I LOVE ART

RENAISSANCE ART

Renaissance

is a French word meaning rebirth. Renaissance spans roughly the fourteenth century through the sixteenth century and is seen by some as the beginning of the modern history. The artists during this period commonly used the technique “Manuscript illumination” that is called “trick-to-the-eye” technique wherein artists portray mystical religious phenomena in a realistic manner.

(during this period we witness the revival of classical themes in art and literature, a return to the realistic depiction of nature through keen observation, and the revitalization of the Greek philosophy of humanism, in which human dignity, ideas, and capabilities are of central importance.)

 Fifteenth- Century:  Northern Painting

Flemish Painting: From Page to Panel

Manuscript illuminator illuminated literary passages with visual imagery.

The Limbourg Brothers

Les Tres Riches Heures de Duc de Berry, a book of Hours that was illustrated by the Limbourg Brothers. Book of Hours were used in nobility as prayer books and included psalms and litanies to a variety of saints. Les Tres Riches Heures de Duc de Berry contained calendar pages that illustrated domestic tasks and social events of the 12 months of the year. Limbourg Brothers name their illustration “May”. (one of the calendar pages, we witness a parade of aristocratic gentlemen and ladies who have come in their bejeweled costumes of pastel hues to celebrate the first day of May.)Although these calendar pages illustrated a holy book, the themes were secular. Fifteenth – century artists tried to reconcile subjects with scenes and objects from everyday life and northern artists accomplished this by using symbolism.

Robert Campin, the Master of Flemalle

Attention to detail and the use of commonplace settings were carried forward in the soberly realistic religious. His most famous work is the “Merode Alterpiece”. (it contain the kneeling donor of the altarpiece; an Annunciation scene with Virgin Mary and the angel Gabriel; and Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, at work in hid carpentry shop. Although the door is ajar, it is not clear whether Campin has used the open door as a compositional device to lead the spectator’s eye into the central panel of the triptych)

Jan Van Eyck

(we might say that campin humanized his mary and joseph in the merode altarpiece. As religious subjects became more secular in nature and the figures themselves became rendered as human, an interest in ordinary, secular subject sprang up.During the fifteenth century in Northern Europe we have the development of what is known as

Genre painting – painting that depicts ordinary people engaged in run – the – mill activities. (this paintings makes little or no reference to religion; they exist almost as far for art’s sake.) His most famous work is “Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride”. (this unique double portrait was commissioned by an italian businessmanto serve as a kind of marriage contract.)

German Art

(Northern Renaissance painting is not confined to region of Flanders, and indeed, some of the ,most emotionally striking work of this period was created by german artists. Their work contain less symbolism and less detail than that of flemish artists, but their message is often more powerful.)

Matthias Grunewald

The characteristics of German Rennaisance art can clearly be seen in the “Isenheim Altarpiece”. (the central panel of the german altarpiece is occupied by the tormented representation of the crucifixion, one of the most dramatic in the history of art. The dead christ is flanked by his mother. Mary the apostle John and mary magdalene to the left, and john the baptist and the sacrificial lamb to te right)

Albrecht Durer

His passion for the Classical in art stimulated extensive travel in Italy, where he copied the works of the Italian masters, who were also enthralled in the classical style. His most famous work is “Adam and Eve” that idealized beauty of the human body.

The Renaissance in Italy

The Early Renaissance

Siena-the International style lingered, and in Venice a Bryzatine influence remained strong. The Italian Renaissance took root and flourished most successfully in Florence.

Cimabue and Giotto

The similarities and difference between Cimabue and Giotto can be seen in two tempera paintings on wood panels depicting Madonna and the Child enthroned. (the similarities and differences between their works can be shown here in the illustrations. As you can see, a curious combination of late gothic and early renaissance styles betray Cemabue’s composition as transitional work. They have same subject but they differ in style. Giotto’s style has less detail and not much compicated.

The Renaissance Begins, and So Does the Competition

at the dawn of the 15^th century in florence, the early renaissance bagan with a competition. Savor the possibility of being known as the artist who had cast in gleaming bronze.

