Objectives
• Understand the development of linear perspective in
two-dimensional art forms.
• Follow the influences of antiquity and classical ideas
and forms in all the arts.
• Be able to distinguish the new advances in rendering
the human form in sculpture and painting.
• Become familiar with the impact that Greek
philosophy and mythology had on the arts.
• Recognize the influences still felt from Christianity on
the arts
Renaissance Art in FifteenthCentury Italy
Humanism and the Italian Renaissance
• Cities grew in wealth and
independence
– Country to City
• Noble lineage did NOT
guarantee
political/economic success
• Mercenary armies led by
entrepreneurial military
commanders
– Condottieri
Continued
• Humanists sought the physical and literary records of
the ancient world – assembling libraries, collecting
sculpture and fragments of architecture, and beginning
archaeological investigations of ancient Rome.
• They received their inspiration from
classical antiquity.
• Christian religion remained the
predominate subject of art.
Humanism and the Italian Renaissance
(cont.)
• Allegorical and Mythological Scene Prevlant
• Art for Arts Sake
– Collectors
• Male nude is an acceptable subject in renaissance
art.
– In the end of the 15th century female nudes became
acceptable.
Florence Cathedral
• Dome created by Filippo Brunelleschi
– Winner of Contest
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Octagonal drum = Base of Dome
138 across
8 Large and 16 Small Ribs
Brick
• Strongly
influenced by the classic tradition.
• Commissioned about 1409 by Stone carvers’ and
woodworkers’ guild
•Refers to 9 separate martyrs, divided into two groups.
•3rd century sculptors who were executed for refusing
to make an image of a pagan roman god.
•Small scale gothic chapel.
• Commissioned Florences lesser guild (Armorer & sword maker)
•Saint George
-Originally as conceived as standing advertisement for the
guild
-body positioning very alert, but face very tense and worried
The Gates of Paradise (East Door)
•10 Panels
•Depict events from the Creation to the reign of
Solomon.
•Uses Medieval method of narrative in combining
several scenes in one panel
•Has figures nearly in the round with parts of their
bodies extended from the background as well as
details in very shallow relief.
from Florence Baptistery
Lorenzo Ghiberti
1425-52
Bronze With Gilding
Florence
Genesis
Noah
Isaac
Cain & Abel
Abraham
Joseph
Joshua
Moses
David
Solomon
• Lorenzo Ghiberti
• Middle panel on the left door of “The Gates
of Paradise”
• Pictorial relief on bronze
• Rebecca gives birth to Isaac
• Isaac sends his oldest son, Esau, to hunt
for food
• Isaac mistakenly gives his blessing to
Jacob
• Rebecca watches Isaac bless the wrong son
• Often referred to as the “Isaac Panel”
• David created by Donatello
• Donatello was a master of both
marble and bronze statues.
• Brought back the antic free
standing figures.
• Significance = elaborate helmet
and wings of Zephyr
- Roman wind god
- evil & destruction
• David nudity refers to the ancient
Greek sculptures
• Donatello
• 1430-1460
• Bronze
• Completely made of Wood
• Contrast piece to Donatello's David
• Very Embodiment of regret for ones wrong
doing
• Features
- Wasted body caused by age and years of selfdenial
- Portrayed so that we fully share her anguish
and longing for redemption
Donatello
c.1455
Height 6”2
•
MADE BY ANTONIO DEL POLLAIUOLO
• IMPRESSED BY THE LATE STYLES OF Donatello and Castagno
Freeze standing
Small scale,
Perfect balance
Pollaiuolo in grafted the upper part of Antaeus onto the lower
part of his adversary to stress the central axis
• All’antica “ in the antique way”
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Antonio del Pollaiuolo
1475
• Represents his most elaborate pictorial design
• Purpose of engraving was to display the nude body in
action
• Coupled with slender proportions and an emphasis on
outline rather than on modeling
• Poses drew from upon the Greek vases
• Chose to instead portray both the statuette and the
print as if their skin had been stripped off to reveal the
play of the muscle underneath due to knowledge of
anatomy
Battle of the Nudes
Antonio del Pollaiuolo c.1465-70
The Holy Trinity with the Virgin, St. John
the Evangelist, and Two Donors
• Holy spirit represented by a white dove above
Jesus’ head
• Illusion of aedicula and stone sarcophagus
• Linear perspective (everything measured to
scale) = realism
• Classical Architecture instead of Gothic
• Light from front= shadows and depth
• Mary is presenting Christ
… continued
• On bottom half is painted sarcophagus with
skeleton resting on top
-Reminder that death awaits us, only
belief in Christ is redemption
• Skeleton is Adam, alleged tomb of Adam
under chapel
• “I was what you are, and what I am you shall
be.”
• Perfect linear logic = divine reason of God
The Holy Trinity
with the Virgin, St.
