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The four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance: sfumato, unione, chiaroscuro, cangiante

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How was it made? Donatello's marble carving technique | V&A

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Renaissance Art and Architecture in Florence, Italy

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The Gutenberg Press by Johannes Gutenberg | Episode 17 | Lineage

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Videos, Images and Audio for Renaissance art

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Contents

1. Origins of Renaissance Art

2. Early Renaissance Art (1401-1490s)

3. Florence in the Renaissance

4. High Renaissance Art (1490s-1527)

5. Renaissance Art in Practice

6. Expansion and Decline

Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Against a backdrop of political stability and growing prosperity, the development of new technologies-including the printing press, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration of new continents-was accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially art.

The style of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th century; it reached its zenith in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In addition to its expression of classical Greco-Roman traditions, Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

Origins of Renaissance Art

The origins of Renaissance art can be traced to Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. During this so-called "proto-Renaissance" period (1280-1400), Italian scholars and artists saw themselves as reawakening to the ideals and achievements of classical Roman culture. Writers such as Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) looked back to ancient Greece and Rome and sought to revive the languages, values and intellectual traditions of those cultures after the long period of stagnation that had followed the fall of the Roman Empire in the sixth century.

Did you know? Leonardo da Vinci, the ultimate "Renaissance man," practiced all the visual arts and studied a wide range of topics, including anatomy, geology, botany, hydraulics and flight. His formidable reputation is based on relatively few completed paintings, including "Mona Lisa," "The Virgin of the Rocks" and "The Last Supper."

The Florentine painter Giotto (1267?-1337), the most famous artist of the proto-Renaissance, made enormous advances in the technique of representing the human body realistically. His frescoes were said to have decorated cathedrals at Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence and Naples, though there has been difficulty attributing such works with certainty.

Early Renaissance Art (1401-1490s)

In the later 14th century, the proto-Renaissance was stifled by plague and war, and its influences did not emerge again until the first years of the next century. In 1401, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378-1455) won a major competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence, beating out contemporaries such as the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and the young Donatello (c. 1386- 1466), who would later emerge as the master of early Renaissance sculpture.

The other major artist working during this period was the painter Masaccio (1401-1428), known for his frescoes of the Trinity in the Church of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1426) and in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (c. 1427), both in Florence. Masaccio painted for less than six years but was highly influential in the early Renaissance for the intellectual nature of his work, as well as its degree of naturalism.

Florence in the Renaissance

Though the Catholic Church remained a major patron of the arts during the Renaissance-from popes and other prelates to convents, monasteries and other religious organizations-works of art were increasingly commissioned by civil government, courts and wealthy individuals. Much of the art produced during the early Renaissance was commissioned by the wealthy merchant families of Florence, most notably the Medici family.

From 1434 until 1492, when Lorenzo de' Medici-known as "the Magnificent" for his strong leadership as well as his support of the arts-died, the powerful family presided over a golden age for the city of Florence. Pushed from power by a republican coalition in 1494, the Medici family spent years in exile but returned in 1512 to preside over another flowering of Florentine art, including the array of sculptures that now decorates the city's Piazza della Signoria.

High Renaissance Art (1490s-1527)

By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the principal center of Renaissance art, reaching a high point under the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (a son of Lorenzo de' Medici). Three great masters- Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael-dominated the period known as the High Renaissance, which lasted roughly from the early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1527.

Leonardo (1452-1519) was the ultimate "Renaissance man" for the breadth of his intellect, interest and talent and his expression of humanist and classical values. Leonardo's best-known works, including the "Mona Lisa" (1503-05), "The Virgin of the Rocks" (1485) and the fresco "The Last Supper" (1495-98), showcase his unparalleled ability to portray light and shadow, as well as the physical relationship between figures-humans, animals and objects alike-and the landscape around them.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) drew on the human body for inspiration and created works on a vast scale. He was the dominant sculptor of the High Renaissance, producing pieces such as the Pietà in St. Peter's Cathedral (1499) and the David in his native Florence (1501-04). He carved the latter by hand from an enormous marble block; the famous statue measures five meters high including its base. Though Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor first and foremost, he achieved greatness as a painter as well, notably with his giant fresco covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, completed over four years (1508-12) and depicting various scenes from Genesis.

Raphael Sanzio, the youngest of the three great High Renaissance masters, learned from both da Vinci and Michelangelo. His paintings-most notably "The School of Athens" (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the same time that Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel -skillfully expressed the classical ideals of beauty, serenity and harmony. Among the other great Italian artists working during this period were Sandro Botticelli, Bramante, Giorgione, Titian and Correggio.

