Transcript Renaissance

Renaissance
“rebirth”
• Proportion
• Anatomy
• Perspective
15th century
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Growth
Discovery
Commerce
Wealth
Knowledge
Arts
Cities were important for
• Trading
• Industry
– Florence
• Capital of cloth trade
• Riches banking house
Renaissance took place during
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Rebellions
Wars
Political instability
Economical instability
the Plague
Inventions
• Printing press by
Gutenberg
– Used in Germany,
France, England and
Italy
3 classes of people
1. Aristocracy
2. Church
3. Peasants
Chain of being
• God
• Aristocracy
• Church
• Peasants
• Chickens
• Women
Middle Class
• Change came from merchants
– Influenced by trade, finance and industry
• Growth in wealth increased # educated
• Growth in the Arts
Humanism
• New philosophy
• Human intelligence seemed limitless
• Works of humans have value in themselves and
were not in the service of the Church
• Arts, science, wisdom, knowledge and the earth
itself were in the service of humanity
• humanism rejects the validity of transcendental
justifications, such as a dependence on belief
without reason, the supernatural, or text of
allegedly divine origin.
Renaissance Artists
• Ghiberti
• Albrecht Dürer
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Michelangelo
• Raphael
Studied
• Geology, Botany, Anatomy, Geometry and Mathematics
Used to be thought of a Craftspeople, employees
of the church
• Individuals
• Medici’s
Masaccio “The Tribute Money” fresco, 1427.
• Masaccio
– In his mid-20’s
– Start of visual perspective and texture
– Many young painters joined the Florentine
Painter’s Guild
Vanishing
point
Fresco- A method of painting on plaster,
either dry (dry fresco or fresco secco) or
wet (wet or true fresco). In the wet
method, pigments are applied to thin
layers of wet plaster so that they will be
absorbed and the painting becomes part
of the wall.
Filippo Brunelleschi
• 1377-1466
• Known for the cupola (dome on the
Cathedral of Florence)
• Goldsmith, sculptor, mathematician,
builder and architect
• Developed scientific perspective
•Dome built in 2 shells
•Linked ribs and supports are surrounded by interlocking
brickwork which all work together to support dome
•140 feet in diameter and 300 feet above the floor
•Created new uses of ramps and hoist to raise roof (unlike
previous architects who looked at earlier structures for building
concepts
Sculpture
influenced
Roman sculpture
Renaissance sculpture
Lorenzo Ghiberti
• 1381-1455
• Sculpted “Sacrifice of
Isaac” panel for doors
of baptistery of
Florence
• Competition entry for
the doors Ghiberti
later made
•Sculpted “Sacrifice of
Isaac” panel for doors
of baptistery of
Florence
•From same door as
Ghiberti’s piece
•Competition entry by
Filippo Brunelleschi
Competition for the doors
• 2 things stood out: aesthetics and money
• Ghiberti’s design had the design and was cost
effective as he used bronze gilding technique
– Gilding… to cover surface in a thin layer of metal (usually
gold) … similar to gold plating
• 21 year old Ghiberti won the competition
• Took more than 20 years to complete
“The Gates of Paradise”
• After doing such a good job on the doors
Ghiberti’s was commissioned to create
the doors for the East side of the
baptistery.
• The doors were later called “The Gates
of Paradise”
• There were 10 larger square panels
• Each panel was cast in bronze and
covered in gold (gilded)
Ghiberti “Gates of
Paradise” or “East
doors of the baptistry
of Florence
Cathedral” 1425-1452
Made of bronze
and Gilt gold
Donatello
• 1386-1466
• Sculptor
• 32 Life-size or large pieces were create
outdoors in Florence
• Donatello is acknowledged as the best sculptor
of his day
• He mastered Contrapposto (based on Greek
body stance) (suggests action or shifting of body
weight)
• Best seen in his sculpture of “David”
Donatello’s “David”
1430-1432
• Bronze 158cm high
• First freestanding nude
since ancient times
• Facial expression
depicts idea of pride,
dignity and self-reliance
•Realistic
•Commissioned by Cosimo
de Medici
•Designed to be seen from all
angles
•Head was crowned with
contemporary soldier
headgear and laurel wreath
combining ancient and
contemporary traditions
Sandro Botticelli
• 1445-1510
• Painted “Birth of Venus”
• Based on traditional
mythology
• Venus, the goddess of
love, rises from the sea
in a shell
Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” 1482. Tempra on canvas
• On the left, West Winds looking like angels push her
towards land
• One the right, Spring is ready to toss a robe around
Venus’ unclothed body
Mythological scenes were
considered metaphors for
Christian ideas.
