RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE

Chapter 17

Renaissancelate 14th-16th centuries • Religious fervor of the Middle

Ages was challenged by logical thought and new philosophical, literary and artistic movement called humanism.

• Pursued intellectual and scientific inquired

• Rediscovered the classical culture of Greece and Rome

• Most importantly, humanism, gives most importance to human rather than to divine or supernatural matters.

Renaissancelate 14th-16th centuries

• Humanists stress the potential values and ability of humans

• The cultural focus gradually shifted from God and the hereafter to humankind and the here and now

• The Renaissance was a period of achievement and worldwide exploration- a time of discovery and rediscovery of the world and the seemingly limitless potential of individual human beings

Renaissancelate 14th-16th

centuries • Renaissance= rebirth

• Revived interest in the art and ideas of classical Greece and Rome

• Italians believed they were responsible for the rebirth of “the glory of ancient Greece” which they considered the high point of Western civilization

Michelangelo. The Creation of Adam. Sistine Chapel. Vatican, Rome. 1508-12

Medieval Europe

The Middle Ages had focused on spiritual concerns rather than physical existence.

Medieval Period: lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Roman Empire

Giotto.LamentationPadua, Italy

1305• We see the beginnings of the new

humanistic art in Italian painter Giotto di Bondone, known as Giotto (precursor of the Renaissance!)

• He departed from the abstracted by portraying the feelings and physical nature of human beings

• His innovative depictions of light, space, and mass gave a new sense of realism to painting.

• Here, Giotto depicts the physical as well as the spiritual reality

• His figures are shown within a shallow, stage like space, and their expressions portray personal feelings of grief rarely seen in medieval art.

• Italy was the principal homeland of the Renaissance

• Particularly because of the wealth of Italian merchants

• Italian architects, sculptors, and painters sought to integrate Christian spiritual traditions with the rational ordering of physical life in earthly space.

• Artists began an intense study of anatomy and light and they applied geometry to the logical construction of implied space through the use of linear perspective.

• Masaccio, 100 years after Giotto, became the first major painter of the Renaissance

• The Holy Trinity, the composition is centered on an open chapel in which we see the Trinity

• First painting based on the systematic use of linear perspective Masaccio. The Holy Trinity. Florence, Italy

1425

ZineA zine (/ˈziːn/ ZEEN; an abbreviation of fanzine or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.

Topics covered are broad, including:

• fanfiction• politics• poetry• art and design• personal journals• single-topic obsession• your own art work!

Renaissancelate 14th-16th

centuries • During the Renaissance, the nude

became a major subject for art, as it had been in Greece and Rome.

• (Unclothed subjects are rare in medieval art)

• Donatello brought the Greek ideal of what it means to be human into the Christian context

• His bronze figure David, was the first life-size freestanding nude statue since ancient Roman times

• Less idealized and more naturalistic than that of ancient Greece

• David was intended to be a symbol of divine beauty Donatello. David. 1425-1430

Renaissancelate 14th-16th

centuries • The first large mythological painting

since antiquity

• Completed about 1480, this work depicts the Roman goddess of love just after she was born from the sea

• She is blown to shore by a couple symbolizing the wind

• Greeted by a young woman who represents Spring

• The background is decorated flat (influence of Medieval Art)

• The posture and gesture probably inspired by classical Venus statue

• Posture combines classical Greek idealized human figure with Renaissance concern for thought and feeling.

Sandro Botticelli. Birth of Venus. 1480

High Renaissance1490-1530

• Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael)

• They developed a style of art that was calm, balanced and idealized, combing Christian theology with Greek philosophy and the science of the day.

• The impact of Renaissance humanism becomes apparent when we compare the Last Supper by Leonardo with the Byzantine mosaic Christ as Pantocrator

• In the Byzantine work, Christ is portrayed as a lofty being of infinite power, the King of Heaven

• In Leonardo’s painting, Jesus sits across the table from us- an accessible person who reveals his divinity in an earthly setting, among disciples who look like us

Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper. Milan, Italy 1495-98

BAROQUE1600-1750

Zine!A zine (/ˈziːn/ ZEEN; an abbreviation of fanzine or magazine) is most commonly a small circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images usually reproduced via photocopier.

Topics covered are broad, including:

• Fanfiction

• Politics

• poetry

• art and design

• personal journals

• single-topic obsession

Supplies

• Magazines

• Scissors

• Glue stick

• paper! (3-4 sheets)

• Ideas!