Art History- Comparing Renaissance and Baroque art Essay

Art History- Comparing Renaissance and Baroque art - Essay Example The Virgin with the Canon van der Paele is an outstanding painting of Virgin Mary. In the painting, Jesus is sitting on Mary’s lap. Mary is not the only person represented in this painting, there are other significant persons. An interesting aspect of the painting is the articulate and accurate coloration. In general, the painting is more real, representative of life and provides immense detail. On the other hand, The Swing (1766) is a depiction of has guarding statues of the garden swing. In this drawing, the colors are muter and it is mainly characterized with some kind of darkness and shadowy effect. However, the darkness is non-sinister, but rather is a result of illumination effect of the trees that provide privacy to the two lovers in the painting. There is therefore a bright effect emanating from the tree breaks, from where the sun’s rays maneuvers its way to illuminate the woman who is wearing a pink dress which is one of the bright spots in the picture. The two paintings bear some level of similarity. Firstly, both represent a scene characterized by multiple persons. Van Eyck’s painting shows immense detail with regard to painting backgrounds just as much as is the case in Fragonard painting (Gardner and Kleiner 571). However, as much as the details in Fragonard paintings are substantial, they are much smaller and rather it is the leaves and trees that take much of the focus instead of the swinging lady. There is also some level of contrast in the paintings. While van Eyck’s painting is more serious, more religious and sacred.