Medieval
Renaissance
1. No expressions on
faces
1. Faces are filled with
emotion and expression
2. Stiff and unrealistic
poses
2. Human poses are lifelike
and realistic
Medieval
3.
4.
European art was the
property of the Church –
often religious themes,
individuals were not
important—paintings not
signed
Tempura paints were used
– dried too quickly to
correct mistakes
Renaissance
3.
Artists take credit for their
work and become famous;
also portraits are done of
people
4.
Oil paints were used – lets
artists work slowly, create
new colors, and obtain more
lifelike effects
Medieval
Renaissance
5.
The Church forbids displaying
the naked human body
5.
Like the Greeks and Romans,
artists study anatomy to
portray humans realistically
6.
There is no balance,
proportion, or perspective
– pictures are “flat” and two
dimensional because the
most important spiritual
figures in the painting are
larger than the less
important ones.
6.
Artists create proportion with
the illusion of depth and
distance on the flat surface—
called linear perspective.
They also use new shading
devices called sfumato and
chiarascuro; they use
geometry to achieve balance.
Medieval
7.
Halos and gold
backgrounds
symbolized residents
of heaven and the holy
atmosphere of heaven
Renaissance
7. Portrayed
naturalistic
landscapes of this
world and saints lived
in the same world as
ordinary people
Medieval Artwork
Renaissance Artwork
Raphael: The Nymph Galatea 1512-1514
Famous works by Italian
Renaissance Artists
Leonardo
Michelangelo
Raphael
Donatello
 Was a famous Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor.
 Born in Florence Italy in 1386.
 He brought back work with bronze which was a
common material during the Roman times. It was not
used during the middle ages but he brought it back.
 David by Donatello
 1430
 First free-form bronze
since Roman times!
Michelangelo
 Sculptor and Painter
 "In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as
though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in
attitude and action. I have only to hew away the
rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to
reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it."—
Michelangelo
 Michelangelo’s David.
 This statue is perhaps
the most iconic image
of the Renaissance
period.
 Michelangelo’s statue
stands 17 feet high
(about 3 metres)
 It was sculpted between 1501 and 1504.
 Michelangelo was only twenty-six years old, when
he won the commission to complete the statue
from a block of marble (the giant) that had been
abandoned 30 years earlier by another artist.
 When it was finished, David was placed in front of
the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall.
In 1873 the statue was moved from the piazza, to
protect it from damage, and brought to its current
location in the Academia Gallery, in Florence.
 David is a Renaissance interpretation of a common ancient
Greek theme of the standing heroic male nude.
 In David, the figure stands with one leg holding its full
weight and the other leg relaxed. This classic pose causes
the figure’s hips and shoulders to rest at opposite angles,
giving a slight s-curve to the entire torso. This curve gives
the figure its classical grace.
 Michelangelo’s David has become one of the most
recognized pieces of Renaissance sculpture, becoming a
symbol of both strength and youthful human beauty.
 Traditionally, David was portrayed after his victory,
triumphant over the giant Goliath. Both
Verrochio’s and Donatello’s Davids are depicted
standing over Goliath's severed head.
 Michelangelo has depicted David before the battle.
Davis is tense, but not so much in a physical as in a
mental sense. The slingshot he carries over his
shoulder is almost invisible, emphasizing that
David's victory was one of cleverness, not sheer
force.
 The hand that holds
the stone is larger than
the other, drawing the
viewer’s attention to
the action that is about
to unfold.
 Michelangelo was a citizen of the city state of
Firenze (Florence), and Florence was surrounded
by much more powerful enemy city states.
 When the statue of David was placed on the
square in front of the city hall, the people of
Florence immediately identified with him as the
cunning underdog triumphing over the big bad
guy. David was positioned so that his glare was
directed south, toward the rival city of Rome.
 Pieta means ‘Pity,’ and this is certainly the emotion
that this magnificent sculpture evokes.
 We feel pity for Christ’s suffering, but also for his
grieving mother, who holds her son’s body in an
attitude of quiet acceptance.
 The Pieta balances the Renaissance ideals of
classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one
of the most highly finished works by
Michelangelo.
