Renaissance Art

Middle Ages or Renaissance?

Sandro Botticelli

The Birth of Venus

Patron: Medici Family

Theme relates to Homer and Ovid's Metamophoses

Painted on canvas using a technique of thin tempera

Blown by the west wind, Zephyr, and the nymph, Chloris

Venus born from the sea foam

Horai prepares to dress Venus with a flowered mantle

Sandro Botticelli

La Primavera

Patrons: Medici

Symbolic and allegorical Subject

The three graces and Mercury

Messenger and god of trade

Preventing storm clouds from moving in

Goddesses of such things as charm, beauty, and creativity

Venus is underneath a blindfolded Cupid in flight

Godess of love, beauty, and fertility

Zephyr chases the nymph Chloris who turns into the goddess Flora at night

Zypher: god of the west wind

Flora: goddess of flowers and the season of spring

Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa

Half-length portrait

Lisa del Giocondo

- Florintine

- comissioned by her merchant husband

It was common at this time for genteel women to pluck eyebrow hair

Recent research suggests that the image originally had eyebrows and eyelashes but faded with time

Folded hands depict her as a virtuous woman and faithful wife

Michelangelo

David

Comissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be stationed at the Florence Cathedral

Became a symbol of defense of civil liberities after being placed outside the government center in Florence

Marble

Represents the biblical hero David (a popular subject in Florintine art)

Face looks tense and ready for combat

Eyes, with a warning glare, turned towards Rome during city-state fighting

He carries a sling

Pose is unique

Before battle

Omitted giant

Contrapposto

Feature of antique sculpture

When a figure stands with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs

Majority of weight is on his back leg

Consistent with the Renaissance practice of depicting its subjects in recoiled, calm positions, just prior to action

Raphael

School of Athens

Commissioned by the Vatican

Fresco

High Renaissance

Roman Architecture

Van Eyck

The Arnolfini Portrait

Oil Paint

Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife in their home in the city of Bruges

Early Summer

Wealth

Noted in bed dressings, fruit, chandelier, oriental carpet, etc.

Material of clothes are expensive; silk, fur, lined

Purple but has faded with time

Clogs

unworn; suggests respect for the ceremony and holy ground

Often a gift husbands presented brides with

Placement near bed suggests gender roles of women at the time as caretakers

She is not pregnant; just the fashion of the time

Green is a symbol of hope and/or wealth

Symbol of loyalty/royalty

Location also functioned as a reception room

The mirror has scenes of The Passion painted on it

artist signed his name

Figure wearing red is the artist

Brunelleschi

Duomo of Florence

Invented Linear Perspective

Hallmarks of Renaissance Art

Image references a seated Madonna

Assignment

Using two different colors, highlight anything that references Middle Ages and Renaissance Art

2 min

Central Vanishing Point

Aristotle

Plato

Practical

Theoretical

Cherries symbolize love while oranges note purity and innocence

Positioned ahead

Both carry modern copies of their books

20 min

Brass chanelier is large and expensive by contemporary standards