Proto- and Early Renaissance

Proto- Renaissance time.

1200-1300s

What were the themes of the Proto- and Early Renaissance?

cultural and intellectual changes

back to Italy

Italian artists and thinkers began experimenting with ideas, naturalism, more volume and three dimensionality

experimentation with individual expression (more in Renaissance)

• figures are more human by showing emotion and gesture

• interaction between figures

experimenting with classical antiquity

Why did Proto- Renaissance happen in the 13th and 14th century?

Italy was a collection of city states

• Florence. Sienna, etc.

city states were booming thanks to trade and banking

they became proud of their identities and wanted to use art to celebrate the city itself and express their pride

What was the rise of powerful merchant classes? What did they cause?

weren’t kings or nobles but instead wealthy bankers and businessmen

acted as patrons of the arts

purchased and commissioned art works

example of the de’ Medici family

What were the early stirrings of Humanism?

images were more human and grounded in the real world

turning back to classical antiquity

• more art, architecture but also literature and language

art begins to pay more attention to human emotion and earthly settings

What was literacy and language like in proto- Renaissance?

vernacular language

more and more people learning to read

not reading in Latin but in vernacular

• more accessible to the general public

people wanted to see these narratives in art (narrative driven artwork)

What did the Black Death cause for early Renaissance art?

bubonic plague

killed up to 60% of population

stimulated the art market because people were more eager to commission religious devotion artworks

Giotto di Bondone, Madonna Enthroned, Florence, Italy, ca. 1310

more naturalism

revived classical naturalism

human body with substance and weight, facial features, emotion, interaction between figures depicted more realistically

figures placed in amore earthly setting (figures are touching ground not floating)

Madonna’s body is present behind drapery

thrown is architectural looking

What is Fresco? What does it or doesn’t it allow for?

used in Renaissance art

painting on wet plaster

brought back medium of many Greek and Roman art (connotations to Greco-Roman antiquity)

challenging to work with

• must paint quickly

allows for achievement of naturalism

can’t do tonal gradation

What is foreshortening?

use of perspective to represent an object that appears perpendicular to the plane

as if images or figures are coming out at you

What is chiaroscuro?

use of light and dark values to model figure to give mass and volume

adding shadows and highlights strategically

Giotto, Lamentation, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy c. 1305-1306

taking Christ down from cross

three dimensional background (foreground, middle-ground, background)

overlap of figures

clear blue sky; rocks and trees (more earthly)

some foreshortening

de-flattening of figures

human emotion depiction

• real people with individual features

• emotional portraits of people

• images are more relatable and can be empathized with

• observable suffering, sadness, grief, frustration on different characters

Individualization to humans in religious scenes

What were civic artworks of the Proto- Renaissance? (Especially in reference to Sienna and give example)

Sienna was a powerful city state

• thought of itself as rival of Florence

civic artwork for Palazo Pubblico

commissioned artwork for public halls and spaces

e.g. Lorenzetti’s Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country

What were 3 main transition points for Proto- Renaissance to Renaissance proper?

observation to system

classical revival becomes central

rise of Humanist patronage

Early Renaissance time.

1400-1490

What was a major development during early renaissance?

one point linear perspective

• using mathematical tools

• systemic way of depicting natural art

• observation → system

What was the rise of Humanist patronage?

artists working hand in hand with humanist scholars to achieve naturalism

Medici family commissioning art to display civic themes, humanism, rationality/beauty

changes tone and subject matter of art

Who was Brunelleschi and what was he known for?

one of the fathers of early Renaissance

formulated one point linear perspective

• system and set of rules that artists could use

• using horizon line, vanishing point and orthogonals

built Duomo in Florence

What did one point linear perspective suggest about themes in the early Renaissance?

combining painting and maths to draw realistic buildings and humans

organized space in a logical way

reason and logic to organize canvas

system could be taught/widely spread to other artists

What is a niche?

a domed spatial space on outside of buildings

assigned niches to specific guilds/trade organizations

sculpture that is independent from architecture

• separating sculpture from architecture

sculpture becomes more autonomous

Donatello, David, bronze, c. 1435-1440, Florence

he revived classical sculpture

re-introduced free standing architecture

• revived free standing nude sculpture

  • vs. in Medieval ages figures were clothed especially with start of Christianity and modesty

he is youth, slender, less pronounced

pride in representing David not as a muscular, monumental athlete

• David outsmarted Goliath and defeated Goliath not only on strength alone

appealed to the Humanists

commissioned by Medici family