This document provides an overview of Renaissance art from the 13th to 17th centuries. It describes key developments like the invention of oil paints and linear perspective. Major artists discussed include Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, and northern European masters like Durer and Van Eyck. The text outlines the three periods of the Renaissance - Early, Italian, and Northern - and highlights influential works and artistic advancements during this time of rebirth and revival of classical ideas.

1. Compiled by Anriette van Wyk by
utilising the studies of various
subject matter experts as source
documents.

2. Renaissance Era
1,200 A.D. - 1,700 A.D.
• Renaissance means rebirth.
• Revival of cultural awareness and learning
• Renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman
art and design
• Emphasis on human beings, their
environment, science, and philosophy.
• Artwork was done on walls and ceilings of
churches, public buildings, and private
dwellings.

3. • Renaissance art
wanted to show joy in
human beauty and
life’s pleasures.
Renaissance art is
more lifelike than in
the art of the Middle
Ages.

4. Artistic Advancements
• Invention of oil paints
• Discovery of perspective drawing and
painting
• Beginning of printmaking

5. Invention of Oil Paint
• Tempera paint was made by mixing
pigment powder with egg yolks or gum
VERY RESTRICTIVE.
• Oil paint was invented by mixing
pigments with linseed oil
• Oil paint was easily blended, long
lasting, slow drying, many different
colors

6. Renaissance Terms
• Quattrocento:
– Century beginning in 1400
• Humanist:
– scholars who studied classical texts
• Vernacular:
– common, everyday language

7. Three Major Periods
I. Early Renaissance
II. Italian Renaissance
III. Northern Renaissance

8. Early Renaissance
• Florence - early 1400s
• Patron - a person who financially
supports an artist
• Major Players:
•
Masaccio
•
Donatello*
•
Botticelli*

9. Masaccio (1401-1428)
• Christ Descending
from the Cross
• Used the technique
of perspective, which
had been developed
by Brunelleschi, to
give the appearance
of distance.

10. Donatello di Niccolo Bardi
(1386-1466)
• Donatello is known
for his sculpture.
• Acquired great fame in
his lifetime and was
called to many Italian
cities to share his gift
of sculpture

11. David

12. David, 1425 A.D.
• First free-standing
nude sculpture in a
1000 years
• Church was finally
less restrictive
• Depicts David
slaying the Goliath
• The sculpture of
David became a
symbol for Florence

13. The condottiere
Gattamelata in Padua by
Donatello

14. Botticelli (bought tee Chel
lee)
-His nudes epitomized the Renaissance
Birth of Venus
-Rebirth of Classical mythology

15. Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1482, Tempera on Canvas

16. Venus – Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty
Zephyrus – God of Wind with his lover, Chloris
Pomona – Nymph greeting Venus with a robe
• Painting inspired by a poem by Angelo Poliziano, an Italian Humanist
• Commissioned by the Medici for the Medici family, a powerful wealthy
Italian family
• From a series of paintings based on Classical themes
Botticelli, Birth of Venus

17. Primavera

18. The
Annunciation

19. Italian Renaissance
• 16th Century, artistic
leadership spread
from Florence to
Rome and Venice
• There was a focus on
technical mastery
including:
composition, ideal
proportions, and
perspective
• Major Players:
–
–
–
–
Da Vinci*
Michelangelo*
Raphael*
Titian

20. Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519
• Trained in Florence, Italy as a
painter and sculptor not a
scholar
• Was a genius both scientifically
and artistically
• Was not interested in books and
what scholars had to say-he was
interested in his own
explorations and ideas
• Always had to prove everything
• Struggle to work for commission
and finish work
• Did drawings and sculptures on
his own terms.

21. Leonardo Da Vinci
• Renaissance Man
• Stressed the intellectual aspects of art
and creativity
• Didn’t like the solemnity of most
portrait paintings so he hired musicians
and jesters to amuse his subjects
• Most important contribution might be
his notebooks

22. “Mona Lisa”
• Most famous portrait of all
time
• Painting is the wife, Lisa,
of Francesco del Giocondo
• Painting has no hard lines
or contours, technique
called sfumato
• Painting leaves us
something to guess
• Most striking is her
ambiguous half smile

23. First portrait in which a
woman looked straight
into the viewer.
Portrait suggests a history,
personality, mood, and
feeling.
First recognized for its
background.

