Andrew Yuan

  

Volume 9 | Issue IV | December 2025

The Westminster Schools ’26

Georgia, United States

  

Art has always been a constant in my life, whether I was sketching scenes in pencil or walking through the Louvre to the museum in Tokyo Palace in search of new techniques. But it was only a matter of time before I became enamored with the history behind the compositions I studied. My curiosity deepened for art history during a recent visit to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, where I noticed an unusual contrast between two 15th–to 16th–century panels and the naturalistic Renaissance pieces surrounding them. Despite being dated to the Renaissance period, the panels exhibited a starkly Romanesque style—stylized, abstract, and seemingly at odds with the naturalistic Renaissance pieces surrounding them. Why did they look so different? After a couple of days, what started as some passing questions plaguing my mind quickly became a full-blown research investigation. I scoured journal databases, even consulting parts of my AP European History textbook, following each historical and artistic trend until I arrived at a plausible theory that explored the economic, religious, and practical realities of Renaissance artists and their relationships with their patrons. The research process has taught me how even small-scale panels – works that are rarely focused on by historians in favor of visually striking, larger-scale paintings and architecture of the elite – can offer deep insight into historical trends. Digressing from my research process, I find great interest in the visual arts, art history, and art conservation. As art is directly tied to the context behind its creation, I believe that through preserving and communicating art and history, we advocate for the future, because the past is a blueprint that details the successes and failures of human society.