Renaissance Art in EuropeItalian and Northern Renaissance Art

Italian and Northern Renaissance Art

Italian Northern

• Religious themes• Grand themes• Greek and Roman mythology• 3-D/perspective• Sfumato “up in smoke”• Christian iconography• Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice

• Religious themes• Genre scenes (every day life)• Symbolism• Christian iconography• Intense detail• Flemish/Flanders (Netherland

and Belgium)• German• Oil paints• Attention to texture

66. Annuniciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)Workshop of Robert Campin1427-1432 CEOil on wood

• Artist was a craftsman and painter.

• Made for a private home; odd at the time.

• Mary being told she is pregnant.

• Specific material items, place in a specific manner.

• Detail=oil paints• Weird perspective

tilt=could not exist in reality.

• Symbolism-mouse trap=devil

67. Pazzi ChapelBasilica di Santa Croce. Florence, ItalyFilippo Brunelleschic. 1429-1461 CEMasonry

• Chapter House-meeting house for monks (off cloister)

• Pietra serena-green gray color; signature of Brunelleschi

• Geometry; balances; symmetry; echoes ancient Rome

• Revival of classicism; looks like Pantheon on inside. Central plan-ish with barrel vaulted spaces flanking central dome.

• Rational, ordered, serene

• Roundels in pendentivesthat are terra cotta and glazed (new technology used).

68. The Arnolfini PortraitJan van Eyckc. 1434 CE Oil on wood

• Van Eyck is the master of Northern Renaissance painting.

• Recent scholarship says it is not a wedding portrait. Memorial? Legal authority of the man?

• Man is Italian merchant living in Bruges; wealth represented (clothing and furnishings)

• Symbols-shoes off=sacred event; single candle=presence of God; dog=fidelity/loyalty; oranges=wealth; carpet=taste/wealth

• Fruit present in painting but subjects are wearing fur-lined clothes.

• In doorway two witnesses of event.

• Signature-Jan van Eyck was here.

• Roundel scenes from the passion of Christ painted around the mirror. (1/2”)

• Incredible amount of detail and clarity.

• Luminous quality from many glazes of oil paint.

• Again-not realistic; cramped space.

69. DavidDonatelloc. 1440-1460 CEBronze

• In Florence; unknown commission; probably Medici; sculpture saved for public view.

• First freestanding nude sculpture since antiquity.

• Return to classical love of the human figure.

• Contrapposto; movement

• Lost wax technique (used by ancients often)

• Symbol of re-exploration of ancients; defeat of enemy (Florence vs Milan); promise of a long rule (symbol for city and family); Soft hat worn=peace

• David becomes symbol of Florentine Republic

• Sexual; standing on head of Goliath.

• Play on rock and bronze (weapons and materials); play on cultures of Florence and Milan

70. Palazzo RucellaiFlorence, ItalyLeon Battista Alberti (architect)c. 1450 CE Stone, masonry

• Urban palace for wealthy Florentine family

• Unfinished

• Alberti wrote important book on architecture—sought to revive classical forms described by Vitruvius (Roman architecture)

• 1st floor-for conducting business; 2nd-for receiving guests; 3rd-family’s private apartments; 4th-servant’s quarters

• Rusticated facade

• Renaissance=revival of classical

• Classicism evident in individual elements, geometry, and harmony (façade registers, pilasters in orders-throw back to colosseum, trabeated with entablatures, arches)

• Humanism applied to domestic architecture.

71. Madonna and Child with Two AngelsFra Filippo Lippic. 1465 CETempera on wood

• Lippi is teacher of Botticelli (next work)• Humanist in approach• Playful (angel’s faces) , youth and earthly

beauty (Mary) • Look like real people who could exist on

the street.• Halo is very simple (disappears all

together in High Renaissance Art)• Atmospheric perspective is used to create

a 3 dimensional space—the figures are standing in front of a faux window frame with landscape in the background.

72. Birth of VenusSandro Botticellic. 1484-1486 CETempera on canvas

• During the MA, the only female nude is Eve.

• Venus is the goddess of love.

