Chapter Seventeen Renaissance Artists

“The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the chief means whereby the understanding may most fully and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature.” Leonardo da Vinci

Early Renaissance (1400-1490) Florence: the Medici High Renaissance (1490-1530) Rome: the Pope

http://portal.chaminade-stl.com/Portals/87/renaissance%20italy.jpg

Early Renaissance 1. patronage 2. the artist as hero and genius 3. the revival of the classical nude

New Techniques of Spatial Illusionism

Perspective Filippo Brunelleschi developed the laws of perspective. Masaccio was among the first to use Brunelleschi's rules to achieve the illusion of perspective in his paintings. Leon Battista Alberti theorized the method in the book On Painting

Definition Perspective in art is a method of graphically depicting three-dimensional objects and spatial relationships in two-dimensional planes. The illusion of depth in a painting, drawing, or graphic is created using the perspective method. Perspective is based on elementary laws of optics: objects in the distance appear smaller and less distinct than objects that are near.

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/geometry/images/linear_perspective.jpg

Masaccio, Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors, ca. 1426-1427.

http://www.nexusjournal.com/images_number1/Talbot20.gif

Basic principles of linear perspective. http://mh1. xplana

http://www2.evansville.edu/studiochalkboard/ap-aerial.html

Aerial or atmospheric interference with visual perception causes loss of contrast, detail and sharp focus. The effect, which Leonardo called "the perspective of disappearance," tends to make objects seem to take on a blue-gray middle value as they increase in distance. This effect is used by film makers to give the illusion of great depth, but can be used to great effect by painters and draughtsmen. The illustration above shows loss of color saturation, contrast, and detail as the cubes fall further away from the viewer. http://www2.evansville.edu/studiochalkboard/ap-aerial.html

Aerial Perspective

Aerial Perspective

Masaccio, The Tribute of Money, ca. 1425. http://www. wga

Chiaroscuro The arrangement or treatment of the light and dark parts in a pictorial work of art

Intarsia Mosaics made of pieces of inlaid wood

Ghiberti, Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence Solomon and the Queen of Sheba: Relief from the Doors of Paradise, 1425–52 http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/florence/ghibertiparadise/0118solomon.jpg

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/florence/ghibertiparadise/0123doors.jpg

Leonardo da Vinci

The Virgin of the Rocks More haze Some haze A feeling of distance

The Last Supper

Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

The Venetian School Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516) Giorgione (c. 1478-1510) Titian (c. 1490-1576)

The Venetian School Characteristics Their art reflected the luxurious life of Venice. Their aim was to appeal to the senses, not the mind.

Giorgione, Pastoral Concert

masterful blends colors Titian, Venus of Urbino

Raphael composition: Clarity Harmony Unity of design

Raphael, Alba Madonna Circle triangle Trapezoid

Raphael, the School of Athens

RAPHAEL. The Disputa. 1509

Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling

Painted between 1508 to 1512 Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis Seven Old Testament prophets Five sibyls, as well as four corners and eight triangular areas also containing scenes.

Creation of Adam God and Man Equal in size and muscular grace The moment of fulfillment sought by Adam Potential divinity of humankind

Michelangelo, the Last Judgment, 1536

Nude vs. Naked “A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude.” “Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display.” (John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972)

In the average European oil painting of the nude the principal protagonist is never painted. He is the spectator in front of the picture and he is presumed to be a man. Everything is addressed to him. Everything must appear to be the result of his being there. It is for him that the figures have assumed their nudity. But he, by definition, is a stranger—with his clothes still on. (John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972)

http://www.loudounsymphony.org/image/birth-of-venus-lg.jpg

http://www. kingsborough http://www.kingsborough.edu/academicDepartments/art/gallery/Aguerrilla.htm

The Renaissance Portrait Two reasons: The desire to immortalize oneself by way of one’s physical appearance The wish to publicize one’s greatness in the traditional manner of Greek and Roman antiquity (Fiero 401)

Jan van Eyck, Marriage of Giovanni Anolfini and His Bride, 1434

http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/e/eyck_van/jan/15arnolf/

The mirror is the focal point of the whole composition The mirror is the focal point of the whole composition. It has often been noted that two tiny figures can be seen reflected in it, their image captured as they cross the threshold of the room. They are the painter himself and a young man, perhaps arriving to act as witnesses to the marriage. The essential point, however, is the fact that the convex mirror is able to absorb and reflect in a single image both the floor and the ceiling of the room, as well as the sky and the garden outside, both of which are otherwise barely visible through the side window. The mirror thus acts as a sort of hole in the texture of space. It sucks the entire visual world into itself, transforming it into a representation. http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/e/eyck_van/jan/15arnolf/15arnol3.html

Jan van Eyck, Man in a Turban 1433

Jan van Eyck, Portrait of Margareta van Eyck, 1439

Jan van Eyck, The Virgin of Chancellor Rolin, 1435 http://gallery

Sculpture

“Indeed, in this tribute to male beauty, Donatello rejected the medieval view of the human body as the wellspring of sin and anticipated the modern Western exaltation of the body as the seat of pleasure” (Fiero 395). http://www.thais.it/scultura/image/sch00009.jpg

Pieta Lifeless Jesus held by young Virgin Protective pyramidal shape Monumental statement on the meaning of Christian Sacrifice

Mother Mary is represented very young, three possible reasons: 1. incorruptible purity 2. Perhaps Mary was Jesus’ daughter, like all of humanity is, but is also his mother. 3. Viewer is actually looking at an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus

Renaissance Architecture

Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore, called the Duomo), dome, 1420–36, by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1436)

S. Maria Novella by Leon Battista Alberti, at Florence, Italy, 1456 to 1470. http://www.greatbuildings.com/cgi-bin/gbi.cgi/S._Maria_Novella.html/cid_2461243.gbi

Dome of St Peter's 1564, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/michelan/5archite/late/index.html

http://mh1. xplana. com/imagevault/upload/53a2d52aaa9e29f1f4c8 http://mh1.xplana.com/imagevault/upload/53a2d52aaa9e29f1f4c8.jpg Leon Battista Alberti. Interior of Sant'Andrea, Mantua, Italy. Designed 1470.

Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Sant'Andrea, Mantua Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Sant'Andrea, Mantua. Designed 1470 http://mh1.xplana.com/imagevault/upload/4117920caf37d8508c26.jpg

Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Sant'Andrea, Mantua Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Sant'Andrea, Mantua. Designed 1470 http://mh1.xplana.com/imagevault/upload/888d4c817e45c5fdb825.jpg

The End