The Renaissance

Birth of Venus – Botticelli, 1485

Aim: Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?

(1)Explain how life was during the Greek and Roman civilizations.

(2)Explain Humanism and Secularism.(3)Who was Leonardo DaVinci and what did he

contribution to Art

Before the Middle Ages, beforethe Plague, there was the glory

of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

After the damageof the Bubonic

Plague,Western

Europeansociety

changed.

In Italy, people began to look tothe past, to the glories of early

civilizations.

The “Dark Ages”

Renaissance thinkers referred to the Middle Ages as the “Dark Ages”.

They believed that the “light of learning” had gone out in Europe at the fall of Rome.

Renaissance thinkers wanted to rediscover the ancient Greeks and Romans.

What a pieceof workis man!

In Italy, a new period of artisticcreativity and new interest in

the contributions of the Greeks and Romans developed.

It was a rebirth.It wasthe

Renaissance.

The word “Renaissance” means rebirth.

And why did theRenaissance begin

in Italy?Italy had

a great location for trade.

It was king ofthe Mediterranean

Sea.It controlled

European tradewith Asia.

Renaissance thinkers were interestedin discovering new ways of thinking

and seeing.

During the Renaissance,

humanismbecame popular.It was the belief

in the importanceand uniqueness

of man.

Secularism

During the Renaissance, secularism became popular.

Secularism is a non-religious viewpoint.

Secularists look to scientific thinking for answers as opposed to religion.

Humanism

During the Renaissance, humanism became popular.

Humanism is the belief that human actions, ideas, and works are important.

Humanists rediscovered the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance was a period of artistic creativity.

Artists rediscovered the ancient civilizations of the Greeks and Romans.

The word “Renaissance” means rebirth.

Humanism

• Celebrated the individual

• Stimulated the study of classical Greek and Roman literature and culture

• Supported by wealthy patrons

Wealth fromtrade allowed

artists to find wealthypatrons to

commissionand sponsor

their work.

The rebirthand rediscovery

of learningof the

Renaissancesoon spread

to other parts of Europe.

Medici Family

Medici Family

They were a family of bankers that became very wealthy and powerful.

Soon they were involved in politics and ran the City of Florence.

They were patrons of the Arts and commissioned many works of art.

LITERARY CONTRIBUTORS

Gutenberg Bible

Gutenburg Printing Press

Movable Type

Sir Thomas Moore: Utopia

Erasmus: The Praise of Folly

Petrarch: Sonnets, humanist scholarship

Machiavelli’s The Prince

• An early modern treatise on government

• Supports absolute power of the ruler

• Maintains that the end justifies the means

• Advises that one should not only do good if possible, but do evil when necessary

Secularists look to scientific thinkingfor answers.

Ideas of Machiavelli

“It is better to be feared than loved…”

“The ends justifies the means…”

The Prince

Author: Niccolo Machiavelli

Culture: Italian (another Florentine)

Time: 1513 CEGenre: didactic prose

handbookName to Know:

Cesare Borgia

Background

Son of a lawyer.Received an ordinary

literary education; read Latin but no Greek.

Loved Roman history; studied law.

Became a political writer & theorist.

Worked as a clerk, then secretary to the second chancery of the commune in Florence (14 years).

Practical ExperienceAs secretary & Second

Chancellor of Florence, in charge of internal and war affairs, he had knowledge of military & diplomatic matters; went on diplomatic missions.

After arguing against mercenaries and for a national militia, he was given the job of forming one and leading it to battle. Did so successfully(1509).

Another Florentine Exile . . .

He lost his position and was exiled from Florence when the republican regime went out of power; forbidden to leave Florentine territory, he was imprisoned and tortured, accused of conspiracy by the new Medici regime.

After he was released, he retired with his wife and children, wrote The Prince, among other things. Later got into Medici good graces (1520s). Died in 1527.

Reaction to Change

Machiavelli’s life changed drastically when the Medici family took power in Florence.

How does he react to this?Compare with how Abelard and Dante

dealt with the unforeseen events in their lives (castration, exile).

