leon battista alberti de pittura 1435 – treatise on painting
TRANSCRIPT
Leon Battista Alberti De Pittura 1435 – treatise on painting
The Renaissance: The Triumph of Linear Perspective
• At left, frescoes from Roman villa, ca. 79 AD
• (From villa of P. Fannius Synistor, buried by eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Walls rescued in 20th century, now in Met Museum)
• Had Classical artists, that modern viewers admire so much, been able to master linear perspective? Why do you say yes or no?
Use of axonometric
perspective in Chinese
painting --
Along the River During
the Qingming Festival
(detail),
Zhang Zeduan,
12th Century
R: Illustration of the difference between axonometry as it is used in Chinese painting (left), and linear perspective. The key features of axonometry are its high vantage point and the parallel lines of projection in the three principal directions. The latter point explains why axonometry is often referred to as 'parallel perspective'. Beams and pillars do not taper off; their size and geometry remains constant. The size of the figures in the foreground and background remains constant, and a light source and shadows will be absent.
Is vision itself
“culturally constructed?”
Schematic drawings of “Reverse perspective”L: A cube, represented in linear perspectiveR: As represented in reverse perspective
Other perspective systems
Byzantine icon showing use of reverse perspective –What tells us this is different from linear persp?
Raphael1483-1520
Raphael Part I:
Training
What does it mean to be an artist in the Renaissance?
Albrecht Dürer – Artist drawing with the aid of a perspective device
Why does the artist use the grid? What does this help him do?
Cartoon (preparatory drawing) for fresco “The School of Athens” by Raphael
Left: Giotto. Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Ognissanti Madonna) c.1305-1310. Tempera on panel.
Right: Raphael. The Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel.
What differences? What difference does the use of perspective make?
Perugino, Marriage of the Virgin, c. 1500-04 (oil on panel, 234 x 185 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen
Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel. 170 x 117 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
“It is well known that . . . Raphael greatly altered and improved his style, through having seen the works of the foremost masters, and he never reverted to his formermanner, which looks like the work of a different and inferior hand.”
Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13. Oil on canvas
Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel. 170 x 117 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
“It is well known that . . . Raphael greatly altered and improved his style, through having seen the works of the foremost masters, and he never reverted to his former manner, which looks like the work of a different and inferior hand.”
Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13. Oil on canvas
Raphael Part II: Frescoes
Making a fresco:
Series of giornate (singular = giornata)
Make cartoon, do
Pouncing on contour lines, sprinkle with charcoal.
Philosophy
Jurisprudence
Theology
Poetry
Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, ca. 1508-12, (fresco), Papal Apartments, Vatican
Scale comparison: Madonna of the Meadows (aprox. 3 ft x 2 ft), Sistine Madonna (aprox. 8ft x 6ft) and the Disputa (aprox. 18 ft x 24 ft)
Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, ca. 1508-12, (fresco), Papal Apartments, Vatican
Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man c. 1485-90
Studies for the Disputa
Perspective - Foreshortening
Making a fresco:
Series of giornate (singular = giornata – literally, “day’s work”)
Make cartoon, do Pouncing on contour lines, sprinkle with charcoal.
Day 2
Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper. 1495–1498. 15’ 2" × 28’ 10”. Oil paint on plaster, Leonardo’s own invented (unsuccessful) technique
Apollo
Pythagoras
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Diogenes
Michelangelo / Herakleitus
Athena
Ptolemy
Euclid
Zoroaster
Apollo
Pythagoras
SocratesPlato
Aristotle
Diogenes
Heraclitus
Athena
Ptolemy
Euclid
Zoroaster
Raphael, The School of Athens, ca. 1509-11, Stanza della Segnatura, Papal Apartments, Vatican
Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica, new building as designed by architect Bramante – begins construction 1503
Raphael, Self-Portrait, 1509
Da Vinci self Portrait, ca. 1500
Albrecht Dürer Melancholia IEngraving 1514
DelacroixMichelangelo in his Studio c. 1850
Raphael Part III:
Oil Painting / Portraiture
Step 1: Grind pigment Step 2: Add binder (here, linseed oil)
--With tempera, would be egg
Step 3: Mix Step 4: Smooth
Common supports for oil paintings in the 16th century: canvas (top left) and panel (right), as well as copper plates (bottom left)
Gesso – thin layer of plaster that helps to make a smooth, ideal surface for paint application.
Portraiture
Joseph Wright, The Corinthian Maid, 1782-84.
•Desire to create a likeness of a living person, with some relation to the artist, such as a friend or a patron •Idea that the image should be created in the presence of the person being depicted•Sometimes, idea of memorializing the person, or idea that the portrait will stand in the person’s place: •Alberti says “As the effort of learning may perhaps seem to the young too laborious, I think I should explain here how painting is worthy of all our attention and study. Painting possesses a truly divine power in that not only does it make the absent present…but it also represents the dead to the living many centuries later…through painting, the faces of the dead go on living for a very long time.”
Olmec head, found at site of San Lorenzo (Tabasco, Mexico), Olmec culture, ca. 1200-400 BC(As seen in Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Mexico)
Raphael, Portraits of Agnolo Doni and Maddelena Doni, c. 1506 (oil on panel, 63 x 45 cm), Pitti Palace, Florence
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, begun c. 1503 (oil on panel, 77 x 53 cm), Louvre, Paris
Use of sfumato
Raphael, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, ca. 1512 (oil on canvas, 82 x66 cm), Louvre, Paris
Raphael. Portrait of a Young Woman (“La Fornarina”) ,1518-19, oil on panel, 85 x 60 cm
Use of chiaroscuro