The Renaissance 1400-1600

Key Terms: Contrapposto Camera Obscura Linear Perspective Atmospheric Perspective Chiaroscuro Sfumato Triangular Composition Foreshortening Concepts: The Early and High Renaissance Northern Renaissance Mannerism Chapter Sixteen The Renaissance

Key Terms:

Contrapposto

Camera Obscura

Linear Perspective

Atmospheric Perspective

Chiaroscuro

Sfumato

Triangular Composition

Foreshortening

‘Renaissance’ means rebirth and refers to the period of about 1300-1600 that was a new period of learning and creativity in Europe. Italy recovered first from the Middle Ages, thanks to new trade and banking. The resulting new merchant class spent extravagantly on art, as did the nobility. Rejection of Medieval Artistic Values growing interest in the natural world. Renaissance

‘Renaissance’ means rebirth and refers to the period of about 1300-1600 that was a new period of learning and creativity in Europe.

Italy recovered first from the Middle Ages, thanks to new trade and banking. The resulting new merchant class spent extravagantly on art, as did the nobility.

Rejection of Medieval Artistic Values

growing interest in the natural world.

Renaissance Artistic interest in illusionism, pictorial solidity, spatial depth, and emotional display in the human figure. Art funded by patrons – typically local wealthy merchant families such as the Medici – later the Church The artist, no longer longer a tradesman, is considered a genius. It is at this point that fine art and craft become two distinct entities.

Artistic interest in illusionism, pictorial solidity, spatial depth, and emotional display in the human figure.

Art funded by patrons – typically local wealthy merchant families such as the Medici – later the Church

The artist, no longer longer a tradesman, is considered a genius. It is at this point that fine art and craft become two distinct entities.

Innovations Oil paint Scientific Anatomy, geographic and technical discoveries: new trust in science, reason and experience Effects of Light Chiaroscuro Linear perspective Atmospheric perspective

Oil paint

Scientific

Anatomy, geographic and technical discoveries: new trust in science, reason and experience

Effects of Light

Chiaroscuro

Linear perspective

Atmospheric perspective

Humanism Developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of many Latin and Greek texts Humanism focused on what humans could do – human worth, and individual dignity. It was in opposition to the divinely based thought of the day. It also advocated reason and the evidence of senses over traditional Christian introspective values. The philosophies of humanism and Neo-Platonism became important concepts – creating a focus on the traditional liberal arts as well as education, idealized beauty, and logic.

Developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of many Latin and Greek texts

Humanism focused on what humans could do – human worth, and individual dignity. It was in opposition to the divinely based thought of the day.

It also advocated reason and the evidence of senses over traditional Christian introspective values.

The philosophies of humanism and Neo-Platonism became important concepts – creating a focus on the traditional liberal arts as well as education, idealized beauty, and logic.

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4” x 6’ 3/4”. Giotto = Transition from art of the Middle Ages to Art of the Renaissance

BONAVENTURA BERLINGHIERI, panel from the Saint Francis Altarpiece, San Francesco, Pescia, Italy, 1235. Tempera on wood, approx. 5’ x 3’ x 6”. Giotto, Legend of St Francis: Sermon to the Birds, 1297-99

Italian Renaissance The Early Renaissance : Masaccio, Donatello, Ghiberti The primary focus of the painters of the Early Renaissance was the imitation of nature and the creation of a believable 3D illusion on 2D surface The High Renaissance : da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian Height of style

The Early Renaissance :

Masaccio, Donatello, Ghiberti

The primary focus of the painters of the Early Renaissance was the imitation of nature and the creation of a believable 3D illusion on 2D surface

The High Renaissance :

da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian

Height of style

Old Testament kings and queens, jamb status, central doorway of Royal Portal, Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France, ca. 1145–1155. Saints Martin, Jerome, and Gregory, jamb statues, Porch of the Confessors (right doorway), south transept, Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France, ca. 1220–1230. Visitation, jamb statues of central doorway, west facade, Reims Cathedral, Reims, France, ca. 1230.

