Art Stories Chapter 1

1. Art StoriesChapter 1 TheRenaissance The Rebirth of art

2. Dates to know: • Early Renaissance Art, 1400-1480 • High Renaissance Art, 1500-1520 • Northern Renaissance Art, 1500-1600

3. Renaissance-The Rebirth of Art • Shift from the supernatural to the natural (lifelike art). However, artists continued to paint religious subjects. • Rediscovery of the art and literature of Greece and Rome • The scientific study of the body and the natural world • The intent to reproduce the forms of nature realistically

4. Artists achieved new heights in portraiture, landscape, and mythological and religious paintings. • As skills increased, the prestige of the artist soared, reaching its peak during the High Renaissance.

5. Top Four Breakthroughs • Change from tempera paint on wood panels and fresco on plaster walls to oil on stretched canvas • The use of perspective • Giving weight and depth to forms • Pyramidal compositions in paintings.

6. Oil on Stretched Canvas • Oil on canvas became the medium of choice. • There was a greater range of colours. • The smooth gradations of tone permitted painters to represent textures and simulate 3-D forms.

7. Perspective • Linear perspective created the optical effect of objects receding in the distance through lines that appear to converge at a single point in the picture known as the vanishing point. • Painters also reduced the size of objects and muted colours or blurred details as objects got farther away.

8. Prior to the Renaissance the size of each element in the image related much more to its importance, rather than its placement in a space. Notice how large the Madonna and child are compared to the rest of the image. • In Masaccio’s “Tribute Money,” lines converge behind the head of Christ. Doing so makes it obvious who the most important figure in the scene is. Masaccio, Tribute Money, 1424-28

9. Light and Shadow • Chiaroscuro (pronounced key arrow SKEWR o), which means “light/dark” in Italian • New technique in painting by which lighter parts seem to emerge from the darker areas • Produced the illusion of rounded, sculptural relief on a flat surface Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes 1598-1599 Oil on canvas 145 cm × 195 cm (57 in × 77 in)

10. Pyramid Configuration • Began to use a more three-dimensional “pyramid configuration” • This symmetrical composition builds to a climax at the center

11. Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child, c. 1500

12. Early Renaissance

13. Massaccio(pronounced ma SAHT chee oh) • The founder of Early Renaissance paintings. • Nicknamed “Sloppy Tom” because he neglected his appearance. • Innovations: mastery of perspective and use of single, constant source of light casting accurate shadows. • Reintroduced naturalism to art.

14. Masaccio, The Tribute Money, c. 1427, fresco, 247 cm × 597 cm (97.2 in × 235 in), Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. • In this fresco, a Roman tax collector demands tax money from Christ and the twelve apostles who don't have the money to pay. Christ points to the left, and says to Peter "so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."

15. The story unfolds within one image and out of order! 3 1 2 • Masaccio painted human figures not as linear columns, in the Gothic style, but as real human beings • Masaccio uses linear and Pyramidal perspective; the lines converge behind the head of Christ • There is a single source of light coming from the right side. Figures/objects cast dark shadows on the left.

16. Donatello • Reintroduced naturalism to art • Contrapposto – weight concentrated on one leg with the rest of the body relaxed. • His “David” was the first life-size, freestanding nude sculpture since the Classical period. Donatello, David, c. 1430-32, Bronze, h. 158 cm.

17. The Golden Age of Greece Late Gothic sculpture Donatello, David, 1430-32

18. Botticelli(pronounced bought tee CHEL lee) • His painting marks the rebirth of Classical Mythology. • Venus, the goddess, of love, rises from the sea and emerges from a shell. • West Winds (on the left) push her towards land. • Spring is ready to toss a robe around Venus’s body. • The pale colours and floating appearance add to the unreality of the subject. Botticelli, “Birth of Venus,” 1482, tempera on canvas, 172.5 cm × 278.5 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in).

19. The High Renaissance

20. Leonardo Da Vinci • Leonardo was admired for his handsome appearance, intellect, and charm. • He was fascinated with flight • Distractions constantly lured him from one incomplete project to another.

21. Captured the dramatic moment after Christ announced one of his disciples would betray him. • All lines converging on Christ’s head, fixed Christ as the apex of the pyramidal composition. Leonardo, The Last Supper, c. 1495, Fresco.

