- •Renaissance art
- •§ 1. Introduction
- •The Early Renaissance
- •§ 2. Giotto (1266/76—1337)
- •§ 3. Masaccio (1401—1428/29)
- •§ 4. Van Eyck (1370/85—1441)
- •§ 5. Botticelli (1445—1510)
- •Geographical and proper names
- •Vocabulary notes
- •Work on the texts
- •I. Translate the italicized words and phrases from the texts. Give a back translation without consulting the texts.
- •II. Translate in written form the last paragraph in the text on Masaccio (§ 3) and the paragraph beginning with “The Birth of Venice…”, ending with “…the restlessness of the outline and mood (§ 5).
- •III. Find the English equivalents for:
- •IV. Explain the following
- •V. Answer the following questions:
- •VI. Retell the texts in great detail.
- •VII. Give a summary of the texts on the Early Renaissance.
- •VIII. Watch the video presentation of pictures by Botticelli on youtube.
Renaissance art
§ 1. Introduction
The Renaissance, an age of discovery, found painters deeply concerned with investigations and experiments. New importance was given to the human figure, which now became one of the essential motifs of all painting and the basis of Renaissance humanism. In its initial stages Renaissance painting was stimulated by antique sculpture to an intensive study of the human body — its structure and mechanism. The 15th century artists were fascinated by science, mathematics, geometry and above all perspective. The breadth of knowledge of these artists was astounding, ranging from the simplest craft processes to the highest intellectual speculation.
The Early Renaissance
§ 2. Giotto (1266/76—1337)
The history of painting in Western Europe begins with the thirteenth-century pioneer, Giotto. From the relatively stiff artistic background of his time Giotto developed a majestic, sculptural style which set Italian art on its future path. Although his technical contribution to painting is enormous, Giotto's great feeling for humanity makes his work a high point in the movement toward the humanizing of art and life begun early in the century. In both respects he is a key figure, his personality stamped on the whole course of Italian art. For more than two hundred years after his death artists acknowledged their debt to this master of monumental dignity and controlled emotional strength.
The young Giotto helped with the frescoes in the great church of St Francis in Assisi. Here the young apprentice absorbed both the flat-patterned, emotional art of his own teacher (Cimabue, a Florentine artist) and the rounded forms of the painters from Rome who had been influenced by the ancient sculptures in the Eternal City. Giotto combined these qualities to form a new and personal style.
In a "St Francis" done for the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Giotto repeated the powerful sculpturesque impression and sense of dignity achieved by him earlier in his frescoes painted at Padua. To these elements he added the quality of decorative symmetry. "The Death of St Francis" reveals a carefully balanced composition which increases the effectiveness of the presentation in a way that was to become increasingly characteristic of Italian art.
In a neat shallow box space the deathbed is flanked by two doorways, each with its group of five mourners. Another five stand against the rear wall, while three figures kneel on either side of the bed. The actuality and solidity of these figures is heightened by the draperies covering them. This powerful impression of form is apparent even over the shoes of the foreground characters whose faces are not seen, but whose reality cannot be doubted.
§ 3. Masaccio (1401—1428/29)
Giotto's method had been to outline the figure and, through the powerful contour, suggest a third dimension. Line was a shorthand method of indicating form; it carried the eye of the spectator in the directions desired by the painter. Masaccio achieved a considerable optical illusion of depth in his landscapes, as well as in the painting of architectural constructions, applying the laws of perspective. Masaccio's method is illustrated by the famous "The Tribute Money". It differentiates between the light that falls on a rounded figure and the shadows it casts — more or less what actually happens in nature. The light-and-dark, or chiaroscuro technique was conceived almost at one stroke. During a period of perhaps three years, the artist developed this new way of building up the mass of a form and of placing it in a given part of three-dimensional space. The effect of his remarkable feat can be traced in the work of the great masters of the High Renaissance.
Masaccio was also able to portray figures out of doors so convincingly that they appear to blur as they move away from us. Linear perspective reproduces the effect of forms growing smaller in the distance. With his new aerial perspective Masaccio pointed out that they also grow dimmer and out of focus.