RENAISSANCE ART

GENERAL SURVEY
The art of the Renaissance (meaning rebirth i.e. a renewed interest in classical Greek and Roman culture) started in Italy,
where admiration for the golorious past of the Roman empire never ceased, nor the desire to revive it. Since the invasion of
the Goths broke up that empire, they were inclined to cosider the products of northern Europe as barbarous, as we saw in the
naming of Gothic art; and the period between the fall of the empire and the Renaissance was called theMiddle Ages,
meaning an insignificant time between two glorious periods.
The Renaissance movement started with what is known as Humanism, or an admiraiton for ancient Greek and Roman
literature. These books were now eagerly sought in the libraries of monasteries and cathedrals, where they had been pre-
served and copied during the Middle Ages. Many now also learned Greek. This literary movement was stimulated by the
poet Petrarch (1304-1374). He also saw in the old Roman ruins the glory of Italy’s past, and roused the interest of his fellow
citizens in them; for in preceding ages, these old monuments were often used as stone quarries.
The Italian names given to the late medieval or proto-Renaissance periods are: Dugento1 (thirteenth century) and Trecento
2
(fourteenth century; to the early Renaissance time, Quatrocento3 (fifteenth century), when art was centered in Florence;
and to the High Renaissance, Cinqueccento 4 (sixteenth century), when Rome was the centre of artistic activities.
ARCHITECTURE
Brunelleschi’s Dome
For a long time, the 135-ft (41-m) diameter dome on the crossing tower of Flo-
rence Cathedral, begun in 1296, had presented builders with an insurmountable
technical challenge. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) was the first architect to solve
the problem. He studied ancient buildings such as the Pantheon in Rome, but since
knowledge of Roman cast concrete construction had been lost, he had to make use
of more recent building technology. The dome, which tapers slightly to a point at
the top, consists of a 13-ft (4-m) thick interior and an outer shell that is only 31
inches (80 cm) thick: a double-layered structure that is held together by vertical ribs
and cross beams in stone-basically a form of the Gothic buttress system. It was
constructed from indicidual, octagonal, self-supporting rings (following the prin-
ciple that bodies that lean toward each other will support one another reciprocally).
As soon as one ring was closed, the next could be placed on top of it, eliminating the
Santa Maria Del need for a complicated centering; Brunelleschi used lightweight bricks joined to-
Flore,Florence,1296 - 1467,cam- gether in a herringbone pattern with a fast-drying mortar to support his innovative
panile by Giotto,`1359,dome by construction.
Bruneclleschi,1418 - 1436
EARLY RENAISSANCE PAINTINGS
In order to create a convincing illusion of spatial reality on painted surface, one
need to use a trick. The technique which the Romans employed perfectly in the
Second Pompeian style of the last century BCE-perspective representation in wall
painting had been lost along with their empire. Giotto was the first artist to attempt
it again, although he did not carry it out consistly. Perpicere-or seeing through-was
the goal of the Renaissance artists. They were concerned not only with the beauty
of antiquity, but also with the examples set by nature. Their desire to comprehend
and imitate it was now clearly evident alongside the Christian message of their
paintings.
Masaccoio (1401-1428), whose work marks the beginning of the Renaissance
in art history, was the first artist to use central point perspective again in a paint-
ing. The idea is that “optical” paths of light from an object meet the observer at his
or her point of view (in nature, his eyes) in a funnel formation and merge together
there. If we identify this vantage point on a painted surface, it will be the point
where the optical paths of an object meet. In order to depict this phenomenon in
perspective on the painting’s surface, all the lines that do not run parallel to the
image must be oriented toward this point.
Piero della Francesca’s (ca.1420-1492) Flagellation is not only a deeply mys-
terious paintings (perhaps a veiled allusion to an attempted political assassination
of the Duke of Urbino?, but it is also one of the most mathematically precise--as
Masaccio, The Holy Trinity (de- though it were intended as a demonstration of Piero’s De prospectiva pingendi, the
tail), ca. 1426/27. Fresco, total fundamental contemporary treatise on perspective in painting. The written work
dimensions 21 ft 5 in x 10 ft 5 in describes the way in which one “can depict the shape in which one sees each thing
1667 x 317 cm). Santa Maria and the distance from which one sees it,” because “every line leads from the out-
Novella, Florence line of the objects to the eye.” Thus, the grid pattern of a tiled floor, which Leonardo
used in his spatial study for the Adoration, can be used as unit of measurement for
shortening the space and thereby aid in achieving the correct proportions. Piero
even applied his measuring process for perspetive to the human head, achieving
an accurate depiction by means of precise measurements from different directions.
In 1525, Durer demonstrated in a woodcut the way in which a lattice framework
p;aced between the artist and his model can simplify this process. It is essential
that the visual focus remains unchanged,; a gauging cylinder can be useful for this
purpose.
Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) achieved one of the most impressive depic-
tions of the human body in shortened perspective in his Lamentation.
* Piero della Francesca. The Flagella-
tion of Christ, ca. 1460-1465. Tempera 1.Doo-gen-to 3.kwat-tro-chen-to
on wood. 23 x 32 in 158.4 x 81.5 cm). 2.Try-chen-to 4.Chin-kway-chen-to
Galleria Nazionale della Marche,
Urbino.
 HIGH RENAISSANCE PAINTINGS & SCULPTURES
Leonardo da Vinci’s pen and ink
sketches on paper
* Leonardo da Vinci, Mona
Lisa or La Gioconda, 1503-
1506?. Oil on wood, 30 x 21 in
(77 x 53 cm). Musee du Louvre,
PAris. According to recent
theories, this painting is not a
likeness of the merchant’s wife,
Lisa del Giacondo, but of Paci-
fica Brandani of Urbino, mis-
tress of the pope’s brother,
Giuliano de’ Medici.
LEONARDO DA VINCHI As the illegitimate son of a notary, Leonardo did
not have the privilege of a higher education; his abundant legacy of drawings,
completed in a multitude of different techniques, which provide us with a fasci-
nating glimpse into his artistic and intellectual workshop: sketches for planned
as well as completed works of art, architecture and nature drawings, studies of
garments and movement, physiognomy and anatomy as well as drafts of techni-
cal inventionws such as weapons or flying machines, often includeing com-
ments in mirror writing.
Symbols such as auras identify the figures depicted as divince beings. Even in
the portrait painting of this period, symbols and attributes were used to empha-
size the individual qualities of the people being portrayed. Starting with his lively
interest in physiognomy -which he cultivated in countless physiological and ana-
tomical studies- Leonardo was nevertheless convinced that emotional processes
and personality traits leave their mark on humans’ faces and can therefore be
expressed through painting.
In as early a painting as his Milan mural, The Last Supper, Leonardo had
already dispensed with conventional atrributes such as haloes, concentrating in-
stead on the expressions and gestures of individual figures. The contrast between
the figures lively interaction and the strict geometric form of the room was a
device which Leonardo deliberately chose in order to express the “movements of
the soul.”
* Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper. 1495-1497.
Tempera on stucco. 15x 29 ft (460 x 880 cm). Santa
Maria delle Grazie, Milan

