Middle Ages Art

Art focused on religion

They were simple and 2 dimensional

Rebirth of Classical FormRebirth of Classical Form• Humanists emphasized individual talent• Artists strove to express values, emotions, and attitudes• Byzantine was symbolic – Renaissance was detailed and

lifelike.• Experimented with new techniques

– Perspective

– Sfumato: Having vague outlines, and colors and shades so mingled as to give a misty appearance

– Mostly done on Frescoes

Leading Towns•FlorenceFlorence

•Primarily Paid for by the Medici Family•Many masters and workshops

•RomeRome•The Vatican was the wealthiest class•Used Art and Architecture to increase prestige

•VeniceVenice•Many traders commissioned work

ARCHITECTURE

• Return to Classical Style

• On Churches, palaces, and villas they substituted Domes and Columns for medieval archesarches and spiresspires.

Filippo BrunelleschiFilippo Brunelleschimost famous architectmost famous architect

• Lost a door design contest to Ghiberti

• Turned to architecture• Designed dome of Cathedral

of Florence (duomo) 1436• Was a friend of Donatello• Figured out law of perspective

Another View of the Duomo, The Cathedral of Florence

SculptureSculpture• Freestanding Sculptures resembled Greek

and Roman Sculptures

• Renaissance artists used marble and bronze

• Medieval sculpture was stiff

• Renaissance artists portrayed humans as lifelike as possible

The Baptistry of Florence had a contest for the design of the doors.

Ghiberti defeated Brunelleschi with his bronzing

of the “Gates of Paradise”

GHIBERTI

GATES

OF

PARADISE

“Gates of Paradise” detail of one panel depicting Joseph

•Sculptor •Trained in a workshop for Ghiberti•Made 1st Free standing statue of Renaissance

– Statue of St. George•Made 1st Nude statue of Renaissance

– David

Donatello created the Statue of St. Mark1411 –1413

Statue of St. George1st Free Standing sculpture of Renaissance

Donatello’s David commissioned by Santa Maria del Fiore in 1408, taken to Palazzo Vecchio in 1416 and partially elaborated.

•Bronze, height cm 158, about 1440 for Cosimo de' Medici.

David by Donatello.1st Nude Sculpture of the Renaissance.

DAVID

MICHELANGELO

•Michelangelo Michelangelo also was from also was from Florence. His Florence. His father was a father was a minor official.minor official.

•At age 13, At age 13, Mike Mike apprenticed apprenticed for an artist for an artist for 1 year, for 1 year, then studied in then studied in the Medici the Medici household.household.

La Pieta1498 – 1500

•Michelangelo completed this statue in Rome before he turned 25.

•Mary is shown holding the crucified Christ across her lap.

Michelangelo’s

DAVID1501 – 1504

Created for the cathedral in Florence.He breaks away from the tradition way of

portraying David, and uses a more classical Greek statue form.

The Sistine Chapel

Creation of Adam

The

Fall

of

Eden

Recent Cleaning of the Ceiling

Before After

• Departed from the flat, symbolic style of

medieval art.

• Created Paintings with a more realistic style

• Attempted to capture human emotions

• Artists Primarily painted on Frescoes

(As was seen on the Sistine Chapel)

Giotto• 1st artist to break away

from the old style in 1300’s

• Considered father of the renaissance.

• Worked mainly on Frescoes – paintings on damp plaster

Fresco of the Ascension of St. Francis

Madonna with Child

Ascension of Christ

Detail of Ascension of

St. Francis

Masaccio (1401 – 1427) used lighting and perspective to give his paintings depth. This is a detail of one of his masterpieces, Expulsion of Adam and Eve

MasaccioExpulsion of Adam and Eve

Fresco was in disrepair Fresco was in disrepair for centuries.for centuries.It was found with the It was found with the leaves covering nude leaves covering nude bodies as displayed on bodies as displayed on the left.the left.

After restoration, the After restoration, the fresco was returned to fresco was returned to its original form as the its original form as the 11stst nude painting of the nude painting of the Renaissance.Renaissance.

•This is the Trinity

•Notice the illusion of three dimension

•This is the Baptism

•Notice the unity and simplicity

The Tribute Money

This Fresco depicts three scenes surrounding the arrival in Capernaum of Jesus and the Apostles, based on the account given in Matthew's Gospel.

Leonardo da Vinci

The Annunciation Take note of the perspective and anatomy detail.

Vinci

Always LeonardoAlways Leonardo

•treatment of hair, angelic in its fineness,

•Sfumato - the lack of any rigidity of contour. One form glides imperceptibly into another (the Italian term is), a wonder of glazes creating the most subtle of transitions between tones and shapes.

•The angel's face in the painting known as the Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery, London, or the Virgin's face in the Paris version of the same picture, have an interior wisdom, an artistic wisdom that has no pictorial rival.

The Last Supper

Da Vinci also kept a notebook where he sketched people, cadavers, Da Vinci also kept a notebook where he sketched people, cadavers, and inventions. This notebook included astronomy, mathematics, and inventions. This notebook included astronomy, mathematics, anatomy, flying machines, and mechanical inventions.anatomy, flying machines, and mechanical inventions.

Madonna dell Granduca St. George fighting the Dragon

Raphael

School of Athens

Raphael managed to fit himself into the School of Athens. We find him talking to Zoroaster and Ptolemy.

Plato and Aristotle

Heraclitus Honoring Michelangelo

Boticelli

• Came during the High Period of the Renaissance.

• Still had religious subjects, but with very secular themes.

Boticelli

Adoration 1475

Birth of Venus

La Primavera

Venus

Primavera