Mike Fallon

Mrs. Lucarelli
Honors Modern World Perspectives
15 January 2016
I chose to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Within the museum
there were galleries full of Renaissance art, where I took pictures of three paintings that I felt
expressed the values and characteristics of Renaissance art. The paintings I chose were
Madonna and Child by Filipino Lippi, Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement Filippo
Lippi, and The Birth of the Virgin by Fra Carnevale.
The first painting I chose was Madonna and Child. First, Jesus can be shown naked,
which is an example of realism and this would frowned upon during the middle ages. This shows
how people and artists during the Renaissance were more free with their body. Next,
perspective is used in the background, which makes the background looks like it gets smaller
and smaller until it finally disappears. Also, shading is used in the window, arches, Madonnas
clothes and the lamp, this creates a realistic 3d effect. Finally, the halos are faded because
during the Renaissance people started to portray saints more as real people. Also, this can be
seen as an early Renaissance painting because in later Renaissance halos completely
disappeared.
The next painting I chose was The Birth of the Virgin. To start off, Greco-Roman
influence can be found throughout the architecture, from the arches to the sculptures at the top.
Arches were first created during the Classical Ages and perfected during the Renaissance.

Carnevale designed his painting after a Renaissance architect named Leon Battista Alberti, who
known for designing the Santa Maria Novella and the Faade of Palazzo Rucellai. Also,
Carnevale used geometric shapes and perspective to really bring this painting alive. In the
background St. Anne can be seen laying on a table waiting to be prepped, in the middle ground
the Virgin is being washed, and in the foreground elegant women are bringing gifts to the
newborn. Carnevale uses perspective by making each individual grow smaller the farther back
they go, for example St. Anne is the smallest and the elegant women are the largest. Finally,
realism can be found in the Virgin because the Virgin is naked and shown as a baby.
Finally, I chose Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement. This painting is one of
the biggest European landmark paintings because it was the first double portrait, first portrait
that the sitters are located in the interior and the first portrait with a view onto a landscape from
the interior in Italian Art. The couple is thought to be Ranieri Scolari and Angiola di Bernardo
Sapiti. Individualism is present in this painting because it focuses on the couple rather than a
religious scene. This portrait also shows the couple in profile, which was very common during
the Renaissance. Next, shading is used on the vale, window, and clothing, which makes it look
more realistic. Lastly, the man casts a shadow onto the window, which is an example of realism.