Michelangelo,Sistine chapel celling(1508 -
1512) Fresco,132 x 44 ft
Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504.
Marble, 13 ft 6 in (410 cm) with
pedestal 16 ft 10 in (516 cm) high.
Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.
David’s victory over Goliath is the
Old Testament parallel to Christ’s
triumph over Satan. David is the
embodiment of courage and justice.
Michelangelo,Last Judgement Sistine
chapel (1536 - 1541) Fresco,56 x 51 ft
Drunkeness of Noah
The great Flood
The sacrifice of Noah
Fall and Expulsion from Paradise
Creation of Eve
Creation of Adam
God creats Firmaments
God creats Sun,moon,and plants
Seperation of light and dark
MICHELANGELO As with the athletic nude figure of David,
the classical influence is evident above all in the contrapposto - the
contrast between the standing and the moving leg, the precisely ob-
served anatomical interplay of tension and relaxation, of weighted and
unburdened bodily axes.
Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling-
which was originally decorated with a simple strarry sky-in a more
complicated design. The center panels depict the creation of the world
and the first human couple as well as the story of Noah; these scenes
are accompanied in the pendentives by sibyls, prophets and other scenes
from the Old Testament. Limited to just a few colors and a restrained,
rhythmic c omposition, Michelangelo placed particular emphasis on
the figure’s physical presence, revealing his great skill as sculptor even
in his paintings. By contrast,
The Last Judgment, which Michelangelo painted on the altar wall
just two decades later, is almost Baroque in the opulence of its dy-
namic movement and drama. At the painting’s center, Christ directs
the ascent of the blessed and the descent of the damned into Hell in a
fateful circular movement which prevades the entire composition.
The Pieta (pity) a sculptured group, is one of the most beautitful
works of his youth. It is now in a side chapel in St. Peter’s basilica.
This statue represents the Saviour’s lifeless body resting on his mother’s
lap after it had been taken down from the cross. Often represented in
Christian art, the scene takes on an unusual beauty and power in
Michelangelo’s handling of it. Mary’s head is bent, contemplating her
Son’s wounds with piteous but restrained frief, for as the artist himself
said, ‘The mother of God does not weep like any earthly mother.’ The
gesture of her hand indicates entire resignation in her deep sorrow.
Her face has an extraordinary delicacy. She looks much too young for
a mother of a thirty-three year old son. Michelangelo gave the reason
to a friend of his, ‘A woman of perfect purity would keep her youth for
ever.’
 Rapheal, Madonna and
Child (Tempi Madonna), ca.
1507. Oil on wood, 29 1/2 x
The School of Athens,1510- 20 in (75 51 cm). Alte
1511,Fresco,wall area aprox 36 ft Pinakothek, Munich

