renaissance art assignment

A primer for Italian renaissance art

Raphael, School of Athens , fresco, 1509–11 (Stanza della Segnatura, Papal Palace, Vatican; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Why study Italian renaissance art?

Even if you are not a student of art history, you are likely familiar with the names Donatello , Leonardo da Vinci , Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) , and Michelangelo Buonarotti . There is a reason these names continue to be part of our contemporary popular culture (and it’s not just because these are the names of everyone’s favorite martial arts mutant Turtles). These artists were central to what we today call the Renaissance — a period in European history (c. 1400–1600) when some of our current ideas about society, politics, and art took form.

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.

L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between Navigating the art of the past requires a different set of tools than those required for understanding art produced in our contemporary world. This introduction will orient you to some important, basic information as you begin to study Italian renaissance art. Within each section below you will find links to essays and videos that flesh out the themes introduced.

Michelangelo’s famous nudes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling borrow from ancient Roman art forms, such as the so-called Belvedere torso. Left: Apollonios, Belvedere Torso , a copy from the 1st century B.C.E. or C.E. of an earlier sculpture from the first half of the 2nd century B.C.E., marble, 159 cm (Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); right: Michelangelo, Ignudo (detail), ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, 1508–12, fresco

The term “renaissance” is often used to designate a rebirth of interest in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds (often referred to as “classical antiquity”) that arose in Europe in the later Middle Ages .

While engagement with the Greco-Roman past was not new, it took on a new urgency in Italy beginning in the 14th century and was eventually felt throughout the European continent. This interest prompted new intellectual investigations ( humanism ) that had a profound influence on European culture, affecting all realms of life including the visual arts.

Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori (Florence, 1568) ( National Gallery of Art , Washington, D.C.)

Many of the artistic traditions originating or maturing in this context informed the direction of European art for the next several centuries. Linear perspective , volumetric figures rendered with anatomical precision, emotionally charged expression, and visual naturalism are formal elements popularized in the Renaissance. This was especially true of art in Italy where ancient Roman art demonstrating many of these traits was abundant (such as Roman relief sculpture and architecture ).

This was also the period when artistic theory and the European discipline of art history began to develop . Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise, On Painting (1435/36) , was the first theoretical text written on visual art in Europe and Giorgio Vasari ’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550, 2nd edition 1568) was the first critical history of European art. Many of the ideas originating in the writings of these men and their contemporaries are still fundamental to artistic theory and practice today. In fact, Vasari’s categories of artists, including his privileging of Florentines, and standards for evaluation of their work have dominated the discipline. For several centuries after his text’s publication, the artists and visual approaches that he celebrated were seen as the “gold standard” in art, the foundation for what we call the European canon . Contemporary scholars striving for a more inclusive art history have worked to unpack and complicate Vasari’s ideas. His construction of the artist as a born genius, for example, an idea epitomized in his life of Michelangelo, has been repeatedly challenged in feminist scholarship. Privileges of sex, race, and social status enabled the artistic success that Vasari presented as inevitable. 

Who?  

To understand the art of the Italian renaissance, we need to consider the values, social mores, and the religious and political interests of the people who made, paid for, and first looked at the art. Unfortunately, our knowledge of these people is limited and skewed. History is most often written by those in positions of privilege and power who generally leave behind the most evidence of their lives and ideas. This means that we have quite a bit of information about some people—primarily Christian men who were wealthy merchants, educated elites, or members of the Church—and little to none from other social groups, including most women, the peasantry, non-Christians, and non-Europeans.

Raphael’s serene and pensive sitter is a far cry from the reality of the man depicted: the fiery Warrior Pope, Julius II. Even Raphael, the artistic darling of early 16th-century Rome, was far removed from his powerful patron’s exalted status. Raphael, Portrait of Pope Julius II , 1511, oil on poplar, 108.7 x 81 cm (National Gallery, London; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

With few exceptions, artists did not enjoy the status of intellectuals or social elites. Because they made things by hand that they then sold for profit, they were deemed of lower social stature than the wealthy merchants and aristocrats who bought their work. Art making was traditionally seen as a Mechanical , and not a Liberal Art (art of the mind). While the status of the artist did improve over the course of the Renaissance—thanks in part to our Ninja Turtles’ namesakes—it was a slow and uneven process. Most artists came from what we might call urban, middle-class roots and trained for a long period in a workshop , learning their craft rather than receiving the kind of Liberal Arts education available to members of the upper classes. Even though art theorists like Alberti argued for an artist’s education in a range of subjects including philosophy (which included “natural philosophy” or science ), poetry, mathematics, medicine , and geometry (to name just a few), access to this education was limited. This changed somewhat in the 16th century with the rise of the first art academies , although the extent to which an artist could receive the kind of extensive education deemed ideal was still limited. Such advanced training was reserved for the sons of the elite. Even Leonardo da Vinci, the so-called universal genius (perhaps one of the few figures in history to whom that problematic title may justly be applied), was outside the world of highest learning, never having mastered Latin.

Despite the challenges facing Italian artists in participating directly in renaissance intellectual culture, many fought vigorously to elevate the status of their profession and their own corresponding social standing. Some artists, like Leonardo, sought to elevate visual art by drawing comparisons to philosophy or poetry. As he noted:

Painting is mute poetry and poetry is blind painting.

Leonardo da Vinci, Paragone [2] They argued that despite making objects by hand, the renaissance artist’s practice was guided first by the intellect—like a poet or a philosopher. Such arguments were modeled on the writings of ancient Roman authors like Pliny , Lucian , and Cicero , another example of humanism at work.

As humanist-inspired tastes in art developed over the course of the early renaissance, so too did requirements for artists’ skills. Art making became increasingly professionalized. To develop the mathematically defined spaces populated by anatomically correct figures enacting complex narrative scenes from religious and classical history that were in vogue, artists needed to study geometry and anatomy. They had to read ancient texts in translation and consult with learned advisors, develop sophisticated preparatory studies, and negotiate business contracts. They also needed to navigate complex social relationships requiring savvy interpersonal skills.

As in most occupations at the time, it was not only social class, but also gender that determined artistic identity: artists were almost entirely men and art making was thought to be a male prerogative. The professionalization of artistic practice that helped raise the social status of art making had the negative effect of excluding women who, particularly in mercantile cities like Florence, were increasingly regulated to the domestic sphere. Although some female artists did achieve renown (such as Sofonisba Anguissola ), their numbers were few until well into the 17th century.

