What is the historical knowledge involved about relief sculpture?

1: Introduction to the Renaissance

The Renaissance refers to the 14th century to the 16th century in Western and Central European countries in the history of cultural and artistic development of an important historical period.

It is the second peak in European cultural history after ancient Greece and Rome.

The original meaning of the Renaissance was the revival of art and literature under the influence of classical norms.

The basis of its change was the ideological foundation of caring for and respecting people, and a human-centered worldview.

This worldview was established in the 14th century through a series of scientists, thinkers and literary figures who rediscovered ancient literature and art.

The emphasis on the value of nature and the human body that people of that time found in ancient texts led them to a new evaluation of man and nature.

In fact, the Renaissance, a great turning point in European history, had a much broader meaning.

The emergence of humanism affirmed that human beings are the creators or masters of life, and they demanded that literature and art should express human thoughts and feelings, science should work for the welfare of life, education should develop the personality of human beings, and thoughts, feelings, and wisdom should be liberated from the bondage of theocracy, and the freedom of individuality should be advocated to oppose the dependence of the person.

Renaissance art was developed on this basis.

2: Early Italian Renaissance

In the first three-quarters of the 15th century, the artists of the Early Italian Renaissance, free from medieval norms and with the help of rationality and scientific knowledge, attempted to break new ground in the creation of art, so that vivid images and scenes could be reflected in the works of art, and make it a kind of reproducible art.

In the field of painting, they explored and tried their best to make the two-dimensional plane have a three-dimensional spatial sense, and to make the activities of the characters three-dimensional, so as to realize the kind of illusionary effect that the ancient Greeks had pursued, and to let people take the artworks as a reflection of the real life, and as a thing that can be sensed, melted, and known.

This practice began in Florence and gradually spread throughout Italy.

It embodied a new spirit, adapted to the requirements of the times, and paved the way for the coming of the Renaissance in its prime.

(1) Early Renaissance Art in Florence

The characteristics of Early Renaissance Art in Florence can be seen through the following representative figures and works:

A: Ghiberti

Ghiberti (Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1378--1455) is a figure who embodied the transition from Gothic art to Renaissance art. Renaissance art.

He had a wide range of talents and was active in different fields, but his greatest achievements were in the field of sculpture.

Representative works include The Gates of Paradise (1424-1452), a bronze relief completed for the gate of the Baptistery in Florence.

Drawing on painting techniques, the use of different heights of the raised, delicate shaping of the form and face of a figure; the use of perspective means to reproduce the position of the figure, the depth of the spatial environment.

In the handling of the characters' movements and clothing patterns, it still retains some of the graceful style of international Gothic.

B: Brunelleschi

Brunelleschi (Fillippo Brunelleschi, 1377--1446) made an even greater contribution to pioneering new paths and styles.

A man of many talents, he initially worked in sculpture and gold and silver craftwork, and was one of the great exponents of Renaissance architecture.

He creatively blended Roman architectural forms with Gothic structures.

Shelved on the drum-shaped seat of the church scuttling clearly protruding in the air, solemn, light, beautiful, with a strong visual impact.

Brunelleschi wanted to base his architectural design on the science of mathematics, seeing harmony of proportion as the essence of classical architecture.

He utilized the classical architectural vocabulary to obtain the effect of lucidity, simplicity, grace, and harmony, giving the building a rational beauty.

He made an inestimable contribution to the development of painting.

The results of his work on online perspective provided a scientific basis for new paintings.

The use of line perspective to create the illusion of real space was a major ambition and achievement of the Italian Renaissance painters.

C: Donatello

Donatello (Donatello, 1386--1466) is the first generation of Italian early Renaissance artists, but also the most outstanding sculptor in the 15th century, the promotion of the classical art and borrowing, it can be said that the Renaissance Italian artists **** the same characteristics.

Donatello in his life, created a large number of angry, solemn and calm sculpture.

Representative works: David (c. 1430 - 1432) was the first work to revive the ancient tradition of nude statues.

Donatello utilized the correspondence of composition created by the ancient Greeks to present a young man with accurate proportions and structure.

The biblical figure is no longer a conceptual symbol, but a living, breathing being.

