The renaisance is the first thing i think of when it comes to painting, some faves are Pierro De La Francesca, Giotto, Giovanni Bellini, Tintoretto and Giorgione.
I love the composition and colours of this image, Francesca uses symetry to make the image captivating and creates a comforting world within the painting. The colours are perfectly balanced and the simplicity creates a satisfying elegance of communication. I particularly like the subtlty of the blue against the earthy yellow.
You can see here how symetrical the composition is and how carefully it has been planned to give the desired effect.Similarly in this image a complex geometric arrangement has been devised to create a formulaic beauty gauranteed to be awe inspiring and captivating. The lines of perspective direct the eye to the focal point of the painting, the virgin Mary, as does the ring of people around marry which carries your gaze round the characters to baby Jesus.
