In yesterday’s class we discussed the issue of mimesis in Renaissance art. It was a very interesting conversation and two influential figures were Leonardo and Albrecht Dürer. At this point in the Renaissance, we see the exploration of nature and accurate renderings of the objects that were being captured. The interesting point that was mentioned with Albrecht and Leonardo was that Albrecht, like many Northern artists, were interested in a correct rendering of the image, a realistic representation and that being it. However, with Leonardo, we see a more ‘scholarly’ way of examining nature. This is confirmed by the various different areas he did study in. He studied the human body, biology, botany and many other things that he showcased in his drawings.
Mimesis was a new topic for me and it was a very different shift from much of the work we had seen earlier in the class and semester. As well as that, the different understanding of progress, progress being the ability to be more mimetic in the works. That was very interesting as it was a shift in what progress looks like and it seemed a bit less biased because we all have the understanding of what these things are like in real life.