This dazzling altarpiece reflected the magnificence of its patron, Palla Strozzi, the wealthiest man in Florence at the time of its creation. Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi , 1423, tempera on panel, 283 x 300 cm (Galeria degli Uffizi, Florence; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

You have likely run across the name Michelangelo , but are perhaps less familiar with his great patron, Pope Julius II . This tells us more about our present-day fascination with artists than it does about the realities of the renaissance past. In this world, the patrons—the people who paid for (commissioned) the art work—were more socially privileged than the artists who worked for them and received much of the credit for the artwork they sponsored. Again, men were the primary patrons although some women in positions of special privilege like Isabella d’Este (marchioness of Mantua, a small but glamorous principality in northern Italy) commissioned art as well. There were many reasons for commissioning art . Art could advertise an individual’s learning and taste, wealth, and position, and even political loyalties and religious faith. Patronage ranged across media and genres and was commissioned for a variety of contexts including public piazzas, private homes and palaces, private chapels and tombs in public churches, and other sacred spaces.

Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece , 1505, oil on wood transferred to canvas, 16 feet 5–1/2 inches x 7 feet 9 inches (San Zaccaria, Venice; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

What?  

I have repeatedly used the word “art” so far in this essay. To us, the paintings, sculptures, buildings, tapestries, prints, and other aesthetic objects created during this time are considered “art,” but this was not the case for people living during the Renaissance. The objects and images that we study as renaissance art were understood to be functional aspects of visual culture. The primary goal was not aesthetic appreciation or art for the sake of art, which is a category of experience that is a 19th-century invention. An altarpiece that may be viewed in an art museum today originally functioned as an object of devotion; it would have been the centerpiece of Christian religious practice in a sacred setting and was first and foremost a didactic tool guiding Christians in their worship. A portrait was a form of commemoration, a way to manifest a sitter’s presence when absent or to communicate family connections . Scenes drawn from ancient poetry or heroic tales were methods of communicating virtue, demonstrating erudition, and encouraging learned discourse. Were these images and objects appreciated as aesthetically interesting, even “beautiful”? Absolutely. But it’s important to note that this was not the primary goal. 

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus , 1483–85, tempera on panel, 172.5 x 278.5 cm (Galeria degli Uffizi, Florence; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

In renaissance art you will confront two main categories of iconography , or subject matter: secular (non-religious) and religious. Both types fulfilled different functions, but they also sometimes overlapped. Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus , for example, exemplifies secular iconography and borrows from ancient tradition. At the same time, Venus was associated with ideas about divine love circulating in late 15th century Neoplatonic philosophy , which (among other things) sought to reconcile ancient philosophy with Christianity.  

Donatello, David , c. 1440, bronze, 158 cm (Museo Nazionale de Bargello, Florence; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

We also have two main categories of audience: public and private, which also often overlapped. Donatello’s bronze David was both a private artwork, placed within the powerful Medici family’s palace courtyard, and a public statement of their power, wealth, and faith — the work was visible from the street.

The Gathering of Manna , 1595–96 (Florence), designed by Alessandro Allori, Woven in Medici workshop under the direction of Guasparri di Bartolomeo Papini, wool and silk, 426.7 x 447 cm ( The Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York)

It is also helpful to be conscious of how the present-day media hierarchy is skewed to our own interests. While we tend to prioritize the arts of painting , sculpture , and architecture, what was valued in the past was different from what we emphasize in our current patterns of collection and display. Tapestries, for example, are not often on view in museums in significant numbers nor are they foregrounded in histories of art, in part because of the fragile nature of their medium (silk and wool thread does not survive the ravages of time as well as marble or brick), but also because the art form went out of style in the modern era. During the Renaissance, however, tapestries were one of the most prized forms of visual art. These spectacular creations were amongst the most sought after and costly objects, adorning the walls of palaces, churches, and government buildings across Europe. When learning about renaissance art you will encounter painting, large-scale sculpture, and architecture, but it’s important to note that this visual world also included—and sometimes more importantly—tapestries, vestments , liturgical objects , small-scale sculptures, prints , ceramics , embroidery , and other works. Our modern interests have shaped what we consider to be “great” art, or what is even considered worthy of study. These biases towards certain media, genres, and artists are our own—or those that we have been taught—not necessarily those of people throughout history, and it is helpful to be conscious of the distorted views of the past that they can sometimes create. Recent scholarship has worked to be more inclusive, increasingly exploring visual production in various media and broadening our definitions of just what constitutes “art.”  

When trying to delineate the period known as the “renaissance” scholars generally designate the years 1400–1600 . I say “generally” because life doesn’t unfold in tidy demarcated centuries. Starting points are hard to determine. Developments in art and culture in the 1400s come out of those in the preceding centuries, including historical crises like the Black Death . Many surveys of so-called renaissance art, for example, start with the innovative creations of   Giotto di Bondone who lived c. 1267–1337, which is often called the Late Middle Ages by us today. Would we have Beyonce without Aretha Franklin? The operas of Lin Manuel Miranda without Mozart? Similarly, why end at 1600? In a certain sense, all such delineations are arbitrary (did 5th-century Romans know that Rome fell?). We go by broad patterns and general trends. The European political, social, and religious landscape changed dramatically in the last few decades of the 16th century, due in no small part to the rise of Protestantism , and art changed with it making this a viable, if imperfect, end point.

From Petrarch , renaissance Italians inherited the notion of three distinct ages of man: what he saw as the glorious ancient past, the “dark ages” after the decline of the Roman empire, and his own modern age where the glories of antiquity were reborn. While this periodization of history is deeply problematic—we no longer recognize the period after the decline of Rome as a “dark age”—we still borrow this general framework, using terms like “antiquity,” the “middle ages,” and “the renaissance.” The following general—and admittedly imperfect—breakdown of historical periods is what most people mean when they designate these eras:

• 600 B.C.E.–400 C.E. Ancient Greece and Rome (also known as the classical past or classical antiquity, this 1,000 year span of time is itself broken by historians and art historians into smaller designations, such as archaic, high classical, hellenistic, etc.)
• 400–c. 1400 the Middle Ages (c. 1200–1400 is often called the Late Middle Ages)
• 1400–1600 the Renaissance

Map of Italy in 1494 (underlying map © Google)

Italian renaissance art was made in Italy, right? Well, sort of. It was made on the peninsula in southern Europe that we call Italy today. But it wasn’t “Italy” then. The country was not united as we know it until the 19th century. During the renaissance, the Italian peninsula was organized into independent city-states with distinct political and social formations as well as unique dialects and cultural traditions. Some states, like Florence , Venice , and Genoa, functioned as republics  where members of the urban elite governed by election. Others, like Milan, Ferrara, and Urbino, were governed by a sovereign, a ruler who had almost absolute hereditary authority. These Signorie or Lordships were usually under the leadership of a Marquis or a Duke and technically owed their allegiance to a superior political power—some were granted authority by the Holy Roman Emperor, some from the Church. In practice, however, these ruling princes (a catch-all term used throughout the Renaissance to designate a ruler), enjoyed virtual independence. There was also a massive swath of central Italy that came under the direct rule of the Catholic Church—led by the Pope —a region known as the Papal States. The southernmost part of the peninsula was divided into the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily which were ruled by a series of dynasties throughout the Middle Ages until finally unified under a single king (ranking just below an Emperor), in the 15th century by the Spanish House of Aragon. Throughout the renaissance period, Spanish and French royal families vied for power in this territory. While we may discuss “Italian renaissance” art broadly, and there were certainly shared religious and social values as well as a shared ancestry with the ancient Roman past across the peninsula, it is important to understand that this was not a unified state in our modern sense. In fact, these various territories were often at war with one another.

