APAH Unit 5: Early Renaissance

The Lamentation

The Lamentation (culture & location)

Early Renaissance; Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua, Italy

The Lamentation (creator, date, & material)

Giotto; 1305-1306 CE; fresco

The Lamentation (use & facts)

• chapel decor

• figures standing in real space & all react with sadness or shock

• modeled (3D) figures

• scenery & mountain point of Christ’s face

• bare tree = tree of life?

• Giotto is famous for his intense ultramarine (made from lapis lazuli) & rounded figures

Pazzi Chapel

Pazzi Chapel (culture & location)

Early Renaissance; Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Italy

Pazzi Chapel (creator, date, & material)

Filippo Brunelleschi; 1429-1461 CE; gray sandstone & terracotta

Pazzi Chapel (use & facts)

• family chapel

• patrons were Pazzi (rivals of Medici)

• attributed to Brunelleschi (disputed)

• dome finished after his death, outside left incomplete

• mirrors Renaissance ideals of geometry & symmetry

• Triumphal Arch in façade = power & glory to Florence

• classical elements = Corinthian columns & barrel vault

• white & gray tones for pietra serena (“serene tone”)

• terracotta circular roundels containing Christian imagery = Della Robbia

• humanism in architecture

David

David (culture & location)

Early Renaissance; Florence, Italy

David (creator, date, & material)

Donatello; 1440 CE; bronze

David (use & facts)

• first nude since classical times

• calm, serene, nude, youthful, & S curve = classical

• to be seen from all angles

• exaggerated contrapposto of body

• head down = humility?

• androgynous figure

• not for public view, housed in a garden in the Medici Palace, commissioned

• contemporary headgear & laurel leaf (Greek)

• symbol of Florence’s victory over Milan & of the Republic

• erotic sense of touch

• effeminate qualities = adolescence

Madonna and Child wiht Two Angels

Madonna and Child wiht Two Angels (culture & location)

Early Renaissance; Florence, Italy

Madonna and Child wiht Two Angels (creator, date, & material)

Fra Filippo Lippi; 1450-1465 CE; tempera on panel

Madonna and Child wiht Two Angels (use & facts)

• found in a window in Florentine home for display

• variation of theme painted by many

• halos almost disappear

• transparent fabric around Mary

• figures completely human

• Mary & Jesus lost in thought but closer angel connects with viewer (mischievous?)

• solid forms from Masaccio & transparent cloth passed on to Botticelli

• Mary as young mother

• landscape = rock of church & heavenly Jerusalem

• pearls in headdress & pillow = Immaculate Conception

• Mary modeled after Lippi’s scandalous lover

• humanizing sacred theme-

Birth of Venus

Birth of Venus (culture & location)

Early Renaissance; Florence, Italy

Birth of Venus (creator, date, & material)

Botticelli; 1484-1486 CE; tempura paint on canvas

Birth of Venus (use & facts)

• commissioned by Medici family for display in country villa

• Botticelli = hair & drapery

• Neo-Platonism = all our history is one history intertwined (Greek & Roman myths are actually the Bible)

• Venus = Mary (Virgins), John the Baptist = Spring, Winds = Angels

• Venus & west wind on one level

• delicate lines, pale, floating figures = ethereal

• symbolic gold hair

• nature is stylized (waves & falling flowers)

• one of the first works on canvas

Palazzo Rucellai

Palazzo Rucellai (culture & location)

Early Renaissance; Florence, Italy

Palazzo Rucellai (creator, date, & material)

Leon Battista Alberti; 1450 CE; stone masonry

Palazzo Rucellai (use & facts)

• house

• façade divided into 3 tiers by entablatures decreasing in height from bottom to top

• pilasters of different column order

• square windows, portals, & crosshatched stone

• arcades with round arches surround windows

• crowed by projecting classical cornice

• similar to Colosseum (column & architecture)

• Roman reference = arcades & emphasis on classical elements

• included Rucellai family designs (sails = crest)

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel (culture & location)

High Renaissance; St. Peter’s Bascilica, Rome, Italy

Sistine Chapel (creator, date, & material)

Michelangelo; 1508-1512 CE; fresco

Sistine Chapel (use & facts)

• chapel celing decoration

• know Adam & Eve, Birth of Adam, the Great Flood (the Deluge), & Delphic Sybyl

• blend of Neo-Platonism & Christianity

• triangles ancestors of Christ

• between paired pillars are sages of antiquity

• corners are Old Testament stories

• nudes unite work

Last Supper

Last Supper (culture & location)

High Renaissance; Santa Maria della Frazie, Milan, Italy

Last Supper (creator, date, & material)

Leonardo da Vinci; 1494-1498 CE; oil & tempera on plaster

Last Supper (use & facts)

• monastery refectory (cafeteria) decoration

• experimentation with pigment (oil & tempera) resulted in deterioration of work

• Christ’s head vanishing point

• new = 1 point perspective & creation of depth

• door later cut into panel

• commissioned by Sforza family

• only da Vinci work that remains in situ (in place)

• dramatize the moment Jesus says “one of you will betray me”

• chiaroscuro, foreshortening, natural light, emotion, poses & interactions

School of Athens

School of Athens (culutre & location)

High Renaissance; Vatican, Rome, Italy

School of Athens (creator, date, & material)

