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Ghadeer Lamah
Mrs. Lucarelli
LPS
13 January 2016
Visiting The Met- Analysis

Christ and the Women of

Madonna and

Saint John the Baptist

Bearing Witness

Samaria
Child with Saints

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Christ and the Women of Samaria by Benedetto Luti, Madonna and Child with Saints by
Ludovico Carracci, and Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness by Annibale Carracci are three
paintings that perfectly encompass the values of the Renaissance, as well as the techniques and
styles used in paintings.
One commonality among paintings during the Renaissance is that they displayed a sense
of realism and religion that was adopted during that time period. Instead of portraying Saints and
religious beings as supreme to the rest in the painting, painters began to get rid of the hieratic
scale and make everyone in the painting equal in portrayal. Although, in the paintings a faint halo
over the heads of the divine was still faintly visible. For example, in Christ and the Women of
Samaria, Jesus Christ is shown equal in size to the women in the piece, therefore not signifying
his superiority. In Madonna and Child with Saints, all of the people are shown the same size
relative to their age (babies are smaller, adults are bigger). Finally, the Saint in Saint John the
Baptist Bearing Witness is not shown as a significant size, but much rather proportionate to his
surroundings.
The use of perspective was also something that was utilized and discovered during the
Renaissance. When viewing Christ and the Women of Samaria, and Saint John the Baptist
Bearing Witness, and paying close attention to the surroundings and backgrounds of the people,
it is clear that perspective and a vanishing point was used to make the painting more realistic. In
Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness, the man shown farther away is smaller in size, making it
more rational. Similar things are shown in Christ and the Women of Samaria, as the background
of mountains is shown much smaller that the items that surround Jesus, signifying that they are
farther away.

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Lastly, the Renaissance paintings show realism in another way: landscape backgrounds.
Before the Renaissance, paintings conveyed divine beings in a heavenly setting. Although in the
Renaissance, these religious beings began to be painted against a more earthly setting among
things such as plants, wildlife, mountains, and rocks. In all three paintings, the subjects are set in
a setting among trees, mountains, or a blue sky. The earthly background is most prominent,
however, in Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness. Saint John is shown in a forest with plenty
of trees and shrubs, a blue sky. and even a river running through the center of the painting.