Another Look at Renaissance Art

1. Another Look at Renaissance Art

2. The Printing Press…wider public access to knowledge • In 1455, Johann Gutenberg from Germany invented the printing press. • There were nine million copies of the Bible by the end of the century. • Some things that were printed were maps, musical compositions, and pictures.

3. Printing SpreadsRenaissance and Reformation Ideas • In 1440, Johann Gutenberg adapted the Chinese practice of carving letters onto wooden blocks and pressing them against paper to print pages. • He produced his first book, known as the Gutenberg Bible, in 1455. • By 1550, Europe had printed nearly 10 million books. • One reason learning spread so rapidly during the Renaissance was the invention of movable type.

4. Importance of the Printing Press • made the passing of info and knowledge much easier and faster at a fraction of the cost of previous centuries • Aided cultural diffusion and spread artistic, religious, cultural, and intellectual ideas throughout Europe.

5. Focus on Anatomy and Perfection • Many Renaissance artists focused on drawing accurate depictions of the human form (anatomy) • Michelangelo and da Vinci did this by studying dead bodies • The Catholic Church forbade this • Michelangelo made an agreement with the Church that he could study bodies in return for a carved wooden crucifix.

6. Mirror Writing • Three theories • Da Vinci was left-handed so in order not to smudge his notes he wrote from right to left • Da Vinci was worried his works would be seen as heresy so attempted to make it harder to read • Da Vinci did not want others stealing his ideas so he wrote right to left

7. Mona Lisa1503-1505 Mona Lisa is a figure who continues to intrigue modern man with her mysterious smile. Her portrait continues to inspire intriguing dialogue about “Who is she?” and “What’s with her smile and no eyebrows?”

9. The Last Supper, da Vinci 1498(High Renaissance Art)

10. Da Vinci…The Womb

11. Michelangelo Buonarroti(1475-1564) • He was first and foremost a sculptor . • David is one of the most famous sculptures in history. • Among his greatest works was the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. • He was also the most influential artist and sculptor of the High (Late) Renaissance . • Lorenzo de Medici was his patron and allowed for him to study art

12. When I told my father that I wished to be an artist, he flew into a rage. Artists are laborers, no better than shoemakers. - Michelangelo

14. The Sistine Chapel 1513 The Creation of Man 1511 Sistine Chapel (Adam and God)

15. The Last Judgment1536 • The figure of St. Bartholomew was lashed because of his faith. The empty skin bears the distorted face of Michelangelo, an expression of the artist’s endless spiritual and artistic struggles.

16. La Pieta(1498-1499) The sculpture depicts the Virgin Mary holding the body of her son Jesus Christ after his death. He angrily carved his name on Mary’s sash when the crowd viewing La Pieta attributed his statue to another sculptor. He was then ashamed and vowed never to sign his name again.

17. David1501-1504 “The sense of moral power and tense energy is conveyed not only through the anatomy of David, but through the concentrated gaze of the Biblical hero.” • He portrays the youth as tense with a sense of gathering power immediately preceding the battle. • Michelangelo portrays him as a great Greek representation of a hero. The muscles and the tendons are developed only to the point where they can be interpreted as the perfect instrument for a strong will.

18. The High Renaissance & Mannerism (1500s) • The High Renaissance in Italy was astonishing. It represented a peak, a height, of artistic genius. • Mannerism is what happened artistically during the "Late" Renaissance (the years between Raphael's death and the beginning of the 1600s). Mannerism also represents Renaissance art declining. • Mannerist compositions were full of clashing colors, figures with abnormally elongated limbs (often torturous-looking), emotion, and bizarre themes that combined Classicism, Christianity and mythology. • Typically artist would tweak scale or perspective

19. Hand, Michelangelo • Artists began to break the old rules. • Mannerist experiments were credited to Michelangelo’s work, simply for “art’s sake.” One idea was to create distortion in figures. • This created a decline from the ideals of the Renaissance.

20. PietroFrancavilla, Apollo Victorious over the Python, 1591

21. Northern Renaissance Art

22. The realism of Albrecht Dürer’s paintings and engravings inspired other German artists.

23. Jan Van Eyck, Wedding Portrait 1434 • This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting.

24. DulleGriet (Mad Meg) c. 1562 ; oil on panelPieter Bruegel the Elder is generally considered the greatest Flemish painter of the 16th century. The archaic appearance of much of his imagery and his unwillingness to adopt the aesthetic theories of the time had an adverse effect on his reputation both during his lifetime and after his death.

25. Northern Renaissance Architecture Westminster Banqueting Hall 1600s England Chateau de Chenonceau France