Download The Renaissance

Proto Renaissance

Giovanni Pisano (c. 1245/50- after 1318)



With his father, Nicola Pisano (c. 1220/5-84?), was considered the father of
modern sculpture.
They created 4 important pulpits; two at Pisa, 1 at Siena, and 1 at Pistoia
Influenced Duccio
Andrea Pisano (c. 1245/50- after 1318)
Taddeo Gaddi (d. 1366)



Worked for Giotto for 24 years.
BernardoDaddi (c. 1290-1349/51)



Sienese?.
Jacopo della Quercia

Another artist who submitted a panel for consideration in the
baptistery competition of 1401 was Jacopo della Quercia (c. 13741438).
His relief panel, The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1430), part of a
series he created for the Church of San Petronio in Bologna, consisted of
well-muscled figures that reflected the Classical period. Though sculpted
in relief, the forms seem nearly powerful enough to stand on their own.
Nanni di Banco

The Quattro Santi Coronati (1410-1414), found in an outside niche of the Church of Or
San Michele in Florence, do stand on their own. The life-size figures
commemorate the martyrdom of four Christian sculptors who refused the
Roman emperor Diocletian his request for pagan images. Sculpted by
Nanni di Banco (c. 1384-1421), they reflect a partial resolution to the
problem of integrating sculpture and architecture. Though the niche is part
of the architecture, the treatment of its space conveys a sense of
separation. The figures relate to one another, not only because they are
installed in a semicircular pattern, but also because they are gesturing toward and
looking at each other; while one "speaks," the others "listen."
The Portrait Bust

Throughout the latter half of the fifteenth century, Donatello's
successors continued to develop his innovations in sculpture. During this
age of humanism, the portrait bust again became popular. Antonio
Rossellino's portrait bust of Matteo Palmieri (1468) is realistic and
lifelike in its sense of individuality but does not possess the death mask
quality that is typical of many of the earlier Roman portrait busts
Antonio del Pollaiuolo

Though much of the figure sculpture made during this time portrayed
individuals at rest or at intervals of motion, the bronze sculpture Herakles
and Antaios (c. 1475) by Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1431-1498) is worthy
of notice because it depicts two individuals in motion as combatants
and because it represents a return to Classicism for subject matter as
well as style.
Painting
High Renaissance

Moving into the era known as the High Renaissance- between 1490 and 1530we meet Leonardo da Vinci, the artist some say was the prototype of the
multi-talented “renaissance man.”
Leonardo (1452-1519)








Leonardo was a true artist/ genius who encompassed all the investigative
and creative endeavors of the renaissance era. however, many scholars
feel he lacked a fundamental criterion to be the embodiment of the
renaissance in that he was not well read, not a man of “letters”
He was a painter. Architect, musician, scientist, engineer and inventor,
who wrote copiously in his journals- backwards!
And along with Michelangelo and Raphael, Leonardo was a hero of the
High Renaissance
It’s said that he was handsome, graceful, charming and brilliant.
Almost single-handedly, Leonardo transformed the public status of the
artist in society from craftsman to “Lord and God.”
At the time of his death, at the age of 667, Leonardo admitted “he had
offended God and mankind by not working at his art as he should have.
As a result, less than 20 paintings by Leonardo survive-and many of those
are unfinished.
He often became frustrated and left his works unfinished because his
hands simply couldn’t keep pace with his imagination.
Mona Lisa (c. 1500-04)
 The most famous of Leonardo’s surviving paintings is the Mona Lisa
( a late work)
 As probably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa
embodies all the renaissance innovations in perspective, anatomy
and composition.
 It was stolen once from the Louvre by an employee who took it off
its stretcher bars and rolled it up in an umbrella The painting’s
landscape has depth as it moves toward a vanishing point behind
Mona Lisa’s head, and the triangular composition focuses the
viewer’s attention on her face and head, which appear naturalistic,
as she’s shown in ¾ view rather than stiff profile.
 Looking at her hands, we see evidence of Leonardo’s exacting
knowledge of anatomy-gained from observing the human skeleton
and dissecting more than 50 cadavers while living in a hospital
 Leonardo used chiaroscuro and sfumato (smoke) to model Mona
Lisa’s features
 His technique consisted of the use of layer upon layer of
transparent glazes.











