Renaissance Art

Changing patterns of patronage had profound impact The Church was main patron for art in the Middle Ages Increasing wealth in lay society led to demand for art from that sector of society When viewing medieval artwork, people often comment that it is flat and ugly. What they perceive is no sense of continuous space or receding space (everything is crammed into the foreground), and that the figures are disproportioned.

Upsurge in popular piety helped mold a new style of art Increase in personal piety was related to the crisis of the 1300s It involved more emotional expression of faith and more active involvement Artistic style was a kind of visual rhetoric to move the heart of the viewer to more piety You can clearly see this in the work of late medieval that their pictures have a flat look to them. In this painting the city in the background appears very small because the figures far off in the distance are the same size as those in the foreground. Also, the parallel lines of the walls do not recede into the distance. It’s a perfect example of the problem facing painters in the Late Middle Ages. How do you make a picture realistic? It seems so simple to us now, but it was a huge problem that took centuries to solve until Filippo Brunelleschi figured it out.

The great artists of the early Renaissance pioneered different techniques to help achieve new style of emotionally charged art Giotto (c – 1336) Brunelleschi (1337 – 1446) Masaccio (1401 – 1428) Fra Lippi (1406 – 1469) Piero della Francesca (c – 1492) Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 – 1455) Donatello (1386 – 1466) Leon Battista Alberti (1404 – 1472) Giotto is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. What sets Giotto's work apart from that of his contemporaries is his depiction of the human face and of human emotion in both expression and gesture.

Giotto (c – 1336) was the first pioneer of Renaissance art The 16th century biographer Giorgio Vasari says of him "...He made a decisive break with the...Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years."

Brunelleschi (1337 – 1446) transferred Giotto’s techniques to architecture Brunelleschi observed that with a fixed single point of view, parallel lines appear to converge at a single point in the distance. Brunelleschi applied a single vanishing point to a canvas, and discovered a method for calculating depth. In a famous noted experiment, Brunelleschi used mirrors to sketch the Florence baptistry in perfect perspective. He was able to mathematically calculate the scale of objects within a painting in order to make them appear realistic. It was a monumental discovery, and soon artists were using Brunelleschi’s method of perspective to astonishing affects in their paintings. Brunelleschi’s original perspective studies are long gone, but he directly influenced many others.

Brunelleschi’s dome on the Cathedral of Florence stands as one of the great monuments of the Renaissance

Masaccio (1401 – 1428) continued the stylistic innovations of Giotto and Brunelleschi The first known painting to show true linear perspective is Masaccio’s“The Holy Trinity”. In the fresco, a false room has been created on the flat wall of the church using perspective to simulate the architecture.

Two other important Renaissance painters Fra Lippi (1406 – 1469) Piero della Francesca (c.1412 – 1492)

Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 – 1455) founded the Renaissance style of sculpture Ghiberti’s doors on the baptistry at the Cathedral of Florence. Michelangelo referred to these doors as fit to be the "Gates of Paradise". Below is a self-portrait bust of the artist.

Donatello (1386 – 1466) was the greatest of the early Renaissance sculptors Donatello's bronze statue of David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a laurel- topped hat and boots, bearing the sword of Goliath. There are no documents related to the commission or production of the bronze David. The earliest secure reference to the statue occurred in 1469, when it was described at the center of the courtyard of the Medici Palace in Florence.

The artists of the High Renaissance perfected the techniques of their predecessors. This period represented the zenith of Renaissance art and was dominated by three geniuses Leonardo Da Vinci Raphael Michelangelo

The great Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was a painter, architect, scientist, engineer, and sculptor

Raphael Urbino (1483 – 1520) Specialized in painting Madonnas of great serenity and humanity

Michaelangelo ( )

The Sistine Chapel: Michaelangelo’s fresco masterpiece A closer look at the center of the Sistine Chapel ceiling shows the famous view of the hand of God reaching out to give life to Adam.