Rafael; 1500-1511 CE; fresco

School of Athens (use & facts)

• represetation of Neo-Platonism

• perfect High Renaissance fresco

• Greek Philosophers with portraits of Leonardo, Michelangelo, & Rafeal (Neo-Platonism)

• sculptural quality, idealized & graceful individual bodies

• grouped in architectural setting

• balance & composition with vanishing point between heads of Plato & Aristotle

Venus of Urbino

Venus of Urbino (culture & location)

High Renaissance; Venice, Italy

Venus of Urbino (creator, date, & material)

Titian; 1536 CE; oil on canvas

Venus of Urbino (use & facts)

• wedding present from groom to wife (detailing her marital duties)

• Venus inside a Renaissance palace

• Venus looks you in the eye

• model for other famous paintings

• symbolism: dog = fidelity, maid & child = motherhood, nudity = obligation of wife

• Titian = deep color (titian red)

• Venetian Renaissance = sensuous figures, soft light, ideal/Arcadian setting

Entombment of Christ

Entombment of Christ (culture & location)

High Renaissance; Florence, Italy

Entombment of Christ (creator, date, & material)

Jacobo Pontormo; 1538 CE; oil on canvas

Entombment of Christ (use & facts)

• triptych for personal prayer

• mannerism (stylized bodies, limp) – opposite of Renaissance

• just figures, packed with people

• no depiction of cross (deposition or entombment of Christ?)

• unnatural body position of figure in left foreground

• no place for eye to rest

• constant movement

• figures have no weight & over exaggerated emotions

Merode Altarpiece (Annunication Triptych)

Merode Altarpiece (Annunication Triptych) (culture & location)

Northern Renaissance; Netherlands

Merode Altarpiece (Annunication Triptych) (creator, date, & material)

Ropert Campin; 1426 CE; oil on panel

Merode Altarpiece (Annunication Triptych) (use & facts)

• Triptych for personal prayer

• Campin = Master of Flamalle

• religion in everyday settings, inside a Flemish house

• donors on left & mini-angel brings message

• Mary on the floor (humility) with a star-like dress reading Old Testament (NT on table)

• Joseph makes mousetrap to catch the devil

• lilies show Mary’s purity

• undefined vanishing point

• attention to detail (new with use of oil paint)

Arnolfini Portrait

Arnolfini Portrait (culture & location)

Northern Renaissance; Bruges, Netherlands

Arnolfini Portrait (creator, date, & material)

Jan van Eyck; 1434 CE; oil on oak

Arnolfini Portrait (use & facts)

• perhaps memorial portrait for dead wife

• details show wealth of clothing

• ATTENTION TO DETAIL

• mirror with stations of the cross

• woman is not pregnant, its just folds of dress

• signature of painter on wall

• reflection of painter in mirror

Return of the Hunters

Return of the Hunters (culture & location0

Northern Renaissance; Netherlands

Return of the Hunters (creator, date, & material)

Pieter Bruegel; 1565 CE; oil & tempura on wood

Return of the Hunters (use & facts)

• series of paintings representing months

• aka Hunters in the Snow

• attention to detail

• high horizon ling with strong diagonals & alpine (the Alps) landscape

• figures are types, not individuals

• painting is still

• hunters discouraged, dogs are thin, heads down

• mood changes in second plane with winter activities (skating)

• limited color palette  unified spatial planes of the painting

• use of repeated colors pushes & pulls between fore-, middle, and background

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve (culutre & location)

Northern Renaissance; Nuremburg, Germany

Adam and Eve (creator, date, & material)

Albrecht Durer; 1504 CE; engraving

Adam and Eve (use & facts)

• Introduce German public to classical forms in art (Greco-Roman Renaissance influence)

• Adam & Eve in German fairy tale forest

• animals all get along

• Italian influence = contrapposto with heads twisted to one other

• attention to detail

• Durer invented “artist as celebrity”

• used print making to sell his brand

Isenheim Altarpiece

Isenheim Altarpiece (culutre & location)

Northern Renaissance; Isenheim (eastern), France

Isenheim Altarpiece (creator, date, & material)

Matthias Grunewald; 1512-1516 CE; oil on panel

Isenheim Altarpiece (use & facts)

• hospital decor

• View 1: crucifixion = dark background, decomposing flesh, arms torn from sockets

• Christ reminiscent of patients from the hospital it was located at being treated for St. Anthoy’s fire disease

• Mary dressed as nuns (worked with sick)

• View 2: Christ has amputated limbs & rises from the dead on the right in Marianist garden

• HUNG IN HOSPITAL WHERE PEOPLE WERE TREATED FOR DISEASE

Allegory of Law and Grace

Allegory of Law and Grace (culture & location)

Northern Reniassance; Germany

Allegory of Law and Grace (creator, date, & material)

Lucas Cranach; 1530 CE; woodcut & letter press

Allegory of Law and Grace (use & facts)

• support for Protestant belief that faith alone saves

• Reformation work symbolically pointing out how faith alone with save you

• made with Martin Luther’s consent

• aka Law & Gospel

• made into woodcut for easy, cheap, & accessible reproduction to be spread around Europe

• depicts faithful saved by God’s grace & studying the Bible

• law of Moses is not enough