Journalanswerthequestionandchooseoneofthe

quotesfromDaVincetorespondto
Whatisthevalueofcuriosity?
Godsellsusallthingsatthepriceoflabor.
Lifeisprettysimple:Youdosomestuff.Mostfails.
Someworks.Youdomoreofwhatworks.Ifitworks
big,othersquicklycopyit.Thenyoudosomethingelse.
Thetrickisthedoingsomethingelse.
LeonardodaVinci

Things you should know

Renaissance- translation
Years of ren.
What led to it
Characteristics of art- changes from medieval
Stand out artists- donatello, raphael, da vinci, michelangelo
Recognize famous works
Vocab: humanism,
How pieces reflect characteristics and values of the time

 Please

take notes during the lecture

Many of the test questions will be taken
from this lecture

Leading up to the renaissance

The

black plague paved the way to the

renaissance

Howmanypeopledied?

TheBlackDeathisestimatedtohavekilled30%60%of
Europe'spopulation.
Reducedtheworld'spopulationfromanestimated
450milliontobetween350and375millionin1400.

 InItaly,Florence'spopulationwasreduced
from110,000or120,000inhabitantsin
1338to50,000in1351
Createda"liveforthemoment,orseize
theday(CarpeDiem)attitude

 InItaly,Florence'spopulationwasreduced
from110,000or120,000inhabitantsin
1338to50,000in1351
Theuncertaintyofdailysurvivalhasbeen
seenascreatingageneralmoodof
morbidity,influencingpeopleto"livefor
themoment,orseizetheday(Carpe
Diem)

Effectsoftheplague
Becausetheplaguekilledsomanyofthe

poorpopulation,wealthylandownerswere
forcedtopaytheremainingworkerswhat
theyasked.
Becausetherewasnowasurplusin
consumergoods,luxurycropscouldnowbe
grown.
Peoplehadabetterqualityoflife

Lookingforanswers

Because14thcenturyhealerswereatalosstoexplainthe
cause,Europeansturnedtothefollowingaspossible
reasonsfortheplague'semergence:
Astrologicalforces
Earthquakes
ThepoisoningofwellsbyJews
Themechanismofinfectionandtransmissionofdiseases
waslittleunderstoodinthe14thcentury;manypeople
believedonlyGod'sangercouldproducesuchhorrific
displays.

Lifeforsurvivorsimproves
Areducedpopulationmeantthatforthefirst

timeinhistory,many,formerlyofthepeasant
population,nowhadachancetoliveabetter
life.
Mosthistoriansnowfeelthatthiswasthestart
ofthemiddleclassinEuropeandEngland.
Ittook150yearsforEurope'spopulationto
recover.

OTHER CONTRIBUTOR
Martin

Luther- reformation. He
challenged the catholic church, nailed
his complaints on the door of the
church, and eventually, started a new
branch of christianity

ledtoanewphilosophy
HumanismAFOCUSONTHE

INDIVIDUALANDHISORHER
FEELINGS,DESIRES,TALENTS,AND
LIVIES.AHUGESWITCHFROMTHE
STRICTRELIGIOUSEMPHASISOF
THEMEDIEVALPERIOD

The Renaissance produced new ideas that were reflected in the arts,
philosophy, and literature.
Patrons, wealthy from newly expanded trade, sponsored works which
glorified city-states in northern Italy. Education became increasingly
secular.
Medieval art and literature focused on the
Church and salvation
Renaissance art and literature focused on
individuals and worldly matters, along
with Christianity.

1. Realism &
Expression
Expulsion
from the Garden

Masaccio

1427

First nudes since

classical times.
Before

SAINT DEMETRIUS
OF SALONICA.
High Middle Ages
End of 14th century

Before

Masaccios
Trinity

The first
known painting
to apply
Brunelleschis
system of
linear
perspective.
Church of
Santa Maria
Novella,
Florence

2. Perspective

The Trinity

Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!
Perspective!

Masaccio
1427

Perspective!

First use
of linear
perspective!