24. The Last Supper

25. “The Last Supper” 1498

26. • Painting demonstrates
one point perspective
• Jesus' head is the
vanishing point
• Leonardo would
spend a full day just
looking at the
painting-studying

27. • Located on end wall of the refectory of Santa Maria delle in
Millan
• One of the most renowned paintings of the Renaissance
• Painting depicts the scene Jesus and the apostles at the last
supper, when Jesus tells the apostles that one of them will
betray him

28. • Leonardo painted himself
• Controversial Mary Magdalene

29. The problem with frescos

30. His notebooks…
Machine gun
flight
flight
canon
Designs for: canals, central
heating, printing press, telescope,
portable bombs, theory of
circulation 100 years before
Harvey, studies of fetus in womb so
accurate that they could be used
today to teach embryology

31. • Was a pioneer in the study
of human anatomy
• Dissected over thirty
bodies
• Almost 2,500 drawings and
studies of his ideas left in
notebooks
• Most of his notes and
drawings were kept-people
knew of the importance of
them and the genius of
Leonardo

32. • Leonardo was left handed
• He took all of his notes from right to left
• Need a mirror to read his notes

33. Inventor
• Created many
drawings of machines
and different items of
functions
• Examples of war
machines: armored
car, ladder for
besieging walls, rock
thrower

34. Different architectural
designs

35. Drawings of Flying Machines

36. •
•
•
•
•
Pulleys
Drilling machines
Furnace designs
Pile driver
Fans

37. Michelangelo Buonarroti
• He was one of the
greatest artists of all
time. Like Leonardo,
Michelangelo was a
“Renaissance Man”
of many talents. He
was a great sculptor,
a painter, and an
architect.

38. Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475-1564)
• Trained in Florence, Italy
• Dissected humans and drew the human
body in many different positions
• Influenced by Greek and Roman
Sculptures
• Sculpture was his true love,
he hated to paint

39. • Michelangelo was a prickly-tempered,
mistrusting and lonely man, lacking in both
interpersonal skills and confidence in his physical
appearance.
• Was often hated by other artists because of his
supreme talent and he often told you about how
good he was
• His conceit and arrogance cost him many friends
and found himself working alone
• Nobody could argue his brilliance and geniuses

40. Michelangelo
• Patron = Lorenzo de’Medici at the age of 15 as
a sculptor
• Believed that creativity was divinely inspired
• Lived a life of solitude – never apprenticed
anyone
• Like Da Vinci, he dissected corpses to study
anatomy
• Later in life focused on architecture improving
several structures for popes and civic leaders

41. The statue of
“David”
• Stands over 14’ tall
carved of marble
• Three long years to
complete the sculpture

42. The Statue of “David”
•
•
•
•
“A civic hero, he was a
warning...whoever governed
Florence should govern justly
and defend it bravely. Eyes
watchful...the neck of a
bull...hands of a killer...the body,
a reservoir of energy. He stands
poised to strike." -Michelangelo
Combined beauty with powerful
meaning
Statue stood Palazzo Vecchio, as
a symbol of our Republic
Statue took 40 men 5 days to
move it in place

43. Sistine Chapel How it began:
•
•
•
Michelangelo, while working
on what he loves most
(sculpture), is summoned to
The Vatican by Pope Julius II
to paint the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel.
Bramante, persuaded the
Pope to commission
Michelangelo to paint the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Bramnate did not want
Michelangelo involved in the
construction of the St. Peters
Cathedral
•
•
•
Bramante knew that
Michelangelo was a selfproclaimed “terrible painter”
Hoping he would “screw” up
the paintings and the Pope
would have him killed and
Raphael (his friend) would
take the paintings over.
Plan did not succeed

44. Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
“Genius is Internal Patience”
• Commissioned by Julius II
• Began creating drawings and studies in 1508
• Him and a team of artist starting painting in
the fall of 1508
• 1509, Michelangelo fired all of his assistants
and removed all paintings and took the job
over himself
• Kept his work hidden to all except the Pope
• He painted high on scaffolding on his back

47. "After four tortured
years, more than 400
over life-sized figures, I
felt as old and as weary
as Jeremiah. I was only
37, yet friends did not
recognize the old man I
had become."
-Michelangelo

49. “The Creation of Adam and Eve”

53. David
The Pieta

54. When Michelangelo did a statue of
Moses, he included veins and muscles in
the arms and legs. He also did the same
in David’s sculpture.