Renaissance Art in Practice

Many works of Renaissance art depicted religious images, including subjects such as the Virgin Mary, or Madonna, and were encountered by contemporary audiences of the period in the context of religious rituals. Today, they are viewed as great works of art, but at the time they were seen and used mostly as devotional objects. Many Renaissance works were painted as altarpieces for incorporation into rituals associated with Catholic Mass and donated by patrons who sponsored the Mass itself.

Renaissance artists came from all strata of society; they usually studied as apprentices before being admitted to a professional guild and working under the tutelage of an older master. Far from being starving bohemians, these artists worked on commission and were hired by patrons of the arts because they were steady and reliable. Italy's rising middle class sought to imitate the aristocracy and elevate their own status by purchasing art for their homes. In addition to sacred images, many of these works portrayed domestic themes such as marriage, birth and the everyday life of the family.

Expansion and Decline

Over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries, the spirit of the Renaissance spread throughout Italy and into France, northern Europe and Spain. In Venice, artists such as Giorgione (1477/78-1510) and Titian (1488/90-1576) further developed a method of painting in oil directly on canvas; this technique of oil painting allowed the artist to rework an image-as fresco painting (on plaster) did not-and it would dominate Western art to the present day.

Oil painting during the Renaissance can be traced back even further, however, to the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck (died 1441), who painted a masterful altarpiece in the cathedral at Ghent (c. 1432). Van Eyck was one of the most important artists of the Northern Renaissance; later masters included the German painters Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543).

By the later 1500s, the Mannerist style, with its emphasis on artificiality, had developed in opposition to the idealized naturalism of High Renaissance art, and Mannerism spread from Florence and Rome to become the dominant style in Europe. Renaissance art continued to be celebrated, however: The 16th-century Florentine artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari, author of the famous work "Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects" (1550), would write of the High Renaissance as the culmination of all Italian art, a process that began with Giotto in the late 13th century.

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Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Its style and characteristics emerged in Italy in the late 14th century and persisted through the early16th century.

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All the great masterpieces of Italian Renaissance Art, all of the history and biographies of the artists

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National Gallery Top 5 Renaissance Artists 

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National Gallery Top 5 Renaissance Artists 

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Tour: Renaissance Masterpieces | Paintings | National Gallery, London

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Mini themed tour containing 5 key Renaissance paintings from the collection

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The artworks of the Uffizi Galleries | Uffizi Galleries

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A large selection of artworks from the collections of the Uffizi, Pitti Palace (Palatine Gallery, Royal Apartments, Gallery of Modern Art, Treasury of the Grand Dukes, Museum of Costume and Fashion) and Boboli Gardens

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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High Renaissance | Keyword | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

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Northern Renaissance | Keyword | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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William Shakespeare: Legendary Wordsmith - Fast Facts | History

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Why should you read Dante’s “Divine Comedy”? - Sheila Marie Orfano

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Renaissance architecture originated in Italy and superseded the Gothic style over a period generally defined as 1400 to 1600. Features of Renaissance buildings include the use of the classical orders…

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Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) was much admired by the Medici the famous family who exerted huge influence over the City of Florence. He was multitalented with his own workshop; the young Leonardo da Vinci was one of his many pupils.

Verrocchio's bronze statue of Jesus and the Doubting St Thomas (1465-1483) was made to be placed in a niche on Or San Michele. The sculpture was radical in its expression of movement and gesture. Jesus stands within the niche with his cloak opened revealing the wound in his side, his right arm is raised adding yet more movement to the statue. Thomas' right foot is placed outside of the niche facing away from it, his body is posed in a twisting motion facing Jesus in the doorway.

This half in and half out placement breaks from the earlier tradition of figures standing formally within the confines of the niche and is a powerful reminder of Verrocchio's command of the human body.

The magnificent statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni, a Venetian general, illustrates the great standing held by Verrocchio. His fame was so great that the rival city of Venice commissioned him (a Florentine) to produce this equestrian statue. I have seen this one in Venice, it is difficult to miss, and very, very impressive.

Jesus and the Doubting St Thomas was placed in an external niche of the church of Orsanmichele in 1483. The artist chosen for this work was Andrea del Verrocchio.