 The structure is pyramidal. The statue widens
progressively down the drapery of Mary's dress, to
the base. The figures are quite out of proportion,
owing to the difficulty of depicting a fully-grown
man cradled full-length in a woman's lap. By
concealing much of Mary's body in her
monumental drapery, Michelangelo made the
relationship of the figures appear quite natural.
 The Sistine Chapel is located in the Vatican City
in Rome, attached to St. Peter’s Basilica, the papal
apartments and the vast complex of buildings that make up
the Vatican museums.
 Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint
the ceiling of the chapel. He resisted, as he preferred
sculpture to painting, but had to do as he was told.
 The works are frescoes, (painted into fresh plaster) and
they cover about 4,000 square metres of ceiling.
 Michelangelo built scaffolding so that he could work on his
back, and laboured over the frescoes from 1508 to1512.
The Sistine Chapel’s Ceiling
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1508 - 1512
 It has been suggested that the background figures
and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God
bear a striking similarity to a cross section of the
human brain, including the frontal lobe, optic
chiasm, brain stem, pituitary gland, and the major
sulci of the cerebrum.
 Alternatively, it has been observed that the red
cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus
and that the scarf hanging out, colored green,
could be a newly cut umbilical cord.
 Both of these interpretations suggest the mystery
of creation – in the mind, where ideas are born,
and in the womb, where life originates.
 The painting depicts the symbolic birth of the
human race, as God reaches out to give the breath
of life to Adam, the first man, reclining on the
newly made earth.
 Under God’s left arm is Eve, as yet unborn.
 Michelangelo’s fascination with and his familiarity
with human anatomy are in evidence here.
 The Last Judgment is on the altar wall of the
Sistine Chapel. It took four years to complete(1537
to 1541). Michelangelo began working on it three
decades after finishing the ceiling of the chapel.
 The work is massive and spans the entire wall
behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. The Last
Judgment is a depiction of the Second Coming of
Christ and the apocalypse. The souls of humans
rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ
surrounded by his saints.
 The Last Judgment was a source of conflict between
Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused
of obscenity, having depicted naked figures, inside the
most important church of Christianity,)
 When the Pope's own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da
Cesena, said that it was no work for a papal chapel but
rather "for the public baths and taverns," Michelangelo
worked Cesena's face into the scene as Minos, judge of the
underworld (far bottom-right corner of the painting) with
Donkey ears {i.e. foolishness} while his nudity is covered by
a coiled snake.
 It is said that when Cesena complained to the Pope, the
pontiff joked that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so
the portrait would have to remain
 1483-1520
 Interested in archeology,
he became an expert in
ancient Roman art.
 Commissioned to
decorate the state rooms
in the Vatican at the
same time that
Michelangelo was
working on the Sistine
Chapel frescoes.
 Raphael, unlike Michelangelo, was well mannered,
well dressed, well liked.
 He always carried around a sketch book in which
he constantly sketched women and children.
These sketches formed the basis of his many
Madonnas.
 He used soft colours, simple circular forms, and
gentle landscapes in his paintings.
 He is best remembered for his madonnas, his
portrayals of the Virgin with the infant Jesus.
 The Madonna del
Granduca

The way the Virgin's face is modeled and
recedes into the shade, the way Raphael
makes us feel the volume of the body
wrapped in the freely flowing mantle,
the firm and tender way in which she
holds and supports the Christ Child - all
this contributes to the effect of perfect
poise…to change the group ever so
slightly would upset the whole harmony.
Yet there is nothing strained or
sophisticated in the composition. It
looks as if it could not be otherwise, and
as if it had so existed from the beginning
of time.
 Raphael – The
Cowper
Madonna.
 1505
 Raphael’s famous fresco decorates a wall in the
papal palace at the Vatican, in Rome.
 He depicts famous figures from various fields of
knowledge, with the Greek philosophers, Plato
and Aristotle at the centre of the composition.
Plato is shown with Leonardo da Vinci’s features.
 Also included in the painting are Socrates (another
philosopher), Alexander the Great (military
genius) and Pythagoras and Euclid
(mathematicians).
 Raphael has also paid
tribute to his fellow artist,
Michelangelo, by placing
him in the foreground.
