CLASS 5 15TH AND 16TH CENTURY ITALY Perugino Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter 1481 fresco approx 11 x 19 Sistine Chapel Rome middle Renaissance key terms one point perspective linear perspective vanishing point orthogonal lines 2 Sistine Chapel Rome Perugino Christ Delivering the Keys to Saint Peter 1481 fresco approx 11 x 19 Rome middle Renaissance Under Pope Sixtus IV Rome begins to become the capital of Renaissance art it is today Sixtus IV became a great art patron and he invited artists from all over Italy to participate in his projects the most important of which is the Sistine Chapel Sixtus Sistine Perugino was one of the painters involved and seems to have supervised the project Sistine Chapel 1480s 1510 Rome middle Renaissance and High Renaissance The Sistine Chapel begun by Pope Sixtus IV was the private chapel of the Pope and the Cardinals in Rome Andrea Mantegna Camera Picta Painted Chamber 1465 1474 fresco middle Renaissance Mantua Key terms foreshortening illusionism putti cupids Mantegna Camera Picta 1465 74 fresco middle Renaissance Mantua key term foreshortening Examples of foreshortening Andrea Mantegna Dead Christ c 1500 tempera on canvas middle Renaissance key term foreshortening Antonio del Pollaiuolo Hercules and Antaeus c 1475 bronze 18 high Florence middle Renaissance Originally located in the Medici Palace The story may have had political significance for the Medici as they faced strategic military financial and political challenges from Florence s enemies among the Italian citystates The story has no immediately recognizable biblical content and thus marks an important moment in the history of European Antonio del Pollaiuolo Battle of the Ten Nudes c 1465 1470 intaglio printing engraving 15 x 23 Florence middle Renaissance Sandro Botticelli Birth of Venus c 1484 1486 tempera and gold on canvas 5 8 x 9 Florence middle Renaissance Botticelli Birth of Venus c 1484 1486 Masaccio Trinity 1425 1428 Sandro Botticelli Primavera Spring 1482 6 8 x 10 tempera on panel Florence middle Renaissance key terms allegory Neoplatonism figures from right to left Zephyrus Chloris Flora Venus Cupid 3 Graces Chastity Beauty Love Mercury Renaissance chronology Early Renaissance late 13th 14th c Trecento 1300s artists attempting to depict optical effects looking at the world around them rather than at past works of art Middle Renaissance 15th c Quattrocento 1400s artists beginning to work through techniques for convincingly depicting world around them art is conceived as a window on the world naturalism and illusionism become important goals High Renaissance late 15th 16th Cinquecento 1500s artists have mastered techniques for convincingly depicting world around them and bring them to new heights this chronology holds true for both the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance but keep in mind that the Northern Renaissance often preserves more Gothic qualities Mannerism late 16th c overlaps with High Renaissance having mastered the techniques of naturalism and illusionism many artists turn away from them to create works that are visually illogical in many ways High Renaissance 1490s 1527 Popes in Rome are trying to increase their power and influence and often used art to do so In order to raise money to fund their projects they sell indulgences which leads to protest in Northern Europe most famously that of Martin Luther c 1520 The status of artists rises from that of manual laborers to divinely inspired geniuses People begin to record the details of their lives and personalities This period is called the High Renaissance because it is seen as the culmination of a series of developments beginning in the 13 th and e 14th centuries with artists like Cimabue and Giotto Art is now seen to achieve a kind of perfection both in terms of technique and artistic expression The three major artists of this period are Leonardo da Vinci Raphael and Michelangelo all of whom work in Florence but who travel and work in various cities in Italy and even France Leonardo They all know each other and are often competing with one another On a more practical note Italian artists generally begin to favor oil over tempera although many still produce frescoes for large wall spaces Leonardo da Vinci 1452 1519 Leonardo da Vinci was the oldest of the three artists He was 23 years older than Michelangelo and 31 years older than Raphael He was the illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant woman and at a young age he was taken into his father s home and later apprenticed to an artist To say that he had a wide range of interests is a massive understatement He studied such subjects as painting sculpture architecture engineering military science botany anatomy geology geography hydraulics aerodynamics optics and astronomy He outlined his ideas in a series of secret notebooks he kept throughout his life Many of his ideas were rediscovered centuries later by scientists and engineers who were unaware of his work Although born in Florence Leonardo spent most of his life working in the north for the Duke of Milan who he served as a kind of civil engineer and military advisor as well as a court artist Leonardo s notebooks backward writing Leonardo s notebooks Leonardo s notebooks anatomical sketches Leonardo s notebooks inventions Leonardo s notebooks and reconstruction of tank Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man c 1490 The 1st c BCE Roman architect Vitruvius equated the ideal human form with the perfect geometrical shapes of the square and the circle The length of the arms was supposed to be the same as the height from the top of the head to the feet Thus the figure fit within a square If the figure s arms and legs were extended they were to fit within the circumference of a circle Many artists have tried to realize Vitruvius s written description in visual terms and Leonardo s version is the most successful Leonardo da Vinci Virgin of the Rocks c 1485 oil on wood transferred to canvas approx 6 3 x 3 7 High Renaissance Key terms Chiaroscuro shading or modeling Chiaro light oscuro dark Sfumato smokiness the feeling that you are looking through the air or atmosphere Aerial or atmospheric perspective objects become hazier and lighter in color as they fade into distance Botticelli Birth of Venus c 1484 1486 Leonardo da Vinci Angel c 1485 key term sfumato Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper 1495 98 oil and tempera on plaster 15 x 29 Milan High Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa 1503 6 oil on panel 30 x 21