Some of the territories of the Republic of Venice c. 1500 (underlying map © Google)

Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmet II , 1480, oil on canvas, 69.9 x 52.1 cm ( National Gallery , London)

T his was a permeable and highly international world. Contacts with different peoples and cultures were common. This was an age of international trade (including the slave trade), exploration, rising colonial enterprises, and war, all of which required deft diplomacy. Venice, for example, was a maritime trading power that held vast territories in the north Italian mainland and throughout the Mediterranean world, and as a result had large populations of foreigners. Greek influence was particularly strong there due to the city’s colonies in Crete, Cyprus, and Rhodes, and became more so with the influx of Greek immigrants to the region after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453. Italian artists traveled throughout the Italian peninsula working for different patrons and in variable contexts; as they moved about so too did the various indigenous visual traditions in which they were trained.

Artists also went beyond Italy, finding work in the urban centers and courts of other European states and beyond. The painter Gentile Bellini spent fifteen months at the court of the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II as representative of the Venetian Republic. Likewise, artists from other parts of the world came to Italy. Some, like Albrecht Dürer and Alonso Berruguete , helped transform art across the continent by introducing new approaches that fused Italian traditions with those developing elsewhere. Other Italian artists even relocated to the Americas or Asia, such as those associated with the Jesuit missionary order.

But still, why do renaissance art history surveys so often start here in this region that wasn’t Italy but we all call Italy? It was in this region that many of the developments that are understood to have informed the rise of something new—what we call a “renaissance”—first emerged. The Italian city- states were early to urbanize and enjoyed relative political and economic stability, key ingredients to the creation of vast amounts of art and architecture. That literary and visual forms emerge reflecting new “renaissance” styles in these states was also a direct function of the force of the visible presence of the ancient Roman past—in Italy Rome was everywhere, in texts preserved in monasteries and libraries of the Middle Ages, and in the copious remains of visual art and architecture.

[1] See for instance t he art historian Linda Nochlin’s canonical essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” ARTNews , volume 69, number 9 (1971), pp. 22–39, 67–71.

[2] Quoted in André Chastel, The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci on Art and the Artist , translated by Ellen Callmann (New York: Orion Press, 1961), p. 38. Leonardo was looking to Plutarch: “ Painting is mute poetry and poetry a speaking picture,” in Plutarch, Moralia (1819), p. 346.

Bibliography

Giorgio Vasari, The Father of Art History on Art UK

Important fundamentals

Expanding the Renaissance: A Smarthistory initiative

Read a Reframing Art History textbook chapter, Art in the Italian Renaissance Republics, c. 1400–1600

Read a Reframing Art History textbook chapter, Art in Sovereign States of the Italian Renaissance, c. 1400–1600

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Renaissance Art

By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 20, 2019 | Original: October 15, 2010

Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Against a backdrop of political stability and growing prosperity, the development of new technologies–including the printing press, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration of new continents–was accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially art. 

The style of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th century; it reached its zenith in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In addition to its expression of classical Greco-Roman traditions, Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

Origins of Renaissance Art

The origins of Renaissance art can be traced to Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. During this so-called “proto-Renaissance” period (1280-1400), Italian scholars and artists saw themselves as reawakening to the ideals and achievements of classical Roman culture. Writers such as Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) looked back to ancient Greece and Rome and sought to revive the languages, values and intellectual traditions of those cultures after the long period of stagnation that had followed the fall of the Roman Empire in the sixth century.

Did you know? Leonardo da Vinci, the ultimate "Renaissance man," practiced all the visual arts and studied a wide range of topics, including anatomy, geology, botany, hydraulics and flight. His formidable reputation is based on relatively few completed paintings, including "Mona Lisa," "The Virgin of the Rocks" and "The Last Supper."

The Florentine painter Giotto (1267?-1337), the most famous artist of the proto-Renaissance, made enormous advances in the technique of representing the human body realistically. His frescoes were said to have decorated cathedrals at Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence and Naples, though there has been difficulty attributing such works with certainty.

Early Renaissance Art (1401-1490s)

In the later 14th century, the proto-Renaissance was stifled by plague and war, and its influences did not emerge again until the first years of the next century. In 1401, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378-1455) won a major competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, beating out contemporaries such as the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and the young Donatello (c. 1386- 1466), who would later emerge as the master of early Renaissance sculpture.

The other major artist working during this period was the painter Masaccio (1401-1428), known for his frescoes of the Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1426) and in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (c. 1427), both in Florence. Masaccio painted for less than six years but was highly influential in the early Renaissance for the intellectual nature of his work, as well as its degree of naturalism.

Florence in the Renaissance

Though the Catholic Church remained a major patron of the arts during the Renaissance–from popes and other prelates to convents, monasteries and other religious organizations–works of art were increasingly commissioned by civil government, courts and wealthy individuals. Much of the art produced during the early Renaissance was commissioned by the wealthy merchant families of Florence, most notably the Medici family .

From 1434 until 1492, when Lorenzo de’ Medici–known as “the Magnificent” for his strong leadership as well as his support of the arts–died, the powerful family presided over a golden age for the city of Florence. Pushed from power by a republican coalition in 1494, the Medici family spent years in exile but returned in 1512 to preside over another flowering of Florentine art, including the array of sculptures that now decorates the city’s Piazza della Signoria.

High Renaissance Art (1490s-1527)

By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the principal center of Renaissance art, reaching a high point under the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (a son of Lorenzo de’ Medici). Three great masters– Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo and Raphael–dominated the period known as the High Renaissance, which lasted roughly from the early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1527. 

Leonardo (1452-1519) was the ultimate “Renaissance man” for the breadth of his intellect, interest and talent and his expression of humanist and classical values. Leonardo’s best-known works, including the “Mona Lisa” (1503-05), “The Virgin of the Rocks” (1485) and the fresco “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.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) drew on the human body for inspiration and created works on a vast scale. He was the dominant sculptor of the High Renaissance, producing pieces such as the Pietà in St. Peter’s Cathedral (1499) and the David in his native Florence (1501-04). He carved the latter by hand from an enormous marble block; the famous statue measures five meters high including its base. Though Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor first and foremost, he 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. Among the other great Italian artists working during this period were Sandro Botticelli, Bramante, Giorgione, Titian and Correggio.

Renaissance Art in Practice

Many works of Renaissance art depicted religious images, including subjects such as the Virgin Mary, or Madonna, and were encountered by contemporary audiences of the period in the context of religious rituals. Today, they are viewed as great works of art, but at the time they were seen and used mostly as devotional objects. Many Renaissance works were painted as altarpieces for incorporation into rituals associated with Catholic Mass and donated by patrons who sponsored the Mass itself.

