WHY DO MEDIAEVAL BABIES LOOK LIKE MEN?

WHY DO MEDIAEVAL BABIES LOOK LIKE MEN?

What became of this infant, as well as this other one?

And what gives this infant the appearance of a broker of commercial real estate?

Who is this Dale person?

You should know that the location is the single most important factor.

Why did mediaeval babies appear like ugly middle-aged men?

It wasn't just that they were terrible at drawing.

There was a rationale for the appearance of the infants.

The commissioning of "ugly babies" by Italian church artists was required.

The majority of the figurines depicted Jesus and Mary holding newborns.

You can see that these cute little infants were in fact homunculi.

Theologians hoped that the child Jesus would one day grow up to be like the adult Jesus.

Unaltered and without flaws

This is the reason why some infants have the appearance of trying to sell timeshares.

When the Renaissance occurred throughout the course of the subsequent several centuries, it widened the scope of art and secularized it.

As the Renaissance swept throughout Europe, baby Jesus was also given the treatment, and ugly babies were gradually phased out in favour of more attractive infants.

The Majority Of Images Of Infants In Mediaeval Art Were Of Jesus

The majority of portraits of children and newborns were commissioned by the church throughout the mediaeval period, which drastically restricted the variety of topics to only include depictions of Jesus and a select few other infants who appeared in the Bible. During that historical period, depictions of Jesus were heavily influenced by homunculus, which literally means 'small man' and comes from the Latin language. They thought that Jesus had a faultless and unchanging birth, and this notion was mirrored in the artwork of the time period; for example, Jesus is frequently depicted with the facial features of an elderly person. This chubby, grown-up appearance of Jesus came to be the standard over the course of art history, and artists painted all infants in the same manner.

Realistic depictions of life were less important to mediaeval artists

To represent infant Jesus in such an exaggerated manner was really reflective of a much larger trend in mediaeval art. Unlike the artists of the Renaissance period, mediaeval artists were not nearly as interested in naturalism and tended to lean more towards expressionistic traditions. This is evident in both of the paintings that are shown above, as neither Jesus nor Madonna appears to have a very realistic appearance.

The ways in which the Renaissance altered the customs of the middle Ages

Art that did not pertain to any religion thrived.

During the time of the Renaissance, Florence's middle class flourished, and art was utilised for a wider variety of reasons than only the embellishment of religious buildings. During the Renaissance, a greater number of people were able to afford to commission artwork and portraits, in contrast to the Middle Ages, when only a small percentage of commoners and even middle-class citizens were depicted in art. As a result, more realistic and endearing depictions of infants began to be the norm as portraiture developed over time since individuals did not want their own children and babies to resemble homunculi. Eventually, even Jesus came to be shown as a baby who was more similar to the cherubs that we are accustomed to seeing today.

The Renaissance saw a shift in idealism

In contrast to the more expressionistic approach employed by previous Mediaeval artists, painters throughout the Renaissance period grew more interested in naturalistic and realistic painting methods. This is in contrast to the expressionistic style that was prevalent during the earlier Mediaeval period. There was a recent surge in interest in watching things in the natural environment, and this interest was shared not only by adults but also by young children and infants.

Children were considered to be without fault

During this time, there was a shift occurring in society's perspective on how children should be treated. Babies were considered to be born without sin or knowledge, and as a result, to be innocent. This led to the idea that babies were small adults. This shift in the opinions held by adults was echoed in artwork, which depicted infants as seeming significantly cuter, younger, and more realistic than in the past.

Since I think we can all agree that homunculi newborns do not have the most endearing appearance, it is probably for the best that attitudes towards children that were prevalent after the Renaissance has won over.