HUMAN 120, Fall, 2014
Prof. De Grassi & Dr. Harnett
Week 5 (Thursday), page 1
Thursday, September 25, 2014
You are assigned to write the Unit 2 Paper for one week from today: Thursday,
October 2, 2014. More information about it below.
Information about Renaissance Art at
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/renaissance.html
 DeGrassi: The Color Wheel. Renaissance Art Techniques.
De Grassi:
Terms To Know:
 Pigment
 Medium
 Binder: egg white in Renaissance. Needed to be replaced each
day.
 Colors—note that colors in the Renaissance were obtained through an
apothecary or druggist; blue/purple was made from the stone called
lapis lazuli, other colors from other stones and natural substances.
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Note the scientific basis of learning and knowing how to mix
and manipulate colors—characteristic of the Renaissance. Da
Vinci, Michelangelo, others studied the human body, botany, other
natural elements very, very carefully.
o The Mona Lisa (see it at
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/leonardo.html ) was
painted on wood. It has many layers to it. This contributes to the
mystery and conjecture about it. Is the face Leonardo’s? This
could be simply a product of the model not being consistently
present while Leonardo was painting it, and the fact that so
many layers are used, many drafts of the face, one on top of
another. Different light reveals different layers. There are many
layers of paint here to create its effect—maybe 30-40 layers. So
the Mona Lisa’s face changes.
o The Last Supper
o Paintings by other Renaissance Artists:
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Michelangelo
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/michelangelo/
Raphael http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/raphael/
One painting by Titian
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/titian/
Tintoretto http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/tintoretto/
Veronese http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/veronese/
13th-Century Renaissance Art
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_3_1.html
o
HUMAN 120, Fall, 2014
Prof. De Grassi & Dr. Harnett
Week 5 (Thursday), page 2
o Also, review of painting in the Renaissance—how it was
done:
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Obtain or buy the minerals; grind them up, set in individual dish with
egg, mixed, then thrown out at end of day (since it spoils)
o brown: clay
o black: charcoal
o white: chalk
o red: cadmium
o blue: lapis lazuli
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pigment—the color from stone or other material
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binder—egg or other substance (oil, water) to hold color together
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gesso—used to prepare a board for painting—maybe 30 coats.
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rapport—showing relationships and natural poses of subjects in
paintings, such as showing the faces in relation to others in a scene,
showing people’s awareness of others, facial expressions and other
indicators of mood, etc. Bodies, etc. must be anatomically correct and
believable.
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For the Unit 2 Paper:
o Techniques
o Effects
o Significance
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Leonardo’s Notebooks (photos):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=arundel_ms_263_f0
01r
Harnett: Excerpts from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean
Paul Richter, 1880. http://www.fromoldbooks.org/RichterNotebooksOfLeonardo/
 The relation of art and nature.
651, 652
 Painting is superior to poetry.
653, 654
 Painting is superior to sculpture.
655, 656
HUMAN 120, Fall, 2014
Prof. De Grassi & Dr. Harnett
Week 5 (Thursday), page 3
Note da Vinci’s argumentative claims plus his supporting
reasoning and examples.
See the Leonardo site for other excerpts showing da Vinci’s observations and
ideas about color, shadow, and other aspects of art.
 Readings and Art of Michelangelo. Read the poems carefully and scan the
other information provided on a separate document (Michelangelo Poems
and Documents—posted on the website in Course Materials). You will
select one of these poems for Exam 2. It and La Gioconda are
the basis of Exam 2.
Coming Up: Exam 2 assignment (take-home) will be due in one week: next
Thursday, October 2, 2014. It has an Art part and a Literature part. The exam will
be posted on the website, as is a document with the poems by Michelangelo
(along with a whole lot of other information that is not required). We will address
aspects of the assignment more next time as you proceed with it. The Design
Assignment will continue after the take-home Exam.
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