John, and Donors
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Eye level
5’
Masaccio
1427 CE
Fresco
Sta. Maria Novella,
Florence
Brancacci
Chapel
• Masaccio and Masolino
• Both died before completion in 1427, finished
by Filippino Lippi in 1480s
• Dedicated to St. Peter
– illustrates his life with a series of frescoes
• Masaccio’s knowledge of human figure from
study of Roman sculpture
Brancacci Chapel, Interior
Masaccio and Masolino
1427 CE
Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
The Tribute
Money
• 3 narrative scenes
1) center= tax collector with Christ and disciples asking for tax of Peter
2) left= Peter fishing for first fish with coin
3) right= Peter paying the tax
• Linear perspective= Peter,house, and trees
diminishing in size
• Atmospheric perspective= landscape changing to
“farther away” colors
The Tribute Money
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Masaccio
1427 CE
Fresco
Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
The Expulsion from Paradise
• Adam and Eve as monumental nudes
• New realism
– More focus on body mass: bone and muscle, then minute
detail
• Generalized light
• Shadows= tangibility of figures (rational
space)
• Focus on figures’ psychology or their
reaction to the expulsion rather than the
wrath of God
The Expulsion
from Paradise
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Masaccio
Fresco
1427 CE
Brancacci Chapel
Annunciation
• By Fra Angelico
• Fresco in a corridor of the San Marco convent
in Florence
• Mary and the angel greet each other devoutly.
• Tuscan cypresses in the background.
Annunciation
c. 1450
Fresco
Fra Angelico
Last Supper
• Fresco by Andrea del Castagno
• Located in refectory of Sant'Apollonia in
Florence
• arrangement of balanced figures in an
architectural setting
– Saint John's posture of innocent slumber neatly contrasts
Jude the Betrayer's tense, upright pose
– the hand positions of the final pair of apostles on either
end of the fresco mirror each other with accomplished
realism
– pillars and statues recall Classical sculpture
Last Supper
1447
Fresco
Andrea del Castgno
Basilica di Sant’Andrea di
Mantova
• Replaced columned arcade with Barrel vaulted nave
• Absence of statues and other Gothic features
Corinthian pilaster= slender
columns of the Corinthian order
from ancient Greece
Church of Sant’Andrea
Leon Battista Alberti
1470
Mantua
“Painted Chamber”
• Andrea Mantenga
• Painted in tower chamber in Ludovico
Gonzaga’s palace
• Walls
– Frescoed
– Family receives its returning cardinal In scenes set
to landscapes. (“court scene”)
• Ceiling
– Di dotto in sú (from below upwards) technique
– Room opened to be a cloud-filled sky with large
oculus
Camera Picta
Andrea Mantegna
(1467-1474)
Ludovico Gonzaga’s palace
Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter
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Pierto Perugino
Perugino was the master of Raphael
1482
Commissioned by Sixtus IV
Located in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome
11’5.5” X 18’ 8.5”
Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter
(cont.)
• Depicts Christ giving Saint Peter keys to the Kingdom of Heaven
• In the background, two roman arches are modeled on the Arch of
Constantine
• The dome is the ideal church of Alberti’s Treatise on Architecture
• The figures are scaled to size according to their distance from the
picture plane
• Jesus, as well as other figures, have halos around their heads
– Byzantine
Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter
Pierto Perugino
1482
Primavera
• The Primavera was commissioned by the Lorenzo de' Medici and
painted in 1482 by Italian artist Sandro Botticelli
• The painting is tempera on panel
• The painting contains numerous references to Greek mythology,
such as the appearance of Mercury and Cupid
• Mercury’s armor and weapon illustrates that he is the guardian of
the garden.
• The painting is believed to symbolize the coming of spring, although
other hypothesis exist.
La Nascita di Venere
• The Birth of Venus was commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici
around the same time as Primavera, but unlike the Primavera
it was painted on Canvas instead of panel.
• The painting depicts a full grown woman, Venus, emerging
from the ocean surrounded by the goddess of seasons and
several unknown figures.
• Fun fact: In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a
woman's vulva
( if you are unsure as to the definition of this word, please do
not click on the hyperlink)
The Mystic Nativity
• The Mystic Nativity is a fresh outlook on an old painting. Unlike the dozens
of nativity scenes we have seen, this one features a prediction about the
future.
• At the time of it’s panting, circa 1500, Europe was undergoing a dramatic
social upheaval. As such Sandro Botticelli made an apocalyptic prediction
for the future. Botticelli’s prediction was that Christ’s return to the world
was at hand and all would be judged. As such the top of the painting
shows angel breaking through the clouds entering the world.
• The painting was Tempera on panel and was commissioned for an
unknown patron, although some art historians believe it to be for the
Medici family.
Details
• CA D’oro (Contarini Palace) known as “Golden
house”
• Date Constructed: 1421 – 1437
• Architects: Matteo Bon & Bartolomeo Bon
• Commissioned by: Marino Contarini
• Overlooks Grand Canal
The CA d’oro Palace