MODULE 3: Renaissance art in 16th c. Europe: Italian & northern Europe, Chapter 18

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 Modules: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

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The period described as the Renaissance didn’t begin or end at a specific time or place. [The concept and use of the term ‘Renaissance’ are 19th century ideas, meant to convey a distinction with the Modern era.] The influences from other cultures and from cultures of the past nudged the ‘mind-set’ of medieval thinkers towards a broader scope of the world. Even in the so-called Dark Ages, minds were at work considering challenges to established doctrine. In the face of unavoidable challenges to the dogma of the church, in particular as it relates to the tangible nature of the world, a compromise was worked out- an ‘everyday truth’ of the natural world and ‘revealed truth’ which derives from faith. And so the process continued. It may be said that this time was the start of modernist thinking. A thread of Renaissance humanist-intellectualism continues today.

The concept of the Renaissance was created in the 19th century to distinguish the pre-modern from the modern era. During the 15th century era we now call the Renaissance, it was clear that significant changes were occurring in European societies.

The important factors, which identify this period, are the following:

• Humanist Philosophy = a philosophy that emphasizes the worth of the individual. Renaissance humanists believed it was possible to improve human society through classical education. This education relied on teachings from ancient texts and emphasized a range of disciplines, including poetry, history, rhetoric (rules for writing influential prose or speeches), and moral philosophy. In addition, the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks, created an infusion of intellectual talent to Italy. Petrarch, born near Florence in 1304, was called the first great Humanist,
   

• Economics = The 1348 Black Death-bubonic plague killed more than 1/4 the population of Europe, wages increase ten fold, Muslim ‘double entry book keeping’ allowed for complex trade. Cosimo Medici and his son Lorenzo headed the most important Florentine family. The 15th century Medici family was one of the most prominent merchant and banking families during the Renaissance. They also were most important supporters of the arts. They controlled the papacy, royalty, and the population.
   

• Urban Society = The Renaissance was powered by the economic power of Italian city-states. The Crusades helped revive a moribund medieval economy. Cities grew to complex organizations of a diverse population. Peasants gravitated to the cities to escape their identity as serfs, to become the new working class (with no political rights.)
   

• Religion = The Renaissance was a time of diminishing influence and prestige for the Catholic Church. Although the Catholic Church was in decay, religious fervor was increasing. For example, the highly popular preacher, Girolamo Savonarola of Florence, called on sinners to repent, Savonarola was a popular preacher of repentance in Florence during the Renaissance, but he denounced important political and religious figures, including the pope, for moral corruption. Eventually the church charged him with heresy. In 1498 Savonarola was hanged and then burned at the stake in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria.
  
  The Northern Renaissance retained stronger ties to Christianity than Italy. A mystical religious movement that drew, in part, from the teachings of German mystic Meister Eckhart flourished in the portion of western Germany. The Reformation movement gained momentum at the onset of the 16th century. In 1520 German theologian Martin Luther condemned some of the basic teachings of the Catholic Church, bringing about the Protestant Reformation and its related schism with the Catholic Church.
   

• Politics = Politically, there was an interest in a republican (representative) form of government. Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian statesman and writer who is considered one of the most significant political thinkers of the Renaissance. In his best-known work, "The Prince", Machiavelli discusses the art of governance and how a ruler can acquire and keep power, freeing politics from any relationship to religion, focused on how to preserve the state by any effective means. French historian Jean Bodin advanced a theory of sovereignty that gave almost unlimited authority to the national ruler and that was based on purely secular arguments.
   

• Science = The Renaissance spirit of curiosity, experimentation, and objectivity were important to the development of science in Europe. Renaissance scholars emphasized concrete experience over abstract theory and tried to observe the natural world carefully, completely, and without preconceived ideas. This spirit of impartial inquiry was more important to the future of science than any specific achievement.
   