Renaissance artists came from all strata of society; they usually studied as apprentices before being admitted to a professional guild and working under the tutelage of an older master. Far from being starving bohemians, these artists worked on commission and were hired by patrons of the arts because they were steady and reliable. Italy’s rising middle class sought to imitate the aristocracy and elevate their own status by purchasing art for their homes. In addition to sacred images, many of these works portrayed domestic themes such as marriage, birth and the everyday life of the family.

Expansion and Decline

Over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, the spirit of the Renaissance spread throughout Italy and into France, northern Europe and Spain. In Venice, artists such as Giorgione (1477/78-1510) and Titian (1488/90-1576) further developed a method of painting in oil directly on canvas; this technique of oil painting allowed the artist to rework an image­–as fresco painting (on plaster) did not–and it would dominate Western art to the present day. 

Oil painting during the Renaissance can be traced back even further, however, to the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck (died 1441), who painted a masterful altarpiece in the cathedral at Ghent (c. 1432). Van Eyck was one of the most important artists of the Northern Renaissance; later masters included the German painters Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543).

By the later 1500s, the Mannerist style, with its emphasis on artificiality, had developed in opposition to the idealized naturalism of High Renaissance art, and Mannerism spread from Florence and Rome to become the dominant style in Europe. Renaissance art continued to be celebrated, however: The 16th-century Florentine artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari, author of the famous work “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects” (1550), would write of the High Renaissance as the culmination of all Italian art, a process that began with Giotto in the late 13th century.

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Module 8 Late Gothic_Renaissance Art

Module 8 renaissance art written assignment, written assignment     the northern renaissance .

This is a research essay, about 350 words, more if you get going, Mr. S.

Readings about the early Renaissance     https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1-91/

I want you to research one of the following two works of art by these influential artists connected to the Renaissance in Northern Europe.

• The first work is called the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan Van Eyck, a Flemish artist in the medieval Belgium city of Ghent.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eyck.hubert.lamb.750pix.jpg

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less .

• Work two is the Isenheim Altarpiece by Mathias Grunewald, a Northern Renaissance artist in Germany.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grunewald_Isenheim1.jpg

This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States.

Read everything in the text about one of these works , and the artist who created them. You should include a brief bio, and a brief description of the place in which they lived.

Research your chosen work on the web, you may start with the sites that I have included below, but you have to include a minimum of one more site that you find on your own.

Jan Van Eyck  Ghent Altarpiece

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern-renaissance1/burgundy-netherlands/a/vaneyck-ghentaltar

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern-renaissance1/burgundy-netherlands/v/ghent-altarpiece-closed

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern-renaissance1/burgundy-netherlands/v/ghent-altar-open

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/renaissance-art-europe-ap/a/grnewald-isenheim-altarpiece

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artist-info.1362.html

BE SURE TO INCLUDE FOOTNOTES, AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Course Information Doc. on Footnotes

• How does each artist portray his subject in a unique way?
• Describe each work, what do you see in the picture?

Is there anything that really catches your eye in the picture?

• What did you find out in your research?
• What in the picture identifies the country of origin?

i.e. is there anything in the picture that connects it to the place of origin?

• Module 8 Michelangelo and Giacometti. Authored by : Bruce Schwabach. Provided by : Herkimer College. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1-91/chapter/module-8-michelangelo-and-giacometti-whats-due-when/ . Project : Achieving the Dream. License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright
• Khan Academy Ghent Altarpiece. Authored by : Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Located at : https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern-renaissance1/burgundy-netherlands/a/vaneyck-ghentaltar . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

Renaissance Art

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The art of the Renaissance period in Europe (1400-1600 CE) includes some of the most recognisable and best-loved paintings and sculptures in the world. Masters were often skilled in both painting and sculpture , and by studying the art of antiquity and adding their theoretical knowledge of mathematical perspective and new painting techniques, they produced truly unique works of art. Realism, detail, drama, and subtle layers of meaning became features of religious and secular art. Now, artists finally broke free from their old craftworker status and achieved a new position as vital contributors to the culture and prestige of the societies in which they lived.

Defining features of Renaissance art include:

• an interest in capturing the essential elements of classical art, particularly the form and proportions of the human body.
• an interest in the history of contemporary art and forging a continuous path of development.
• a blending of pagan and religious iconography but with humanity as its focus.
• a tendency towards monumentality and dramatic postures.
• an interest in creating an emotional response from the viewer.
• the development of precise mathematical perspective.
• an interest in hyperrealistic and detailed portraits, scenes, and landscapes.
• an interest in the use of bright colours, shade, and capturing the effects of light.
• the development in use of oil paints and fine prints.
• the use of subtle shapes and everyday objects to give extra meaning.
• an increase in the prestige of artists as superior craftworkers who combined intellectual studies with practical skills.

Medieval Origins

It used to be thought that Renaissance art sprang out of nowhere in a miraculous rebirth of ideas and talent but investigation by modern historians has revealed that many elements of Renaissance art were being experimented with in the 14th century CE. Artists like Giotto (d. 1337 CE) were keen to make their paintings more realistic and so they used foreshortening to give a sense of depth to a scene. Giotto's use of foreshortening, light and shadows, emotion, and dynamic choice of scenes can be best seen in his religious frescos in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua (c. 1315 CE). These techniques, and the artist's success at making characters come alive, would be hugely influential on later artists. For this reason, Giotto is often referred to as the 'first Renaissance painter' even if he lived before the Renaissance proper.

Wealthy patrons were the driving force behind Renaissance art in a period when the vast majority of artistic works were made on commission. Churches were the usual beneficiaries of this system in the first part of the Renaissance. Painted panels for altarpieces and frescos were the most common form of artistic decoration, often showing the sacra conversazione , that is the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints and well-wishers. Monumental altarpieces several metres high were often elaborately framed to mimic contemporary developments in architecture . The most famous altarpiece of all is the 1432 CE Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441 CE). Early Renaissance subjects, then, are very similar to those popular through the Middle Ages.

Private patrons such as Popes, Holy Roman Emperors, kings, and dukes all saw the benefit of beautifying their cities and palaces, but they were also very interested in gaining a reputation for piety and a knowledge of the arts and history. Once a patron found an artist they liked, they often employed them long-term as their official court artist, setting them all kinds of tasks from portraits to livery design. Patrons were paying and so they often made specific requests on the details of a piece of art. Further, although an artist could use their skills and imagination, they did have to remain within the bounds of convention in that figures in their work had to be recognised for who they were. It was, for example, no good making a fresco of a saint's life if nobody recognised who that saint was. For this reason, the evolution in art was relatively slow, but as some artists gained great fame, so they could develop new ideas in art and make it distinct from what had gone before.

