Early Renaissance

What was the Renaissance?

• Period following the middle ages (1450-1550)

• “Rebirth” of classical Greece and Rome

• Began in Italy• Moved to northern

Europe

Objectives

• During the middle ages– Finding God in all things– Proving pre-conceived

ideas such as Reason, Truth, Faith, Beauty, etc.

• During the Renaissance– Finding man (Homo

Mensura)– Promote learning / study

"The Renaissance gave birth to the modern era, in that it was in this era that human beings first began to think of themselves as individuals. In the early Middle Ages, people had been happy to see themselves simply as parts of a greater whole – for example, as members of a great family, trade guild, nation, or Church. This communal consciousness of the Middle Ages gradually gave way to the individual consciousness of the Renaissance."

– McGrath, Alister, In the Beginning, Anchor Books (2001), p.38.

Humanism• Pursuit of individualism

– Recognition that humans are creative– Appreciation of art as a product of man

• Man of culture = Man of art (artisan)• Life could be enjoyable• Love of the classical past (antiquities,

especially Greek and Roman)

"When a mural or altarpiece came to be judged not for its pious effulgence and fitness for the spot in need of decoration, but instead for what we now call its aesthetic merit, art for art's sake was just below the horizon. Aesthetic appreciation is something more than spontaneous liking; a good eye for accurate representation is not enough; one must be able to judge and talk about style, technique, and originality." – Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence, Perennial, 2000, p70.

Causes of the Renaissance

• Lessening of feudalism– Church disrespected– Nobility in chaos– Growth of Middle Class through trade

• Fall of Constantinople– Greek scholars fled to Italy

• Education flourishing (continuing the trend of establishing universities, such as University of Bologna, 1088; University of Modena, 1175; University of Arezzo, 1215; University of Padua, 1222; University of Naples Federico II, 1224; University of Siena, 1240)

• Nostalgia among the Italians to recapture the glory of the Holy Roman Empire

Italian Background• Major city centers

– Venice: Republic ruled by oligarchy, Byzantine origins

– Milan: Visconti and Sforza families

– Florence (Tuscany): Republic ruled by the Medici

– Papal States: Ruled by the Pope

– Kingdom of Naples: King of Aragon

Italian Background• Florence

– Medici's—family of physicians– Along with other families of Italy, such as the

Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, Famiglia de' Medici fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance

– Founding the Medici Bank. – Financed wool trade– Became de facto rulers of Florence

Italian Background• Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici (1389 –

1464) Advancing arts and education

• Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (1416 –1469) continued father’s artistic support

• Lorenzo de Medici (1449 – 1492)– Diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets. Friend of

Michelangelo– Rebuilt University of Pisa– Continued to invite scholars to Florence

Italian Background• Piero de Medici (1472 – 1503)

– Forced to make military and commercial concessions to King of France

– Medici’s forced out of the city• Girolamo Savonarola (1452 – 1498)

– Dominican Friar who decried money, power

– Preaching vehemently against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time

– Gained power in lower class, but lost pope’s support

– Excommunicated and hung

Pico della Mirandola (1463 – 1494)

• Close friend of Lorenzo Medici

• Brilliant and well educated• Wrote a set of 900 theses

to cover all knowledge• Believed human learning

was based on basic truths– Wrote On Dignity of Man

(1486)

Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536)

• Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.

• Studied ancient languages– Translated New Testament

• Criticized Martin Luther– …Free Will and Hyperaspistes

• In Praise of Folly (1509)– Major work– Written in classical style– Discoursed on the foolishness and

misguided pompousness of the world

“There are also those who think that there is nothing that they cannot obtain by relying on the magical prayers and charms thought up by some charlatan for the sake of his soul or for profit. Among the things they want are: wealth, honor, pleasure, plenty, perpetual good health, long life, a vigorous old age, and finally, a place next to Christ in heaven. However, they do not want that place until the last possible second; heavenly pleasures may come only when the pleasures of this life, hung onto with all possible tenacity, must finally depart. I can see some businessman, soldier, or judge taking one small coin from all his money and thinking that it will be proper expiation for all his perjury, lust, drunkenness, fighting, murder, fraud, lying and treachery. After doing this, he thinks he can start a new round of sinning with a new slate.”

