Renaissance Art and the rebirth of classicalism

• Medieval Art

  • Western Europe- art is more flat and not as realistic, a few people with architecture. Roman/Greek style architecture

  • Eastern Europe- art is more realistic, but less accurate to anatomy, depicts Jesus

• Raphael- “The School of Athens“, lots of people, Greek/Roman style architecture. People have more detail, shows different social classes in clothing

Characteristics of Renaissance Art

• **vivid, bright colors

• perspective

  • depth and realism (pulls on emotion)

• balance

• classical themes

  • Greek, Roman, and biblical figures were predominant

Renaissance Architecture

• St. Peter’s Basilica

  • big walls to protect it (Swiss soldiers: they don’t go to war)

  • classical

    • symmetry

    • proportion

    • domes- how do you get the stone up there?

    • columns

The Masters of the Renaissance

• Michelangelo, Donatello, Da Vinci, Raphael

  • Donatello’s “David“ was the first free standing nude statue since the classical period

  • Michelangelo’s “David“ is very Greeco/Roman in design

  • Michelangelo’s “Moses“ has horns because of a mistranslation of the Latin Vulgate- commissioned by the Pope

  • Raphael painted a lot of women in his career

  • “Last Supper” is famous because it depicts Jesus

  • Vitruvian Man- scientific revelation