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Renaissance , BAROQUE, AND ROCOCO

Key Ideas

Capitalist society exists

Revival of classical forms

Intensified concern with secular life – humanism; importance of individual

Artists regarded as individual personalities

Secular works influenced by gothic church architecture; becomes important

Printing with rich layers of meaning

Printmaking introduced

Early Renaissance Art

On man and nature

Employs the fresco technique

portrays lifelike human forms with correct proportions and realistic clothing and expressions

develops new techniques to give paintings a more three-dimensional, life-like quality, and commonly
studied human and animal anatomy in efforts to better understand the subjects

ARTISTIC INFLUENCES

The teachings of St. Francis and his Order

Humanizing influence

Portrays the suffering Christ instead of a triumphant, distant deity

St. Francis, himself, serves as the subject

Early Renaissance

Donatello

Greatest sculptor of Early renaissance

*Responsible for ST. MARK (25 y/o)

Lorenzo Ghiberti

Donatello's teacher

known for bronze relief sculpture for the doors of the baptistery of the cathedral in florence 923 y/o)
Masaccio

Trinity withthe Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, and Donors.

Sloppy Tom” (Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone)

credited with mastering perspective

the first Renaissance artist to paint models in the nude, often using light and shadow to
define the shape of his models rather than clear lines

Used both linear and aerial perspective in his frescoes

Founding father of Renaissance art

Masaccio’s Expulsion from Paradise


(about 1427) , frescoeBrancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy

* in fresco

* influential for its realism, especially the simplicity and three-dimensionality of the figures, and for
the dramatic depiction of the plight of Adam and Eve.

Images

Florence Baptistery

Episodes from the Book of Joshua


* bronze relief sculpture is a panel from the Gates of Paradise
* illustrates scenes from the biblical Book of Joshua
* background depicts the Fall of Jericho, with the Israelites marching around the walled city,
their priests blowing trumpets as God had commanded
* foreground shows Joshua leading his people across the River Jord

Leon Battista Alberti.Interior and facade of San'drea, Mantua.1470-1493.

Sandro Botticelli. The Birth of Venus

Giovanni Bellini.St. Francis in the ert.

High Renaissance Art

Predominately frescoes and oil paintings

with subtle, softening effects


Explored harmonious ideals

Artists valued for individuality and imaginative powers and ability to depict idealized figures in
complex poses

artists tended to reduce their subjects to the bare essentials

few extraneous details or anecdotal features were permitted

the viewer's attention would focus on the essence of the theme

Leonardo da Vinci- painter but as an architect, sculptor, engineer, scientist, musician, all-around
intellectual

ultimate "Renaissance man" for the breadth of his intellect, interest and talent and his expression of
humanist and classical values

best-known works

"Mona Lisa" (1503-05)

"The Virgin of the Rocks" (1485)

"The Last Supper" (1495-98)

showcase his unparalleled ability to portray light and shadow, as well as the physical relationship
between figures–humans, animals and objects alike–and the landscape around them.

Employs sfumato (“in the manner of the smoke”)

Michelangelo- painter, sculptor, poet, architect

drew on the human body for inspiration and created works on a vast scale

considered himself a sculptor first and foremost

Achieved greatness as a painter as well, notably with his giant fresco covering the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel, completed over four years (1508-12) and depicting various scenes from Genesis

Raphael Sanzio

the youngest of the three great High Renaissance masters

learned from both da Vinci and Michelangelo

His paintings–most notably "The School of Athens" (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the same
time that Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel

skillfully expressed the classical ideals of beauty, serenity and harmony

Images
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa

Sistine chapel (Creation of Adam), David, and Pieta *(flowing drapery, *soft flesh) by Michelangelo

"The School of Athens" and Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals by Raphael (1508-11)

Late Renaissance
Giambologna(Giovanni Bologna); mannerist sculptor

Characteristics of mannerist sculpture

*Both a rejection and refinement of the ideals of the High Renaissance

*From “maniera” (style or stylishness)

*freed the viewer from frontal position

*elongation of figures

*Intertwining figures

*disembodied hands appear, sometimes floating in space in a mix of bodies

Images

Abduction of the Sabines


*sculpted as a set piece
*spiral movement
*must be seen in the round
*symbolism of the Medici (young man) taking Florence (the woman) from the preceding government
(the old man)

Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Long Neck

KEY IDEAS

Early Renaissance – physical realism; classical composition (Donatello ,Ghiberti, Masaccio);


ca.1400-1500

High Renaissance - apex of classical balance, harmony, and restraint (Michaelangelo, da Vinci,
Raphael); ca. 1500-25

