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RENAISSANCE ART
Renaissance means “rebirth” and is defined as the revival or rebirth of the arts.
Beginning in Italy around 1350, it spread throughout Western Europe, lasting until the
1600s. Italian Renaissance artists were inspired by work from the Classical period.
There were many phases or periods throughout the Renaissance.
The period from 1420 to 1500 is most often referred to as the Early Renaissance.
The term High Renaissance is used to describe anything that happened from 1500
through 1530, this involved pure, classical, balanced harmony.
This was when the artists were in complete control of their materials and were capable
of executing masterful works of art. After the High Renaissance a period known as
Mannerism began. Mannerism marked a time when elegance was key.
Some of the main elements of the
Renaissance were:
Oil paint was used for the first time. Egg tempera had been the medium of choice
prior to oil paints being used.
Both symbolism and real-life events were represented together in the same
artworks.
Chiaroscuro: the balance of light and dark was used for the first time to show
within a picture shadows rather than blocky outlines.
Perspective was used for the first time.
Ancient Greek and Roman ideas were the inspiration for many works in Italy.
Larger than life figures appear in German art. Dutch works of art began to show
hints of daily life (hunting, farming) rather than religious themes.
Key Vocabulary
1. Renaissance – the humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature,
and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century.
2. revival - a restoration to use, acceptance, activity, or vigor after a period of
obscurity or quiescence
3. oil paint - a paint in which the vehicle is a drying oil. Also called oil color.
4. tempera - a painting medium in which pigment is mixed with water-soluble
glutinous materials such as size or egg yolk.
5. symbolism - the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of
attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or
relationships.
6. neoplatonic - thought form, rooted in the philosophy of Plato
7. fresco painting – a method of painting where tempra paint on plaster (usually painted directly on a wall or
building.
8. horizon line – line in which the earth and sky come together in a 2d landscape
9. vanishing point – point on the horizon line that objects in a 2d work of art get smaller as they get closer to it
10. converging lines – lines that pint to the horizon line in a 2d work of art,
11. one point perspective – drawing method that shows how things appear to get smaller as they get further
away, converging towards a single 'vanishing point' on the horizon line
Transition from the Middle Ages to the
Renaissance
During the Middle Ages, a period of European history from the 5th through 15th centuries, art
and learning were centered on the church and religion. But at the start of the 14th century, people
became less interested in thinking about God, heaven and the saints, and more interested in thinking
about themselves, their surroundings and their everyday lives.
Part of this change was influenced by the study of ancient Greek and Roman (Classical
period) writings on scientific matters, government, philosophy, and art. When scholars during the
Renaissance began to study these writings, their interests turned away from traditional areas of study
such as religion, medicine and the law. The people of the Renaissance became interested in other areas
of science, the natural world, biology and astronomy. People now studied mathematics, engineering, and
architecture. Artists, writers, musicians and composers began creating work outside of the church. Artists
signed their work and authors wrote autobiographies and memoirs — stories about themselves.
The values and ideals popular during the European Renaissance can be described by the
term secular humanism: secular, meaning not religious and humanism, meaning placing the study and
progress of human nature at the center of interests.
The rise of Humanism can be seen in paintings created by Renaissance artists. During the
Middle Ages, saints in paintings wore halos (a ring or circle of light) around their heads. Artists also used
hieratic scale in paintings during the Middle Ages, making saints or members of the family of God larger
in scale than ordinary or less important figures. As Humanism became more popular during the
Renaissance, ordinary people grew to be the same size as saints in paintings and saints began to look
more like ordinary people. For example, halos became fainter and eventually disappeared during the
Renaissance.
The central figures of the Madonna and child in this
painting from the late Middle Ages are much larger
than the four saints who stand below the Madonna
or the angels gathered around the upper edges of
the painting. The artists made the Madonna and
child larger to help viewers understand that they are
the most important figures in the painting.
Jacopa di Cione
Madonna and Child in Glory
1360/65
Tempera and gold on panel
The holy family of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus are joined
here by shepherds and an angel in the center playing a lute.
The landscape around them is earthly rather than heavenly.
Giovanni Agostino da Lodi
Adoration of the Shepherds
1510
Oil on panel
Saints occupied the same
landscape as ordinary people in
Renaissance paintings and the landscape
was earth instead of heaven. In the Middle
Ages it was common for artists to
represent figures of heaven against a gold
background, a symbol for the beauty and
value of the atmosphere of heaven. As
Renaissance artists experimented with
new Humanist ideas, the natural landscape
began to appear as a background in
paintings. Saints left their golden
atmosphere to occupy the same gardens,
forests and buildings that everyday people
lived in.
This tempera painting, made in the
early Renaissance, is an example
of perspective that looks a little
"off." Each item in this painting, the
altar, the screen in the
Background, etc. is accurately
represented, but put them all
together and they don't quite fit.
Franconian School
Miraculous Mass of St. Martin of
Tours
about 1440
Tempera and gold on canvas on
panel
Guiliano Bugiardini
Madonna and Child with St. John
1523/1525
Oil on panel
The Humanists of the Renaissance and their
exploration of the belief that human beings
can live full and happy lives before they go to
heaven is still with us. Many aspects of the
lives we lead, including the way school is
taught and the subjects that we study, began
in the Renaissance and continue to influence
the way we live today.
