This document provides an overview of Renaissance and Baroque arts. It discusses key figures and developments in Renaissance art, including how it emerged in Florence, Italy and important philosophers like Petrarch. It also summarizes techniques developed during this period like sfumato and chiaroscuro. Specific artworks by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and others are described. Sculptors like Lorenzo Ghiberti who helped develop the Renaissance style are also mentioned.

1. UNIT 2
RENAISSANCE AND
BAROQUE ARTS
MISS KATE

2. LESSON 1
RENAISSANCE ARTS

3. • Renaissance first emerged in Florence, Italy. In the book “arts and humanities
through the eras” written by Edward Bleiberg, Renaissance started in the 1300s
from the birth of Francesco Petrarch who is an important figure in the formation
of Renaissance philosophy and literature.

4. • Michel de Montaigne is the last philosopher to be universally recognized as a
Renaissance thinker.
• Renaissance used it to resolve ethical and moral dilemmas that eventually led them to
create a philosophy that fosters a virtuous living which is studia humanitatis or “human
studies.”
• In the middle ages, artists were perceived as craftsmen that belong to a build system. In
the renaissance, artists remained as guild members but their roles went beyond as artists
like leonardo da vinci, michelangelo of italy and albrecht dürer of germany leveled up
the status of artists by insisting that artists are extraordinarily and divinely bestowed
with creativity.

5. • Leonardo da Vinci even emphasized art as a science because it is a means of exploring nature
and record discoveries.
• HE is considered as one of the three giants of the Renaissance Period and was born from a
notary named Piero da Vinci and a peasant woman.
• sculpture, architecture, mechanics, and design.
• music, physics, botany, geography, optics, anatomy, and geology.
• One of the notable works of Leonardo is The Last Supper commissioned for the dining hall of
the monastery of Santa Maria Delle Grazie. Leonardo divided the twelve disciples into groups
of three.

6. • Michelangelo Buonarroti
• Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Tuscany. He and his family moved back to Florence soon
after he was born and he attended Latin school until he was thirteen.
• At a young age, Michelangelo already learned his first lessons in stone carving.
• One of his famous works is the Pieta, an image of the dead Christ being carried on the lap of his
his mother.
• Michelangelo carved this sculpture from a single block of marble and immediately gained
recognition for its delicate and accomplished technique.

7. • Raphael Sanzio
• Raphael is the youngest among the three great masters of High Renaissance which include
Leonardo and Michelangelo. He is known to give expression to a harmonious and balanced
vision.
• One of Raphael’s famous commissioned artworks is the Madonna of the Meadows which was
greatly influenced by da Vinci’s style.
• It is composed of Madonna, Christ child, and John the Baptist portrayed in a pyramidal grouping
grouping that is similar to da Vinci’s Madonna and St. Anne.

8. • Albrecht Dürer
• One of the masters of the High Renaissance outside Italy is Albrecht Dürer.
• Dürer’s greatest works are his engravings and woodcuts.
• One of his notable engravings is the Melencolia I melancholia. that features an enigmatic and
gloomy figure thought to personify This print helped establish the tradition of graphic arts
practiced by many German artists in the following centuries.

9. LESSON 2
REIMAGINING RENAISSANC
PAINTING

10. • . One of these is the emergence of the printing press through the invention of the Gutenberg
printing press in 1450 which significantly contributed to the flow of information in Europe and
helped artists and scholars to propagate their crafts and knowledge.
• Renaissance art is characterized by humanism and realism.
• Painting in Renaissance also introduced the technique in oils that allow for a broader range of
color.
• Fresco is a technique that flourished in Italy since ancient times. It is derived from the Italian
word meaning “fresh.” In this technique, an artist prepares a wall with a layer of rough plaster
where he sketches a mockup of the final composition of the artwork.
• Sfumato was coined by Leonardo da Vinci, and this refers to a painting technique of blurring
sharp outlines by subtle and gradual blending through thin glazes to give a 3D illusion. The
word sfumato stems from the Italian word sfumare that means to evaporate or fade out. It is
also characterized as atmospheric painting.

11. • Chiaroscuro is a technique that makes use of strong contrast between light and dark that affects
the composition of an artwork. This technique was developed by Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio,
and Rembrandt.
• Cangiante paintings are characterized by a change in color to render shadows. Due to the
original color’s limitation to emphasize lightness to darkness or vice versa, another color will be
used to give a shadow with a more dramatic effect. This can be observed in the works of
Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel or Giotto’s in the Arena Chapel.
• Unione is also another mode of painting available to Italian painters during the Renaissance. It is
somehow similar to sfumato in a way that it emphasizes the smooth transformation of colors
without leaving traces of hard lines. However, the intensity could be seen in the depth of colors
that leans near the characteristic of chiaroscuro.
• Unione was developed by Raphael which can be strongly observed in his works in Stanza Della
Segnatura and also Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

12. • Foreshortening refers to the visual effect or optical illusion through the use of angle perspective.
An object or distance can appear shorter through the use of lines and angles. Italian artist
Andrea Mantegna in his work Lamentation over the Dead Christ.
• Mannerism is an artistic style developed at the end of the High Renaissance. The term was
coined by Italian archaeologist Luigi Lanzi.
• The Arnolfini Wedding (also known as the Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife) is an oil
painting made in 1434 by Jan van Eyck, a painter from the Netherlands. It depicts a full-length
double portrait of the Italian merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife. This portrait is
considered one of the most original and complex paintings of Renaissance art widely discussed
in basic Western art history.
• Mona Lisa is a half-body portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci. The model of this painting is
said to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo who is a wealthy Florentine.

13. • Michelangelo associates himself more as a sculptor, but one of his famous work of art
recognized worldwide is his painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican. The Sistine
Chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV who had it built between the years 1473 to 1484. It is a
private chapel of the pope and a place where the College of Cardinals elects the new pope.
• One of the famous fresco paintings of the High Renaissance master Raphael is the School of
Athens. It shows the refinement and monumental character of his works. In this painting, he
depicted the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle as well as other intellectual elite of
Greece.

14. LESSON 3
RECREATING RENAISSANCE
SCULPTURE

15. • Lorenzo Ghiberti was trained by his stepfather Bartolo who was a goldsmith. He also practiced
painting, but his talents lay more on making sculptures of small objects. Ghiberti is said to be
the first to develop a unique Renaissance style through the bronze doors he made for a
competition in a Cathedral Baptistery in Florence. He won the contract to this project beating
the city’s distinguished artists that include Jacopo della Quercia and Filippo Brunelleschi.