Lesson 4 - Italian Renaissance: Learn how the artists of the Renaissance redefined art

Now we move ahead in time many thousands of years to the time of the Italian Renaissance. Renaissance, which means "rebirth" in French , was a time of great change in art. The Middle Ages came gradually to an end around the beginning of the 1400s—not all at once, but sooner in some places than others. In Italy, this rebirth in art happened more dramatically and changed forever how we look at art.

To fully understand the changes brought by the Renaissance, we have to look backwards in time to medieval times. In the middle ages, the artist was primarily a craftsman. Most artists, sculptors, weavers, painters, stone masons, etc., belonged to a guild. A guild was an association of craftsman who banded together to produce a product, such as a sculpture, a painting, or a large mural. They shared the work and the profits from each piece sold. The senior members of the guild, or masters, would do the planning and the important part. The junior members of the guild would do the minor work and the preparation of materials and cleanup. Most guilds took apprentices—young boys interested in learning the trade of painting, weaving, or stone masonry, to name a few. Works of art, while designed and guided by a master artist, were usually produced by many hands. The entire guild participated. Under this system, all members had a guarantee of work, and were also able to hand their craft on to younger members.

Under the guild system, the individual artist was less important than the group. This idea began to change in the early 1400s. Individual artists with their own personalities and their own ideas began to emerge. The change from a group point of view to a more personal one was not overnight, but happened gradually.

Why did this shift take place? There were a number of reasons. In the early part of the century, there was a renewed interest in the writings and art of ancient Greece and Rome. Many educated Italians became familiar with "the classics," the writings and ideas of early Greek and Roman poets and storytellers. This new interest marked a turning away from the church and Bible stories that had dominated all artwork of medieval times. You must remember, in this age before television, all children knew the familiar stories of the Bible. Although many people at this time could not read, they all knew the dramatic stories of the old and new testaments.

To fully understand the dominance of religious themes in art at this time, let us look at a typical painting of the Middle Ages.

Web Gallery of Art

Wilton Diptych: Virgin and Child with Angels

The artwork of the Middle Ages today looks stiff and artificial, because we are more used to seeing the more lifelike portraits of the Renaissance. Most paintings of this time had several things in common:

Religious theme or scene - the purpose of the art was to create a worshipful feeling in the viewers, or to educate them about the life of a saint.

Flat figures - not modeled after real people, but rather ideal. They are essentially cutouts placed over a low background, sometimes nothing more than a wash of gold. The figures are out of proportion, not correctly drawn. For instance, Mary, the mother of Jesus, was usually larger than the surrounding figures who were less important. Symbolism was more important to the medieval artist than realism. The placement of the hands, the cross, the color of Mary's dress (usually blue to denote purity) were all symbols the common man understood when he looked at a work of art.

Lack of individual personality - Most faces of medieval art are idealized pictures rather than portraits of real people. These faces often have a sweet, unearthly quality because they represent divine subjects such as angels and saints. No attempt was made to make a real likeness.

No linear perspective - Most medieval paintings place the figures all in the foreground of the picture, that is, right up front, without worrying about consistency of size or shape. If the food appears to be sliding off the table in a painting of the Last Supper, the medieval artist did not know how to alter the painting to make it more realistic. The Renaissance artist began to experiment with linear perspective, that is, making objects in the background smaller and objects in the foreground bigger. Furthermore, the edges of the shapes should meet at a central point, called the vanishing point. Linear perspective creates an illusion of deep space in a painting.

This concern for creating a sense of depth on a flat object marked a major shift in the thinking of the fifteenth-century artists. They began to work out mathematically how to create a background that gave the feeling of being three-dimensional (having depth as well as length and width.)

A young Italian painter called Tommaso Masaccio was one of the first to show this new understanding of perspective with a very unusual painting, the Trinity. This painting, done in the 1420s, is very similar to many medieval paintings because its subject matter is religious. Christ's crucifixion was a favorite topic of religious painters. However, there the similarity ends. While the figures are all in the foreground, the background shows an elaborate chamber with a high rounded ceiling. The sense of deep space is created by having all the figures arranged around a central point, right at the bottom of the cross. The figures are not cardboard cutouts, but look like flesh-and-blood people with the clothing draped realistically about their bodies. Masaccio's chamber or church looks like a real building which acts as a frame for the dramatic scene. This painting marked a real change from religious painting of the past.

The rise of interest in classical literature and the use of realism and perspective in art contributed to a brand-new way of thinking about the world. Other developments also enlarged the horizons of the Renaissance man. In 1445, Gutenberg invented the printing press, which meant for the first time that people all over Europe could have cheap books. In 1492, Columbus landed in America, and proved forever that the world was not flat. Later, a scientist named Copernicus established the idea that the planets revolved around the sun, not around the earth as previously thought. All these discoveries were revolutionary, and awakened a tremendous curiosity about the natural world.

Two other artists who were significant in changing accepted ideas were the architect Brunelleshi and the sculptor Donatello. Brunelleshi studied ancient Greek and Roman temples and palaces to better understand their proportions. From his studies, he developed mathematical formulas to create new ways of designing buildings. Brunelleshi used these formulas when he built the dome for the Florence Cathedral. Before, most churches were designed on the t-shape of the cross. Brunelleshi used classical ideas of symmetry and repeated spaces.

The other influential artist of the early Renaissance was the sculptor Donatello. Like Brunelleshi, Donatello studied classical forms to create a new understanding of sculpture. Donatello's ground-breaking achievement is demonstrated by his famous statue of Saint George. Unlike earlier medieval statues, the saint stands like a real person might stand, ready for battle. He is in full armor, but the armor looks like it could come off. There is nothing wooden or stiff in his attitude. The details of St. George's hands and face show the sculptor's interest in creating a lifelike statue. This emphasis on realism was completely different from medieval ideas of sculpture, and marked a turning away from the idealized unreal portrait to the portrayal of a real man.

Donatello's sculpture of St. George

QUIZ: The Renaissance: Lesson 4

Art Assignment: Learn how to draw in one-point perspective like the Renaissance artists did!

Step 1: Draw a line from the left to the right-hand side. This is your horizon line.			Step 6: Slide it back along the receding lines and make another line.
Step 2: Put a dot in the very center of this line. This is your vanishing point.			Step 7: Same with the other side, starting with the top of the line you just drew. The top of the box and your line should be parallel. Parallel means that two lines are an equal distance apart everywhere (just like a railroad track).
Step 3: Draw three squares. One above the line, one on, and one below.			Step 8: Play with some length differences
Step 4: Connect the corners to the vanishing point with whisper lines. Notice you don't draw a line through the object. Whisper line is the lightest line you can draw with a pencil. It is SO light that you have to squint to see it and you can erase it very easily.			Step 9: You're done with the basics. Erase your whisper lines. It should be very easy if you made them light enough.
Step 5: Next, take your ruler and match it up to one of the sides of your box. Notice that it is perpendicular to the bottom of the paper. Perpendicular means it's like an "L," a 90-degree angle.			Step 10: Make them creative!!

Step 11: Turn in your artwork.

TURNING IN YOUR WORK. Use a digital camera to photograph your art (or scan it), upload the image to your computer, name the file with your name and the project name and save it in JPG format, e.g., maryonepointperspective.jpg. Then, click here to submit your work electronically;

OR snail mail your artwork to me. Be sure to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you'd like your work returned.

You will be finished with this lesson after you take the quiz and complete the project. When done, go on to lesson five.