Renaissance%20Art

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Renaissance Art
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Out of the Middle Ages context

• Medieval
• Early Middle Ages were dark ages because all the
  learning of the classical age (Greek and Roman)
  was lost or thought to be pagan.
• Pagan vulgar.
• Sacredness of everything, God always involved in
  peoples daily lives. God is proximate.

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Medieval Art

• Art inspired reverence.
• Various levels of the Church bureaucracy
  commissioned art (central pope, bishops,
  parishes, monasteries).

Madonna and Child, ca 1300 by Duccio di
Buoninsegna.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Timeline of Art
History, 2004 lthttp//www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/0
7/eust/ho_2004.442.htmgt (January 19, 2005)
Veronica Sekules, Medieval Art Oxford History of
Art (OxfordOxford University Press, 2001), 52.
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Medieval Art cont

• Common subject matter biblical scenes such as
  crucifixion, Last Supper, nativity, Virgin Mary.
• Beauty is god-like, colour and light especially.
• Altar is where holy communion is given, so it
  needs to be decorated with a special altarpiece.

The Crucifixion, 14th century Italy. Part of a
folding, portable altar.
The Metropolitan Museum, The Cloisters, Works of
Art, Collection Highlights, 2000,
lthttp//www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp
?dep7viewmode0item61.200.1gt (January 19,
2005) . Veronica Sekules, Medieval Art Oxford
History of Art (OxfordOxford University Press,
2001), 61.
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Changes in Late Middle Ages

• Sacred and secular together, not everything has
  to be related to God.
• Re-introduction to classical myths and gods.
• Timeline 1300 - 1520?

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Italian Renaissance

• Starting in the mid 14th century, the commercial
  cities of northern Italy (Milan, Venice,
  Florence) were the scene of a great artistic and
  cultural revival.
• Historians see it as a transition between the
  Middle Ages and the modern period.

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Medieval vs. Renaissance Cathedral
Church of San Francesco, Assisi - Gothic (stained
glass, cross shape).
Duomo - Santa Maria del Fiore by Brunelleschi
(1417-1434). Octagonal.
Circle (Classical) rather than the cross (Gothic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Timeline of Art
History, Italian Peninsula, 2004.
lthttp//www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/eust/ht07eust
.htmgt (January 19, 2005).
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Italy

• Geography a collection of city-states some
  republics, autocracies and a kingdom.
• All were wealthy.

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Northern Italy

• Northern Italian rulers had money to spend on
  patronizing the arts.
• The Medici family (bankers and traders) ruled
  Florence and sponsored well-known artists such as
  Botticelli and Michelangelo .

Robert J. Walker, World Civilizations A
Comparative Study (Don Mills Oxford University
Press, 1998), 263-264.
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Florence (Firenze)

• Home of Donatello, Michelangelo, Brunelleschi,
  Alberti, Machiavelli, Botticelli, da Vinci, the
  Medici family.
• Wealth based on banking, trade and commerce
  (textiles).

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Importance of civic institutions
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Rome

• The city had been home to the papacy since St.
  Peter was the first bishop of Rome.
• It fell into hard times but was revived in the
  15th century when it was rebuilt, inspired by
  Renaissance artistic virtues.
• Famous art The new St. Peters basilica,
  Michelangelos painting of the Sistine Chapel
  ceiling.
• There was great interest in Romes ancient ruins.

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Humanism

• Study of the liberal arts grammar, rhetoric,
  poetry, history, philosophy (also music,
  astronomy, geometry, theology, arithmetic).
• Secular focused on improving life here on earth,
  not just on the after-life. Reason over
  revelation.
• Individualistic.
• Admired the Greeks and Romans.
• Perpetuated through education (humanist schools).

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Classicism

• Revived interest in classical works of Greece and
  Rome
• architecture
• art
• more secular

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus - figures from
classical mythology ideal beauty earliest nudes.
WebMuseum, Paris, Botticelli, The Birth of Venus,
2002, lthttp//www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bottic
elli/venus/gt (January 25, 2005).
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Visual Art Architecture
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Humanist Art

• Portraiture humans the centre, not the divine.
• Nature humanistic focus on realism, this earth.
• Incorporated the latest advances.

Titian, Venus of Urbino (nudes recall the
classical love for ideal beauty).
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Artistic Advances of the Renaissance

• Linear perspective
• Method of portraying realism.
• Foreshortening - gives a 3-D effect.
• Anatomy - Michelangelos sculpting and painting
  of realistic musculature.

