The Period When Classical Artwork Transitioned From 2 Dimensions (2D) to 3 Dimensions (3D)

Art broke away from being two dimensional caricatures with the invention of the camera obscura which had the painter sit in a dark room, with the window blocked out with a small hole in it. Doing so would cause the image outside the window to be projected into the room of the painter and onto the canvas, which could then be traced. The image, as with cameras and the human brain is brought in upside down, so the painter would be forced to trace upside down. During the Tudor period, lenses were developed for the first time which allowed artists to learn to paint with realism because after tracing and creating the minute details of each face correctly, they could focus on light and shadow. The camera obscura acted as a starting point to stencil a face. Boards were put down the back of the person sitting so that they would sit perfectly still allowing the painter to sketch them in perfect render. This technology acted effectively the first camera and in that, the first glimmer of Renaissance artwork

Women’s Rights During the Renaissance

During the Renaissance, rape was not recognized in the contextual mindscape that it is today. Rape was seen as a dishonorable stamp upon the family and the family’s name of the victim. If rape occurred, it was not uncommon for the offender to marry the victim, therefore making the act acceptable within the eyes of the family, the court, and as was thought at the time, in the eyes of God. Rape of a woman who was no longer a virgin was essentially considered not to be a crime, however rape of a woman who was a virgin, was considered to be very serious until sorted out. It was not uncommon for an aggressor to pay a dowry to the victim and her family so that she could marry another man, if the offender had no interest in marrying said victim. Dowries were considered unideal but an acceptable practice during this period. A daughters virginity being intact was viewed as a significant financial gain towards the women’s family as it was customary to receive a sizeable dowry when she became married. A notable historical example of this ideology is directly correlated to the incredibly talented Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who was raped by a painter her father Orazio who was also a famous painter, commissioned to teach his daughter the art of sketching using proper perspective and dimension