 The work is a brilliant
demonstration of the
technique of linear (line)
perspective. The
architectural space recedes
infinitely through the
arches of the marble hall to
the open sky beyond.
The School of Athens – Raphael, 1510 -11
Da Vinci
Raphael
Michelangelo
The School of Athens – Raphael, details
Plato:
looks to the
heavens [or
the IDEAL
realm].
Aristotle:
looks to this
earth [the
here and
now].
Averroes
Hypatia
Pythagoras
Zoroaster
Ptolemy
Euclid
Clockwise:
Plato (Leonardo),
Aristotle,
Raphael,
Michelangelo
Artist
Sculptor
Architect
Scientist
Engineer
Inventor
 The term “renaissance man” is used to describe someone
who has a wide variety of interests, and expertise in many
fields.
 Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential renaissance man.
He was a painter, sculptor, inventor, architect, musician,
engineer, and scientist.
 He is widely recognized as a genius of the highest level.
 Historians tell us that he was not only intellectually gifted,
but that he was noble in appearance and manners as well.
 Christ is depicted here with his disciples at the last
meal he shared with them before his crucifixion. We
are shown the moment after Jesus has announced that
one of the disciples will betray him.
 The disciples react with dismay, and their gestures
show their disbelief and concern.
 Notice how effectively Da Vinci leads the viewer’s
eye to Jesus:
By centering Jesus
By using the lines of perspective in the walls and ceiling
By framing Jesus’ head in the window
By isolating Jesus, while all other figures are grouped
and overlapping
 By following the gazes and gestures of the disciples
 By contrasting Jesus’ stillness with the agitation of the
other figures




 The Last Supper is one of the most famous paintings in the world, but






it has not been well preserved.
Shortly after Da Vinci finished the painting it began to peel off the wall.
(Da Vinci did not use the fresco technique; instead, he sealed the
surface of the wall and painted on top of it.)
Several attempts by lesser artists were made to restore it, and parts of it
were painted over with oil paints.
At one point a door was cut into the wall below the picture, partly
cutting off the bottom of the painting.
During the Napoleonic wars, when the monastery was used as an
armory, soldiers threw their boots at Judas.
During WWII, the dining hall suffered a direct hit in a Nazi bombing
raid.
The painting was covered by a canvas, but trapped moisture caused
fungus to grow on the surface of the painting.
 Mona was an abbreviation of madonna, meaning
“my lady,” the equivalent of Madame, or Signora.
So the title means Madame Lisa.
 Lisa became the wife of a Florentine silk merchant
at the age of 16. She was 24 years old when the
portrait was completed.
 Da Vinci worked on it for four years and kept it
with him until he died at age 50.
 The portrait is a prototype of the Renaissance portrait. In
other words, Da Vinci introduced a new way of painting
portraits.
 He used both linear and aerial perspective in the
background
 He used a relaxed, natural, three-quarter pose which was a
departure from the stiff profile head and shoulders
portraits which had become the norm at that time.
 He used a technique known as sfumato, (smoke) building
the painting with layers of semi-transparent glazes, so the
expression on the model’s face, especially her smile, is
softly ambiguous, or mysterious.
 Vitruvian Man 1487
 The Vitruvian Man
remains one of the
most referenced and
reproduced artistic
images in the world
today.
 Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created
by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487. It is
accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed
classical architect, Vitruvius, for which it is named.
 According to Leonardo's notes, (written in mirror
writing), it was made as a study of the proportions of
the (male) human body as described in Vitruvius. For
example:
 the length of a man's outspread arms (arm span) is
equal to his height
 the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of
the chin is one-eighth of a man's height etc. (ie. The
figure is 8 heads high)
Leonardo, the Sculptor
 An
Equestrian
Statue
 1516-1518
Leonardo, the Architect:
Pages 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 (Biology):
Pages from his Notebook
An example of
the humanist
desire to unlock
the secrets of
nature.
Leonardo, the Scientist (Anatomy):
Pages from his
Notebook
Leonardo, the Inventor:
Pages from his Notebook
Leonardo, the Engineer:
Pages from his Notebook
A study of siege defenses.
Studies of water-lifting
devices.