Sculpture medieval art renaissance modern

Medieval art

• Usually called the dark ages but it’s not really as dark as you might think.

• Timeline: 500-1100 CE• Most art were of religious sense • Medieval, meaning the period in between two

different golden ages

The illuminated manuscript

The Lindisfarne Gospels

Illustrated between 698-

721 in Christianized

Great Britian, is a volume

of many vellum

(parchment) pages.

Book of Kells

Tapestry

The Unicorn in Captivity, 1495–1505

South Netherlandish

Stained glass

architecture

Early Romanesque Churches• Were fortified for safety. They were small and

dark with thick walls and tiny windows.

Early Medieval Castles• Were heavily fortified with

thick walls and moats• Were not at all romantic or

comfortable to live in

Styles began to change in the 12th Century

• Abbot Suger designed the church of St. Denis outside of Paris

• Notice the round arches, the rose window, the three large doors

Notre Dame Cathedral

Chartres Cathedral

• New Gothic Cathedrals soared higher and higher due to the use of flying buttresses

Inside Gothic Cathedrals were held up by ribbed vaulting

Gothic Sculpture

• Was usually part of a church

Hagia Sophia “Holy Wisdom”

Mystical atmosphere• Nearly 3 football fields long• Pendentives- four arches formed a square• Forty arched windows encircle the base of the dome to

give illusion of halo

Romanesque Cathedral

• 1050-1200• Horizontal Emphasis• Stone roof with rounded arches• Thick piers and walls support roof• Smaller windows- dark and solemn

Romanesque Cathedral

Gothic Cathedral

• 1200-1500• Vertical Emphasis- reaches to heaven• Stone roof with pointed arches and ribbed vault• Thin walls and piers supported by Flying Buttresses• Large stain glass windows- airy and “Holy Light”

Flying Buttresses

Medieval Paintings

• Were all religious in subject matter– many were book illustrations or altarpieces

• Were expressionless, flat and almost cartoon-like

• Showed no background or perspective• Were usually frescoes (tempera paint on wet

plaster) although some were painted on wood

Medieval Italian Paintings

In the Late Middle Ages, some attempts at perspective were made and some artists even

began to sign their works• Fra Angelico’s The Annunciation

Cathedrals entered the Flamboyant Gothic Stage

Facades and Interiors became more ornate

Castles were still fortified but also became more decorative

Literature• Secular Poetry

• Often sung or recited – Epics (stories w/ a hero

based on history)• Song of Roland

– Romances – tales of chivalry

(knight’s code of honor)– True love

• Performed by troubadors

Secular Literature with religious themes

– In the vernacular: the language of the people (not Latin)

– Canterbury Tales by • Geoffrey Chaucer

– The Divine Comedy• Dante Alighieri

The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath

Dante’sInferno

Renaissance Art

A comparison with Medieval Art

Before the Renaissance

The artwork . . .

• Focused on religious subjects

• Lacked perspective--paintings appear flat.

• There is little use of light and shadow.

• The artwork is not natural. Figures appear "placed" in the picture. Large = important

The artwork . . . .

• Children are painted to resemble small adults.

• Colors are more subdued than in later periods.

• In the earlier paintings there is heavy use of gold.

• Religious symbols used--haloes, Biblical figures, saints, etc.

During the Renaissance During the Renaissance

The artwork…

• There is use of perspective, light and shadow, proportion,

The artwork…

• Figures--drawn from nature and based on observation of real world (objective).

• Colors are rich, warm, and glowing.

Continued…

• Anatomically correct physiology, and emotion.

• Use of classical topics/stories depicted in paintings – story of Judith and Holofernes

More . . .• Artists became known

for individual style and imagination.

• This is a DaVinci—

• note the similarity in the mouth in this work to the another famous picture by DaVinci

Ginevra de' Benci

…The Mona Lisa

Characteristics of Characteristics of Renaissance ArtRenaissance Art

Realism & ExpressionRealism & Expression

Expulsion from the GardenExpulsion from the Garden

MasaccioMasaccio

14271427

First nudes since classical First nudes since classical times.times.

2. 2. PerspectivePerspective

First use of First use of linear linear perspectivperspective!e!

The TrinityThe Trinity

MasaccioMasaccio

14271427

3. Classicism3. Classicism

Secularism.

Humanism.

Individualism free standing figures.

Symmetry/Balance

The The “Classical Pose”“Classical Pose”Medici “Venus”Medici “Venus”

4. Emphasis on 4. Emphasis on IndividualismIndividualism

Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre: The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino

Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.

5. Geometrical Arrangement of 5. Geometrical Arrangement of FiguresFigures

The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate

Leonardo da Vinci

1469

The figure as architecture!

Early RenaissanceEarly Renaissance

The First Three Hall-of-Famers

Masaccio 1401-1428• Founder of early

Renaissance Painting• Painted human figure

as a real human being (3D)• Used perspective• Consistent source of

light (accurate shadows)

The Tribute Money

#2 Donatello 1386-1466

• The sculptor’s Masaccio• David (1430-32)

– First free standing, life-size nude since Classical period

– Contrapposto– Sense of Underlying

skeletal structure

The Penitent Magdalen ~Donatello

“Speak, speak or the plague take you!”

