Renaissance and Baroque Europe
RENAISSANCE
This is one of the greatest times in Human history and Art history!
In the arts we go from the flat Christian Iconography of the 1400’s to the representational art of the
Italian Renaissance. Many things change. The world expands, the financial structure divides, artists start signing their works, the philosophies shift and those are just the some of the major changes.
The big move is from Christianity to Humanism. Humanism was basically a move away from religion to figuring out the human’s role in the world was/is. The Italians revived that ideology from the Greek’s
Classical period, of course, with some changes. One change is that the Greeks art represented Gods that look human and the Italians created humans that look like Gods. The shift in the hierarchy of the 1400’s, where God was on top of the ladder and humans at the bottom, became God at the top and the humans next to him/her/it in the 1500’s. Don’t take it wrong, I am just trying to include every theory. The Greeks thought that man was the highest creation in nature – the closest thing to perfection in physical form
(pg. 226) and the Italian’s “Man is the measure of all things”. Refer to the lecture of Ch. 15 for further explanation if needed.
Remember what happened in 1492 and imagine the entirety of Europe doing similar things. Many families made a lot of money and one of the most famous and exciting was the Medici’s. The Borja’s are another one of those families. They even managed to have a couple of Popes. What happens is that the church is no longer the strongest financial entity and the services of the artists were up for bids. They needed buildings, weapons and art. The craftsmen were moving from technicians to artists. They had to sign their works in order to get credit for their talents. You will find that many artists, including Botticelli, learned their craft by studying in the sculpture gardens of copied Greek art that these new rich people had collected. They also studied in ateliers (studio/shop) of established artists. Families, bankers and merchants were all competing with the church for the services of the artists. What a time to be an artist.
So, that is the introduction to the introduction.
The first artist to move away from the status quo was Giotto di Bondone, otherwise known just as
Giotto. It is good to note that the example used in the text was created in 1305. That tells you that by the time the transition into the Hi-Renaissance was complete, in the 1500’s, it had taken 200 years. Mr.
Giotto reintroduces, from the Greeks, space, light and emotions. He is basically an artist of the Middle
Ages, chronologically. His use of visual elements was more like that of the Renaissance. The Mona Lisa was painted in 1503-06.
The circled area, on photo on the left, is the fresco, “Lamentation” painted in the Arena Chapel in Padua,
Italy. On the right is a sculpture of Mr. Giotto.
The artists that move away from the established art style will be considered, for this class, “Pivotal”.
That makes Giotto the first one.
In the early Renaissance, Masaccio becomes the first major artist, he, also, adds linear perspective which he borrowed from Filippo Brunelleschi (I believe it’s pronounced Brunelleskey). Mr. Giotto had already added the visual element of space and if you look at the wall in the middle of his composition you see that it is wider closer to you and thinner as it goes away and that is perspective. He didn’t introduce any thing new. Here is the Masaccio’s fresco in it place of creation, Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy.
Compare it to the size of the people.
The nude becomes common in Italian art as it had been during the Greek Classical period. Remember that now it is humans with God like qualities and not the other way around.
Donatello with his “David” makes him the next pivotal artist. This is the first free standing male
