The Renaissance1375-1525
Raphael, The School of Athens, 1510
The Rebirth of Classical Antiquity
•Jacob Burckhardt: The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860)
•Italy close to the remnants of Rome
•New study of Latin and Greek sources (also Hebrew and Arabic)
•Appreciation of virtues of classical (pagan) Greece and Rome
•Study of Nature
•Study of History
•Secular theories of power
Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1486
Botticelli, Madonna and Child, 1468
Renaissance Italy
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Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca), 1304-74
The Father of Humanism
•The bourgeoisie searches for an alternative to medieval ideals
– Stressed the individual’s creativity, reason, and free will.
– Rejected original sin.– Belief in the
perfectibility of man.– Self cultivation and
virtue through education.
– The well rounded individual-- “Renaissance Man.”
– The good life is the life that is pleasing to the senses and intellect.
Humanism: Man as the Measure of All Things
Renaissance Art
• The Artist as Hero• Studied the remains of Roman
sculpture• Observations of the human
body• Mathematical perspective• Themes from classical
mythology and Old Testament • Anatomy, physiology, and
nature• Engineering
Donatello, David, 1440
The Artist as Hero
Giotto, The Mourning of Christ, 1305
Composition
Foreshortening
Chiariscuro
Perspective
Michelangelo , David, 1504
Fifth Century BCE Greek Bronze
Study of Anatomy: Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Michelangelo’s Slaves for the tomb of Pope Julius, 1515
Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo, The Pieta, 1499
Brunelleschi’s Duomo, Florence
and Masaccio’s Holy Trinity, 1425
Donatello, The Feast of Herod, 1425
Leonardo, The Last Supper, 1498
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Rome
The Renaissance Man
Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, 1434
The Northern Renaissance
Albrecht Durer, (1471-1528), Self Portrait, 1500
Mathematical Perspective: The Lucinda
Johannes Gutenberg and moveable type printing
Gutenberg’s 1454 Bible
Hans Holbein, Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) and the Greek New Testament 1516
Christian Humanism
Hans Holbein, Sir Thomas More, 1527