• The Arts = the arts of the Renaissance were very different in appearance than the arts before whether architecture, sculpture or painting. Also, the issue of artists as unique genius, and the difference in style between artists, make the Renaissance an era of complex, often contradictory expression. Starting with Donatello’s classically radical statue of “David” 1430, to Masaccio’s use of linear perspective in his “The Holy Trinity,” 1425, to Botticelli’s Classic ‘themed’, coy and chaste, Renaissance ‘cheesecake’ “The Birth of Venus,” 1480, to Bellini’s analytically constructed “St. Francis in Ecstasy,” 1485, to Leonardo de Vinci’s compositionally reinforced vision of “The Last Supper,” 1495 and his enigmatic portrait of “Mona Lisa,” 1503, to Michelangelo’s marble masterpieces “Pieta,” 1500, “David,”1504, and “Moses,” 1515 and his massive fresco covering the Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1512 and “Last Judgment,” 1541, to Raphael’s “The School of Athens,” to Giorgione’s cryptic “The Tempest,” 1505. In Northern Europe late exposure to Gothic style produced one of the innovators of oil painting Jan Van Eyck’s spectacular “Ghent Altarpiece,” 1432, “The Arnolfini Portrait,” 1434, to Campin’s iconography filled “Merode Altarpiece,” 1430, to Bosch’s ‘psychedelic’ vision of heaven and hell “The Garden of Delights,” 1515. The Italian Renaissance eventually flowed north as seen in Grunewald’s “Isenheim Altarpiece,” 1515, Durer’s woodcut prints, Holbein’s portraiture, Bruegel’s paintings of mid-1500 Netherlander peasant life.

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SLIDE:
Boticelli “Birth of Venus” (1482) Pl. 17-73

Renaissance intellectual curiosity led many to examine the work of Classical Greek/Roman authors and artists. As the repertoire of approved subject matter broadened, the use of ‘pagan’ motifs included a sensual appreciation of flesh. Here the sensual flesh of Venus is chilled by the icy winds of the gods of winter while Primavera the goddess of spring covers Venus’ nakedness with a blanket of flowers. The work is a poetic 'homage' to Classical Greece but also an opportunity to depict pagan sensuality- 'cheesecake' for the aristocracy.

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SLIDE:
da Vinci “Last Supper” (1498) Pl. 18-2

In his “Last Supper” fresco, da Vinci was able to capture the spiritually charged and liturgically dramatic moment in the life of Christ and at the same time construct the visual passion play with an architect's compositional precision, chiaroscuro, atmospheric and linear perspective.

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SLIDE:
da Vinci “Mona Lisa” (1503) Pl. 18-4

For many, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the world’s greatest painting. Seeing it for real can be a disconcerting experience- small, crackled surface, fuzzy details, a couple inches of bulletproof glass, two armed guards and a gaggle of gawking tourists craning for an elusive peek. It’s value to da Vinci is in the fact that it remained in his possession until his exile in France. Its value to France is due to da Vinci’s gift of the painting to the French King Francis I in appreciation for da Vinci’s guest-exile status.

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SLIDE:
Michelangelo “Pieta” (1500) Pl. 18-11

Michelangelo’s first large statue 'Pieta' reflects a more universal theme of a mother’s loss of a child than the more obvious biblical pathos. It would be a theme he would return to in his last years.

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SLIDE:
Michelangelo “David” (1504) Pl. 18-12

The theme of persevering against greater forces of Michelangelo's David slaying Goliath was emblematic of Florence’s recent conflict with the cities Milan, Siena and Pisa - a lessor victor against a greater foe. Comparing this statue to Donatello’s earlier fey, young David, Michelangelo’s buffed-out marble stud is worthy of the impending conflict.
 

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SLIDE:
Michelangelo “Sistine Chapel” Pl. 18-13

Michelangelo’s frescos for the Sistine Chapel are perhaps the most impressive single artistic effort in the history of European art. In spite of Michelangelo’s protests that he was less a painter and more a sculptor, Pope Julius II insisted that Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Pope’s chapel. With over 5,000 square feet o surface to cover and his inexperience with fresco technique, the project might have seemed daunting to a lesser artist. The accomplishment depicted scenes from biblical Creation, Fall and Redemption, and included Michelangelo’s personal stylistic interpretations.
 

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SLIDE:
Michelangelo “Pieta” (1564) Pl. 18-48

His sculptural last work, the Rondanini Pieta shows his struggle to deal with the same theme as his first Pieta. He said that the theme was his most daunting subject.

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SLIDE:
Titan “Venus of Urbino” (1538) Pl. 18-27

Implying by the use of the Greek mythical character Venus that the theme of this painting is the respectful homage to pagan gods belies the lusty appreciation for the naked female form. Stokstad refers to her gestures as “…deliberately provocative…” Absolutely.

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