Italian Renaissance painting

http://www.all-keyboard.com/,http://www.keyboards-shop.com/,http://www.laptop-fan-shop.com/,http://www.laptopkeyboard-shop.com/ Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political areas. Sony VAIO PCG-7148L battery The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating both artistic and philosophical ideas.[1] Sony VAIO PCG-7151L battery The city that is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance and in particular, Renaissance painting, isFlorence. A detailed background is given in the companion articles Renaissance and Renaissance architecture. Italian Renaissance painting can be divided into four periods: Sony VAIO PCG-7152L battery the Proto-Renaissance (1300–1400), the Early Renaissance (1400–1475), the High Renaissance (1475–1525), and Mannerism (1525–1600). These dates are approximations rather than specific points because the lives of individual artists and their personal styles overlapped the different periods. Sony VAIO PCG-7153L battery The Proto-Renaissance begins with the professional life of the painter Giotto and includes Taddeo Gaddi, Orcagnaand Altichiero. The Early Renaissance was marked by the work of Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Verrocchio. Sony VAIO PCG-7154L battery The High Renaissance period was that of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo andRaphael. The Mannerist period included Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Tintoretto. Mannerism is dealt with in a separate article. The influences upon the development of Renaissance painting in Italy are those that also affected Philosophy, Sony VAIO PCG-7161L battery Literature, Architecture, Theology, Science, Government and other aspects of society. The following is a summary of points dealt with more fully in the main articles that are cited above. A number of Classical texts, that had been lost to Western European scholars for centuries, became available. Sony VAIO PCG-7162L battery These included Philosophy, Poetry, Drama, Science, a thesis on the Arts and Early Christian Theology. The resulting interest in Humanist philosophy meant that man's relationship with humanity, the universe and with God was no longer the exclusive province of the Church. Sony VAIO PCG-7171L battery A revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Brunelleschi and sculptor Donatello. The revival of a style of architecture based on classical precedents inspired a corresponding classicism in painting, which manifested itself as early as the 1420s in the paintings of Masaccio and Paolo Uccello. Sony VAIO PCG-7172L battery Simultaneous with gaining access to the Classical texts, Europe gained access to advanced mathematics which had its provenance in the works of Byzantine and Islamic scholars. The advent of movable type printing in the 15th century meant that ideas could be disseminated easily, and an increasing number of books were written for a broad public. Sony VAIO PCG-7173L battery The development of oil paint and its introduction to Italy had lasting effects on the art of painting.The establishment of the Medici Bank and the subsequent trade it generated brought unprecedented wealth to a single Italian city, Florence. Cosimo de' Medici set a new standard for patronage of the arts, not associated with the church or monarchy. Sony VAIO PCG-7174L battery The serendipitous presence within the region of Florence of certain individuals of artistic genius, most notably Giotto, Masaccio, Brunelleschi, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci andMichelangelo, formed an ethos which supported and encouraged many lesser artists to achieve work of extraordinary quality.[2] Sony VAIO PCG-7181L battery A similar heritage of artistic achievement occurred in Venice through the talented Bellini family, their influential inlaw Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian and Tintoretto. Much painting of the Renaissance period was commissioned by or for the Catholic Church. Sony VAIO PCG-7182L battery These works were often of large scale and were frequently cycles painted in fresco of the Life of Christ, the Life of the Virgin or the life of a saint, particularly St. Francis of Assisi. There were also many allegorical paintings on the theme of Salvation and the role of the Church in attaining it. Sony VAIO PCG-7183L battery Churches also commissioned altarpieceswhich were painted in tempera on panel and later in oil on canvas. Apart from large altarpieces, small devotional pictures were produced in very large numbers, both for churches and for private individuals, the most common theme being the Madonna and Child. Sony VAIO PCG-7184L battery Throughout the period, civic commissions were also important, local government buildings like the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena being decorated with frescoes and other works both secular, such as the Allegory of Good Government, and religious, such as Simone Martini's fresco of the Maèsta. Sony VAIO PCG-7185L battery Portraiture was uncommon in the 14th and early 15th century, being mostly limited to civic commemorative pictures such as the equestrian portraits of Guidoriccio da Fogliano by Simone Martini, 1327, in Siena and, of the early 15th century, John Hawkwood by Uccello in Florence Cathedral and its companion portrayingNiccolò da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno. Sony VAIO PCG-381L battery During the 15th century portraiture became common, initially often formalised profile portraits but increasingly