The Painter

Lorri Leigh-Daley

John Seed

Art 102 M-W 1:30-5:00

7/261/99

Enchanting Times of the Renaissance

The enchanting times of the Renaissance a "re-birth" of art in Italy. This was the rediscovery of literature, science and ancient philosophy, and evolution of empirical methods of study in these fields. The increased awareness of classical knowledge helped to create an approach to learn by direct observation and the study of the natural world. The secular themes grew increasingly important to artists, along with the revived interest in antiquity opened a new repertoire of subjects from Greek and Roman history and mythology. Models provided by ancient buildings, works of art inspired the development of new artistic techniques and the desire to re-create the forms and styles of classical art.

Renaissance art was the emergence of not just an artist but as a creator, sought after, and respected for his erudition and imagination. Art, too, became extremely valued, not merely a vehicle for social and religious didacticism, but more so as a personal, aesthetic expression. (Web Museum Online)

The Early Renaissance principal members of the first generation of Renaissance artists--DONATELLO in sculpture, Filippo BRUNELLESCHI in architecture, and MASACCIO in painting. These fine artist's shared many important characteristics. There was a faith in the theoretical foundations of art and the conviction that development and progress were not only possible but also essential to the life and significance of the arts. Ancient art was revered, as an inspiring model but also as a record of trial and error. Renaissance artists have sought to create art forms that were consistent with the appearance of the natural world but with their experience of the human personality and behavior. The Early Renaissance characterizes virtually all the art of the 15th century. Florence, the soul of the Renaissance remained one of the undisputed centers of innovation.

DONATELLO, (c.1386-1466), Italian sculptor, was a major innovator in RENAISSANCE art. He assisted GHIBERTI in Florence and worked on its cathedral. His sculptures developed from Gothic forms, e.g., the marble David (Bargello, Florence) to strong, humanistic expression, e.g., St. Mark (Orsanmichele, Florence). DONATELLO developed a shallow relief technique (schiacciato) with which he achieved effects of spatial depth. In Rome, he studied ancient monuments that influenced his sculpture. DONATELLO headed a vast workshop in Padua (1443-53). His late Florentine masterworks include the Magdalen (Baptistery) and the pulpits of San Lorenzo.

Lorenzo GHIBERTI, (c.1378-1455), Florentine sculptor. In 1401, he won the competition to produce a bronze portal for the Baptistery in Florence, defeating BRUNELLESCHI. He designed the north portal to match Andrea PISANO'S earlier Gothic portal and was constrained by its rigid quatrefoil framework. The reliefs, executed between 1403 and 1424, depict the life of Jesus, the Evangelists, and the Church Fathers. Ghiberti also produced sculptural figures for the Church of Or San Michele before he began work on the baptistery's east portal, a task that took him 23 years. These later reliefs were more modern in form and structure. His Comentarii is the earliest known autobiography of an artist.

Filippo BRUNELLESCHI, (1377-1446), first great Italian Renaissance architect, a Florentine. After his trial panel (1401) for the bronze doors of the Florence baptistery was not accepted, he concentrated more on architectural planning. BRUNELLESCHI was the father of Renaissance architecture and the most prominent architect in Italy, during his lifetime. The son of a lawyer, born in Florence, Italy in 1377. He began his career as an apprentice for a goldsmith and six years after his apprenticeship, during 1398; Filippo passed his examination and became a guild master goldsmith. BRUNELLESCHI died on April 16, 1446, at the age of sixty-nine, after many years of contributing to Italian culture.

MASACCIO, (401-1428), Italian painter, one of the foremost figures of the Renaissance. Most of his works have since perished, however four remain that are his without question. The polyptych (1426) for the Church of the Carmine, Pisa, the great Trinity fresco in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, which revolutionized the understanding of perspective in painting. The Virgin with St. Anne (Uffizi), an early work in collaboration with Masolino da PANICALE, and his masterpiece, the Frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine (Florence), a major monument in the history of art. These frescoes were a training school and inspiration to generations of painters such as MICHELANGELO and RAPHAEL. MASACCIO imparted a new sense of grandeur and austerity to the human figure. He used light to give dimension and achieved a classic sense of proportion.

The High Renaissance style endured for a brief period (c.1495-1520) and created but a few artists of genius, among them Leonardo da VINCI, BRAMANTE, MICHELANGELO, RAPHAEL and TITAN.

Leonardo da VINCI, (C.2452-1519), Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a local lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the Tuscan region. His father acknowledged him and paid for his training, but we may wonder whether the strangely self-sufficient tone of Leonardo's mind was not perhaps affected by his early ambiguity of status. A poignant note to Leonardo's idiosyncrasies, he was known to hoard cayenne peppers for use in the mixture of red paints. (Leonardo di VINCI, A&E Biography 7/6/99)

Donato BRAMANTE, 1444-1514, Italian architect and painter. His buildings in Rome are the most characteristic examples of High Renaissance style. He favored central plans and a sense of noble severity. He designed much of Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan, painting its choir in perspective to give the illusion of depth. From 1499 he was in Rome, where his works include the Tempietto in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio; the Belvedere courtyard at the Vatican; and the original central plan for St. Peter's.

MICHELANGELO di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 1475-1564, sculptor, carver and painter. Art, for him, was not a science but "the making of men," to divine creation. MICHELANGELO'S faith in the human image as the supreme vehicle of expression gave him a sense of kinship with Classical sculpture closer than that of any Renaissance artist. His mind was shaped by the cultural climate