Download Renaissance Art: The Italians.

Renaissance Art: The Italians.
Characteristics of Renaissance
Art
Realism
Three-dimensional
Balanced and ordered
Portraits
Landscapes and attention to depictions of
nature
Classical style
Depiction of classical themes and stories
Renaissance Art (cont.)
• led to many changes in both the technical aspects of
painting and sculpture, as well as to their subject matter
• new techniques in the manipulation of light and
darkness,
• (see tone contrast evident in many of Titian’s portraits)
& development of sfumato* and chiaroscuro by da
Vinci
• mostly made for commissions or religious reasons
• Sfumato: subtle gradation of tone which was used to
obscure sharp edges, eg, da Vinci’s Monalisa
From http://painting.about.com/od/oldmastertechniques/a/sfmuato_chiaros.htm
Renaissance Art (cont.)
• Significant change: the artist came to occupy a
different place in society- art was becoming more
than just a craft.
• Renaissance society was dominated by guilds,
which represented the important trades in the
city.
• All were connected to a patron saint & each
looked out for their fellow members, ensuring
that all had employment & a decent wage.
• Workshops –abundant: a master paid to take on
an apprentice to teach practical skills in the field.
Sculptors, too, began to rediscover many ancient
techniques such as contrapposto.
(counterpose: It is used in the visual arts to describe
a human figure standing with most of its weight on
one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist offaxis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a
more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed appearance)
Donatello’s sculptures of David
• Following with the humanist spirit of the
age, art became more secular in subject
matter, depicting ancient mythology &
Christian themes. This genre of art is often
referred to as Renaissance Classicism.
• In the North: the most important
Renaissance innovation was the
widespread use of oil paints-greater colour
& intensity.
• In 1290 Giotto
began painting in
a manner that
was less
traditional &
more based upon
observation of
nature.
• His fresco cycle
at the Scrovegni
Chapel, Padua is
seen as the
beginnings of a
Renaissance style.
Cappella Scrovegni
(Arena Chapel),
Padua
The Cappella
Scrovegni was
dedicated to Santa
Maria della Carità at
the Feast of the
Annunciation, 1305.
Giotto's fresco cycle
focuses on the life
of the Virgin &
celebrates her role
in human salvation.
Giotto’s angel began to show a
greater sense of real space and form
Early Renaissance
Above: Classical subjects like the
unsupported nude — his second
sculpture of David
Below: Donatello’s classical
techniques such as
contrapposto
High Renaissance
• Sculptor & architect
Brunelleschi studied the
architectural ideas of ancient
Roman buildings for inspiration.
Giotto & Ghiberti contributed
works of art in the Florence
cathedral.
• Masaccio perfected certain
elements [composition,
individual expression, & human
form] to paint frescoes
[Brancacci Chapel]
High Renaissance
•
•
•
•
•
High Renaissance artists: Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Titian & Raffaello
Sanzio.
The 15th-century artistic developments in Italy
(interest in systems of perspectives, in depicting
anatomy, & in classical cultures) developed
during the 16th Century
The art of those most closely associated with
this period: mastery of technique & aesthetics.
Artists created works of authority which later
generations of artists used as models for
instruction.
These works of art further raised the prestige of
artists.
Right: Raffaello(1483 - 1520) Portrait of Bindo Altoviti
Oil on wood, 1512-1515
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
Above: Angel (fragment of
the Baronci Altarpiece)
High Renaissance
• Artists could claim divine inspiration, thereby
raising visual art to a status formerly given only
to poetry.
• Painters, sculptors, & architects successfully
claimed for their work a high position among
the fine arts.
• In a way, 16th- century masters created a new
profession with its own rights of expression & its
own respected character.
Masaccio. Tribute Money Brancacci Chapel,
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence 1427
• impt. roles played by: atmospheric perspective,
spaciousness & depth of landscape, combined light
source
• interweaving of arms: we follow Peter through space
• artist used oppositional colours & deeply formed
drapery to symbolise light & shade.
• narrative told through: lines, perspective, gestures of
figures & facial expressions
Masaccio. Tribute Money .Brancacci Chapel,
Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence 1427
Giotto. Homage of a Simple Man. Detail. 1295-1300.
Fresco. St. Francis, Upper Church, Assisi, Italy.
Note: he
began to
show a
greater
sense of real
space &
form,
although he
had not yet
understood
the idea of
perspective
Religion remained a major focal point of
Renaissance art -The Sistine Chapel-Michelangelo
Individualism –Portraits
-portraits celebrated the unique qualities and personality
of the individual person (two examples by Leonardo da
Vinci)
Sandro Botticelli or Il Botticello "little
barrels"; 1445 -1510
• Primavera 1478
Botticelli: The Birth of Venus. 1486
Carpaccio’s Birth of Mary
circa 1502-1504
Raffaello Sanzio: Urbino 1483 -1520
Saint Sebastian
Apollo
Raffaello: L'escola d'Atenes
Plato
Aristotle
Athena
Ptolem
Pythagoras
Michelangelo
Euclid
• The building is a modification of *Bramante's first
design for St Peter's.
• Plato and Aristotle as central figures walking in a
wandering manner through the Lyceum*. A onepoint (linear) perspective is used , one method to
show 3-D objects on a 2-D surface.
• *Bramante:
• *Lyceum: building for public events
Lines which appear to go away from the
viewer meet at a single point on the horizon,
the so called vanishing point.
The perspective is such that this point is
between Plato and Aristotle stressing the
importance of these two persons.
• To an almost equal distance between Plato and
Aristotle we have Euclid (23) and Pythagoras (30).
• A transition from Philosophy to pure Science
(from left to right) that also is represented by
Apollo and Athena sculptures on the left and
right side.
• Many figures (all except Socrates?) were drawn
according to persons of Raphael's epoch such as
Plato whose face is that of Leonardo. There is
also, although not perfect or proportional, some
temporal ordering of the persons from the centre.
Bartolomeo Vivarini
1488
Veronese Paolo Caliari 1528-88. : Feast in the
House of Levi 1573
His penchant was for feast scenes from the Bible.
Veronese (continued)
• His painting for the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e
Paolo, The Last Supper, contained not only the
Biblical scene, but exotic dwarves, soldiers, & an
array of animals.
• Typical of narrative quality assoc. with his
paintings.
• The work was completed in 1573. However the
Inquisition summoned him to explain the
inclusion of exotic items within the context of a
religious picture.
• His solution: renamed the painting as The Feast in
the House of Levi.
Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) was one of the most
famous female painters
• Three
Sisters
Playing
Chess.
• Oil on
canvas,
1555
• Painted
when she
was only
20 years
old
• Phillip II of Spain, originally
attributed to Sanchez
Colo, a fellow court
painter, but attributed
to Sofonisba Anguissola in
1996. She portrays a
sombre Phillip II fingering
his Order of the Golden
Fleece & dressed in the
high hat and black
clothing that typified his
midlife.
Titian.
Man with a
Glove, c.
1519.
Oil on
canvas,
Louvre,
Paris.
Tiziano: Venus with an Organist
and a Dog (ca. 1550)
Doge of Venice 1474
Gentile Bellini