Download Art and the Artist/Social Change

Chapter 13
Euro Society in the Age of the Renaissance 1350
- 1550
Art is probably the most well known aspect of the Ren.
 Patronage
◦ Given by guilds & rel. confraternities
 Commissioned Il Duomo
 Brunelleschi’s dome – Florentine Cathedral
 Ghiberti’s baptistery doors
 Michelangelo’s David
◦ Later – wealthy merchants, bankers, signori or oligarchs
 Medici (oligarchs) glorified themselves and their position
 Vast sums spent for the arts reveal changes
 Elaborately decorated private chapels
 1st in churches then w/n palaces – became the center of wealthy
families’ religious life
 Knights now purchased art and hired mercenaries to fulfill their
military needs
Brunelleschi, Dome of Cathedral
Filipo Brunelleschi, the foremost
architect of the early Renaissance, lost
the competition for the commission for
the north door of the Baptistery to
Ghiberti. In 1417 he bested Ghiberti,
and won the commission to build a
dome for the Florentine Cathedral.
Between 1420 and 1436 he built a
drum, a vertical supporting wall, on the
existing 138-foot-diameter octagonal
cross of the cathedral. He then
assembled the dome on the drum,
essentially creating an eight-sided
Gothic vault. (Scala/Art Resource,
NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Ghiberti, Gates
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455)
was given a commission to
cast a pair of doors, with
scenes drawn from the Old
Testament, for the east side of
the Baptistery of San
Giovanni, Florence--thereafter
known as The Gates of
Paradise, so named by
Michelangelo. In creating the
ten 31-inch-square panels,
Ghiberti's use of perspective is
one of the hallmarks of his
accomplishment. (Scala/Art
Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Michelangelo, David
The concept of genius as divine inspiration is
nowhere exemplified more fully than in the life
and work of Michelangelo Buonarrotti (14751564). And Michelangelo was a sculptor--more
specifically, a carver of marble statues-to the
core. His David is the earliest monumental statue
of the High Renaissance, and the city fathers
eventually chose to put it in front of the Palazzo
Vecchio, as the civic-patriotic symbol of the
Florentine republic. Michelangelo fashioned the
marble in a new, more natural manner. David's
bare skin contrasts with the rough leather strap of
the slingshot, and his right leg leans against a
realistic tree trunk. He blends the classical model
of a victorious athlete crowned with a laurel
wreath with the biblical hero as a defender of the
faith. David is a mature young man of
consummate beauty. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Most of Ren art was religious, in a secular
context
◦ Historical figures depicted in contemporary dress
◦ New genres
 Portrait painting




Mixed realism and idealized landscapes,
Secular
Humanist views of wealthy families
Patrons had themselves put into historical or religious
themes
Anguissola, Portrait of Artist's Three Sisters
Sofonisba Anguissola (ca. 1535-1625) was the first Italian woman to be widely
recognized as an artist during her lifetime. Because women were not permitted to
study anatomy, Sofonisba specialized in portrait paintings, infusing them with
psychological truth about human emotions. In her painting Portrait of the Artist's
Three Sisters with Their Governess, the scene is a suspended moment in time: as the
governess looks on, the oldest sister is poised to make her next move, while the
youngest sister smiles mischievously as she anticipates her other sister's
countermove. (Narodowe Museum, Poznan, Poland/The Bridgeman Art Library
International)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Journey of the Magi
Few Renaissance paintings better illustrate art in the service of the princely court
than this painting by Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497), The Magi on their way to
Bethlehem with Lorenzo the Magnificent, which was commissioned by Piero
de'Medici to adorn his palace chapel. Everything in this fresco--the large crowd, the
feathers and diamonds adorning many of the personages, the black servant in front-serves to flaunt the power and wealth of the House of Medici. The artist has
discreetly placed himself in the crowd; the name Benozzo is embroidered on his cap.
(Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Giotto – Florentine painter early 14thC
◦ Spearheaded realism

Piero della Francesca & Andrea Mantegna
◦ Developed the technique of perspective
 3-D in 2-D

Masaccio – died 1428
◦ Revolutionized pointing by emphasizing the
narrative element & brilliantly using light and dark

