High Reniassance

  • Cinquecento, cultural and artistic events of italy 1500-1599

Historical and cultural context

  • printing press - greater spread of ideas and allowed artists to sell copies of their works

  • travel increased —> art became more international, people could experience art from other parts of the world

  • Christopher Columbus - discovers the US which challenged the classical world view and encouraged a new age of science and math

  • changes in science, math, literature, poetry, philosophy, architecture, and music

Fine art

  • interest in classical culture, perspective, proportion, and human anatomy dominated the remainder of the 16th century (late renaissance)

  • art has astounding technical and aesthetic quality

  • modern “fine arts” and the celebration of artistic genius originated in Renaissance Italy

  • artists became international celebrities for the first time

  • artists were believed to have received inspiration from divinity

  • artists would secretly dissect human bodies to enhance their understanding of the anatomy

leading artists

  • leonardo di vinci, raphael, michelangelo

  • in rome, Bramate champions the classical style in architecture

  • albert furer, master printmakers, becomes the first international art celebrity outside of italy

The Figure

  • moses

  • holding the ten commandments

  • the high renaissance explored classical forms of the figure

  • several artists studied anatomy in an effort to make more realistic paintings and sculptures of the human form.

mediums

  • oil paint - invented in eraly renaissance in northern europe —> looks naturalistic, paint dries slowly allowing to make more detail

  • tempera - permanent fast-drying paint that uses egg yolk to bind pigment

  • marble - traditional medium used for sculpture used since ancient greek and roman times

  • fresco - mainly used in italy (technique dates back to ancient roman times). part of the architecture/wall. fresco meant “fresh” in italian, the word refers to the process. Buon fresco - technique of painting wet plaster where you have to work quickly.

leonardo da vinci

  • 1452-1519

  • born in vinci, italy

  • painter, sculpture, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, writer

  • dissected human corpses and studying anatomy helped artists develop proper proportions and realism

Madonna of the Rocks

  • geometrical arrangement of the figures

  • chiaroscuro

  • sfumato

  • foreshortening - the method of rendering a specific object of figure in a picture in depth

  • oils

  • triangular composition

  • da vinci painted two versions, one with a pointed gesture

  • the church did not like this pointed hand versuon because it focused on John the baptist instead of Jesus

Raffaello Sanzio

  • known as raphael, was an italian painter and architect of the high renaissance

  • his work is admired for its clarity of form ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur

  • together with Michalengelo and Leonardo da vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period

  • beef between him and michalengelo

  • worked on the chapel in the vatican at the same time

Michelangelo

  • 1475-1564

  • believed God put the sculpture within the rock and that the artist must uncover it

  • also believed go9od art comes from f\divine inspiration

  • “the moment i see a rock or stone, i see what is inside”

  • preferred sculpting above all art forms

the pieta

  • made of marble and is 68.5 in x 76.7 in

  • finished when michalengelo was just 24 years old

  • balances the renaissance ideals of classical beauty and naturalism

  • when other attributed the sculpture to another artist, michalengelo carved his name across mary’s chest