Renaissance“rebirth”

• Proportion

• Anatomy

• Perspective

15th century

• Growth

• Discovery

• Commerce

• Wealth

• Knowledge

• Arts

Cities were important for

• Trading

• Industry

– Florence• Capital of cloth trade• Riches banking house

Renaissance took place during

• Rebellions

• Wars

• Political instability

• Economical instability

• the Plague

Inventions

• Printing press by Gutenberg– Used in Germany,

France, England and Italy

3 classes of people

1. Aristocracy

2. Church

3. Peasants

Chain of being• God• Aristocracy• Church• Peasants• Chickens• Women

Middle Class

• Change came from merchants– Influenced by trade, finance and industry

• Growth in wealth increased # educated• Growth in the Arts

Humanism

• New philosophy• Human intelligence seemed limitless• Works of humans have value in themselves and

were not in the service of the Church• Arts, science, wisdom, knowledge and the earth

itself were in the service of humanity• humanism rejects the validity of transcendental

justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or text of allegedly divine origin.

Renaissance Artists

• Ghiberti• Albrecht Dürer• Leonardo da Vinci• Michelangelo • RaphaelStudied

• Geology, Botany, Anatomy, Geometry and Mathematics

Used to be thought of a Craftspeople, employees of the church

• Individuals

• Medici’s

Masaccio “The Tribute Money” fresco, 1427.

• Masaccio– In his mid-20’s– Start of visual perspective and texture– Many young painters joined the Florentine

Painter’s Guild

Vanishing point

Fresco- A method of painting on plaster, either dry (dry fresco or fresco secco) or wet (wet or true fresco). In the wet method, pigments are applied to thin layers of wet plaster so that they will be absorbed and the painting becomes part of the wall.

Filippo Brunelleschi

• 1377-1466• Known for the cupola (dome on the

Cathedral of Florence)

• Goldsmith, sculptor, mathematician, builder and architect

• Developed scientific perspective

•Dome built in 2 shells

•Linked ribs and supports are surrounded by interlocking brickwork which all work together to support dome

•140 feet in diameter and 300 feet above the floor

•Created new uses of ramps and hoist to raise roof (unlike previous architects who looked at earlier structures for building concepts

Sculpture

Roman sculpture Renaissance sculpture

influenced

Lorenzo Ghiberti

• 1381-1455• Sculpted “Sacrifice of

Isaac” panel for doors of baptistery of Florence

• Competition entry for the doors Ghiberti later made

•Sculpted “Sacrifice of Isaac” panel for doors of baptistery of Florence•From same door as Ghiberti’s piece•Competition entry by Filippo Brunelleschi

Competition for the doors

• 2 things stood out: aesthetics and money• Ghiberti’s design had the design and was cost

effective as he used bronze gilding technique– Gilding… to cover surface in a thin layer of metal (usually

gold) … similar to gold plating

• 21 year old Ghiberti won the competition

• Took more than 20 years to complete

“The Gates of Paradise”

• After doing such a good job on the doors Ghiberti’s was commissioned to create the doors for the East side of the baptistery.

• The doors were later called “The Gates of Paradise”

• There were 10 larger square panels• Each panel was cast in bronze and

covered in gold (gilded)

Ghiberti “Gates of Paradise” or “East doors of the baptistry of Florence Cathedral” 1425-1452

Made of bronze and Gilt gold

Donatello• 1386-1466• Sculptor• 32 Life-size or large pieces were create outdoors

in Florence • Donatello is acknowledged as the best sculptor

of his day• He mastered Contrapposto (based on Greek

body stance) (suggests action or shifting of body weight)

• Best seen in his sculpture of “David”

Donatello’s “David” 1430-1432

• Bronze 158cm high• First freestanding nude

since ancient times• Facial expression

depicts idea of pride, dignity and self-reliance

•Realistic•Commissioned by Cosimo de Medici•Designed to be seen from all angles•Head was crowned with contemporary soldier headgear and laurel wreath combining ancient and contemporary traditions

Sandro Botticelli

• 1445-1510• Painted “Birth of Venus”• Based on traditional

mythology• Venus, the goddess of

love, rises from the sea in a shell

• On the left, West Winds looking like angels push her towards land

• One the right, Spring is ready to toss a robe around Venus’ unclothed body

Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” 1482. Tempra on canvas

Mythological scenes were considered metaphors for

Christian ideas.• Spring = Christ / baptism / John the Baptist

• Signifies the rebirth of humanity

• Botticelli was a master of delicate lines, as seen in figures and fabrics

• His use of pale colours and the floating appearance of the figures add to the fantasy of the subject

