Transcript The Renaissance

The Renaissance
The beginning of Modern Europe
The Renaissance
• Renaissance," French for "rebirth," perfectly
describes the intellectual and economic changes
that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth
through the sixteenth centuries.
• During the era known by this name, Europe
emerged from the economic stagnation of the
Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial
growth. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the
Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social,
scientific, and political thought turned in new
directions. It was also the age of expansion and
Discovery.
Printing Press
• Johannes Gutenberg
1440.
• Mass production
– Production of paper
– Production of
manuscripts.
• Gutenberg Bible: 185
copies.
• Communications
revolution.
• Exchange of ideas
• Beginning of
Censorship
Humanism
• Homogeneous group.
• Study and support of
the liberal arts
(humanities)
• Classical history and
literature glory
• Want to harmonize
classicism and
Christian faith.
• When Constantinople
fell the Greek
scholars fled to Italy.
• Spurred a revival of
Greek Learning.
Art and Patronage
• Italians were willing to spend a lot of
money on art.
– Art communicated social, political, and
spiritual values.
– Italian banking & international trade interests
had the money.
• Public art in Florence was organized and
supported by guilds.
Therefore, the consumption of art was used as a
form of competition for social & political status!
The Artists
• Relied on Patronage
– Medici’s
• Acquired more social status
• Wanted to be seen as creative genius but was
not always.
–
–
–
–
Artist not artisan
Served to princely courts
Commissioned work
Made pieces for the market
1. Realism & Expression
 Expulsion from
the Garden
 Masaccio
 1427
 First nudes since
classical times.
2. Perspective
• the illusion of depth on a flat surface;
lines appear to converge at a single
point known as the vanishing point.
The size of objects was reduced, colors
muted and detail blurred the further
away the objects grew.
2. Perspective
The Trinity
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Masaccio
1427
Perspective!
First use
of linear
perspective!
What you are,
I once was;
what I am,
you will
become.
3. Classicism
Greco-Roman
influence.
Secularism.
Humanism.
Individualism  free
standing figures.
Symmetry/Balance
The “Classical Pose”
Medici “Venus” (1c)
4. Emphasis on Individualism
 Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The
Duke & Dutchess of Urbino
 Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.
Isabella d’Este – da Vinci, 1499
1474-1539
“First Lady of
the Italian
Renaissance.”
Great patroness
of the arts in
Mantua.
Known during her
time as “First
Lady of the
World!”
5. Geometrical Arrangement of
Figures
 The Dreyfus
Madonna
with the
Pomegranate
 Leonardo da
Vinci
 1469
 The figure as
architecture!
Use of Light and Shadow:
• Chiaroscuro (light/dark) made lighter forms
seem to emerge from darker areas,
thereby producing the illusion of rounded
relief on a flat surface.
• Sfumato or shading.
6. Light & Shadowing/Softening Edges
Sfumato
Chiaroscuro
Renaissance Florence
Florentine lion:
symbol of St.
Mark
1252 – first gold
florins minted
The Wool Factory
by Mirabello Cavalori, 1570
Lorenzo
the Magnificent
1478 - 1521
Cosimo de Medici
1517 - 1574
Florence Under the Medici
Medici Chapel
The Medici Palace
 Filippo Brunelleschi
1377 - 1436
 Architect
 Cuppolo of St. Maria
del Fiore
Filippo Brunelleschi
• Commissioned to
build the cathedral
dome.
– Used unique
architectural
concepts.
• He studied the
ancient
Pantheon in
Rome.
• Used ribs for
support.
Brunelleschi’s “Secret”
Brunelleschi’s Dome
BRUNELLESCHI, Filippo
Italian sculptor (b. 1377, Firenze, d. 1446, Firenze)
• Called the ‘Father of Linear
Perspective.’ It was
Brunelleschi who first came
up with a mathematical
equation for projecting a
three dimensional object on
a two dimensional surface.
The Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo was built by
Brunelleschi between 1418 and 1428. The
sculptural decoration was executed from 1428
to about 1443 by Donatello.
Dome Comparisons
Il Duomo
(Florence)
St. Peter’s
(Rome)
St. Paul’s
(London)
US capital
(Washington)
The Ideal City
Piero della Francesca, 1470
A Contest to Decorate the Cathedral: Sacrifice of
Isaac Panels
Brunelleschi
Ghiberti
Ghiberti – Gates of Paradise
Baptistry Door, Florence – 1425 - 1452
The Winner!
The Liberation of
Sculpture
 David by Donatello
 1430
 First free-form bronze
since Roman times!
David
Verrocchio
1473 - 1475
The Baptism of Christ
Verrocchio, 1472 - 1475
Leonardo
da Vinci
 Vitruvian Man
 Leonardo da
Vinci
 1492
The
L’uomo
universale
The Renaissance “Man”
• Broad knowledge about many things in
different fields.
• Deep knowledge/skill in one area.
• Able to link information from different
areas/disciplines and create new
knowledge.
• The Greek ideal of the “well-rounded
man” was at the heart of Renaissance
education.
1. Self-Portrait -- da Vinci, 1512
 Artist
 Sculptor
 Architect
 Scientist
 Engineer
 Inventor
1452 - 1519
Leonardo, the Artist
 The Virgin of
the Rocks
 Leonardo da
Vinci
 1483-1486
Leonardo, the Artist:
From hisNotebooks of over 5000 pages (1508-1519)
Mona Lisa – da Vinci, 1503-4
A Macaroni Mona
A Picasso Mona
An Andy Warhol Mona
A “Mona”ca Lewinsky
Mona Lisa OR da Vinci??
The Last Supper - da Vinci, 1498
& Geometry
Refractory
Convent of Santa
Maria delle
Grazie
Milan
vertical
The Last Supper - da Vinci, 1498
horizontal
Perspective!
Deterioration
 Detail of
Jesus
 The Last
Supper
 Leonardo da
Vinci
 1498
A Da Vinci “Code”:
St. John or Mary Magdalene?
Leonardo, the Sculptor
 An
Equestrian
Statue
 1516-1518
Leonardo, the Architect:
Pages from his Notebook
Study of a
central church.
1488
Leonardo, the Architect:
Pages from his Notebook
Plan of the city of Imola, 1502.
Leonardo, the Scientist (Biology):
Pages from his Notebook
An example of
the humanist
desire to unlock
the secrets of
nature.
Leonardo, the Scientist (Anatomy):
Pages from his Notebook
Leonardo, the Inventor:
Pages from his Notebook
Man Can Fly?
Leonardo, the Engineer:
A study of siege defenses.
Pages from
his Notebook
Studies of water-lifting
devices.
Leonardo da Vinci….
O investigator, do not flatter
yourself that you know the
things nature performs for
herself, but rejoice in knowing
that purpose of those things
designed by your own mind.
Comparing Domes
2. Michelangelo Buonorrati
 1475 – 1564
 He represented
the body in
three
dimensions of
sculpture.
 David
 Michelangelo
Buonarotti
 1504
 Marble
15c
What
a
difference
a
century
makes!
16c
The Popes as Patrons of the Arts
The Pieta
Michelangelo
Buonarroti
1499
marble
The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
Buonarroti
1508 - 1512
The Sistine Chapel’s Ceiling
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1508 - 1512
The Sistine Chapel Details
The
Creation
of the
Heavens
The Sistine Chapel Details
Creation of Man
A Modern “Adaptation”
Joe Gallo in the New York Daily News, 2004
The Sistine Chapel Details
The Fall
from
Grace
The Sistine Chapel Details
The Last Judgment
Minos, the Judge of
the Underworld.
According to Vasari,
the artist gave Minos
the semblance of the
Pope's Master of
Ceremonies, Biagio
da Cesena, who had
often complained to
the Pope about the
nudity of the painted
figures.
