Renaissance Novella cover art

Both of the young girls look to be drawn fine.

Both are dreadful. In the American one the kids and the woman look like shapeshifters, so the British one

As a former art teacher ; I want to weigh in on Renaissance covers. The American version looks Italian modernism to me: the circles as a mass focal point; the pseudo Art Nouveau flowers (in complementary colors) provide a color focal point against the neutral color -brown. The faces provide a measure of angst and sereness. These are found in the music Renaissance creates. For me a better cover. The other cover looks like a washed out pastel children's book of the 1940's.

This is seriously some uncanny valley shіt. Would be more fitting for a King Crimson album or a horror themed compilation.

Both are pretty bad, British is slightly better.

Aesthetically, I actually prefer the American cover and don't mind the unrealistic depictions of people. I would not expect it, but with the British version, I would have rather something more to the fairy tale feel like a crouching knight on one knee with sword and shielding raised about to be stepped on by a giant cyclops, and an even more giant squid or octopus arm about to grab the giant cyclops. Or just make it more Grimm... I wish it was more nightmarish. Or some basic computer graphics of the lines of a novel (bringing the Renaissance into the 20th century, and maybe have had Kraftwerk and Gary Numan collaborate on the album). I can dream. Be nice if they would have a version with Annie Haslam's own art.

bardberic wrote: Renaissance's Novella was published with two versions of the cover art.

Hi,

I actually find the covers a bit scary and something that a record company would do to a band, and ignore their ideas and thoughts about the music.

The hard part of the different covers, is that it tells you a completely different something about the album ... one is a bunch of neat stories, for the kids, and the other, yet another piece of religious art during that time period to suggest that the religion is right and artistic, and people/folks aren't! Thus the sad face, is like a comment that the artist can not do anything right, as he/she is being told what to do!

So very American, that cover, where the movie studios originally owned everything music wise (they had the equipment for it) and then tried to get their stars to seem even better as singers. At that point, it was NOT about the story, but the fame that they could generate so folks would go to the theater, or buy the single. And it wasn't until the 1960's when black musicians broke the mold to smithereens!

The art of album covers, is something that should have been more important and valuable, as HIPGNOSIS made it be ... but so many bands had their whole thing ruined by bad covers, and I would have to ask Annie about this one, as the idea behind the covers are totally different and bizarre in the end ... and really ... very stupid and confusing to fans, about the music itself!

Saperlipopette! wrote: But they both look amateurish.

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Edited by Criswell - April 14 2025 at 08:26

She's reading to Anakin.

Octopus II wrote: I actually quite like both.

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Edited by BrufordFreak - April 14 2025 at 05:50