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1. RENAISSANCE
(15th-16th century)
Overview, beginning, characteristics, periods

2. What is Renaissance?
‘Renaissance’ is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle
Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and
surpass ideas and achievements of classical antiquity.
Renaissance art took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity, perceived as the noblest of
ancient traditions, and transformed that tradition by absorbing recent developments in the art of
Northern Europe and by applying contemporary scientific knowledge.
The changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe. The first traces appear in Italy as
early as the late 13th century, in particular with the writings of Dante and the paintings of Giotto.

3. Where it started
The Renaissance began in the Republic of
Florence, one of the many states of Italy.
Other major centers were northern Italian city-
states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna,
and Rome during the Renaissance
Papacy or Flemish cities such
as Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Leuven, or Antwerp.

4. Origin
Renaissance literally means rebirth. From the early 14th century, in their search for a new set of artistic
values and a response to the courtly International Gothic style, Italian artists and thinkers became inspired
by the ideas and forms of ancient Greece and Rome. It re-established Western art according to the principles
of classical Greek art, especially Greek sculpture and painting
The scholars of Renaissance period focused on present life and ways to make human life evolve and improve
in its entirety. During this period, scholars and humanists like Erasmus, Dante and Petrarch criticized
superstitious beliefs and also questioned them. The concept of education also widened its spectrum and
focused more on creating 'an ideal man' who would have a fair understanding of arts, music, poetry and
literature and would have the ability to appreciate these aspects of life.

5. Contributing Factors
• Philosophy
A number of Classical texts, that had been lost to Western European scholars for centuries, became available. These
included Philosophy, Poetry, Drama, Science, a thesis on the Arts and Early Christian Theology. The resulting interest
in Humanist philosophy meant that man's relationship with humanity, the universe and with God was no longer
exclusively defined by the Church. The intellectual basis of the Renaissance was its version of humanism, derived from the
concept of Roman humanitas and the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of Protagoras, who said that
"man is the measure of all things". This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science and literature.
Many of the concepts of Renaissance Humanism, from its emphasis on the individual to its concept of the genius, or
Renaissance man, to the importance of education, the viability of the classics, and its spirit of exploration became
foundational to Western culture.

6. Humanism in Art
The emergence of the individual figure, in place of symbolic figures.
Greater realism and consequent attention to detail, as reflected in the development of
linear perspective and the increasing realism of human faces and bodies.
An emphasis on and promotion of virtuous action: an approach echoed by the leading art
theorist of the Renaissance Leon Battista Alberti,when he declared, "happiness cannot be
gained without good works and just and righteous deeds".

8. •Society
The establishment of the Medici
Bank and the subsequent trade it
generated brought enormous wealth
to Florence - a single Italian
city. Cosimo de' Medici set a new
standard for patronage of the arts, not
associated with the church or
monarchy.

9. The Medici
The Medici family was one of
the most influential and
significant forces in the entire
Renaissance. They are best
remembered today for their
control over Florence and their
patronage of major art projects
and artists.

11. Migration of Greek scholars and their texts to Italy following
the Fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottoman Turks.
The devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death, which
hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the
world view of people in 14th century Italy. Italy was
particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been speculated
that the resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to
dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than
on spirituality and the afterlife.
Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death (c. 1562)

12. • The publication of two treatises by Leone Battista
Alberti, De pictura ("On Painting") in 1435 and De
re aedificatoria ("Ten Books on Architecture") in
1452.
• Art history - Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter,
architect, engineer, writer, and historian, best
known for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological
foundation of art-historical writing, and the basis
for biographies of several Renaissance artists,
including Leonardo da Vinci.
Self-portrait by Vasari

13. •Often called "the first art
historian", Vasari invented the genre
of the encyclopedia of artistic
biographies which was first
published in 1550 and dedicated to
Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici.
A cover of the Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari

14. • Science and technology
Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg introduced
the metal movable-type printing press in
Europe. The advent of movable
type printing in the 15th century meant that
ideas could be disseminated easily, and an
increasing number of books were written for a
broad public.
The development of oil paint and its
introduction to Italy had lasting effects on the
art of painting.