three-quarter face, bust-length portraits. Patrons of art works such as altarpieces and fresco cycles often were included in the scenes, a notable example being the inclusion of the Sassetti and Medicifamilies in Domenico Ghirlandaio's cycle in the Sassetti Chapel. Sony VAIO PCG-382L battery Portraiture was to become a major subject for High Renaissance painters such as Raphael and Titian and continue into the Mannerist period in works of artists such as Bronzino. With the growth of Humanism, artists turned to Classical themes, Sony VAIO PCG-383L battery particularly to fulfill commissions for the decoration of the homes of wealthy patrons, the best known being Botticelli's Birth of Venus for the Medici. Increasingly, Classical themes were also seen as providing suitable allegorical material for civic commissions. Sony VAIO PCG-384L battery Humanism also influenced the manner in which religious themes were depicted, notably onMichelangelo's Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Other motifs were drawn from contemporary life, sometimes with allegorical meaning, some sometimes purely decorative. Sony VAIO PCG-391L battery Incidents important to a particular family might be recorded like those in the Camera degli Sposithat Mantegna painted for the Gonzaga family at Mantua. Increasingly, still lifes and decorative scenes from life were painted, such as the Concert by Lorenzo Costa of about 1490. Sony VAIO PCG-393L battery Important events were often recorded or commemorated in paintings such as Uccello's Battle of San Romano, as were important local religious festivals. History and historic characters were often depicted in a way that reflected on current events or on the lives of current people. Sony VAIO PCG-394L battery Portraits were often painted of contemporaries in the guise of characters from history or literature. The writings of Dante, Voragine's Golden Legend and Boccaccio's Decameron were important sources of themes. In all these subjects, increasingly, and in the works of almost all painters, Sony VAIO PCG-3A1L battery certain underlying painterly practices were being developed: the observation of nature, the study of anatomy, the study of light and the study of perspective. The art of the region of Tuscany in the late 13th century was dominated by two masters of the Byzantine style, Cimabue ofFlorence and Duccio of Siena. Sony VAIO PCG-3A2L battery Their commissions were mostly religious paintings, several of them being very large altarpieces showing the Madonna and Child. These two painters, with their contemporaries, Guido of Siena, Coppo di Marcovaldo and the mysterious painter upon whose style the school may have originated, Sony VAIO PCG-3A3L battery the so-called Master of St Bernardino, all worked in a manner that was highly formalised and dependent upon the ancient tradition of icon painting.[6] In these tempera paintings many of the details were rigidly fixed by the subject matter, the precise position of the hands of the Madonna and Christ Child, Sony VAIO PCG-3A4L battery for example, being dictated by the nature of the blessing that the painting invoked upon the viewer. The angle of the Virgin's head and shoulders, the folds in her veil, and the lines with which her features were defined had all been repeated in countless such paintings. Sony VAIO PCG-41112L battery Cimabue and Duccio both took steps in the direction of greater naturalism, as did their contemporary, Pietro Cavallini of Rome. Giotto, (1266–1337), by tradition a shepherd boy from the hills north of Florence, became Cimabue's apprentice and emerged as the most outstanding painter of his time.[7] Sony VAIO PCG-51211L battery Giotto, possibly influenced by Pietro Cavallini and other Roman painters, did not base the figures that he painted upon any painterly tradition, but upon the observation of life. Unlike those of his Byzantine contemporaries, Giotto's figures are solidly three-dimensional; Sony VAIO PCG-51311L battery they stand squarely on the ground, have discernible anatomy and are clothed in garments with weight and structure. But more than anything, what set Giotto's figures apart from those of his contemporaries are their emotions. In the faces of Giotto's figures are joy, rage, despair, shame, spite and love. Sony VAIO PCG-51312L battery The cycle of frescoes of the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin that he painted in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua set a new standard for narrative pictures. His Ognissanti Madonnahangs in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, in the same room as Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna and Duccio'sRuccellai Madonna where the stylistic comparisons between the three can easily be made. Sony VAIO PCG-51411L battery One of the features apparent in Giotto's work is his observation of naturalistic perspective. He is regarded as the herald of the Renaissance. Giotto had a number of contemporaries who were either trained and influenced by him, or whose observation of nature had led them in a similar direction. Sony VAIO PCG-51412L battery Although several of Giotto's pupils assimilated the direction that his work had taken, none was to become as successful as he.Taddeo Gaddi achieved the first large painting of a night scene in anAnnunciation to the Shepherds in the Baroncelli Chapel of the Church of Santa Croce, Florence.[2] Sony VAIO PCG-51511L battery The paintings in the Upper Church of the Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi, are examples of naturalistic painting of the period, often ascribed to Giotto himself, but more probably the work of artists surrounding Pietro Cavallini.