Christ as a young Apollo.
The artist's self-portrait appears twice in the Last Judgment: in the flayed skin which
Saint Bartholomew is carrying in his left-hand, and in the figure in the lower left hand
corner, who is looking encouragingly at those rising from their graves.
3. Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520)
Self-Portrait, 1506
Portrait of the Artist with
a Friend, 1518
Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael,
1514-1515
 Castiglione
represented the
humanist
“gentleman” as
a man of
refinement and
self-control.
Perspective!
Betrothal
of the Virgin
Raphael
1504
Raphael’s Canagiani Madonna, 1507
Raphael’s Madonnas (1)
Sistine Madonna
Cowpepper Madonna
Raphael’s Madonnas (2)
Madonna della Sedia
Alba Madonna
The School of Athens – Raphael, 1510 -11
• One point perspective.
• All of the important Greek philosophers
and thinkers are included  all of the
great personalities of the Seven Liberal
Arts!
• A great variety of poses.
• Located in the papal apartments library.
• Raphael worked on this commission
simultaneously as Michelangelo was
doing the Sistine Chapel.
The School of Athens – Raphael, 1510 -11
Da Vinci
Raphael
Michelangelo
School of Athens
In his Painting of famous Greek
figures, Raphael immortalizes his
contemporaries with portraits.
Bramante ?
LEONARDO
MICHELANGELO
Raphael himself
The School of Athens – Raphael, details
Plato:
looks to the
heavens [or
the IDEAL
realm].
Aristotle:
looks to this
earth [the
here and
now].
Hypatia
Pythagoras
Zoroaster
Ptolemy
Euclid
The Liberation of St. Peter by Raphael, 1514
Portrait of Pope Julius II
by Raphael, 1511-1512
 More concerned with
politics than with
theology.
 The “Warrior Pope.”
 Great patron of
Renaissance artists,
especially Raphael &
Michelangelo.
 Died in 1513
Pope Leo X with Cardinal Giulio deMedici and Luigi
De Rossi by Raphael, 1518-1519
 A Medici Pope.
 He went through the
Vatican treasury in a
year!
 His extravagances
offended even some
cardinals [as well as
Martin Luther!].
 Started selling
indulgences.
Birth of Venus – Botticelli, 1485
An attempt to depict perfect beauty.
2002 Euro Coin
Botticelli’s Venus Motif.
10¢ Italian Euro coin.
Primavera – Botticelli, 1482
Depicted classical gods as almost
naked and life-size.
A Portrait of Savonarola
 By Fra Bartolomeo, 1498.
 Dominican friar who decried
money and power.
 Anti-humanist  he saw
humanism as too secular,
hedonistic, and corrupting.
 The “Bonfire of the
Vanities,” 1497.
/
Burned books, artwork,
jewelry, and other luxury
goods in public.
/
Even Botticelli put some of
his paintings on the fire!!
The Execution of Savonarola, 1452
The Doge, Leonardo Loredon
Berlini, 1501
Venus of Urbino – Titian, 1558
The Penitent Mary Magdalene by Titian, 1533
 By the mid-16c,
High Renaissance
art was declining.
 Mannerism
became more
popular.
 This painting is a
good example of
this new artistic
style.
• Titian was neither such a
universal scholar as
Leonardo, nor such an
outstanding personality as
Michelangelo, nor such a
versatile and attractive man
as Raphael. He was
principally a painter, but a
painter whose handling of
paint equaled Michelangelo's
mastery of draughtsmanship.
This supreme skill enabled
him to disregard all the timehonored rules of
composition, and to rely on
color to restore the unity
which he apparently broke
up.
Madonna with Saints and Members of the Pesaro Family c.1519-26
Oil on canvas, 478 x 266 cm. Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
MANNERISM
• A movement in Italian art from
about 1520 to 1600. Developing
out of the Renaissance,
Mannerism rejected Renaissance
balance and harmony in favor of
emotional intensity and ambiguity.
