Art is the Solution

Lamentation over the Dead Christ Source: Pinacoteca di Brera While the Renaissance is probably the most famous artistic movement in the Western world, it’s far from my favorite. I tend to prefer stranger, more dramatic art, whereas the art of the Renaissance tends to exude an air of calm, unemotional serenity. Lamentation over the Dead Christ , however, is different. Although the painting dates to the Renaissance period, it doesn’t really look like a typical piece of Renaissance art. First of all, it is quite an emotional painting (which, as I noted above, is not typical for the Renaissance period). The extreme foreshortening of Christ’s body is designed for maximum visual impact. Christ’s evident deadness contributes to this phenomenon. It is very obvious that the artist Andrea Mantegna based his depiction of Christ on first hand observation. He depicts rigor mortis, the grayish tint of the skin, and the strangely bloodless wounds with an almost frightening degree of accuracy. It’s...