DONATELLO, Saint Mark, Or San Michele, Florence, Italy, 1411–1413. Marble, approx. 7’ 9” high. Modern copy in exterior niche. Original sculpture in museum on second floor of Or San Michele. He first created a full-scale nude model in clay, then draped it with clay-soaked linen and arranged the fabric in folds.

DONATELLO, David, late 1420s – late 1450s. Bronze, 5’ 2 1/4” high. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Religious figure in classical (pagan) style - contrapossto Free standing male nude 460 BC - 430 BC

Religious figure in classical (pagan) style - contrapossto

Free standing male nude

Donatello St Mary Magdalen c. 1457 Wood, height: 188 cm Statue of an old market woman, Early Imperial, Julio-Claudian, 1st century A.D. Roman

LORENZO GHIBERTI, east doors (“Gates of Paradise”), baptistery, Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1425–1452. Gilded bronze relief, approx. 17’ high. Modern copy, ca. 1980. Original panels in Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence.

LORENZO GHIBERTI, Isaac and His Sons - east doors, baptistery, Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1425–1452. Gilded bronze relief, approx. 2’ 7 1/2” x 2’ 7 1/2”.

MASACCIO, Holy Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca. 1428. Fresco, 21’ x 10’ 5”. Vaulting mirrors architectural space it is a part of from the viewers point of view The trinity, Mary and St. John flanked by the two donors. Sarcophagus at the bottom reads, “What you are, I once was; what I am, you will become”

Sandro Botticelli shows the Renaissance tendency to mix Greek gods and goddesses with Christian themes.

SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Birth of Venus, ca. 1482. Tempera on canvas, approx. 5’ 8” x 9’ 1”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Portrait of a Youth, early 1480s. Tempera on panel, 1’ 4” x 1’. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Andrew W. Mellon Collection).

Giovanni Bellini, St Francis in the Desert, 1485, Oil on Panel

High Renaissance: 1500-1520 A.D.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Virgin of the Rocks, ca. 1485. Oil on wood (transferred to canvas), approx. 6’ 3” x 3’ 7”. Louvre, Paris.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, cartoon for Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John, ca. 1505–1507. Charcoal heightened with white on brown paper, approx. 4’ 6” x 3’ 3”. National Gallery, London.

Vitruvian Man 1492 Pen, ink, watercolor and metalpoint on paper, 343 x 245 mm Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Among his many accomplishments, he was a master painter, inventor, poet, architect, sculptor, engineer, scientist, and musician.

Anatomical studies of the shoulder 1510-11 Black chalk, pen and ink on paper, 289 x 199 mm Royal Library, Windsor

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa, ca. 1503–1505. Oil on wood, approx. 2’ 6” x 1’ 9”. Louvre, Paris. Sfumato – “smoky” – thin transparent glazes. Leonardo da Vinci described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane".

Michelangelo, Pieta , 1498-1500

“ Michelangelus Bonarotis Florent Facibat” (Michelangelo Buonarroti Florentine made this.)

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, David, 1501–1504. Marble, 13’ 5” high. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence. Kritios Boy, from the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 480 BCE. Marble, approx. 2’ 10” high. Acropolis Museum, Athens.

The new philosophy, Neo-Platonism, sought to merge Classical mythology with Christian ideals, which are combined in these images. The images cover 700 sq. yds. and must be painted on scaffolding at arm’s reach, while envisioning it as viewed from 70’ feet below.

The new philosophy, Neo-Platonism, sought to merge Classical mythology with Christian ideals, which are combined in these images.

The images cover 700 sq. yds. and must be painted on scaffolding at arm’s reach, while envisioning it as viewed from 70’ feet below.

Interior of the Sistine Chapel (view facing east), Vatican City, Rome, Italy, built 1473. Copyright © Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1508–1512. Fresco, approx. 128’ x 45’.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Creation of Adam (detail), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1511–1512. Fresco, approx. 9’ 2” x 18’ 8”.

12 th Century Byzantine Mosaic of Last Judgment

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Last Judgment, fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1534–1541.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, drawing of south elevation of Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1546–1564 (engraving by ÉTIENNE DUPÉRAC, ca. 1569). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York