Late Renaissance - Relaxed for complexity and dynamism (Giambologna); 1525-1600

Key Ideas (Mannerism)

notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) qualities

favors compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance
painting

Characterized by distortion of elements such as proportion and space


Heightens tension, power, and elegance

Features elegantly elongated figures, decorative, unnatural colors, and difficult, twisting poses

baroque

France – center of art and innovation

Church – source of artistic commission, followed by royalty, and autocratic governments

With big spaces that called for big paintings

Artists worked both for monetary and expression of faith

Characteristics of Baroque Sculpture

Stressed movement; dynamism and energy of human forms

In mid-motion

Mouths open

With flesh of one figure yielding to another

With large works; had multiple viewing angles

With negative space

Marble treated with tactile sense

Human skin- high polish; animals-coarser feel

Images

*The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by Giovani Lorenzo Bernini


*interpretation of Saint Theresa’s diary on her visions of God
*natural light hidden above the work
*marble handled in tactile way
*figures seem to float in their space
*pose reflects spiritual ecstasy

David by Bernini
*in mid-action
*harp symbolizes being a psalmist
*meant to be seen from multiple views

Characteristics of Baroque architecture

Relies on movement

Facades undulate
Emphasis on the center

Interiors richly designed

Large and ornamented

Represents imperial/papal achievements – proclaiming power and wealth

Aim: dramatically unified effect

Images

Versailles

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

BAROQUE PAINTING
Early Baroque ca. 1600-25

realist Baroque: Caravaggio

realist Baroque painting (which features realistic composition)

the descendent of Low Countries Renaissance painting (which focused on realistically


capturing the immediate physical world)

features photorealism

Caravaggio

an heir of the humanist painting of the High Renaissance

Employs realistic approach to the human figure, painted directly from life

dramatically spotlights against a dark background

Image: Penitent Magdalene

High Baroque ca. 1625-75

dynamic Baroque: Rubens realist Baroque: Rembrandt, Velazquez classicism: Poussin

dynamic Baroque painting (which features dynamic composition)

the descendent of Italian Renaissance painting (which focused on overall composition)

Continued idealism started in the Renaissance

Late Baroque ca. 1675-1725

successors of High Baroque masters


Rococo ca. 1725-1800

Boucher

BAROQUE SECULAR PAINTING

Landscape (Ruisdael)

Ruisdael’s Windmill at Wijk


The Windmill at Wijk (1655?, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) ranks among the masterpieces by Dutch
painter Jacob van Ruisdael. The windmill towers over everything in the flat landscape, and sun
breaking through the clouds casts light on the structure. Ruisdael painted the typical Dutch landscape:
flat, water-filled, and dominated by the expanse of sky.

genre painting (Vermeer)

The Milkmaid (1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)


by Jan Vermeer

still life (Chardin)

Still Life
French artist Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin

Portraiture (Hals)

The Laughing Cavalier


Frans Hals

Other images

artemisia gentileschi. Judith Beheading Holofernes

The storm on the sea of galilee, 1633. The painting is still missing after robbery from the isabella
stewart garden museumn 1990. (Rembrandt)

Key Ideas (BAROQUE)

dynamism (a sense of motion)

augmented by extravagant effects (e.g. strong curves, rich decoration, stark lighting

characterized by great drama, rich, deep colour, and intense light and dark shadows

chose the most dramatic point

dramatizes scenes using light effects


ROCOCO ART

SHIFT of power from royal court to aristocrats

Dictated by the French Royal Academy

Unites art in coherent artistic experience

Portrays aristocracy in leisurely pursuit

Developed a strong school of satirical painting

characterized by soft colors and curvy lines, and depicts scenes of love, nature, amorous encounters,
light-hearted entertainment, and youth

the word “rococo” derives from rocaille, which is French for rubble or rock

Rocaille (decorative stonework) refers to the shell-work in garden grottoes and is used as a
descriptive word for the serpentine patterns seen in the Decorative Arts of the Rococo period.

ROCOCO SCULPTURE

more jocular, florid and graceful approach

made strong usage of creamy, pastel-like colors, asymmetrical designs, curves and gold

more playful

FOR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES

Rococo Painting

Slender figures

Pastel hues

Fete galante

Gardens presented (with plant life and flowers)

Curvilinear

Playful scenes of love and romance

Satirical- on political corruption and contemporary lifestyle

Images

Jean Antoine Watteau, La Surprise – A couple embracing while a figure dressed as Mezzetin tunes a
guitar

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