Renaissance

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Renaissance
Art in the
1400 1600
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Overview

• Italian/Early 1400-1490
• Italian/High 1500-1600
• Northern/Late 1500-1600
• one can argue about dates 1300
  1520 1400 1600

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map
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Renaissance

• 1st period to name itself and say nasty things
  about earlier timesGothic Dark Ages
• Term means Rebirth
• Looking back to Classical culture Ancient
  Greece and Rome
• Names! Artists known by name 1st contemporary
  art historian (1550) Individuality celebrated in
  this era

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Renaissance

• Church is still the biggest power structure
• Beginning of banking
• Private fortunes power
• Starts in Italy specifically Florence

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Man loves himself once again
The Return of Humanism
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from Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the
Dignity of Man (1486)
. . . I feel that I have come to some
understanding of why man is the most fortunate of
living things and, consequently, deserving of all
admiration of what may be the condition in the
hierarchy of beings assigned to him, which draws
upon him the envy, not of the brutes alone, but
of the astral beings and of the very
intelligences which dwell beyond the confines of
the world.
see also p. 190
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Donatello, David, 1432
p. 203
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Donatello, David, 1432
Tuscan hat
p. 203
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Donatello,David, 1432Goliaths headdetail
Style of helmet art symbolic reference to other
Italian city-states
Love of texture
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Donatello, David, 1432

• 1st free-standing, life size nude sculpture
  since antiquity!
• contrapposto but not just an imitation of past
  models
• for private collection
• David underdog Florence
• Goliath giant Milan other central Italian
  cities in league against Florence

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Donatello, David, 1432
Inscription The victor is whoever defends the
fatherland. God crushes the wrath of an enormous
foe. Behold - a boy overcame a great tyrant!
Conquer, O citizens! Kingdoms fall through
luxury, cities rise through virtues. Behold the
neck of pride, severed by the hand of humility.
p. 203
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An earlier Donatello David (c.1410)
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Florence CathedralBrunelleschi dome
CONFIDENCE REDISCOVERED!
p. 193-197
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Florence CathedralBrunelleschi domeinside view
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Tower designed by Giotto, 1334
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View of Duomo from Pitti Palace (across the river)
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Pitti Palace
Uffizzi
View from the Duomo
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Pazzi Chapel
Post lintel returns GEOMETRY
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Pazzi Chapel
p. 198
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Pitti Palace
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(No Transcript)
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Alberti (façade architect), Santa Maria Novella,
Florence, 1470
By the numbers 21 31 41
not in text
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p. 202
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MasaccioTrinity1427-28Fresco21' 10 1/2" x 10'
4 Santa Maria Novella, Florence
1st use of linear perspective
not in text
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Masaccio, Tribute Money, c. 1427
p. 199
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Tribute Money,detailNote use of chiaroscuro
(light and dark shading) to create volume in the
clothes.
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Ghiberti, LorenzoThe Gates of Paradise
1425-52Bronze with gilding
p. 195-196
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Ghiberti, LorenzoThe Gates of Paradise
1425-52Bronze with gilding
p. 195-196
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Ghiberti, LorenzoThe Gates of Paradise
1425-52Bronze with gilding
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Ghiberti, LorenzoThe Gates of Paradise
1425-52Bronze with gilding
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Ghiberti, LorenzoDetail from the Gates of
Paradise The story of Joseph1425-52Bronze with
gilding80 x 80 cmBaptistery, Florence
not in text
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BOTTICELLI, SandroThe birth of Venusc. 1485,
Tempera on canvas(67 7/8 x 109 5/8 in.)
NOT IN TEXT
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BOTTICELLI, SandroPrimaverac. 1482. Tempera on
wood203 x 314 cm
p. 199
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BOTTICELLI, SandroPrimaverac. 1482. Tempera on
wood203 x 314 cm
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BOTTICELLI, SandroVenus and Marsc. 1485. Egg
tempera and oil on poplar69 x 173.5 cm
NOT BIBLICAL!
not in text
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KEY IMAGE
PERIOD PLACE ARTIST TITLE DATE
Early Renaissance
Florence
Donatello
David
1432
p. 203
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KEY IMAGE
PERIOD ARTIST TITLE
Renaissance
Botticelli
p. 199
La Primavera (Birth of Spring)
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Pazzi Chapel
KEY IMAGE
p. 198
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Summary Italian Renaissance

• POLITICS Italian city-states power from money
• EARLY RENAISSANCE Florence
• HIGH RENAISSANCE
• ART Classical ideals revived
• IDEAS Humanism returns
• MUSIC