Portrait of St. George (1415-1417) Portrait of Gattamelada on Horseback (1445-1450)

D: Masaccio

Masaccio (1401-1428?) was a key figure in the development of Renaissance painting.

In his creations, he completely got rid of the elegant style and decorative meaning of late Gothic painting, and put the real image and real space in the first place.

Representative work: The Taxation of Gold (1425-1428) is a large fresco depicting a religious theme (fresco was a very popular style of painting in Italy at that time).

The different figures and scenes are very realistic and full of volume.

The characters are portrayed in their own mannerisms and movements from the point of view of the different relationships and psychological states between them.

In the buildings and natural environments, which conform to the laws of linear perspective, the figures are situated in their respective positions, as in real life.

There is nothing of the international Gothic painting that emphasizes the decorative arrangement of the picture, the pursuit of beautiful lines and colors, the fullness of the figures, perhaps a little awkward, but very real, linear stylistic rhythms that reinforce the monumentality of the fresco.

Realism and grandeur are the hallmarks of Masaccio's art.

E: Alberti

The famous humanist Alberti (Leon Battista Alberti, 1404 - 1472) learned, is a typical all-rounder, he attaches great importance to the role of mathematics as a science of art.

Concerned with theoretical issues, he did not regard the fine arts as a purely technical skill, but rather as the embodiment of wisdom. This attitude was common among Renaissance artists, and he wrote works on painting, sculpture, and architecture, and his Ten Books on Architecture, published in 1485, had a considerable impact on the development of Renaissance architecture.

A preference for geometric shapes, such as squares and circles, can be said to characterize the era and his own art.

(2) Early Renaissance art in other parts of Italy

Florence played an undeniably important role in the development of the new fine arts, but a number of other cities in central and northern Italy also saw the emergence of some outstanding artists who made a notable contribution to expanding the achievements and influence of the new fine arts.

A: Francesca

Piero della Francesca (1416?--1492), was the most famous figure to engage in creative activity in the cities of central Italy.

This inquisitive painter also attached great importance to perspective as the basis of painting, having written On Perspective in Painting (1482).

In a series of his religious paintings, geometric figures sit quietly in architectural and natural environments that are strictly in accordance with the laws of perspective, and the bright colors create an atmosphere of light and a sense of solemnity.

Representative works: frescoes The Legend of the True Cross (1452--1464) and The Scourging of Christ (c. 1456--57).

B: Giovanni Bellini

Giovanni Bellini (c. 1429--1516) was Venice's most outstanding painter of the 15th century.

The Venetian school of painting, renowned in the history of art, can be said to have begun with him.

Unlike the Florentine painters, who emphasized the use of lines and the management of composition, and unlike Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini was a painter who excelled in the use of color.

Representative work: The enchanted St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1485), where the landscape occupies most of the picture, everything is bathed in sunlight, and the wonderful colors seem to shine.

The use of natural scenery to color the atmosphere became one of the basic characteristics of Venetian painters.

C: Messina

Messina (AntoneUo da Messina, c. 1430 - 1479).

In portraiture has not a small contribution, early Renaissance portraits are often treated as full-frontal, while he changed the object of expression into a side three-quarters of the way, so that the figure in the painting to look at the audience, this more natural, more intimate way, later became the most popular mode of portraiture.

Messina's works, soft brushwork, bright colors, mood serene.

Representative work: The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian (c. 1475 - 1477).

3: Italian Renaissance Art in its Prime

The first quarter of the 16th century in Italy was a period of political tension and almost continuous warfare.

It was during this period of great turmoil that Renaissance art took shape.

It was art that was clear and highly conceptual, great and restrained, in short, classically balanced.

The emergence of the Three Masters of the Renaissance - the celebrated artists Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), Michelangelo (1475 - 1564), and Raphael (1483 - 1520) - marked the heyday of Italian Renaissance art in all its splendor.

Each of them was a prominent individualist, never forming a group despite the sparks of inspiration they generated in each other.

All three of them achieved extraordinary skill and perfect coordination of mind, eye and hand.

They solved, without too much effort, the problems that earlier artists had struggled with.

The artistic form of their work is always wonderfully indicative of the rational content.