Leonardo da Vinci
◦ The Last Supper
 Portrayed tensions between Christ and his disciples
Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel
Art historians credit Giotto di
Bondone (1266-1337) with having
revolutionized the course of painting
in Europe. In 1305-1306 he executed
his masterpiece--the design for the
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel in Padua,
which was commissioned by Enrico
Scrovegni, a wealthy merchant. The
thirty-nine frescoes, which cover the
walls and the ceiling of the chapel in
three tiers, were designed by Giotto
as a series of three narratives to be
read from the center, then down and
clockwise. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Giotto, Lamentation
The somber tragedy of Giotto's Lamentation, from the third row of frescoes in the
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua, illustrates his compositional precision and his
authority in the production of the human drama played out at Christ's crucifixion.
The figures grieve in a manner consistent with each personality--Mary serenely holds
Jesus's head, while anonymous mourners cradle his pierced hands and feet. Angels
weep from the clouds, and John, Jesus's beloved disciple, stands above Mary and
cries most conspicuously. The overall unity of the scene is achieved by the diagonal
slope of the hill, which moves from the upper right of the fresco to focus on Mary
and her son. The serenity of the brushwork further enhances the image of the
necessity of Christ's sacrifice. (Alinari/Art Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Mantegna, Adoration of Magi
Applying his study of ancient Roman relief
sculpture, and elaborating on a famous scriptural
text, Andrea Mantegna painted this scene of the
Three Kings coming to recognize the divinity of
Christ--Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1495-1505)-for the private devotion of the Gonzaga family
of Mantua. The Three Kings represent the entire
world as it was known to medieval Europeans:
the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
They also symbolize the three stages of life:
youth, maturity, and old age. Here Melchior, the
oldest, his large cranium symbolizing wisdom,
personifies Europe. He offers gold in a Chinese
porcelain cup from the Ming Dynasty.
Balthazar, with an olive complexion and dark
beard, stands for Asia and maturity. He presents
frankincense in a stunning vessel of Turkish
tombac ware. Caspar, representing Africa and
youth, gives myrrh in an urn of striped marble.
The child responds with a blessing. The black
background brings out the rich colors. (The J.
Paul Getty Museum,
Los Angeles)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Masaccio, Holy Trinity
The new style of early
Renaissance painting was
launched by a young genius,
Masaccio (1401-1428), who
was only 21 when he created
The Holy Trinity in 1425 for
the church Santa Maria
Novella in Florence. The
crucified Christ is within the
arch, and God the Father is
behind and above him. The
Holy Spirit is represented by
the descending white dove,
just above the head of Christ.
(Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Masaccio, Tribute Money
Masaccio's Tribute Money was commissioned in 1427 by the Brancacci family to
ornament their chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. Vasari
describes this fresco as "the most notable of all" of Masaccio's works. Although the
fresco has a biblical theme--Peter's confrontation with the tax collector and Jesus
telling Peter to catch a fish--Masaccio portrays the story in a naturalized setting,
containing real people who are solid in form, with detailed bones and muscles, and
whose expressions exude energy. The sculptural modeling of the human form is
accomplished through the use of light and shadow. Other Renaissance painters
emulated Masaccio's creative use of light. Masaccio used both linear perspective,
where parallel lines recede into the painting and meet at a vanishing point in the
distance, and aerial perspective in this painting. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
da Vinci, The Last Supper
The works of Leonardo da Vinci--drawings,
paintings, sculpture, innumerable inventions,
and copious writings--exemplify the
Renaissance spirit. He is, however, best
known as the founder of a new style of
painting. Leonardo developed two important
design techniques that became standard
features of High Renaissance painting. The
first, circular motion, placed figures in a
group so that each seemed to be leaning
toward, looking at, or pointing to another
figure. The second, pyramidal design,
positioned one figure as if at the apex of an
imaginary pyramid and then allowed the
other figures to fix the corners of the
pyramid. His most famous work in Milan is a
mural, The Last Supper. The perspective is
straightforward, with the vanishing point
located immediately behind Jesus' head. The
grouping of the disciples in four groups of
three is equally unique. (Scala/Art Resource,
NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Donatello
◦ Sculpture
 Revived the classical figure and the classical nude
 Freestanding
 Balanced
 Emotionally expressive