The Classical Revival

A defining feature of the Renaissance period was the re-interest in the ancient world of Greece and Rome . As part of what we now call Renaissance humanism , classical literature , architecture, and art were all consulted to extract ideas that could be transformed for the contemporary world. Lorenzo de Medici (1449-1492 CE), head of the great Florentine family, was a notable patron, and his collection of ancient artworks was a point of study for many artists. Young artists, training in the workshops of established masters, also had access to ancient art there or at least reproduction drawings.

Artists directly imitated classical artworks or parts of them within their own works. In 1496 CE, for example, Michelangelo (1475-1564 CE) sculpted the Sleeping Cupid (now lost) which he purposely aged to make it appear an authentic ancient work. Another recreation of antiquity, this time an entirely imaginary one, is The School of Athens fresco by Raphael (1483-1520 CE). Completed in 1511 CE and located in the Vatican, this fresco shows all the major thinkers from the ancient world. Common images from classical mythology were especially popular. These were again reimagined and, in some cases, they have even overtaken ancient art in our minds when we think of certain subjects. The Birth of Venus (c. 1484 CE, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510 CE), is a case in point. Finally, the depiction of ancient architecture and ruins was a particular favourite of many Renaissance artists to give background atmosphere to both their mythological and religious works.

The Increased Status of Artists

Another new development was the interest in reconstructing the history of art and cataloguing who exactly were the great artists and why. The most famous scholar to compile such a history was Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574 CE) in his The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Architects, Painters, and Sculptors (1550 CE, revised 1568 CE). The history is a monumental record of Renaissance artists, their works, and the anecdotal stories associated with them, and so Vasari is considered one of the pioneers of art history. Artists also benefited from having specific biographies written about their lives and works, even when they were still alive such as the 1553 CE Life of Michelangelo , written by Ascanio Condivi (1525-1574 CE). Artists also wrote texts on techniques for the benefit of others, the earliest being the Commentaries by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455 CE), written about 1450 CE. As the Commentaries includes details of Ghiberti's own life and works, it is also the first autobiography by a European artist.

This interest in Renaissance artists, their private lives, and how they came to create masterpieces reflects the elevated status they now enjoyed. Artists were still seen as craftsmen like cobblers and carpenters, and they were compelled to join a trade guild. This began to change during the Renaissance. Artists were obviously different from other artisans because they could acquire widespread fame for their works and create a sense of civic pride from their fellow citizens. However, it was the intellectual endeavours of painters like Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 CE) and Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528 CE) that finally elevated painters to the status of 'artists', a term previously restricted to those who studied the traditional liberal arts such as Latin and rhetoric. Artists took a keen interest in studying the history of art, what was going on in the art world elsewhere, wrote treatises on their craft, and made experiments in mathematical perspective. All of these things elevated art to a science .

Another defining feature of Renaissance artists, especially those belonging to the High Renaissance (1490-1527 CE) is their extraordinary ability in a variety of media . Figures like Michelangelo and Leonardo were as accomplished painters as they were sculptors, and both, like many other masters, turned their hand to architecture, too. Such successful masters ran large workshops and these were training grounds for the next generation of artists.

A greater confidence in their skills, knowledge, and contribution to culture in general can be seen in the increasing number of artists who painted self-portraits. Another symptom was the frequent signing of artworks, sometimes in very prominent parts of the picture (even if the assistants in a master's workshop frequently finished off works).

A Gallery of 50 Renaissance Paintings

Painting & new techniques.

Renaissance painters were versatile and often experimented but, generally, as the Renaissance wore one, they used the fresco technique for walls, tempera for panels, and oil for panels or canvas. Fresco - painting on a wet plaster background - and tempera - using pigments mixed with egg yolk - were both techniques employed long before the Renaissance period. Experiments were, however, made using oil paints (pigments mixed with linseed or walnut oil) which gave richer colours, a wider range of tones, and more depth than traditional colours. Oils permitted more details to be shown in the painting and allowed brush strokes to become a visual effect. By the end of the 15th century CE, then, most major artists were using oils when working at an easel, not tempera. The disadvantage of oils was that they quickly deteriorated if used on walls instead of true fresco.

There were different painting styles and techniques depending on location. For example, the colore (or colorito ) technique was prevalent in Venice (where contrasting colours were used to effect and define a harmonious composition) while disegno was preferred in Florence (where line drawing of form took precedence). Other techniques perfected by Renaissance artists include chiaroscuro (the contrasting use of light and shade) and sfumato (the transition of lighter into darker colours).

The painting's subject was another opportunity for experimentation. Painting figures with dramatic poses became a Renaissance fashion, best seen in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome (1512 CE). A tremendous sense of movement is created by the artist's use of contrapposto , that is the asymmetry between the upper and lower body of the figures, a technique used by Leonardo and many others. Another idea was to create shapes in a scene, especially triangles. The aim of this was to create a harmonious composition and give extra depth, as can be seen in Leonardo's Last Supper mural in Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie (c. 1498 CE) or the Galatea by Raphael (c. 1513 CE, Villa Farnesina, Rome).

Artists strove for an ever-greater sense of reality in their paintings, and this could be done by reproducing the perspective one would expect to see in a three-dimensional view. Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506 CE) used techniques of foreshortening just as Giotto had done. See his The Agony in the Garden (c. 1460 CE, National Gallery, London). Mantegna was also keen on painting his scenes as if one were looking at them from below, another trick which gave his work depth. Sometimes depth was achieved in the middle ground of the painting while figures dominated the foreground, bringing them closer to the viewer. It was a technique innovated by Pietro Perugino (c. 1450-1523 CE) and can be best seen in the Marriage of the Virgin (c. 1504 CE, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan) by Raphael, once a pupil of Perugino.

Meanwhile, painters like Piero della Francesca (c. 1420-1492 CE) went further and used precise mathematical principles of perspective, as can be seen in his Flagellation of Christ , (c. 1455 CE, National Gallery of Marche, Urbino). Some critics felt that some artists went too far in their use of perspective and so the original sense of their painting was lost; Paolo Uccello (1397-1475 CE) was a particular victim of this claim. Uccello's The Hunt (c. 1460 CE, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) is certainly an audacious painting with its panoramic view of a symmetrical forest receding into an ever-darker background while the foreground is dominated by the hunters and their hounds, all converging towards a distant central point.

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Another step towards a greater reality was to ensure the scene had a single light source which provides matching areas of shadow in all elements of the painting. See, for example, the 1480 CE Ecstasy of Saint Francis (Frick Collection, New York) by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516 CE). Artists even began to play tricks on the viewer such as the mirror in Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Wedding portrait (1434 CE, National Gallery, London) which shows reflections of figures who must be standing next to the viewer. All of these techniques had the additional advantage of creating a 'wow factor' from viewers not used to seeing such innovations.

Renaissance painters wanted to add another level of meaning to their work than just the visual first impression. Mythological scenes were often packed with symbolism, meant to sort out the well-educated viewer from the less so. Titian (c. 1487-1576 CE) even described his mythological paintings as a form of poetry, what he called poesia , such was the density of classical references within them. See, for example, his Bacchus and Ariadne (c. 1523 CE, National Gallery, London).