At the height of the Renaissance, a group of artists represented by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael perfected the exploration of the Italians in the fifteenth century, and made the perfect unity of reason and emotion, the real and the ideal, and a high degree of harmony in the relationship between form and space in the works of art, thus establishing a classic style of reproduction art, and providing the best examples to be emulated by the future generations. The best example for future generations to follow.

In the subsequent development of Western art, its powerful influence was felt at all times.

Whether it was revered or rejected, it was because of the realization that it existed.

Through the introduction and works of these artists, you can see the state of Renaissance art in Italy at its height.

(l): Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452--1519) was born in the town of Vinci, and perhaps never before in the history of mankind has there been a man so fully developed as Leonardo da Vinci.

The breadth of his fields and the magnitude of his achievements are truly incredible.

Fine art was just one of the ways in which he craved to understand the world, and it did not take up all of his time and energy, but it was a field in which he achieved amazing things.

Bringing knowledge of the natural sciences to the fine arts was a major contribution by the Italians in the 15th century, and Da Vinci carried on this tradition and greatly refined it.

Representative works: the famous The Last Supper (c. 1495 - 1498) Perfect composition, harmonious shape and space, rich psychological delineation, and profound human nature, indicating classical beauty.

Mona Lisa (c. 1503 - 1506) Da Vinci painted this bust over a period of several years, he treated the merchant *** son of the natural interlocking of the two hands, the torso and the head of the different degrees of sideways way, both to overcome the monotonous and seem to be calm.

Mona Lisa's solid flesh and blood body and mysterious smile, combined with a distant background like a Chinese landscape, leave people unlimited room for imagination, so that future generations can carry out different interpretations.

This complexity and richness of real life, which is difficult to describe, is a characteristic quality of the greatest works of literature, and has established a model of the portrait bust for posterity.

(2): Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475--1564), the greatest sculptor of the West.

In the commitment to comprehend the achievements of the ancients, but also committed to the anatomy of the human body, the study of the structure and movement of the human body, which has made him become the amount of full play in the human body, the human body, the human body, the human body and the human body. This makes him one of the artists who gave full play to the expressive power of the human body.

Unlike the art of Leonardo da Vinci, which is full of the beauty of deep wisdom, Michelangelo's works are characterized by strength and power, with a heroic spirit of majesty.

He was, perhaps, the artist who came closest to the realm of Beethoven.

In his sculptures, in his paintings, a giant-like grandiose image stood up, even the female figures he portrayed, all of them have a strong and courageous spirit, as if they were the Amazons women in the myth.

Representative works: the statue David (1501 - 1504), is the most familiar monumental masterpiece in the history of art, but also the most distinctive demonstration of the characteristics of the full bloom of Renaissance Italian art.

In carving the figure of David from a valuable stone that had long been abandoned, he truly realized the ideal of releasing life from stone, and with skill and confidence, he chiseled this perfect heroic statue.

(3): Raphael

Raphael (Raphael Sanzio, 1483--1520), works have always been regarded as the most perfect embodiment of the spirit of classical art.

Engel called him the god of painting.

Raphael was the most skillful master of the Madonna in the history of Western art.

His series of Madonna statues harmonized sensual beauty with spiritual beauty, thus conveying the good wishes and eternal feelings of mankind.

Egalitarianism and friendliness are the most important features of Raphael's work.

Under his pen, profound knowledge and careful scrutiny all dissolved in the fluent lines of the composition of the ease of the art world, everything seems to be the natural flow of nature, is a pie of heavenly music.

Innocence and beauty, solemnity and nature, brightness and clarity, harmony and simplicity, these qualities of classical art, the most important, in Raphael's body to obtain the most distinctive embodiment.

As a result, artists who admired the classical style looked to him as an ideal model, and, as Reynolds said, he himself became the model for all future generations of painters.

Representative works: The Beautiful Lady Gardener (c. 1606), Raphael with rounded and smooth lines of the Madonna, Jesus and St. John's beautiful images harmoniously combined to create a full of earthly, intimate world of God.

This world is far from the spirit of the Middle Ages, and its purity, clarity, simplicity and naturalness are closer to the spirit of Greece.

(4) :Titian and the Venetian school of painting

In the development of Italian Renaissance art, Florence and Rome played an extremely important role, and most of the fifteenth-century artists, were active in these two cities.

