February 6
Early Renaissance in the North
and in Italy
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Major Netherlandish
Painters:
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Robert Campin
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Jan van
Eyck
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Rogier van
der Weyden
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Rogier van der Weyden
c. 1399 - 1464
Rogier van der Weyden. Deposition. c. 1442.
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Van
der Weyden's style:
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Solid,
three-dimensional figures
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Individualized
portraits
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High
emotionalism
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Balanced
color scheme
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trompe
l'oeil = "fools the eye," a form of illusionistic painting
that attempts to represent an object as existing in three dimensions
at the surface of the painting
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Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of a Lady. c. 1460.
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Idealization
= a process in art through which artists strive to make their forms
and figures attain perfection, based on pervading cultural values and/
or their own mental image of beauty
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Renaissance panel painting video
Second-Generation Panel Painter
Hugo van der Goes. Portinari Altarpiece. c. 1474-76
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Symbolism
in Portinari Alatarpiece:
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Grain
= Bethlehem and Communion bread
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Purple
columbine = Virgin's sorrow
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Red
carnations = the Trinity
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Discarded
shoe = holy ground
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Scarlet
lily = blood and passion of Christ
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Glass
jar and white Iris = purity of the Virgin
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Three
Irises = holy trinity
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Red
Lily = blood of Christ
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Columbines
= sorrow
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Hieratic
scale = the use of different sizes for significant or holy figures and
those of the everyday world to indicate importance. The larger the figure,
the greater the importance
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Early Renaissance in Florence
Map of Europe during the Early Renaissance
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Historical
Context
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1429
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Joan of Arc liberates Orleans |
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1431
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Joan of Arc burned at the stake |
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1434
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Exiled Cosimo de Medici returns to control Florence |
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1440
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Platonic Academy founded in Florence |
| 1445 | Guttenberg prints first book |
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1453
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Turks take Constantinople |
| End of Hundred Years' War | |
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1469
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Lorenzo de Medici rules Republic of Florence |
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1470
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Portuguese explorers reach Africa's Gold Coast |
| 1484 | Pope Innocent VII succeeds to papacy and outlaws witchcraft |
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1492
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Columbus discovers West Indies and South America |
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The early
Renaissance in Italy was a period of significant social change
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Decline
of feudalism
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Birth of
capitalism
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Period of
exploration
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Increased
secularism
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Renaissance
Humanism
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an
emphasis on education and on expanding knowledge (especially of classical
antiquity), the exploration of individual potential and a desire to
excel, and a commitment to civic responsibility and moral duty
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Renewed
interest in classic Greece and Rome
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Belief
that Man was the measure of all things
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Belief
that humanity could achieve perfection through education
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Valued
a balance between faith and reason
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Stressed
man's superiority over nature
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Interest
and value in the individual
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Goal:
"to live a rich, noble and productive life within the framework
of Christianity" - Stokstad
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Middle
Ages
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Renaissance
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| Ideal life | Monastic escape from society | Full participation in rich and varied experience |
| Focus of philosophy | The hereafter | The here and now |
| View of humanity | Man is completely flawed | Man is always in trouble, but he is great |
| Arts glorified | God | Mankind |
1402 competition to design the east doors of the Florence baptistry
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Filippo
Brunelleschi. Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east
doors, baptistry of Florence Cathedral. 1401 - 1402.
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Lorenzo
Ghiberti. Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors,
baptistry of Florence Cathedral. 1401 - 1402.
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Fred
S. Kleiner and Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner's Art Through the Ages.
Twelfth ed. Vol. 1. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 2005.
2 vols.
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Lorenzo Ghiberti. Gates of Paradise (East Doors). 1425-52.
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"I
strove to imitate nature as clearly as I could, and with all the perspective
I could produce, to have excellent compositions with many figures."
- Ghiberti
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Lorenzo Ghiberti. Jacob and Esau, panel from the Gates of Paradise (East doors). c, 1435.