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Renaissance Sculpture masterpieces, greatest works from the period

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Verrocchio, Ghiberti and Donatello's Renaissance Sculpture masterpieces

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There were three principal painting techniques during the Renaissance: fresco, tempera, and oils. In all of these techniques, colour was an important part of the painter's armoury, allowing them to create images that would strike a chord of recognition and pull a gasp of awe from the viewer. While many artists were skilled in all three techniques, as the Renaissance wore on, fresco was reserved for ceilings, tempera for small religious panels, and oils for wood panels or canvases, sometimes very large ones. Oils permitted much greater subtlety in execution and became the favoured medium of most late Renaissance masters, a preference that would continue in the following centuries.

Renaissance Colours

A wide range of colours was available to the Renaissance artist, but quality and brightness depended on the size of their purse, or perhaps more accurately, that of their patron. Colours were made from earths and minerals. Lakes were colours made from organic material like plants, flowers, and berries and were relatively cheap and easy to acquire. Metal and mineral-based pigments were more expensive. Lead was used to make white and red, tin or orpiment for yellow, azurite for blue, and malachite for green. An artist or his supplier might have to visit a port like Antwerp, Bruges, or Venice, which had trading links across the Mediterranean and Asia, in order to acquire the rarer and very best pigments. The only source for ultramarine, for example, was lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. For this reason, commission contracts often specified limits on certain materials so that the finished work of art remained within the means of the patron.

Mixing pigments with the correct amount of liquid medium to achieve the luminosity & texture an artist required was a task that required experience.

Pigments were available from merchants, apothecaries, and monasteries. Prices also varied depending on the grade and colouring of the raw material but we have many artist's account books to determine what cost what, where, and when. To compare colours and materials, 28 g (1 oz) of ultramarine (then sometimes called azur of Acre) cost four francs in Dijon in 1389 CE, enough to buy 3.6 kg (8 lbs) of vermillion, 7.2 kg (16 lbs) of lead white or 300 sheets of very fine gold leaf. It is perhaps understandable, then, that many artists, instead of ultramarine, used azurite, which was ten times cheaper (but less intense). Very deep or intense reds were another expensive addition to an artist's palette. These were made from the crushed scales of insects like the kermes beetle. Again, a much cheaper but less colourful alternative was available, this time ground madder root.

It is not perhaps surprising that these expensive commodities were one of the major assets of a workshop. Indeed, artists often left their pigments to relatives in their wills. Many artist guilds insisted, too, that certain pigments not be used in certain media. This ensured a distinction of high quality in panels, for example, and meant that a copyist could not pass off a painted piece of cloth as equal in value to a panel; the two would not have had the same colouring. In addition, this also reserved certain of the best materials for those artworks intended for a higher purpose such as altarpieces and other artworks destined for churches.

Once acquired, pigments were ground on a stone slab - preferably something non-porous like marble - using a cone-shaped stone known as a muller. Producing a fine powder was a laborious task, but it was not without some skill. Too little or too much grinding of certain pigments did not achieve their optimum colouring. Then mixing pigments with the correct amount of liquid medium to achieve the luminosity and texture an artist required was another task that required experience. Both written records and paintings of workshop scenes attest that paint preparers were specialised members of a workshop and not, as is often claimed, young apprentices.

The use of bright colours became especially popular in Venice where the technique of colore (aka colorito) was popular, that is using the juxtaposition of colours to define a composition rather than lines. Titian (c. 1487-1576 CE) and Tintoretto (c. 1518-1594 CE) were famous exponents of this technique. However, some artists and, presumably, therefore, clients, preferred more subdued colouring for certain subjects, for example a painting showing the death of Jesus Christ or a saint.

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Jean Lemaire de Belges wrote the following verse in his La Couronne Margaritique (c. 1505 CE), a description of the typical paraphernalia in an artist's workshop:

Their studio is full of panels

Some painted, some to be painted, and many noble tools.

There are charcoals, crayons, pens, fine brushes

Bristle brushes, piles of shells

Silverpoint, which makes many subtle marks

Polished marbles, as brilliant as beryl.

(Nash, 157)

The polished marbles are surely the stained marble slabs used to grind the pigments. The shells described above, typically mussel and oyster shells, were used to keep the ground powder in until needed by the artist. Brushes were either made by the artist or bought readymade in various sizes. There were two categories of hair brushes: pig/hog or squirrel/fox. Size varied depending on the task but ranged from fine points of a few millimetres to broad brushes of three centimetres (1.2 in).

