PART FIVE

Chapter 16: Renaissance

Key Styles for this chapter include:

• Early Renaissance

• High Renaissance

• Northern Renaissance

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Key Terms for this chapter include: • oil painting: sfumato and chiaroscuro

• linear and atmospheric perspective

• humanist

• Plato and Neo-Platonism

• art patron

• Medici family

• academy

• Mannerism

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Renaissance

Covering the period from roughly

1400 to 1600, Renaissance means

“rebirth”. It refers to the revival of

interest in ancient Greek and Roman

culture. This interest is one of the key

characteristics of the period.

• The new and very rich merchant class

joined nobility and clergy as art patrons.

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Renaissance

Artists were learned persons whose creative powers were viewed as almost miraculous. They were considered a breed apart because of their abilities, and they transcended social class.

• Painting, sculpture, and architecture were held as intellectual activities allied with mathematics, science, and poetry.

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Renaissance

Influenced by the Greek philosopher Plato, beauty became equated with moral goodness. Renaissance artists sought an idealized beauty.

• Humankind was viewed as God’s finest and most perfect creation.

• Reason and creativity were considered God’s gifts.

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Renaissance • Artists worked to reproduce the natural world as accurately

as possible.

• Studying the effects of light, they developed the technique of chiaroscuro.

• Noting that distant objects appeared smaller than near ones, they developed the system of linear perspective.

• Seeing how detail and color blurred with distance, they developed the principles of atmospheric perspective.

• Artists studied anatomy, even dissecting cadavers, to fully understand the human form.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestions:

16.2 The Story of Jacob and Esau

16.3 Trinity with the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, and Donors

Early Renaissance

The Early Renaissance is characterized by

the work of artists like Donatello, Ghiberti,

Masaccio and Botticelli.

• Donatello: A sculptor; used the body as the

framework on which the fabric draped.

• Sculptors created full-scale clay models of nude

figures, then draped clay-soaked linen over the clay

models to create garments. This model was then

copied in marble.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestion:

16.1 St. Mark

*St. Mark, Donatello, 1411-13, 7’9”, marble.

Early Renaissance

• Ghiberti: Designed the baptistry doors for

the Florence cathedral; his great

innovation was the use of architecture and

figures on the same scale in his work.

• Masaccio: A painter; used the new

technique of linear perspective to create

deep, convincing architectural space within

his work; used a triangular composition

symbolic of the Godhead. © 2013, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

Left – Trinity with the Virgin, St John the Evangelist, & Donors,

Massacio, fresco, 1425

Right – The Story of Jacob and Esau, Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1435

Early Renaissance

• Botticelli: A painter; worked for the Medici

family who commissioned secular artwork.

• Medicis: A wealthy merchant class family who

were art patrons; they sponsored an Academy

(discussion group) where humanist scholars and

artists met to discuss Classical culture and its

relationship to Christianity. These two combined

systems of thought created a philosophy known

as Neo-Platonism.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestion: 16.6 The Birth of Venus

*The Birth of Venus, Botticelli, tempera, 1480

Commissioned by Medici family who also sponsored an Academy. Venus (Roman

goddess of love and beauty) born from sea and is depicted on shell. Wind god Zephyr

blow her toward shore where figure (Spring) awaits to cloth her. Modeled after Greek

(Roman copy) Venus de Milo. In Neo-Platonic thought, Venus is associated with Mary.

Birth of water relates to baptism of Christ by John the Baptist.

High Renaissance

The High Renaissance lasted for about 25

years ending around 1520. The most

outstanding and recognized artists of this

period are:

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo

• Other well-known artists include Raphael, Titian,

and Giorgione.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestions:

5.21 Study of Human Proportions

16.8 David

High Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci

• Embodies the term “Renaissance man”; many

consider him to have been the greatest genius

who ever lived.

• A painter, inventor, sculptor, architect, engineer,

scientist, musician.

• Left many works uncompleted.

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Study of Human Proportions, Vitruvian

Man, da Vinci

High Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci

• The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are

his most famous works.

• Sfumato: Italian for “smoke”; Leonardo’s

specialty; a layering of translucent glazes

producing a hazy atmosphere, softened

contours, and velvet shadows.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestions:

2.4 Mona Lisa

4.45 Last Supper

*Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-05

Virgin and Saint Anne, Leonardo

da Vinci, Charcoal

*Madonna and Child with

Saint Anne, da Vinci, 1503-6

Purpose to suggest theological

meaning .

3 form single unit

3 generations

Lamb- symbol of Jesus’ future

sacrifice

Tree symbolic of cross he will die on.

Sfumato- hazy atmosphere

*Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci,

High Renaissance

Michelangelo

• 25 years younger than Leonardo but his

greatest rival.

• A painter, sculptor, poet, and architect.

The artist considered himself a sculptor

above all else.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestions:

16.10 Sistine Chapel

p.375 Portrait of Michelangelo

Portrait of Michelangelo

*Pieta, Michelangelo, 1500

*Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo, Vatican, 1473-80,

fresco

• David, Michelangelo,

1501-4, Marble, 18’

• Commissioned

• Greeks knew how bodies

looked on outside.

Renaissance artists knew

how they looked on

inside.

• Expressive face

• Symbol of Florence

High Renaissance

Michelangelo

• Tension and energy are characteristics that

make David a Renaissance sculpture.

• The Sistine Chapel is another of his famous

works. It is a fresco and depicts stories,

prophets, and sybils from the Bible’s Old

Testament.

• He was the architect of the new St. Peter’s

Basilica in the Vatican.

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The Tempest, Giorgione, Oil on canvas, 1505.

*The Annunciation, Titian, 1560,

Oil

Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance evolved out of

the Middle Ages. This artwork is

characterized by the artists interest in

details.

• The Limbourg Brothers, Van Eyck, Grunewald,

Hans Holbein the Younger, and Durer are just a

few of the artists associated with this period.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestions:

16.16 February

16.20 The Ambassadors

*February, Limbourgh Brothers, 9”, 1416

The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, Oil, 1533.

*Merode Altarpiece, Robert Campin, Oil,

1426

Luke Drawing the Virgin, Rogier can der Weyden, 1435, Oil

Northern Renaissance

The artists interest in details stems from a

long tradition of decorative arts including

miniatures, manuscript illumination,

stained glass, and tapestries.

• They were interested in the precise outer

appearance of their subjects.

• Religious artwork tended to be emotionally

harsh.

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*Isenheim Altarpiece, Matthias

Grunewald, 1515.

*The Harvesters, Petier Brueghel the Elder, 1565,

oil. Netherland artist

Late Renaissance

Scholars generally date the end of the

High Renaissance in Italy to the death

of Raphael in 1520. It was followed by

a style called Mannerism.

• Mannerism: Comes from the Italian

maniera, meaning “style” or “stylishness”.

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Insert visual(s).

Suggestion: 16.24 The Last Supper

Late Renaissance: Mannerism

• This artwork grew out of possibilities

suggested by the work of the High

Renaissance, especially Michelangelo.

• Characterized by a fondness for elaborate

or obscure subject matter.

• The artwork of Bronzino typifies the

Mannerist style.

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*The Last Supper, Tintoretto,

1592-94, oil

Renaissance: SUMMARY

Key Styles and Terms covered:

Early, High, Northern Renaissance

• oil painting: sfumato and chiaroscuro • linear and atmospheric perspective • humanist • Plato and Neo-Platonism • art patron • Medici family • Academy • Mannerism

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Compare and contrast the two paintings below. Discuss

periods and specific characteristics .