Art in Focus

Chapter 16: The Italian Renaissance

Lesson Summaries-English

          By the beginning of the fifteenth century in Europe, people became less focused on salvation and began to rediscover the world around them. This period is known as the Renaissance, a time of great awakening.

Lesson 1
The Emergence of the Italian Renaissance

          The fifteenth century was a time of growth and discovery. Artists and scholars developed an interest in the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Inspired by classical works and by nature, artists tried to make their artworks look more realistic. In the rich commercial city of Florence, the artist Masaccio took the innovations of Giotto and developed the Italian Renaissance style. Masaccio focused on mass and depth to create the illusion that his figures were real people occupying real space. He also overlapped figures and used aerial perspective, where hue, value, and intensity show distance in a painting. Then, to perfect the illusion of depth and volume on a flat surface, the artist Filippo Brunelleschi invented a system known as linear perspective. This system uses horizontal lines in buildings and other objects to make them appear to extend back into space.

          Other artists continued to use more conservative ideas from the Gothic period. The monk Fra Angelico was not concerned with perspective, but he adopted the simplicity of Masaccio to depict religious stories clearly. The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti used Gothic frames but created Renaissance reliefs for the doors of the Baptistry of the Florence cathedral. For a second, later, set of doors, he transitioned completely to the Renaissance style, using square panels and linear perspective.

Lesson 2
The Acceptance of Renaissance Ideas

          During the 1400s, patrons of the arts such as Florence’s Medici family encouraged the spread of Renaissance ideas. Drawing on the classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome, artists found new ideas for their works. To perfect the illusion of depth, painters such as Paolo Uccello used foreshortening. Uccello drew figures according to the rules of perspective so that they appear to recede or protrude into three-dimensional space. Going beyond just the use of perspective, Piero della Francesca completely embraced the new Renaissance style. He used modeling in light and shade to create depth and form. Sandro Botticelli organized his figures in ways that draw the viewer into his compositions.

          In sculpture, artists such as Donatello also strove for realism. In architecture, a new style reflected the balanced, elegant buildings of classical times. Brunelleschi, the inventor of linear perspective, created a towering dome for the space over the altar of the Florence Cathedral. Previously no one had been able to cover such a large opening. Then, for the Pazzi Chapel, Brunelleschi used moldings, pilasters, and columns to create a simple, calm space.

Lesson 3
High Renaissance

          The period between 1495 and 1527 is known as the High Renaissance. During this time the Italian artists Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael created their timeless masterpieces. Leonardo da Vinci was a genius who explored all types of learning and made notebooks with thousands of drawings. Many of his artworks were “experiments,” such as his version of The Last Supper. This artwork is still admired today because of the novel ways in which Leonardo grouped the figures. He was a perfectionist, so much so that he considered his most famous painting, the Mona Lisa portrait, unfinished. Another highly gifted artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, created works on a grand scale. He carved his touchingly beautiful Pietà when he was in his early twenties. Then he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the pope himself. The ceiling tells the story of humanity from the Creation to the Flood. The figures are so highly modeled in light and shade that they look like statues. Painted in fresco 68 feet above the floor, the ceiling took Michelangelo an exhausting four years to complete. The artist Raphael Sanzio blended the ideas of Leonardo and Michelangelo and became the most typical artist of the Renaissance. His well-known Alba Madonna depicts a religious theme with lifelike figures and balanced hues. The expressions on the figures’ faces convey an undercurrent of tension.

          During the Renaissance, women artists finally were able to make names for themselves, despite serious barriers. Sofonisba Anguissola was encouraged to study art by her father, a nobleman. She began painting portraits of herself and members of her family and soon became a court painter for the king of Spain.