#3 Boticelli

• 1482• Rebirth of Classical

mythology• Fully Pagan• THE BIRTH OF VENUS

The Italian Renaissance

• Leonardo• Michelangelo• Raphael

Da VinciMona Lisa (1503-06)

Perspective,Anatomy, Composition

Cultural icon

Michelangelo

DavidDavid

Michelangelo Michelangelo BuonarottiBuonarotti

15041504

MarbleMarble

(counterpoise)

To model the human form in a non-symmetrical, relaxed stance that appears realistic

Contrapposto

Compare:

Humanism (even within Biblical stories):

Love of the Human Form

David (1501-1504)

Michelangelo

Raphael School of Athens 1510

Raphael

Da Vinci

Michelangelo

AristotleAristotle::looks to looks to

thisthisearth [theearth [thehere andhere and

now].now].

PlatoPlato::looks to looks to

thetheheavens heavens

[or [or the IDEALthe IDEAL

realm].realm].

Pythagoras

Zoroaster

Ptolemy

Euclid

Raphael

painted natural looking settings…

…of people who looked real.

His paintings were full of motion, gestures, and animation.

Raphael’s “Angels”

Modern ArtRejecting the past

ExpressionismFauvismCubismDada

SurrealismAbstract Art

Pop ArtMinimalism

Early Expressionism

• Style that portrayed emotions through distorting form and color

• Edvard Munch– Mental illness, depression– Said he would never want to cast off his

illness– Aimed to induce strong reactions in his

viewers

Munch

Vampire

The Scream

Puberty

Fauvism

• 1904-1908• Explosion of color, exaggerated and vibrant• Disregard for true/actual color• “as if gremlins seized the color knob on the tv”• Influenced by non-European tribal art of the

colonies• Leader: Matisse

MatisseBlue Nude

Derain Purple Bridge

Cubism

• Break down of objects into a multitude of geometric shapes

• Life through a fly’s eye

Braque

Fishing Boats

Juan Gris

Portrait of Picasso

Picasso

Italian Girl

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso1881-1973

• His mother said, “If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll end up as the Pope.” He said, “I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”

• Painted around 50,000 pieces• Notorious for relationships with women• Children from many women

Analytical Cubism

Blue Period

Synthetic Cubism

Early Works

Late Works

Analytical Cubism

Rose

Period

Late Works

Blue Period

Synthetic Cubism

Expressionism1905-1930

• Art should express the artist’s feelings rather than images of the real world

• Distorted, exaggerated forms and color• Began with van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch• Dark colors and woodcuts relay sadness of

war

Kathe Kollwitz

Poverty

Nolde

Wildly Dancing Children

Abstract Art

• Began with Kandinsky in 1919• Post WWII to 80’s• Abandon any reference to recognizable

reality• No subject• Color can convey emotion even without

content• Founder: Kandinsky

Kandinsky

Improvisation 31

Black Spot I

Mondrian

Composition A: Composition with Black, Red, Gray, Yellow, and Blue

Used only primary colors and non-

colors

Dada Art

• 1916-1923• Got its name from nonsense

– French for hobby horse

• Protested the madness of war• Founded by WWI refugees• Strategy was to denounce and shock

Duchamp Fountain

Duchamp

Mona Lisa with

moustache

Surrealism

• 1920’s and 1930’s• Implies going beyond realism• Painted the bizarre and irrational to express

truths• Defy common sense• Looks like a dream-world

Joan Miro1893-1983

• Invented unique biomorphic images• Geometric shapes and amoeba-like blobs• Colorful, playful• “Cartoon from another planet”

The Policeman

Dutch Interior I

Chagall

I and the Village

Salvador Dali1904-1989

• Exploited his own personality quirks• Fears: bugs, crossing streets, trains, boats,

airplanes, Metro, buying shoes in public• Actual objects but distorted• Had the canvas next to his bed and woke to paint

dreamscapes• Disliked by some because of his fascination with

Hitler• Pulled publicity stunts

– Gave speech with foot in pail of milk– Press conference with lobster on his head– Wore a diving suit and lectured but no one could hear

him and he started to asphyxiate himself

The Persistence of Memory

Crucifixion

Portrait of Paul Eluard

Weaning of Furniture-Nutrition

Cannibalism in Autumn

Rene Magritte1898-1967

Le siècle des lumières

The Century of Lights

Matisse Threatening Weather

Abstract Expressionism

• Also called action painting• 40’s-50’s• Came out of the jazz era’s lack of form• No longer was art required to be a visual

representation of some object• Jackson Pollock=Jack the Dripper (1912-1956)

– Paint Hard, Live Hard– Died drunk in a car crash-age 44

Jackson Pollock

Eyes in the Heat

Lavender Mist

Minimalists

• Color Field – Huge canvases of color– Representations of feelings and ideas

• Hard Edge– Calculated, simple forms– Colors in harmony

Color FieldRothko

1968

Rothko

White Center

Hard EdgeKelly Elsworth

Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red

Frank StellaHarran II

Pop Art

• 1950 ‘s and 1960’s• Derived from the word popular• Used everyday items as inspiration for art• Soup cans and comic strips• Mass produced• Pope of Pop: Andy Warhol

– 6 hour movie called Sleep

Andy Warhol

Roy LichtensteinGo for Baroque

You, the Artist

Use objects in your backpack, purse, or pockets to create something that someone would consider Pop or

Minimal Art.