Portraiture was yet another area where Renaissance artists excelled. The most famous example is Leonardo's Mona Lisa (c. 1506 CE, Louvre, Paris ), which shows an unidentified woman. Leonardo has not only painted a likeness but also captured the mood of the sitter. Contours, perspective, and gradations in colour are all combined to give the image life. Further, the casual posture and three-quarter view of the lady are another hint at movement. This painting was hugely influential on portraits thereafter. Another development was the use of everyday objects in portraits to hint at the sitter's character, beliefs, and interests. The Netherlandish painters were particular masters at realistic portraits, and their ideas spread to Italy where they can be seen in the work of, for example, Piero della Francesca, notably his painting of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (c. 1470 CE, Uffizi, Florence).

Sculpture & Breaking the Classical Mould

While many religious subjects remained popular in sculpture like the Pietà - the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of Jesus Christ - conventional iconography soon gave way to more innovative treatments. Donatello (c. 1386-1466 CE), for example, experimented with sacrificing technique and finish to capture the emotion of a figure, a strategy best seen in his wooden Mary Magdalene (c. 1446 CE, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence).

The classical revival saw sculptors create their own versions of ancient figures in wood, stone, and bronze . Most famous of all is Michelangelo's David (1504 CE, Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence). Representing the biblical king who, in his youth, famously killed the giant Goliath, the marble figure is much larger than life-size, around 5.20 metres (17 feet) tall. It reminds of colossal statues of Hercules from antiquity, but the tension of the figure and his thoroughly determined face are Renaissance inventions.

Donatello produced his version of David in bronze (1420s or 1440s CE, Bargello, Florence) and this work was another dramatic departure from ancient sculpture. The posture creates a sensuous figure that could not have been produced in antiquity. Both Michelangelo's and Donatello's David remind of the close link between art and function during the Renaissance. David appeared on the official seal of Florence, and as the slayer of Goliath, it was a timely reminder of the Florentines' struggles against the rival city of Milan.

A related art to sculpture was engraving. Donatello was again involved here, producing superb low relief bronze panels for the baptistery of Sienna and several Florentine churches. The technique of carving a scene with a shallow depth yet still achieving a sense of perspective was known as 'flattened relief' or rilievo schiacciat o. A very different technique was to create metal panels with figures so high in relief they are almost in the round. The most famous example of this technique is Lorenzo Ghiberti's 'Gates of Paradise', the doors for Florence's Baptistery of San Giovanni (completed in 1452 CE). The gilded panels attached to the doors show biblical scenes and even a bust of Ghiberti himself.

From 1420 CE, prints made from woodcuts were popular, but it was the development of engraving copper plates from the 1470s CE that really saw prints become a true art form. Copper plates gave a much greater precision and detail. Mantegna and Dürer were two notable experts at this, and their engravings became highly collectible. The most successful printer was Marcantonio Raimondi (1480-1534 CE), and his prints of fine art helped spread ideas to northern Europe and vice-versa.

The Legacy of Renaissance Art

Collecting art became a hobby of the wealthy, but as the middle classes became richer, so, too, they could acquire art, albeit not quite so great. Workshops like the ones run by Ghiberti began not exactly to mass-produce art but to at least employ standardised elements taken from an existing catalogue. In short, art was no longer restricted to the wealthy, and for those still unable to afford originals, they could always buy prints. Prints also spread artists' reputations far and wide. Thanks to the expansion of the art market, masters were now free to produce art as they thought it should be, not as a patron thought.

Renaissance art was continuously evolving. Mannerism, for example, is a vague term which initially referred to the oddly different art which came after the High Renaissance. Mannerism then acquired a more positive meaning - stylishness, ambiguity of message, contrast, and generally playing with the techniques and standardisations earlier Renaissance artists had set. See, for example, the 1548 CE Miracle of Saint Mark Rescuing a Slave by Tintoretto (c. 1518-1594 CE, Academia, Venice). From Mannerism would come the next major style in European art, the highly decorative Baroque, which took the rich colours, fine details, and energetic poses of Renaissance art to a new extreme of overwhelming drama and decoration.

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Bibliography

• Campbell, Gordon. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 2019.
• Hale, J.R. (ed). The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of the Italian Renaissance. Thames & Hudson, 2020.
• Nash, Susie. Northern Renaissance Art. Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Paoletti, John T. & Radke, Gary M. Art in Renaissance Italy. Pearson, 2011.
• Rundle, David. The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Hodder Arnold, 2000.
• Woods, Kim W. Making Renaissance Art. Yale University Press, 2007.
• Wyatt, Michael. The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

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Origins and rise of humanism

Artistic developments and the emergence of florence.

• The High Renaissance
• Competition from Mannerism

What does the word “Renaissance” mean?

When did the renaissance happen, who are some important people of the renaissance, what is renaissance art, what does “renaissance man” mean.

Renaissance

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• LiveScience - The Renaissance: The 'Rebirth' of science & culture
• Art in Context - Renaissance Facts – A Brief Overview of Renaissance History
• LOUIS Pressbooks - Western Civilization: A Concise History - The Renaissance
• Humanities LibreTexts - Renaissance (1400-1550 CE)
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• Renaissance - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
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• Table Of Contents

Renaissance is a French word meaning “rebirth.” It refers to a period in European civilization that was marked by a revival of Classical learning and wisdom. The Renaissance saw many contributions to different fields, including new scientific laws, new forms of art and architecture, and new religious and political ideas.

There is some debate over when exactly the Renaissance began. However, it is generally believed to have begun in Italy during the 14th century, after the end of the Middle Ages , and it reached its height there between the 1490s and the 1520s, a period referred to as the High Renaissance. Renaissance ideas and ways of thinking also began spreading to the rest of Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Renaissance as a unified historical period ended in Italy with the fall of Rome in 1527 , and it was eclipsed by the Reformation and Counter-Reformation elsewhere in Europe by the end of the 16th century. 

Prominent figures of the Renaissance, understood as a broadly European era, include philosopher and statesman Niccolò Machiavelli , known for the political treatise The Prince ; Francis Bacon , a statesman and philosopher considered the master of the English tongue; the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus , who developed the theory that the solar system was centred on the Sun; the poets Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio , who laid the foundations for humanism , the mode of thought at the core of the Renaissance; William Shakespeare , considered the greatest English dramatist of all time; astronomer and mathematician Galileo , who helped disprove much medieval-era thinking in science; and the explorers Christopher Columbus , Ferdinand Magellan , and Hernán Cortés .

One of the fields that embodied the Renaissance was fine art, especially painting and sculpture . Renaissance art was inspired by Classical Greek and Roman art, and it is known for its grace, harmony, and beauty. Artists worked from the living model and perfected techniques such as the use of perspective. In addition, the Renaissance saw the refinement of mediums, notably oils . Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo , and Raphael are widely considered the leading artists of the period.

