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ASH WEDNESDAY (THE BEGINNING OF LENT AND A TIME FOR REPENTANCE) WAS ON V-DAY in 2019...

Remind your table group what a memento mori is and how these sweetheart candies are an example.

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HI, GOOD MORNING

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WELCOME! WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE CRUCIFIXION (VOTE ON THE BOARD!)

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RENAISSANCE

“Man is the measure of all things”

- Protagoras �(student of Democritus)

David (as in David and Goliath) by Michelangelo

Plato interpreted this controversial Protagoras quote to suggest that there was no absolute truth, but only different “truths” as interpreted by different people. I like this as an anachronistic evaluation of the Renaissance because of increased self-determination and freedom for people. Despite the continued power and influence of Pope and monarchs (who were fully growing into their power at the time), a renewed interest in the “virtuous pagans” of ancient Greece and Rome helped encourage artists, scientists, philosophers, etc to question authority and rethink the world. Like John Green said, this did little to change the lives of most ordinary folks living during the time. But it absolutely set in motion ideas that led to the Enlightenment and continued eventually led to democracy, human rights, and other awesome stuff we enjoy today.

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Renaissance: Historical Context

Gutenberg invents printing with movable type (1450)

Paired with translating to local languages, spread Bible and other writings to more people -> more scholarship and criticism

Luther posts 95 Theses/Protestant Reformation begins (1517)

Purify corrupt Catholic Church
Individual people question authority and develop own relationship with faith

Copernicus announces planets revolve around sun (1543)

(with help of Muslim scientists, some of which was credited)
Forces people to interact with larger world and reconcile science with religion

Printing press: Note that China had this tech in 1040 and Korea in 1340 – but Europe only had rumors of tech until Gutenberg

Protestant Reformation decreased the sway of the church (but slowly! Kings, after all, needed to get along with the Pope for political and economic reasons, and so many remained Catholic and fought for their people to do so too). Movement was to purify what Luther saw as a corrupt Catholic church (huge wealth for church leaders while poor people suffered; the practice of selling indulgences; etc). BUT ALSO connected to Renaissance thought and feeling – humans have the power to question and correct large institutions! Allowed criticism and scholarship of The Bible and humans to reconcile faith with reason.

Shift from Ptolemaic system (everything revolves around the Earth) to Copernican system (everything revolves around the sun) a huge deal, because it calls into question the idea that we (in this case, Europeans) are The Most Important and forces us to consider the world around us; also help to divorce scientific understanding from the Church (again, though, people were still very religious as a whole and most were attempting to reconcile scientific findings with religious dogma)

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Renaissance Characteristics (15^th and 16^th centuries)

Initially centered in Italy (Florence, then Rome and Venice)
“Rebirth” of art and culture – and of human freedom and self-determination
Revived interest in classical Greek and Roman cultures
Humanism: concerned with human values, interests, and achievements as distinct from, but not opposed to, religious values

Focus on reason, not religious dogma
Growing interest in science (anatomy, the natural world, astronomy)

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COMBINATION OF REALISM AND IDEALISM THROUGH THESE ARTISTIC FEATURES:

Linear perspective (and other techniques to create the illusion of 3D)
Correct/ideal proportions of the human body
Some chiaroscuro (use of light and shadow), but not extreme
Pyramid composition
Symmetry and balance = beauty

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DONATELLO (1386 – 1466)

First great Renaissance sculptor
Reintroduced ancient Greek style of sculpture to the Renaissance
Contrapposto
Heroic nude
Very experimental – worked in a variety of styles and mediums (marble, bronze, and wood)

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“MAGDALENE PENITENT”�DONATELLO�ITALIAN RENAISSANCE�1453�WOOD�~6 FEET

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As you sketch, discuss: How does this work fit in with the traditions of sculpted nudes we’ve looked at in class? How does Donatello BREAK tradition with this figure?

Wood! Amazing that is in such good shape. Something appropriate about the material – organic, capable of rotting.

More emotionally expressive

Harshly accurate and very “real” – reminds me of Hellenistic old drunk woman or Roman veristic portraits (realistic portraits of everyday subjects; “Verus” = true (like Veritiserum in Harry Potter)

MM is usually depicted as a young, physically beautiful woman

Almost difficult to look at.

A hermit.

She’s wasted away – almost pure spirituality – “penitent” – showing regret or remorse (wasted away from repentence)

Clothed by her own hair. Belt is actually also her hair, wrapped around her. (MM is traditionally depicted with long hair; that’s often how scholars can identify her in paintings), but here it’s grown out to an extreme, expressive state

Had been painted – traces of red and gold paint survive.

Gaunt, shriveled, with stringy hair and hollowed eyes.

Still the contrapposto of the Renaissance – but much more spiritual

So lifelike to artist is reported to have shouted at it “Speak, speak, or the plague take you!”

Deep interest in the specifics of an individual; deep sympathy for humanity that comes out of Humanism – so different from the Gothic

Expressive, elongated hands make a kind of cathedral

Mary Magdalene traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. Sister of Lazarus, who Jesus resurrected from dead – “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!” Important Biblical figure – sees Christ crucified (others ran away); first to see him resurrected; makes a conscious choice to leave the worldly life for the spiritual life (esp. during 1^st C – v. materialist time). Within the four Gospels she is named at least 12 times,more than most of the apostles.

Purges of 7 demons (?)

During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman – mixing up Gospel accounts and feet washing: Matthew, Mark, and John: MM pours perfume on Jesus and people annoyed b/c perfume was expensive – should have sold and given to poor. Luke: “Sinful woman” washes Jesus feet with perfume and people annoyed because she is sinful and he lets her touch him. = MM not a prostitute, confused with another perfuming woman. Also, John’s story is best b/c he mentions cleaning feet with hair and that is was Judas who complained about the perfume.