• Based of the Modest Venus (belonged to the Medici’s)l; was this also commissioned for Medici family?

• Pushed in by personification of zephyrs on the left, waiting to be received on shore to be wrapped in a cloth.

• Floating figures—not very renaissance; inspiration from Greek painting?

• Linear-separation of figures, deemphasize space, sense of pattern

• About divine beauty (delicate floral patterns, gold in her hair, waves)

73. Last SupperLeonardo da Vincic. 1494-1498Oil and tempera

• In Santa Maria dellaGrazie, Milan; refectory.

• At the last supper Christ says “One of you will betray me”.

• This is the reaction to that moment.

• Christ reaches out for bread and wine (body and blood) as Judas reaches for bowl.

• Judas paid by Romans to betray Christ. Has money in his hand, pulling away from Christ, in shadow.

• No halo, but window reads as a halo

• Many figures for the size of the table.

• Christ is a triangle, calm, centered-vanishing point

• Da Vinci creates an imaginary line between us and the divine.

• Groups of three (trinity, triangles)

• St. Peter holds a knife to protect Christ.

• Mannerism reveal the emotion and purpose of the individuals.

• Different from other Last Suppers because of the way the figures are positioned and presented.

• High Renaissance

• Condition terrible due to media.

74. Adam and EveAlbrecht Durer1504 CEEngraving

• Curious blend of motifs

• German looking scenery.

• Contrapposto (showing off knowledge) and gaze looks unnatural.

• Eve is plucking an apple from a tree with fig leaves; A parrot, a tropical bird, perches on a branch; an elk, ox, cat, rabbit, mouse, and goat stand around.

• Small sign identifies the artist as a citizen of the Franconian city of Nuremberg, but does so in Latin, the language of the Mediterranean, of the Roman Empire and of the Italian Renaissance.

• Classical figures refrence Apollo and Venus

• Push pull between traditional and the classic.

• Symbols:

-parrot=virgin mary, antidote for sin

-elk, ox, rabbit, cat are for 4 humors of the human body, and are associated with colors and bodily fluids:

-Melancholic: elk, black bile

-Phlegmatic: ox, phlegm

-Sanguine: rabbit, blood

-Choleric: cat, yellow bile

• Everyone is still in a state of equilibrium.

• Woodcuts and engraving were easily reproducible; spreading art

75. Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall frescosVatican City, ItalyMichelangeloCeiling frescos: c. 1508-1512 CE; altar frescos: c. 1536-1541 CEFresco

• Where cardinals decide on next pope.

• Commissioned for Pope Julius II in 1508, replacing a blue ceiling dotted with stars. Every surface from top to bottom is decorated.

• Controversial cleaning changed the entire look; revealed beautiful colors, mastery of chiaroscuro

• Michelangelo’s figures are sculptural; figures show strength and elegance, mass, charisma

• 9 center panels from the Book of Genesis are the most important; beginning with the creation of the world. The story begins at the altar.

• Ignudi-male nudes on the ceiling sit in faux architectural frescos.

• No actual representations of Christ on the ceiling.

• Painted during high renaissance. The back wall “Last Judgement” is painted decades later which has a more ominious, less optimistic feel to it (Protestant Reformation).

A year long break results in a stylistic differences, breaking the images down to the essential figures.

• Sibyls accompany the Ignudi in the spandrels. Mimic the Belvedere Torso? Circular composition of the bodies.

• In the deluge water is used to separate the four scenes.

The Flood The Delphic Sibyl

Video in notes

76. School of AthensRaphael1509-1511 CEFresco

• Located in the Papal Palace, originally part of library where the pope lived. Next door to Sistine Chapel.

• Commissioned by Pope Julius II

• Four walls=four branches of human knowledge; School of Athens is philosophy (others are theology, justice, and poetry).

• Plato and Aristotle (look at gestures) in the center surrounded by other great thinkers in history. Plato wears purple (air) and red (fire), neither of which have weight. Aristotle wears blue (water) and brown (earth), which both have physical weight.

• On the side of Plato is philosophers who concern themselves with issues of the ideal (Pythagoras).

