Transcript The Rebirth of art

THE RENAISSANCE: THE BEGINNING OF
MODERN PAINTING
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In the early 1400s, the rebirth of culture (known as the Renaissance) took place
throughout Italy, originally in Florence before spreading to Rome and Venice
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By the 1500s the rest of Europe found the Renaissance: the Netherlands, Germany,
France, Spain, and England (also known as the Northern Renaissance)
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Common elements: rediscovery of the art and literature of Greece and Rome, the
scientific study of the body and the natural world, and the intent to reproduce the
forms of nature realistically
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Focused on:
• Portraiture
• Landscape
• Mythological Paintings
• Religious Paintings
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Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo peaked during the High Renaissance
(unfortunately, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did not peak for many, many years)
CONNECTION TO HISTORY
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The exploration of new continents and scientific research boosted man’s belief in
himself
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The Protestant Reformation (which we’ll study in the future) decreased the sway
of the Church
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That’s why so much of the artwork focuses on human beings rather than God (the
Supreme Being); people developed art based on attitudes, thoughts, and feelings
that the culture developed
THE NITTY-GRITTY DETAILS OF ART
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The major technical renovations of art representing reality during the
Renaissance
• OLD
• Tempera paint on wood panels
• Fresco on plaster walls
• NEW
• Oil on stretched canvas
• Use of perspective (giving weight and depth to form)
• The use of light and shadow (instead of just drawing lines)
• Pyramidal composition in paintings
1. OIL ON STRETCHED CANVAS
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Technical stuff you don’t need to know but is interesting: they made the paint by
grounding fine a mineral like lapis lazuli and mixing it with turpentine and oil
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Why oil paint?
• This led to rich colors
• It led to smooth gradations of tone
• This tone allowed painters to represent textures
• This tone allowed the simulation of three-dimensional form
2. PERSPECTIVE
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Perspective was the method of creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface
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Perspective becomes the foundation of European painting for the next 500 years
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Types of Perspective
• Linear Perspective: created the optical effect of objects receding in the
distance through lines that appear to converge at a single point in the picture
known as the vanishing point
• Shown in Masaccio’s “The Tribute Money” (shown on next slide)
• Painters also reduced the size of objects and muted colors or blurred detail as
objects got farther away
“THE TRIBUTE MONEY” BY MASACCIO (1427)
Where is the
vanishing point
in this painting?
3. THE USE OF LIGHT AND SHADOW
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Italian name of the technique is Chiaroscuro (pronounced key-arrow-SKEWR-o)
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Chiaroscuro means “light/dark” in Italian
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It refers to the new technique for modeling forms in painting by which lighter
forms seem to emerge from darker areas, producing the illusion of rounded,
sculptural relief on a flat surface
4. PYRAMID CONFIGURATION
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This was simply the use of a more three-dimensional approach in painting
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This symmetrical composition builds to a climax at the center, as in Leonardo’s
“Mona Lisa” (shown on the next slide)
“MONA LISA” BY LEONARDO (1503-1506)
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Where is the focal point in this painting?
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How does Leonardo use light and
shadow?
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How does Leonardo show perspective?
Historically, Mona Lisa was nobody special,
likely the young wife of a Florentine merchant.
(Mona stands for Mrs.)
KEY ARTISTS: THE FIRST THREE
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Masaccio (1401-1428)
• Became the cornerstone of European painting for more than 6 centuries
• Nicknamed “Sloppy Tom” because he neglected his appearance in his pursuit
of art
• First since Giotto (pre-Middle Ages painter) to paint the human figure not as a
linear column in the Gothic style, but as a real human being
• Mastered perspective
• Used as single, constant source of light accurately casting shadows
KEY ARTISTS: THE FIRST THREE
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Donatello (1386-1466)
• Primarily a Classical sculptor
• Weight was concentrated on one leg with the rest of the body relaxed, and
often turned
• He carved figures and draped them realistically with a sense of their
underlying skeletal structure
• “David” was the first life-size freestanding nude sculpture since the Classical
period
• “Mary Magdalen” was harshly accurate and more “real” than ancient Roman
portraits (on the following slide)
• Magdalen was carved as a “gaunt, shriveled hag, with stringy hair and
hollowed eyes”
“MARY MAGDALEN” BY DONATELLO
Look at the time Donatello was
alive (1386-1466) and fill in
the blank of what Donatello
reportedly shouted at
Magdalen, “Speak, speak
or the ________ take you!”
KEY ARTISTS: THE FIRST THREE
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Botticelli (1444-1510)
• He went the opposite way from Masaccio and Donatello
• He used decorative linear style
• He focused on tiptoeing, golden-haired maidens in a remembrance of
Byzantine art
• His nudes epitomized the Renaissance though and “Birth of Venus” marked
the rebirth of Classical mythology
THE ARTISTS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
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Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
• Universally admired for his handsome appearance, intellect, and charm
• He was a tall man with long blond hair “whose every movement was grace itself,
and whose abilities were so extraordinary that he could readily solve every
difficulty.”
• He also could sing “divinely” and “his charming conversation won all hearts”
• (I heard a rumor he also saved the last unicorn ever born and could actually throw a
rainbow into the sky with only his painted hands…but that’s just a rumor)
• He was also fascinated with flight
• Leonardo created the concept of the artist-genius by stressing the intellectual
aspects of art and creativity (previously artists were viewed as menial craftsmen)
• Having said that, his curiosity lured him from one incomplete project to another
• Less than 20 completed works survived until today, the most famous being “Mona
Lisa” and “The Last Supper”
“THE LAST SUPPER” BY LEONARDO (1495)
Two aims:
To paint the
man and
the
intention of
his soul.
This is hard:
How does
Leonardo
use
perspective?