Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The surface detail is extraordinary, but the painting lacks true Renaissance depth. The
tiny room looks unnaturally narrow, cramped, and claustrophobic.
In medieval times (this was painted only a generation after
The Wilton Diptych
),
everyone could read the hidden meaning of certain symbols—the chandelier with its one
lit candle (love), the fruit on the windowsill (fertility), the dangling whisk broom (the wo-
man's domestic responsibilities), and the terrier (Fido—fidelity).
By the way, the woman likely is not pregnant. The fashion of the day was to gather up
the folds of one's extremely full-skirted dress. At least, that's what they told her parents.
• Return to Room 55, turn left into Room 57, and enter the...
The Renaissance—or “rebirth” of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome—was a cultural
boom that changed people's thinking about every aspect of life. In politics, it meant demo-
cracy. In religion, it meant a move away from Church dominance and toward the assertion
of man (humanism) and a more personal faith. Science and secular learning were revived
after centuries of superstition and ignorance. In architecture, it was a return to the balanced
columns and domes of Greece and Rome.
In painting, the Renaissance meant realism. Artists rediscovered the beauty of nature
and the human body. With pictures of beautiful people in harmonious, 3-D surroundings,
they expressed the optimism and confidence of this new age.
Leonardo—
The Virgin of the Rocks
(c. 1491-1508)
In this painting, Mary, the mother of Jesus, plays with her son and little Johnny the Baptist
(with cross, at left) while an androgynous angel looks on. Leonardo brings this holy scene
right down to earth by setting it among rocks, stalactites, water, and flowering plants. But
looking closer, we see that Leonardo has deliberately posed his people into a pyramid
shape, with Mary's head at the peak, creating an oasis of maternal stability and serenity
amid the hard rock of the earth. Leonardo, who was born illegitimate, may have sought in
his art the young mother he never knew. Freud thought so.