• “Birth of Venus” was one of the first Italian works on canvas instead of panel

Botticelli's “The Adoration of the Magi” 1470’s. Tempera on Panel

Botticelli's “Adoration of the Magi”•Wise men and others who have come to see Holy Family

•Models in piece are portraits of Italian contemporaries

•Man in bottom right is a self portrait of the artist

•The composition is calm at the center and becomes active towards the outside

•The aspects of the painting are depicted as elegant and luxurious

High Renaissance

• Between 1495 and 1527 there were a series of powerful and ambitious popes who created a papal state with Rome as its capital (The Papal States comprised those territories over which the Pope was the ruler in a civil as well as a spiritual sense

before 1870. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States)

• Popes lived in luxury and embellished the city with great works of art

• They shipped in artists and provided them with challenging and exciting commissions

• High renaissance only last 20 years but produced art that influenced European art for at least 3 centuries

RenaissanceHigh Renaissance• Artists started to be

viewed as geniuses rather than craftsperson's. It was widely believed that artists, like poets, created their work under divine inspiration.

• Artists often disregarded rules of the early Renaissance and let their feelings dictate their styles. This led to more expressive work.

Early Renaissance• Artists relied on formulas,

scientific perspective, ratios, and proportions to structure their work

Leonardo da Vinci

• 1452-1519• Artist/ Genius in painting,

sculpture, architecture, engineering, military science, botany, anatomy, geology, aerodynamics and optics.

• Not only was he interested in these fields, but he was also considered an expert in all of them. “renaissance man”

Leonardo da Vinci

• He compiled 10 000 pages of drawings and ideas

• Invented the parachute and helicopter

Leonardo da Vinci “ The Last Supper” 1495-1498• Wall Fresco• Image of Christ and the apostles celebrating Passover• Experimented with new techniques: dry plaster with oil and tempera mixture

(chipped off immediately/ oil water don’t mix)• Only 4% is estimated to still be original

Movie worthy controversy

The Mysterious knife without a visible body

Body positions look like they were originally placed together

Hand is awkwardly place on

her shoulder?

Hand is hanging in mid air.

Was it originally on her back?

In the “Da Vinci Code” movie, Mary Magdalene is thought to be Jesus Christ’s lover and that is just part of the cover-up which lives in da Vinci’s artworks.

• 1503-1506. Oil on panel• His favorite painting and

he carried it around with him his entire life

• Painted using chiaroscuro: the extreme contrast of dark and light

• Distant hills and mountains are partially obscured by a light haze, also know as sfumato, an effect that allowed Leonardo to create a feeling of enormous depth

Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”

Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”• Some say her image is quite similar to his own• Could this be the source of the “smile” that has

intrigued so many?

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

• (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564)

Michelangelo

• Was an Italian renaissance painter, sculpture. Architect, poet and engineer.

• In his lifetime he was also often called Il Divino ("the divine one”)

• Two of his best-known works, the Pieta and the David, were sculpted before he turned thirty.

Two of his best-known works, the Pieta and the David, were sculpted before he

turned thirty.

David

• David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to 1504. The 5.17 meter of marble statue portrays the biblical King David in the nude, at the moment that he decides to battle with Goliath. It came to symbolize the defense of civic liberties embodied in the Florentine Republic, an independent city state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici themselves.

Pieta

• Is located in St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City. The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jena de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome.

• This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion.

• Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unique to the precedents. It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one of the most highly finished works by Michelangelo.

The Sistine Chapel

• Michelangelo also created two of the most influential works in Fresco in the history of Western art: the Scenes from Genesis on the ceiling and The Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Sistine Chapel

• The Sistine chapel ceiling took approximately 4 years to complete.

The composition eventually contained over 300 figures and had at its centre nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God's Creation of the Earth; God's Creation of Humankind and their fall from God's grace; and lastly, the state of Humanity as represented by Noah and his family

Raphael Sanzio (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520

was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance,

• Perspective was a common theme that Raphael liked to play with.

• It was painted between 1510 and 1511

• In the center of the fresco, at its architecture's central vanishing points, are the two undisputed main subjects: Plato on the left and Aristotle, his student, on the right.