Renaissance! Can it be beat?

The art from the Renaissance was like no other era and completely put to shame the flat, unrealistic art from the earlier eras. The Renaissance artist developed techniques that earlier artist were barely scrapping the surface of, for example: rules of perspective, correct shadowing, and realistic anatomy. The artists in Renaissance are not just artist but more jacks of all trades or the correct term would be “Renaissance Man”. With the spread of Humanism came the desire of knowledge and not just in one field but in several. Today we are lucky if we can master on field and build a career out of it. Before the printing press knowledge, reading, and education was only for the few rich elite. The Renaissance or rebirth was really like they were seeing the world in a different light for the first time. The Masters are truly masters because they developed the techniques that art students are still being taught to this day. I think that I have a love-hate type of relationship with Renaissance art. I love the extreme detail that the artist put into their paintings, the extravagant spaces that they were commissioned to paint and did with such success that I am learning it about over and over again. I don’t care if they used lenses to trace the objects they still had to turn that loose trace into the amazingly detailed work of art that we study today. But with that said I also hate it. In a way I hate the fact that we have this standard that artist are suppose to live up to be considered “Masters”. When I see the some of the art pieces I get overwhelmed with the talent and detail that it makes me not even what to paint at times. Then I realize that yes they had an amazing amount of raw talent, they also had no television or internet, which consumes so much of our lives now days. I also hate that most of the artist in the Renaissance era didn’t just paint what they felt to be true, or important to themselves but compromised some of there art for the ego of the church or whoever was commissioning the painting. Take Botticelli for example; because of one persons opinion he became ashamed of his painting and actually burned some of his art. Art is Art! Why paint if you can’t do it for your own believes? Why follow the corrupt politics of it all? Everybody sees the world in a different light and without artist life would be a boring and ordinary place. One question. Renaissance! Can it be beat? Has it been beat?