Masaccio, The Trinity, 1425.
ltLassentesplinder.comgt (January 25, 2005)
Sister Wendy Beckett, The Story of Painting
(Toronto Little Brown (Canada), 1994), 84-85.
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Leonardo da Vinci art reflects age

• Born 1452 near Florence, died 1519 in France.
• Worked for the duke of Milan as a military and
  civil engineer, sculptor.
• Known as Renaissance Man for his many interests
  - reflecting the humanism, science, and learning
  of the era.

Leonardo Self Portrait, 1516.
National Gallery, Leonardo da Vinci Biography,
lthttp//www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObje
cts.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/artistBiography
?artistID384gt (January 2005).
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Leonardos Science

• Anatomy dissected corpses to get accurate
  drawings.
• Notebooks 5000 pages of flying machines,
  submarines, parachutes, weapons, thread-cutting
  machine, water wheel.

It seems to me that those sciences are vain and
full of error which do not spring from
experiment, the source of all certainty.
Anatomical drawing.
Boston Museum of Science, Renaissance Man
Scientist, lthttp//www.mos.org/leonardo/scientist.
htmlgt (January 25, 2005).
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Leonardos Use of Perspective
Leonardo da Vinci, study for Adoration of the
Magi, showing all the lines needed to create
perspective.
Exploring Linear Perspective, Boston Museum of
Science, 1997.lthttp//www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/Exp
loringLinearPerspective.htmlgt (January 25, 2005).
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Leonardos Artistry

• Mona Lisa - 1505 - a portrait of the wife of a
  Florentine merchant.
• Sfumato - skillful use of shading, natural
  appearance how distance fades colours, how
  shadows modulate, and how surfaces pick up the
  reflected tints of nearby objects.
• Focus on the way the viewer interacts with the
  painting.

Mona Lisa
WebMuseum, Paris. Leonardo Da Vinci, La Jaconde,
2002, lthttp//www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/vinci/
joconde/gt (January 25, 2005).
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Michelangelo Buonarroti

• Born 1475 Florence, died 1564.
• Sculptor and painter.
• Very religious.
• Felt beauty is divine.
• Sculpted David (1501-1504) 14 feet high - a
  biblical figure made to reflect the power and
  freedom of Florence.

WebMuseum, Paris, Michelangelo, 2003
lthttp//www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/michelangelo
gt (January 25, 2005).
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Pieta
Pieta, 1375-1400, German

• Body of the dead Jesus Christ in his mothers
  arms.
• Michelangelos version does not depict agony but
  nobility.
• Shown in St. Peters.

Metropolitan Museum, Works of Art,
lthttp//www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOne.asp
?dep7viewmode0item48.85gt (January 19, 2005)
Christus Rex, Basilica di San Pietro I -
Michelangelo,k Pieta, 2000, lthttp//www.christusre
x.org/www1/citta/Bs-Pieta.jpggt (January 25, 2005).
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Michelangelo and the Vatican

• Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (80
  feet high) in the Vatican combining Greek and
  Roman mythology and Old Testament figures.
• Designed the new St. Peters basilica - modeled
  the dome on the one in Florence.

Michelangelos dome.
Christus Rex, Basilica di San Pietro, Esteriore,
2000, lthttp//www.christusrex.org/www1/citta/B2-Do
me.jpggt (January 25, 2005).
Plan by Michelangelo.
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Sistine Chapel

• Michelangelo worked here 1508 to 1512.
• The holiest chapel because it is where popes
  prayed.

The Sistine Chapel.
Vatican Museums Online, Sistine Chapel, 2003,
lthttp//mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html
gt (January 25, 2005).
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Sistine Chapel Ceiling?
The Creation of Man ?
Layout of the Ceiling, Michelangelos Cistine
Chapel Ceiling, 2001, lthttp//sun.science.wayne.ed
u/mcogan/Humanities/Sistine/Ceiling/index.htmlgt
(January 19, 2005) WebMuseum, Paris.
Michelangelo, 2003, lthttp//www.ibiblio.org/wm/pai
nt/auth/michelangelogt (January 25, 2005).
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Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)

• Born 1483, died 1520.
• Used the latest techniques such as perspective to
  paint naturally and realistically.
• Influenced by Leonardo and Michelangelo (also
  painted at the Vatican and for a time was the
  chief architect of the new St. Peters basilica).

St. Catherine of Alexandria, 1507-08. Known for
grace and movement.
National Gallery, Past Exhibitions,
lthttp//www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/rap
hael/default.htmgt (January 25, 2005).
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School of Athens - Raphael

• Painted 1510-1511.
• Classical figures include Plato, Aristotle,
  Pythagoras, Ptolemy, and Euclid.
• Renaissance figures include Michelangelo, da
  Vinci, and himself.