[9] A late painting by Cimabue in the Lower Church at Assisi, of the Madonna and St. Francis, Sony VAIO PCG-51513L battery also clearly shows greater naturalism than his panel paintings and the remains of his earlier frescoes in the upper church. A common theme in the decoration of Medieval churches was the Last Judgement, which in northern European churches frequently occupies a sculptural space above the west door, Sony VAIO PCG-5N2L battery but in Italian churches such as Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel, is painted on the inner west wall. The Black Deathof 1348 caused its survivors to focus on the need to approach death in a state of penitence and absolution. The inevitability of death, Sony VAIO PCG-5N4L battery the rewards for the penitent and the penalties of sin were emphasised in a number of frescoes, remarkable for their grim depictions of suffering and their surreal images of the torments ofHell. These include the Triumph of Death by Giotto's pupil Orcagna, Sony VAIO PCG-5P2L battery now in a fragmentary state at the Museum of Santa Croce, and the Triumph of Death in the Camposanto Monumentale at Pisa by an unknown painter, perhapsFrancesco Traini or Buonamico Buffalmacco who worked on the other three of a series of frescoes on the subject of Salvation. Sony VAIO PCG-5P4L battery It is unknown exactly when these frescoes were begun but it is generally presumed they post-date 1348.[2] Two important fresco painters were active in Padua in the late 14th century, Altichiero and Giusto de' Menabuoi. Giusto's masterpiece, the decoration of theCathedral's Baptistery, Sony VAIO PCG-5R1L battery follows the theme of humanity's Creation, Downfall and Salvation, also having a rare Apocalypse cycle in the small chancel. While the whole work is exceptional for its breadth, quality and intact state, the treatment of human emotion is conservative by comparison with that of Altichiero'sCrucifixion at the Basilica of Sant'Antonio, Sony VAIO PCG-5R2L battery also in Padua. Giusto's work relies on formalised gestures, where Altichiero relates the incidents surrounding Christ's death with great human drama and intensity. In Florence, at the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria Novella, Andrea Bonaiuti was commissioned to emphasise the role of the Church in the redemptive process, and that of the Dominican Order in particular. Sony VAIO PCG-5S1L battery His frescoAllegory of the Active and Triumphant Church is remarkable for its depiction of Florence Cathedral, complete with the dome which was not built until the following century. During the later 14th century, International Gothic was the style that dominated Tuscan painting. Sony VAIO PCG-5S2L battery It can be seen to an extent in the work of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti which is marked by a formalized sweetness and grace in the figures, and Late Gothic gracefulness in the draperies. The style is fully developed in the works of Simone Martini and Gentile da Fabriano which have an elegance and a richness of detail, Sony VAIO PCG-5S3L battery and an idealised quality not compatible with the starker realities of Giotto's paintings.[2] In the early 15th century, bridging the gap between International Gothic and the Renaissance are the paintings of Fra Angelico, many of which, being altarpieces in tempera, show the Gothic love of elaboration, gold leaf and brilliant colour. Sony VAIO PCG-5T2L battery It is in his frescoes at his convent of Sant' Marco that Fra Angelico shows himself the artistic disciple of Giotto. These devotional paintings, which adorn the cells and corridors inhabited by the friars, represent episodes from the life of Jesus, many of them being scenes of the Crucifixion. Sony VAIO PCG-5T3L battery They are starkly simple, restrained in colour and intense in mood as the artist sought to make spiritual revelations a visual reality. The earliest truly Renaissance images in Florence date from the first year of the century known in Italian as Quattrocento, synonymous with the Early Renaissance. Sony VAIO PCG-5T4L battery At that date a competition was held to find an artist to create a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistry of St. John, the oldest remaining church in the city. The Baptistry is a large octagonal building in the Romanesque style, whose origins had been forgotten and which was popularly believed to date from Roman times. Sony VAIO PCG-61111L battery The interior of its dome is decorated with an enormous mosaic figure of Christ in Majesty thought to have been designed by Coppo di Marcovaldo. It has three large portals, the central one being filled at that time by a set of doors created by Andrea Pisano eighty years earlier. Sony VAIO PCG-61112L battery Pisano's doors were divided into 28 quatrefoil compartments, containing narratives scenes from the Life of John the Baptist. The competitors, of which there were seven young artists, were each to design a bronze panel of similar shape and size, representing the Sacrifice of Isaac. Sony VAIO PCG-61411L battery Two of the panels have survived, that by Lorenzo Ghiberti and that by Brunelleschi. Each panel shows some strongly classicising motifs indicating the direction that art and philosophy were moving, at that time. Ghiberti has used the naked figure of Isaac to create a small sculpture in the Classical style. Sony VAIO PCG-71111L battery