Renaissance

Influences of the Middle Ages

� There were 3:/ Black Death. Killed millions and changed

the balance of peasant / workers to nobility. The peasants gained power.

/ Church. Powerful force in society. However losing influence due to corruption (more later!)

/ Hundred Years War. Forced nationalism in France and England. Peasants’ power in battle overtakes that of nobility.

� How do these affect the Renaissance?

Why Italy? Why Now?

� Plenty of money thanks to trade/ Why Italian trade?

¡ Location.¡ Crusades

� Rivalries between city states � Banking

Renaissance� What was the renaissance?

/ “Rebirth of learning”. But whose?/ Ideas of ancient Greece and Rome./ Church ignored this knowledge

because…¡ Polytheistic people could not know

more than Church!

/ Thomas Aquinas used Greek knowledge to prove the Bible.

� HUMANISM becomes the force of change during the Renaissance.

Humanism� Renaissance Humanism was the reintroduction of classical

thought (knowledge from Ancient Greece & Rome). The Renaissance began in Italy 15th century (1400’s). The revival was based on interpretations of Roman and Greek knowledge. This was a great change from the focus on the Biblical values of the Catholic Church. This knowledge had been largely ignored by the Roman Catholic Church because of its polytheistic base. Humanism emphasized the study of science, philosophy, art, poetry, rhetoric (discussion/debate) and importance of an individual contribution. Renaissance humanists believed that the liberal arts should be practiced by all levels of wealth. One of the things you can look for in art and literature are “classical themes” (Mythological characters, ancient settings, the individual and the elegance of the human form etc.). 

� The crisis of Renaissance humanism came with the trial of Galileo. The church taught that the earth was the center of the universe and Galileo disputed this based on his mathematic and scientific observations.

� This forced academics to choose between the authority of faith and religious teaching or science (a battle which continues to this day…intelligent design, creationism, and evolution). The trial exposed the contradictions between humanism and the teachings of the church, and humanism was branded a “dangerous doctrine”. Galileo was forced to recant (take back) his ideas, even though we now know them to be true, further showing the power of the Church during Renaissance times.

Geometrical Arrangement of

Figures� The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate

� Leonardo da Vinci

� 1469

� The figure as architecture!

Realism & Expression

� Expulsion fromthe Garden

� Masaccio

� 1427

� First nudes sinceclassical times.

Perspective

Perspective!Perspective!Perspective!

Perspective!Perspective!

First use of linear

perspective!

Perspective!Perspective!

� The Trinity

� Masaccio

� 1427

What you are, I once was; what I am, you will

become.

Classicism

� Greco-Roman influence.

� Secularism.

� Individualism free standing figures.

� Symmetry/Balance

The “Classical Pose”Medici “Venus” (1c)

Artists as Personalities/Celebrities

� Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, andArchitects

� Giorgio Vasari

� 1550

Lorenzo the Magnificent

1478 - 1521

Cosimo de Medici

1517 - 1574

Birth of Venus – Botticelli, 1485

Botticelli’s Venus Motif.

10¢ Italian Euro coin.

2002 Euro Coin

� David by Donatello

� 1430

� First free-form bronze since Roman times!

The Liberation of Sculpture

Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael,

1514-1515� Castiglione

represented the humanist “gentleman” as a man of refinement and self-control.

� Book “The Courtier” defined the Renaissance Man

The Renaissance “Man”

� Broad knowledge about many things in different fields.

� Deep knowledge/skill in one area.� Able to link information from

different areas/disciplines and create new knowledge.

� The Greek ideal of the “well-rounded man” was at the heart of Renaissance education.

Self-Portrait -- da Vinci, 1512

1452 - 1519

� Artist

� Sculptor

� Architect

� Scientist

� Engineer

� Inventor

� Vitruvian Man

� Leonardo daVinci

� 1492

TheL’uomo

universale

Mona Lisa – da Vinci, 1503-4

A Macaroni Mona

ParodyThe Best Form of Flattery?

A Picasso Mona

An Andy Warhol Mona

A “Mona”ca Lewinsky

Mona Lisa OR da Vinci??

Refractory

Convent of Santa

Maria delle

Grazie

Milan

The Last Supper - da Vinci, 1498& Geometry

horizontal

vert

ical

Perspective!

The Last Supper - da Vinci, 1498

� Detail of Jesus

� The Last Supper

� Leonardo da Vinci

� 1498

Deterioration

A Da Vinci “Code”:St. John or Mary Magdalene?

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

Man Can Fly?

A study of siege defenses.

Studies of water-lifting devices.

Leonardo, the Engineer: Pages from his

Notebook

Brunelleschi’s Dome

A Contest to Decorate the Cathedral: Sacrifice of Isaac

PanelsBrunelleschi Ghiberti

Ghiberti – Gates of ParadiseBaptistry Door, Florence – 1425 -

1452The Winner!

� The Pieta

� MichelangeloBuonarroti

� 1499

� marble

� David

� MichelangeloBuonarotti

� 1504

� Marble

15c

16c

What

a

difference

a

century

makes!

The Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1508 - 1512

The Sistine Chapel’s Ceiling

Michelangelo Buonarroti1508 - 1512

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Creation

of the Heavens

The Sistine Chapel Details

Creation of Man

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Fall from Grace

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Last Judgment

The School of Athens – Raphael, 1510 -11

Raphael

Da Vinci

Michelangelo

Aristotle:looks to thisearth [thehere and

now].

Plato:looks to theheavens [or

the IDEALrealm].

The School of Athens – Raphael, details

Averroes

Hypatia

Pythagoras

Zoroaster

Ptolemy

Euclid

Flaying of Marsyas Titian, 1576

Apollo

Stages of life for the artist. (TITIAN?)

Arnolfini and His Bride� Full of

symbolism. Lots of commentary about the era/ Appearance/ Dog/ Shoes/ Bed/ Window/ Fruit/ Chandelier/ Mirror