1. Early Renaissance
The original source of this power points presentation is . It has been modified (added some new material and info, also pictures, some slides be deleted) according to the need of Aesthetic Class (2012) in UMN, held by Hendar Putranto, M. Hum.

2. What was the Renaissance?
Period following the middle ages ( )
“Rebirth” of classical Greece and Rome
Began in Italy
Moved to northern Europe

3. Objectives During the middle ages Finding God in all things
Proving pre-conceived ideas such as Reason, Truth, Faith, Beauty, etc.
During the Renaissance
Finding man (Homo Mensura)
Promote learning / study

4. "The Renaissance gave birth to the modern era, in that it was in this era that human beings first began to think of themselves as individuals. In the early Middle Ages, people had been happy to see themselves simply as parts of a greater whole – for example, as members of a great family, trade guild, nation, or Church. This communal consciousness of the Middle Ages gradually gave way to the individual consciousness of the Renaissance."
– McGrath, Alister, In the Beginning, Anchor Books (2001), p.38.

5. Humanism Pursuit of individualism
Recognition that humans are creative
Appreciation of art as a product of man
Man of culture = Man of art (artisan)
Life could be enjoyable
Love of the classical past (antiquities, especially Greek and Roman)

6. "When a mural or altarpiece came to be judged not for its pious effulgence and fitness for the spot in need of decoration, but instead for what we now call its aesthetic merit, art for art's sake was just below the horizon. Aesthetic appreciation is something more than spontaneous liking; a good eye for accurate representation is not enough; one must be able to judge and talk about style, technique, and originality."
– Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence, Perennial, 2000, p70.

7. Causes of the Renaissance
Lessening of feudalism
Church disrespected
Nobility in chaos
Growth of Middle Class through trade
Fall of Constantinople
Greek scholars fled to Italy
Education flourishing (continuing the trend of establishing universities, such as University of Bologna, 1088; University of Modena, 1175; University of Arezzo, 1215; University of Padua, 1222; University of Naples Federico II, 1224; University of Siena, 1240)
Nostalgia among the Italians to recapture the glory of the Holy Roman Empire

8. Italian Background Major city centers
Venice: Republic ruled by oligarchy, Byzantine origins
Milan: Visconti and Sforza families
Florence (Tuscany): Republic ruled by the Medici
Papal States: Ruled by the Pope
Kingdom of Naples: King of Aragon

9. Italian Background Florence Medici's—family of physicians
Along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, Famiglia de' Medici fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance
Founding the Medici Bank.
Financed wool trade
Became de facto rulers of Florence

10. Italian Background
Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici (1389 –1464)  Advancing arts and education
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (1416 –1469)  continued father’s artistic support
Lorenzo de Medici (1449 – 1492)
Diplomat, politician and patron
of scholars, artists, and poets. Friend of Michelangelo
Rebuilt University of Pisa
Continued to invite scholars to Florence

11. Italian Background Piero de Medici (1472 – 1503)
Forced to make military and commercial concessions to King of France
Medici’s forced out of the city
Girolamo Savonarola (1452 – 1498)
Dominican Friar who decried money, power
Preaching vehemently against the moral corruption of much of the clergy at the time
Gained power in lower class, but lost pope’s support
Excommunicated and hung

12. Pico della Mirandola (1463 – 1494)
Close friend of Lorenzo Medici
Brilliant and well educated
Wrote a set of 900 theses to cover all knowledge
Believed human learning was based on basic truths
Wrote On Dignity of Man (1486)

13. Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536)
Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.
Studied ancient languages
Translated New Testament
Criticized Martin Luther
…Free Will and Hyperaspistes
In Praise of Folly (1509)
Major work
Written in classical style
Discoursed on the foolishness and misguided pompousness of the world

14. “There are also those who think that there is nothing that they cannot obtain by relying on the magical prayers and charms thought up by some charlatan for the sake of his soul or for profit. Among the things they want are: wealth, honor, pleasure, plenty, perpetual good health, long life, a vigorous old age, and finally, a place next to Christ in heaven. However, they do not want that place until the last possible second; heavenly pleasures may come only when the pleasures of this life, hung onto with all possible tenacity, must finally depart. I can see some businessman, soldier, or judge taking one small coin from all his money and thinking that it will be proper expiation for all his perjury, lust, drunkenness, fighting, murder, fraud, lying and treachery. After doing this, he thinks he can start a new round of sinning with a new slate.”
— Erasmus in Praise of Folly

15. Early Renaissance Sculpture

16. Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 – 1455)
Sculpture competition with Filippo Brunelleschi ( )
Gates of Paradise

17. Gates of Paradise

18. “Sacrifice of Isaac” Panels
Brunelleschi
Ghiberti

19. Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi / Donatello (1386 – 1466)
David
Mary Magdalene
Saint George

20. Early Renaissance Architecture

21. Filippo Brunelleschi Founded Renaissance style Simple lines
Substantial walls
Structural elements not hidden

22. Filippo Brunelleschi
Il Duomo Cathedral’s dome (Florence)

23. Filippo Brunelleschi Commissioned to build the cathedral dome
Use unique architectural concepts
Studied Pantheon
Used ribs for support
Structural elements have been copied on other buildings

24. Dome Comparison
Il Duomo St. Peter’s St. Paul’s US capital (Florence) (Rome) (London)

25. "An innovator in countless other areas [besides the building of the dome of the Cathedral in Florence,] he [Filippo Brunelleschi] had also received, in 1421, the world's first ever patent for invention...for 'some machine or kind of ship, by means of which he thinks he can easily, at any time, bring in any merchandise and load on the river Arno and on any other river or water, for less money than usual.' Until this point no patent system existed to prevent an inventor's designs from being stolen and copied by others. This is the reason why ciphers were so widely used by scientists and also why Filippo was so reluctant to share the secrets of his inventions with others... The patent for invention was designed to remedy this situation... According to the terms of the patent, any boat copying its design, and thereby violating Filippo's monopoly, would be condemned to flames."
– King, Ross, Brunelleschi's Dome, Penguin Books, 2000, p. 112.

26. Filippo Brunelleschi
Pazzi Palace Chapel
Compare to Gothic

27. Early Renaissance Art What was different in the Renaissance: Realism
Perspective
Classical (pagan) themes
Geometrical arrangement of figures + mathematical analysis
Light and shadowing (chiaroscuro)
Softening of edges (sfumato)
Backgrounds
Artist able to live from commissions (given by patron of the cities)

28. Masaccio (1401 – 1428) Realism and expression
The Expulsion from Paradise

29. Masaccio
Perspective
Tribute Money: fresco in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
Size of people diminishes with distance
Use of light, shadow and drama

30. Masaccio Perspective (cont.)
The Holy Trinity with the Virgin and St. John
Geometry: three-dimensionality like; the first painting using systematic linear perspective*).
Inscription: “What you are, I once was; what I am, you will become.”
"Alberti's window" has since become the metaphor of Western civilization's concept of linear perspective, that is, perspective determined only by drawn lines signifying edges of things seen that converge or recede toward a single horizon. Read more: Perspective - Renaissance-style Linear Perspective - Eye, Mirror, Picture, and Perspectiva - JRank Articles

31. Perspective

32. "The grand innovation that made Renaissance painters certain that theirs was the only right path for art was the laws of perspective. The discovery made them as proud as the men of letters after their discovery of the true path. For some Nature had been rediscovered; for the others, civilization had been restored. Perspective is based on the fact that we have two eyes. We therefore see objects as defined by two lines of sight that converge at a distance, the painter's 'vanishing point' on the horizon. Since those two lines form an acute angle, plane geometry can show the size and place that an object at any distance must be given to the painting to make it appear as if it looks in life... Hence the statement in an early Renaissance treatise that paining consists of three parts: drawing, measurement, and color. One of the uses of color is to create 'aerial perspective.' A light blue-gray makes distant objects in the painting look hazy, as they appear to the eye owing to the thickness of the atmosphere. Combined, the two perspectives create he illusion of depth, the three-dimensional 'reality' on a flat surface."
– Barzun, Jacques, From Dawn to Decadence, Perennial, 2000, p73.

33. Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510) Pagan themes
La Primavera
The Birth of Venus
Attempt to depict perfect beauty

34. Classical Pose
Medici Venus
(1st century AD)
Birth of Venus

35. Vitruvian Man (Leonardo da Vinci, 1487)
The perfect geometrical figure of a man.

36. Sacred and Profane Love (Baglione, 1602/3)
This painting is showing dramatic compositional chiaroscuro (light-dark technique): showing clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling of the subjects depicted
Giovanni Baglione. Sacred and Profane Love. 1602–1603,

37. Renaissance Man Broad knowledge about many things in different fields
Deep knowledge of skill in one area
Able to link areas and create new knowledge
Heightened “sense of beauty” (due to pro social artistic milieu, commission-based competition amongst artists, the culture of apprenticeship, and recently found “sense of individuality”)

38. Thank You