RAPHAELFor centuries, artists glorified the queen of heaven and the Savior of the world in varying degrees of
magnificence in images of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child; the pictures are accordingly enhanced with symbols of
sovereignty and allusions to the Passion. Rapheal was the first painter who, after creating countless images of the Ma-
donna, was able (or perhaps permitted by the painting’s commissioner) to simply portray loving mother with her child.
Here Jesus is truly a baby and not a miniature adult. He seems to be the only thing the existence3 for his mother, and there
is nothing in the picture to distract viewers from this percepective.
In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned Rapheal to paint some rooms in his Vatican residence. The School of Athens
depicts a gathering of ancient philosophers. In the center are Plato and Aristotle, whose teachings Raphael summed up in
their gestures: Plato is pointing toward the heavens, Aristotle toward the world around him.

PETER BRUEGEL AND HIERONYMUS BOSCH

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Blind Lead- able as altar paintings. Rather than presenting illusions of
ing the Blind. 1568. Tempera on canvas,
34 x 61 in (86 x 156 cm). Museo
Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples
Hieronymus Bosch, The Gar-
den of Earthy delight. 1510.
Oil on wood, 7 ft x 3ft .
Every farm life and visions of hell-Although the ideas
of Renaissance art spread rapidly throughtout Europe, they
were not immediately incorporated in the same way every-
where. Thus, for example, the works of the Dutch painter
Hieronymus Bosch are completely different from those of
Leonardo da Vinci which were produced during the same
time period. Bosch, who was financially independent and
familiar with contemporary movements and sects critical of
the church, created triptychs containing a fantastical world
filled with disturbing details; they were completely unsuit-
people in their putative strengths and ideal beauty, he dis-
played human beings with all their weaknesses,. His paint-
ings are convincing as nightmares- not as visions of Para-
dise.
Pieter Bruegel the elder revealed the extent of humna
folly in a painting of six blind men that illustrates one of
Christ’s well-known parables: “If a blind man leads a blind
man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14). So how, in
our world, can we put our trust in leaders who are spiritu-
ally blind and without faith? Even the presence of the church
in the background is not enough to prevent the ultimate
occurence of the calamity which is hinted at in the down-
ward sloping diagonal on the right. The conspicuously re-
served color palette serves to further emphasize the tragic
inevitability of the event.
Bruegel’s predilection for subjects drawn from every-
day farm life, frequently seasoned with satirical notes and
hidden moralistic references, earned the painter the nick-
name “the Peasant Bueugel”. Like Bosch, he worked pri-
marily for weathy and discriminating collectors.