In Mannerist painting, this was
expressed mainly through severe
distortions of perspective and
scale; complex and crowded
compositions; strong, sometimes
harsh or discordant colors; and
elongated figures in exaggerated
poses. In architecture, there was a
playful exaggeration of
Renaissance forms (largely in
scale and proportion) and the
greater use of bizarre decoration.
Mannerism gave way to the
Baroque.
• Leading Mannerist artists include
Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigianino,
El Greco and Tintoretto.
Andrea Mantegna
The Lamentation over the Dead
Christ
c. 1490
Tempera on canvas, 68 x 81 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Mantegna, Andrea (1431-1506), one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th
century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, he made important contributions to
the compositional techniques of Renaissance painting.
ANDREA
MANTEGNA
Painter of Mantua
(1431-1506)
This painting was destroyed
during WWII.
It shows St. James being
led to execution from the
viewpoint of the kneeling
Jailor who begs St.
James for forgiveness.
(and apparently is
receiving it.)
St. James led to Martyrdom, c. 1455
Sixteenth-Century Art in Northern
Europe and Spain.
Martin Luther as a young Monk
ALTDORFER, Albrecht
1480-1538
The Battle of Alexander 1529
Wood, 158,4 x 120,3 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
• This is the most famous
painting of Altdorfer.
• Victory of the young
Alexander the Great in
333 B.C. over the
Persian army of King
Darius in the battle of
Issus.
• The battle took place in
Turkey, however, on this
painting it is shown in
the rocky environment of
the Alps with German
cities in the background.
Albrecht DÜRER
b. 1471, Nürnberg, d. 1528, Nürnberg
Age 13
Self Portraits done
between 1484 and 1500
• Painter and printmaker generally regarded as the greatest
German Renaissance artist. His vast body of work includes
altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits and selfportraits, and copper engravings. His woodcuts, such as the
Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavor than the
rest of his work.
Albrecht DÜRER
To Dürer's about 60 paintings more
than a thousand drawings and
watercolours, about 250 woodcuts,
96 engravings, 6 etchings, and 3
drypoints should be added. Dürer
was primarily a graphic artist indubitably the greatest draftsman
of his time, and among the most
accomplished draftsmen that ever
lived.
• Dürer was the first German artist to
find new opportunities for
production and distribution. He was
the first to introduce the production
of printed graphics in his own
publishing business on an equal
footing with the running of a
painter's workshop.
The Revelation of St John: 4. The Four Riders of the
Apocalypse 1497-98
Woodcut, 399 x 286 mm
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Albrecht DÜRER
• Portrait of Hieronymus
Holzschuher
1526
Oil on panel, 51 x 37 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
• Inscription in the top left:
HIERONIMVS
HOLTZSHVER ANNO
DO[MI]NI 1526 AETATIS
SVE 57; to the right, near
the head, monogrammed.
Albrecht DÜRER
• On 6 October 1526 the artist
offered The Four Holy Men to the
city fathers of Nuremberg.
• The council gratefully accepted the
gift, hanging the two works in the
upper government chamber of the
city hall.
• Dürer was awarded an honorarium
of 100 florins. The four
monumental figures remained in
the municipality of Nuremberg until
1627, when, following threats of
repression, they had to be sold to
the elector of Bavaria, Maximilian I,
a great enthusiast of Dürer's work
The Four Holy Men, 1526
Oil on lindenwood, 215 x 76 cm (each panel)
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
DÜRER: Wood cuts and ingravings
• During 1513 and 1514,
Dürer created the
greatest of his
copperplate engravings:
the Knight, St Jerome in
His Study, and
Melencolia I - all of
approximately the same
size.
Adam and Eve
1504
Engraving, 252 x 194 mm
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513
• Knight, Death and the Devil, also
known as The Rider, represents
an allegory on Christian salvation.
