Download Marriage of the Virgin - arthumanities

Leon Battista Alberti
De Pittura
1435 – treatise on painting
The Renaissance: The Triumph of Linear Perspective
• At left, frescoes from Roman
villa, ca. 79 AD
• (From villa of P. Fannius
Synistor, buried by eruption
of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Walls
rescued in 20th century, now
in Met Museum)
• Had Classical artists, that
modern viewers admire so
much, been able to master
linear perspective? Why do
you say yes or no?
Use of axonometric
perspective in Chinese
painting -Along the River During
the Qingming Festival
(detail),
Zhang Zeduan,
12th Century
R: Illustration of the difference between
axonometry as it is used in Chinese painting
(left), and linear perspective. The key features
of axonometry are its high vantage point and
the parallel lines of projection in the three
principal directions. The latter point explains
why axonometry is often referred to as 'parallel
perspective'. Beams and pillars do not taper off;
their size and geometry remains constant. The
size of the figures in the foreground and
background remains constant, and a light
source and shadows will be absent.
Other perspective systems
Schematic drawings of “Reverse perspective”
L: A cube, represented in linear perspective
R: As represented in reverse perspective
Byzantine icon showing use of reverse perspective –
What tells us this is different from linear persp?
Is vision itself
“culturally
constructed?”
Raphael
1483-1520
Raphael Part I:
Training
What does it mean to be an artist in the
Renaissance?
Albrecht Dürer – Artist drawing with the aid of a perspective device
Why does the artist use the grid? What does this help him do?
Cartoon (preparatory drawing) for fresco “The School of Athens” by Raphael
Left: Giotto. Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Ognissanti
Madonna) c.1305-1310. Tempera on panel.
Right: Raphael. The Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel.
What differences? What difference does the use of perspective make?
Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin, 1504.
Oil on panel. 170 x 117 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Perugino, Marriage of the Virgin, c. 1500-04
(oil on panel, 234 x 185 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen
Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin, 1504.
Oil on panel. 170 x 117 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13.
Oil on canvas
“It is well known that . . . Raphael greatly altered and improved his style, through
having seen the works of the foremost masters, and he never reverted to his former
manner, which looks like the work of a different and inferior hand.”
“It is well known that . . . Raphael
greatly altered and improved his style,
through having seen the works of the
foremost masters, and he never reverted
to his former manner, which looks like
the work of a different and inferior
hand.”
Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13.
Oil on canvas
Raphael Part II:
Frescoes
Making a fresco:
Series of giornate
(singular =
giornata)
Make cartoon, do
Pouncing on
contour lines,
sprinkle with
charcoal.
Theology
Jurisprudence
Poetry
Philosophy
Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, ca. 1508-12, (fresco), Papal Apartments, Vatican
Scale comparison: Madonna of the Meadows (aprox. 3 ft x 2 ft), Sistine Madonna (aprox. 8ft x 6ft) and
the Disputa (aprox. 18 ft x 24 ft)
Raphael,
Stanza della
Segnatura, ca.
1508-12,
(fresco), Papal
Apartments,
Vatican
Leonardo da Vinci
Vitruvian Man
c. 1485-90
Studies for the
Disputa
Perspective - Foreshortening
Day 2
Making a fresco:
Series of giornate
(singular =
giornata –
literally, “day’s
work”)
Make cartoon, do
Pouncing on
contour lines,
sprinkle with
charcoal.
Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper. 1495–1498. 15’ 2" × 28’ 10”.
Oil paint on plaster, Leonardo’s own invented (unsuccessful) technique
Apollo
Athena
Aristotle
Socrates
Plato
Zoroaster
Ptolemy
Diogenes
Euclid
Michelangelo / Herakleitus
Pythagoras
Apollo
Athena
Socrates
Aristotle
Plato
Diogenes
Pythagoras
Heraclitus
Zoroaster
Ptolemy
Euclid
Raphael, The School of
Athens, ca. 1509-11, Stanza
della Segnatura, Papal
Apartments, Vatican
Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica,
new building as designed
by architect Bramante –
begins construction 1503
Raphael, Self-Portrait,
1509
Da Vinci self
Portrait, ca. 1500
Albrecht Dürer
Melancholia I
Engraving
1514
Delacroix
Michelangelo in his Studio
c. 1850
Raphael Part III:
Oil Painting / Portraiture
Step 1: Grind pigment
Step 2: Add binder (here, linseed oil)
--With tempera, would be egg
Step 3: Mix
Step 4: Smooth
Common supports for oil paintings in
the 16th century: canvas (top left) and
panel (right), as well as copper plates
(bottom left)
Gesso – thin layer of plaster that helps to make a smooth,
ideal surface for paint application.
Portraiture
Joseph Wright, The Corinthian Maid, 1782-84.
•Desire to create a likeness of a living
person, with some relation to the
artist, such as a friend or a patron
•Idea that the image should be
created in the presence of the person
being depicted
•Sometimes, idea of memorializing
the person, or idea that the portrait
will stand in the person’s place:
•Alberti says “As the effort of
learning may perhaps seem to the
young too laborious, I think I should
explain here how painting is worthy
of all our attention and study.
Painting possesses a truly divine
power in that not only does it make
the absent present…but it also
represents the dead to the living
many centuries later…through
painting, the faces of the dead go on
living for a very long time.”
Olmec head, found at site of San Lorenzo (Tabasco, Mexico),
Olmec culture, ca. 1200-400 BC
(As seen in Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Mexico)
Raphael, Portraits of Agnolo Doni and Maddelena Doni, c. 1506
(oil on panel, 63 x 45 cm), Pitti Palace, Florence
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, begun c. 1503
(oil on panel, 77 x 53 cm), Louvre, Paris
Use of sfumato
Raphael, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, ca.
1512 (oil on canvas, 82 x66 cm), Louvre, Paris
Raphael.
Portrait of a Young
Woman (“La Fornarina”)
,1518-19,
oil on panel, 85 x 60 cm
Use of chiaroscuro