Renaissance Art Perspective Techniques

Question 1: Perspective
Scientific perspective was often used during the Renaissance
era to create illusionistic works of art.
In your response, discuss how specific works of art used the
science of perspective techniques in
paintings. Compare and contrast specific art examples from the
Northern Renaissance and the Italian
Renaissance.
In your own words, summarize how the artworks are reflective
of the cultures that created them.
Assignment 2: Essay
By Wednesday, October 1, 2014, select one of the questions
listed below and develop an essay
response of approximately 350 words. Analyze and identify
specific historical and visual examples to
support your understanding of the topic. Include images with
complete identifying information of the
specific works of art you chose. Compose your thoughts with
careful research and formulate independent
conclusions.
Reference and cite (using MLA format) the textbook and at least
one other scholarly source (e.g., a class
lecture, scholarly article, or museum website). If you need help
with MLA formatting, please visit the
Writing Center or Tutoring Services. Note: Wikipedia, blogs,
and answers/Yahoo! websites are not

permitted scholarly sources.
Grammar and spelling are expected to reflect college-level
work. Please spell-check and proofread all
work prior to submission.
Post your response in a Microsoft Word file to the W5
Assignment 2 Dropbox (do not post anything to
the Discussion Areas for the questions). Name your file
LastNameFirstIntial_W5_A2_QuestionNumber.doc
Note: Rubrics provide an explanation for full or partial credit.
If a criteria listed is not addressed you will
receive a zero for that section.
Assignment 2 Grading Criteria Maximum Points
Develop a response with accurate and relevant historical
information that thoroughly supports the topic and the culture
discussed.
10
Analyze and thoroughly identify multiple, visual examples that
thoroughly support the topic. 10
Formulate independent conclusions based on research,
analysis, and visual observations that support the topic. 10
Utilize the text and scholarly sources that support the
response. 10
Employs correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and
appropriate logic, voice, and utilize correct MLA formatting. 10
Total: 50

Early Northern Renaissance:
8-4: JAN VAN EYCK, Ghent Altarpiece (closed), Saint Bavo
Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, completed 1432.
Oil on wood, 11′ 5″ × 7′ 6″. By: Bridgeman Art Library 3/4 .
https://digitalbookshelf.aionline.edu/#/books/1111904871/pages
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Jan van Eyck
The first Netherlandish painter to achieve international fame
was JAN VAN EYCK (ca. 1390–1441), who
in 1425 became Philip the Good’s court painter. The artist
moved his studio to Bruges, where the duke
maintained his official residence, in 1432, the year he
completed the Ghent Altarpiece (FIGS. 8-
4 and 8-5) for the church in Ghent originally dedicated to Saint
John the Baptist (since 1540 Saint Bavo
Cathedral). One of the most characteristic art forms in 15th-
century Flanders was the monumental
freestanding altarpiece, and the Ghent Altarpiece is one of the
largest. Placed behind the altar, these
imposing works served as backdrops for the Mass. Given their
function, it is not surprising that many
altarpieces depict scenes directly related to Christ’s sacrifice.
Flemish altarpieces most often took the
form of polyptychs (hinged multipaneled paintings or relief
panels). The hinges allowed the clergy to
close the polyptych’s side wings over the center panel(s).

Artists decorated both the exterior and
interior of the altarpieces. This multiple-image format allowed
artists to construct narratives through
a sequence of images, somewhat as in manuscript illustration.
Although scholars do not have concrete
information about when the clergy opened and closed these
altarpieces, evidence suggests they
remained closed on regular days and were opened on Sundays
and feast days. This schedule would
have allowed viewers to see both the interior and exterior—
diverse imagery at various times
according to the liturgical calendar.
/51103546
https://digitalbookshelf.aionline.edu/books/1111904871/content/
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Early Northern Renaissance:
8-8: HUGO VAN DER GOES, Portinari Altarpiece (open), from
Sant’Egidio, Florence,
Italy, ca. 1476. Tempera and oil on wood, center panel 8′ 3 ½” x
10′, each wing 8’ 3
½” x 4’ 7 ½”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. By: Ronald V.
Weidenhoeft. 1/7.

