Renaissance Period Test

When did it start?

Started in 1400 (15th century) and lasted till 1500s.

What makes us human?

• We all look different

• Emotion

• Gesturing

• Clothes

• Skin tone

• Body shape

Things invented during this time:

• Linear perspective; creates an illusion of depth in a 2-dimensional surface 

• Printing press by Gutenberg; made a huge difference in affordability because people could easily get an education from books, etc. 

What was the Renaissancce a revival/rebirth of?

Greek and Roman art

Aerial Perspective:

To create an illusion of depth, you make the objects in the back smaller, and the ones in the front are bigger. The stuff in the background is darker, with muted colours, and the front is brighter, with an overlapping effect.

How did the people make the people?

They had solid, muscular bodies under the bodies; they gestured, had different skin tones, etc.

Who was the wealthy family that paid artists to paint for the church?

The Medici family

What did they paint with?

They painted with fresco; they mixed pigment with plaster.

What was the problem with painting with this substance?

They couldn't have details, though, because the fresco dried quickly.

The Holy Trinity - Masaccio 

Has the illusion of depth using both linear perspective in the lines under the arch. It also uses aerial perspective to create the illusion of depth.

Jesus is the focal point because;

• He’s in the middle of the painting

• He’s brighter and lighter than the other figures

• The lines under the arch are all pointing to him as if he is the vanishing point

• People are looking at him

• The axis lines guide the viewers eyes to Jesus

The Tribute Money - Masaccio

Humanism - All wearing different outfits, look different etc.

1. (middle) The tax collector (man in short top) goes up to St. Peter (man with the white hair, blue top and orange robe) and tells him he needs to pay his taxes. However, St. Peter doesn’t have any money so Jesus (man in the middle wearing red dress and blue robe) tells St. Peter to go fishing and he will catch a fish and find a coin in it to pay the tax collector.

2. (left side) St. Peter cuts open the fish that he caught and finds a coin.

3. (right side) St. Peter pays the tax collector.

The Annunciation - Fra Angelico

Has linear perspective (arches), but not much aerial perspective-there is no overlapping and differentiation in colour intensity between the foreground and the background.

The painting is about the angel Gabriel telling Mary that she is going to have a baby.-similar to the story of Sarah Imainu.

North Doors of the Baptistry belonging to the Florence Cathedral competition.

Lorenzo Ghiberti vs. Filippo Brunelleschi

Topic: The Sacrifice of Isaac

Ghiberti won because he had more overlapping which is more of a Renaissance characteristic.

Brunelleschi was a sore loser and abandoned sculpture. However, he decided to go into architecture.

The Battle of San Romano - Paolo Uccello

He was obsessed with overlapping. He did not care for colour intensity in order to create the illusion of depth, but used differentiation in size

The Baptism of Christ - Piero della Francesca

Introduction to symbolism in artwork.

The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

Balance is created by the horizontal dove and clouds which balance the vertical tall tree and the people.

We see Jesus is the focal point because:

1. Jesus is in the middle of the painting

2. The body of the dove above Jesus is pointing to Jesus

3. The curved arm of the man baptizing Jesus and the foliage of the tree make an arch over Jesus’ head create contour (curved) lines that guide the viewer to look at Jesus

St. Mark- Donatello

Sculpture that Donatello elongated his torso so that when the viewer looks up from a worm’s eye view, he appears in proper proportion (use of perspective)

Florence Cathedral - Filippo Brunelleschi

Brunelleschi was the architect who won the competition of who would design the dome for the church, which was the grandest in all of Florence.

The style of the dome is a Gothic style arch 

Pazzi Chapel - Brunelleschi

This church had Romanesque arches

Tha Adoration of the Magi - Sandro Botticelli

Mary is the focal point since 

1.she is in the centre of the painting.

2. She is at the top of the the pyramid where people are leaning in towards her (vanishing point)

3. The lines of the roof are pointing towards her

Humanism and aerial perspective are very apparent in this painting as well.