Why did the Cubists abandon Renaissance naturalism?
The cubists was simply used a new way to represent the three-dimensional reality on a two-dimensional surface. The old way, the naturalism of the Renaissance, depended in particular upon one fundamental assumption — that everything in the picture is seen from a single, fixed viewpoint. Cubism abandoned this rule. The massive theoretical weakness of Renaissance naturalism — that it can only show one side of things, can be eliminated by the use of multiple viewpoints of Cubism. Another reason for the Cubists’ abandonment of Renaissance naturalism was that it was a method of painting which produced and illusion of reality. A philosophical dislike of illusionism is an absolutely central characteristic of modern art from its earliest beginnings. The early years of this century in Europe were years of great restlessness and change of dramatic and far-reaching innovation and discovery in technology and science. Cubism maybe said to reflect in some way the new views of the nature of reality
