Download Italian Renaissance Art

Changes in Art
 Following this slide are two images. Examine
the two images. One is from the Medieval
(Middle Ages) period and one is from the
Renaissance.

How can you tell that these images are
from different time periods?

What are the characteristics of each
piece? Does one image have brighter colors?
Does one have clearer images?

Try to list all of the distinguishing
characteristics of each piece.
New Techniques
 Fresco
 Perspective
 Human anatomy and
movement
 Sculpture
 Architecture
 Painting done on fresh,
wet plaster with water
based paints, 3-D
 Organization of
outdoor space and
light through geometry
 Realistic of humans
 Free Standing!
 Donatello- Greek and
Roman influence
 Brunelleschi- focused
on human needs not
divine
Pieta
BY:
Donatello
Masters of High Renaissance
 Leonardo da Vinci
 Raphael
 Michelangelo
 Did realistic painting,
dissected human
bodies, goal to capture
the beauty of nature
 Admired for
Madonna's (Virgin
Mary)
 Accomplished painter,
sculptor, architect
Sistine Chapel
Art and Patronage
 Italians were willing to spend a lot of
money on art.
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Why were they so wealthy?
Art communicated social, political, and spiritual
values.
Due to banking & trade- people had the money
to spend & commission artists.
 Public art in Florence was organized and
supported by guilds.
Therefore, the consumption of art was used as a
form of competition for social & political status!
1. Realism &
Expression
 Expulsion from
the Garden
 Masaccio
 1427
 First nudes since
classical times.
2. Perspective
The Trinity
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Masaccio
1427
Perspective!
First use
of linear
perspective!
What you are,
I once was;
what I am,
you will
become.
3. Classicism
Greek-Roman
influence.
Secularism.
Humanism.
Symmetry/Balance
Raphael, School of Athens (1509)
12: Socrates 13: Heraclitus (Michelangelo) 14: Plato
(Leonardo da Vinci) 15: Aristotle 17: Plotinus (Donatello)
R: Apelles (Raphael)
4. Emphasis on Individualism
 Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The
Duke & Dutchess of Urbino
 Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.
5. Geometrical Arrangement of
Figures
 The Dreyfus
Madonna
with the
Pomegranate
 Leonardo da
Vinci
 1469
 The figure as
architecture!
6. Light & Shadowing/Softening
Edges
Sfumato
Chiaroscuro
7. Free-Standing
Sculpture
Individualism  free
standing figures,
first since Classical
era
Contraposto posture
The “Modest Pose”
Medici “Venus” (1c)
8. Artists as
Personalities/Celebrities
Lives of the Most
Excellent
Painters,
Sculptors, and
Architects
Giorgio Vasari
1550
Mona Lisa
The French Ambassadors
The Letter