Centered in Italy, 15th Century
The Renaissance was a period of great creative and intellectual activity, during which artists broke away from the restrictions of Byzantine Art . Throughout the
15th century, artists studied the natural world in order to perfect their understanding of such subjects as anatomy and perspective.
Among the many great artists of this period were Sandro Botticelli , Domenico
Ghirlandaio , Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca .
During this period there was a related advancement of Gothic Art centered in
Germany and the Netherlands, known as the Northern Renaissance .
The Early Renaissance was succeeded by the mature High Renaissance period, which began circa 1500.

Centered in Italy, Early 16th Century
The High Renaissance was the culmination of the artistic developments of the Early
Renaissance , and one of the great explosions of creative genius in history. It is notable for three of the greatest artists in history: Michelangelo Buonarroti , Raphael
Sanzio and Leonardo da Vinci .
Also active at this time were such masters as Giorgione , Titian and Giovanni Bellini .
By about the 1520s, High Renaissance art had become exaggerated into the style known as Mannerism .

As people became more involved in society, government and business, they no longer focused all their attention on religious matters.
Raphael,The School of Athens:1509-11
AD. Socrates, Xenophon, Eschines and
Alcibiades

After centuries of symbolic religious images, artists looked to nature for inspiration, creating works that mirrored the people, places and events of the real world.
R aphael,The School of Athens:1509-11

The Middle Ages are so called because they fall between twin peaks of artistic glory.
The Renaissance
The Classical Period
Ancient Greece Ancient Rome
The Middle Ages

While art hardly died in the middle ages, what was reborn in the Renaissance was lifelike art.

During this period, artists and scholars developed an interest in the art of ancient Greece and Rome.
This interest was called humanism.
Artists of the Renaissance greatly admired the lifelike appearances of classical works and longed to capture the same quality in their own works.

Roman to Renaissance
Here is an example of the use of contraposto, which emerged
Polyclitus,Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)
Roman copy after Polyclitus, c.450-440 BCE in antiquity.
Lifesize
Donatello, St. George,
1416 BCE, Marble
210 cm

St.George’s Battle with the Dragon
VITALE DA BOLOGNA around 1350
Tempera on wood, 80 x 70 cm
Pinacoteca Nazioznale, Bologna
In painting, more and more artists turned their attention to creating depth and form to replace the flat, twodimensional surfaces that characterized medieval pictures.
before oil on canvas

VITALE DA BOLOGNA
St.George’s Battle with the Dragon

Oil on canvas became the medium of choice during the renaissance as it provided a greater range of rich colours with smooth gradations of tone. This allowed artists to represent textures and simulate three dimensional form.
VITALE DA BOLOGNA
St.George’s Battle with the Dragon
Raphael,St. George Fighting the Dragon
1504-06 (220 kB); Oil on wood, 28.5 x 21.5 cm
“While we may term other works paintings, those of Raphael are living things; the flesh palpitates, the breath comes and goes, every organ lives, life pulsates everywhere.”
-- Vasari, Lives of the Artists

Raphael,St. George
Fighting the Dragon
1504-06 (220 kB); Oil on wood, 28.5 x 21.5 cm

One of the most significant discoveries in the history of art was the method for creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface, called perspective. Perspective became a foundation of European painting for the next 500 years.
Knowledge of perspective greatly enhances your perception and understanding of light and space, and attunes you to spatial recession as the power line of visual design. It is a powerful guide to drawing in all situations, and a fascinating case study of the ways that a painting is shaped by purely conceptual considerations. It is also indispensable in understanding the design problems that inspired and challenged artists of the past.

‘Jesus Before the Caïf’, by Giotto (1305). The ceiling rafters show Giotto’s introduction of convergent perspective. B. Detailed analysis, however, reveals that the ceiling has an inconsistent vanishing point and that the Caïf’s dais is in parallel perspective, with no vanishing point.

Brunelleschi was an architect who is credited with discovering linear perspective. This system enabled an artist to paint figures and objects so that they seem to move deeper into a work rather than across it.

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.
Artists also reduced the size of objects, diminution , and muted colours or blurred details as objects got farther away, aerial perspective.

