Renaissance – Art Portfolio

Highlight the following names on your study guide and define.

Leonardo da Vinci - Italian master and genius who was a: painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, engineer.

Michelangelo - Italian master who sculpted, painted, wrote poetry and designed buildings

Dante - Italian politician and poet who wrote in Italian, not Latin, which was the common language. He wrote the Divine Comedy

Warm-UP

Food! Clothes! Toys!

In the Renaissance,money could buy you all that plus something

really important:RESPECT.

How?Create a work of art that proclaims your

devotion to:Yourself, Your City, your God.

Then you'll get the respect you truly deserve as a

Patron of the Arts.

Money can buy you a lot of things

Glorify God(That's the way to get a rich rascal

like yourself into heaven) Glorify your city

(That's the way to get ahead in politics and power)

Glorify yourself and your family(That's the way to real immortality)

What do you want your artwork to do for you?

Masters!

Who will give you the much needed glory?

People who are or become completely proficient or skilled in an area.

People who dominate: have dominance or the power to defeat over something.

A person who has an authority; qualified to teach apprentices.

Masters – What are they?

All artists spent their youth as humble apprentices, learning their craft in their master's workshop.

An apprentice's first tasks were humble: sweeping, running errands, preparing the wooden panels for painting, and grinding and mixing pigments.

Masters – how does one become a master?

As the apprentice's skills grew, he would begin to learn from his master: drawing sketches, copying paintings, casting sculptures, and assisting in the simpler aspects of creating art works.

The best students would assist the master with important commissions, often painting background and minor figures while the Master painted the main subjects.

The few apprentices who showed amazing skill could eventually become masters themselves. A very few became greater artists than their masters.

Masters – Developing Apprentices!

One legend tells of the young Leonardo da Vinci painting an angel so perfectly that his master Verrocchio broke his brushes in two and gave up painting forever in recognition of his pupil's superior abilities.

Once an artist became a master, he could open his own workshop and hire apprentices of his own.

Many workshops were versatile and could tackle many kinds of work: painting, sculpting, goldsmithing, architecture, and engineering.

Artists were called to homes to paint portraits, decorate furniture, make silverware, paint banners, create sets for plays, make book covers or even design military machinery for war.

In a brochure to patrons, Leonardo da Vinci listed thirty-six services that he could perform for his patrons.

Masters – What do they do?

Masters – They need patrons!

Lorenzo D’Medici Tomb

Without a patron, artists would not be able to make a living. Wealthy and powerful patrons would pay a master artist (and his workshop of assistants) to paint portraits, landscapes, altarpieces, or wall murals for their church or home.

These rich families would sponsor public works of art as well, commissioning paintings, sculptures and even architecture.

Patrons most often paid for the creation of art to glorify God, glorify their city and to commemorate themselves—that is, to make themselves look good and be remembered forever.

By the late Renaissance, artists were no longer thought of as tradesmen. A master artist could become a highly respected member of the community. He could dictate his own terms in his work and enjoy a much higher social status than a mere craftsman.

And superstar artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci became famous throughout Europe, helping create the modern image of the artist as an independent creative genius

Masters – A better world!

Leonardo da Vinci is best known as an artist. However, Leonardo was also a great thinker and inventor who made many scientific accomplishments.

He began his artistic career when he was just 12 years old, working as an apprentice in an artist’s workshop in Florence.

While there, Leonardo learned painting, sculpting, and technical drawing.

Although only 17 of his paintings remain, many of Leonardo’s works are considered masterpieces today.

Who was Leonardo da Vinci?

His best-known works include The Virgin of the Rocks, The Last Supper, and the Mona Lisa.

Da Vinci also drew many accurate sketches of the human body and the way that it moves.

In addition to his art, Leonardo da Vinci also drew designs for hundreds of inventive machines.

Although he never created working versions of his designs, many people believe that his sketches are early versions of armored tanks, airplanes, and helicopters.

In addition to his artwork and inventions, Leonardo also worked as an architect and engineer.

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475–1564) was one of the most influential artists of the Renaissance and was widely recognized as the greatest artist of his time, even during his lifetime.

Many of his works were done under the patronage of the powerful Medici family of Florence and of the Catholic Church

Renaissance ArtistsWhat other artists made significant contributions to Renaissance art?

Michelangelo’s work is celebrated for the realistic depiction of its human subjects.

This can be seen in his paintings such as

The Holy Familythe scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

However, this realism is best displayed in his sculptures

the Pietà  the David.

Dante Dante's Inferno is

the first part of his epic poem Divine Comedy.

It tells of Dante following the Roman poet Virgil through the nine circles of Hell.

It shows the suffering a person's soul goes through on his journey towards God

Renaissance Writers

Apprentices, you will design a blueprint or rough draft of a product for a patron of the Renaissance. Determine which field you will become a master in. Also, determine which patron you wish to attract.

Once your masterpiece in the Renaissance style is created, write a letter to seek a Patron. Provide three reasons why you should be chosen as their master worker.

Sculpture Medici Family of Florence Painting Sforza Family of Milan Poetry Pope in Rome Play write The Doge of Venice Architecture King Henry VIII of England Engineering Queen Elizabeth I of England Inventor King Henry of France Scientist

Apprentices! It is time to become a master.