Renaissance Art Italian Early and High Renaissance Art
The Renaissance: 14 th through Mid- 17 th Centuries Renaissance means “Rebirth”
The most important Italian city-state was Florence; In this wealthy trade city, the Renaissance began Florence was home to the Medici family, the wealthiest & most powerful bankers in Europe The Medici used their wealth to commission art for themselves & to beautify Florence
Art and Patronage Italians were willing to spend a lot of money on art. / Art communicated social, political, and spiritual values. / Italian banking & international trade interests had the money. Public art in Florence was organized and supported by guilds. Therefore, the consumption of art was used as a form of competition for social & political status!
Characteristics of Renaissance Art
Realism & Expression Expulsion from the Garden Masaccio 1427 First nudes since classical times.
2. Perspective First use of linear perspective! The Trinity Masaccio 1427
3. Classicism Greco-Roman influence.(having both) Secularism-separation of church and state Humanism- a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God.human Individualism free standing figures. Symmetry/Balance The “Classical Pose” Medici “Venus”
4. Emphasis on Individualism Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino Piero della Francesca,
5. Geometrical Arrangement of Figures The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate Leonardo da Vinci 1469 The figure as architecture!
6. Artists as Personalities/Celebrities Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects-book about the life of artists Giorgio Vasari(first art historian) 1550
Early Renaissance The First Three Hall-of-Famers
Masaccio Founder of early Renaissance Painting Painted human figure as a real human being (3D) Used perspective Consistent source of light (accurate shadows)
The Tribute Money
#2 Donatello The sculptor’s Masaccio David ( ) –First free standing, life-size nude since Classical period –Contrapposto –Sense of Underlying skeletal structure
The Penitent Magdalen (Donatello) real gaunt “Speak, speak or the plague take you!”
#3 Boticelli Rebirth of Classical mythology Fully Pagan THE BIRTH OF VENUS
The Italian Renaissance Leonardo Michelangelo Raphael Titian
Da Vinci Mona Lisa ( ) Perspective, Anatomy, Composition
Cultural icon
The Last Supper
Michelangelo David Michelangelo Buonarotti 1504 Marble
Raphael School of Athens 1510
Raphael Da Vinci Michelangelo
Aristotle: looks to this earth [the here and now]. Plato: looks to the heavens [or the IDEAL realm].
Pythagoras
Ptolemy Euclid
Titian Dazzling contrasting colors Ample female forms Asymmetric compositions Bacchanal of the Adrians 1518
Venus of Urbino – Titian, 1558