School of Athens - classical references
Sister Wendy Beckett, The Story of Painting
(Toronto Little Brown (Canada), 1994), 128.
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Raphael cont

• School of Athens painted in the popes private
  apartment (library and private office).
• Note Averroes.

Christus Rex, Stanze e Loggia di Raffaello, 2000,
lthttp//www.christusrex.org/www1/stanzas/0-Raphael
.htmlgt (January 25, 2005).
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Global Influences

• A new school of thought holds that the
  Renaissance was partly spurred by non-western
  influences, other than Greek and Roman.
• Chinese
• Islamic (800 years of Al Andalus, Islamic Spain)
  India via Islam?

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Islamic Influences
Islamic knotwork motif on Italian plate, 1500-1520
The Getty, 2004, The Arts of Fire Islamic
Influences on the Italian Renaissance
http//www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/arts_fire/
(July 1, 2009).
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Islamic Influences, cont

• Sicily (Normans) and Cordoba and Toledo (Moors)
  were major areas for transmission of
• Math
• Philosophy
• Medicine
• Architecture

John M. Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western
Civilization. Cambridge Cambridge University
Press, 2004. From Google Books (July 1, 2009).
179-182
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Abbasid Caliphate, 9th Century
Baghdad access to Indian numbering system
(became Arabic numerals)
University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Applications web-based Precalculus. 2001.
http//ualr.edu/lasmoller/aljabr.html (August 14,
2009).
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Back in Time

• Islamic society in Spain (Al Andalus) was more
  open to reason than Europe well before the
  Renaissance
• 800s Al Khwarizmi
• Algebra, astronomy, circumference of the earth
• 1100s Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
• Medicine, astronomy, law, philosophy
  (commentaries on Aristotle)

Averroes
BBC Radio. In Our Time Averroes. 2006.
http//www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inou
rtime_20061005.shtml (August 14, 2009).
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Avicenna

• 1000s Avicenna (Ibn Sina)
• Medical encyclopedia (Canon on Medicine)

Canon, 1632 Arabic copy
The Persian Galen at work
A Unesco medal honouring Avicenna quotes him
Cooperate for the well-being of the body and the
survival of the human species.
William and Kathleen McKee, World History
Connections to Today. Teachers Ed. Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.
261-266. Wellcome Library. Avicennas Canon of
Medicine. http//library.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX023
437.html (August 14, 2009). Washington State
University, College of Pharmacy, History of
Pharmacy. 2009. http//www.pharmacy.wsu.edu/HISTO
RY/history13.html (August 14, 2009). UNESCO.
Avicenna Medal. 2002. http//portal.unesco.org/en/
ev.php-URL_ID26452URL_DODO_PRINTPAGEURL_SECTIO
N201.html (August 14. 2009).
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Bibliography

• Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
  Middle Ages. 1997. lthttp//www.learner.org/exhibi
  ts/middleages/gt.
• Beckett, Sister Wendy. The Story of Painting The
  Essential Guide to the History of Western Art.
  Toronto Little Brown (Canada), 1994.
• Boston Museum of Science. Leonardo da Vinci.
  1997. lthttp//www.mos.org/leonardo/gt.
• Christus Rex et Redemptor Mundi. 1997.
  ltchristus.rex.orggt.
• Dersin, Denise (ed.). What Life Was Like at the
  Rebirth of Genius Renaissance Italy AD
  1400-1550. Alexandria, Virginia Time-Life Books,
  1999.

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• King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Popes Ceiling.
  New York Penguin Group, 2003.
• Layout of the Ceiling, Michelangelos Cistine
  Chapel Ceiling, Wayne State University
  Humanities. 2001. lthttp//sun.science.wayne.edu/m
  cogan/Humanities/Sistine/Ceiling/index.htmlgt.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Works of Art. The
  Cloisters. 2004. lthttp//www.metmuseum.org/Works_O
  f_Art/department.asp?dep7gt.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Timeline of Art
  History. 2004. lthttp//www.metmuseum.org/toah/spla
  sh.htmgt.
• McDonald, Jesse. Michelangelo. London PRC
  Publishing Ltd., 2001.

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• National Gallery. 2005. lthttp//www.nationalgaller
  y.org.uk/default.htmgt.
• Sekules, Veronica. Medieval Art Oxford History
  of Art. OxfordOxford University Press, 2001.
• Vatican Museums Online. 2003. lthttp//mv.vatican.v
  a/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.htmlgt.
• Walker, Robert J. World Civilizations A
  Comparative Study. Don Mills Oxford University
  Press, 1998.
• WebMuseum, Paris. The Italian Renaissance. 2002.
  lthttp//www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/tl/it-ren/gt.