1. Every person is important and has free will. People are not defective because of "original sin".
2. Artists are creators whose work might give them immortality: they are 'godlike.'
3. Medieval artists were anonymous craftsmen; Renaissance artists were known as individuals,
their style recognised.
4. People of the arts were intellectuals: visual artists used mathematics/ geometry to create
lifelike images that appeared to have depth.
5. Little remained of paintings from ancient Greece: Renaissance artists were free to invent a new
concept of what art should look like, its place and meaning in daily life.
6. Renaissance thinking is more "human-centered" than that of ancient Greece and Rome. Humans
represented in works of art show the idealised form we recall from ancient times and also
show the inner condition, the condition of the spirit, or, soul.
1. Chiaroscuro: go to What is chiaroscuro?
three dimensional space on a flat surface. The illusion of 3D requires that a painting be viewed from a position at the front and center. Moving to one side destroys the illusion.
Go to: Exploring Linear Perspective
by using sharpet detail and realistic color on objects up close, and "bluing" objects in the distance
where our eye sees them colored by the effects of the atmosphere. This is sometimes called
"Atmospheric Hazing", or "Aerial Perspective". go to Exploring Aerial Perspective
a. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. This fresco was completed between 1495-48. in a church in Milan. The painting captures the moment when Christ revels that one of the 12 disciples at the table will betray him to the Romans.
Q. Where is the vanishing point? How does the painting combine the Classical value of balance with Renaissance Humanism? How does the painter show you the location of Judas? The painting is meant to show the psychological truth about the participants, the inner reality of who they are. How does mathematics determine the layout of the figures?
b. David by michelangelo
Commissioned by the city of Florence, the work allowed Michelangelo to have his skill compared with other great Ren. sculptors who had used the same subject.
Q. What age does the David seem to be? How can you tell? Is this statue in Classical proportions?
Is the expression on his face Classical? How does this statue show the new way the renaissance adapted Classical Humanism?
c. The Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo Sistine Chapel Tour.
In 1508,Michelangelo and his assistants began painting the Sistine chapel ceiling. They lay on scaffoldings drawing and applying paint to wet plaster. The ceiling is about 5800 sq. feet, rising 70 feet above the floor, with sides that curve downward. The layout combines biblical stories, Classical illusions and Neo-Platonic philosophy. From the altar to the rear of the chapel are 9 panels detailing the early history of the world from creation through the fall of man and the salvation of the human race. At the center of the ceiling is The Creation of Adam, depicting that instant when God prepares to touch Adam and implant him with a soul.
d. The Last Judgment by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel)
By the 1520's the heightened realism of the High Renaissance had ended in Italy, and an exaggerated, theatrical style is used for a little while as we move toward the Baroque era. This style, seen in Michelangelo's Last Judgment, is called "Mannerism." The heroic vision of the world in the earlier Renaissance paintings, and in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are replaced with a fearful view of the world. In the Last Judgment Michelangelo shows his own spiritual disappointments, his sense of human sinfulness and the ultimate punishment. Perhaps this also reflects the times, as Europe experiences the Protestant Revolution. THe fresco shows Jesus as the divine and final judge, standing with arm raised in a gesture of command. At the bottom are open graves of the dead, rising to judgment. On Jesus' right are those who are saved, and on his left are the damned, all rising to meet their fate.
Q. Does this fresco have the same kind or organization and architectural framework a the fresco's on the ceiling? Are the bodies proportioned according to Classical canons of simplicity, balance, harmony, restraint? Are the expressions as cool and restrained as those we saw in Clasical Greek sculpture?
e.The School of Athens by Raphael (1438-1520)
At the same time Michelangelo was painting the sistine ceiling, the younger painter, Raphael was creating fresco murals in papal chambers of the Vatican on the topics of poetry, theology, law, and philosophy. The School of Athens shows a discussion among philosophers from the major periods before the Renaissance. Following Leonardo's treatment of the disciples in The Last Supper. Raphael arranged the participants in groups. At the center, under the rear arch are Plato (left) pointing to the heavens with his idealistic world view, and Aristotle (right) gestures toward earth, where he focused his concerns. To your left of Plato is a statue of Apollo, patron of poetry. To your right of Aristotle is a statue of Athena, godess of reason. The two philosophers at the center balance the entire panorama with the metaphysical philosophers on Plato's side and the physical scientists on Aristotle's side. With his placement of figures Raphael provided a commentary on the zest for arguing ideas in his time period: The great period of Italian Renaissance seems to close with his death in 1520.