The Duomo of Florence, dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore is one of the largest and most beautiful cathedrals in the world. It was started in 1296 by the
Sienese architect Arnolfi di Cambio, but took another 150 years to complete.
The two architects who designed the Duomo were Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo
Brunelleschi. This beautiful cathedral dominates the skyline of Florence.

‘The Disputation of St Stephen’ by Carpaccio (1514)

‘The School of Athens’ by Raphael (1518)

Shortly after Brunelleschi made the discovery of linear perspective, Masaccio painted The
Holy
Trinity. How might have viewers reacted when they saw this type of realism in a painting?

1.
In this fresco of the "Holy Trinity", where the barrel vaulted ceiling is incredible in its complex, mathematical use of perspective.
2.
Lines following Masaccio's actual geometric framework are overlaid to make clear the structure of the perspective itself.
3.
From the geometry it is actually possible to work backwards to reconstruct the full volume in measured accuracy of the 3-dimensional space Masaccio depicts.

Not long after finishing the Holy trinity, Masaccio painted The Tribute
Money. Notice how he has used linear and aerial or atmospheric technique to heighten the illusion of deep space.
Masaccio
1426-27
Fresco, 255 x 598 cm
Cappella Brancacci, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence

Chiaroscuro is a method for applying value to a two-dimensional piece of artwork to create the illusion of a three-dimensional solid form. This way of working was devised during the Italian
Renaissance and was used by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. In this system, if light is coming in from one predetermined direction, then light and shadow will conform to a set of rules.

An element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a bold contrast between light and dark.
Caravaggio, 1599-1600; Oil on canvas, 10' 7 1/2" X 11' 2";
Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

The Virgin of the Rocks
LEONARDO da Vinci
1452 - 1519
Full title: The Virgin of the Rocks (The Virgin with the Infant Saint John adoring the Infant Christ accompanied by an Angel) about 1491-1508

Rigid profile portraits and grouping of figures on a horizontal grid in the picture’s foreground gave way to a more three dimensional “pyramid configuration”.
Illuminated manuscript 10th Century
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
1510 (200 Kb); Oil on wood, 168 x 130 cm
Musee du Louvre, Paris

This symmetrical style of composition built to a climax in Leonardo’s
Mona Lisa, where the focal point is the figure’s head.
Portrait of Mona Lisa (1479-1528), also known as La Gioconda , the wife of Francesco del Giocondo;
1503-06 (150 Kb); Oil on wood, 77 x 53 cm (30 x 20 7/8 in); Musee du Louvre, Paris

Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper 1498 after cleaning
Tempera on plaster
460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft.)
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie
(Refectory), Milan
Describe how the illusion of depth is created.

(1397-1475)
It was said of Uccello that the discovery of perspective had so impressed him that he spent nights and days drawing objects in foreshortening, and setting himself ever new problems.
It is precisely because the painter was so fascinated by the new possibilities of his art that he did everything to make his figures stand out in space as if they were carved and not painted.
Saint George and the Dragon
DETAIL of St George c. 1455-60
Tempera on canvas
56.5 x 74 cm
National Gallery, London

UCCELLO, Paolo
Saint George and the Dragon c. 1455-60
Tempera on canvas
56.5 x 74 cm
National Gallery, London

This was a first!
UCCELLO, Paolo
The Rout of San Romano c. 1456
National Gallery, London

(Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi) c. 1445-1510
Italian painter. Botticelli was
Florentine and extremely successful at the peak of his career, with a highly individual and graceful style founded on the rhythmic capabilities of outline. With the emergence of the High
Renaissance style at the turn of the 16th century, he fell out of fashion, died in obscurity and was only returned to his position as one of the best-loved quattrocento painters through the interest of
Ruskin and the Pre-
Raphaelites.
Botticelli, Sandro ,
St. Augustine 1480
Fresco (transferred to canvas) 185 x 123 cm
Ognissanti, Florence

Botticelli, Sandro
Portrait of a Young Man c. 1480-85
Wood, 37.5 x 28.2 cm
National Gallery, London

Botticelli, Sandro Primavera c.1482
Tempera on wood 203 x 314 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Botticelli, Sandro
The birth of Venus c.1485
Tempera on canvas 172.5 x 278.5 cm
Uffizi, Florence

