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 technologiesincluding the
printing press, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration
of new continentswas 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
Renaissancefrom popes and other prelates to convents, monasteries and
other religious organizationsworks 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.

From 1434 until 1492, when Lorenzo de Mediciknown as the Magnificent

for his strong leadership as well as his support of the artsdied, 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 citys 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 Raphaeldominated 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. Leonardos 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 figureshumans, animals and
objects alikeand 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 Piet in St. Peters 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 paintingsmost notably The
School of Athens (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the same time that
Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapelskillfully expressed the
classical ideals of beauty, serenity and harmony. Among the other great Italian
artists working during this period were 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. Italys 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 imageas fresco painting (on
plaster) did notand 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.

http://www.history.com/topics/renaissance-art

Renaissance Art in Italy (c.1400-1600)

History, Characteristics, Causes, Techniques
During the two hundred years between 1400 and 1600, Europe witnessed an astonishing
revival of drawing, fine art painting, sculpture and architecture centred on Italy, which we
now refer to as the Renaissance (rinascimento). It was given this name (French for 'rebirth')
as a result of La Renaissance - a famous volume of history written by the historian Jules
Michelet (1798-1874) in 1855 - and was better understood after the publication in 1860 of
the landmark book "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" (Die Kultur der Renaissance
 in Italien), by Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97), Professor of Art History at the University of
Basel.

What Were the Characteristics of the Renaissance?

In very simple terms, the Italian Renaissance re-established Western art according to the principles of
classical Greek art, especially Greek sculptureand painting, which provided much of the basis for the Grand
Tour, and which remained unchallenged until Pablo Picasso and Cubism.

From the early 14th century, in their search for a new set of artistic values and a response to the
courtly International Gothic style, Italian artists and thinkers became inspired by the ideas and forms of
ancient Greece and Rome. This was perfectly in tune with their desire to create a universal, even noble, form
of art which could express the new and more confident mood of the times.

Renaissance Philosophy of Humanism

Above all, Renaissance art was driven by the new notion of "Humanism," a philosophy which had been the
foundation for many of the achievements (eg. democracy) of pagan ancient Greece. Humanism downplayed
religious and secular dogma and instead attached the greatest importance to the dignity and worth of the
individual.

Detail showing The Son of Man from

The Last Judgement fresco on the
wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome,
(1536-41) by Michelangelo. One of
the great works of Biblical art in
the Vatican.

Detail showing the face of Venus
from the Birth Of Venus (c.1486)
By Botticelli. One of the great
examples of mythological painting
of the Florentine Renaissance.
RELIGIOUS ARTS
Despite its humanism, the Italian
Renaissance produced numerous
masterpieces of religious art, in
the form of architectural designs,
altarpieces, sculpture & painting.
School of Athens (1509-11) by Raphael,
in the Stanza della Segnatura in the
Raphael Rooms at the Vatican.
PAINT-PIGMENTS, COLOURS, HUES
For details of the colour pigments
used by Renaissance painters
see: Renaissance Colour Palette.
Effect of Humanism on Art
In the visual arts, humanism stood for (1) The emergence of the individual
figure, in place of stereotyped, or symbolic figures. (2) Greater realism and
consequent attention to detail, as reflected in the development of linear
perspective and the increasing realism of human faces and bodies; this new
approach helps to explain why classical sculpture was so revered, and why
Byzantine art fell out of fashion. (3) An emphasis on and promotion of
virtuous action: an approach echoed by the leading art theorist of the
Renaissance Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) when he declared, "happiness
cannot be gained without good works and just and righteous deeds".
The promotion of virtuous action reflected the growing idea that man, not
fate or God, controlled human destiny, and was a key reason why history
painting (that is, pictures with uplifting 'messages') became regarded as the
highest form of painting. Of course, the exploration of virtue in the visual
arts also involved an examination of vice and human evil.
Causes of the Renaissance
What caused this rebirth of the visual arts is still unclear. Although Europe had
emerged from the Dark Ages under Charlemagne (c.800), and had seen the
resurgence of the Christian Church with its 12th/13th-century Gothic
stylebuilding program, the 14th century in Europe witnessed several
catastrophic harvests, the Black Death (1346), and a continuing war between
England and France. Hardly ideal conditions for an outburst of creativity, let
alone a sustained rinascita of paintings, drawings, sculptures and new
buildings. Moreover, the Church - the biggest patron of the arts - was racked
with disagreements about spiritual and secular issues.
Increased Prosperity
However, more positive currents were also evident. In Italy, Venice and Genoa
had grown rich on trade with the Orient, while Florence was a centre of wool,
silk and jewellery art, and was home to the fabulous wealth of the cultured
and art-conscious Medici family.