Other cities such as Venice, a city in northern Italy, was once the center of trade between East and West, its **** and polity, its commercial atmosphere, so that its social life is filled with a strong secular color and joyful mood.

In this unique situation, Venetian fine art also presents a unique appearance different from Florence and Rome.

Its paintings, which gave great play to the expressive power of color, rich in sensory appeal, were quite different from the Florentine and Roman paintings, which attached importance to lines and sketches.

A: Titian

Titian (1488/90 - 1576) became a great master of Venetian painting with his long life of rich creation.

In his practice he created a style overflowing with joy, vitality and opulence.

He became the main representative of the glorious achievements of Italian art of the Renaissance, along with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Representative works Christ with a Crown of Thorns (c. 1570), Venetian painters have been known to excel in the use of color, which constitutes the main factor in the charm of his work.

This is the difference between Florentine and Venetian artists.

This difference often enables future generations of oil painters to gain more direct inspiration from the techniques used by Venetian painters such as Titian.

Oil painting, a form that brings out the expressive power of light and color, was perfected in Italy by Titian and others.

In Titian's later works, the language of oil painting was brought to its fullest expression.

He used broad, bold brushstrokes to apply different colors, which he used to shape the form and render the atmosphere.

There are no clear shapes or lines here, nor the bright, cheerfulness that characterized his work in the past.

The muddy, heavy color palette is a powerful weapon to express a strong sense of tragedy.

In this work, which demonstrates Titian's mastery of oil painting, we can see his spiritual and linguistic development.

(5) Fine artists from other regions

A: Sarto

Sarto (Andrea del Sarto, 1486 - 1530) real name Andrea Dagnolo di Francesco.

Once the three Renaissance masters left Florence, Sarto became the most famous painter in the region.

Sarto was a painter who mastered modeling and the use of light, and his virtuosity earned him the title of the perfect painter.

His masterpiece, the altarpiece Madonna of the Harpies (1517).

The stately classical composition and the elegant image are both characteristic of Renaissance art in its prime, but there is a different implication in the treatment of light.

4: Stylistic Art

A large number of brilliant works of art by masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and many others established a model of perfection.

In people's eyes, they are the embodiment of the most ideal and perfect, and later artists could not help but face the feeling of facing the sea.

Some young Italian artists, inspired by the creations of Michelangelo and Raphael, tried to emulate and develop their styles without regard to the spirit inherent in their works; others, more talented and ambitious, devoted themselves to changes in the language of form and innovations, focusing on showing their own characteristics in their works.

In general, their creations departed from the ideals and basic principles of Renaissance art in its heyday, and threw off its natural, harmonious, and simple artistic style.

They pursued a style that was visually distinctive and highly formal.

The works that come out of their hands often have a taste of deliberate carving, indifference and detachment, and are quite subjective and fanciful.

But for those with a more discerning palate, they can be quite charming.

This phenomenon, popularized after the Renaissance and before the Baroque, has been called stylistic art by historians.

The Chinese also translated it into stylistic or ornate art according to the Western language.

Florence was the birthplace and most important center of Stylistic art.

Under Sarto, the early representatives of Stylism, Pontormo and Russell, appeared.

(1) Pontormo

Pontormo (1494--1557), whose real name was Jacopo Carusi, had a distinctive personal style, and his works showed more new elements.

The representative work, Christ Descending from the Cross (c. 1526--1528), is filled with figures almost entirely plastered in the foreground, and these lightly colored, fluent figures seem to be floating like clouds in a void without a sense of real space.

They lack volume and weight, like thin paper cutouts.

The whole picture overflows with a dreamlike feeling, a sense of unreality.

(2) Russell

Russell (Giovanni Battista Rosso Fiorentino, 1495--1540) was a talented painter with a unique style.

Russell was invited to work in France by King Francois I of France, who was a lover of Italian art, and thus left Stylism in Fontainebleau, influencing the face of French art.

The masterpiece, Christ Descending from the Cross (1521), has its own characteristics, although it shares the same theme as Pontormo's masterpiece.

The geometric cross, the ladder, and the angular, hardened figures form a stagnant, frozen world of painting.

All the figures are frozen in place as if under demonic spell, creating a strange, terrified feeling that reinforces the tragic meaning of the work.

(3) Agnolo Bronzino

The Florentine painter Agnolo Bronzino (1503--1572) is a representative of the heyday of Stylism.

