Hey people complaining about shitposts! How about educating new users by explaining the difference between these downvoted pics, and these popular ones?

Shin-LaC · 17時間前

The most important factor is probably the composition.

Sports photos:

6,561 upvotes: King Jame's Court

Symmetrical, broad view, really looks like a court painting.

0 upvotes: Rise Of Man

This is not how a pre-photography painter would have composed this scene. Why is the basket up in the corner, and seen from the back? Why are the people at the bottom cut in half? Wouldn't you want to show the jumping action too?

Military:

3,997 upvotes: Going to War

Rhythm is everything here.

6 upvotes: The Watchful Soldier

Even just the blurry mess in the foreground disqualifies this entirely. Things are generally not blurry in renaissance art. It's forgivable in the background, but in the foreground it's too distracting.

Politicians:

1,883 upvotes: Dilma Impeachment, Brasil

Great chiaroscuro on the man's face.

2 upvotes: Ukranian Parliament Feud

Good but a repost.

Parties:

2,712 upvotes: Alone in a Full Room

Composition is good. The lighting and colors are too harsh, but the way the layout enhances the emotion makes that easy to overlook.

0 Upvotes: Lovesick

This would not have been laid out this way before photography. The people's heads behind are cut off. The person in front is cut too close, they would want to show at least the full upper body since he is the focus of the image.

TeHokioi · 20時間前

With regards to the politics example you gave, the lesser upvoted one is literally the picture used in the ads and that started the whole subreddit, so the fact that it's a repost should be obvious to people

openmindedskeptic · 21時間前

Mod Stamp of Approval

ich_habe_keine_kase · 20時間前

It's difficult to answer with your examples, because several of the highly upvoted ones aren't actually Renaissance-y. But I can explain a few.

I'm assuming the "Alone in a Full Room" one was posted because of its compositional similarity to Leonardo's Last Supper, with the mournful-looking central figure, head tilted down, with people on either side having separate conversations.

"King James's Court" isn't perfect, but it does have great triangular composition, which is popular throughout art history. And the composition with one elevated figure plus the shape of the backboard/post and figures on the ground make it reminiscent of Renaissance Crucifixion scenes. But as someone else has already pointed out, that figure on the floor will never not remind me of Christina's World!

shagieIsMe · 19時間前

So, the essence of the post that started it all is that the image is composed like a classic renaissance painting.

To that end, I'm pulling up an online tool for composition overlays. It has the golden mean, golden spiral, and golden triangles.

King Jame's Court (good):
* Golden mean fits well. A little bit of recomposition and it would be superb.
* Golden spiral is ok but doesn't quite match the composition as well as the mean.
* Golden triangle fits very well (it needs a horizontal flip)

Rise of man (good):
* Golden mean fits ok.
* Golden spiral doesn't work
* Golden triangle fits well (horizontal flip again)

Going to War (ok)
* Golden mean fits well.
* Neither the golden spiral nor the triangle fits well
This one feels more like a "it happened to fit within the golden mean" though it could have been recomposed to be a stronger golden mean image. Images that have something that is centered and significant space around them, tend to fit within the golden mean if you look at it with a certain point of view. But it isn't taking the classical beauty of the golden ratios as part of the design.

Watchful soldier (poor)
* Nothing about this fits any of the classic composite rules

Dilma Impeachment, Brasil (poor)
* Nothing about this fits the classic composition rules

Ukranian Parliament Feud (good)
* Um, this is the one that started it all. * Vertical flip and rotate and you get a beautiful golden spiral lining up with the structure of the image

Alone in a Full Room (poor)
* Again, this goes to the "something centered may take on golden mean proportions" though it isn't a compelling composition.

Lovesick (poor)
* This doesn't match up with any of the classical composition layouts.

AccidentalRessiance isn't about the color (though being in the Dutch masters color palette helps). Its about the composition being something that could have appeared on a museum wall in the classical portion. Justin Bieber fits. Kehinde Wiley isn't accidental at all - but the importance of classical composition is shown there.

GrassWaterDirtHorse · 16時間前

The chance of something getting downvoted into obscurity is pretty high on large subs with lots of post traffic, and a lot of random chance goes into a post actually hitting the front page or r/all.