What you are,

I once was;
what I am,
you will
become.

2. Perspective

First use
of linear
perspective!

The Trinity
Masaccio
1427

Progression of the Use of Perspective

1280s

1380s

1480s

Perspective!

Betroth
al
of the
Virgin
Raphael
1504

3. Classicism and
Realism
Greco-Roman
influence.
Secularism.
Humanism.
Individualism free
standing figures.
Symmetry/Balance

The Classical Pose

Medici Venus (1c)

3. Classicism

The Classical Pose

Medici Venus

Greco-Roman
influence.

Secularism.

Humanism.

Individualism
free standing
figures.

Symmetry/Balance

4. Emphasis on
Individualism
Batista Sforza &
Federico de
Montefeltre: The
Duke & Dutchess
of Urbino

Piero della
Francesca, 14651466.

Examples of Humanism and Realism in Renaissance Art

Michelangelos
Sistine Chapel

Da Vincis
Vitruvian Man

Birth of Venus Botticelli,

1485

An attempt to depict perfect beauty.

5. Geometrical
Arrangement
of
The Dreyfus
Madonna
Figures
with the
Pomegranate

Leonardo da Vinci

1469

The figure as
architecture!

Raphaels Canagiani
Madonna, 1507

6. Artists as
Personalities/Celebritie
Lives of the Most
s
Excellent Painters,
Sculptors, and
Architects
Giorgio Vasari
1550

7. Light & Shadowing/Softening

Edges
Sfumato
Chiaroscuro

Leonardo
da Vinci
described
sfumato
as
"without
lines or
borders,
in the
manner of
smoke or
beyond
the focus
plane."

Famous works by Italian

Renaissance Artists

Leonardo

Michelangelo

Raphael

Donatello

The Renaissance Man

1452 - 1519

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.

Artist

Sculptor

Architect

Scientist

Engineer

Inventor

Leonardo, the Artist:

From his Notebook of over 5000 pages

(1508-1519)

VitruvianMan
apalmisfourfingers
afootisfourpalms
acubitissixpalms
fourcubitsmakeaman
apaceisfourcubits
amanis24palms
Amanis8headstall

Leonardo Da Vinci
Why is Mona Li
sa so famous?
Fun Fact! Notice her lack
of eyebrows! Women
during this period would
shave them off! It was
considered fashionable
to do so!

Mona Lisa (La Giocande)

Oil on wood panel

Mona lisa
Rise

of popularity of portraiture
Normal person
important aspects of female portraiture
and painting in general were changing
(oil paint, frontal view, greater interest in
subjects psychology) in the direction of
humanism

Mona Lisa OR da
Vinci??

The Last
Supper
Gospel Book of Bernward of
Hildesheim, c. 1016
German

Leonardo da Vinci, Last

Supper

Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy

Last Supper Perspective

The Last Supper - da Vinci,

1498
& Geometry

Refractor
y
Convent
of Santa
Maria
delle
Grazie

Last supper

Perspective and depth

scenes lighting (falling from the left and casting shadow to the right) aligns with the actual
windows in the room. This would have made the viewers feel as if the painted reality was an
extension of their own, an aspect of the work which is reinforced when one considers how
people actually used this room. This space functioned as the monks dining room but the
arrangement of the chairs would have been very different from a typical modern cafeteria.
Seats were not arranged at large tables in the center of the room. Rather, it was common
practice in monastic settings to arrange seats in a single row with their backs to the wall
and the table running in front of them. Such an arrangement prevented conversations
during mealtime and fostered a more meditative, prayerful experience for the monks. When
seated in this way, the monks could contemplate the scene of the Last Supper before them,
imagining how they might have reacted if they were there. Leonardos composition, linear
perspective, and lighting scheme would have aided such a meditation because the
apostles table would have appeared as a continuation of the monks table, albeit on a
higher plane.

There are important points to make about technique and the

artist as innovator here. Leonardo felt restricted by the fastdrying tempera paint used in the traditional fresco technique. At
this point, he had become interested in capitalizing on the
qualities of oil paint and tried to incorporate this medium into his
fresco. The results were disastrous and the painting required its
first of many restorations during Leonardos lifetime.