/51103551
This altarpiece is a rare instance of the awarding of a major
commission in Florence to a Flemish
painter. The Italians admired the incredibly realistic details and
Hugo’s brilliant portrayal of human
character.
After Portinari placed his altarpiece in the family chapel in the
Florentine church of Sant’Egidio, it
created a considerable stir among Italian artists. Although the
painting as a whole may have seemed
unstructured to them and the varying scale of the figures
according to their importance perpetuated
medieval conventions, Hugo’s masterful technique and
incredible realism in representing drapery,
flowers, animals, and, above all, human character and emotion
made a deep impression on the
Italians.
/51103551
Early Italian Renaissance Art:

8-27: SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Birth of Venus, ca. 1484–1486.
Tempera on canvas, 5′ 9″
× 9′ 2″. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. By: Dr. Ronald V.
Weidenhoeft. 4/8
/51103570
Sandro Botticelli
Fra Filippo’s most famous pupil was SANDRO BOTTICELLI
(1444–1510), whom the Medici
frequently employed and whom art historians universally
recognize as one of the great masters of
line. One of the works Botticelli painted in tempera on canvas
for the Medici is Birth of
Venus (FIG. 8-27). The theme was the subject of a poem by
Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), a
leading humanist of the day. In Botticelli’s lyrical painting of
the poet’s retelling of the Greek
myth, Zephyrus (the west wind), carrying Chloris, blows Venus,
born of the sea foam and carried
on a cockle shell, to her sacred island, Cyprus. There, the
nymph Pomona runs to meet her with a
brocaded mantle. The lightness and bodilessness of the winds
propel all the figures without
effort. Draperies undulate easily in the gentle gusts, perfumed
by rose petals that fall on the
whitecaps. The nudity of Botticelli’s Venus was in itself an
innovation. As noted earlier, the
nude, especially the female nude, was exceedingly rare during
the Middle Ages. The artist’s use
(especially on such a large scale) of an ancient Venus statue—a
Hellenistic variant of Praxiteles’
famous Aphrodite of Knidos (FIG. 2-47)—as a model could
have drawn the charge of paganism
and infidelity. But in the more accommodating Renaissance

culture and under the protection of
the powerful Medici, the depiction went unchallenged. Inspired
by an Angelo Poliziano poem
and classical statues of Aphrodite (FIG. 2-47), Botticelli
revived the theme of the female nude in
this elegant and romantic representation of Venus born of the
sea foam.
/51103570
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Botticelli’s style is clearly distinct from the earnest search
many other artists pursued to
comprehend humanity and the natural world through a rational,
empirical order. Indeed,
Botticelli’s elegant and beautiful style seems to have ignored all
of the scientific knowledge
15th-century artists had gained in the understanding of
perspective and anatomy. For example,
the seascape in Birth of Venus is a flat backdrop devoid of
atmospheric perspective. Botticelli’s
style paralleled the allegorical pageants that acting troupes
staged in Florence as chivalric
tournaments but structured around allusions to classical
mythology. The same trend is evident in
the poetry of the 1470s and 1480s. Artists and poets at this time
did not directly imitate classical
antiquity but used the myths, with delicate perception of their
charm, in a way still tinged with

medieval romance. Ultimately, Botticelli created a lyrical and
courtly style of visual poetry
parallel to the love poetry of Lorenzo de’ Medici.
Early Italian Renaissance Art:
8-15: LORENZO GHIBERTI, east doors (Gates of Paradise),
baptistery, Florence,
Italy, 1425–1452. Gilded bronze, 17′ high. Modern copy, ca.
1980. Original
panels in Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. By: Scott
Gilchrist, Archivision,
Inc. 1/7.
/51103559

In Ghiberti’s later doors for the Florentine baptistery, the
sculptor abandoned the Gothic
quatrefoil frames for the biblical scenes (compare FIG.8-14)
and employed painterly illusionistic
devices.
The individual panels, such as Isaac and His Sons (FIG. 8-16),
clearly recall painting techniques
in their depiction of space as well as in their treatment of the
narrative. Some exemplify more
fully than painting many of the principles the architect and
theorist Leon Battista Alberti (FIGS.
8-33, 8-36, and 8-37) formulated in his 1435 treatise, On
Painting. In his relief, Ghiberti created
the illusion of space partly through the use of pictorial
perspective and partly by sculptural
means. He represented buildings using linear perspective (see
“Renaissance Perspectival
Systems,” page 232, and FIG. 8-17), but the figures (in the
bottom section of the relief, which
actually projects slightly toward the viewer) appear almost fully
in the round, some of their heads
standing completely free. As the eye progresses upward, the
relief increasingly flattens,
concluding with the architecture in the background, which
Ghiberti depicted in barely raised
/51103559
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lines. In this manner, the artist created a sort of sculptor’s aerial
perspective, with forms
appearing less distinct the deeper they are in space.
id/term148-8: HUGO VAN DER GOES, Portinari Altarpiece
(open), from Sant’Egidio, Florence, Italy, ca. 1476. Tempera
and oil on wood, center panel 8′ 3 ½” x 10′, each wing 8’ 3 ½” x
4’ 7 ½”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. By: Ronald V.
Weidenhoeft. 1/7.8-27: SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Birth of
Venus, ca. 1484–1486. Tempera on canvas, 5′ 9″ × 9′ 2″.
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. By: Dr. Ronald V. Weidenhoeft.
4/8Sandro Botticelli

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