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On desk: 

‐SIR Card‐pen/pencil‐notebook

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What can we learn from art? 

What can we learn from this painting? 

Notebook heading:

Date: 01/16/2014

Topic: Renaissance Art

By the end today’s class our objectiveis to evaluate the

impact of art on other facets of civilization.

Expansion of art• Innovations in visual and performing arts were seen all over the world

• Literacy expanded and was accompanied by the proliferation of popular authors, literary forms, and works of literature in Afro‐Eurasia

Expansion of art• Innovations in visual and performing arts were seen all over the world

• Literacy expanded and was accompanied by the proliferation of popular authors, literary forms, and works of literature in Afro‐Eurasia

• As merchants’ profits increased and governments collected more taxes, funding for the visual and performing arts, even for popular audiences, increased.

Keep in mind

• What does art tell us about the values and beliefs of the society that produced it?

• What does art show about how people of that society view themselves?

• How does art reflect a society’s standards of beauty?

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• Renaissance – rebirth of classical culture  in Europe (Italy) c. 1300‐1600

• Enjoy life after

–Hundred Years’ War

–Black Death

• Questioned 

–the Church

–Medieval society

–Literacy/education increased

Why did it happen in Italy?

• France and England busy fighting

• Urban centers

• Wealthy merchant class

• Classical heritage

Urban Centers:• Cities grew – overseas trade

– Exchanged new ideas

– Intellectual revolution

• Bubonic plague wiped out much of the population

• Economic changes

– Fewer laborers 

–Higher wages

– Fewer business opportunities

• Wealthy merchants pursue new interests

Merchants:• Dominated politics

–Wealthiest, most powerful class

• Did not inherit social rank

• Business success depended on their skill

• Individual achievement 

–Important theme of the Renaissance

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Medici Family Motto

Money to get power, and power to guard

the money.

The Medici:

• controlled Florence

• fortune in banking and trade

• Cosimo de’ Medici was the wealthiest European of his time

–Controlled government

–Did not seek political office

– Influenced politicians by                           giving them loans

–Virtual dictator for 30 years

Lorenzo de’ Medici• Ruled as a dictator 

–appearance of elected government

•  Patron (supporter) of the arts

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Patronage:

• Italians spent a lot of money on art

–communicated values

–banking and trade generated money

• Public art organized/supported by guilds

competition for status

1. Realism & Expression2. Perspective

4. Emphasis on Individualism3. Classicism

5. Geometrical Arrangement of Figures6. Light & Shadowing/Softening Edges7. Artists as Personalities/Celebrities

Perspective

Perspective!Perspective!Perspective!Perspective!Perspective!

Use of linear

perspective

Perspective!Perspective!

The Trinity

Masaccio

1427

What you are, I once was; what I am,

you will become.

Perspective

Classicism

Greco-Roman influence

Secularism

Humanism

Individualism free standing figures

Symmetry/Balance

The “Classical Pose”

Emphasis on IndividualismBatista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre:

The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino

Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466

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Isabella d’Este1474-1539

“First Lady of the Italian Renaissance”

Great patroness of the arts

Known as “First Lady of the World”

Geometrical Arrangement of Figures

The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate

Leonardo da Vinci

1469

The figure as architecture

Artists as Personalities/Celebrities

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, andArchitects

Giorgio Vasari

1550

The Wool Factory

by Mirabello Cavalori

1570

Filippo BrunelleschiArchitect Cuppolo of St. Maria del Fiore(1377 – 1436)

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Filippo Brunelleschi

• Commissioned to build the cathedral dome

• He studied the ancient Pantheon in  Rome

• Used ribs for support

Brunelleschi’s “Secret”

Cultural Diffusion?

Il Duomo St. Peter’s            St. Paul’s      US Capitol (Florence)        (Rome)         (London)   (Washington)

The Ideal CityPiero della Francesca 1470

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A Contest to Decorate the Cathedral: Sacrifice of Isaac Panels

Brunelleschi Ghiberti

Ghiberti – Gates of ParadiseBaptistery Door, Florence – 1425 - 1452

The Baptism of ChristVerrocchio, 1472 - 1475

Leonardo da Vinci

Vitruvian Man

Leonardo da Vinci

C. 1487

da Vinci Self-Portrait

1452 - 1519

Artist

Sculptor

Architect

Scientist

Engineer

Inventor

Leonardo (the Artist)

The Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo da Vinci

1483-1486

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Leonardo (the Artist)From his Notebooks of over 5000 pages

Mona Lisa – da Vinci

Mona Lisa OR da Vinci? The Last Supper - da Vinci

Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie

Milan

horizontal

vert

ical

Perspective

The Last Supper - da Vinci

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Detail of Jesus

The Last SupperLeonardo da Vinci

1498

A Da Vinci “Code”:St. John or Mary Magdalene?

Leonardo (the Sculptor)

An Equestrian Statue

1516-1518

Leonardo (the Architect)from his Notebook

Study of a central church

1488

Leonardo (the Architect) Pages from his Notebook

Plan of the city of Imola (1502)

Leonardo (the Scientist)from his Notebook

An example of the humanist desire to unlock the secrets of nature

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Leonardo (the Scientist) from his Notebook

Leonardo (the Inventor)Pages from his Notebook

Man Can Fly?

A study of siege defenses.Studies of water-lifting

devices.

Leonardo (the Engineer) from his Notebook

Michelangelo Buonorrati

1475 – 1564

He represented the body in three dimensions

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David

MichelangeloBuonarotti

1504

Marble

The Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1508 - 1512

The Sistine Chapel’s CeilingMichelangelo Buonarroti

1508 - 1512

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Creation of the

Heavens

The Sistine Chapel

Creation of Man

The Sistine ChapelThe Last Judgment

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PerspectivePerspective

Marriage of the Virgin

Raphael

1504

Raphael’s Canagiani Madonna, 1507

Raphael’s Madonnas

Sistine Madonna Cowpepper Madonna

Madonna della Sedia Alba Madonna

Raphael’s Madonnas

The School of Athens – Raphael

Raphael

Da Vinci

Michelangelo

Aristotle:looks to this

earth (the here and now)

Plato:looks to the

heavens (the ideal realm)

The School of Athens – Raphael

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Averroes

Hypatia

Pythagoras

Zoroaster

Ptolemy

Euclid

Birth of Venus – Botticelli, 1485

An attempt to depict perfect beauty

Primavera – Botticelli

Depicted classical gods as life-size

Women Writers:• Mostly wrote about personal subjects

• Vittoria Colonna – poem to her husband at war

Your uncertain enterprises do not hurt you;

but we who wait, mournfully grieving 

are wounded by doubt and fear.

I am weighed down, powerless, caught in earth'sdark prison, enshrouded I feel weak, seemyself ensnared, yet am light, happy and freeand would fly away to another world,

but a far different wish, of rebellion,my mind listens to, and turns back; I fearmy soul's flight, aspirations, her noblereasons; desire and self take over;

and my desires led my soul as myirresistible enemy rebuiltthis prison all over again. It's not

permitted to break down the locked doors tofree ourselves, nor to use our strengthto prevent Heaven from subduing us.

Niccolò Machiavelli:

• The Prince

–Political guidebook 

–How a ruler can gain and keep power

–People are selfish, fickle, and corrupt

• Patriot, poet, and historian

• The Art of War

– Socratic dialogue

• Discourse on the First Ten                           Books of Titus Livy

– Early history of Rome

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The art of the Renaissance is reflective of the themes of the early modern era.  

Too much focus on the Renaissance distorts world history.