Sandro Botticelli (Florence 1445-1510)

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Sandro Botticelli (Florence 1445-1510)

• The Ancient Myth La Primavera (1477-8)
• A Humanist Venus, at the center of the
  composition, is the allegory of Goodness, Love as
  Culture and Civilization
• Zephir on the right, blows, giving Clori, the
  Nymph, the gift of creating flowers
• She is transformed in Flora, La Primavera, queen
  of flowers
• On the left Mercury (Greek Hermes), recognized by
  his symbolic wand and his winged sandals
• The three female figures are the Graces, who
  follow Venus. In Greek mythology, Spring was
  dedicated to them
• Above flies Cupid, god of Love, shooting an arrow
  to one of the Graces
• The setting is an idealized Nature, where flowers
  and fruits are present at the same time

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• The composition is based on a central view of
  which Venus is the focal point
• The groupings are at each side of her figure
• The curving of the branches forms a green niche
  around the goddess
• The lines of the composition depart from her
  figure, presented as the worlds most powerful
  force Love, Beauty and Virtue, fundamental
  Humanist values
• Botticelli uses a masterly flow of lines. Lines,
  which envelops and veil the human body, are the
  instrument of the artists expression

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The Portrait

• Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-97)
• Il corteo dei Magi
• Most refined example of political propaganda
• The young Lorenzo is the protagonist
• Lorenzo looks directly into the viewers eye
• In the Renaissance perceptive code this is
  typical of the portrait it expresses the ego
  the will power and the strong personality

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Leonardo da Vinci (Vinci 1452 - Cioux1519)

• Artist and scientist, tended both to the
  understanding of reality and to the fantastic
  transformation of scientific observations
• Passionate explorer of Nature, he studied the way
  light affects the environment, the human figure
  and the landscape
• THE AEREAL PERSPECTIVE
• The Renaissance artist preferred to locate his
  figure within an architectural space. Leonardo
  discovers the Atmospheric Effect
• It is an impalpable element, made of light, air,
  color, humidity that is evident in the natural,
  open space
• Leonardo locates his figures in an open landscape
  or in front of open windows
• Realizes the illusion of depth through the
  interplay of light and shade, and through a
  gradual chiaroscuro present at all planes of the
  composition

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La Vergine delle Rocce

• Realized for Ludovico il Moro (Milan)
• The figures of Jesus, Mary and little Saint John
  are located in an unusual space a grotto
• Aim of Leonardo was to represent a pristine
  natural environment of which the human figure
  would be an integral part
• The architecture is formed by the rocks,
  stalactites and stalagmites, while on the ground
  a selection of carefully painted plants (that
  Leonardo had included in his botanical studies)
• The composition forms an ideal pyramid with its
  peak above the Madonnas head
• The chiaroscuro informs the entire composition
  the Sfumato
• It consists of a plastic relief of the bodies
  that he obtains, delicately, by eliminating the
  hard contours, and by diffusing the form in the
  atmosphere

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• The ideal of beauty for Leonardo is not the vivid
  light that sculpts the forms, but the softness of
  shade, the diffusing effect that caresses and
  veils them
• The message does not have a religious content
• He does not tell a religious story to educate
• He expresses his artistic vision of the world, in
  which, man, nature, sacred and mundane are one
• In the natural environment plants and Nature
  emerge from the shadows, feebly illuminated by a
  soft light
• The rocks dissolve in the background in the pure
  lightness of the air
• The rocky space is irregular, an antithesis to
  the clear and regular spaces of the Quattrocento
  paintings

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