Renaissance Architecture and Art

1. Renaissance Architecture and Art Mike Stratas

2. patronage • It would be a mistake to overlook the role of patronage in the development of Renaissance art. • Wealthy merchant and noble families had the excess wealth to spend on art. Take for example, Isabelle d’Este and the Medicis. • Doing so had a purpose beyond merely creating beauty. Commissioning and owning art allowed one to show off to one’s neighbors. Mike Stratas

3. The Four R’s of Renaissance Architecture • Rome • Rules • Reason • Rithmetic

4. Rome • In keeping with their passion for the classics. Renaissance architects systematically measured Roman ruins to copy their style and proportion. They revived elements like the rounded arch, concrete construction, domed rotunda, portico, barrel vault, and column. • ‘Rithmetic

5. Rules • Since architects considered themselves scholars rather than mere builders, they based their work on theories s expressed in various treatises. Alberti formulated aesthetic rules that were widely followed.

6. Reason • Theories emphasized architecture’s rational basis, grounded in science, math, and engineering. Cool reason replaced the mystical approach of the Middle Ages.

7. ‘Rithmetic • Architects depended on arithmetic to produce beauty and harmony. A system of ideal proportions related parts of a building to each other in numerical ratios, such as 2:1 ratio of a nave twice as high as the width of a church. Layouts relied on geometric shapes, especially the circle and square.

8. Alberti (1404-72) The Renaissance’s major theorist. He downplayed art’s religious purpose and urged artists to study “sciences” like history, poetry, and mathematics as building blocks. He wrote the first systematic guide to perspective and provided sculptors with rules for ideal human proportions.

9. Brunelleschi (1377-1446) Another Renaissance man, he is best known as the father of modern engineering. Not only did he discover mathematical perspective, he also championed the central-plan church design that replaced the medieval basilica. He constructed the dome (duomo) for the Florence Cathedral. It has been called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

10. Brunelleschi’s “Duomo” What elements of classical style elements do you see? How do you see geometric perspective? Mike Stratas

11. Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel (1440-1461) What elements of classical style elements do you see? How do you see geometric perspective?

12. Bramante (1444-1514) He built the Tempietto (Little Temple) where Saint Peter was crucified. It was the perfect prototype of the domed central-plan church. It expressed the Renaissance ideals of order, simplicity, and harmoniousness.

13. Bramante’s Tempietto (1444-1514) Where do you see order, simplicity, and harmoniousness?

14. One sees the following classical elements: • Dome • Columns • Symmetry & Balance • Tuscan capitals

15. Palladio (1508-1580) Known for his villas and palaces, his treatise Four Books on Architecture was enormously influential in later centuries. Thomas Jefferson used his book as a guide. His Villa Rotunda incorporates Greek and Roman details like porticos with Ionic columns, a flat dome like the Pantheon, and rooms arranged symmetrically around a central rotunda.

16. Palladio’s Villa Rotonda (begun 1550)

17. Renaissance art ushered a number of dramatic changes in how art was produced. To better understand the significance of Renaissance art, we should first look at art from the Middle Ages. Mike Stratas

18. WHICH IS MORE REALISTIC OR MORE NATURAL? Early Renaissance Late Middle Ages Mike Stratas

19. Characteristics of Renaissance Art Overall, technical innovations and creative discoveries made possible new styles of representing reality in a human-centered naturalism. Mike Stratas

20. The Four Artistic Breakthroughs In the Search for Naturalism • 1. Oil on stretched canvas: allowed artists to represent textures and simulate three-dimensional forms. • 2. Geometric Perspective: allows for the illusion of depth • 3. The use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro): allows for figures to look rounded as opposed to flat. Thus they are more natural looking. • 4. Pyramid Configuration: allows for figures to look more three-dimensional and are thus more natural. Mike Stratas

21. Characteristics of Renaissance Art • Emulation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans 2. Good Use of Depth in Painting. 3. Linear (further away=smaller) and atmospheric (further away=hazier) perspective. 4. Paintings began to have more detailed backgrounds. 5. Not necessarily religious, more focus on earthly themes and humans. 6. More realistic, geometrically precise and mathematically accurate. 7. Subjects show signs of more emotions. Mike Stratas

22. Heroes of the High Renaissance • Raphael • Michelangelo • Leonardo Da Vinci • Artists of the High Renaissance attain a high social status as people revere them. • An artistic breakthrough with human-centered naturalism is found in the works of Raphael and da Vinci. Raphael andMichelangelo display use of classical styles and geometric-perspective. Mike Stratas

