The Renaissance

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• The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% – 60% of Europe's population, reducing the world’s population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. This has been seen as creating a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European History. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover.

• Because the plague killed so many of the poor population, wealthy land owners were forced to pay the remaining workers what they asked, in terms of wages.

• Because there was now a surplus in consumer goods, luxury crops could now be grown. This meant that for the first time in history, many, formerly of the peasant population, now had a chance to live a better life. Most historians now feel that this was the start of the middle class in Europe and England.

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Original Sin

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Humanism

• A cultural and intellectual movement during the Renaissance, following the rediscovery of the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. A philosophy or attitude concerned with the interests, achievements, and capabilities of human beings rather than with the abstract concepts and problems of theology and science.

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A WIDE VARIETY OF OPINIONS AND ATTITUDES

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HUMANISM a Focus on Human Beings:

• Education that perfected humans through the study of past models of civic and personal virtue.

• Value system that emphasized personal effort and responsibility.

• Physically and intellectually active life that was directed at a common good as well as individual nobility .

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Renaissance

• Period in Europe from the late fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries, which was characterized by a renewed interest in human-centered classical art, literature, and learning.

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Renaissance Humanists

• Petrarch• Giovanni Boccaccio• Cosimo de Medici• Marsilio Ficino• Niccolò Machiavelli• Baldassare Castiglione• Giordano Bruno

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CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets,

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GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned

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Fresco

• A method of wall-painting on a plasterground. Buon fresco, or true fresco, was much used in Italy from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.

• First, the arriccio is applied and upon this the design, or sinopia, is traced. An area. small enough to be completed in one day - the giornata - is covered with a final layer of plaster, the inionaco. The design is then redrawn and painted with pigments mixed with water. Fresco secco is painting on dry plaster and suffers, like distemper, from impermanence.

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Giotto di Bondone, Arena Chapel

Giotto• Feelings and physical nature

of human beings.• New sense of realism by

using light and space.• Re-inventor of “naturalistic”

painting.

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GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, Arena Chapel, (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4” x 6’ 3/4”.

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Chiaroscuro

• Italian word meaning “light-dark.” The gradations of light and dark values in two-dimensional imagery; especially the illusion of rounded, three-dimensional form created through gradations of light and shade rather than line. Highly developed by Renaissance painters.

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Italy Around 1400

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ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO and others, Florence Cathedral (aerial view looking northeast), Florence, Italy, begun 1296.

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FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors, baptistery, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402. Gilded bronze, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

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LORENZO GHIBERTI, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors, baptistery, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402. Gilded bronze relief, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

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DONATELLO, Saint Mark, Or San Michele, Florence, Italy, 1411–1413. Marble, 7’ 9” high. Modern copy in exterior niche. Original sculpture in museum on second floor of Or San Michele, Florence.

Contrapossto

• Italian for “counterpose.” The counterpositioning of parts of the human figure about a central vertical axis, as when the weight is placed on one foot causing the hip and shoulder lines to counter balance each other-often in a graceful s-curve.

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Contrapossto

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MASACCIO, Holy Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca. 1424–1427. Fresco, 21’ 10’ 5/8” x 10’ 4 3/4”.

Masaccio• Used perspective to

construct an illusion of figures in three-dimensional space.

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MASACCIO, Holy Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca. 1424–1427. Fresco, 21’ 10’ 5/8” x 10’ 4 3/4”.

Notice symmetry created by the pyramidal composition. How many triangles can you count?

Notice the significance of the donors (Renaissance interest in the individual), classical architecture, and the memento mori at the base.

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I once was what you are and what I am you also will be.

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Memento Mori

• A visual reminder of human mortality.

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Ancient Greek

Sculpture

Renaissance Sculpture

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DONATELLO, David, late 1440–1460. Bronze, 5’ 2 1/4” high. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

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Donatello• Incorporates Greek idealism

into Christian context.• Goes beyond Classical

Idealism by incorporating the dimension of personal expression.

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Donatello. MARY MAGDALEN.

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DONATELLO, David, late 1440–1460. Bronze, 5’ 2 1/4” high. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

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ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO, David, ca. 1465–1470. Bronze, 4’ 1 1/2” high. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Neoplatonism• A compilation of Platonic, Aristotelian and Stoic

ideas that experienced a strong revival during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Central to the philosophy is the notion that spiritual things are real and that material things are not. The freeing of the spiritual element, the soul, from the material element, the body, should be the ultimate goal of all of mankind and could be achieved through knowledge and contemplation.

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Kabbalah

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NeoplatonismEmbraced by the powerful Medici family.

All sources of inspiration, whether Biblical or Classical (Pagan)

mythology, represent a means of ascending earthly existence to a

mystical union with “the One”.

