High Renaissance Flashcards
In the Renaissance, an emphasis on education and expanding knowledge (especially of classical antiquity); the exploration of individual potential and the desire to excel, and a commitment to civic responsibility and moral duty.
Humanism
A platonic idea which suggests that looking at and contemplating beautiful objects, sacred images, and architecture leads one’s soul to a closer union with the Divine.
Neoplationism
A Florentine banking family: humanist thinkers and great patrons of the arts.
De’Medici
Italian for “light / dark” which refers to the modeling which begins to appear at the beginning of the Trecento (1300s) with artists such as Cimabue, Duccio, and Giotto, and develops to a high level of sophistication in the sfumato of Leonardo da Vinci. This modeling becomes the vehicle for creating the illusion of three-dimensionality with consistent light sources, explainable spaces, a development of perspective, and ultimately, suggesting atmospheric effects. The process includes light (bright areas), half-tones, and shadows with differences between form and cast shadows (soft to hard)
Chiaroscuro [ Virgin of the Rocks, Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist ].
Italian for “drawing” and “design.” Renaissance artists considered drawing to be the external physical manifestation (disegno esterno) of an internal intellectual idea of a design (disegno interno)
Disegno [ Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist ]
Italian for “smoky” or “hazy” which refers to the style of modeling developed and perfected by Leonardo da Vinci which is without line and left somewhat undefined; it is the antithesis of central Italian disegno which emphasized line and design. Except for in drawings, it required a build-up of layers of glazes on top of layers of applications of oil painting. Sfumato unites all of the figures and elements within the composition by creating a common atmospheric effect; it integrates the figures with the landscape. Sfumato veils and reveals the figures.
Sfumato [ Mona Lisa]
Refers to compositions which have a single vanishing point and are “constructed” with orthogonal (see below) which converge upon that point. It is used in conjunction with chiaroscuro. Compositions with one-point perspective create the illusion of depth and perspective and endow human figures in this space with substance. It reflects the Renaissance artists’ new awareness of man’s place in the world reflected in the increased interest in and expression of logic, scientific observation, mathematics, etc.
One-point “scientific” perspective [ Last Supper ]
The lines (imaginary, suggested, and painted or indicated) which can be traced from architectural features, tessellated floors, and other compositional elements converging upon a single vanishing point.
Orthogonal [ Last Supper ]
The use of perspective to represent in art the apparent visual contraction of an object that extends back in space at an angle to the perpendicular plane of sight. The extended arm of the Virgin Mary in Virgin of the Rocks is a good example.
Foreshortening [ Virgin of the Rocks ]
In the High Renaissance, it was a composition in painting or sculpture which was based upon the pyramid. It endowed the work with a sense of calmness and stability, which appealed to the viewer’s sense of logic, while also contributing towards developing its space or perspective.
Pyramidal composition [ Virgin of the Rocks ]
Italian for “fresh.” It refers to the medium and process of applying a thin layer of fresh plaster on an existing plaster surface and then immediately applying color pigments (tempera) which, upon drying, become a permanent part of the wall surface.
Fresco [ Last Supper, Philosophy, Galatea ]
a full-size drawing made for the purpose of transferring a design to a painting or tapestry or other large work. They often reveal the artist’s ideas as they evolve.
Cartoon [ Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist ]
Literally means “serpentine figure.” It refers to a new interpretation of the relaxed stance or contrapposto which is animated, dynamic, and twisting. The figures in Raphael’s Galatea are good examples of this.
Figura serpentinata
The so-called “Warrior Pope” was a powerful spiritual and political leader and avid patron of the arts during the High Renaissance. Julius commissioned work for the Vatican and for his tomb from artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael.
Pope Julius II
Literally means “serpentine figure.” It refers to a new interpretation of the relaxed stance or contrapposto which is animated, dynamic, and twisting. Good examples are Raphael’s Galatea and Michelangelo’s Bound Slave.
Figura serpentinata
The notion of the Sublime (a concept, thing, or state of exceptional awe-inspiring beauty and moral or intellectual expression) shadowed by the awesome and the fearful, often associated with Michelangelo and his works.
Terribilita
evokes the ideas of both pity and piety. It was an artistic subject developed first in Germany which depicted the body of the dead Christ Jesus on the lap of his mourning mother Mary. These Northern examples were often rather graphic and presented Christ as a broken martyr but the Italians came to popularize the theme and preferred to present it in a more gentle, less graphic, and Neoplatonic way.
Pieta
literally means (in Italian) to “stand against.” In its fullest meaning contrapposto is the scientifically understood distribution of the weights and balances of the body with corresponding higher or lower hip and shoulder to the weight bearing leg or side.
contrapposto
A platonic idea which suggests that looking at and contemplating beautiful objects, sacred images, and architecture leads one’s soul to a closer union with the Divine.
Neoplationism