Unflustered either by Death who
is standing in front of him with his
hour-glass, or by the Devil behind
him, an armored knight is riding
along a narrow defile,
accompanied by his loyal hound.
This represents the steady route
of the faithful, through all of life's
injustice, to God who is
symbolized by the castle in the
background. The dog symbolizes
faith, and the lizard religious zeal.
The horse and rider, like other
preliminary studies made by
Dürer, are derived from the canon
of proportions drawn up by
Leonardo da Vinci.
Engraving, 245 x 188 mm
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Melencolia I
•
•
Dürer's greatest achievement in
printmaking were the three
engravings of 1513-14, regarded
as his masterpieces. Melencolia I
is by far the most complex of the
three master engravings.
On the wall of the building hang a
bell, an hourglass, scales and a
magic square of 16 numerals (with
each line adding up to 34). A dog
sleeps at Melancholy's feet and a
cherub sits astride an upturned
millstone. A bat-like creature holds
up the inscription `Melencolia I'.
The dog and bat correspond to
this melancholy humour.
Melancholy was considered to be
both a negative and positive
power of the mind, as represented
by the bat and writing putto.
Melencolia I, 1514
Engraving, 239 x 189 mm
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche
Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Hans HOLBEIN the Younger
•
In the first years after
Holbein's return to
England, the
Steelyard merchants
were by no means his
only clients. His
reputation as a
brilliant portraitist had
undoubtedly
penetrated court
circles, because in
1533 Holbein was
commissioned by the
French ambassador
Jean de Dinteville (c.
1503 -1555) to paint
the largest and most
splendid panel
painting in Holbein's
hand to survive to this
day, namely the
Double Portrait of
Jean de Dinteville and
Georges de Selve,
widely known as The
Ambassadors.
Anamorphic Art
• Anamorphic pictures are drawings
and paintings which appear
distorted and almost
unrecognizable to the unaided eye.
However, when they are viewed
from a particular perspective or
using a "decoding device" they are
easily interpreted as recognizable
images.
• In the lower half of this picture
there is an oblong shape, which,
with a little inspection, you should
be able to make out as the
distorted image of a human skull.
• The skull achieves its true shape if
you view it from the right hand side
and very close to the plane of the
painting. From this unconventional
viewpoint, you will see something
like…
…this!
Now do you
see it?
•
Whereas the astronomical
globe on the upper shelf
helps to identify the stars,
the lower globe shows the
Earth. In the centre, the
word Polisy can be made
out, the place where Jean
de Dinteville had his
château, for which the
picture was intended.
Besides this are two
opened books, plus
dividers, a lute with a
broken string, and a bag
with wooden flutes. The
arithmetical book has been
identified as Peter Apian's
(1495-1552) book Eyn
Newe unnd wohlgegründte
underweysung aller
Kauffmanss Rechnung (A
new and thorough
instruction in all mercantile
calculations), published
1527, while the hymnal
contains two songs from
Johannes Walther's (14961570) Lutheran hymnal
published in Wittenberg in
1524.
The Ambassadors
(detail)
This image most likely was made by the help of a Camera Obscura.
Camera Obscura
• For the most part, art
historians have long
assumed that most of the
Old Masters achieved their
astonishing effects either
through preternaturally gifted
"eyeballing" or else (in the
wake of the Italian
Renaissance) through
recourse to elaborate
mathematical perspectives.
Over the last few years,
however, David Hockney and
his collaborator, the physicist
Charles Falco have been
exploring an alternative
possibility, The Camera
Obscura. (Latin for ‘dark
room’.)
Detail form the French Ambassadors.
• The earliest mention of this
type of device was by the
Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti
(5th century BC).
• The image quality was
improved with the addition of
a convex lens into the
aperture in the 16th century
and the later addition of a
mirror to reflect the image
down onto a viewing surface.