Deteriorati
on
Detail of
Jesus
The Last
Supper
Leonardo da
Vinci
1498

Leonardo Da Vinci

The Last Supper

Tempera and mixed media on Plaster

This work is also characteristic of Renaissance

humanism because it explores the psychological state
of those depicted. Every apostle reacts differently to
the news that Christ will be betrayed, turned over to
authorities, and crucified. Leonardo tried to capture
each persons reaction and personality through their
outward actions (affetti). The chaos of the various
reactions is countered by Christs calm, centered,
position. He anchors the composition with his
pyramidal pose and the viewer is drawn to him
because the vanishing point directs one toward him.

The Liberation
of Sculpture

David by Donatello

1430

First free-form bronze

since Roman times!

The David
Donatellos

David serves as a nice

introduction to the Renaissance, because it
signals the growing interest in the medium,
style, and subject of classical art but adapts
this vocabulary to Christian themes, as this
religion was now the dominant one in
Europe. It also shows artists developing
signature styles and, in Donatellos case,
pushing social boundaries.

 Large

statue
Homo-erotic undertones
Donatello was able to be so experimental,
because he had the support and protection
of the Medici family, a wealthy and influential
banking family that operated as the de facto
rulers of Florence and who saw themselves
as great patrons of the arts.

The david- raphaels

Michelangelos David was originally intended for the top of the cathedral of Florence, and, therefore, the size of the hands and the
protrusion of the hairline were exaggerated so as to be visible from the street. Another aspect of the project that limited
Michelangelos work was that he was assigned a block of marble that had been started by another artist. Michelangelo was very
selective with his blocks of marble, believing that the spirit of the sculpture resided within the stone and his artistic intuition was
necessary for selecting the right portion of marble from the quarry. That he was still able to achieve his ideal form is evident when
one compares the male nude of Adam from the Sistine Ceiling and his sculpture of David. These forms clearly convey a sense of
Michelangelos idealized heroic nude, which was clearly inspired by examples from classical antiquity.
As in the Sistine Ceiling, Michelangelo took artistic license here. Rather than follow the story as closely as Donatello did with his
David, Michelangelo did not represent David as a youthful, weak figure. Michelangelo gave David a strong, confident pose and a
physique that could challenge the strength of the mighty Goliath. Whereas Donatello made it clear that David owed his victory to
Gods divine intervention, Michelangelo gave us a sculpture of a man who is powerful, heroic, and even intellectual or strategic (in
the sense that his expression suggests he may be planning his attack). This view of the individual is something that would have
certainly resonated with the artists humanistic view and the High Renaissance ideal more generally.

 David
Michelangelo
Buonarotti
1504
Marble

Michelangelos Detail

 15c
What
a
difference
a
century
makes!

16c

The Popes as Patrons

of the Arts
The Pieta
Michelangelo
Buonarroti
1499
marble

The Sistine
Chapel
Michelangel
o Buonarroti
1508 - 1512
Film Clip

Michelangelo depicted scenes from the biblical account of the

creation of the world down the center of the chapels ceiling.
When depicting The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo
significantly modified the biblical story to suit his own artistic and
ideological position. After giving Adam a body, God prepares to
give him a soul. The biblical account says that God breathed
into Adams nostrils, but Michelangelo changed this to reflect
God bestowing the soul through the use of his hands, as an
artist who creates his own masterpieces with his hands might
do.