Prosperity was also coming to Northern Europe, as evidenced by the

establishment in Germany of the Hanseatic League of cities. This increasing
wealth provided the financial support for a growing number of commissions of
large public and private art projects, while the trade routes upon which it was
based greatly assisted the spread of ideas and thus contributed to the growth
of the movement across the Continent.

Allied to this spread of ideas, which incidentally speeded up significantly with

the invention of printing, there was an undoubted sense of impatience at the
slow progress of change. After a thousand years of cultural and intellectual
starvation, Europe (and especially Italy) was anxious for a re-birth.

Weakness of the Church

Paradoxically, the weak position of the Church gave added momentum to the
Renaissance. First, it allowed the spread of Humanism - which in bygone eras
would have been strongly resisted; second, it prompted later Popes like Pope
Julius II (1503-13) to spend extravagantly on architecture, sculpture and
painting in Rome and in the Vatican (eg. see Vatican Museums, notably
theSistine Chapel frescoes) - in order to recapture their lost influence. Their
response to the Reformation (c.1520) - known as the Counter Reformation, a
particularly doctrinal type of Christian art - continued this process to the end
of the sixteenth century.

An Age of Exploration

The Renaissance era in art history parallels the onset of the great Western age
of discovery, during which appeared a general desire to explore all aspects of
nature and the world. European naval explorers discovered new sea routes,
new continents and established new colonies. In the same way, European
architects, sculptors and painters demonstrated their own desire for new
methods and knowledge. According to the Italian painter, architect, and
Renaissance commentator Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), it was not merely the
growing respect for the art of classical antiquity that drove the Renaissance,
but also a growing desire to study and imitate nature.

Why Did the Renaissance Start in Italy?

In addition to its status as the richest trading nation with both Europe and the
Orient, Italy was blessed with a huge repository of classical ruins and artifacts.
Examples of Roman architecture were found in almost every town and city,
and Roman sculpture, including copies of lost sculptures from ancient Greece,
had been familiar for centuries. In addition, the decline of Constantinople - the
 capital of the Byzantine Empire - caused many Greek scholars to emigrate to
Italy, bringing with them important texts and knowledge of classical Greek
civilization. All these factors help explain why the Renaissance started in Italy.
For more, see Florentine Renaissance (1400-90).

For details of how the movement developed in different Italian cities, see:

Sienese School of Painting (eg. Lorenzetti brothers, Sassetta);

Renaissance in Florence (eg. Giotto, Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Leonardo);
Renaissance in Rome Under the Popes (eg. Raphael and Michelangelo);
Renaissance in Venice (eg. Mantegna, Bellini family, Titian, Tintoretto).

History of Renaissance Art

The Renaissance, or Rinascimento, was largely fostered by the post-feudal growth of the
independent city, like that found in Italy and the southern Netherlands. Grown wealthy
through commerce and industry, these cities typically had a democratic organization of
guilds, though political democracy was kept at bay usually by some rich and powerful
individual or family. Good examples include 15th century Florence - the focus of Italian
Renaissance art - and Bruges - one of the centres of Flemish painting. They were twin
pillars of European trade and finance. Art and as a result decorative craft flourished: in the
Flemish city under the patronage of the Dukes of Burgundy, the wealthy merchant class and
the Church; in Florence under that of the wealthy Medici family.

In this congenial atmosphere, painters took an increasing interest in the representation of

