A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Renaissance Art 69

Andrea Mantegna’s The Dead Christ (c. 1506), an example of

Renaissance treatment of perspective.

also contributed to innovative uses of space; for example, through the tech­
nique of foreshortening, artists proportionally contracted depth so as to give
the viewer the illusion of projection or extension into space. In his realistic
The Dead Christ (c. 1506), Andrea Mantegna (c. 1430-1506) utilized this
technique, which had been pioneered by Masaccio. This shortcut allowed
the artist to create the visual impression of a three-dimensional body on a
flat surface. Florentine artists, in particular, used perspective to develop high
relief and silhouette, presenting rounded figures on the canvas surface by
effective use of tones and shades.

This mastery of perspective by the naturalist painter Masaccio and, above
all, the sculptor Donatello (c. 1386-1466) helped Renaissance painters
choose difficult, complicated themes and treat them with a more complex
realism. Donatello utilized perspective to achieve dramatic action through
gradations of relief. In The Feast of Herod (c. 1417), sculpted in bronze for
the stone basin in the Siena Baptistery, Donatello captures the shocked
reaction of the king and guests as John the Baptist’s head is presented to
Herod. In Leonardo’s painting The Last Supper (c. 1495-1498), Christ’s
disciples crowd around the table. The viewer’s eye is drawn along the lines of
perspective of the ceiling to the central figure of Christ, whose image stands
out because it is framed by a large window. Leonardo identifies Judas, the
betrayer of Christ, not by leaving him without a halo nor by placing him
alone on the other side of the table from Christ, but by painting him as the
only figure in shadow.