Download I- Patronage a) Wealthy merchants came to dominate politics and

I- Patronage
a) Wealthy merchants came to dominate politics and society, as well as
business.
b) Independent city-states collected their own taxes and paid for their
own army.
c) Merchant families (Medici in Florence, Sforza in Milan) competed
with each other for economic and political power.
1) They also became patrons of art.
d) Patrons provided financial support for artists, allowing them the time
to spend on artistic endeavors.
e) Three examples of patron-supported artists were:
1) Leonardo daVinci
2) Michelangelo
3) Raphael
f) The Catholic Church also sponsored many works of Renaissance art.
II- Sculpture
a) Sculpture emerged as an independent art during the Italian Renaissance.
b) Like humanist writers, sculptors drew their inspiration from the Greco-Roman history.
1) Realistic statues of human beings often with beautiful nude bodies.
2) Busts of great leaders and eminent contemporaries.
3) Characters from Greco-Roman history and mythology.
III- Painting
a) Painting in oils redefined the Renaissance era.
b) Renaissance art was distinguished from that of earlier eras by its use of visual perspective, or
the ability to create illusory #D space on a two dimensional surface.
c) Its humanist concern with reality contrasts with art from medieval times, as well as with
Persian, Chinese, and Byzantine art.
1) All those traditions were more concerned with conveying symbolism than reality, but
Renaissance art ordered the arrangement of painted objects from one viewpoint.
2) This control of space was an assertion of human control over space, and the new
technique that shaped the development of western art.
d) Renaissance painters showed people with distinctive attitudes and individual personalities
reflected in their postures and faces, often with a background of landscape of scenery.
1) A part of the distinctive Renaissance style was that the real world was caught and put in
a painting.
III- Renaissance Men (see textbook for biographical details, see below
for art)
a) Leonardo daVinci
1) Mona Lisa- this famous work reflects the humanist interest in
individual facial expressions and in realistic landscapes and
backgrounds.
b) Michelangelo
1) David- stunningly complex example of the humanist tradition,
which combines religious themes with classical figures.
c) Raphael
1) School of Athens- a grand fresco that portrays a vast array of great
philosophers and scientists from antiquity. At the center are Plato
and Aristotle, and included in the surrounding figures are
Raphael’s famous contemporaries Leonardo and Michelangelo.
This is a perfect example of Renaissance technique.
Perspective
Perspective
Chiaroscuro- the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting. An effect of contrasted
light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something.
Detail of the face of Mona Lisa showing the use of
sfumato, particularly in the shading around the eyes.
Raphael (1483-1520) :School of Athens (1510-1511)
Fresco: a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster and
become fixed as it dries.
Contrapposto
Architecture utilized ancient Greek and Roman forms such as
Greek temple architecture (with triangular pediments), Greek
columns, Roman arches and domes (e.g. the Pantheon in
Rome)
- Simplicity, symmetry and balance.
- Contrasted sharply with the highly-ornamented gothic style of
the middle ages of pointed arches (as evidenced in numerous
medieval cathedrals)
Pantheon
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)
Il Duomo (1420-34)
Il Duomo atop Santa Maria del Firoe by Filippo Brunelleschi
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) won a contest in 1403 against Brunelleschi that earned him the
commission to sculpt the bronze doors for the Florentine baptistery. His two sets of bronze doors
(1424 and 1452) are a masterpiece of sculpture. Michelangelo called his 2nd set of bronze doors
the “gates of paradise”
Gates of Paradise, by
Lorenzo Ghiberti- Doors on
the Florentine Baptistery
East doors, the
Gates of Paradise
(Lorenzo Ghiberti)
: 1. Adam and Eve
2. Cain and Abel 3.
Noah 4. Abraham
5. Isaac with Esau
and Jacob 6.
Joseph 7. Moses 8.
Joshua 9. David
10. Solomon and
the Queen of
Sheba.
Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510): Birth of Venus (c. 1485-86)
- The painting is a good example of humanism as the subject is Venus, the Roman goddess of
love. (revival of Classics) Venus’ stands in contrapposto, with more weight on one leg than the
other. This is also humanistic as contrapposto was used frequently by ancient Greek and Roman
sculptors.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Mona Lisa (1503-1517)
The Last Supper
Raphael (1483-1520) :School of Athens (1510-1511)
Fresco: a painting done rapidly in watercolor on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colors penetrate the plaster and
become fixed as it dries.
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
God dividing the waters showing the illusionary architecture
Donatello’s David
Michelangelo’s David
Contrapposto stance, individualistic and emotional
David (1501-1504)
Pieta (1499)
In Parmigianino's
Madonna with the
Long Neck (1534-40),
Mannerism makes itself
known by elongated
proportions, highly
stylized poses, and lack
of clear perspective.
The Burial of the Count of Orgaz by El Greco
View of Toledo by El Greco
Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci
by Italian artist Cristofano
dell’ Altissimo.