How would Marie de France judge their reactions to unexpected change, the test of unforeseen events ?

His Importance

An historian summed Machiavelli up thus:

‘Diplomat, historian, dramatist, philosopher; the most cynical thinker of his time, and yet a patriot fired with a noble ideal; a man who failed in everything he undertook, but left upon history a deeper mark than almost any other figure of the Renaissance.’ [Durant]

Machiavelli was an independent and fearless thinker about ethics and politics:

- interested in states, not individuals

[individuals are simply members of states]

- wants to know why states rise & fall- wants to know how to delay state decay

The Prince

A manual teaching how to get and keep political power. The author assumes a pedagogical persona, seeks to persuade readers.

The work is powerful for: subject matter

rhetorical & technical brillianceAmong the most frequently reprinted books in

any language.Dedicated first to Giuliano de’ Medici, then to

Lorenzo, his nephew.

The presentation of an ideal character is a Renaissance tendency.

Author’s premise: human nature is evil;

human nature remains constant over time.

Author’s goal: to liberate Italy from both internal warring and foreign oppression.

The Prince, Almost

Machiavelli admired Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, makes him an embodied will to power, a model for supermen, beyond good and evil.

Borgia’s Accomplishments

- Destroyed his disloyal generals, having first made their supporters his own.

- Put Remirro de Orco in charge of Romagna. He pacified the province and united it (the bad guy); Borgia then instituted civil courts (good guy).

- Had Remirro killed and displayed in public square. “The ferocity of this spectacle left those people at the same time gratified and awe-struck.”

Art and PatronageItalians were willing to spend a lot of money on art.– Art communicated social, political, and

spiritual values.– Italian banking & international trade interests

had the money.

Public art in Florence was organized and supported by guilds.

Therefore, the consumption of art was used as a form of competition for social & political status!

1. Realism & Expression

� Expulsion fromthe Garden

� Masaccio

� 1427

� First nudes sinceclassical times.

2. Perspective

Perspective!Perspective!Perspective!

Perspective!Perspective!

First use of linear

perspective!

Perspective!Perspective!

� The Trinity

� Masaccio

� 1427

What you are, I once was; what I am, you will

become.

Perspective

Perspective!

Perspective!

Betrothal

of the Virgin

Raphael

1504

3. Classicism

� Greco-Roman influence.

� Secularism.

� Humanism.

� Individualism free standing figures.

� Symmetry/BalanceThe “Classical Pose”

Medici “Venus” (1c)

4. Emphasis on Individualism� Batista Sforza & Federico de Montefeltre:

The Duke & Dutchess of Urbino

� Piero della Francesca, 1465-1466.

Isabella d’Este – da Vinci, 1499� 1474-1539

� “First Lady of the Italian Renaissance.”

� Great patroness of the arts.

� Known during her time as “First Lady of the World!”

5. Geometrical Arrangement of

Figures� The Dreyfus Madonna with the Pomegranate

� Leonardo da Vinci

� 1469

� The figure as architecture!

6. Light & Shadowing/Softening

Edges

Chiaroscuro

Sfumato

7. Artists as Personalities/Celebrities

� Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, andArchitects

� Giorgio Vasari

� 1550

Renaissance Florence

The Wool Factoryby Mirabello Cavalori, 1570 1252 – first gold

florins minted

Florentine lion:symbol of St.

Mark

Lorenzo the Magnificent

1478 - 1521

Cosimo de Medici

1517 - 1574

Florence Under the Medici

Medici Chapel

The Medici Palace

� Filippo Brunelleschi1377 - 1436

� Architect

� Cuppolo of St. Mariadel Fiore

Filippo Brunelleschi

Commissioned to build the cathedral dome.– Used unique

architectural concepts. He studied the

ancient Pantheon in Rome.

Used ribs for support.

Brunelleschi’s “Secret”

Brunelleschi’s Dome

Comparing Domes

Other Famous Domes

Il Duomo St. Peter’s St. Paul’s US capital

(Florence) (Rome) (London) (Washington)

The Ideal City Piero della

Francesca, 1470

A Contest to Decorate the Cathedral: Sacrifice of Isaac

PanelsBrunelleschi Ghiberti

Ghiberti – Gates of ParadiseBaptistry Door, Florence – 1425 -

1452The Winner!