That being said, there are reasons why we see some of these posts (which aren't necessarily bad) receive less attention than other ones.

Ok, King Jame's Court is a masterpiece of compositional work with stunning contrast and all eyes on the center of attention. While Rise of Man has a similar effect with the focus, it's far smaller in scale and we don't see as many well defined faces.
Mostly due to picture quality and a poor center of attention. The subject in The Watchful Soldier is waaay out there and poor lighting means his facial features aren't well defined. Going to War is brightly lit and well composed with the subject in the center, along with having the soldiers appear to be indistinct from each other. Not necessarily "rennaisance" but it's an interesting piece at least. Neither one is particularly good in my own opinion, just one is objectively worse than the other.
Ukranian Parliament Feud is a repost as stated above. Will receive more downvotes. That being said, the Brazil Parliament pic isn't well composed either though it does have some redeeming aspects like chiascuro and appealing color contrast. It's waaaay to focused in, to the point where heads are cut off and the subject's hair being cut out as well.
Kanye is a very popular, albeit controversial figure, making an image of him more popular than other images by default, not a perfect pic given the harsh lighting and poor image quality, but we can see the emotions of the subjects very clearly. Additionally, we can see the full figures of the other people in a diverse range of poses while Lovesick is too narrow to be particularly "Rennaisancey". Seriously, nobody likes seeing the top of someone's head cut off in a portrait.

In fact, good composition that contains the full bodies of people in realistic and emotional poses is a pretty defining feature of Renaissance art and scupture, and a lot of these un-Rennaisancey works I mentioned fail this criteria. Still, plenty of Renaissance works do only contain the upper half of the body, but at least they don't cut off the top of someone's hair.

vanguaaard · 14時間前

I think a big difference is the lighting. Renaissance paintings have almost a spotlight on the subject. Aside from that nothing looks accidental, every placement from a stray bottle to the relaxed hands looks like it was posed and the painted with ease. You can look at the subject and feel the emotion that they're feeling there is no question about how you are supposed to react.

In the first one you're looking at King James and the men around him look posed, everyone from the coach on the sidelines to the player waiting to be painted like one of my french ladies. No one is stuck making an awkward face, everything looks intentional. The look on Lebron's face is determination even though he's not up close you can see every inch of his body reaching for that shot and you want him to make it. The anticipation is felt from every character in the picture.

Rise of man looks awkward, the hands are positioned awkwardly, there definitely could have been a better shot of this from a different angle. Why is #8 doing a t-rex impression, while #6 is sneezing? Bottom right guy is blurry and making a weird face, he should be in focus but not in the 'spotlight' a renaissance painting would never have blurry faces. What exactly is the sneezing guy feeling? Is this the make or break shot? He doesn't seem particularly anxious? It could be the first minute of the game for all I know. But you know King James is making an important shot, he has no do over.

Going to war the subject is clearly in focus and you can see the emotion in his face. No awkward faces in the background, and it's not a stencil drawing. You can feel his anxiety, he's looking back at what he's walking away from and he doesn't really want to go. You can see a nervous smile in the relaxed group that the subject is in but this is a picture of a bunch of kids who are going into something that is scary and takes courage. I feel for that kid, he seems more vulnerable in contrast to the clenched jaws and casual conversation.

Watchful soldier, I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Did someone fall? Is this a funeral thing? Are they just having a meeting? Am I focusing on the cohesive group or the outlier? There is no spotlight and the shadows aren't adding to the scene. I mean the clouds are pretty but what are the guys feeling? I see some smiles in the crowd but it's not a happy scene. I just don't know what's going on or who is feeling what.

Dilma impeachment, someone is super salty. This man is ready to rip the other guys fingers off. But look at how gracefully his hand is outstretched again it looks like the artistic and graceful. The spotlight is on him but the shadows under his eyes emphasize the stress of the situation. He is clearly at his wits end with the man in from of him. Bottom right looks extremely angry at the opposing person. The bystanders in the back are all standing at attention, look at the veins in their hands emphasizing the stress and contentiousness of the situation. No one is relaxed and the woman with her hand on her hip behind the subject is almost ready to defend someone, she is not happy with what is being said. The subjects teeth are so tightly clenched he's practically seething, and his foe's ears are turning red with anger. I feel the anger and suspense being portrayed in this picture.

