Art History Precursors of the Renaissance'

1
Art History Precursors of the Renaissance.

• 11th 12th centuries, Italy was mostly influenced
  by Byzantine Art.
• By the 13th century shifts in W. European Art.
• Classic Byzantine Image
• Traits

2
Background to the Italian Renaissance

• 533 CE After Justinians reconquest
• Cities in Italy largely depopulated
• 6th 11th c. CE Italy rural with few urban
  areas.
• 12th c. resurgence of urban living.
• 13th c. cities become densely populated again.
• Venice other cities long time intermediary in
  trade between Europe and Muslim Byzantine
  states.
• Grew wealthy
• Became banking centers before the rest of Europe.
• Wealth led to cities becoming city-states

3
(No Transcript)
4
Background to the Italian Renaissance

• Italian City-States
• Not ruled by monarchs.
• Lots of autonomy different kinds of government
  developed (some were monarchies, some were under
  the control of the Pope, some were republics)
• Expanded political influence over areas around
  them
• States named after city that ruled them (ex
  Florence).
• Holy Roman Emperor Pope fought over the city
  states and allowed them to grow to further their
  own interests.
• New Social Classes due to concentration of wealth
  power
• New Wealth created by those NOT in the noble
  class.
• Land wealth in Middle Ages held by Nobles
  only. Now, Wealth mostly in hands of
  non-aristocrats.
• Nobility borrowed money to gamble, party, fight
  wars, etc. defaulted on loans.
• Part of their land then transferred to wealthy
  bankers merchants.
• By the end of the 15th c. most wealth transferred
  from nobles (includeing Pope) to commercial class.

5
Hierarchy of Renaissance Italy

• 5 Classes, but different around Italy.
• TOP Old Nobility Merchant Class that ruled the
  cities.
• Emerging capitalist and bankers that identified
  with lower class, but wanted to be as powerful as
  top class.
• Less wealthy merchants and trades-people
• Poor destitute. 25 - 35 of urban population.
• Domestic Slaves. Few in number. Reintroduction
  of slavery as an economic practice to Europe.
• Lowest three classes resented the top two.
• In Florence, 1378, they revolted and took over
  govt for four crazy years.
• This led to several decades of power struggles.

6
The Italian Renaissance

• Renaissance French for rebirth
  (rinascimento in Italian)
• Revival of interest in ancient Greek and Rome,
  end of 14th c.-17th c.
• Italy was the logical starting place as Rome was
  part of its history.
• Specifically Florence home to Dante,
  Machiavelli, Boccacio, the Medicis,
• Other later Renaissances
• English Renaissance 16th 17th c.
• German Renaissance 15th 16th c.
• Northern Renaissance after 1500
• French Renaissance 15th 17th c.
• Renaissance in the Netherlands 1500s
• Polish Renaissance 15th -16th
• Spanish Renaissance 15th 16th c.
• Renaissance architecture in Eastern Europe 1500s

7
Precursors of the Renaissance

• Giotto di Bondone
• (c. 1267-1337)
• created new developments.
• Born near Florence (center of Renaissance
  culture)
• Brought the art of painting out of Medieval
  darkness and into daylight - Boccaccio
• Petrarch owned one of his pieces

8
Cimabue c. 1280-90 vs. Giotto c. 1310
9
Duccio, Kiss of Judas, 1308-11 vs. Giotto, Kiss
of Judas, 1305
10
Rise of Humanism

• Libraries/Collections of classical texts
• Ancient Art Architecture
• Focus on man, Nature, the Human Form, the Human
  Character
• Seen in art Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo
• and literature Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio.

11
Changing attitudes

• Literacy increased
• Use of vernacular, stories focused on man, etc.
• New attitudes to individual fame.
• Medieval artists remained anonymous
• Renaissance artists signed their work.

12
Early 15th Century Painting

• Masaccio (1401-c.1428)
• Used innovations of Giotto and developed them
  into a revolutionary new monumental style.
• The Holy Trinity
• In the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence

13
Filippo Lippi c. 1406-69

• Madonna and Child with Scenes from the Life of
  Saint Anne (1450s). Pitti Palace, Florence

14

• Andrea Mantegna
• Northern Italys leading painter in the late
  1400s.
• Ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi, Ducal Palace,
  Mantua, Italy. 1474. Fresco .
• Shows the artists humor.

15
Botticelli (1445-1510) Birth of Venus 1482
16
Jan van Eyck (c. 1380/90 1441)Arnolfini
Portrait
17
The High Renaissance in Italy

• Age of great accomplishments in Western Art
• Politically time of tension and turbulence.
• Ambitious odd popes, made Rome the artistic
  center of Italy
• Alexander VI, Julius II, Leo X
• Goals Reassert authority over all Christians,
  stamp out heresy bring uniformity to Christian
  belief, hold political power over Papal States,
  Drive Ottoman Turks out of Europe (it seemed as
  if they would take over Europe).
• Popes very politically active criticized by
  Northern Humanists.
• These popes were also patrons to some of the best
  Renaissance artists. (Julius II hired
  Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel)

18
Artists of the High Renaissance

• Time period dominated by a small number of
  powerful artistic personalities.
• Leonardo da Vinci (Florentine)
• Bramante (Roman)
• Michelangelo (Florentine)
• Raphael (Florentine)
• Giorgione (Venetian)
• Titian (leader of the Venetian school)
• Only Titian and Michelangelo lived beyond 1520,
  when new artistic styles began to emerge and the
  short period of the High Renaissance ended.

19
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Embryo in the Womb c. 1510,
• Many Renaissance artists studied human anatomy,
  but Leonardo went beyond the usual artistic
  concern for musculature and studied reproductive,
  digestive respiratory systems.

20
The Last Supper (c. 1495-98)
21
The Mona Lisa c. 1503-5
22
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

• Pieta (1498-1500) Marble

23
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome
1508-12
24
Creation of Adam

• Most famous image from the Sistine Chapel

25
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio)(1483-1520) The
School of Athens
26
Whose who in the School of Athens?
27
SOCRATES
Raphael self portrait
Alexander III of Macedon Socrates
Close-ups School of Athens
PLATO (Leonardo)
ARISTOTLE
PYTHAGORAS
Heraclitus (looking like Michael Angelo)
ZOROASTER PTOLEMY
28
The Downside of the Renaissance.

• The Renaissance didnt introduce only good
  cultural phenomena
• More volatile class division than ever due to
  quick growing wealth of some.
• Legal status of women declined severely.
• Slavery reintroduced.
• Slavery reintroduced as early as 1100s.
• Spanish started as key slave traders, but
  Italians became large consumers of human slaves
  as city-states grew.
• Not yet racial slavery. Most were Muslims from
  Spain, North Africa, Crete, Balkans, and Ottoman
  Empire.
• Very few black slaves in Iberian Peninsula
  Italy.

29
The Downside of the Renaissance.

• Slaves in Italy
• Most were domestic servants
• Most wealthy in cities had at least one
• When purchased owner got full rights, including
  right to sell and enjoy the slave.
• Slaves children were born free.
• If a slaveowner slave had a child, the
  slaveowner would raise the child as a legitimate.
• Slavery outside of Italy
• Venetian sugar cane plantations on Cyprus and
  Crete
• New kind of plantation slavery developed
• Sugar is labor intensive the cheapest labor was
  needed.