He developed his own style under the tutelage of Pontormo.

His works are known for their refined brushwork, emotional indifference, and harsh colors.

A perfect example of his style is Eleonora of Toledo and her son Giovanni de' Medici (c. 1550).

The dark blue background of the still figures, richly dressed, and the finely drawn noblewoman is aloof, like porcelain, and has an icy elegance.

5: Renaissance art outside of Italy

The Renaissance movement in Europe originated in Italy, and under its influence, the Renaissance has sprung up in various countries in Western Europe.

Because of the differences in geography, history, folklore, and other factors, the art of these countries was influenced by the Gothic tradition of the Middle Ages, with a strong religious flavor.

The spirit of the Renaissance was reflected here more in the depiction of secular flavor.

Compared with Italy during the same period, their works of art lacked the kind of majestic momentum unique to Italian Renaissance art, but Netherland, Germany, France, Spain and other parts of the European Renaissance made their own contribution to the development of fine art.

(1) Netherlandish Renaissance

The word "Netherland" means the land of the lowlands, and the area it refers to includes the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the northeast of France.

Fine art in the Netherland was initially closely associated with France.

In the 14th century, many Netherlandish artists were employed at the French court, and in addition to bringing Netherlandish art styles to France, they were also influenced by the Italian art styles that were popular in France.

After the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), when the capital of Brandywine was moved into Flanders, Netherlandish Renaissance art began to develop in the process of adapting and developing late Gothic art.

Flanders was the main area of activity for Netherlandish artists in the 14th century.

There they decorated churches, courts, and municipal buildings with paintings and sculptures, but most of these works have been destroyed and very little remains.

At the end of the 14th century the famous sculptor Claus Sluter (c. 135/1360 - 1405) appeared in Netherland.

Nothing is known of his life or early artistic activities, but his beautiful engraving of the Well of Moses for the Dijon monastery has been praised for its outstanding realism.

The Well of Moses, executed between 1395 and 1403, was originally the base of a huge cross, hexagonal in shape, and adorned on each side with larger-than-life statues of the prophets.

Among them are Moses with commandments in his hand, the stately David, and the bald Isaiah.

These figures are distinctive, and the art is simple and realistic.

The full and robust form, smooth and flowing lines, making it a masterpiece of Netherlandish sculpture, and give a strong influence on the art of painting.

The original founders of Netherlandish Renaissance art were the van Eyck brothers.

Their Ghent Altarpiece (1415-1433) is a famous masterpiece of early Netherlandish Renaissance art.

(2) German Renaissance Art

German Renaissance art began in the 15th century, lagging behind Italian and Netherlandish art of the same period.

This was mainly because Germany was still in a state of feudalism, and the weak royal power could not give strong protection to these very decentralized cities, and Gothic art was still predominant.

Between 1420 and 1540, there was a Renaissance in Germany, and some economically developed cities became centers of local art genres.

Early German Renaissance painting and sculpture were influenced by some elements of late Gothic art, and religious altarpieces were more developed.

Single or multiple altarpieces painted on wooden panels were placed in solemn churches to add to the solemnity of the atmosphere.

Beginning in the mid-15th century, German artists showed concern for the human environment, preferring to depict the natural environment, and emphasizing realism in character modeling.

Painter Witz (KonradWitz, about 1414 - 1446) is a representative of this.

His Christ Walking on the Sea (also known as The Miracle of the Fish) depicts a realistic view of Lake Constance, and although it is a traditional religious subject, the picture is very vivid and natural.

Other famous artists of this period include Martin Schongauer (1445/1450--1491), who can be called the forerunner of German Renaissance art.

German Renaissance art is said to be the most outstanding achievement of printmaking, which had a positive impact on the art of the whole of Europe.

Among the early famous painters, Sch?ncourt's copper engravings were the leading trend.

His successor, the German Renaissance master Dürer, further developed and perfected the copperplate.

The most outstanding painter of the second generation of the German Renaissance was Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497 - 1543).

He spent his early years studying with his father, and had an extensive association with humanist scholars.

Holbein's artistic style was characterized by calmness and objectivity, and his numerous portraits accurately recorded the appearance and psychological characteristics of a wide range of 16th-century figures.

