Renaissance Flashcards
Subject Matter
What the painting represent; Judeo-Christian; Classical; Everyday Life
Judeo-Christian
Religious Art; Catholic Church was the greatest sponsor of art in the Middle Ages; Pride of being a part of a religion rather than in power; Madonna; Pieta
Madonna
Mary and baby Jesus; Judeo-Christian
Pieta
Mary and dead Jesus; Judeo-Christian
Classical
Greek / Roman Gods; Julius Caesar, Zeus, etc; Great revival of Greco-Roman mythology, history, philosophy
Everyday Life
Self - Portraits of ordinary people; Northern Renaissance: Ordinary humans doing ordinary things; Village life
Style
How the art looks; Realism; Idealism; Mannerism
Realism
Making things looks real as if they exist in real life
Idealism
Making things as perfect as it could be; Making things look far superior than it actually looks in real life; Inner beauty / calmness; God as people
Mannerism
Sense of drama; Doesn’t look like anything; Form, color, and shape are a mess; Exaggerated proportions - Unusual; Artists can demonstrate tension and go rogue
Technique
What trick artists use to create illusion; Single Point Perspective; Chiaroscuro; Sfumato
Single point Perspective
Vanishing point - everything goes into 1 point; Size
Chiaroscuro
Shading; Shading to get illusion of depth (light and dark); Suggest location of the sun
Sfumato
(Distant) smokiness / haziness; Mastered by Leonardo da Vinci (copied by everyone else); Focus on other parts
Petrach
Founder of Humanism; Most famous Poet until S; Humanized thought; Civic activist; Wrote love / romantic poems; Inspiration from Greeks and Romans; Pursuit of Knowledge / Rationalism; Thinker of knowledge; Improving societies, education, government, and quality of life; Promoted education for everyone (study of literature and classics)
Erasmus of Rotterdam
Leading Christian humanist; 1st person to criticize the Catholic Church / religious texts; Freeing people from the tyranny of the dominance in the Church; Wrote “In Praise of Folly” - Questioning the logic of the Catholic Church
Castiglione
The Courtier; Ideal man of noble birth, serves and brings honor to the prince; Guide / Handbook on Manners on Secularism; How to fit in with the wealthy and well educated; Promotes education and proper behavior; Most famous book of the Renaissance
Chaucer
Father of English; Individualism; The Canterbury Tales - Group of Pilgrims; Written in Vernacular
Vernacular
The common language of the people
Dante
Father of Italy; The Divine Comedy; Starts Vernacular; Afterlife: Hell, Heaven, Purgatory (in-between / Heaven’s waiting room); Individualism - main protag / hero
Machiavelli
Creator of political science; The Prince; Successful rulers are successful bc they understand human nature and God has nothing to do with it; Leaders need to do whatever they can to ensure the security and happiness of their people; “The end justifies the means”; Leaders need to be feared but not hated
Lorenzo de Medici
Patron of art; Medici Bank cleared debts of many people and in return people owned them many favors; Uses art to legitimize his influence
Giotto
Most influential in transitional painting; Humanized paintings; Observed from life
forming 3D world with human beings; Deep emotion; Express patrons of religions
Botticelli
Rejects ideas of being scientific and realistic; Classical + Judeo-Christian; Combination of Christian faith and ancient mythology; Figures are less human or material - Some are symbols; Classical subject of goddesses; Dreamy / Fantasy
Leonardo da Vinci
Perfect Hands; Groups of figures perfectly balanced in a given space (with architecture); Proportions in drawings; Deep psychological insight of human nature; Mystery of human existence; Last Supper; Mona Lisa;
Michelangelo
Greatest Sculptor of the Renaissance; Depict God (1st time); Physical form isn’t what’s important, it’s the spirit of a Christian; Influenced by greek, plato; Glorification of human body (male nude); Sistine Chapel; 1st Pieta; Buff David; Dome
Raphael
Master of perfect design and balance composition; Absorbed styles of Leo and Mich.; Humanistic -
Humans are portrayed closer to God; Madonna; Downward eyes; School of Athens
Donatello
Free-standing statues based on human anatomy; 1st Bronze nude (boy David)
Sophonisba Angoissola
Female artist; Painted mostly in homes; Very well-drawn hands; Lots of details in clothing; Actions in paintings
Artemisia Gentileschi
Female artist; Physically powerful
Peter Bruegel
Everyday life in ordinary villages
Brunelleschi
1st dome(of St.Peters) built since Roman times; 1st time columns used since Ancient Rome
Massaccio
Fixed / completed perspective; Studied anatomical naturalism of the human flesh and bone; Model figures in light and shade (Chiaroscuro); 1st person to paint nude figures
Titian
1st artist to become rich; Women models; Religion - mythology; Portraits of upper class; Classical - Zeus seducing people;
Northern Renaissance
Same ideas as in Italy; Scholars embraced classical literature and values, asked same questions; People turned from being superstitious to scientific; Men gained a new sense of self and ability; Escape from the dissatisfaction and skepticism in religious and political struggles of the Middle Ages; Art: Everyday Life Scenes