15. Themes
The themes were those of both subject matter and execution – what was painted and the
style in which it was painted.
Certain characteristic elements of Renaissance painting evolved a great deal during the
period. These include perspective, both in terms of how it was achieved and the effect to
which it was applied, and realism, particularly in the depiction of humanity, either as
symbolic, portrait or narrative element.

16. The Flagellation of Christ, c. 1468-1470

17. Elements of Renaissance painting
1. Linear perspective
2. Landscape
3. Light and Shade
4. Anatomy
5. Realism
6. Figure composition

18. Linear perspective is a system of creating an illusion of depth on a flat surface.
Renaissance artists practiced the art of three-dimensional illusion using linear
perspective, which gave their works a greater sense of depth.
• LINEAR PERSPECTIVE

19. Masaccio, The Trinity,
Santa Maria Novella.

20. Raphael, completed by Giulio Romano, Fire in the Borgo.

21. • LANDSCAPE
The depiction of landscape
was encouraged by the
development of linear
perspective and the inclusion
of detailed landscapes in the
background of many Early
Netherlandish paintings of the
15th century. Also through this
influence came an awareness
of atmospheric perspective
Giotto, Joachim's Dream.

22. Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in Ecstasy.

23. Perugino, Adoration of the Magi, 1496.

24. • LIGHT AND SHADE
Light and shade exist in a painting in two forms.
1. Tone is simply the lightness and darkness of areas of a picture, graded from white to
black. Tonal arrangement is a very significant feature of some paintings.
2. Chiaroscuro is the modelling of apparent surfaces within a picture by the suggestion of
light and shadow. It became increasingly important to painters of the 15th century,
transforming the depiction of three-dimensional space.

25. Fra Angelico, The Annunciation.

26. Filippino Lippi, Portrait of a Young Man. Giuliano Bugiardini and others, Portrait of a
Lady, c.1510

27. Leonardo da Vinci, John
the Baptist.

28. • ANATOMY
The knowledge of anatomy was
advanced by Leonardo da Vinci's
meticulous dissection of 30
corpses. Early artists painted from
observation.
Giotto, The Crucifix of Santa Maria Novella, c.1300

29. Giovanni Bellini, The Deposition

30. Michelangelo, Adam, c.1510

31. •REALISM
The observation of nature meant
that set forms and symbolic
gestures which were used to
convey meaning (in Medieval art,
and particularly the Byzantine
style) prevalent in much of Italy,
were replaced by the
representation of human emotion
as displayed by a range of
individuals.
Giotto, The Resurrection.

32. Mantegna, The Dead Christ.

33. Giorgione, Portrait of
an elderly woman.

34. • FIGURE COMPOSITION
The artists commissioned to do
large works with multiple
figures had to make the subject,
usually narrative, easily read by
the viewer, natural in
appearance and well composed
within the picture space.
Giotto, The Kiss of Judas from the Scrovegni Chapel.

35. Masaccio and Filippino Lippi, The Resurrection of the Son of Theophilus

36. Botticelli, Venus and Mars, 1485.

37. Major works
(large scale)
• Altarpieces
• Fresco cycles
Piero della Francesca, Brera Madonna 1460s.

38. These are work of art that decorates the
space above and behind the altar in a
Christian church.
Through the Renaissance period, the
large altarpiece had a unique status as a
commission. An altarpiece was destined to
become a focal point, not only visually in
the religious building it occupied, but also in
the devotions of the worshippers.
ALTARPIECES
Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna, 1310.

39. Andrea Mantegna, Madonna della
Vittoria, 1496, Paris
Leonardo da Vinci, The Madonna of the
Rocks, London 1483-1508.

40. The largest, most time-consuming paid work
that an artist could do was a scheme
of frescoes for a church, private palace or
commune building.
FRESCO CYCLES
Giotto, the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, 1305-1310