The idea of a Renaissance man developed in Italy and derived from Leon Battista Alberti ’s notion that “a man can do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism , which considered humankind the centre of the universe and led to the belief that people should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own abilities as fully as possible. Leonardo da Vinci is a leading example of a Renaissance man, noted for his achievements in art , science , music , invention, and writing.

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Renaissance , period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages and conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in Classical scholarship and values. The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy , the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper , printing , the mariner’s compass , and gunpowder . To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of Classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.

A brief treatment of the Renaissance follows. For full treatment, see history of Europe: The Renaissance .

The term Middle Ages was coined by scholars in the 15th century to designate the interval between the downfall of the Classical world of Greece and Rome and its rediscovery at the beginning of their own century, a revival in which they felt they were participating. Indeed, the notion of a long period of cultural darkness had been expressed by Petrarch even earlier. Events at the end of the Middle Ages, particularly beginning in the 12th century, set in motion a series of social, political, and intellectual transformations that culminated in the Renaissance. These included the increasing failure of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire to provide a stable and unifying framework for the organization of spiritual and material life, the rise in importance of city-states and national monarchies , the development of national languages, and the breakup of the old feudal structures.

While the spirit of the Renaissance ultimately took many forms, it was expressed earliest by the intellectual movement called humanism . Humanism was initiated by secular men of letters rather than by the scholar-clerics who had dominated medieval intellectual life and had developed the Scholastic philosophy . Humanism began and achieved fruition first in Italy . Its predecessors were men like Dante and Petrarch , and its chief protagonists included Giannozzo Manetti, Leonardo Bruni , Marsilio Ficino , Giovanni Pico della Mirandola , Lorenzo Valla , and Coluccio Salutati . The fall of Constantinople in 1453 provided humanism with a major boost, for many eastern scholars fled to Italy, bringing with them important books and manuscripts and a tradition of Greek scholarship.

Humanism had several significant features. First, it took human nature in all of its various manifestations and achievements as its subject. Second, it stressed the unity and compatibility of the truth found in all philosophical and theological schools and systems, a doctrine known as syncretism . Third, it emphasized the dignity of humankind. In place of the medieval ideal of a life of penance as the highest and noblest form of human activity, the humanists looked to the struggle of creation and the attempt to exert mastery over nature. Finally, humanism looked forward to a rebirth of a lost human spirit and wisdom. In the course of striving to recover it, however, the humanists assisted in the consolidation of a new spiritual and intellectual outlook and in the development of a new body of knowledge. The effect of humanism was to help men break free from the mental strictures imposed by religious orthodoxy, to inspire free inquiry and criticism , and to inspire a new confidence in the possibilities of human thought and creations.

From Italy the new humanist spirit and the Renaissance it engendered spread north to all parts of Europe, aided by the invention of the mechanized printing press , which allowed literacy and the availability of Classical texts to grow explosively. Foremost among northern humanists was Desiderius Erasmus , whose Praise of Folly (1509) epitomized the moral essence of humanism in its insistence on heartfelt goodness as opposed to formalistic piety. The intellectual stimulation provided by humanists helped spark the Reformation , from which, however, many humanists, including Erasmus, recoiled. By the end of the 16th century the battle of Reformation and Counter-Reformation had commanded much of Europe ’s energy and attention, while the intellectual life was poised on the brink of the Enlightenment .

It was in art that the spirit of the Renaissance achieved its sharpest formulation. Art came to be seen as a branch of knowledge, valuable in its own right and capable of providing people with images of God and his creations as well as with insights into humankind’s position in the universe. In the hands of men such as Leonardo da Vinci it was even a science , a means for exploring nature and a record of discoveries. Art was to be based on the observation of the visible world and practiced according to mathematical principles of balance, harmony, and perspective , which were developed at this time. In the works of painters such as Masaccio , the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti , Fra Angelico , Sandro Botticelli , Perugino , Piero della Francesca , Raphael , and Titian ; sculptors such as Giovanni Pisano , Donatello , Andrea del Verrocchio , Lorenzo Ghiberti , and Michelangelo ; and architects such as Leon Battista Alberti , Filippo Brunelleschi , Andrea Palladio , Michelozzo , and Filarete , the dignity of humanity found expression in the arts.

In Italy the Renaissance proper was preceded by an important “proto-renaissance” in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, which drew inspiration from Franciscan radicalism. St. Francis of Assisi had rejected the formal Scholasticism of the prevailing Christian theology and gone out among the poor praising the beauties and spiritual value of nature. His example inspired Italian artists and poets to take pleasure in the world around them. The work of the most famous artist of the proto-renaissance period, Giotto (1266/67 or 1276–1337), reveals a new pictorial style that depends on clear, simple structure and great psychological penetration rather than on the flat, linear decorativeness and hierarchical compositions of his predecessors and contemporaries, such as the Florentine painter Cimabue and the Siennese painters Duccio and Simone Martini . The great poet Dante lived at about the same time as Giotto, and his poetry shows a similar concern with inward experience and the subtle shades and variations of human nature . Although his Divine Comedy belongs to the Middle Ages in its plan and ideas, its subjective spirit and power of expression look forward to the Renaissance. Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio also belong to this proto-renaissance period, both through their extensive studies of Latin literature and through their writings in the vernacular . Unfortunately, the terrible plague of 1348 (known as the Black Death ) and subsequent civil wars submerged both the revival of humanistic studies and the growing interest in individualism and naturalism revealed in the works of Giotto and Dante. The spirit of the Renaissance did not surface again until the 15th century.

In 1401−02 the goldsmith and painter Lorenzo Ghiberti won a competition held at Florence and was awarded the commission for bronze doors to be placed on the baptistery of San Giovanni . According to traditional accounts, Filippo Brunelleschi , who was among Ghiberti’s competitors, and his friend Donatello left for Rome soon after; there they immersed themselves in the study of ancient architecture and sculpture . When they returned to Florence and began to put their knowledge into practice, the rationalized art of the ancient world was reborn. The founder of Renaissance painting was Masaccio (1401–28). The intellectuality of his conceptions , the monumentality of his compositions, and the high degree of naturalism in his works mark Masaccio as a pivotal figure in Renaissance painting. The succeeding generation of artists— Piero della Francesca , the Pollaiuolo brothers , and Andrea del Verrocchio —pressed forward with researches into linear and aerial perspective and anatomy , developing a style of scientific naturalism.

The situation in Florence was uniquely favourable to the arts. The civic pride of Florentines found expression in statues of the patron saints commissioned from Ghiberti and Donatello for niches in the grain-market guildhall known as Or San Michele, and in the largest dome built since antiquity, placed by Brunelleschi on the Duomo . The cost of construction and decoration of palaces, churches, and monasteries was underwritten by wealthy merchant families, chief among whom were the Medici family .

