RENAISSANCE ART A P European History Renaissance Art

RENAISSANCE ART A. P. European History

• • • Renaissance Art The 1400 s (quattrocentro) and the 1500 s (quincecentro) – creativity in painting, architecture, and sculpture Florence led the way in all of the arts Rome took the lead in the “High Renaissance” (1500 -1527) – – – • Leonardo Raphael Michelangelo Mannerism – 1520 -1580 – more elaborate in response to artists’ new status – More technical with elongated figures

Art and Power • Early Renaissance Italy (early 15 th cent) – powerful groups commissioned art – – • Florentine cloth merchants – Brunelleschi’s Dome Florentine govt – Michelangelo’s David Subject matter – religious – Art served an educational purpose - spread doctrine, profession of faith, recall sinners

Brunelleschi’s Dome Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise Michelangelo

Expenditures • Expenditures – – • The palace was the chief luxury – a symbol of power Bedroom was most important • – – • Medieval – military gear, employ knights Renaissance - housing Intricately carved wooden bed, a chest, and a bench Later had chairs, tables, tapestries, paintings Private chapel – center of religious life within household

Art and Power • Later 15 th cent – individuals and oligarchs sponsored works of art – Purpose: glorify themselves and family – Rich had family frescoes, chapels, etc. • Subject matter – more secular – Classical motifs – gods and goddesses – Portraits of patrons

Birth of

Medieval Art • • Religious Human body – formal, stiff, artificial – Only shown in a spiritualized and moralizing context

Renaissance Art - Techniques • • Portraits of well-known figures – reflects individuality and power Realism and Accuracy – studied human corpses and drew from live models – – More scientific and natural Women – voluptuous; Men – strong and heroic

Giotto’s Dante

Verrocchio’s Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni (Venice General)

Renaissance Art - Techniques • • • Perspective – make distant objects look smaller than closer ones, appears 3 -D Chiaroscuro – contrasting light and dark “International style” – named for the wandering careers of artists and the trade of art works – Rich colors, decorative detail, swaying forms, curvilinear rhythms

Baglione’s Sacred and Profane Love

• Artists – – Leonardo da Vinci – Mona Lisa Michelangelo – David – follows Greek tradition • – – Sistine Chapel Raphael – School of Athens – imaginary gathering of Greek thinkers Donatello – sculptor

Vincenzo Peruggia

Renaissance Architecture • • Rejected the Medieval Gothic Style Adopted columns, arches, domes that the Greeks and Romans favored

Status of the Artist • • Social status improved – a free intellectual worker Usually worked on commission Reputation and wealth depended on support of powerful patrons Distinguished artists were respected

Status of Artists • Boasted about their achievements – Signed works and incorporated themselves as bystanders • • Artists considered genius and divine Art created by and for the highly educated minority