� David by Donatello

� 1430

� First free-form bronze since Roman times!

The Liberation of Sculpture

David

Verrocchio

1473 - 1475

� Vitruvian Man

� Leonardo daVinci

� 1492

TheL’uomo

universale

The Renaissance “Man”

� Broad knowledge about many things in different fields.

� Deep knowledge/skill in one area.� Able to link information from

different areas/disciplines and create new knowledge.

� The Greek ideal of the “well-rounded man” was at the heart of Renaissance education.

1. Self-Portrait -- da Vinci, 1512

1452 - 1519

� Artist

� Sculptor

� Architect

� Scientist

� Engineer

� Inventor

Leonardo, the Artist:From hisNotebooks of over 5000

pages (1508-1519)

Mona Lisa – da Vinci, 1503-4

A Macaroni Mona

ParodyThe Best Form of Flattery?

A Picasso Mona

An Andy Warhol Mona

A “Mona”ca Lewinsky

Mona Lisa OR da Vinci??

The Last Supper - da Vinci, 1498& Geometry

Refractory

Convent of Santa

Maria delle

Grazie

Milan

horizontal

vert

ical

Perspective!

The Last Supper - da Vinci, 1498

� Detail of Jesus

� The Last Supper

� Leonardo da Vinci

� 1498

Deterioration

A Da Vinci “Code”:St. John or Mary Magdalene?

Leonardo, the Sculptor

� An Equestrian Statue

� 1516-1518

Leonardo, the Architect:Pages from his Notebook

� Study of a central church.

� 1488

Leonardo, the Architect:Pages from his Notebook

� Plan of the city of Imola, 1502.

Leonardo, the Scientist (Biology):Pages from his Notebook

� An example of the humanist desire to unlock the secrets of nature.

Leonardo, the Scientist (Anatomy):

Pages from his Notebook

Leonardo, the Inventor:

Pages from his Notebook

Man Can Fly?

A study of siege defenses.

Studies of water-lifting devices.

Leonardo, the Engineer: Pages from his

Notebook

Leonardo da Vinci….

O investigator, do not flatter yourself that you know the things nature performs for herself, but rejoice in knowing that purpose of those things designed by your own mind.

2. Michelangelo Buonorrati

� 1475 – 1564

� He represented the body in three dimensions of sculpture.

� David

� MichelangeloBuonarotti

� 1504

� Marble

15c

16c

What

a

difference

a

century

makes!

� The Pieta

� MichelangeloBuonarroti

� 1499

� marble

The Popes as Patrons of the Arts

The Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1508 - 1512

The Sistine Chapel’s Ceiling

Michelangelo Buonarroti1508 - 1512

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Creation

of the Heavens

The Sistine Chapel Details

Creation of Man

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Fall from Grace

The Sistine Chapel Details

The Last Judgment

The School of Athens – Raphael, 1510 -11� One point perspective.

� All of the important Greek philosophers and thinkers are included all of the great personalities of the Seven Liberal Arts!

� A great variety of poses.� Located in the papal apartments

library.� Raphael worked on this commission

simultaneously as Michelangelo was doing the Sistine Chapel.

� No Christian themes here.

The School of Athens – Raphael, 1510 -11

Raphael

Da Vinci

Michelangelo

Aristotle:looks to thisearth [thehere and

now].

Plato:looks to theheavens [or

the IDEALrealm].

The School of Athens – Raphael, details

Averroes

Hypatia

Pythagoras

Zoroaster

Ptolemy

Euclid

A Portrait of Savonarola� By Fra Bartolomeo,

1498.

� Dominican friar who decried money and power.

� Anti-humanist he saw humanism as too secular, hedonistic, and corrupting.

� The “Bonfire of the Vanities,” 1497.

/ Burned books, artwork, jewelry, and other luxury goods in public.

/ Even Botticelli put some of his paintings on the fire!!

The Execution of Savonarola, 1452