23. Raphael (1483-1520) Mike Stratas

24. Raphael’s Madonna of the Chair • How do you see human-centered naturalism? • How do you see geometric perspective? • Where is there evidence of classical style? Mike Stratas

25. Raphael’s Madonna of the Chair • Look at Raphael’s subjects. They are real flesh and blood women and children. Mike Stratas

26. Raphael’s The School of Athens • This is his masterpiece. • Where do you see evidence of classical style (Greek and Roman architecture and Greek and Roman figures)? • Where do you geometric perspective? • Where do you see human-centered naturalism? Mike Stratas

27. Raphael’s The School of Athens Note the more detailed background Mike Stratas

28. Michelangelo as Heraclitus • Plato and Aristotle Mike Stratas

29. Michelangelo (1475-1564) Mike Stratas

30. In the following slide tell me where you see… • 1. geometric perspective • 2. Classical style Mike Stratas

31. Michelangelo’s David (1503) Mike Stratas

32. Michelangelo's David conveys the Greek ideal of beauty with its classical proportions, anatomical perfection, and glorification of the human body. The biblical David is portrayed as an independent moral agent who embodies reason and free will, and exhibits virtu, the striving for personal excellence. As an act of patronage, the Medicis ordered the statue and placed it before the city hall in Florence as a symbolic defender of the republic. To the humanists, republican government was a superior form because it invited the participation of citizens in the dialogue of governing on which human progress depended. Mike Stratas

33. Michelangelo’s La Pieta (1500) Pieta means “pity” Where do you see classical style? Where do you see geometric perspective? Mike Stratas

34. Michelangelo’s La Pieta (1500) The accurate dissection of Christ’s body is due to Michelangelo’s dissection of corpses. The classic composure of the Virgin’s face reflects the calm, idealized expressions of ancient Greek sculpture. Mike Stratas

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36. Typically people in the Renaissance would exhibit self-promotion. In Medieval times, this was seen as sinful. Mike Stratas

37. Michelangelo’s The Sistine Chapel (1508-1512) covers the ceiling and describes the origin and fall of man. There are 340 human figures ten to eighteen feet tall. Where do you see geometric perspective? Where do you see classical style? Mike Stratas

38. Mannerism and the Late Renaissance • After the death of Raphael, 1520 to 1620, art of this period is also known as Mannerism. • In 1527, a mercenary army of Charles V sacked Rome in search of pay. The art of this period reflects the days of disorder. • Mannerism can also seem to originate from a reaction to against the Renaissance ideal of classical perfection • Dissonance replaced harmony, emotion overcame reason, and imagination overtook reality. • The term comes the Italian term “di maneira” meaning a work of art done according to a style rather than depicting nature. • Not all artists were mannerists and artists did not always exhibit this style. • To find mannerism, look for figures that writhe and twist in unnecessary contrapposto. Bodies are distorted-generally elongated but sometimes grossly muscular. Colors are lurid, heightening the impression of tension, movement, and unreal lighting. Mike Stratas

39. Michelangelo’s Moses (1515) How can this be a Mannerist work? Mike Stratas

40. The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo’s Last Judgment (1541) Mike Stratas

41. Michelangelo depicted Christ not as a merciful Redeemer but as an avenging Judge with such a terrifying effect that Pope Paul III feel to his knees when he saw the fresco. “Lord, hold not my sins against me!” How does Michelangelo use the nude to express human aspiration and emotion”? Mike Stratas

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43. Which aspects of Renaissance art do you see? Mike Stratas

44. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Leonardo showed a mastery of chiarascuro, sfumato, and the portrayal of nature that few others have been able to achieve. Leonardo demonstrated a new technique sfumato (smoky) which he developed for modeling figures by virtually imperceptible gradations from light to dark thus making the figures more natural. Mike Stratas

45. Madonna (Virgin) of the Rocks (1486) • There is a compositional triangle here. Where is it? • Where do you see a human-centered naturalism? Mike Stratas

46. The Last Supper The painting is a psychological study of the reactions of the twelve disciples when Christ said “one of you shall betray me.” Where do you see human-centered naturalism? Mike Stratas

47. Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1498) . Mike Stratas

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49. Mona Lisa Where do you see human-centered naturalism? Mike Stratas

50. Renaissance etiquette books stressed that a woman must never look directly at a man. Her lips show a hint of a confident smile. Her hands are gracefully poised and further reinforce the sense of calm that she exudes. The background is of a storm which further accentuates her calm. Mike Stratas