55. Pieta

56. Moses
from the tomb of
Julius II - St. Peter of
the Chains
Rome, Italy

57. Marble quarries of Tuscany

60. Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)
• Raphael was strictly a
painter
• Raphael was well liked
with an easy going attitude
• Had a tough artistic
reputation to live up with
Leonardo (31 years older)
and Michelangelo (8 years
older)
• Heavily influenced by both
• Had a short career

61. Raphael
• Most popular by the
people who lived at the
time
• Decorated rooms in the
Vatican
• Star of the Papal Court
and with the ladies…
• He combined the
strengths of Da Vinci
and Michelangelo

62. Raphael
(1483-1520)
Raphael was a
favorite painter of
Pope Leo X.
Notice realistic
forms and
expressions even in a
painting with a
religious theme.

63. Raphael
Notice realistic facial
features and
expressions in this
portrait.

64. School of Athens, 1510-1512

65. Sistine Madonna

66. Deposition

67. Titian (TISH un)
• Father of Modern Painting
• First to really use oil on canvas as his
main medium
• Used strong colors
• Venetian (different from Florence and
Rome in that they were fascinated with
color, texture and mood)

68. Assumption of Mary
Bacchus and Ariadne

69. Northern Renaissance
•
•
•
•
This is the Renaissance north of Italy
Netherlands, Belgium, Holland, and Germany
Lacked Roman ruins, inspiration was nature
Lacked Classical sculpture, painted reality as
they saw it instead of ideal proportions
• Used perspective by making objects in the
back appear “hazy” suggesting depth.

70. Hans Holbein
• One of the greatest
portraitists ever
• His patron was
Erasmus
• Enjoyed symbolic
knickknacks (typical
of this movement)

71. The French
Ambassadors

72. It is an anamorphic image of a human skull.
An
anamorphosis is an image that is distorted in such a
way that it only assumes the proportions of a
recognizable image when viewed from a certain angle,
or by reflection in curved surface. The image of the
skull in The Ambassadors is only visible as a skull when
viewed from below and to one side of the painting. It
has been suggested that it was meant to be displayed
above a staircase, so that those climbing the stairs
would be startled by the apparition of the skull as they
glanced upward at the painting. You can see a
photographic restoration of the skull image as seen
from that angle here.

73. Erasmus von Rotterdam
King Henry VIII

74. Dürer (DEWR er)
• -”Leonardo of the North”
• Believed art should be based on scientific
observation
• Raised the status of artist from craftsman to
near prince
• First to do many self-portraits
• Famous for his woodcuts
• First to use printmaking as a major medium
for art

75. Self-Portrait

76. Erasmus von Rotterdam
Wing of a Blue Jay

77. Saint Jerome

78. Albrecht Durer(Germany)
• Artists like Durer helped
spread Renaissance
ideas to Northern
Europe. Durer traveled
France to work for
Francis I. When he
returned to his home in
Germany, he brought
with him Renaissance
techniques and ideas.

79. Hans Holbein (Germany)
• Known for painting
portraits, including
Henry VIII of
England.

80. Jan van Eyck (Flanders)
• Italian merchant and his
wife living in Flanders
• Symbolism in the
painting:
• Candle in the chandelier
represents Jesus
• Fruit on the windowsill
represents the innocence
of humanity

81. Jan Van Eyck
• Painted microscopic
details in brilliant
color
• -Portrait painting =
had sitter look at
painter (1st)

82. The
Arnolofini
Marriage

84. Bruegal (BROY gull)
• Flemish painter of peasant life
• -satiric edge
• -Elevated genre painting (scenes of
everyday life) to the stature of “high art”

85. Hunters in the Snow or Return of the Hunters

86. Peasant’s Dance

87. The Peasant Wedding

89. Resources:
•
•
•
•
•
Boyer-Switala, J. (2011). Renaissance Art. [Online], Available:
http://www.slideshare.net/jboyerswitala/renaissance-art-9085448 Accessed: 8
March 2014
Coon, I. (2012). Art history. [Online], available:
http://www.slideshare.net/waukeestudent/art-history-14489743 Accessed: 8
March 2014
Dale, A. (2013). Early Renaissance Art in Italy. [Online], available:
http://www.slideshare.net/loveart2/early-renaissance-in-italy-19241166?
qid=48890e77-ddc1-4c33-8712-91473f1508cc&v=qf1&b=&from_search=11 Accessed: 8
March 2014
David, J. (2010). Renaissance. [Online], available:
http://www.slideshare.net/Daviddrake/renaissance-5709486 Accessed: 8 March
2014
MrRed. (2009). Renaissance Art. [Online], available:
http://www.slideshare.net/MrRed/renaissance-art-2674528 Accessed: 8 March
2014