Hola!!

Espero que esto esté funcionando :D

Art and Culture Study Guide. Third Partial

The Renaissance
-It’s not a period in history because it doesn’t have specifical limits.
-Cultural movement that meant to bring back the knowledge from Rome and Greece.

Linear Perspective: Uses a horizontal line and vanishing points to show distance.

High Realism: Details were very important.

HUMANISM: To recover and

assimilate the value of Greece and Rome, to appreciate the genius of man.

It didn’t use abstract esthetic anymore, even though they kept the symbols.

Intellectual Capital: Knowledge was power. The better you were the more you get paid for your
work. The richer you were the more intellectuals you could have working for you.
-The Black Death reduced the population, leaving only those with money, those, culture.

Painting.
Divided in four periods:
1. Proto-Renaissance
2. –Early Renaissance
3. High Renaissance
4. Mannerism

The printing press was invented. Classical texts on science, philosophy, poetry, etc, became
available. Also the theology and the knowledge from the Islamic.
The Medicis A wealthy Italian family from Florence. They became rich with trade and banking.
Then they started gathering all the artists. Cosimo de Medici had a patronage of the arts . He
financed the works.

The most common themes were still religious, since the church had enough money to command
works. The themes were
-life of Christ
-Life of the Virgin
-Life of Saints (specially st. Francis of Assise
-Church’s role in salvation.

The works had two purposes:

-Political propaganda
-Patronage (private, paid for by the rich)

Practices being developed:

-Observation of nature: To ad details from nature to look more realistic.
Study of anatomy: The measures of the body.
Study of the light: Light was used to show distances and details.
Perspective: also used to enhance realism.

Boticelli’s Birth of Venus.

High Renaissance, early mannerism. Comissioned art: the artist was paid to make it.
Remember: a venus is a divine female figure. It enhances the power that women has to give
life. It can be related to: the venus of Willendorf.

International gothic: Gothic Style with influences from diverse parts of Europe. Other figures
were allowed to be important, not only Jesus.

Proto-Renaissance
 Judas’ Kiss by Giotto di
Bondone Shows emotion, bright colors, a little more realistic but still not perfect. The light is
used to represent details, also the clothing is more detailed.

-They were already attempting to improve their skills, technique, etc.

Early Renaissance
 Piero della
Francesca. The Flagellation. We can see a better understanding of light. What is outside is
brighter.
 Ant
onello da Messina’s St. Jerome in his Study

High Renaissance
-Most works were paid for by private patrons, like the MEdicis

Platonic Philosophy: Our world is nothing but a crappy copy of “The world of ideas” A world of
perfection which we aim to imitate. We’re like “projections” of a perfect stencil.

Paganism vs. Enlightenment: God was the one who had to provide the knowledge, you were’nt
supposed to know more than he wanted to. If the knowledge didn’t came from God, it was
considered pagan. Knowledge was, according to the church, only useful to know god and
understand him better.

The papal Comission.

Pope Sixtus had the Sixtine Chapel designed, made and decorated. It’s called sixtine in his
honour. He hired:
Boticelli and Perugino as architects.
Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli after them.
They all came from Florence

Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel so you can have a better look. Click Here.
 Jesus gives
Peter the keys to the church. Perugino. In this painting we see:
Composition: to divide the image in nine sections to balance and distribute importance.

Composition.

High Renaissance Techniques:

Sfumatto: They used blurry borders to give the illusion of depth.

Chiaroscuro: Contrast between light and dark to show depth and 3d. Modelling effects.
 The Joconde- Leonardo da Vinci

Michelangelo: The creation of Adam. Part of the Sistine Chapel. Adam’s naked to show his
perfection. Michelangelo was a humanist. He believed in man’s perfection. He represented his
ideas without being too obvious.
Raphaël: The School of Athens. He illustrated all the great philosophers of the classical (geek
and rome) period. He used his image and some others’ to show them, since he didn’t know
excatly how they looked.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mannerism

-Elongated forms
-Precariously balanced poses: in very dramatic positions.
-Collapsed perspective: not actual perspective
-Irrational Settings: they didn’t care very much about the background
Theatrical lightning: used to enhance what they wanted, often exaggerated.
“Anti-Classical” Studied art rather than nature: they didn’t care very much about nature but
about what they were capable to do in their images.
 Jacopo da Pontormo’s Entombment

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renaissance Architecture:

-Geometry
-Symmetry
-Proportion
-Regularity of parts

One of the most important architects: Phillipo Brunelleschi. He did:

 Florence’s Duomo

Three Periods to Renaissance Architecture:

1. Quattrocento
2. High Renaissance
3. Mannerism

Quattrocento: Giant Solid structures, proportional logic (Not intuitve.) . Rythm. (It followed a
pattern)
Before, they just built whatever they needed without reasoning. Now, they try to make the most
of the space, the light to go in how they wanted, etc.
High Renaissance: Realism, they used Roman and Greek Characteristics, like domes and
columns.

St’ Peters.

Mannerism:
Exaggeration, use of space for symbolic purposes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Baroque Art

Council of Trent: catholic effort to regain followers (they had lost some due to protestantism)

Return of didactic art. They went back! Visceral appeal of the senses (they were more focused
on what the work made you FEEL instead on what it made you THINK)
Painting: Gestures were broader than mannerism, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious.
They wanted their message to be clear.

Contraposto: Shoulders and hips in counter directions:

Architecture: They went back to monumental style, to be impressive. They needed to regain
prestige.

St. Paul’s cathedral. London.

Painting
-Dramatic
Rich & deep color
Intense light and dark shadows.
-Genre secenes, land-scapes, portraits, historic paintings
Renaissance Baroque

Bernini’s David
Michelangelo’s David

The moment before the event The exact moment of action

Shows calm rationality Shows emotion and passion

Caravaggio: Realistic approach, dramatical

light. Uses chiaroscuro -> they were still inspired by the Renaissance masters.
 Rembrandt: Political Propaganda.

Bernini’s St. Theresa’s Ecstasy. Shows

the exact moment of the orgasm (which was considered as sacred) The light provided by the
gold pieces to enhance dramatic scene.

The Baroque was initially known as a counter-reformation. To regain catholic followers.

Architecture: Opulent use of Ornaments: putto & stucco

Putto: a baby, an angel (like cupid)

Stucco: a type of cement used to cover the walls.

Large Scale ceiling frescoes (big paintings, sometimes a wall would be built especially for a
painting)
-Trompre l’oeil (trick the eye) to blend architecture and painting

Themes of the paintings:

-Psychological pain of man
-Virtuosity (to be good, someone who doesn’t sin)
-Maraviglia (to discover how great God is)
-Romanzo (romantic)

------------------------------------------------------ FIN :) ------------------------------------------------------------

Si estás leyendo esto, me debes unas Halls de uva :D

Good Luck!