Renaissance Art and Architecture

Overview – part 1
- Life like art was reborn
- Rediscovery of Greco-Roman tradition
- Move from supernatural to natural
- Expansion of scientific knowledge
o Understanding of anatomy
o Perspective
o Went beyond Greece and Rome in technical proficiency
o Exploration of new continents and scientific research boosted mans belief
in himself
- protestant reformation decreased the sway of the church
- study of human beings the new focus
Top 4 Breakthroughs
- oil on stretched canvas
- perspective
- use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro)
- pyramid configuration
Italian Renaissance
Early Renaissance
- Born in Florence
- 15th century
- 3 geniuses
o Masaccio 1401-1428
o Donatello 1386-1466
o Botticelli 1444-1510
Donatello “David” first statue to be naked since ancient times
High Renaissance
- 1500 to 1520
- Leonard da Vinci 1452-1519
- Michelangelo 1475-1564
- Raphael 1483-1520
- Titian 1490?-1576
- Venetian School
o Giovanni Bellini 1430-1516
o Giorgione 1476- 1510
Architecture
- 4 R’s
o Rome
o Rules
o Reason
o Rithmetic
Architects
- Alberti 1404-1472
- Brunelleschi 1377-1446
- Bramante 1444-1514
 - Palladio 1508-1580
Northern Renaissance
Overview
- Started about 1420
- Started in Netherlands and Florence
- Break with Gothic Style
Low Countries
- Jan Van Eyk 1390-1441 (Flemish)
- Hieronymous Bosch 1450-1516 (Dutch)
- Pieter Bruegel 1525-1569 (Flemish)
German Renaissance
- started in 1st guarter of the 16th century
- hans Holbein 1497-1543
- Albrecht Durer 1471-1528
- Matthias Grunewlad 1480-1528
- Albrecht Attdorfer 1480 -1538
Italian v Northern part 1
- Ideal beauty
- Simplified forms/ measured proportions
- Religious and mythological scenes
- Heroic male nudes
- Formal/ reserved
- Fresco/ tempera/oil
- Underlying anatomical structure
- Theory
- Static/balanced
- -----
- Intense realism
- Lifelike features/ unflattering honest
- Religious and domestic scenes
- Prosperous citizens/ peasants
- Reveal individual personality
- Oil on wood
- Visible appearance
- Observation
- Complex/irregular
Mannerism and the late Renaissance
Overview
- 1520-1600
- Between the renaissance and the Baroque
- People felt art had reached a peak
- So what now?
Spanish Renaissance
- Spain was in the grip of a religious frenzy
- El Greco 1541-1614
o Hard to classify