The Portrait of Erasmus (c. 1523), now in the Louvre, is one of his finest portraits.

The author carefully handled the relationship between light and darkness in the picture, and emphasized the face, hands and manuscripts of the characters in the painting, revealing the elegance of a wise humanist scholar.

Holbein's drawings are also superb, with perfect simplicity of line and a sense of volume and texture, even though there is little chiaroscuro.

After 1532, the artist settled in London and became a court painter to King Henry VIII, contributing to the development of English painting.

(3) French Renaissance Art

After the Hundred Years' War, France recovered the territories occupied by Britain and formed a united situation, which created conditions for the development of national culture.

The Loire Valley was the birthplace of French court architecture.

King Charles VIII, Louis XII and Fran?ois I have built a large number of noble houses and hunting grounds there.

Among them are the famous Chenonceau House, Chambord Palace and so on.

These luxury buildings are the product of a combination of new styles and ancient traditions.

Since the beginning of the 1630s, Italian artists came to France to participate in the construction of Fontainebleau, which led to a new phase of development of French Renaissance architecture.

In 1530, the Italian stylist painter Russell came to Fontainebleau to work on the decoration.

Rosso in order to adapt to the French court interest, the style of painting has changed, the human body in addition to still being elongated, the picture is particularly delicate and beautiful.

Local sculptors and painters were led by him and other Italian stylist painters in the decoration of the Palace of Fontainebleau, gradually forming the Fontainebleau School.

This school created a new decorative effect combining stucco and painting in high relief, in pursuit of elegance and charm.

Take the famous Fransois I gallery as an example, the high relief figures around the paintings seem to jump out of the walls.

In addition, the decorative motifs that wrap around the edges of the frames, curling and folding like leather, were also created by them and later became very popular throughout Europe.

French Renaissance painting and sculpture had a later start.

The great French painter of the 15th century was Jean Fouquet (c. 1420 - 1477), who was the pride of early French painting, and who later influenced the development of French art.

Fouquet was artistically versatile, leaving behind a legacy of oil paintings, miniatures, enamels and some drawings.

The Madonna and Child (c. 1450) in the Muron diptych is an important work for him.

French portraiture in the 16th century occupies a prominent place, the famous painters being the Clouet father and son.

Jean Clouet (c.1485/90 - c.1540/41) was the court painter and courtier of Fran?ois I, and he depicted many of the great and the good of the time.

The Portrait of Fran?ois I (c.1525--30) was his most successful work.

His son, Frangois CloueL (c. 1510 - 1572), was also a popular portraitist at court, and the Portrait of Elizabeth of Austria (1571) is one of his finest.

From the works of the Clouet father and son can be seen in their skillful painting techniques and the ability to capture the character, good at expressing the personality, which is also the strength of the French portraitists.

The main representatives of the sculpture is Goujon and Pilon (GermainPilon, about 1525 - 1590).

Goujon's masterpiece is his six-part bas-relief The Goddesses of the Mountains, Forests and Waters (1549) for the Fountain of Chastity in Paris.

The work is based on ancient Greek mythology, and Goujon's skillful depiction of the goddesses' lightness of form.

The figures are vibrant, and although the space in the composition is small, there is no sense of constriction.

The sculptor's treatment of the dress pattern is very natural and fluid, showing the femininity to perfection, and the entire relief has a fresh, classical flavor.

(4) Spanish Renaissance Art

Spanish Renaissance art first appeared in Catalonia and Valencia.

In the 15th century, the germ of capitalism appeared earlier in these two regions, and there were close exchanges with Italy and Netherland in art.

But the real representative of the highest peak of Spanish Renaissance art is the famous painter El Greco (El Greco, 1541--1614) in the second half of the 16th century.

Famous such as The Holy Family, The Birth of Christ and so on.

El Greco was a controversial painter, who used color and light as his main means of expression, and his elongated figures with neurotic restlessness, reflecting the melancholic mind of the fallen aristocrats.

His greatness also lies in the way he revealed the contradictions of society, and his philosophical insight into the crisis in Spain.

For a long time, Géricault's art was unrecognized by art historians until the beginning of the century, when the study of the master was revived, and he was increasingly recognized for the charm of his distinctive style and as the greatest representative of Stylism.