Finally, gold, silver, and tin leaf were used in pieces made for wealthy clients or important churches. Later Renaissance oil painters were able to reproduce metallic effects using oils but precious materials were, in any case, sometimes required for prestige pieces. The base panel was prepared with a smooth layer of ground chalk and then a layer of greasy brown clay over which superthin pieces of beaten gold, silver, or tin were applied. The preparatory surface dried very quickly and so to add metal leaf to a piece and not have any bubbles or wrinkles at the end was a task for someone with great experience and a very steady hand. Leaf could then be polished using a tooth or small smooth stone. Sometimes leaf work was punched to create patterns or painted and then areas scraped away to reveal the metal beneath, again to make patterns.

Fresco

The fresco technique has been used by artists ever since antiquity, and it continued during the Renaissance to be the most popular method of painting larger surfaces like interior walls in churches, public buildings, and private homes. However, as oil paintings on large canvases became more popular through the 16th century CE, so frescoes were often limited to the upper parts of walls and ceilings.

True fresco (aka buon fresco) involved first covering the wall area with a layer of wet plaster ( arriccio) which has a consistency coarse enough to act as a binding agent for a second, finer layer of plaster ( intonaco). The approximate design was then drawn onto the plaster, either using a material like charcoal or by placing over the wall a large paper sketch (a 'cartoon') with holes punched in it and then blowing charcoal dust through the holes (pouncing). Charcoal was a useful material as it could easily be rubbed out using a finger or a piece of soft bread. Alternatively, the outline of the cartoon could be scored onto the plaster using a stylus.

Next, the artist decided which part of the wall he was going to work on that particular day - typically they worked from the top of the wall downwards - and covered it with a very thin layer of fresh plaster, translucent enough to see the design behind it or by redoing that section of drawing using charcoal. The artist was then in a race against time before the plaster dried out, usually one working day. As a consequence of this process, art historians are able to identify the sequence that pieces of wall were painted and approximately how many days they took to paint.

The problems with fresco included the necessity to work fast & the lack of opportunity to blend colours.

Water-based coloured pigments were then used to paint the final pictures. The colours and plaster dried together, fixing themselves to each other and making it possible for a fresco to last for centuries. This is due to the chemical process where the drying plaster creates a coating of carbonate of lime crystals. It is these crystals which coat the paint, not only protecting it but making the colours brighter, too, as the surface dries. For this reason, an artist had to paint using darker tones than really required. Finally, fine details or corrections might then be added using 'dry' paints ( fresco secco). A supreme example of success using fresco is the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo (1475-1564 CE), completed in 1512 CE.

Some artists did try and experiment with this tried-and-tested technique but not with very much success. The problems with fresco were the necessity to work fast, the need to scrape off an area and start from scratch if a mistake was made, and the lack of opportunity to blend colours like one could in oil painting. Another disadvantage was that frescoes tended to deteriorate badly in damp climates. The most infamous instance of an artist using only 'dry' paints on a fresco is The Last Supper which Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 CE) painted in Milan (a city with high humidity) but which began to crumble away within decades of its completion c. 1498 CE.

Tempera

Tempera is a painting technique which dates back to antiquity when it was especially used by artists in ancient Egypt. It involves mixing colours in fine powder form with a liquid that acts as a binding agent, most commonly egg yolk mixed with water (egg white can discolour, while yolk loses its colour). An alternative was to add oil to the solution which makes it dry faster and permits application to softer surfaces like canvas. A third recipe used white curd instead of egg yolk and added diluted lime juice to the mix.

The advantage of creating the colours in this way is that they become much brighter and have a translucent quality useful for building up layers of colour in order to give an image depth and texture. A disadvantage was that colours could not be mixed when applied to the working surface. Consequently, an artist usually applied the darkest shade of a colour first and then added successive layers or areas of lighter shades.

Tempera was most commonly applied to gesso or wooden panels. The wood used was mostly pine or poplar in southern Europe and Baltic oak in northern Europe. Wood panels were typically made by a specialist and then bought by the painter; the same was true for picture frames. The wood was first covered with a layer of thin linen and then a chalk and glue mixture. As with fresco, the artist might create a rough sketch on the panel, then cover this with a smooth translucent layer of mostly oil, and then fill in the design using tempera colours. The Flagellation of Christ by Piero della Francesca (c. 1420-1492 CE), created c. 1455 CE, is an example of tempera on panel painting, although Piero was something of an experimenter and sometimes mixed tempera colours with oil colours.