(1449-94)
Domenico Ghirlandaio trained as a goldsmith. In 1490, the Duke of
Milan received a report that described a handful of good artists available for work in one region. Of
Domenico Ghirlandaio it was suggested that he was a notable painter of panels and a master of fresco. It went on to commend his work and to describe him as an efficient and prolific artist.
Ghirlandaio employed hordes of assistants - one of whom was
Michelangelo - in his prosperous, family-run business. Ghirlandaio is best known for his frescoes, in which he often set religious subjects in a secular setting and in which he included recognizable portraits.
Ghirlandaio, Domenico
Adoration of the Shepherds 1485
167 x 167 cm Wood
Santa Trinita, Sassetti Chapel, Florence

Ghirlandaio, Domenico The Visitation
Wood 67 1/2 x 65 in. (172 x 165 cm)
Musee du Louvre, Paris

Donatello ( Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi )
1386 1466
Donatello was the son of Nicolo di Betto
Bardi, a member of the Florentine
Woolcombers Guild, and was born in
Florence , probably in 1386. Donatello was educated in the house of the Martelli family.
However, he received his first training
(according to the custom of the period) in a goldsmith’s workshop, and that he worked for a short time in Lorenzo Ghiberti's studi o.
While pursuing their studies on classic soil, the two young men made a living by working at the goldsmiths' shops. This Roman sojourn was decisive for the entire development of
Italian art in the 15th century, fo r it was during thi s period tha t Brunelleschi undertook his measurements of the Pantheon dome and of other Roman buildings. Bru nellesch i's buildings and Donatello's monuments are the supreme expression of the spirit of this era in architecture and sculpture and exercised a potent influence upon the painters of that age.

St George, (c.1415) Florence

Mary Magdalen, (c.1455), wood, Florence

Donatello has placed the head of Goliath at David’s feet.
The battle is over, David is the victor.

David
DETAIL of head c. 1444-46 BCE
Bronze
Height 158 cm
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

LEONARDO: RENAISSANCE
POLYMATH
"There has never been an artist who was more fittingly, and without qualification, described as a genius.
Like Shakespeare, Leonardo came from an insignificant background and rose to universal acclaim. Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a local lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the
Tuscan region. His father acknowledged him and paid for his training, but we may wonder whether the strangely self-sufficient tone of
Leonardo's mind was not perhaps affected by his early ambiguity of status. The definitive polymath, he had almost too many gifts, including superlative male beauty, a splendid singing voice, magnificent physique, mathematical excellence, scientific daring ... the list is endless. This overabundance of talents caused him to treat his artistry lightly, seldom finishing a picture, and sometimes making rash technical experiments.
1568
Woodcut

La Giaconda
1503-1506
Oil on wood
77 x 53 cm (30 x 20 7/8 in.)
Louvre, Paris

The Last Supper
1498
Tempera on plaster 460x880cm
Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie
(Refectory), Milan

Leonardo da Vinci, Study of the Human Body
Leonardo da Vinci, Isabella d'Este

Lady with an Ermine
1483-90 (150 Kb); Oil on wood, 53.4 x 39.3 cm (21 x 15 1/2 in); Czartoryski Museum, Cracow

Leda

In full MICHELANGELO DI
LODOVICO BUONARROTI
SIMONI (b. March 6, 1475,
Caprese, Republic of Florence
[Italy]--d. Feb. 18, 1564,
Rome), Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.
Michelangelo.
The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
1508-1512. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican

The Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel from 1508 to
1512, commissioned by
Pope Julius II. On becoming pope in 1503,
Julius II reasserted papal authority over the
Roman barons and successfully backed the restauration of the
Medici in Florence. He was a liberal patron of the arts, commissioning
Bramante to build St
Peter's Church,
Michelangelo to paint the
Sistine Chapel, and
Raphael to decorate the
Vatican apartments.

Sybille de Cummes
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
Sibyls were female seers of ancient Greece and Rome. They were also known as oracles. Like the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament, many sibyls had their sayings recorded in books. Jewish prophets spoke unbidden, whereas sibyls tended to speak only if consulted on specific questions. They sometimes answered in riddles or rhetorical questions.