So, unlike Botticelli’s rather flat linear figures, Leonardo’s Mona
Lisa seems to emerge from and melt into the shadows in a
continuous in gradation of subtle tones from dark to light.
Since the Mona Lisa was first shown, songs and stories have
celebrated her famous, enigmatic smile.
It was so engaging, that one art historian says the art galleries of
Europe were flooded with paintings by inept imitators trying to
duplicate that smile, creating instead, portraits of women wearing
a variety of highly unsettling smirks and grimaces.
The mystery of the Mona Lisa may be her direct eye contact
contrasted with her coy smile.
Some say Mona Lisa’s smile was in response to the musicians and
jesters hired by Leonardo to amuse her during her sittings.
We know, based on recently found documents, that Mona Lisa was
the wife of a Florentine merchant named Giacondo, indicating that
she was a woman of wealth and fashion.
Oddly, despite her prosperity, she wears a dark dress with no
jewelry.
This may have been because she was in mourning, since there is
speculation that one of her children had died shortly before this
portrait was painted.
Nonetheless, she seems, when we look at her, to be smiling
curiously at something just behind our right shoulder.
Art historians have described her as one of Leonardo’s daydreams,
as an image of what Leonardo thought he would look like if he
were a woman.
One of the superheroes of the Renaissance was in many ways
Leonardo’s opposite
The Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1500-04)
 Did two versions of this subject. Why?
 Upper background- sfumato effect- misty, a Leonardo treademeark
 Natural details get as much emphasis in the frame as the figures
 Virgin has tender pose and expression
 Children look like cildren
Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Florence
Patrons: Medici, Pope Julius II
Self Portrait
 Michelangelo lived 1475-1564
 While Leonardo was handsome and charming, Michelangelo ‘s face
was distorted by his broken nose, and he was silent and
temperamental-although just as much a genius in his own right as
was Leonardo
 Michelangelo was another multitalented Renaissance man-having
gained fame as a sculptor, painter, poet, and architect
 It is said that in the magnitude and variety of his achievements,
Michelangelo was probably the greatest artist who ever lived.
 When we talked about the element of proportion we looked at
Michelangelo’s’ Pieta in which he used distortion to bring harmony
to what would otherwise be an w\awkward depiction of the virgin
Mary balancing the body of the dead Christ on her lap

We also discussed how Michelangelo envisioned the forms of his
sculptures as already existing within the stone, with his task being
the release of the “imprisoned forms”
David
 One of the great triumphs of Michelangelo s an artist, and the
renaissance as an era of innovation, is Michelangelo’s sculpture of
the young David

 As the pivotal figure in the biblical story of David and Goliath, we
see this young man filled with anxiety, ready to slay the giant.
 Michelangelo carved this incredible sculpture from an abandoned
block of marble that had been badly cut by another sculptor
 We see David in a contraposto stance much like the classical Greek
athlete but there are characteristics in this sculpture that go far
beyond anything seen in ancient Greece.
 For example, Michelangelo distorts proportions he did in the pieta
but this time he uses distortion to create the proportions of an
adolescent male-carving David’s head, hands, and feet large in
proportion to his torso.
 David was originally carved. As a symbol of freedom from tyranny
for the city of Florence-perhaps that’s why in 1992 a disgruntled
Florentine laborer vented his frustration by wielding a mallet and
breaking of the second toe of David’s left foot.
 It has of course been restored
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Best known portions:
 The Creation
 The Prophets
 The Sibyls
 The Expulsion from Eden
God Creating Adam- Michelangelo
 Although Michelangelo considered himself, first and foremost, a
sculptor, he was torn away from one his greatest sculptural efforts
– the tomb of Pope Julius II – and forced to paint the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
 Since he considered painting to be an inferior art form, it’s been
speculated that Michelangelo, a sculptor, may be seen set up for a
fall being forced to paint the Sistine Chapel frescoes.
 The motivation for this set-up would have been to show Raphael as
a superior artist.
 Obviously the scheme backfired – and Michelangelo’s frescoes
surpassed any vision the Pope may have had for the Sistine chapel
 Originally the Pope asked Michelangelo to spruce up the ceiling
with a few vines on a blue background.
 What he got was more than 340 human figures between 10 and 18
feet tall representing the origin and fall of humankind.
 For four years, Michelangelo worked on scaffolding 7 stories high
on the most ambitious undertaking of the Renaissance, virtually
without assistance.
 Return to slide 242- god Creating Adam

The Creation of Adam one of the most famous images from the
Sistine Chapel ceiling shows God as an almost Zeus-like figure,
transmitting life to the first mortal man.
Last Judgment-Sistine Chapel- Michelangelo
 Commissioned in 1534 painted 156-41.
Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-94)

Fresco Painter



Painter, goldsmith, sculptor
Thought to be pupil of Donatello
Thought to be Leonardo’s master

goldsmith, sculptor

Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 145-88)
Benvenuto Cellini (c. 1500-71)