Crucifix Research Paper

During the Renaissance, many exquisite arts and inventions were created. This includes the famous statue, Crucifix, by Filippo Brunelleschi. Made in 1410, Crucifix reflects the numerous changes of the Renaissance, like symmetry and realism, through cleverly placed features giving the statue balance. The way the curve of the eyebrows and nose perfectly align with the belly button and big right toe seems to almost split the statue in two. Symmetry and balance were important back during the Renaissance because it made statues look realistic. Based off a real model, this statue made sure that the arms and legs were not too bent or stretched. This way, the statue looked natural and looked like a real unconscious person. These are only a few reasons
how Filippo Brunelleschi’s Crucifix reflects the numerous changes of the Renaissance.
Back in the 1400s, people didn’t have many tools to work with, this meant that painters and inventors had to get creative when creating art. Filippo Brunelleschi, the artist who created this piece, was very well known for architecture at that time. He was credited for creating many great works such as the great dome of the Florentine Cathedral. His style was very similar to Tuscan Romanesque, or the ancient Rome architectural style. He became inspired when he took a trip to Rome to study the ancient ruins. He later took a break from designing buildings and settled in for art. Made in Italy, this humongous, lifelike statue dubbed Crucifix measures a surprising 170 centimetres by 170 centimetres. With nothing but a few blades and axes, Filippo Brunelleschi managed to whittle away at a wooden block piece by piece. Unlike the other statues of the era, however, he did not carve a loincloth onto the statue but later added a real loincloth dipped in plaster. After he finished the carving, the colour was added through a process called polychroming. This is basically the practice of decorating architecture or art pieces, like sculptures or buildings, in multiple colours. The result is a now a famous statue currently residing in the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, Italy. This statue seemed to reflect the changing ways that art was created during the Renaissance because people were finding more efficient ways to get things done. An example would be the loin cloth. Instead of spending a couple more days manually carving a loin cloth, he just added a real one hardened with plaster. With techniques like these, artists were cleverly able to finish art quicker with no advanced tools.
Like many great art pieces, Crucifix is the perfect composition to display the changes of the Renaissance.
The statue depicts Jesus on a cross during his crucifixion, which is the killing of someone by nailing them to a cross. On the top of the cross, a slip of paper with the letters “INRI” can be seen. This is added because “INRI” is actually the initials for the Latin title that Pontius Pilate had written over the head of Jesus Christ on the cross. The actual meaning is “Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm” which translates to “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.” The initials are in Latin because Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire. Aside from the paper, Crucifix also displays the five holy wounds. In Christian tradition, this is the five piercing wounds that Jesus had to suffer through during his crucifixion. Four of the wounds consist of the two nails stuck through both of his hands and the one nail stuck through both feet. This counts as four wounds since both feet were pierced. The last wound is the one on his chest. This is here because his body was pierced by the holy lance to make sure he was dead. On Jesus’s head, a crown of thorns can be seen. This was added because the crown of thorns was put on Jesus’s head to mock him for being the “king of the Jews.” Jesus in the Crucifix reflects the changing style of art during the Renaissance because the artwork was mostly focused on his death. Unlike the late middle ages, Renaissance art often depicted
Jesus during his lifetime and focused mainly on his incarnation and transfiguration. This meant that art was mostly about his birth, life, and death. This way people could relate to him, creating a role model to follow.
Aside from being a wonderful art piece to see, Crucifix also has very deep symbolism.
In many ways, it represents the life and death of Jesus. The sacrifice that he had to make to cleanse the sins of humanity is clearly shown in the statue. The statue also seemingly reflects humanism because it displays Jesus dying; and during the Renaissance, artists were mostly depicting Jesus’s lifetime. This meant that Jesus was only a human and that everyone dies someday. With this in mind, many people stopped seeing the church and god as the measure of all things and started realizing that their activities were significant. Since Filippo Brunelleschi worked mainly for churches, he was somewhat influenced by Christianity. As the religion and art style changed, he was affected and started portraying humanism in his art. People during the Renaissance also started to be secularistic. That meant that people looked away from religion and stopped worrying about the afterlife. This showed more progress as people were working more freely to improve the world. The meaning and themes of Crucifix reflect the changing ideas and beliefs of the Renaissance period because it displayed humanism. Aside from that, it also encouraged secularism and individualism by showing that religion wasn’t everything and that god was only
human.
The Renaissance era was truly a magnificent time spouting multiple famous artworks and inventions. Among these, Crucifix reflected countless changes of the Renaissance through clever techniques, like realism and symmetry, as well as multiple beliefs passed on at the time, like humanism and individualism. This art piece is truly important because it helped set a standard for modern art today, and also helped convey the idea that religion wasn’t everything. It also helps give a little Christian backstory about how Christ sacrificed himself for the sins of humanity. This art piece is truly a masterpiece that cannot be recreated elsewhere.