The Medici traded in all of the major cities in Europe, and one of the most famous masterpieces of Northern Renaissance art, The Portinari Altarpiece , by Hugo van der Goes ( c. 1476; Uffizi , Florence), was commissioned by their agent, Tommaso Portinari. Instead of being painted with the customary tempera of the period, the work is painted with translucent oil glazes that produce brilliant jewel-like colour and a glossy surface. Early Northern Renaissance painters were more concerned with the detailed reproduction of objects and their symbolic meaning than with the study of scientific perspective and anatomy even after these achievements became widely known. On the other hand, central Italian painters began to adopt the oil medium soon after The Portinari Altarpiece was brought to Florence in 1476.

Renaissance Art

Grades 4 through 12

We will offer a selection of in-person and virtual field trips (using Zoom) for fall 2024.

Request for fall field trips (September 30 – December 6, 2024) will be accepted from August 1 – November 1, 2024.

Requests for winter/spring field trips (January 6 – May 30, 2025) will be accepted from December 1, 2024 – April 5, 2025.

What radical changes in art and life marked the period known as the Renaissance? During this field trip, students will consider this question by exploring artistic developments such as perspective, the naturalistic representation of the human figure, and the influence of scientific discovery and humanism.

Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de' Benci [obverse] , c. 1474/1478, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.6.1.a

Looking and Learning Skills

During four or five field trip stops in the galleries, students engage in activities—such as looking exercises, small-group work, and sketching—that foster conversations about works of art. On this field trip, students will practice the following skills:

• Comparing and contrasting different visual representations of Renaissance ideas.
• Reasoning with evidence from the works of art and using them as primary sources on Renaissance art and society.
• Making and articulating careful observations.
• Formulating questions that demonstrate curiosity and engagement.
• Connecting new ideas discussed on the field trip to prior knowledge of Renaissance art and culture.

In-Person Field Trip Information

Group Size: Up to 90 students Length: 75 minutes Meeting Location: West Building Rotunda

Important Scheduling Information

Field trips must be scheduled at least four weeks in advance. Groups must contain at least 15 students.

Once your field trip has been scheduled, you will receive an email confirmation within ten business days.

Title I Bus Stipends

Funding for the cost of bus transportation is available for Title I schools that participate in our docent-led school field trips. For more information, please get in touch with Deirdre Palmer at  [email protected]  or (202) 842-6880, or use the  application form .

Examples of Works Featured on Field Trip

Leonardo da Vinci,  Ginevra de' Benci [obverse] , c. 1474/1478, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund,  1967.6.1.a

Sandro Botticelli, The Adoration of the Magi , c. 1478/1482, tempera and oil on poplar panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.22

Andrea del Castagno,  David with the Head of Goliath , c. 1450/1455, tempera on leather on wood, National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection,  1942.9.8

Andrea del Verrocchio,  Giuliano de' Medici , c. 1475/1478, terracotta, National gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection,  1937.1.127

Additional National Gallery Resources

Inquiring eye: european renaissance art, related resources, find lessons, online courses, explore resources, professional development.

Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

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A unit in World Cultures, Art, and/or World History Adaptable for Grades 6 - 10

• be able to describe characteristics of the Renaissance
• analyze Renaissance art
• draw conclusions about the role of art in any society

Introduction

Before beginning this unit, students should already have a basic understanding of the Classical Period and the Middle Ages. Also, teachers should have introduced basics of the Renaissance prior to this activity.

It has been said that art imitates life . Assuming this is true, we should be able to look at the art of any society, at any point in history, and see a representation of its people’s values. Just as the sounds and lyrics of American pop music in the ‘60s represented an attitude of protest and rebellion in its young listeners, so too the art of the Renaissance reflects European society’s attitudes during that time.

It is this “attitude” that largely defines the Renaissance, a time when people placed increased importance on the arts, the individual, and non-religious pursuits.

This unit will take students through a process in which they will not only experience masterpieces from the Renaissance, but will also learn to analyze art, draw conclusions, and, at the advanced level, apply lessons from the art to their own lives. In doing so, students will gain an understanding of the characteristics that define the Renaissance.

This lesson was developed to be used by a wide range of ages and abilities (grades 6-10). It can be altered for different ability levels. TeachersFirst editors have included options for more student-centered, project-based activities using technology throughout this mini-unit. You can adjust the time requirements depending on which activities you decide to do.

• which activities you will do in traditional format and which in student-centered format
• what electronic tools for sharing you will use, if any (wiki? other?)
• what bibliography format you will require if doing student-centered research and projects
• what you will use for assessment
• how to assign student tasks so students without home Internat access have ample time to complete them

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Lesson Plan

Feb. 15, 2013, 9:18 p.m.

Lesson plan: The Harlem Renaissance

Estimated Time

Grade level, opening activity.

• First, watch " The Harlem Renaissance's cultural explosion, in photographs " above to help introduce the artistic legacy of the Harlem Renaissance (may skip if this has already been discussed in class).
• Discuss the social, political and economic climate of America in the 1920s and 1930s.
• What was the Great Migration, and what influenced African-Americans to move from the South to places like Harlem?
• What were some of the unusual circumstances African-Americans faced in New York City at the the time of the Great Migration?
• Why do you think this migration contributed to an explosion of art and culture in Harlem?
• Give students a copy of the poem and ask them to underline all of the places and locations mentioned in it. Have students read the poem a third and final time and highlight or circle all of the people mentioned. Ask students why they think Harlem became a social and cultural center for African-Americans in the 1920s and 1930s.
• Optional: Choose selections from Alain Locke’s "The New Negro," poems by Langston Hughes ("Cultural Exchange," "Democracy," "Freedom’s Plow") James Weldon Johnson ("Lift Every Voice and Sing") and Countee Cullen ("Yet Do I Marvel" and "Heritage") or excerpts from the writings of Zora Neale Hurston. Have students work either individually or in small groups to answer the following questions about the documents: Who is the intended audience? What is the subject matter? How does this reflect the themes of the Harlem Renaissance?
• Optional: Have students write a found poem in which they alternate phrases or lines from Harlem Renaissance poems with original lines of their own. Host a poetry slam during which students will read their found poems aloud.

Extension Activities

• Ask students to research one type of performance that took place at the Apollo Theater. Options include comedy, dance and many types of music including jazz, hip-hop, swing and rock. Have students create a timeline of performances of that genre and then highlight a performer of their choosing in a short biographical essay.
• Performing arts educators may consider having students recreate a famous Apollo Theater performance or having students create an original performance piece inspired by one of the Apollo’s legendary performances. Visual arts educators may have students create a work of art in the style of one of the great Harlem Renaissance artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden or Aaron Douglas.
• Host a tribute to the Apollo during which students can recite their original poems or poems they have studied as part of this lesson, display their artwork, sing songs popularized at the Apollo or perform live music made famous by Harlem Renaissance musicians.

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• arts-culture
• Harlem Renissance
• Black History Month
• social-studies
• great migration

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