laid out in exacting detail. One of his last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies. 

The virgin and child with St. Anne is an oil painting on wood, measuring 168x130 cm, by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1510. The original is currently located at Musee de Louvre, Paris. This painting shows St. Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus Christ. Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion whilst the Virgin tries to restrain him.  The painting was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, with its theme keeping Leonardo preoccupied for a long time. Leonardo first explored the topic of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne around about 1498.

Renaissance Changing Art

The meaning of the time period “Renaissance” is rebirth. The Renaissance occurred during the 14^th and 17^th centuries. The artists of the Renaissance looked back to those before them while incorporating a greater sense of light and color through new mediums. This time period’s artistic movement was the most contributed to development of art as a whole. Prior to the renaissance, the paintings appeared flat and lacked luster, with subjects lacking depth and perspective and religious in nature. Artists had the same position in society as any other skilled craftsmen and were given as much respect as carpenters and goldsmiths. The Renaissance was the beginning to a new interest in Greek and Roman culture, which led to and explosion in knowledge about the human for along with innovations in mathematics and science. All creations of God and the human form in particular, were suddenly respected as a testament to God’s great power and perfection. The nude human form, linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, and a new found interest in observing the natural world represent the movement of the creations. Artists of the Renaissance were elevated in social status, and their works were viewed as miraculous creations that were greatly inspired, rather than looked upon as crafts.