— Erasmus in Praise of Folly

Early Renaissance Sculpture

Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 – 1455)

• Sculpture competition with Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446)

• Gates of Paradise

Gates of Paradise

“Sacrifice of Isaac” Panels

BrunelleschiGhiberti

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi / Donatello (1386 – 1466)

DavidSaint George Mary Magdalene

Early Renaissance Architecture

Filippo Brunelleschi

• Founded Renaissance style– Simple lines– Substantial walls– Structural elements not hidden

Filippo Brunelleschi

• Il Duomo Cathedral’s dome (Florence)

Filippo Brunelleschi

• Commissioned to build the cathedral dome– Use unique architectural

concepts• Studied Pantheon• Used ribs for support

– Structural elements have been copied on other buildings

Il Duomo St. Peter’s St. Paul’s US capital (Florence) (Rome) (London)

Dome Comparison

"An innovator in countless other areas [besides the building of the dome of the Cathedral in Florence,] he [Filippo Brunelleschi] had also received, in 1421, the world's first ever patent for invention...for 'some machine or kind of ship, by means of which he thinks he can easily, at any time, bring in any merchandise and load on the river Arno and on any other river or water, for less money than usual.' Until this point no patent system existed to prevent an inventor's designs from being stolen and copied by others. This is the reason why ciphers were so widely used by scientists and also why Filippo was so reluctant to share the secrets of his inventions with others... The patent for invention was designed to remedy this situation... According to the terms of the patent, any boat copying its design, and thereby violating Filippo's monopoly, would be condemned to flames."

– King, Ross, Brunelleschi's Dome, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 112.

Filippo Brunelleschi

• Pazzi Palace Chapel

• Compare to Gothic

Early Renaissance Art

• What was different in the Renaissance:– Realism– Perspective– Classical (pagan) themes – Geometrical arrangement of figures +

mathematical analysis– Light and shadowing (chiaroscuro)– Softening of edges (sfumato)– Backgrounds– Artist able to live from commissions (given by

patron of the cities)

Masaccio (1401 – 1428)

• Realism and expression– The Expulsion from Paradise

Masaccio• Perspective

– Tribute Money: fresco in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence

– Size of people diminishes with distance

– Use of light, shadow and drama

Masaccio

• Perspective (cont.)– The Holy Trinity with the

Virgin and St. John– Geometry: three-

dimensionality like; the first painting using systematic linear perspective*).

– Inscription: “What you are, I once was; what I am, you will become.”

Perspective

"The grand innovation that made Renaissance painters certain that theirs was the only right path for art was the laws of perspective. The discovery made them as proud as the men of letters after their discovery of the true path. For some Nature had been rediscovered; for the others, civilization had been restored. Perspective is based on the fact that we have two eyes. We therefore see objects as defined by two lines of sight that converge at a distance, the painter's 'vanishing point' on the horizon. Since those two lines form an acute angle, plane geometry can show the size and place that an object at any distance must be given to the painting to make it appear as if it looks in life... Hence the statement in an early Renaissance treatise that paining consists of three parts: drawing, measurement, and color. One of the uses of color is to create 'aerial perspective.' A light blue-gray makes distant objects in the painting look hazy, as they appear to the eye owing to the thickness of the atmosphere. Combined, the two perspectives create he illusion of depth, the three-dimensional 'reality' on a flat surface."

– Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence, Perennial, 2000, p73.

Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510)

• Pagan themes– La Primavera– The Birth of

Venus

• Attempt to depict perfect beauty

Classical Pose

Birth of Venus

Medici Venus

(1st century AD)

Vitruvian Man (Leonardo da Vinci, 1487)

• The perfect geometrical figure of a man.

Sacred and Profane Love (Baglione, 1602/3)

• This painting is showing dramatic compositional chiaroscuro (light-dark technique): showing clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted

Renaissance Man• Broad knowledge about many things

in different fields• Deep knowledge of skill in one area• Able to link areas and create new

knowledge• Heightened “sense of beauty” (due to

pro social artistic milieu, commission-based competition amongst artists, the culture of apprenticeship, and recently found “sense of individuality”)

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