Transcript Renaissance Art

*Lesson adapted from MET resource package
The Florentines
 The Florentines of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries characterized their times as a period of
reawakening to the ideals and achievements of
classical Rome, which they felt had been ignored for a
thousand years, since the fall of the Roman Empire.
 In 1492, Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), a Florentine
philosopher, wrote: “This century, like a golden age,
has restored to light the liberal arts, which were almost
extinct. . . .”
Giotto
 In 1550, Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), the Florentine
painter, biographer, and art historian claimed in his
book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors
and Architects that visual art was reborn with the
painter Giotto.
 Giotto, who also was inspired by Roman ideals,
initiated a more human artistic vision that reached its
high point with Michelangelo.
Humanist Connection
 Humanism, the underlying philosophy of this period, often is
summarized in a quotation from the Greek philosopher
Protagoras (ca. 485–410 B.C.): “Man is the measure of all things.”
 “Humanism” refers not only to the revival and publication of
classical Greek and Latin texts but to new works of art modeled
on classical Greek and Roman sculpture, painting, architecture,
literature, and music.
 The Renaissance humanist authors imitated the style of great Ro
m a n writers like Cicero, just as the artists studied and emulated
ancient sculptors and architects.
 While medieval scholars had interpreted classical texts to clarify
Christian theology, (for example, Thomas Aquinas’s reading of
Aristotle), the authors and artists of the Renaissance took
classical works as philosophical models of reason, intelligence,
and taste to be applied in the material world.
Three Categories
 Following are three major categories, each defined by
the approach to subject matter in Renaissance works of
art:
1. NA R R AT I V E
 Alberti believed that istoria, the story or narrative, was
the most important approach for the painter. The
subject of the Renaissance story could be religious or
secular. For example, altarpieces might depict the lives
of Mary or Christ, or mythological stories might
decorate household objects and furniture.
Three Categories
2. PORTRAITURE
 The human face, both realistic and ideal, was another
important subject for the painter and sculptor.
Portraits could serve commemorative functions, such
as celebrating a marriage, a birth, or recording a face
from a death mask.
Three Categories
3. LA N D S C A P E
 Landscapes often were used as background, in
portraits and narrative paintings or relief sculpture.
While landscape was rarely the main subject of a work
of art, it was an important component of northern
European painting.
The Human Figure
 With the rediscovery of classical figurative sculpture,
including the nude of the pre-Christian world, artists
began to look at the human figure as an object of
aesthetic beauty in its own right.
 Realistic representation became important once more.
Perspective
 Renaissance paintings invite the viewer to look into
habitable spaces where religious and mythological
events occur and where life is chronicled through the
observation of detail.
 Artists in both northern and southern Europe shared a
belief in the power of observation and in the verity of
what is seen by the eye.
Perspective Activity
 Go to the following website and complete the
interactive activity about perspective
 (www.renaissanceconnection.org/perspective.html)
Perspective continued
 Linear one-point perspective is based on a
mathematical system with a fixed viewpoint
 Alberti was one of the artists who developed its
underlying geometry.
 He describes the picture plane as an open window: “I
first draw a rectangle of right angles, where I am to
paint, which I treat just like an open window through
which I might look.”This system guides the viewer’s
eye through the picture plane to the focal point or
vanishing point
The Davids
 Donato Donatello’s “David”
The Davids
 Michelangelo’s “David”
Side note...
 Last summer, Okuizumo town in western Shimane
Prefecture, a location of less than 15,000 residents, received
a replica of Michelangelo’s sculpture David, with some of
the locals asking now for the naked work of art to wear
pants.
 The city received a five-meter tall replica of Italian artist
Michelangelo’s sculpture David, made during Renaissance,
as well as a replica of Greek masterpiece Venus de Milo,
both of them as donations coming from a businessman
who used to live in the area.
 The statues were placed in a large public park, where there
are also a full-size running track, a baseball stadium, tennis
courts, a mountain bike course and a play area for children.
Back to the Art
 Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”
Sandro Botticelli
 “Primavera”
Couldn’t forget these...
 Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”
Da Vinci
 “The Last Supper”
Michelangelo
 “The Creation of Adam” Sistine Chapel Ceiling
So What Was the Big Deal?
 Renaissance artists were expressing their feelings
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about the place of humanity in the world
Revival of classicism
Artists began to receive praise that was once reserved
for poets and philosophers
Began modern notion of art as representative of world
external to us, depicting the human condition
Renaissance artwork is alluded to, even in present day
Renaissance Art and the Present