The Meaning of the Renaissance Paintings
Art includes a wide variety of human activities including visual imagination, artistic beauty, creative skill, technical skill, or emotional strength to express particular personal or cultural values. People use art to beautify themselves and to enhance their experience of life. For example, paintings enhance the beauty of the environment by transforming an ordinary room into an extraordinary one. A well-made painting can make a simple room into an extraordinary one. Similarly, a beautiful creation can transform the ordinary office or school into a beautiful or inspiring place. In fact, art has become so important in our daily life that people nowadays value and emphasize artistic qualities in everything from architecture to clothing.
The definition of art is given in a concise Oxford dictionary as the application of arts and creative skills to produce a representation of the subject as perceived by the artist. The same definition also describes music, dance, sculpture, or drama. Each of these different areas of arts involves the application of skills such as art design, communication, and performance to bring out the subject’s unique attributes. Thus, all the different forms of art are produced in accordance with different aesthetics. The definition also implies that culture, society, and human interaction are included in the definition of art.
Leonardo da Vinci is known for his famous Mona Lisa that depicts the Virgin Mary holding the hand of Jesus. This famous painting has played an important role in propagating the idea that the Virgin Mary is the founder of the Christian faith. This painting in no way symbolizes how the Virgin Mary was perceived by the Renaissance, as many have argued. However, it can be safely assumed that the meaning of the painting had something to do with portraying the miracle of Jesus Christ on the Mona Lisa. The significance of this painting in spreading the belief that Mary is the founder of the Christian faith can be seen today in the numerous art works of contemporary artists who have adopted the Renaissance’s ideal of beauty as the basis of their artistic creations.