• The term "camera obscura"
was first used by the German
astronomer Johannes Kepler
in the early 17th century. He
used it for astronomical
applications and had a
portable tent camera for
surveying in Upper Austria.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
•
The Harvesters
1565
Oil on wood, 118.1 x 160.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York
•
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century, whose
landscapes and vigorous, often witty scenes of peasant life are particularly
renowned. He spelled his name Brueghel until 1559, and his sons retained the "h" in
the spelling of their names. Since Bruegel signed and dated many of his works, his
artistic evolution can be traced from the early landscapes, in which he shows affinity
with the Flemish 16th-century landscape tradition, to his last works, which are
Italianate. He exerted a strong influence on painting in the Low Countries, and
through his sons Jan and Pieter he became the ancestor of a dynasty of painters that
survived into the 18th century.
Pieter
Bruegel
The Peasant Dance, 1568
Oil on oak panel, 114 x 164 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Genre Art: Depiction of Everyday scenes
• The depiction of scenes from everyday life. Elements of everyday life had
long had a role in religious works; pictures in which such elements were the
subject of a painting developed in the 16th century with such artists as Pieter
Bruegel. Then Carracci and Caravaggio developed genre painting in Italy,
but it was in Holland in the 17th century that it became an independent form
with its own major achievements, Vermeer being one of its finest exponents.
Peasant wedding
c. 1568
Oil on wood, 114 x
164 cm
Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna
Jean CLOUET,
b. 1485/90, Bruxelles, d. 1541,
Paris
• French artist of Flemish
origin, and probably the
son of another Jean
Clouet, a Flemish artist
who came to France in
about 1460. He is
renowned for his superb
royal portraits, although
no completely verifiable
works exist today.
Portrait of François I, King of France. 1525-30
Wood, 96 x 74 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Jean Goujon, 1510-1565
• One of the most famous work
of Goujon is the Fontaine des
Innocents, erected in 1550 in
rue aux Fers in Paris. There
six narrow reliefs
representing nymphs holding
urns in various positions.
• These caryatid-type figures
are adapted from the stucco
decorations and were to
become so marked a feature
of French sculpture.
Panels of the Nymphs on the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris 1547-49
Marble
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Spain in The 16th Century
• Juan Buatista de
Toldeo was a
Spaniard who
studied in Rome
with Michelangelo
Buonarroti before
being recalled to
Spain by Phillip II.
His major work was
the palace of the
Escorial, (Right)
begun by him in
1563, and finished
after his death by
Juan de Herrera,
who became the
favorite architect of
Phillip II.
Juan de Herrera
El Greco, (The
Greek)
• The contract for the
painting is dated 18th
March 1586. El Greco
agreed to finish the
painting by Christmas of
the same year. This
commission again
resulted in litigation over
the valuation, the final
outcome of which was
that the artist accepted
the amount of the original
valuation, 1200 ducados.
The Burial of Count Orgaz
1586
Oil on canvas, 480 x 360 cm
Santo Tomé, Toledo
Self portrait: Detail from the Burial
of Count Orgaz
• El Greco was a
"Spanish"
Mannerist painter,
whose work, with
that of Francisco de
Goya and Diego
Velázquez,
represents the
acme of Spanish
art.
El Greco, (b. 1541, Candia, d. 1614, Toledo)
• Portrait of his friend, the great
Toledan poet (1580- 1633).
Paravicino, in his sonnet
celebrating the portrait, tells us
that it was painted when he was
twenty-nine years of age. The
complete frontality of the pose,
the enormous simplicity, and the
absence of any setting
contribute to the feeling of
spiritual presence,
comparatively absent from the
splendid portrait of Cardinal
Guevara. The inspired rhythm
and handling is no less a living
thing than the man himself. It is
one of the greatest
masterpieces of portraiture and
Portrait of Hortensio Felix Paravicino painting of all time.
c. 1609, Oil on canvasm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston