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RENAISSANCE

CONTENTS 04 - 05 What is Renaissance

22 - 29 Renaissance Archi

06 - 13 Renaissance Genuises

30 - 31 Forms and Purposes

14 - 21 Renaissance Sculp

32 - 35 Columns and pilas

tures

tecture

of Buildings ters

CONTENTS 04 - 05 What is Renaissance

22 - 29 Renaissance Archi

06 - 13 Renaissance Genuises

30 - 31 Forms and Purposes

14 - 21 Renaissance Sculp

32 - 35 Columns and pilas

tures

tecture

of Buildings ters

What is Renaissance The Renaissance was a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic â&#x20AC;&#x153;rebirthâ&#x20AC;? following the Middle Ages. Generally described as taking place from the 14th century to the 17th century, the Renaissance promoted the rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature and art. Some of the greatest thinkers, authors, statesmen, scientists and artists in human history thrived during this era, while global exploration opened up new lands and cultures to European commerce. The Renaissance is credited with bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and modern-day civilization. The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th

16th century, its influence was felt in art, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, science and technology, politics, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art. Renaissance humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini sought out in Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s monastic libraries the Latin literary, historical, and oratorical texts of Antiquity, while the Fall of Constantinople (1453) generated a wave of Greek scholars bringing precious manuscripts in ancient Greek, many of which had fallen into obscurity in the West. It is in their new focus on literary and historical texts that Renaissance scholars differed so markedly from the medieval scholars of the Renaissance of the 12th century, who had focused on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural sciences, philosophy and mathematics, rather than on such cultural texts.

Renaissance Genuises Some of the most famous and groundbreaking Renaissance intellectuals, artists, scientists and writers include the likes of: •Leonardo Da Vinci(1452–1519):was a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.” Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Art, da Vinci believed, was indisputably connected with science and nature. Largely self-educated, he filled dozens of secret notebooks with inventions, observations and theories about pursuits from aeronautics to anatomy. But the rest of the world was just beginning to share knowledge in books made with moveable type, and the concepts expressed in his notebooks were often difficult to interpret. As a result, though he was lauded in his time as a great artist, his contemporaries often did not fully appreciate his genius—the combination of intellect and imagination that allowed him to create, at least on paper, such inventions as the bicycle, the helicopter and an airplane based on the physiology and flying capability of a bat.

rival, the fellow Florentine, Leonardo da Vinci. Several scholars have described Michelangelo as the greatest artist of his age and even as the greatest artist of all time.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known best as simply Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. His artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal along with his

A number of Michelangelo’s works of painting, sculpture and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. His output in these fields was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches and reminiscences, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century. He sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. Despite holding a low opinion of painting, he also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture. At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica.

rival, the fellow Florentine, Leonardo da Vinci. Several scholars have described Michelangelo as the greatest artist of his age and even as the greatest artist of all time.

Michelangelo

Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian: March 28 or April 6, 1483 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur.

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his early death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considewrable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models

Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

wide range of religious subjects and also some portraits. He and his workshop were especially known for their Madonna and Childs, many in the round tondo shape. Botticelli’s best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both in the Uffizi in Florence. He lived all his life in the same neighbourhood of Florence, with probably his only significant time elsewhere the months he spent painting in Pisa in 1474 and the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481– 82. Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi 1445[1] – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli, Italian, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli’s posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting. As well as the small number of mythological subjects which are his best known works today, he painted a

Only one of his paintings is dated, though others can be dated from other records with varying degrees of certainty, and the development of his style traced with confidence. He was an independent master for all the 1470s, growing in mastery and reputation, and the 1480s were his most successful decade, when all his large mythological paintings were done, and many of his best Madonnas.

handling of proportions, drapery, anatomy, and perspective. A third feature was the reemergence of classical subjects and forms.

Renaissance Suclptures Almost from the outset, sculpture and painting were characterized by individualism, as progress became less and less a reflection of schools, and more about the work of individual artists.

An equally important feature of Renaissance art was its naturalism. In sculpture, this was evident in the increase of contemporary subjects, together with a more naturalistic

Since the fall of Rome in the fifth century, Italy never completely forgot the sculpture of ancient Greece, nor could it ignore the visible mass of Roman ruins. The revival of classicism in sculpture began about the time of Nicola Pisano (c.12061278), and, though checked in the 14th-century, continued throughout the 15th-century.

handling of proportions, drapery, anatomy, and perspective. A third feature was the reemergence of classical subjects and forms.

An equally important feature of Renaissance art was its naturalism. In sculpture, this was evident in the increase of contemporary subjects, together with a more naturalistic

David (Michelangelo) David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. David is a 5.17-metre (17.0 ft)[a] marble statue of the Biblical figure David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. David was originally commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria, where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504. The statue was moved to the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, in 1873, and later replaced at the original location by a replica. Because of the nature of the figure it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the

The history of the statue begins before Michelangelo’s work on it from 1501 to 1504. Prior to Michelangelo’s involvement, the Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral, consisting mostly of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana, had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral. In 1410, Donatello made the first of the statues, a figure of Joshua in terracotta. A figure of Hercules, also in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made perhaps under Donatello’s direction. Eager to continue their project, in 1464, the Operai contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David. A block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs, feet and the torso, roughing out some drapery and probably gouging a hole.

Pietà (Michelangelo) The Pietà is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who was a representative in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal’s funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the north side of the entrance of the basilica, in the 18th century.[1] It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed. This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. The theme is of Northern origin. [when defined as?] Michelangelo’s interpretation of the Pietà is unprecedented in Italian sculpture.[2] It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism.

The structure is pyramidal, and the vertex coincides with Mary’s head. The statue widens progressively down the drapery of Mary’s dress, to the base, the rock of Golgotha. The figures are quite out of proportion, owing to the difficulty of depicting a fully-grown man cradled full-length in a woman’s lap. Much of Mary’s body is concealed by her monumental drapery, and the relationship of the figures appears quite natural. Michelangelo’s interpretation of the Pietà was far different from those previously created by other artists, as he sculpted a young and beautiful Mary rather than an older woman around 50 years of age. The marks of the Crucifixion are limited to very small nail marks and an indication of the wound in Jesus’ side. Christ’s face does not reveal signs of the Passion. Michelangelo did not want his version of the Pietà to represent death.

Moses (Michelangelo)

Moses is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the biblical figure Moses with horns on his head, based on a description in chapter 34 of Exodus in the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible used at that time. Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to build his tomb in 1505 and it was finally completed in 1545; Julius II died in 1513.The initial design by Michelangelo was massive and called for over 40 statues. The statue of Moses would have been placed on a tier about 3.74 meters high (12 ft 3 in), opposite a figure of St. Paul. 566 In the final design, the statue of Moses sits in the center of the bottom tier.

Giorgio Vasari in the Life of Michelangelo wrote: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Michelangelo finished the Moses in marble, a statue of five braccia, unequaled by any

modern or ancient work. Seated in a serious attitude, he rests with one arm on the tables, and with the other holds his long glossy beard, the hairs, so difficult to render in sculpture, being so soft and downy that it seems as if the iron chisel must have become a brush. The beautiful face, like that of a saint and mighty prince, seems as one regards it to need the veil to cover it, so splendid and shining does it appear, and so well has the artist presented in the marble the divinity with which God had endowed that holy countenance. The draperies fall in graceful folds, the muscles of the arms and bones of the hands are of such beauty and perfection, as are the legs and knees, the feet were adorned with excellent shoes, that Moses may now be called the friend of God more than ever, since God has permitted his body to be prepared for the resurrection before the others by the hand of Michelangelo. The Jews still go every Saturday in troops to visit and adore it as a divine, not a human thing.â&#x20AC;?

Moses (Michelangelo)

Giorgio Vasari in the Life of Michelangelo wrote: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Michelangelo finished the Moses in marble, a statue of five braccia, unequaled by any

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 14th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to other Italian cities. The style was carried to France, Spain, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact. Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts, as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman

Architecture, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aediculae replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.

The most representative architect of Italian Renaissance Architecture is Bramante (1444–1514), who developed the applicability of classical architectural elements to contemporary buildings, a style that was to dominate Italian architecture in the 16th century. In the late 15th century and early 16th century architects such as Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, and others showed a mastery of the revived style and ability to apply it to buildings such as churches and city palazzos, which were quite different from the structures of ancient times. Although studying and mastering the details of the ancient Romans was one of the important aspects of Renaissance architectural theory, the style also became more decorative and ornamental, with a widespread use of statuary, domes, and cupolas.

Renaissance architecture adopted obvious distinguishing features of classical Roman architecture. However, the forms and purposes of buildings had changed over time, as had the structure of cities, which is reflected in he resulting fusion of classical and 16th century forms. The plans of

Renaissance buildings typically have a square, symmetrical appearance in which proportions are usually based on a module. The primary features of 16th century structures, which fused classical Roman technique with Renaissance aesthetics, were based in several foundational architectural concepts: facades, columns and pilasters, arches, vaults, domes, windows, and walls. Renaissance façades are symmetrical around their vertical axis. For instance, church façades of this period are generally surmounted by a pediment and organized by a system of pilasters, arches, and entablatures . The columns and windows show a progression towards the center. One of the first true Renaissance façades was the Cathedral of Pienza (1459–62), which has been attributed to the Florentine architect Bernardo Gambarelli (known as Rossellino).

Renaissance architects also incorporated columns and pilasters, using the Roman orders of columns (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite) as models. The orders can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave , or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects

aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Brunelleschi. The dome is used frequently in this period, both as a very large structural feature that is visible from the exterior,

and also as a means of roofing smaller spaces where they are only visible internally. Domes were used in important structures such as the Pantheon during antiquity, but had been used only rarely in the Middle Ages . After the success of the dome in Brunelleschi’s design for the Florence Cathedral and its use in Bramante’s plan for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome , the dome be

came an indispensable element in Renaissance church architecture and carried over to the Baroque. Windows may be paired and set within a semicircular arch and may have square lintels and triangular or segmental pediments, which are often used alternately.

The Renaissance style of architecture emerged in Florence not as a slow evolution from preceding styles, but rather as a conscious development put into motion by architects seeking to revive a golden age. These architects were sponsored by wealthy patrons including the powerful Medici family and the Silk Guild , and approached their craft from an organized and scholarly perspective that coincided with a general revival of classical learning. The Renaissance style deliberately eschewed the complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of Gothic structures. Instead, Renaissance architects placed emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry, and regularity of parts as demonstrated in classical Roman architecture. They also made considerable use of classical antique features such as orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters, lintels, semicircular arches, and hemispherical domes.

The person generally credited with originating the Renaissance style of architecture is Filippo Brunelleschi (1377â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1446), whose first major commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the enormous brick dome that covers the central space of the

Florence Cathedralâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;was also perhaps architecturally the most significant. Known as the Duomo, the dome was engineered by Brunelleschi to cover a spanning in the already existing Cathedral. The dome retains the Gothic pointed arch and the Gothic ribs in its design. The dome is structurally influenced by the great domes of Ancient Rome such as the Pantheon , and it is often described as the first building of the Renaissance. The dome is made of red brick and was ingeniously constructed without supports, using a deep understanding of the laws of physics and mathematics. It remains the largest masonry dome in the world and was such an unprecedented success at its time that the dome became an indispensable element in church and even secular architecture thereafter.

Forms and Purposes of Buildings Renaissance architecture adopted obvious distinguishing features of classical Roman architecture. However, the forms and purposes of buildings had changed over time, as had the structure of cities, which is reflected in the resulting fusion of classical and 16th century forms. The plans of Renaissance buildings typically have a square, symmetrical appearance in which proportions are usually based on a module. The primary features of 16th century structures, which fused classical Roman technique with Renaissance aesthetics, were based in several foundational architectural concepts: facades, columns and pilasters, arches, vaults, domes, windows, and walls.

A style that was to dominate Italian architecture in the 16th century. In the late 15th century and early 16th century architects such as Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, and others showed a mastery of the revived style and ability to apply it to buildings such as churches and city palazzos, which were quite different from the structures of ancient times. Although studying and mastering the details of the ancient Romans was one of the important aspects of Renaissance architectural theory, the style also became more decorative and ornamental, with a widespread use of statuary, domes, and cupolas.

The most representative architect of Italian Renaissance Architecture is Bramante (1444â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1514), who developed the applicability of classical architectural elements to contemporary buildings

Columns and pilasters Pilaster, in Greco-Roman Classical architecture, shallow rectangular column that projects slightly beyond the wall into which it is built and conforms precisely to the order or style of the adjacent columns. The anta of ancient Greece was the direct ancestor of the Roman pilaster. The anta, however, which served a structural purpose as the terminus of the sidewall of a temple, was not required to conform in style to the temple columns.

pilasters were extremely popular on both interior and exterior walls. The decorative pilaster was also common in the designs of the later European Neoclassical periods.

In ancient Roman architecture the pilaster gradually became more and more decorative rather than structural, as it served to break up an otherwise empty expanse of wall. The fourth-story wall of the Colosseum, the great amphitheatre built in Rome during the 1st century AD, contains examples of the Roman use of pilasters. In Renaissance architecture, beginning in Italy and spreading to France and England,

pilasters were extremely popular on both interior and exterior walls. The decorative pilaster was also common in the designs of the later European Neoclassical periods.

“The pilaster is the logical transformation of the column for the decoration of a wall. It may be defined as a flattened column which has lost its three-dimensional and tactile value.” A pilaster appears with a capital and entablature, also in “low-relief” or flattened against the wall. Generally, a pilaster often repeats all parts and proportions of an order column; however, unlike it, a pilaster is usually devoid of entasis. Pilasters often appear on the sides of a door frame or window opening on the facade of a building, and are sometimes paired with columns or pillars set directly in front of them at some distance away from the wall, which support a roof structure above, such as a portico. These vertical elements can also be used to support a recessed archivolt around a doorway. The pilaster can be replaced by ornamental brackets supporting the entablature or a balcony over a doorway. When a pilaster appears at the corner intersection of two walls it is known as a canton.

The major features of the Ionic order are the volutes of its capital, which have been the subject of much theoretical and practical discourse, based on a brief and obscure passage in Vitruvius.[2] The only tools required to design these features were a straightedge, a right angle, string (to establish half-lengths) and a compass. Below the volutes, the Ionic column may have a wide collar or banding separating the capital from the fluted shaft (as in, for example, the neoclassical mansion Castle Coole), or a swag of fruit and flowers may swing from the clefts or “neck” formed by the volutes. Originally, the volutes lay in a single plane (illustration at right); then it was seen that they could be angled out on the corners. This feature of the Ionic order made it more pliant and satisfactory than the Doric to critical eyes in the 4th century BC: angling the volutes on the corner columns ensured that they “read” equally when seen from either front or side facade.

Renaissance art, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature produced during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Europe under the combined influences of an increased awareness of nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man. Scholars no longer believe that the Renaissance marked an abrupt break with medieval values, as is suggested by the French word renaissance, literally â&#x20AC;&#x153;rebirth.