Realism
Realism is a world with multiple connotations. Most of the time it is used to describe something the presents a reasonable facsimile of reality. When referring to the artistic movement however, the meaning goes deeper than that. Realism was an artistic style developed during the European Renaissance.
The Renaissance popularized the idea that there was rhyme and reason to the world. Everything was understandable and measurable. While in previous centuries, cause and effect had been seen as primarily spiritual matters that people could not hope to understand, The Renaissance sought to shed light on the workings of the all things. The belied humanity must solve it's own problems. As a result, artists became increasingly interested in politics. Courbet's Stonebreakers illustrates the struggles of the working class by depicting common workers in the act of back breaking labor.
The realists also showed a greater interest creating a greater verisimilitude of reality within their work. The philosophy that the world was measurable and understandable resulted in an unprecedented interest in anatomy and physiology. Moreover, artists began to discover ways of creating the illusion of the third dimension on the two dimensional canvas. Linear perspective was developed as a direct result of an attempt by Renaissance thinkers to develop a scientific system to explain how we perceive light.
The Realists saw the world as objective, physical and factual. They looked to use art to represent the physical truths of the world around them. In a post modern world, much of the appeal of Realism is lost on us. Post modernism rejects objective reality and truth. To truly appreciate realism, we have to recognize that they saw the world very differently from the way we do. To them, art had no greater purpose than to hold a mirror up to the world around them, showing things as they are without embellishment or alteration.
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