EMERGENCE OF ITALIAN RENAISSANCE
•
•
•
•
REBIRTH
Florence the center first, then Rome
Science & math tools for artists
Humanism: an interest in the art & lit of
ancient Greece & Rome
• Patrons of art: wealthy families (Medici),
nobility, royal courts, the Church- funded
artists
Top Four Breakthroughs
•
•
•
•
Oil on stretched canvas
Perspective
Use of light and shadow
Pyramid configuration
MASACCIO
• Took innovations of Giotto and developed
them into a trademark style
• Combined visual perspective, texture, and
monumental forms to initiate Renaissance
painting in Florence
The Holy Trinity.
1428. Santa Maria
Novella, Florence, Italy.
Linear Perspective
• Graphic system that showed artists how to
create illusion of depth/volume on flat surface
• Slanting horizontal lines in picture makes them
extend back into space
• Meet at the vanishing point- a point along an
imaginary horizon line
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
The Tribute Money
• 3 scenes to tell the life of St. Peter
• 1427. Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Italy.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Aerial Perspective
• Uses hue, value, and intensity to show distance in a
painting
• Distant objects look lighter and duller
• Figures up front are large, clear, and bright
LORENZO GHIBERTI
• Won a competition to design the doors for
the north entrance into the baptistry of
Florence; also did east doors
• Used pictorial space and 1 point
perspective to produce convincing depths
GATES OF PARADISE
• East doors named by Michelangelo
• Cast in bronze and covered in gold. 10 large
square panels showing Old Testament
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Adam and Eve.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
The Battle with the Philistines.
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI
• Credited w/ discovering linear perspective
• Lost contest for Baptistery to Ghiberti
• Greatest achievement was his initiation of
a new style of building.
Cathedral of Florence. 1420-36
THE DOME
• Built as 2 shells, one inside the other
• Linked with 8 ribs that met at top of dome
• Joined by horizontal
supports around outside
of dome at base
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
DONATELLO
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• Greatest sculptor of his time
• His style is a combination of Classical and
Renaissance
• Contraposto: slight twisting of body to
suggest action
• Facial expressions to provide images of
pride, dignity and self reliance
St. Mark. 1411-13. Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Mary Magdalene. 1454-55.
Baptistery of S. Giovanni, Florence, Italy.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
• Principle painter in last third of the 15th
century
• Superintendent of paintings for the Sistine
chapel
BIRTH OF VENUS. 1482. Florence.
• Based on traditional mythology of ancient
Greece and Rome
• Metaphor for Christian ideas
• Venus, the water and Spring symbolize
Christ, baptism and John the Baptist
• The birth of Venus signifies the rebirth of
humanity
Mars and Venus
Mars and Venus. 1483. Florence.
• Iconography expresses the theme of
dangers of men who fall in love with
women.
• Mars exhausted by his amorous pursuits
makes him the butt of the satyrs’ jokes.
ANDREA MANTEGNA
• Northern Italian artist from Padua
• Excelled in foreshortening: drawing
figures or objects according o the rules of
perspective so they appear to recede or
protrude into 3-d space
DEAD CHRIST. 1466. Milan.
• Shown feet first with wounds of Crucifixion
clearly visible and head tilts forward
• Idealization of body and mastery of
perspective creates a haunting
psychological effect
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Ceiling fresco of the Camera Picta, Ducale
Palace. 1474. Mantua.
• Dramatic illusionism.
• Strong use of perspective (center
vanishing point) and foreshortening of
winged cherubs