Renaissance Research Project Visual Sources

What visual sources are available to historians of the Italian Renaissance? ‘...the traditional notion of art is unhelpful. Any visual source belonged to a wider category of goods, one which included liturgical and household furnishings, clothing, embroidery, maps, clocks, scientific, and musical instruments – objects which all contributed to a general sense of a contemporary visual culture’. [Evelyn Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy (Oxford, 1997), p. 133]

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa (c.1503-1506)

Vittore Carpaccio, Dream of St. Ursula (1495)

Bartolomeo da Fruosino, Desco da parto (1428)

Northern Italian maiolica

Corporate patronage (religious): the Church (individual churches as well as religious orders); confraternities Michelangelo, Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel (1535-1541)

Corporate patronage (secular): the government; guilds Andrea Mantegna, Court Scene, Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale di Mantua (1465-1474)

Private patrons (families, brothers, husbands and wives, individuals), status commissions Benozzo Gozzoli, Capella dei Magi, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence (1459-1462)

Private Patrons, public commissions Dome of the Florentine Cathedral, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici. Built 1420-1436.

The ‘Period Eye’ Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-century Italy, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1988), Chapter 2. Stuart Clark, Vanities of the Eye.  Vision in Early Modern European Culture (Oxford, 2007) Bob Scribner, ‘Ways of seeing in the age of Dürer’, in Dagmar Eichberger and Charles Zika (eds), Dürer and his Culture (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 93-117. Visual Interests: The Intellectual Legacy of Michael Baxandall (videos of a conference which discusses the 'period eye')

What questions can we ask of visual sources What questions can we ask of visual sources? Susan Hilligoss, Visual Communication: A Writer’s Guide (London, 1999), pp. 32-35.

Rhetorical Purposes Where does the visual source appear? [Where was the visual source located? Who had access to it?] What is the visual source’s purpose? Does it document a situation, event, or condition? Is it conceptual? If so, what is its point? Does it try to persuade the viewer? Is the visual source realistic, like a photograph or more stylized, like a cartoon or caricature? If the visual source is realistic, do you detect any types of distortion? Describe any features that may be distorted.

Rhetorical Purposes How polished or “professional” is the visual source? What tone does the visual source project? How seriously are we to take this visual source? Explain why. Who do you think are the intended viewers of the visual source? What features or context suggest this audience? Who do you think produced the visual source? Is the artist/creator stated? What would you say your relationship is to the producer or producers? Do you think they understand you, as a viewer?

Overall Design What draws your eye first? What does the dominant part of the visual source portray? What is in the centre of the visual source? What is shown in front and larger? What is behind and smaller? What is shown in the upper half? the lower half? Are portions more blurred? Are there very distinct parts in sharp focus?

Overall Design Is there “empty” space? What does the empty space frame? Are some areas or shapes very large? Are others very small? Describe the major shapes and lines created. Consider what effect the shapes and lines create. Describe the overall arrangement of parts. Are they ordered symmetrically or otherwise balanced against each other?

People and visual sources Who is portrayed? Describe your inferences from each feature of the person(s) - age, details of dress, gender, ethnicity, class, posture and stance, portions of the body shown, tilt of head, facial expression, gesture of hands. What is the person looking at? Follow his/her gaze or eyeline. Does he/she look toward something else in the visual source? or out of the picture? What do you make of the direction of the gaze?

People and visual sources If there are two or more people, what features suggest their relationship to each other? If there are two or more people, does one seem dominant? How is this expressed? From what angle are the people shown? Do you seem to look down on them, as if they were below the viewer? Look up at them? Look right at them?

People and visual sources Are people shown close up or far away? What emotional effect does this have? What do you consider to be your relationship as viewer to the person or people shown? Do you empathize with them or not? Explain why.

Setting If the visual source has a distinct background, describe it. How does it relate to the dominant focus of the visual sources, especially people, if any? What time and place does the visual source suggest? What is the effect of this setting? Is anything “out of place” in the visual source? What do you make of the incongruity?

Symbols and Signs Are there items or features in the visual source that might mean more than themselves? Consider connotations and associations of particular objects or features in the visual source. Relate them to the rest of the visual source.

Colour Describe the colours, or absence of colour, in the visual source. Where is colour applied? Is the colour realistic, in your view? If not, describe why you think it is not. How does colour, or its absence, make you feel about the visual source? What previous associations do you have with the colours used? How do those affect your understanding of the visual source?

Text If the visual source includes text, such as headlines, labels, captions, or paragraphs of explanation, relate the text to the visual source. In what ways does the text help you make sense of the visual source? Does it answer questions about the visual source, or only raise more questions?

Story Does the visual source tell a story? If so, what is the story being told? Consider the people and objects in the visual source and their relationships to each other, the viewer, the setting and the text. Who can relate to this story? Who may not find it believable or interesting? Who or what is excluded from the visual source? Why? What attitudes - social, political, economic, cultural - are suggested in this visual source? Who benefits from the attitudes shown? Who does not?

Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game (1555)

Doge’s Palace, Venice, begun c. 1340

Palazzo Vecchio/Palazzo della Signoria, Florence (1299)

Porta della Carta, Doge’s Palace, Venice (1438-1442)

Detail of Doge and the Lion, Porta della Carta

Detail of Justice, Porta della Carta