the visible world instead of being confined to that exclusive concern with the spirituality
of religion that could only be given visual form in symbols and rigid conventions. The
change, sanctioned by the tastes and liberal attitude of patrons (including sophisticated
churchmen) is already apparent in Gothic painting of the later Middle Ages, and culminates
in what is known as the International Gothic style of the fourteenth century and the
beginning of the fifteenth. Throughout Europe in France, Flanders, Germany, Italy and
Spain, painters, freed from monastic disciplines, displayed the main characteristics of this
style in the stronger narrative interest of theirreligious paintings, the effort to give more
humanity of sentiment and appearance to the Madonna and other revered images, more
individual character to portraiture in general and to introduce details of landscape, animal
and bird life that the painter-monk of an earlier day would have thought all too mundane.
These, it may be said, were characteristics also of Renaissance painting, but a vital
difference appeared early in the fifteenth century. Such representatives of the International
Gothic as Simone Martini (1285-1344) of the Sienese School of painting, and the Umbrian-
born Gentile da Fabriano (c.1370-1427), were still ruled by the idea of making an elegant
surface design with a bright, unrealistic pattern of colour. The realistic aim of a succeeding
generation involved the radical step of penetrating through the surface to give a new sense
of space, recession and three-dimensional form.
This decisive advance in realism first appeared about the same time in Italy and the
Netherlands, more specifically in the work of Masaccio (1401-28) at Florence, and of Jan
van Eyck (c.1390-1441) at Bruges. Masaccio, who was said by Delacroix to have brought
about the greatest revolution that painting had ever known, gave a new impulse to Early
Renaissance painting in his frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine.

See in particular: Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1425-6, Brancacci Chapel), and Holy
Trinity (1428, Santa Maria Novella).

The figures in these narrative compositions seemed to stand and move in ambient space;
they were modelled with something of a sculptor's feeling for three dimensions, while
gesture and expression were varied in a way that established not only the different
characters of the persons depicted, but also their interrelation. In this respect he anticipated
the special study of Leonardo in The Last Supper (1495-98, Convent of Santa Maria delle
Grazie, Milan).

Though Van Eyck also created a new sense of space and vista, there is an obvious difference
between his work and that of Masaccio which also illuminates the distinction between the
remarkable Flemish school of the fifteenth century and the Italian Early Renaissance. Both
were admired as equally 'modern' but they were distinct in medium and idea. Italy had a
long tradition of mural painting in fresco, which in itself made for a certain largeness of
style, whereas the Netherlandish painter, working in an oil medium on panel paintings of
relatively small size, retained some of the minuteness of the miniature painter. Masaccio,
indeed, was not a lone innovator but one who developed the fresco narrative tradition of his
great Proto-Renaissance forerunner in Florence, Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337). See, for
instance, the latter's Scrovegni Chapel Frescoes (c.1303-10, Padua).

Florence had a different orientation also as a centre of classical learning and philosophic
study. The city's intellectual vigour made it the principal seat of the Renaissance in the
fifteenth century and was an influence felt in every art. Scholars who devoted themselves to
the study and translation of classical texts, both Latin and Greek, were the tutors in wealthy
and noble households that came to share their literary enthusiasm. This in turn created the
desire for pictorial versions of ancient history and legend. The painter's range of subject was
greatly extended in consequence and he now had further problems of representation to
solve.

In this way, what might have been simply a nostalgia for the past and a retrograde step in
art became a move forward and an exciting process of discovery. The human body, so long
excluded from fine art painting and medieval sculpture by religious scruple - except in the
most meagre and unrealistic form - gained a new importance in the portrayal of the gods,
goddesses and heroes of classical myth. Painters had to become reacquainted
with anatomy, to understand the relation of bone and muscle, the dynamics of movement.
In the picture now treated as a stage instead of a flat plane, it was necessary to explore and
make use of the science of linear perspective. In addition, the example of classical
sculpture was an incentive to combine naturalism with an ideal of perfect proportion and
physical beauty.

Painters and sculptors in their own fashion asserted the dignity of man as the humanist
philosophers did, and evinced the same thirst for knowledge. Extraordinary indeed is the list
of great Florentine artists of the fifteenth century and, not least extraordinary, the number
of them that practised more than one art or form of expression.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/renaissance-art.htm#characteristics

List of 10 Remarkable
Religious Renaissance
Paintings
The great painters of the Renaissance period, many of whom focused on
religious themes were often commissioned by well-to-do patrons
including the Pope himself. Religion was infiltrated in everyday life in
this era, deeply resonating with both the painters and those they worked
for. Many of these religious paintings are among the greatest works of
Renaissance art as a whole.
Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese
The Wedding at Cana (or The Wedding Feast at Cana) by Paolo Veronese
is an oil on canvas that was painted in 1563 for the Benedectine
Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. It depicts the Biblical
Wedding Feast at Cana where according to the New Testament, Jesus
performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. The Biblical story,
however, is set into Veroneses time although some figures are depicted
wearing antique clothing. It is said that Veronese painted himself among
the 130 participants of the wedding feast (clothed in white with a viol
next to Titian and Bassano). The painting with dimensions of 666 cm x
990 cm (262 in x 390 in) is displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The School of Athens by Raphael

