Transcript PP The Renaissance (Part 2)

Early Renaissance Architecture
• Architecture of this period was not an
imitation but a reinterpretation of GrecoRoman style
• Filippo Brunelleschi (1337-1446) architect,
sculptor, and theorist
• Leon Battista Alberti humanist and architect
• Rational architecture, reflecting natural laws
created by rational individuals
The Florence Cathedral
• Brunelleschi won a civic competition
for the design of the dome for this
church
• The dome is considered the largest
constructed since that of the Pantheon
in Rome
• Brunelleschi designed an
interlocking system of ribs that
operated like hidden flying
buttresses
• Cross section at base is
11ft. x 7ft.
Pazzi Chapel
• Brunelleschi designed this chapel for the wealthy Pazzi family of
Florence
• He continued using the dome on his architectural designs as shown
in this picture
The interior of the Pazzi Chapel
•Brunelleschi broke with the
tradition of the one’s gaze
heavenward
•The Pazzi Chapel fixes the
beholder decisively on earth
•Inside are gray stone
moldings and gray Corinthian
pilasters – shallow, flattened,
rectangular columns that are
molded to the wall
Townhouse of the Rucellai family of Florence
(1446-1451)
• Designed by Alberti and the
architect was Bernardo
Rossellino
•This structure broke free from
the classical order
• Rows of arcaded windows
appear on the upper stories,
while square windows placed
well above the street accent the
lowest levels
The west façade of Santa Maria Novella
in Florence (c. 1470)
• Alberti produced an
eloquent pattern of
geometric shapes ordered
by a perfect square
• The height of the
dominantly gray and green
marble façade exactly
equals its width
The Renaissance Portrait
• Renaissance portraiture was an expression of
two impulses: the desire to immortalize
oneself and to publicize one’s greatness
• Portraiture was popular among the rising
urban elite
• Jan van Eyck (1370/90-1441) credited for
painting the first secular couple in domestic
interior as well as the first psychological
portrait
Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride (1434)
by Jan van Eyck
• The first portrait of the period
to portray a secular couple in a
domestic interior
•There are many objects in the
painting that suggest a sacred
union
•The burning candle symbolizes
the divine presence of Christ,
the dog represents fidelity, the
fruit alludes to the biblical union
of Adam and Eve, the carved
image of Saint Margaret (patron
of women and childbirth)
Self-Portrait of Jan van Eyck
• Eyck was the first artist to
introduce the psychological portrait
– the portrait that gave clues to a
persons temperament, character, or
unique personality of the subject
• What does this self-portrait say
about Jan van Eyck?
Mona Lisa (ca. 1503-1505)
• Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
is considered the world’s bestknow portrait
• Behind the figure there is
landscape, this was a new
perspective in portrait paintings
•The Mona Lisa was probably
the wife of the Florentine banker
Francesco del Giocondo
• The Mona Lisa depicts 15th
century female fashion – shaved
eyebrows and plucked hairline
• Created by Florentine
sculptor Andrea de
Verrocchio (1435-1488)
•Sculptor made this sculpture
of Lorenzo de’ Medici
reminiscent of Roman
portraiture
Equestrian statue of Bartolommeo
Colleoni (ca. 1481-1496)
• Created by Renaissance sculptor
Andrea del Verrocchio
• Commissioned to commemorate
the mercenary soldier’s military
victories on behalf of the city of
Venice
• Unlike previous sculptures,
Verrocchio takes into consideration
the body movements of the horse
and of his subject to make it look
alive and in motion
Renaissance Artist-Scientists
• Artists of the period were motivated to
analyze and record the natural world
• Painting constituted a window on nature
• The invention of linear perspective, a tool
used for the translation of three-dimensional
space onto a two-dimensional surface
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) personified the
Renaissance artist-scientist
• Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) famous
sculptor of the period
Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist
and Donors (ca. 1426-1427)
• Masaccio is credited with mastering the
method of perspective in his artwork
• The lines of the painted barrel vault
above the Trinity recede and converge at
a vanishing point located at the foot of
the Cross, thus corresponding with the
eye-level of viewers standing below
Masaccio executed these
frescoes for the Brancacci Chapel
in Santa Maria del Carmine in
Florence
• This is a scene from the Brancacci Chapel called The Tribute Money,
a scene based on the Gospel story in which Jesus honors the
demands of the Roman state by paying a tax or “tribute”
• Masaccio depicts three scenes in this painting: in the middle, Jesus
is instructing Peter, on the left side, the Apostle Peter is gathering
money from the mouth of a fish, on the right side, Peter is shown
delivering the coins to the Roman tax collector
Embryo in the Womb, ca. 1510
Wing Construction for a Flying Machine,
ca. 1500
Between 1489 and 1518, Leonardo da Vinci produced thousands of
drawings accompanied by notes
Proportional Study of Man in the Manner of
Vitruvius, ca. 1487
Da Vinci’s Last Supper, ca. 1485-1498
•This painting adorns the wall of the refectory (the monastery dining
room) of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan
•In this painting, Da Vinci portrays the moment Jesus tells his disciples
that one of them would betray him
• The scene depicts the reaction of the apostles after hearing the news
• A subject created in the medieval period, in the Pieta, the young Virgin
holds the lifeless body of Jesus
• Unlike earlier versions, the Virgin and Jesus seem lifelike
• Created from a gigantic block of
Carrara marble, Michelangelo’s David
was unlike Donatello’s David
• Michelangelo did not follow the
classical proportions rule for this work –
the head and hands are large
• Michelangelo spent 4 years working on a papal commission to paint
5,760 sq. feet of ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel
• The ceiling paintings depict the Creation and Fall of Humankind as
written in the book of Genesis of the Bible
•
•
In the Creation of Adam scene, God and Man – equal in size and
muscular grace – confront each other like partners in the divine plan
Adam reaches longingly toward God, seeking the moment of fulfillment,
when God will charge his languid body with celestial energy
Renaissance Music
• Before the Renaissance, music was mainly
religious
• Themes of Renaissance music included courtly
love and were written in many languages
• The printing press encouraged preservation
and distribution of music
• Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474)