EARLY RENAISSANCE
Jan 05, 2016
EARLY RENAISSANCE
• Giotto signaled a change that was about to shake art history for all time. The 14th century was the labor pain prior to the birth of a new and wondrous offspring named the Renaissance.
• 12th-13th Paris was the midwife to the Gothic
• 14th Siena
• 15th Florence was the midwife to the Renaissance. Florence was democratic and a banking center. It was the Wall Street of banking for Europe. (Banco = table for exchanging money)
• Renaissance vs. Gothic--
The Renaissance viewed itself as cultured and the Gothic as barbaric. (Renaissance had it all but lacked humility.)
Humanism and the Renaissance
• Middle Ages wanted to move from “vale of tears” to the world beyond. This parallels much of Eastern thought—Buddhism and Hinduism.
• Humanism is this worldly—being all that we can be? Sounds a lot like the Greeks.
• Humanism got new ideas from the Crusades of old and Byzantine refugees from Constantinople due to the Ottomans conquest in 1453
• Individualism influenced entire culture from art to economics.
• Tech revolution
• Italy’s city-state system paralleled that of the Greeks: – the Duchy of Milan
– Republic of Venice
– Republic of Florence
– Kingdom of Naples
– Papal States
– plus lesser states of Savoy, Urbino, Modena, Genoa, etc.
• If you truly wish to
understand the
feeling of the
Renaissance, this
movie is necessary.
Gentile’sAdoration of the Magi
• Gentile (International style or Late Gothic)Filled up all available space
Bright colors and halos
Golden frame
Proportion not important
• MasaccioSpace is present
Proportion in the buildings and people
Greco-Roman style
Pyramid
S-shaped curve
Masaccio’s Holy Trinity ca. 1426
Masaccio’s Tribute Money
Masaccio’s Expulsion of Adam and Eve
Fra Angelico’s Annunciation
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Botticelli’s Birth of Mars
Botticelli’s Primavera
Renaissance art
• Space is present• Proportion in the buildings and people• Greco-Roman style• Pyramid• S-shaped curve• Chiaroscuro
Donatello’s David ca. 1430
• Ghiberti and Brunelleschi’s competition in 1401 was the Super Bowl of Art. They worked on the baptistery doors of the Romanesque cathedral of Florence.
• East doors contained 10 panels—Michelangelo called them the Gates of Paradise
Ghiberti’s Creation of Adam
Ghiberti’s Cain Killing Abel
Ghiberti’s Sacrifice of Isaac
Brunelleschi’sSacrifice of Isaac
Ghiberti’s East DoorsGates of Paradise
Brunelleschi’s Dome
A Moment of Renaissance Zen• Brunelleschi’s strength lay
in his understanding of the past. It hurt him with the doors, but it worked for him with the dome. He mixed the Gothic and the classical Roman vaulting.
• My grandmother always said when teaching me to play bridge, “Allen, you always lead from your longest and strongest suit.”
Della Robbia
Ghirlandaio’s Adoration
Ghirlandaio’s A Man with His Grandchild
Bellini
Bellini
Unicorn Tapestry