41. Domenico Ghirlandaio, the Sassetti Chapel, Florence, 1483-1486.

42. Raphael, the School of Athens in the Stanze, Vatican, 1509-10.

43. The Vatican Palace

44. Subjects
• Devotional Paintings
• Secular Paintings
Verrocchio, Madonna with Child, 1470s

45. DEVOTIONAL PAINTINGS
Devotional images of the Madonna and
Child were produced in very large numbers.
Scenes of the Life of Christ, the Life of the
Virgin were commonly depicted. For ex- The
Last Supper.
The Madonna
These small intimate pictures were mostly
done for private ownership, but might
occasionally be found on a small altar in a
chapel. Leonardo da Vinci, The Benois Madonna, 1470s

46. Vittore Carpaccio, The Madonna and Child with
St. John the Baptist, c. 1500.
Giovanni Bellini, The Carrara Madonna, 1487

47. Michelangelo, The Doni Tondo, 1504

48. SECULAR PAINTINGS
Wealthy private patrons commissioned
artworks as decoration for their homes, of
increasingly secular subject matter. These
included -
•Portraits
•The Nude
•Classical Mythology
Antonio Pollaiuolo, Portrait of a woman, c. 1470

49. Portraits
During the latter half of the 15th
century, there was an increase in
number of portraits being
commissioned. The identities of
many have been lost and are open to
speculation and controversy.
Botticelli, Portrait of Lorenzo di Ser Piero Lorenzi,
1490-1495

50. Antonello da Messina, Portrait of a man, 1476 Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of an old man and his
grandson, 1488

51. Leonardo da Vinci, The Mona Lisa, 1503-1507 Andrea del Sarto, Portrait of a man, c. 1510.

52. The Nude
There comes a shift in the symbolism of a nude to the actual depiction of an
individual. The following four famous paintings demonstrate the advent and
acceptance of the nude as a subject for the artist in its own right.
Giovanni Bellini, The Mirror, c. 1510

53. Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1482-1486

54. Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1500 Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1530s.

55. Classical mythology
Paintings of classical mythology
were invariably done for the
important salons in the houses of
private patrons. For instance,
Botticelli’s most famous works are
for the Medici.
Antonio Pollaiuolo, Hercules and the Hydra, c. 1470

56. Botticelli, Pallas Athena and the Centaur, c.1481 Raphael, The Triumph of Galatea, 1511

57. Bellini, The Feast
of the Gods, 1514

58. Other motifs were drawn from contemporary life, like important incidents of a particular
family. The contemporary themes were depicted sometimes with allegorical meaning, some
sometimes purely decorative. Important events such as local religious festivals were often
recorded in paintings.
History and historic characters were often depicted in a way that reflected on current events
or on the lives of current people. Portraits were often painted of contemporaries in the guise
of characters from history or literature.
In all these subjects, increasingly, and in the works of almost all painters, certain underlying
painterly practices were being developed: the observation of nature, the study of anatomy, of
light, and perspective.

59. • Proportion and Perspective
• Foreshortening
• Chiaroscuro Drawing and Woodcuts
• Sfumato
Techniques
Christ at Rest, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1519

60. The use of Proportion
The first major treatment of the painting as a
“window into space” appeared in the work
of Giotto di Bondone, at the beginning of the 14th
century. True linear perspective was formalized
later, by Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista
Alberti. In addition to giving a more realistic
presentation of art, it moved Renaissance painters
into composing more paintings.

61. Foreshortening
The term foreshortening refers to the artistic effect of shortening lines in a drawing so as to
create an illusion of depth.
Correggio: Assumption of the Virgin

62. Artists developed chiaroscuro
drawing, as they added white for
light effects and black for dark
effects. Many of these works, along
with Renaissance paintings and wash
drawings, were in demand as
reproductions. In 1508, the German
artist Hans Burgkmair invented
chiaroscuro woodcut prints.
Chiaroscuro Drawing and
Woodcuts
Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490

63. Sfumato
Sfumato means “to vanish like
smoke”. To show the effects of light
upon curved surfaces and enhance
the effects of chiaroscuro, Leonardo
da Vinci perfected the technique
of sfumato, which involved applying
multiple thin layers of glaze to create
soft tonal transitions and gradations
between light and shadow.
Detail of the face of Mona Lisa showing the use of sfumato

64. Periods
Early Renaissance (1401-1490)
Northern Renaissance (1430-1580)
High Renaissance (1490s-1527)