One of four frescoes by Raphael in the so-called Raphael Rooms in the
Apostolic Palace in Vatican was painted by the Italian Renaissance artist
between 1509 and 1511. The School of Athens revels Raphaels
interpretation of philosophy as a divine form of knowledge, with Plato
and Aristotle placed in the center of the scene, just like Jesus is in the
center of Paolo Veroneses The Wedding at Cana. In total, twenty-one
ancient Greek philosophers are painted, engaging in lofty discourse.
Raphaels fresco doesnt have religious character as such but its location
within a Greek cross-shaped building in Vatican has been interpreted as
an attempt to reconcile Christianity and pagan philosophy.

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

The mural on the back wall of the dining hall of the Dominican convent
of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy, was painted from 1495 to
1498. It differed from other frescoes of the era in that da Vinci created it
by using experimental pigments directly on the dry plaster wall. But
even before it was finished, it suffered from paint flaking off the wall. Da
Vinci repaired the damage but it continued to crumble and was
inadvertently damaged over the years both by the effects of time and
unfortunate events such as Napoleons troops using the wall for target
practice and the 1943 bombing which destroyed the rooms roof and
exposed the fresco to the weather elements. Not much of the original
painting survived and what can be seen today are mainly repairs.

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

The famous fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City
was painted from 1511 to 1512. Unfortunately, Michelangelos
masterpiece and one of the most famous works of both High Renaissance
and religious art suffered from candle smoke damage, going back for
centuries, which caused the fresco to darken and assume a gloomy
shadow. In the 1980s, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel went through an
extensive restoration which revealed colors and details that were hidden
for centuries. The restoration, however, has also caused a great deal of
controversy among art historians.

Madonna del Prato (also known as Madonna of the Meadow) by Raphael

The artist painted this oil on board in 1505 whilst he was in Florence;
though the painting is now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in
Vienna, Austria. Madonna del Prato, also known as Madonna of the
Meadow depicts Virgin Mary looking down to baby Jesus and his cousin
John the Baptist who is kneeling and offering a cross to Jesus. The
painting was created for Taddeo Taddei and remained in the Taddei
family until 1660s when it was sold to Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of
Austria.

Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist by Bernardino Luini
Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist was painted by
Bernardino Luini in the first half of the 16th century. The painting
depicts a scene from the Gospel of Mark, when Salome demands the
head of John the Baptist for having danced before King Herod and his
guests. The King who promised to give her anything she wants,
reluctantly agreed and had John the Baptist beheaded in the prison.
Luinis painting shows the moment when her request is met. The
painting is displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

San Zaccaria Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini

This oil on canvas was painted by Giovanni Bellini in 1505. It is one of
the finest examples of the so-called sacra conversazione or sacred
conversation which was developed by Renaissance Italian artists and
replaced the rigid polyptych form of the earlier periods. Virgin Mary
with the baby Jesus in the center are depicted with four Christian saints
St. Peter the Apostle and St. Catherine of Alexandria at the left, and St.
Gerome and St. Lucy at the right - and an angel playing a violin at the
foot of the altar. The painting is housed in the San Zaccaria church in
Venice, Italy.

Pesaro Madonna by Titian

Created from 1519 through 1526, the painting depicts the Virgin and the
Child on the top of a raised platform. The commissioner of the painting,
Jacobo Pesaro is shown kneeling before the Virgin and presented to her
by Saint Peter. The red banner with papal arms is held by an unknown
knight who also holds two Muslin prisoners, probably symbolizing
Pesaros success as the commander of the papal fleet. At the right is
depicted Saint Francis of Assisi who presents five kneeling members of
the Pesaro family to baby Jesus. Titian made the painting for Pesaro
chapel in the Frari Basilica in Venice where it remains until today.

The Last Judgment by Hieronymus Bosch

The triptych that was created by the Dutch painter sometime between
1505 and 1510 consists of three panels: the left panel depicts the Garden
of Eden with Adam and Eve being tempted by the Serpent on the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, the central panel depicts the Last
Judgment with Jesus on the throne as the judge of the world, while the
right panel depicts the Hell which is thematically very similar to the
central one. But instead of Jesus, it includes the Satan who receives the
souls of the damned. Boschs triptych is currently owned and displayed
in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Like its name suggests, Bruegels painting depicts the Biblical Tower of
Babel which was built by the unified humanity with an aim to reach the
heaven. Angered by the building project, God decided to prevent it by
scattering the people throughout the world and confusing their
languages so that they were unable to return and continue from where
they left off. The painting that was created in 1563 can be seen in the
Kunsthistorishes Museum in Vienna.