Oil Painting

Oil paints were made from powdered pigments added to oil, most often linseed oil, but sometimes others like walnut oil, which was especially good at making white more luminous. Some artists heated the oil before use as this made the paint less likely to shrink and crack when it dried.

The Netherlandish artist Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441 CE) was traditionally credited with inventing the oil painting technique but it was, in fact, a much older method that had simply fallen out of favour with artists. Van Eyck was given this honour probably because he was the undoubted master of oil painting and he was one of the first Renaissance artists to regularly use oil paints in his work. By the end of the 15th century CE, most major Renaissance artists in the Low Countries and Italy, especially, used oil paints when working at an easel, not tempera.

Oil paints were versatile and could be applied to prepared wooden panels, canvas, paper, fabric, or a wall surface. A primer layer of white or very light grey was typically applied to the surface before painting began proper. Then various layers were applied with the artist usually starting with the background, then peripheral elements, next clothing and draperies, and finally hands and faces. The rich colours oil paints offered were ideally suited for the brocaded clothing, plush drapery, and sparkling jewels that were fashionable at the time. Such were the possibilities of oils that, as mentioned above, even metallic materials made with gold and silver could be rendered without the need for gold and silver leaf.

Oils allowed for a much greater subtlety in colours because translucent colours can be variously layered or coloured areas can be composed of layers of varying thickness of paint, thus creating a very wide range of colour tones. Analysis of Renaissance paintings has revealed that there are often up to seven different layers of paint in any one area. Further, brush strokes using oils can become invisible or they can be used for effect, the artist deliberately varying their size, shape, and direction. A consequence of this layering and variation in brushwork was the achievement of real depth in a painting that tempera panels or frescoed walls could not match. So, too, details like skin texture, hair, and wrinkles, as well as optical effects like reflections, could now be represented as never before. Another great advantage is that oils can take several days to dry out and this allows the artist to mix, blend, adjust or completely rework an area of his painting (even using their fingers to do so). Further, any mistakes can be covered over with extra layers of paint once the original layers have dried. No wonder, then, that oil painting is still the first choice of fine artists today. Once finished, a Renaissance oil painting was usually given a thin layer of protective varnish to ensure the work lasted far beyond the lifetime of its creator.

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Colour & Technique in Renaissance Painting

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There were three principal painting techniques during the Renaissance: fresco, tempera, and oils. In all of these techniques, colour was an important part of the painter's armoury, allowing them to create images that would strike a chord of recognition and pull a gasp of awe from the viewer.

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Kids learn about the Age of Exploration and Discovery of the European Renaissance including Henry the Navigator, Columbus, Portugal, and Spain.

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1. Ducatus Ferrariensis, finitimarumque partium descriptio
Aleotti, Giambattista, 1546-1636 and Vrients, Jan Baptista, 1552-1612

2. Description generale de toute la France
Belleforest, François de, 1530-1583, Münster, Sebastian, 1489-1552, and Ortelius, Abraham, 1527-1598

3. Carte de la partie septentrionale de la Mer du Sud, comprise entre la Californie, les Isles ...
Dupuis, L. A. (Louis-André) and Cooke, Edward, Captain.

4. La Provence : Divisée en ses vigueries et terres adjacentes sur les memoires les plus nouveaux
Jaillot, Alexis Hubert, 1632?-1712, Ottens, R. (Reinier), 1698-1750,epublisher, and Ottens, J. (Josua), 1704-1765

The Renaissance Exploration Map Collection is one of the largest digital-only map collections scanned by Stanford Libraries. It consists of 64 atlases, fully scanned from cover to cover as well and 587 sheet maps. The 64 atlases translated to 30,015 pages. The earliest map in the collection is a 1478 Ptolemy map of Europe. You may browse the entire collection through this website, or via SearchWorks.

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The Renaissance Exploration Map Collection is the result of one of the largest Cartographic Digital Philanthropy projects undertaken by Stanford University Libraries. This was made possible by the generosity and commitment of an area collector who lent us the collection under our Cartographic Digital Philanthropy Program thus creating a large corpus of Cartographic Renaissance materials available for anyone to search, view and download at very high resolution.

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Martin Luther and the 95 Theses - Summary, Origins & Video | HISTORY

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Martin Luther was a German theologian who challenged a number of teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. His 1517 document, “95 Theses,” sparked the Protestant Reformation. Read a summary of the document, the reasons he wrote it and watch a brief video.

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Why should you read "Don Quixote"? - Ilan Stavans