• Spring = Christ / baptism / John the Baptist
• Signifies the rebirth of humanity
• Botticelli was a master of delicate lines, as
seen in figures and fabrics
• His use of pale colours and the floating
appearance of the figures add to the
fantasy of the subject
• “Birth of Venus” was one of the first Italian
works on canvas instead of panel
Botticelli's “The Adoration of the Magi” 1470’s. Tempera on Panel
Botticelli's “Adoration of the Magi”
•Wise men and others who have come
to see Holy Family
•Models in piece are portraits of Italian
contemporaries
•Man in bottom right is a self portrait of
the artist
•The composition is calm at the center
and becomes active towards the outside
•The aspects of the painting are depicted
as elegant and luxurious
High Renaissance
• Between 1495 and 1527 there were a series of powerful
and ambitious popes who created a papal state with
Rome as its capital (The Papal States comprised those territories
over which the Pope was the ruler in a civil as well as a spiritual sense
before 1870.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States
)
• Popes lived in luxury and embellished the city with great
works of art
• They shipped in artists and provided them with
challenging and exciting commissions
• High renaissance only last 20 years but produced art
that influenced European art for at least 3 centuries
Renaissance
High Renaissance
• Artists started to be
viewed as geniuses
rather than
craftsperson's. It was
widely believed that
artists, like poets, created
their work under divine
inspiration.
• Artists often disregarded
rules of the early
Renaissance and let their
feelings dictate their
styles. This led to more
expressive work.
Early Renaissance
• Artists relied on formulas,
scientific perspective,
ratios, and proportions to
structure their work
Leonardo da Vinci
• 1452-1519
• Artist/ Genius in painting,
sculpture, architecture,
engineering, military science,
botany, anatomy, geology,
aerodynamics and optics.
• Not only was he interested in
these fields, but he was also
considered an expert in all of
them. “renaissance man”
Leonardo da Vinci
• He compiled 10 000
pages of drawings and
ideas
• Invented the parachute
and helicopter
Leonardo da Vinci “ The Last Supper” 1495-1498
• Wall Fresco
• Image of Christ and the apostles celebrating Passover
• Experimented with new techniques: dry plaster with oil and tempera
mixture (chipped off immediately/ oil water don’t mix)
• Only 4% is estimated to still be original
Movie worthy
controversy
The Mysterious
knife without a
visible body
Hand is awkwardly
place on
her shoulder?
Hand is hanging
in mid air.
Was it originally on
her back?
Body positions
look like they were
originally placed
together
In the “Da Vinci Code” movie, Mary Magdalene is thought to be Jesus Christ’s
lover and that is just part of the cover-up which lives in da Vinci’s artworks.
Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”
• 1503-1506. Oil on panel
• His favorite painting and
he carried it around with
him his entire life
• Painted using
chiaroscuro: the extreme
contrast of dark and light
• Distant hills and
mountains are partially
obscured by a light haze,
also know as sfumato, an
effect that allowed
Leonardo to create a
feeling of enormous
depth
Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”
• Some say her image is quite similar to his own
• Could this be the source of the “smile” that has
intrigued so many?
Michelangelo di Lodovico
Buonarroti Simoni
• (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564)
Michelangelo
• Was an Italian renaissance painter,
sculpture. Architect, poet and engineer.
• In his lifetime he was also often called Il
Divino ("the divine one”)
• Two of his best-known works, the Pieta
and the David, were sculpted before he
turned thirty.
Two of his best-known works, the Pieta
and the David, were sculpted before he
turned thirty.
David
• David is a masterpiece of Renaissance
sculpture sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to
1504. The 5.17 meter of marble statue portrays
the biblical King David in the nude, at the
moment that he decides to battle with Goliath. It
came to symbolize the defense of civic liberties
embodied in the Florentine Republic, an
independent city state threatened on all sides by
more powerful rival states and by the hegemony
of the Medici themselves.
Pieta
• Is located in St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City. The
statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jena
de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome.
• This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the
lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion.
• Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unique to
the precedents. It is an important work as it balances the
Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism.
The statue is one of the most highly finished works by
Michelangelo.
The Sistine Chapel
• Michelangelo also
created two of the
most influential works
in Fresco in the
history of Western art:
the Scenes from
Genesis on the ceiling
and The Last
Judgment on the altar
wall of the Sistine
Chapel in Rome.
Sistine Chapel
• The Sistine chapel ceiling took
approximately 4 years to complete.
The composition eventually contained over 300 figures
and had at its centre nine episodes from the Book of Genesis,
divided into three groups: God's Creation of the Earth; God's
Creation of Humankind and their fall from God's grace; and
lastly, the state of Humanity as represented by Noah and his
family
Raphael Sanzio
(April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520
was an Italian painter and architect
of the High Renaissance,
• Perspective was a common theme that
Raphael liked to play with.
• It was painted between 1510 and 1511
• In the center of the fresco, at its
architecture's central vanishing points,
are the two undisputed main subjects:
Plato on the left and Aristotle, his
student, on the right.