http://historylists.org/art/list-of-10-remarkable-religious-renaissance-
paintings.html

During the early fifteenth century, Europe continued to evolve out of a

series of medieval

feudal states

ruled by wealthy landowners into concentrated town centers or cities functioning as

powerful economic nuclei. As these cities took on greater political and financial
authority, the middle classes, made up of artisans, bankers, and merchants, played
more substantial roles in commerce with their greater wealth and independence.
Along with this prosperity, particularly marked in Italy, an increased number of

palaces

and

villas

were constructed, subsequently creating a greater demand for extravagant furniture

and domestic art, both for established aristocratic patrons and the newly wealthy. The
Metropolitans Farnese table (

58.57

) with marble inlay, commissioned for a wealthy

papal family

, represents the kind of large, monumental furniture that populated the newly built,
spacious interiors of these magnificent palaces.

The manufacture of secular art objects, usually for the purpose of

commemoration, personalized these lavish Italian Renaissance
interiors. Because

childbirth

and

marriage

were richly celebrated, a number of objects were made in honor of these rituals. The
wooden birth tray, or desco da parto, played a utilitarian as well as celebratory role in
commemorating a childs birth. It was covered with a special cloth to function as a
service tray for the mother during confinement and later displayed on the wall as a
memento of the special occasion. A desco da parto was usually painted with

mythological, classical, or literary themes

, as well as scenes of domesticity. The reverse often displayed a family crest. In some
cases, a birth tray was purchased already painted, but custom-decorated with heraldry
that personalized what might otherwise be a line item from a shop. The
Metropolitans Triumph of Fame (

1995.7

) by Lo Scheggia, Masaccios younger brother, is the finest and most extravagant

surviving example of a birth tray. It is noteworthy for its condition, beauty, and
association with the great Florentine Medici family. This tray was specially
commissioned by Piero de Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni to commemorate the
birth of their first-born son Lorenzo. Eventually, ceramic bowls, or

maiolica

, replaced wooden birth trays as service objects during childbirth. Originating on the
island of Majorca, these brilliantly colored wares were decorated with narratives
related to birth, while wooden trays eventually portrayed more heraldic and
mythological scenes. These rich ceramics were also produced as dinnerware and
containers, exemplified by the Metropolitans Medici porcelain ewer (

Citation

Voorhies, James. Domestic Art in Renaissance Italy. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dome/hd_dome.htm (October 2002)

Renaissance art is distinguished from medieval art primarily by physical realism and classical
composition (see Western Aesthetics).

The Early Renaissance was the formative period of Renaissance art; in other words, it was artists of the
Early Renaissance who pioneered and developed physical realism and classical composition. These
efforts culminated in the High Renaissance, during which the apex of classical balance, harmony, and
restraint was attained. During theLate Renaissance, this severe classicism was relaxed, allowing for a
measure of complexity and dynamism (thus presaging the rise of Baroque art).

A distinct sub-movement of Late Renaissance art was mannerism: the deliberate pursuit of novelty and
complexity. In sculpture, mannerism resulted in such qualities asdistorted anatomy (e.g. elongated
limbs) and complex postures. Some Late Renaissance artists worked in a full-blown mannerist style,
while others were merely influenced by the movement (to varying degrees).
Main Article

Early Renaissance
ca. 1400-1500

Renaissance painting and architecture were founded by Masaccio and Brunelleschi, respectively. The
founder of Renaissance sculpture was Ghiberti, whose masterpiece is the Gates of Paradise, a pair of
bronze doors for the Florence Baptistry. The main panels of these doors comprise ten biblical
scenes rendered with impressive realism, including deep perspective.

Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko

 Florence Baptistry
Credit: Georges Jansoone

Gates of Paradise
Credit: sailko

Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko


Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko

Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko


Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko

Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko


Panel from the Gates of Paradise

Credit: sailko

Florence Baptistry
Credit: Georges Jansoone

<

>

One of Ghiberti's assistants, Donatello, became the greatest sculptor of the Early Renaissance. It was
Donatello who finally revived classical statues (starting with Saint Mark), including equestrian
statues (with Gattamelata, the first equestrian statue since antiquity).G299,H683-89,1 His other primary
works include Saint George and David.

