medieval and renaissance art

medieval art

1. Lacks depth or perspective

2. Figures are stiff and elongated

3. Facial expressions lack emotions

4. Background frequently a solid color

The Life of St. Denis 1317

• Flat

• 2-d 

• Lack of depth

• Hard to tell sequence of story

• Everything crammed 

in 

• Emphasis on revelation (not realism)

medieval art

1. Lacks depth or perspective

2. Figures are stiff and elongated

3. Facial expressions lack emotions

4. Background frequently a solid color

The Life of St. Denis 1317

• Flat

• 2-d 

• Lack of depth

• Hard to tell sequence of story

• Everything crammed 

in 

• Emphasis on revelation (not realism)

The Bayeux tapestry

Tells of William the Conqueror in The Battle of Hastings in 1066

Giotto 1267-1337

• Granddaddy of the Renaissance
  

• Innovates art by breaking with Middle Ages

Giotto, like Dante, is a bridge between the medieval and Renaissance periods.

Giotto No. 7 Scenes from the Life of the Virgin The Birth of the Virgin (1304-06)

• Has added depth
  

• Still Medieval elements

Masaccio (1401-1428)

• First great renaissance painter
  

• Turns art into a science
  

• Foreground and depth

• Clarity of line

• Concern for perspective
  

• Psychological states evident
  

• Uncluttered arrangement

Renaissance art

1. Use of perspective

2. Realistic figures that convey emotions

3. Natural landscapes as background 

4. Looking back to classical Greece and Rome (especially idealized human form!)

• Renaissance artist had high status because having patrons was an upper class symbol

• Wealth was less about nobility and more about ability to make money

• Byzantine art challenged by new realism of Italian

• Florence most culturally influential because of commerce

Donatello

• Florentine sculptor

• Wood, bronze, and marble

• First free standing statues of the Renaissance

Da Vinci

•  Florence artist

• Anatomical studies

• Dissected cadavers (which was viewed as devilish and bordering on witchcraft and sorcery at this time)

Mechanical studies

Michelangelo

• Carved from 1501-1504

• Realistic

• Idealized beauty
  

• Symbolized Florence’s civic power

Raphael

• The School of Athens most famous piece because it looks back to the classics: philosophy, education, and architecture all represented

• Plato holds Timaeus and points to the heavens

• Aristotle holds Ethics and points to the earth

• Pythagoras calculates on a slate
  

• Ptolemy holds a globe

• Raphael looks to the viewer

Jan Van Eyck

• Flemish painter

• Painted in Bruges

• The Arnolfini marriage commemorated his witnessing of the 1434 marriage of a Florentine representative of the Medici bank

• Exquisite technique

• Symbolism

• Microscopic attention to detail

Hieronymous Bosch

• Pessimistic view of nature

• Complicated, bizzare scenes

• Paintings show consequences of sin

• Almost nothing is known of his life

• Symbolism too complex to fully understand

Albrecht

Durer

Pieter Brughel

• Realistic depictions of middle class and lower class life

• Best known paintings are scenes of peasant life

• Represents culmination of Renaissance art in Netherlands

• Crowded canvases 

• Apparent futility of human existence

Madonna enthroned

Giotto

Landscape with the fall of icarus

• Everyday life is the focus of the piece

• Icarus is a side note to the ploughman.

Peasant wedding feast

Hunters in the snow

Bruegel

Four horsemen of the apocalypse

Albrecht Durer

Garden of earthly delights

Hieronymous Bosch

The Arnolfi Marriage

Jan Van Eyck

The school of athens

Raphael

The adoration of the magi

Botticelli

The birth of Venus

Botticelli

David

Donattello, first free-standing nude sculpture since the classical period

The feast

Donnatello, about the beheading of john baptist

The procession of the Magi

Benozzo Gozzolli

La primavera

Botticelli, Natural figures as backgrounds

The vision of Saint Augustine

Vittorre carpaccio, realistic figures convey emotions

The last supper

Da Vinci, Jesus is center

Head of the virgin

Da Vinci

Trinity

Massacio