Humanism in the Renaissance

1. Humanism in the Renaissance

2. During the Middle Ages (a period of European history from the third through 13th centuries), art and learning were centered on the church and religion. Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

3. But at the start of the 14th century, people became less interested in thinking about God, heaven and the saints, and more interested in thinking about themselves, their surroundings and their everyday lives.

4. Ancient Greeks & Romans • Part of this change was influenced by the study of ancient Greek and Roman writings on scientific matters, government, philosophy and art.

5. The underlying theme in Greek science is the use of observation and experimentation to search for simple, universal laws.

6. When scholars during the Renaissance began to study these writings, their interests turned away from traditional areas of study such as religion, medicine and the law. The people of the Renaissance became interested in other areas of science, the natural world, biology, and astronomy. Copernicus

7. A time of magnificent buildings • People now studied mathematics, engineering and architecture. Artists, writers, musicians and composers began creating work outside the church. Artists signed their work and authors wrote autobiographies and memoirs – stories about themselves. Villa Rotunda 1570 Italy

8. Secular Humanism • The values and ideals popular during the European Renaissance can be described by the term secular humanism; secular, meaning not religious and humanism, meaning placing the study and progress of human nature at the center of interests.

9. Comparing Paintings • The rise of Humanism during the Renaissance can be seen in paintings created by Renaissance artists. • You will be learning how to tell the difference between paintings from the Renaissance and earlier works of art. Erasmus portrait by Hans Holbein. Erasmus was a Dutch Humanist and social critic.

10. Paintings=Primary Sources • Looking for evidence in the paintings themselves. • Paintings are primary sources of information: they tell us about how people lived in Renaissance Europe.

11. Examples Madonna and Child in Glory by Jacopo di Cione • Very early example of Renaissance Painting • Halos • Saints and Angels (smaller than madonna in the center) • Hieratic scale – makes the most important figures in a work of art larger than less important figures.

12. In the Middle Ages, it was common for artists to represent figures of heaven against a gold background, a symbol for the beauty and value of the atmosphere of heave.

13. As Humanism became more popular during the Renaissance, ordinary people grew to be the same size as saints in paintings and saints began to look more like ordinary people. Halos become fainter and eventually disappear.

14. Saints occupied the same landscapes as ordinary people in Renaissance paintings and the landscape was earth instead of heaven St. Jerome Reading by Bellini

15. During the Renaissance, the use of mathematical perspective to represent space in paintings was invented.

16. Earlier attempts at representing space often resulted in furniture or buildings that look just a little “off”. Using mathematical formulas, instead of just the human eye, gave artists new tools to represent three dimensional space.

17. Artists began to use oil paints for the first time during the Renaissance. In the Middle Ages, egg tempera was used most widely. Mixing egg yolks with pigments made egg tempera. Artists made their own paints. Oil paint was better because it dried slowly and was translucent (light could shine through it).

18. Your Task • Each table gets a set of a variety of paintings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. • Working in groups, put the paintings in chronological order using these criteria: • Halo • Hieratic scale • Landscape • Oil Paint • Perspective