Medieval artists didn't pay much attention to detail or making their paintings look very realistic. This is why they can often look like cartoons. This picture of Madonna and Child clearly depicts that. It lacks light, detail and a background. The picture also includes a light halo around the heads and no background. Medieval paintings often depicted religious events and figures and rarely anything else. Later in the Renaissance people paid more attention to light and shadows, detail, backgrounds and painting less religious content, such as Pagan events and figures.
There's your Medieval art lesson for today.
Also they weren't very skilled in anatomy yet, so they didn't really know the proportional/anatomical differences between a baby's and adult's body. It was the Renaissance artists who started observing the human body. Well, they pretty much observed EVERYTHING in Renaissance, which is why most of sciences and arts developed rapidly back then.
Da Vinci mapped out the proportions with his sketch of "The Golden Ratio." Oh the stuff i learn in world history. At least it helps me seem smart on Funsubstance :D
This is also why sculptures by Michelangelo are so detailed and life like. However, in "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, Venus isn't very proportional which is interesting for his time period. Also in "La Primavera", Venus has a halo (a medieval symbol, but usually only meant for Christian figures)
There's your Medieval art lesson for today.
This is also why sculptures by Michelangelo are so detailed and life like. However, in "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli, Venus isn't very proportional which is interesting for his time period. Also in "La Primavera", Venus has a halo (a medieval symbol, but usually only meant for Christian figures)