The Kress Monnogrammist
The Adoration of the Magi
about 1550/1560
Oil on oak pane
Artists began to use oil paints for the first time during the Renaissance. In the Middle
Ages, egg tempera was used most widely. Mixing egg yolks with pigments made egg tempera
and artists made their own paints. Egg tempera dried quickly and created a flat, rough surface.
Oil paint was invented in the early 15th century and created great excitement among
Renaissance artists. Oil paint dried slowly, and was translucent, meaning light could shine
through the paint. The characteristics of oil paint allowed artists to build layers of color and create
paintings with the appearance of greater depth.
During the Renaissance,
the use mathematical perspective
to represent space in paintings was
invented. Earlier attempts at
representing space often resulted
in furniture or buildings that look
just a little "off.“ Using
mathematical formulas, instead of
just the human eye, gave artists
new tools to represent three-
dimensional space in a convincing
way. Renaissance paintings began
to give the impression that the
frame around the painting was a
window frame, and looking at the
painting was like looking through a
window.
Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work
is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement
of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo
da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was
enormously productive,
running an unusually large
workshop, and despite his
death at age 37, a large body
of his work remains. The best
known work is The School of
Athens. After his early years
in Rome much of his work
was executed by his
workshop from his drawings,
with considerable loss of
quality. He was extremely
influential in his lifetime,
though outside Rome his
work was mostly known from
his collaborative printmaking.
This depicts many famous
thinkers, scientists,
mathematicians, and artists of
the Classical period and the
Renaissance
One problem within the making of 2D art is creating the buildings and images with the
proper perspective to make them appear to have form and depth.
The solutions is to use math to create the illusion of space. The name of the
techneque in wich artist use math to create depth and perspective is known as One-
Point Perspective.
The Last Supper (1494–1499)
Leonardo da Vinci
tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic
181 in × 346 in
Location: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Michelangelo- was an Italian sculptor, painter,
architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance.
His versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a
high order that he is often considered a contender for
the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with
his fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.
Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist in
his lifetime, and ever since then he has been held to be
one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his
works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank
among the most famous in existence. His output in
every field during his long life was prodigious; when the
sheer volume of correspondence, sketches, and
reminiscences that survive is also taken into account,
he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century.
As an architect,
Michelangelo
pioneered the
Mannerist style at the
Laurentian Library.
At 74 he succeeded
Antonio da Sangallo
the Younger as the
architect of St.
Peter's Basilica.
Michelangelo
transformed the plan,
the western end
being finished to
Michelangelo's design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification.
The library is renowned for the architecture planned and built by Michelangelo and is an
example of Mannerism.
David is a
marble statue of
a standing male
nude. The statue
represents the Biblical hero David. Originally commissioned
as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned
along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, the
statue was instead placed in a public square.
The Pietà (1498–1499) is a
masterpiece of Renaissance
sculpture by Michelangelo
Buonarroti. It is the first of a
number of works of the same
theme by the artist.
The sculpture, in Carrara
marble. It is the only piece
Michelangelo ever signed.
This famous work of art depicts
the body of Jesus on the lap of
his mother Mary after the
Crucifixion. It is an important
work as it balances the
Renaissance ideals of classical
beauty with naturalism.
The Sistine Chapel is the best-
known chapel of the Apostolic
Palace, the official residence of
the Pope in the Vatican City. It is
famous for its architecture and its
decoration that has fresco
paintings throughout by
Renaissance artists.
Michelangelo painted the chapel
ceiling between 1508 and 1512.
Between 1535 and 1541 he
painted The Last Judgment.
These works are considered the
crowning achievements of
Western painting.
Adam The hands God
Despite his low opinion of painting, 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.
The Creation of Adam-God is depicted as an elderly white-bearded man wrapped in
a swirling cloak while Adam, on the lower left, is completely nude. God's right arm is
outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left
arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's, a reminder that man is created in the image
and likeness of God. Another point is that Adam's finger and God's finger are not
touching. It gives the impression that God, the giver of life, is reaching out to Adam
who receives it; they are not on "the same level" as would be two humans shaking
hands, for instance.
To reach the chapel's ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own scaffold, a flat wooden
platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall near the top of the windows, rather
than being built up from the floor. Only half the building was scaffolded at a time and
the platform was moved as the painting was done in stages. Many people say he
painted lying on his back, while others believed he often painted in a standing position.
He often complained of the awkward positions he had to paint in.
The Last Judgment is a fresco
over on the altar wall of the
Sistine Chapel .It is a depiction
of the Second Coming of Christ
and the final and eternal
judgment by God of all
humanity. The souls of humans
rise and descend to their fates,
as judged by Christ surrounded
by prominent saints.
The work took four years to
complete and was done
between 1536 and 1541
(preparation of the altar wall
began in 1535.) Michelangelo
began working on it some
twenty years after he finished
the Sistine Chapel ceiling.