• On the side of Plato is the opposite. On lower right is Euclid (modeled after Bramante who built the new St. Peter’s Basilica-design based on perfect geometry of circles and squares.).

• School of Athens resembles Bramante’s architecture, but also very Roman (coffered barrel vaults, pilasters, classical sculpture (Apollo and Athena)

• Place that is the opposite of the medieval. Artist is considered an intellectual

• Two figures in front are not engaged like others in painting. On Platonic side is Heraclitus-believed all things always in flux (modeled after Michelangelo-known for brooding personality) which is added later. On Aristotle’s side is Raphael who places himself among astronomers.

• Figures are overlapping and divided into groups (like Last Supper).

77. Isenheim AltarpieceMatthais Grunewaldc. 1512-1516 CEOil on wood

• Isenheim is a small village in Germany, built for a hospital chapel by the Brothers of St. Anthony, patron saint of those suffering from skin diseases.

• St. Anthony is often depicted with the pig as pork fat was used to heal skin ailments.

• The Isenheim hospital was largely dedicated to the care of peasants suffering from ergotism—brought on by ingesting fungus that grw on rye. Also called St. Anthony’s fire, ergotism also cause hallucinations, skin infections, attacked the nervous system, and eventually led to death (LSD).

Fully opened

Sculpted and painted wooden altarpieces were very popular in Germany during this time. Here, in the center is Christ flanked by saints and above the apostles.

• Inside the panel are scenes of Christ’s sufferings.

• Here is a night crucifixion scene.

• The lighting, colors, and mood are eerie.

• Hand writhing in agony, body marked with pox scars.

• Emphasis on physical suffering to inspire miracles for the hospital.

• St. Sebastian and St. Anthony Abbot on the other.

• In the predella is the Lamentation of Christ. Closed position

• Detail of Virgin and Child emphasizes this promise of resurrection.

• Depicts the Annunciation, the Virgin and Child, and the Resurrection=highlight reel of Christ’s life.

• The altarpiece is a visual essay on human suffering, faith, and hope for heaven.

Second open position

Fully open

Video in notes

78. Entombment of ChristJacapo da Pontormo1525-1528 CEOil on wood • Placed next to a fresco of

The Annunciation. • Mannerist style—weird

elongated figures in odd positions.

• No earthly space to give understanding of what is going on.

• No resting spot, lack of pyramidal structure, lots of movement.

• Emotions, compositions, figures are not natural.

• Painted during the Protestant Reformation.

79. Allegory of Law and GraceLucas Cranach the Elderc. 1530 CE Woodcut and letterpress

• Resurgence of iconoclasm in 16th

century destroys thousands of works of religious art.

• How exactly do you get to heaven? Good deeds? Can you get yourself to heaven on your own merit or do you have to sit back and let God do the work?---these questions divided Europe and are answered here.

• Originally painted and in color.

• Single most influential image of the Lutheran Reformation—God judges and shows mercy through peoples actions and his divine power.

• Cranach consulted Martin Luther when creating this piece.

• This explains Luther’s ideas in visual form--heaven is reached through faith and God’s grace. Luther rejected the Catholic idea that good deeds, what he called “good works,” could play any role in salvation.

• A nude made appears on both sides of the tree. “Gospel” on the viewer’s right and “Law” on the left.

• Six bible citations at the bottom.

• Gospel-scene of the Resurrection of Christ and the male is stripped down (literally) submitting to God’s mercy.

• Law-skeleton and demon force man into hell. The law alone will not get you into heaven. Christ sits in judgment. Adam and Eve fall from grace. Moses points to the tablets of the law. This is not the path to salvation.

80. Venus of UrbinoTitianc. 1538 CE Oil on canvas

• We don’t know who she is.

• Venus a protective title to make this subject ok?

• Gazing directly at viewer—clear this is sensual and about physical beauty.

• Oil painting introduce in Venice from north. Lends itself to the softness we see by using glazing.

• Reclining nude becomes archetype for painting nude female in the future. Emergence of the reclining female nude as a genre begins in the Renaissance.

• Mannerist-torso long, tiny feet