Transcript Chapter Seventeen Renaissance Artists

Chapter
Seventeen
Renaissance
Artists
 “The
eye, which is called the
window of the soul, is the
chief means whereby the
understanding may most
fully and abundantly
appreciate the infinite works
of nature.”
 Leonardo da Vinci
 Early
Renaissance (1400-1490)
Florence: the Medici
 High Renaissance (1490-1530)
Rome: the Pope
http://portal.chaminade-stl.com/Portals/87/renaissance%20italy.jpg
Early Renaissance
 1.
patronage
 2. the artist as hero and genius
 3. the revival of the classical
nude
New
Techniques of
Spatial Illusionism
Perspective
Filippo Brunelleschi developed the laws of
perspective.
 Masaccio was among the first to use
Brunelleschi's rules to achieve the illusion
of perspective in his paintings.
 Leon Battista Alberti theorized the method
in the book On Painting

Definition

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Perspective in art is a method of graphically
depicting three-dimensional objects and
spatial relationships in two-dimensional
planes.
The illusion of depth in a painting, drawing,
or graphic is created using the perspective
method.
Perspective is based on elementary laws of
optics: objects in the distance appear
smaller and less distinct than objects that
are near.
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/geometry/images/linear_perspective.jpg
Masaccio, Trinity with
the Virgin, Saint John
the Evangelist, and
Donors, ca. 1426-1427.
http://www.nexusjournal.com/images_number1/Talbot20.gif
Basic principles of linear perspective.
http://mh1.xplana.com/imagevault/upload/d5c59e51fe4d99d1ac9e.jpg
http://www2.evansville.edu/studiochalkboard/ap-aerial.html

Aerial or atmospheric interference with visual
perception causes loss of contrast, detail and
sharp focus. The effect, which Leonardo called
"the perspective of disappearance," tends to
make objects seem to take on a blue-gray
middle value as they increase in distance. This
effect is used by film makers to give the illusion
of great depth, but can be used to great effect by
painters and draughtsmen. The illustration
above shows loss of color saturation, contrast,
and detail as the cubes fall further away from the
viewer.

http://www2.evansville.edu/studiochalkboard/ap-aerial.html
Aerial Perspective
Aerial Perspective
Masaccio, The Tribute of Money, ca. 1425.
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/masaccio/brancacc/tribute/tribute.jpg
Chiaroscuro
 The
arrangement or treatment
of the light and dark parts in a
pictorial work of art
Intarsia
Mosaics
made of pieces
of inlaid wood
Ghiberti, Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba: Relief from the Doors of Paradise,
1425–52 http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/florence/ghibertiparadise/0118solomon.jpg
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/florence/ghiberti
paradise/0123doors.jpg
Leonardo
da Vinci
The Virgin of the Rocks
More haze
Some haze
A feeling of distance
The Last Supper
 Mona
Lisa
(La Gioconda)
The Venetian School
Giovanni
Bellini (c. 1430-
1516)
Giorgione (c. 1478-1510)
Titian (c. 1490-1576)
The Venetian School
Characteristics
Their
art reflected the
luxurious life of Venice.
Their aim was to appeal to
the senses, not the mind.
Giorgione, Pastoral Concert
masterful blends colors
Titian, Venus of Urbino
Raphael
composition:
1. Clarity
2. Harmony
3. Unity of design
Raphael, Alba Madonna
Circle
Trapezoid
triangle
Raphael, the School of
Athens
RAPHAEL. The Disputa. 1509
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel
ceiling
 Painted
between 1508 to
1512
 Nine scenes from the Book of
Genesis
 Seven Old Testament
prophets
 Five sibyls, as well as four
corners and eight triangular
Creation of Adam
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God and Man
Equal in size and
muscular grace
The moment of
fulfillment sought
by Adam
Potential divinity of
humankind
Michelangelo,
the Last
Judgment, 1536
Nude
vs. Naked
 “A naked
body has to be seen
as an object in order to
become a nude.”
 “Nakedness reveals itself.
Nudity is placed on display.”

(John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972)

In the average European oil painting of the
nude the principal protagonist is never
painted. He is the spectator in front of the
picture and he is presumed to be a man.
Everything is addressed to him. Everything
must appear to be the result of his being
there. It is for him that the figures have
assumed their nudity. But he, by definition,
is a stranger—with his clothes still on.

(John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972)
http://www.loudounsymphony.org/image/birth-of-venus-lg.jpg
http://www.kingsborough.edu/academicDepartments/art/gallery/Aguerrilla.htm
The Renaissance Portrait
 Two
reasons:
The
desire to immortalize oneself by
way of one’s physical appearance
The
wish to publicize one’s greatness
in the traditional manner of Greek and
Roman antiquity
(Fiero 401)
Jan van Eyck,
Marriage of
Giovanni Anolfini
and His Bride,
1434
http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/e/eyck_van/jan/15arnolf/
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The mirror is the focal point of the whole
composition. It has often been noted that two tiny
figures can be seen reflected in it, their image
captured as they cross the threshold of the room.
They are the painter himself and a young man,
perhaps arriving to act as witnesses to the marriage.
The essential point, however, is the fact that the
convex mirror is able to absorb and reflect in a
single image both the floor and the ceiling of the
room, as well as the sky and the garden outside,
both of which are otherwise barely visible through
the side window. The mirror thus acts as a sort of
hole in the texture of space. It sucks the entire visual
world into itself, transforming it into a representation.
http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/e/eyck_van/jan/15arnolf/15arnol3.html
Jan van Eyck,
Man in a Turban
1433
Jan van Eyck,
Portrait of
Margareta van
Eyck, 1439
Jan van Eyck,
The Virgin of
Chancellor Rolin,
1435
http://gallery.euroweb.hu/
html/e/eyck_van/jan/02p
age/index.html
Sculpture
“Indeed, in this tribute to
male beauty, Donatello
rejected the medieval view
of the human body as the
wellspring of sin and
anticipated the modern
Western exaltation of the
body as the seat of
pleasure” (Fiero 395).
http://www.thais.it/scultura/image/sch00009.jpg
Pieta
Lifeless Jesus
held by young
Virgin
 Protective
pyramidal shape
 Monumental
statement on the
meaning of
Christian
Sacrifice

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Mother Mary is represented
very young, three possible
reasons:
1. incorruptible purity
2. Perhaps Mary was Jesus’
daughter, like all of humanity is,
but is also his mother.
3. Viewer is actually looking at
an image of Mary holding the
baby Jesus
Renaissance
Architecture
Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore, called the
Duomo), dome, 1420–36, by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1436)
S. Maria Novella by Leon Battista Alberti, at Florence, Italy, 1456 to 1470.
http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/S._Maria_Novella.html/cid_2461243.gbi
Dome of St Peter's
1564, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/michelan/5archite/late/index.html
http://mh1.xplana.com/imagevault/upload/53a2d52aaa9e29f1f4c8.jpg Leon
Battista Alberti. Interior of Sant'Andrea, Mantua, Italy. Designed 1470.
Leon Battista Alberti.
Façade of Sant'Andrea,
Mantua. Designed 1470
http://mh1.xplana.com/imag
evault/upload/4117920caf3
7d8508c26.jpg
Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Sant'Andrea, Mantua. Designed 1470
http://mh1.xplana.com/imagevault/upload/888d4c817e45c5fdb825.jpg
The
End