On Burckhardt Writing, New Visual Experience

Jacob Christoph Burckhardt is a famous art historian and art historian in 19 century, who is considered as the "father of cultural history."The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, which elaborates on the formation of modern human, is considered classics in the study of Renaissance, and a masterpiece on the subject of art history. Interestingly, this book as a great work of art history almost didn't mention any material piece of Fine Art,and it's considered a defect of this book.Through close examination of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, the author of this paper finds that instead of dealing with specific artworks, Burckhardt delivers recapitulative observation of the newly-emerged visual experience of Renaissance people based on the large amounts of material he collected, while connecting this to the core of this work-the discovery of human. Thus, the author of this paper intends to adopt Burckhardt's visual experience study approach to apply to the sundry visual experiences discussed in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy,, and further examines them in a broader theoretical context of modernity, while accentuating on inter-construct relationship of the change of watching and the formation of modern human, which Burckhardt has intended to reveal. This essay concludes that new ways of watching not only precipitates the emergence of new characteristics of Renaissance art, but also contributes to reshape the eyesight of modern people.