Michelangelo : Genesis
The Creation of Adam

The Temptation of Adam and Eve

The Creation of Eve

The Separation of Light and Darkness

Creation of the Sun and Moon

Michelangelo has shown David just before battle, or is it the moment
David decides he will fight Goliath?
David
Michelangelo , 1504
Marble, height 517 cm
Galleria del l'Accademia

(1483-1520)
"Raffaelo Sanzio was the youngest of the three giants of the High Renaissance. He was born in Urbino in 1483 and received his first instruction in the techniques of painting from his father, Giovanni Santi, a minor artist. Urbino, where
Raphael spent his youth, was also the seat of the warfaring but art-loving condottiere Federico
11 da Montefeltro. At Federico's court, Raphael was introduced to the works of such artists as
Paolo Uccello , Luca Signorel li,
Melozzo da Forlí and Francesco di Giorgio, as well as the Flemish artists Hieronymus Bosch and joos va n Gent. At the a ge of seventeen, his father sent him to
Perugia to become an apprentice under the highly-regarded
Perugino.
Raphael
The small Cowper Madonna c. 1505 Oil on wood
(59.5 x 44 cm)

Raphael
The School of Athens
1510-11 Fresco
Vatican, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome

Raphael
Madonna and Child Enthroned, with Saints
1504-05
Tempera, oil, and gold on wood
Main panel 66 7/8 x 67 7/8 in. (169.9 x 172.4 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Raphael, The Alba Madonna 1511 Oil on canvas, diameter 98 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington

The first quarter of the 16th century is generally termed the 'High
Renaissance'. It is the period when the leading artists had sufficient technical expertise to achieve virtually any naturalistic effect they wished, coupled with a controlling, Classically-based intelligence which imposed visual harmony and compositional balance while eliminating gratuitous detail. Although most of the leading protagonists were
Florentine - Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael - the centre of production had shifted to Rome (where these three men worked) and to
Venice, where Bellini , Giorgio ne and Ti tian were crea ting t heir own High
Renaissance style.

(c. 1430-1516)
"Brother of Gentile and son of Jacopo, Giovanni
Bellini was probably the greatest of the Bellini dynasty. He was the preeminent teacher of his generation, with a sizeable workshop staffed by pupils and assistants, among whom were
Giorgione and Titian. L ike hi s brother, he became chief painter to the State, although Titian tried desperately to usurp him.
Bellini, Giovanni Giovanni Emo c. 1475-83 Oil on wood
19 1/4 x 13 7/8 in. (49 x 35 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Bellini, Giovanni
The Feast of the Gods
1514 Oil on canvas
67 x 74 in. (170 x 188 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington

(1478?-1510)
"If the classical painters of central Italy had achieved the new complete harmony within their pictures by means of perfect design and balanced arrangement, it was only natural that the painters of Venice should follow the lead of Giovanni
Bellini , who made such happy use of colour and light to unify his pictures. It was in this sphere that the painter
Giorgione achieved the most revolutionary results. Very little is known of this artist; scarcely five paintings can be ascribed with absolute certainty to his hand. Yet these suffice to secure him a fame nearly as great as that of the great leaders of the new movement. Strangely enough, even these pictures contain something of a puzzle.
Giorgione
The tempest c. 1508 Oil on canvas
82 x 73 cm (32 1/4 x 28 3/4 in.)
Accademia, Venice

Giorgione, Giorgio da Castelfranco
Venus Asleep c. 1510 Oil on canvas
108 x 175 cm
Gemaeldegallerie Alte Meister, Dresden

(1485-1576)
"Almost sixty years separate
Titian's Portrait of a Man (the socalled Ariosto) in the National
Gallery, London, and his Jacopo
Strada , now in Vienna, dated
1568. This broad span of time frames Titian's career as a portrait painter. About one hundred portraits are extant, making it possible to follow both the stylistic and human progress of the artist (the development of his art, but also the events, meetings and successes of his life) as well as the course of
Italian and European history in the sixteenth century, exemplified through the images of the protagonists of political, religious and cultural power.
Giorgione/Titian
Pastoral Scene (Fete Champetre)1508
Oil on canvas 105 x 136 cm
Musee du Louvre, Paris

Titian
The Concert c. 1510
Oil on canvas 86.5 x 123.5 cm
Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Titian
Sacred and Profane Love 1514
118 x 279 cm
Borghese Gallery, Rome

Titian
Diana and Callisto 1559
Oil on canvas 187 x 205 cm
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

Titian
Venus and Adonis c. 1555 Oil on canvas
42 x 53 1/2 in. (106.8 x 136 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington