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UNIT Renaissance Art

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1 The purpose of art during the Middle Ages was to teach religion. As many people living in medieval
times could neither read nor write, paintings and sculptures served as vehicles through which religious leaders
could promote spirituality and devotion to God. Medieval artists were less concerned with creating lifelike
figures and forms than they were with conveying religious morals and meaning. The Renaissance artists,
however, viewed art as a venue of personal and aesthetic expression and were most interested in secular
themes. They wanted to portray the world as it was. Their intent was not only to achieve accurate appearances
and proportions, but also to celebrate nature and humanity. Renaissance artists, therefore, often endowed
their subjects with beauty and dignity that exceeded reality.

2 The first known artist to realistically illustrate the natural world was the Italian painter Giotto. Giotto was
commissioned by churches in Florence, Padua, and Assisi in the early 1300s to recreate biblical scenes. He
painted elaborate frescos, or paintings, on wet plaster. His frescos depicted realistic settings and strong
human emotions. His work preceded some of the most famous architects, painters, and sculptors working
in Florence in the early 1400s. In 1429, the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi designed the famous
Pazzi Chapel. He used principles of symmetry and geometric beauty. Much of his inspiration came from the
styles of architecture employed by the ancient Romans such as the use of arches and columns. Brunelleschi?셲
work began the revival of classical antiquity. Classical antiquity refers to the ancient culture of Greek and
Rome as it was idealized by the scholars and artists of the Renaissance.

3 The Renaissance artists of the fifteenth century worked primarily with religious themes, yet the subjects
they painted or sculpted were strikingly human. Masaccio was the first of the Renaissance painters to
enhance a sense of reality by using scientific perspective to create an illusion of space and depth on a flat
surface. His masterpiece was a series displayed in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del
Carmine in Florence. The frescos depict biblical characters whose intense gestures and emotions are
grounded in realistic scenes. The sculptor Donatello, working in Florence around the same time as Masaccio,
similarly humanized biblical characters. He focused on the form of the human body, using dramatic details to
convey a dignified human presence. Around 1430, Donatello was commissioned by the Florentine patron of
art, Cosimo de Medici, to cast a bronze statue of the biblical hero David. Donatello?셲 finished David stood five
feet tall with the youthful grace and pride of a boy who had just slain the Giant Goliath. Donatello?셲 masterpiece
was the first major work of Renaissance sculpture.

4 Around the turn of the century, the painters Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci emerged
as the dominant artists of the late Renaissance. Michelangelo distinguished himself not only in painting, but
also in poetry, architecture, and sculpture. Like Donatello, he mastered the human form with anatomical and
emotional perfection. His famous statue of Moses, for example, which he created in 1516, powerfully portrays
the physical and spiritual strength of the Israelite leader. Like Donatello, Michelangelo also sculpted a statue
of David, which also became one of the most famous works of Renaissance art. Michelangelo is most
esteemed for the biblical frescos he painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Unlike the dramatic scenes
of Michelangelo?셲 paintings, Raphael?셲 work was gracefully poetic in its use of soft lines and delicate colors.
Raphael painted mainly portraits, including that of the Virgin Mary. His greatest work, however, was the fresco
School of Athens. The painting was influenced by classic Greek and Roman models. It portrays the great
philosophers and scientists of classical antiquity.

5 Perhaps the two most famous works of Renaissance art are Leonardo da Vinci?셲 fresco, The Last
Supper, and his portrait of Mona Lisa. Da Vinci is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters in
human history. He studied the workings of the human body with intense dedication. He made thousands of
drawings of skeletons and muscles in the pursuit of exquisite accuracy. Da Vinci has become a symbol of
the Renaissance movement for his insatiable curiosity and intellectual mind. Although the artists of the
Renaissance contributed greatly to the changing styles and ideas, only da Vinci mastered them all.

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