The Dialectic of Religious Image and Expression in Medieval and Renaissance Paintings

Abstract

This research is concerned with studying (the dialectic of religious image and expression between medieval and Renaissance paintings), and it includes four chapters. The first chapter is devoted to explaining the research problem, its importance, the need for it, its goal and its limits, and then defining the most important terms contained therein. The problem of the current research ended with the following question: Does the idea of ​​the dialectic of religious image and expression in artistic achievement between medieval and Renaissance paintings reflect the inner life of the painter and his philosophical ideas or religious beliefs or by the mechanisms of artistic treatment in itself ?

The importance of the current research and the need for it are evident in the fact that it represents an attempt to investigate the dialectic of image and expression between medieval and Renaissance paintings. The research reveals a vital aspect of the artistic heritage, based on the specific philosophical data and premises (for the Middle Ages) and (the Renaissance). The current research also reveals or removes an important aspect of the creative values ​​between the paintings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The current study also aims to know the dialectic of the religious image and expression between the paintings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is determined by studying the dialectic of religious image and expression between medieval and Renaissance paintings executed with different materials and on different materials and for historical periods:

1. The Middle Ages (Byzantine - Romanesque - Gothic) and for the period (1000 AD - 1400 AD).
2. The European Renaissance (the Golden Baroque Renaissance) for the period (1400-1700 AD).

The most important terms included in the research were reviewed and defined procedurally, namely (dialectic, image, religious and expression). The second chapter included the theoretical framework in two sections. The first section dealt with three axes. The first axis focused on the nature of the image between philosophy and art. The second axis included the concept of expression between art and significance, while the third axis included the significance of the image and expression between artistic elements and organizational foundations. The third chapter included the research procedures, including the research community and its sample, the nature of the method and the tool adopted in the analysis, and then the analysis of the research sample models; (8) artistic paintings. Moreover, the fourth chapter is devoted to research results, conclusions, recommendations and suggestions.

The most important findings of the research are:

• The Middle Ages and the Renaissance are two completely different eras, philosophically, artistically, aesthetically and socially, and this is clear in the research sample.
• The religious image in the Middle Ages had a spiritual orientation, so the image was static and devoid of vitality, as in model (1), (3), (5), while in the Renaissance era, the religious image took a dynamic and flexible direction due to philosophical influences with a human dimension, as in model (2), (4), (6), (8 ).

The research is brought to its conclusion by stating that:

The significance of the religious image in the Middle Ages was not primarily aesthetic, but rather had a guiding social and educational function to influence the sensory and intellectual impressions of the society, while we see in the Renaissance that the religious image bears a dual connotation that mixes between what is aesthetic by focusing on the aesthetics of the human body as a supreme value first, in addition to broadcasting the expressive values ​​of the Christianity secondly.