The Renaissance Artists’ Understanding of Anatomy and Human Proportions and Their Application to Their Work

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-170-8_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

human proportions; artistic anatomy; Renaissance; humanism

Abstract

Inspired by humanist ideas and the spirit of scientific inquiry, Renaissance artists applied their knowledge of anatomy and perspective to painting. Through a combination of technical research and scientific experimentation, they sought to understand the immense potential of art. In their quest for beauty, artists were determined to explore the mysteries of the human body. They studied the proportions and harmony of the human body, looked to classical ideals for guidance, undertook extensive anatomical studies, applied perspective to their paintings and precisely defined the proportions and muscles of the human body. They studied not only the bones and muscles of the human body, but also the dynamic patterns of its proportions and forms, developing an anatomy suited to the needs of art, known as artistic anatomy. In this context, this paper explores the meaning behind the paintings of Renaissance artists by looking at their understanding of anatomy in their works as the main research question, thus gaining a deeper understanding of their innovative development of artistic anatomy. Their findings have been used in countless subsequent works of art and have informed and inspired contemporary painting and sculpture.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yanran Xu
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/31
TI  - The Renaissance Artists’ Understanding of Anatomy and Human Proportions and Their Application to Their Work
BT  - Proceedings of the  2023 5th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 49
EP  - 55
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-170-8_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-170-8_6
ID  - Xu2023
ER  -