Ukrainian parliament is a repost, so I'm not going to go into it. But every single person has an emotion and I can feel it. The rage is intense, and every finger, jacket wrinkle, and pose looks intentional.

I love Ye, and he looks sad. You know who the subject is and the other two couples are posed away from the camera, they're showing obvious affection. The listeners have their head down eyes closed and they are engaged with the talkers and nothing else. Look at the talkers' hands, you can tell that the one on the left is talking about himself with his hand on his chest and the one on the right is making motions about the topic he is talking about. The talkers are leaning in so close it has an intimacy which is exaggerated by the public setting. You can see the empty bottles and extravagant decor but none of that matters to Ye as he looks down at his hands. You can see that he wants to do something else, he's not as comfortable and he's almost getting up off the couch compared to the couples. It's a feeling that is easily identifiable.

Lovesick looks obviously posed, like someone told the two couples to make out and sat the subject in the foreground and said look sad and smoke. The person doesn't look particularly lovesick or sad, they don't have a strong emotion. If they're SO was next to them and they just wanted to smoke it would be the same expression. The couples in the back have awkward hands again with the t-rex in the baby pink. All of the finders are awkward the bob graze doesn't imply passion at least the other two have a strong connection. It's just not giving me any emotion.

to end this rambling, a renaissance painting makes me feel an emotion and every detail is meticulously planned in order to best convey this emotion.

Wow wall of text

ctheo93 · 20時間前

The soldier one fails because it doesn't display the faces of all the characters as clearly as a painting would, in my opinion.

Vakaryan · 20時間前

I think the people complaining are just elitists. The pictures that get a lot of upvotes are never just "cool pictures." They might lack some of the elements of a renaissance photo but they still have the same vibe. If you don't like the pictures, then that's too bad for you, other people do.

GoggyMagogger · 14時間前

Is there an app or a photo filter or some simple way to apply the "golden ratio" on top of a photo? That would be quite useful.

Also I saw a short lecture about renaissance paintings, and the speaker spoke mostly about how the story telling is aided by the composition. The eye is drawn to the centre of the painting at first then scans the image in a clockwise spiral ending up at the bottom right corner, so the story the painting tells unfolds along this same trajectory. They are often allegorical and there are certain accepted codes relayed through composition. It's not math and can't be solved like an equation but aspects of composition and allegory appear often enough to be hallmark.

I would call some photos renaissance looking for their chiaroscuro tonal qualities as well. Also, sometimes the facial expressions or dramatic poses. It's tricky, and like all art the interpretations change from viewer to viewer. People still argue about what exactly does make a renaissance painting "renaissance" (Besides the era it was created, obviously)

qvr4tt · 7時間前

Can anyone explain how this one follows the rules to me please? http://i.imgur.com/zK9bhkW.jpg

After reading this thread I went through the top all time submissions to see if I could tell the difference and I was generally can, however I can't see what's renaissance about this and yet the comments praise it quite highly.

ladybadcrumble · 7時間前

One of the things that people who would like to contribute to this sub could do is to educate themselves on actual Renaissance art. Like you say, there is some confusion as to what is and what isn't Renaissance even in the professional art world, but the two following links are a great start to learning about what is and is not Renaissance art.

Basics of Art of the Renaissance : written for someone without an art history background, pretty easy reading yet covers a respectable amount of ground. Has good examples to show the characteristics of Renaissance art in comparison to other art periods.

Art of the Italian Renaissance : this one goes into greater depth and is written in a more academic way. I've linked to just the main page of the Italian Renaissance but there is an abundance of other links on the page so that you can follow the rabbit hole as deep as you wish.

Edit: some more links

Renaissance Art Terms and Examples: explanation of Renaissance art terms with examples. Should help with recognizing characteristics of Renaissance art in ordinary photographs.

AccidentalRenaissance

調停者