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The Medici Dynasty

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SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Birth of Venus, ca. 1484–1486. Tempera on canvas, approx. 5’ 9” x 9’ 2”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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Idealism + thought and feeling (inrospection)

Botticelli• Byzantine influence shown

in lyrical use of line.• Decorative and flat space,

little illusion of depth.• Strong focus on Classical

Mythology.

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PERUGINO, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome, Italy, 1481–1483. Fresco, 11’ 5 1/2” x 18’ 8 1/2”.

Girolamo Savonarola

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LUCA SIGNORELLI, Damned Cast into Hell, San Brizio Chapel, Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy, 1499–1504. Fresco, 23’ wide.

The HIGH RENAISSANCE

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The Achievements of the Masters

• Leonardo da Vinci: superb master of line, pioneer of sfumato, inventor, naturalist, and painter of the soul’s intent.

• Raffaelo Sanzio(a.k.a Raphael): younger master painter who incorporated elements of Leonardo and Michelangelo in to his own unique style.

• Michelangelo Buonarroti: master of sculpture, also excellent painter and architect, the man in demand.

• Venetian masters– Bellini, Giorgione, Titian– Palladio (architecture)

Leonard Da Vinci• Motivated by intense

curiosity and a optimistic belief in the human ability to understand the world.

• Art and science are two means to the same end: knowledge.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI, cartoon for Madonna and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John, ca. 1505–1507. Charcoal heightened with white on brown paper, 4’ 6” x 3’ 3”. National Gallery, London.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI, Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks, from San Francesco Grande, Milan, Italy, begun 1483. Oil on wood (transferred to canvas), 6’ 6 1/2” x 4’. Louvre, Paris.

sfumato 

A painting technique using an imperceptable, subtle transition from light to dark, without any clear break or line. The theory was developed and mastered by Leonardo da Vinci, and the term derives from the Italian word fumo, meaning vapor, or smoke.

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Camera Obscura

• A technical aid, widelv used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which consisted of a darkened box or tent containing lenses and a mirror. The artist could project the image of an object or landscape onto the oil painting surface and then trace it out in charcoal or graphite.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–1498. Oil and tempera on plaster, 13’ 9” x 29’ 10”. Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–1498. Oil and tempera on plaster, 13’ 9” x 29’ 10”. Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa, ca. 1503–1505. Oil on wood, 2’ 6 1/4” x 1’ 9”. Louvre, Paris.

Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini ?

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LEONARDO DA VINCI, The Fetus and Lining of the Uterus, ca. 1511–1513. wash, over red chalk and traces of black chalk on paper, 1’ 8 5/8”. Royal Library, Windsor Castle.

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RAPHAEL, Philosophy (School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy, 1509–1511. Fresco, 19’ x 27’.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Pieta, ca. 1498-1500. Marble, 5’ 8 ½” high. Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome.

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Pieta• Works in which the Virgin is supporting and

mourning the death of Jesus.

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, David, from Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy, 1501–1504. Marble, 17’ high. Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.

David• Carved from an abandoned eighteen foot block

or marble.• Symbol of freedom from tyranny for Florence

which had just become a Republic.• Career making piece for a 26 year old

Michelangelo.

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Moses, from the tomb of Pope Julius II, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513–1515 Marble, 7’ 8 1/2” high. San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome.

• Horns were symbolic of authority in ancient Near Eastern culture, and the medieval depiction had the advantage of giving Moses a convenient attribute by which he could easily be recognized in crowded pictures.

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Pieta, ca. 1498-1500. Marble, 5’ 8 ½” high. Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome.

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Michelangelo

Human beings are unique, almost godlike.

In an artists hands, “life” could be created through inspiration from God.

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Pope Julius IIThe Warrior Pope

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Bound Slave (Rebellious Captive), from the tomb of Pope Julius II, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513–1516. Marble, 7’ 5/8” high. Louvre, Paris.

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Interior of the Sistine Chapel (looking east), Vatican City, Rome, Italy, built 1473.

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Creation of Adam. detail of the ceiling (FIG. 22-1) of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1511–1512. Fresco, 9’ 2” x 18’ 8”.

• Expresses the Humanist concept of God: an idealized, rational man who actively tends every aspect of human creation and has a special interest in humans.

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Detail of the Azor-Sadoch lunette over one of the Sistine Chapel windows (FIG. 22-18) at the beginning (left) and final stage (right) of the restoration process.

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MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Last Judgment, altar wall of the Sistine Chapel (FIG. 22-18), Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1536–1541. Fresco, 48’ x 44’.

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William Blake

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Biagio da Cesena ?

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Self-portrait ?

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