Dormition of the virgin

I chose to write about the Dormition of the virgin, by an unknown Bohemian artist because it clearly demonstrates the evolution of perspective. It was painted around 1350-1360, which puts it towards the beginnings of the renaissance. If you examine the painting you can still the two dimensionality of the medieval painters in the people; while seeing the new advancements of perspective and the figure ground.

Being on the cutting edge of anything you take from what you have and you push the boundaries. The artist tries this with his representation of people. They are still as a whole two dimensionally drawn, but they all have hints of shape to the face. Also a major advancement is that people are become expressionistic.

The perspective/axonometric is the part that draws me in the most. If you look at the ceiling you can clearly tell that the artist is trying to give depth and a three dimensionality to the space. Looking closely at the painting it seems almost axonometric rather than perspective, which to me shows the evolution of the though. They knew that object were moving away from the viewer but they didn’t know how to show that in a diminishing fashion, so what they did was they took the forward measurement and then replicated that at the rear of the painting.

I personally like this painting a lot due to the fact that this is a freeze frame in time. Commonly people look at either medieval or high renaissance paintings and they do not take the time and look at the missing links between the two; which are the ones that I like the most. The in between paintings show the artists who are pushing the limits if what is possible at the time, and this process and evolution is what I like.