The Sistine Chapel

Details

Creation of Man

Sistine chapel
Michelangelo

viewed himself as
sculptor first and painter second, he
was not pleased with this commission.
He did not want to paint the chapel
ceiling and even wrote a poem about
unpleasant this work was

I've grown a goitre by dwelling in

this den As cats from stagnant
streams in Lombardy, Or in what
other land they hap to be Which
drives the belly close beneath the
chin: My beard turns up to heaven;
my nape falls in, Fixed on my spine:
my breast-bone visibly Grows like a
harp: a rich embroidery Bedews my
face from brush-drops thick and
thin. My loins into my paunch like
levers grind: My buttock like a
crupper bears my weight; My feet
unguided wander to and fro; In front
my skin grows loose and long; behind,
By bending it becomes more taut and
strait; Crosswise I strain me like a
Syrian bow: Whence false and quaint,
I know, Must be the fruit of
squinting brain and eye; For ill can
aim the gun that bends awry. Come
then, Giovanni, try To succour my
dead pictures and my fame; Since
foul I fare and painting is my shame.

Raphaels School of Athens

School of athens

Raphaels School of Athens is a fresco similar to Leonardos Last Supper in that it uses
linear perspective to create a large setting for a multi-figure scene. Unlike Leonardos work,
Raphaels depicts scholars, philosophers, mathematicians, and thinkers of the past rather
than biblical characters. It was also made in Rome for Pope Julius II. These aspects of the
work are characteristic of the High Renaissance, because they signal a shift towards a
more humanistic subject matter and indicate that the artistic center has moved to Rome,
where the Pope was the most sought-after patron of the arts. Working for the Pope at the
Vatican was the most prestigious commission an artist could obtain at that time and
provided them with an international stage for their works.
This artistic program spans the four walls of the Popes private chamber and demonstrates
the fact that the Christian church is now integrating knowledge from many different sources
(even pagan and Muslim thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Averroes). Suc

Da Vinci
Raphael
Michelangelo

Plato:
looks to the
heavens [or
the IDEAL
realm].

Aristotle:
looks to this
earth [the
here and
now].

Ptolemy

Euclid

Literature flourished during the Renaissance

This can be greatly attributed to Johannes
Gutenberg
In 1455 Gutenberg printed the first book produced
by using moveable type.

The Bible

Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince

Machiavelli was from Florence (1469-1527)
Well educated in the classics
Career was in public service and he eventually
served as the ambassador to France
Written in Italian (not Latin)
Observations and commentary on
political rule and power
Addressed the issue of effective
rule
How to gain and maintain order
and control
it is safer to be feared than to
be loved
The ends justify the means
Stressed the practical (pragmatic)
over the ethical or moral, more
secular and humanistic
Political science- Politics was to be
governed by its own laws

Better for a ruler to be feared than to be loved

Ruler should be quick and decisive in decision making
Ruler keeps power by any means necessary
The end justifies the means
Be good when possible, and evil when necessary

Erasmus

Dutch humanist
Desiderius Erasmus
Pushed for a Vernacular form of the
Bible
I disagree very much with those who
are unwilling that Holy Scripture,
translated into the vernacular, be
read by the uneducated . . . As if the
strength of the Christian religion
consisted in the ignorance of it

The Praise of Folly

Used humor to show the immoral and
ignorant behavior of people, including
the clergy. He felt people would be
open minded and be kind to others.

Erasmus - 1446-1536

Dutch
Biblical scholar and educator
Believed that the Bible was
at the center of the Christian
faith
Stressed Christian education
and access to the scriptures
(for everyone)
Believed that people should be
able to read the scriptures for
themselves

Highly critical of papal

abuses and worldliness
The Praise of Folly

Sir Thomas More

English Humanist
Wrote: Utopia
A book about a perfect society
Believed men and women live in
harmony. No private property,
no one is lazy, all people are
educated and the justice system
is used to end crime instead of
executing criminals.

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

English playwright
English vernacular
Many of his major works
are a expression of
Renaissance values of
honor, heroism, and the
struggle against fate
and fortune
His view of mans
capacity for evil and selfdestruction contrasted
with the Renaissance
humanistic ideal of
humanity

How did the Renaissance change

thought?

Before
Focus on Afterlife
The Individual not important
Little focus on learning and
the arts
Dark Ages
Age of Faith

After
Focus on this life
The Individual is important
Focus on learning the
Classics (The Iliad, Aristotle)
to inspire learning and the arts
Rebirth
Age of Reason