22. An example of a fresco painting- a large painting on a church wall which requires the paint be applied to a wet surface. The plaster absorbs the colours making the picture as permanent as the wall. Leonardo was not suited to the demands of traditional fresco painting, which required quick, unerring brushwork. He began to experiment with an oil/tempera mixture on dry plaster. It began to disintegrate in his lifetime.

23. Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, Wood on Poplar, She was nobody special. The young wife of a Florentine merchant Giocondo Set the standard for high Renaissance paintings. The use of perspective, with all lines converging on a single vanishing point behind Mona Lisa’s head. Triangular composition. Relaxed, natural three-quarter pose

24. Leonardo used chiaroscuro to model features through light and shadow. Starting with dark undertones, he built the illusion of three-dimensional features through layers and layers of think semi-transparent glazes. Technique called “sfumato” (pronounced sfoo-mah-toh). Leonardo engaged musicians and jesters to amuse his subject to avoid the solemnity of most formal portraits.

25. By 1952 more than 61 versions of the Mona Lisa had been created. Andy Warhol, 1963 Salvador Dali, Self Portrait as Mona Lisa, 1954 Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919

26. Michelangelo • At 29 he was declared the most famous sculptor in Italy. • He described his technique as “liberating the figure from the marble that imprisons it.”

27. Michelangelo was cared for by a wet nurse whose husband was a stonecutter. • The boy grew up absorbed with carving, drawing, and art. • His family beat him to force him into a “respectable” profession. • The Medici prince Lorenzo the Magnificent recognized the boy’s talent and, at the age of 15, took Michelangelo to his Florentine court.

28. Always carved his sculpture from one block. • Carved when he was 23. • “Pieta” means “pity” • Pyramidal arrangement derived from Leonardo. • Composure of the virgin’s face. Michelangelo, Pieta, 1498/99-1500, St. Peter’s, Rome.

29. The accuracy of the anatomy of Christ’s body is due to Michelangelo’s dissection of corpses. • This is the only work that Michelangelo signed (ribbon across the Virgin’s chest). • A viewer could not believe that someone so young could create such a masterpiece.

30. He was commissioned to create this work from a leftover piece of marble. • It was to be placed way up high. • It was decided that it was way to beautiful to place up high. • A base was built for it. Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504, marble, 5.17-metre.

31. Its size and proportions are superhuman (ex. oversized hands) • The young boy has a manly body • David still holds the stone which he will use to kill the giant, Goliath

32. Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, 1508-12, gold and plaster.

33. Detail of the Sistine Chapel • He was asked to paint a few vines on a blue background. • The Sistine Chapel contains more than 340 human figures (10’-18’ tall) • Finished in less than 4 years, virtually without assistance. • Nearly one-half the length of a football field.

34. The roof leaked which made the plaster too damp. • The curved shape of the barrel vault divided by cross vaults made his job even harder. • He had to work on a seven-story-high scaffold in a cramped uncomfortable position. • It took him 4.5 years to complete it. It took restorers 10 years to clean it.

35. Raphael • Voted to be most popular. • Raphael’s father (a mediocre painter) taught him the basics of painting. • By the age of 17 he was rated and independent master.

36. Includes the masters of Classical Greek thought, science and art. The main figures are Plato and Aristotle. • The individual poses and the grouping of the figures in an architectural setting are influences of Michelangelo. • The balance and composition are reminiscent of Leonardo’s Last Supper. Raphael, The School of Athens, 1510-11

37. Titian • He used strong colours as his main expressive device. • Covered the surface of the canvas with red for warmth. • Then he painted both the figures and background in vivid hues and toned them down with thirty or forty layers of glazes.

38. After his wife died his paintings became more muted. • As his eyesight failed he loosened his brushstrokes. • At the end they were broad, thickly loaded with paint, and slashing. Titian, Bacchanal of the Adrians, 1518, Oil, Prado, 168.00 x 218.50 cm, Madridd.

39. Overview • Lasted only a short time – approximately 20 years (1495-1527) • During the High Renaissance, artists were viewed as geniuses rather than craftspeople. It was widely believed that artists, like poets, created their work under divine inspiration. • Early Renaissance - artists had relied on formulas, scientific perspective, ratios and proportions to structure their work. • High Renaissance - artists often disregarded those rules and let their feelings dictate their styles. • Painters, sculptors and architects created works that were more expressive than those of their predecessors.