Human Study of Leonardo da Vinci

Why Was The Human Figure So Important To Renaissance Art?

Written by:

Anita Louise Hummel

Date Post – Updated:

Many things influenced Renaissance artists, and one of the most important things that they were influenced by was the human body or human figure. This could be seen in the realism of their artistic work.

The human figure was significant to Renaissance artists and showed the realistic human form. The artists understood that to show the human form adequately, they needed to study it and understand it. The classical statues of Greek and Rome greatly influenced these Renaissance artists and their desire to depict the perfect human form.

Table of Contents

The Study Of The Human Figure And The Renaissance

We must examine Renaissance artists’ fascination with the human body when discussing them. The Italian Renaissance artists became anatomists by necessity as they attempted to create more realistic portrayals of the human figure.

This realism and the perfection of the human form drove and inspired the Renaissance artist. So it’s entirely by necessity that they also started to study anatomy by dissecting human bodies.

At the same time, these artists lived in a very restricted world where dissecting bodies was not highly regarded and could be punishable.

Leonardo da Vinci is said to have personally dissected over 30 human cadavers. He took a very scientific and systematic approach to studying the human body, writing everything down in his notebooks and sketching out what he found.

Another Renaissance artist, Michelangelo, also started to dissect human bodies at the age of 18. Like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he examined these bodies to become familiar with the anatomy of the female and male bodies.

Renaissance Unique Relationship Between Physicians and Artists

The Renaissance brought this unique relationship between the physician and the artist. The physician and the artist were interested in the human body and figure.

Artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were very interested in learning about the human figure for their art and often observed physicians at work. They did this as I wanted to learn about the muscle and bone structure and the body parts’ layers.

Many of these same physicians wanted to contract the artist to draw illustrations of the human body and what they were learning with their anatomy. The Gutenberg printing press was invented about 1440, which allowed books to be published, and among some of these books were medical journals that needed artist illustrations.

Many of these artists got involved in dissections of human cadavers to draw what was discovered and learn about the human body.

One of the most notable artists who contributed to medicine was Leonardo da Vinci and his work and discoveries about the human body that he wrote down in his many notebooks.

Greek And Roman Influences And Renaissance

The Renaissance artists, in a sense, continued where the Greek and Roman artists had left off with the study of the human form. The Greek and Roman artists believed in correct proportions of the human body as an essential part of their artistic study.

The Renaissance artists were influenced by the Greek and Roman artist and their attention to detail and realism of the human form. The classical Greek statue of Apollo Belvedere showed the perfect human form and the power of using muscles realistically.

The ancient Greek and Roman artists focused on the youthful bodies of people in the prime of life. Ancient sources show that these artists used these models to help them study the details of the body and the way it should look and move.

The Renaissance artists were not all influenced by the Greek and Roman artists and their detail and realism of the human body, but they also saw themselves as scientists. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci contributed to medicine.

Leonardo da Vinci seems to have spent far more time in his scientific discoveries than as an actual artist. He left us his scientific notebooks but not many works of art.

Leonardo da Vinci was the first to dissect a female body to understand how a fetus grows within the body.

Leonardo was very methodical and organized in his anatomy and the human body. His contribution to medicine and science can never be underestimated.

The Renaissance artists saw themselves as more than manual labor to make a statue or paint a mural on the wall. These artists saw themselves as professionals who based their work on science, math, and anatomy.

The Renaissance artists understood that their scientific intellect mattered just as much as their artistic hands.

We owe much of our understanding of the human body to these early Renaissance artists. They were organized in their study, showing how seriously these Renaissance artists took their work to learn about the human body, discover more about it, and draw out realistic portrayals.

These Renaissance artists took their work to learn about the human body and then painted realistic paintings as part of their art. For them, the study of the human figure was critical.

Anita Louise Art is dedicated to art education, great artists, and inspiring others to find and create their art. We love art that uplifts and inspires. #ArtToMakeYouSmile! #ArtToMakeYouHappy!

If you are interested in seeing any of my art, you can find out more by clicking here. If you are interested in what inspires me and my paintings, you can discover more by clicking here.

We have a free newsletter and would love you to be part of our community; you can subscribe to the newsletter by clicking here. If you have any questions, I would be happy to talk to you at any time. You can reach me, Anita, by clicking here.

Subscribe to our Anita Louise Art YouTube Channel filled with great videos and information by clicking here.

Join us for our podcast “5 Minutes With Art.” Spend 5 minutes a week with us to discover and learn about great art and artists. You can find out more about our podcast by clicking here.

British Renaissance Artists And Art

The Renaissance in Britain, known as the English Renaissance, took place from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It took place later than the Italian Renaissance. It was also a complicated renaissance movement, and paintings were not emphasized as much as music and literature. One of the famous artworks that did come out of this era was portrait miniatures.

By clicking here, you can learn more by reading British Renaissance Artists And Art.

Greek And Rome Influence On Renaissance Art

The Renaissance, as a period of rebirth, was greatly influenced by the classical ancient art of Greece and Rome. During this period, many of these works of art were also rediscovered, which led to the discovery of realism, symmetry, and harmony in the arts. Greek and Roman art also influenced the subject matter of many of the Renaissance artists.

By clicking here, you can learn more by reading Greek And Rome Influence On Renaissance Art.

Anita Louise Hummel
Follow Me
Latest posts by Anita Louise Hummel (see all)

Anita Louise Hummel

, , ,