When I first walked into this lecture, I had no idea what mimesis meant… But things quickly began to make sense. Mimesis is described as the representation or imitation of the real world in art and literature. It’s a very interesting concept to use when looking at Renaissance art, as this seems to have been the ideal goal of Renaissance artists. The lecture was very informative and detailed — one of my favorite aspects of the lecture was the description of Brunelleschi’s fresco is the Santa Maria Novella. Perspective is noted as one of the most important aspects of realistic and naturalistic art: “Perspective is indeed a symbolic form.” Even during short periods of artistic time, the usage of perspective greatly increased and improved. A Cimabue painting made during the 1280’s used a skewed image of perspective — are the stairs vertical or rounded? Only a short 30 years later, in 1310, Giotto painted a similar scene to that of Cimabue, and his use of color, depth, and perspective far surpassed Cimabue’s. The lecturer even says, “Giotto’s, if you will, is really an improvement.” His stairs are clearly rising vertically, and they are properly designed in a structural aspect. One of the most interesting pieces the lecturer spoke of was Lorenzetti’s “birth of the virgin” (1342) — he used the frame enclosing his 3 panel work as an aspect of the painting. The frame became the realistic 3 dimensional Church that enclosed his scene.