David
Credit: Patrick A. Rodgers

Saint Mark
Credit: Cnelson


Gattamelata
Credit: Lamr

Saint George
Credit: sailko


David
Credit: Patrick A. Rodgers

Saint Mark
Credit: Cnelson

<

>

High Renaissance
ca. 1500-1525
The uncontested master of High Renaissance sculpture is Michelangelo, who divided his career
between Florence (his native city) and Rome. Pieta is the jewel of his early work, while his
masterpiece, David, is often considered the greatest sculpture of all time. His foremost late work may
be Moses.

Though Michelangelo's career stretched into the Late Renaissance, most of his sculpture dates to the
High Renaissance; his later years were devoted to painting and architecture.

Moses
Credit: prasenberg

Pieta
Credit: Stanislav Traykov et al.


David
Credit: Quinok

Moses
Credit: prasenberg


Pieta
Credit: Stanislav Traykov et al.

<

>

Late Renaissance
ca. 1525-1600

The foremost mannerist sculptor was Flemish-Italian Giambologna. As noted earlier, typical features of
mannerist sculpture include complex postures and elongated anatomy. The former quality is evident in
the violent group sculptures Abduction of the Sabines and Heracles and Nessus, as well as several
gentler statues of Mercury. The Mercury sculptures also showcase elongated limbs, as does the female
statue L'Architettura.


L'Architettura
Credit: Infrogmation

Abduction of the Sabines

Credit: Arnold Paul


Heracles and Nessus

Credit: sonofgroucho

Flying Mercury
Credit: sailko


Mercury
Credit: Daderot

L'Architettura
Credit: Infrogmation


Abduction of the Sabines

Credit: Arnold Paul

<

>

Addendum

Key Definitions
The Essential Humanities definition of art is a beautiful human creation. Art can be divided into two basic
types: fine art (aka pure art), which is simply experienced (e.g. painting, sculpture, architecture),
and applied art (aka decorative art), which is actually used (e.g. pottery, clothing, furniture).

Fine art (which has always strongly influenced applied art) is the primary concern of Essential Humanities.
Five great fine arts are recognized: painting (flat visual art), sculpture (three-dimensional visual art),
architecture (the visual art of building design; may be considered a special branch of sculpture), music
(sound art), and literature (word art). These five media are "great" in that they (arguably) comprise the
most expressive and universally appreciated forms of art.

http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/sculpture/renaissance/
 Renaissance Sculpture
Renaissance Sculpture is varied and very often executed on a grand scale. You
can see (in person) some of the sculpture produced in the Renaissance and lots
of it without having to pay an entrance fee to a museum or gallery.

There are several fine examples in Florence. (Michelangelo's David being one of
these). St Peters in Rome has work by Bernini and Michelangelo, and the gilded
bronze papal altar is a must see.

The square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence is known as the Piazza
della Signoria. This and the surrounding area is packed with several excellent
works and, best of all, you don't pay an admission fee to view them.

Some of the greatest early Renaissance Sculpture was created by the artists
Donatello, Gilberti and Leonardo's master Verrocchio. Click on the link to view
their work. Early Masterpieces

Giambologna. (Giovanni da Bologna)

Giovanni da Bologna became known simply as Giambologna (1529-1608).

He was trained in Antwerp before moving to Rome to study the Ancients and the
work of Michelangelo. He eventually settled in Florence and worked in the
service of the Medici family he became one of the most important sculptors of
the Late Renaissance.
 192Save

The Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna

(1574-82), Florence. (p)

The story of the Sabine Women refers to an early period in Roman history.
When the Sabines refused to allow their women to marry Romans they were
abducted and pesuaded to accept their fate. Giambologna has portraid the
scene with three vertical, intertwined figures. The work is considered to be his
masterpiece.
 Hercules and the Centaur Nessus (1599). (w)

What a fantastic photo, taken by Ricardo Andr Frantz.

Giambologna was born in flanders, but he moved to Italy in 1550. He had a

keen interest in the sculpture of classical antiquity and was greatly influenced
by the work of Michelangelo.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was the greatest sculptor of the sixteenth century, and
one of the greatest of all time.
Michelangelo's renaissance sculptures. deserve their own page, click on the link
to see his work. Michelangelo's Sculptures
 Michelagelo's bust of Brutus c.1542.
Bargello Museum, Florence. (s)

Michelangelo.
Christ Carrying the Cross. Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome. (s)

http://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Renaissance-Sculpture.html