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When we speak of the High Renaissance, most of us imagine the culmination of centuries of artistic growth in a grand era of aesthetic perfection. Actually, the High Renaissance (if you could even call it an era) only lasted for about 25 years, and produced only a small handful of artistic geniuses that didn't even adhere to a single style. But let's not trivialize their achievements........their efforts remain (500 years later) some of the most known and loved works of all time. If we had to assign a single most important contribution that this group of six (listed below) gave western art, it would be this: Rather than concentrating on, order, numerical ratios and linear perspective, this group of artists turned inward to explore new visual effects generated by their own creativity. In short, they unlocked and opened the doors to our ability to freely create, which, in the Medieval period, use to be the exclusive realm of God. From now on, the human experience is "fair game" to explore in marble and on canvas. |