This landmark competition was held in 1401. There were countless entries, but only two panels have come down to us. The artist have been given a scene from the Old Testament – the sacrifice of Isaac by his father, Abraham.

Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti

In Filippo Brunelleschi’s panel, ancillary figures are given more prominence than the scene requires. (the obligatory characters, bushes, animals, and altar are present in both, but the placement of this elements, the artistic style and the emotional energy within each work differ considerably)

In Lorenzo Ghiberti’s panel, the space is divided along a diagonal rock formation that separates the main characters from the lesser ones. (space flows along the diagonal, exposing the figural group of Abraham and isaac and embracing the sheperd’s boy and their donkey.)

Donatello

The first to create sculptures that combined Classicism with realism. His most famous work is “David” which is the first life-sized nude statue since Classical times.

Masaccio

Made works projecting a naturalistic sense of naturalistic sense of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Massacio’s “Holy Trinity” uses this laws of perspective.

Renaissance Art at Midcentury and Beyond

Andrea del Verocchio

The most important and innovative sculptor, an extremely versatile artist who was trained as goldsmith. (He ran an active shop that attracted many young artists like leonard da vinci)

Pierro della Francesca

(The artist of the renaissance along woth their philophers and scientists, tended to share the sense of the universeas an orderly place that was governed by natural law and capable of being express in mathematical and geometrical terms.)

Was trained in mathematics and geometry and I credited with writing the first theoretical treatise on the construction of systematic perspective art. Piero’s art was based on an intensely rational construction of forms and space. His resurrection reveals the artist’s obsession with order and geometry. (christ and other figures are constructed by the cones, cylinders, sphere, and rectangular solids that define the theoritical world of the artists)

Sandro Botticeli

During the time of Boticelli, painters already relied on chiaroscuro. But at the same time, Boticelli constructed his compositions with lines instead of tonal contrasts. One of Boticelli’s most famous painting is “The Birth of Venus”. (the composition presents venus born of the foam of the sea, floating to the shores of her sacred island on her large scallop shell.)

Leon Battista Alberti

The buildings Alberti designed reflects Renaissance Classicism and unlike the anonymous European artist of the middle ages, he sought fame with conscious conviction. One of his most visually satisfying buildings is the “Palazzo Rucellai”.

The High Renaissance

Leonardo da Vinci

Is the Counterpart to the Classical Greek’s “four – square – man”.  was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor,architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. His most famous paintings are “Mona Lisa”, “The Last Supper”, and “Madonna of the Rocks”.

Raphael Sanzio

He assimilated the lessons he learned by Leonardo, especially on the humanistic portrayal of the Madonna. Raphael truly shone his ability to combine the techniques of other masters with an almost instinctive feel for Classical art. His most famous work is “The School of Athens”.

Michaelangelo Buonarroti

was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and fellow Italian, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael Sanzio. His famous works are “The Agony and the Ecstasy” and “The Creation of Adam”.

High and Late Renaissance in Venice

The “Davids” of  Donatello, Verocchio, Michaelangelo, and Berdini.

(pictures)

Titian

He was foremost a painter and colorist rather than a draftsmen or sculptural artist. He constructed his compositions by means of colors and strokes of paint and layers of varnish rather than by line and chiaroscuro.

Tintoretto

Jacobo Robusti, called Tintoretto, or “little dyer”, is a pupil of Titian. He emulated the master’s love of color, although he combined it with a more linear approach to constructing forms. Tintoretto’s “The Last Supper” is the best example to define his style in doing artworks.

High and Late Renaissance

El Greco

Spanish art polarized into two stylistic groups of religious painting: the mystical and the realistic. His most famous work is “The Burial of Count Orgaz”.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Scenes of everyday life involving ordinary people were becoming more popular. One of his greatest work is “The Peasant Wedding”.

Mannerism

This is a rule to observe and emulate nature. Mannerist artists abandoned copying directly from nature and copied art instead. Works thus became “secondhand” views of nature. Mannerist art from the art of the Renaissance and the Baroque periods: distortion and elongation of figures; flattened, almost two-dimensional space; lack of a defined focal point; and the use of discordant pastel hues.

Jacobo Pontormo