Brunelleschi
◦ Architecture
 Foundling Hospital – 1st truly Ren building
 Rounded, Roman-style
 Successfully building the 1st dome – Il Duomo
Donatello, David
Sculpture in Florence during the early
Renaissance took a new turn with the work
of Donatello (ca. 1386-1466), who sculpted
the first freestanding nude figures since
antiquity. He rendered his bronze statue of
David quite unheroically. It derives its
exceptional quality from the modeling of the
subject's body and his contrapposto stance--a
pose between walking and resting, in which
the weight of the body rests on foot. During
both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,
David's triumph over Goliath was a symbol
of Christ's victory over sin, death, and the
law; and David's nudity symbolized the soul
being exposed before God. (Scala/Art
Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Northern Eur.
◦ Tended to be more religious
 Flemish painters – love for detail, realism & human
personality
 Rogier van der Weyden
 Jan van Eyck
 Giobanni Arnolfini and his Bride – admired greatly in Italy
Rogier van der Weyden,
Deposition
Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1399-1464)
was another great master of early Flemish painting. He set himself
the important task of recapturing, within the framework of the new
style created by his predecessors, the emotional drama and pathos
of the Gothic past. Taking as his subject the suffering and death of
Jesus, a popular theme of Netherlandish piety, van der Weyden
describes (in an inverted "T") Christ's descent from the cross,
surrounded by nine sorrowing figures. The appreciation of the
human anatomy, the rich fabrics of the clothes, and the pierced and
bloody hands of Jesus were all intended to touch the viewers'
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
emotions. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)=
Hubert/Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece
One of the most renowned works in the history of Flemish art is the Ghent
Altarpiece, which Hubert and Jan van Eyck executed for Saint Bavon Cathedral in
Ghent. They created the altarpiece in the customary triptych--a central panel with
two hinged side arms. In the upper portion of the central panel are the monumental
figures of Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist. On the far left are Adam and Eve, the
earliest known nudes in northern panel painting, and the dignity of their natural
forms is in direct contrast to the scenes of evil immediately above them-the sacrifice
of Cain and Abel. By establishing a direct relationship between the subject and the
viewer (whose position is just beneath the figures), the van Eycks connected real
space to pictorial space. (Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library International)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Jan van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni
Arnolfini and His Wife
The founders of the northern school of Flemish
painting were the two van Eyck brothers, Hubert
and Jan (ca. 1390-1441), whose work marks a
definitive break from the Middle Ages. They paid
attention to minute details, and their technical
artistry is particularly evident in their depiction of
textures. Jan van Eyck's most famous painting,
Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife, is also filled
with symbolism. The room of the bride's house in
which the marriage takes place is filled with
objects alluding to Netherlandish marriage
customs; the little dog, symbolizing fidelity,
completes the allegorical scene. Perhaps the most
fascinating portion of the painting is the convex
mirror, which not only reflects the bridal couple
but the artist himself, and the inscription on the
back wall, which reads "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic
1434" (Jan van Eyck was here). (Reproduced by
Courtesy of the Trustees, The National Gallery,
London)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Greatest masterpieces
◦ Michelangelo
 Sistine Chapel
 Pieta
 Dome of St Peter’s
◦ Raphael
 School of Athens
◦ Titian
 Style of mannerism
 Figures & musculature were often exaggerated
 Colors heightened to intensify emotionality
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo Buonarroti's commission to adorn the vaults of the 130-foot-long ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel was the most challenging enterprise of the Renaissance. Although Michelangelo
had to adapt his monumental figures to fit the contours of the ceiling, they remain highly
expressive and communicate his belief that physical beauty manifested the spiritual beauty of the
soul. The nine central panels portray the world described in Genesis from Creation to the
Drunkenness of Noah. In the sections above the windows and in the lunettes around the
windows, Michelangelo portrayed the generations of ancestors prior to Christ, and in the large
corners of the chapel he depicts important scenes drawn from the Old Testament. (Vatican
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Museum)

Leonardo da Vinci
◦ Geniuses – many feel in history
 Mona Lisa
 Last Supper
◦ Renaissance Man
 Scholar
 Deeply interested in anatomy
 Drew everything he saw or imagined
 Plans for inventions – realized centuries later
 Helicopter
 Tank
 Designer
 weapons & fortresses
 Water systems for the Sforza duke of Milan
 Artist
 Experimented with perspective
 New materials for painting
 Kept extensive notebooks
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa
In 1503 Leonardo da Vinci began
his most famous work--the Mona
Lisa. The subject of the painting
is Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo,
the wife of a prominent
Florentine businessman. She is
posed half-length in the seated
position, her posture is relaxed,
and her gaze is direct. The
softening of the edges of the
background, effecting a fine haze
called sfumato, creates a sense of
intimacy and psychological
drama. (Erich Lessing/Art
Resource, NY)
Copyright ©Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Michelangelo’s David, the most famous
sculpture of the Ren, is often considered an
expression of Platonic idealism.
Both David and Pico’s work in philosophy exalt
man in all his glory.
David – commissioned for the town hall, also
expressed civic pride.

Almost all was produced on commission
◦ Most patrons paid their artists well
 da Vinci earned huge sums
◦ Social status
 Medieval period – craftsmen
 Ren – highly honored, geniuses, occasionally called divine
(Michelangelo)
 Ren artists signed their works
 no men from common or artisan background
◦ Women
 Marginalized
 No architects
 1 sculptor
 Several painters
 Women's arts
 Embroidery
 The few women painters were daughters of artists or nobles
 Not allowed to study or paint the male nude
 Not allowed to learn the art of fresco
 Artemisia Gentileschi
 Biblical & mythological heroines: Jewish heroines Ester and Judith
The life and work of Artemseia Gentileschi showed the
intersection of gender issues and art. She was the daughter of a
well-known artist, Orazio Gentileschi, who encouraged and
trained her & she ended up having quite a successful career.
She was the center of a famous trial, in which she accused her
art teacher of rape and was herself treated badly.
There was a recent feature film about her that is
not reliable in its interpretation.