HUM 101 • Myers

The Renaissance: c. 1400-1600

Cimabue (chee-ma-bu-ay)Giotto (joe-toe)

• Stylized• Realistic

• Figures piled on top of each other• Attempt to arrange figures realistically

• Flat, angular face: no chin• Modeled, sculptural face

• Body invisible under drapery• Body shows volume

• Drapery stylized• Drapery realistic

Three Key Concepts that contributed to the Renaissance in Italy in the 15th century:

  1. Humanism: An outlook or system of thought concerned with human rather than divine or supernatural matters.
  2. The Science of Looking: Using scientific observation - especially linear perspective and anatomy - to enhance artistic expression.
  3. Linear perspective: A method of creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two dimensional surface.
  4. Anatomy: Interest in the knowledge of anatomy displayed in Greek and Roman sculpture. Later, the study of the human body.
  5. Retrieval of the Classical Past: The effort to incorporate the knowledge and traditions of the ancient Greeks and Romans into present-day artistic and philosophical endeavors.
  6. Neo-Platonic Academy: “According to the Neoplatonists, in the contemplation of beauty, the inherently corrupt soul could transform its love for the physical and material into a purely spiritual love of God.” (453)
  7. The Medici: Ruled Florence on and off from 1434 to the mid 18th century (Lorenzo the Magnificent 1469-1492).
  8. Neo-Platonic description of Botticelli’s Primavera: Zephyr squeezes Cloris and blows on her to change her into Flora, who brings bounty to the garden. Venus, in the clothing of a Florentine married woman, presides over the scene. She is the goddess of love and marriage. One of the three graces is struck by an arrow from cupid’s bow and looks longingly at Mercury, who is busy dispelling the clouds so he can get a look at the sun, the source of all light and knowledge.
  9. Bring it all together: Raphael’s School of Athens (1510), Stanze di Raffaello (Rooms of Raphael), Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, the Vatican. Placed over the philosophical section of the library of Pope Julius II.
  10. Plato (modeled on Leonardo) & Aristotle
  11. Alexander the Great (?) & Socrates
  12. Pre-socratic philosopher Heraclitus (modeled on Michelangelo)
  13. Raphael (looking out) with the ancient Greek painter Protogenes, Zoroaster (front view, holding a celestial sphere) and Ptolemy (back view, holding a globe).

Originators of the Renaissance in Art according to Leon Battista Alberti in his 1435 book Della Pittura, or On Painting

1. Lorenzo Ghiberti: Sculptor of the doors of the Florence Baptistry, 1401-1452.

2. Filippo Brunelleschi: Designer of the dome of the Florence Cathedral, 1420-1436.

3. Luca della Robbia: Sculptor of the Cantoria (choir loft) in the Florence Cathedral, 1431-1438.

4. Donatello: Sculptor of the bronze David, the first freestanding nude sculpture since the Romans, 1430-1435.

5. Masaccio: Painter of the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, which include The

Tribute Money, 1427.

  • Chiaroscuro: The use of light and dark to create three-dimensional, modeled surfaces.
  • Single-source light.
  • Sense of the body beneath the robe (physicality).
  • One-point linear perspective.
  • Atmospheric perspective.
  • Continuous narration.

The Big Two of the High Renaissance

1. Leonardo da Vinci: Painter, etc. Mona Lisa painted 1503-1506; The Last Supper 1495-1497.

2. Michelangelo Buonarroti: Sculptor, etc. David sculpted 1501-1504; painted Sistine Chapel frescoes 1508-1512 and

1536-1541.