Faces and Eyes

Early renaissance paintings and sculptures

People often wonder about the messages being conveyed by the facial expressions of people and animals depicted in paintings and sculptures from the early Renaissance period. While visiting some wonderful museum collections of this period, we see few visitors stopping to discover the multitude of expressions of humans and animals that found their way into the art.

Fantastic imaginations possessed by the artists produced even the most minute details in the vast variety of illuminated manuscripts. Insects, plants, animals, floors and so many other elements form part of these wonderful compositions.

We find that many animals, at least those large enough to clearly show their eyes and faces, are given distinctive human expressions. We find a tear coming down from a horse’s eye that emphasizes the sadness of an event scenes. We find the curious eyes of any person on a sculpture that includes the Virgin Mary. Almost as if someone from streets of a village suddenly found himself or herself thrust into such an immensely important religious moment. There is also human banality, human joy at the misfortune, torture, and execution of others. There is the depiction of great magnanimity, and there are also horrendous scenes.

The vast majority of these paintings and sculptures deal with religious themes. Large paintings, frescoes, altars (both fixed and folding}, sculptures, tapestries and metalwork, all incorporate what seems to be regular people from everyday life. The fact that learning and access to tools such as books and manuscripts were limited to the very few who could read Latin and had the means to acq u i re extremely expensive books had а great deal to do with this, sometimes, crowded iconography.