Honored as a saint in the Catholic church and some Protestant denominations; Other Protestant churches honor her as a heroine of the faith.

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MICHELANGELO �(1475 – 1564)

Sculptor, painter, architect, poet, engineer
Considered himself primarily a sculptor
Apprenticed under both sculptors and painters
Believed that creativity was divinely inspired
Strong faith (poetry), but constantly butting heads with the Catholic church officials and Pope
Believed that the artist must find the image that is already locked in the stone
Worked mostly alone
Lived to be nearly 90

Unlike Leonardo, who thought painting was the highest art form, M thought sculpture was

By removing the excess stone, the sculptor extricates the idea from the block

Unlike Leonardo, mistrusted the application of mathematical methods as guarantees of beauty and proportion

The most historically queer of the ninja turtles! Met muse Tommaso dei Cavalieri when he was 23 and Michelangelo was 57. Exchanged drawings, passionate love poetry, etc and were close the rest of Michelangelo’s life (30 more years). Some modern commentators assert that the relationship was merely a Platonic affection, even suggesting that Michelangelo was seeking a surrogate son.^[9] However, their homoerotic nature was recognized in his own time, so that a decorous veil was drawn across them by his grand-nephew, Michelangelo the Younger, who published an edition of the poetry in 1623 with the gender of pronouns changed.

M. had similar correspondences with both men and women, though Cavalieri was his longest and most prolific. Unclear which, if any, of these relationships were sexual.

Condivi said he was indifferent to food and drink, eating "more out of necessity than of pleasure"^[69] and that he "often slept in his clothes and ... boots."^[69] His biographer Paolo Giovio says, "His nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived posterity of any pupils who might have followed him."^[70]

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“PIETÀ”�MICHELANGELO�RENAISSANCE�1498-9�MARBLE�

Balances Renaissance beauty ideals with naturalism – Michelangelo’s favorite!

Only work he ever signed!

Pyramidal structure. Balance and symmetry. Youthful Mary face represents her chastity and purity. Christ's face does not reveal signs of the Passion. Michelangelo did not want his version of the Pietà to represent death, but rather to show the "religious vision of abandonment and a serene face of the Son,” thus the representation of the communion between man and God by the sanctification through Christ.

The most substantial damage occurred on 21 May 1972, (Pentecost Sunday) when a mentally disturbed geologist, the Hungarian-born Australian Laszlo Toth, walked into the chapel and attacked the sculpture with a geologist's hammer while shouting "I am Jesus Christ; I have risen from the dead!"^[15] With fifteen blows he removed Mary's arm at the elbow, knocked off a chunk of her nose, and chipped one of her eyelids. Bob Cassilly, an American sculptor and artist from St. Louis, Missouri, was one of the first people to remove Toth from the Pietà. "I leaped up and grabbed the guy by the beard. We both fell into the crowd of screaming Italians. It was something of a scene."^[16] Onlookers took many of the pieces of marble that flew off. Later, some pieces were returned, but many were not, including Mary's nose, which had to be reconstructed from a block cut out of her back.

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“THE CREATION OF ADAM”�MICHELANGELO�RENAISSANCE�1508-12�FRESCO�

Balance of composition reminds us that man was made in God’s image. Also check out the hands!

According to an interpretation that was first proposed by the English art critic Walter Pater (1839–1894) and is now widely accepted, the person protected by God's left arm represents Eve, due to the figure's feminine appearance and gaze towards Adam,^[9]^[10] and the eleven other figures symbolically represent the souls of Adam and Eve's unborn progeny, the entire human race.^[9]^[10] This interpretation has been challenged, mainly on the grounds that the Catholic Church regards the teaching of the pre-existence of souls as heretical.^[9]^[10] Consequently, the figure behind God has also been suggested to be the Virgin Mary, Sophia (the personification of wisdom mentioned in the Book of Wisdom), the personified human soul, or "an angel of masculine build".^[9]^[10]

Fun stuff:

In 1990 in Anderson, Indiana, physician Frank Meshberger noted in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain.

Alternatively, it has been observed that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus (one art historian has called it a "uterine mantle"^[17]) and that the scarf hanging out, coloured green, could be a newly cut umbilical cord.^[18] (Also, peep Adam’s belly button. He has that for what, Michelangelo?)

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HERE IT IS IN CONTEXT!

Whole ceiling took 4 years to paint (1508-1512). Over 500 sq meters and over 300 figures!!

In 1505, Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II. He was commissioned to build the Pope's tomb, which was to include forty statues and be finished in five years.

Under the patronage of the Pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions to his work on the tomb in order to accomplish numerous other tasks. Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never finished to his satisfaction.^[4]

During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which took approximately four years to complete (1508–1512).^[5] Bramante, who was working on the building of St Peter's Basilica, resented Michelangelo's commission for the Pope's tomb and convinced the Pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, in order that he might fail at the task.^[6]

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Much later work – more than 20 years after finished the ceiling. He was asked to do another fresco for the altar wall. Took over 4 years to complete.

From the NEW Testament (unlike the ceiling). From the Book of Revelation

Depicts the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity.

And very different….gloomy, disturbing, violent.

Christ is in the center – depicted not as a merciful Redeemer but as an avenging Judge

On either side of Christ are saints and Old Testament figures

Virgin is right next to Christ – look toward the blessed

Below Christ, we have the separation of the blessed from the damned

Directly below Christ, we see angels blowing their trumpets, awakening the dead from their graves.

On Christ’s right, the blessed who are going to Heaven. They are emerging from their graves and being pulled up to Heaven by angels who seem to assist them.

On Christ’s left, the damned who will go to Hell.

Charon is swinging his oar, keeping the damned in his boat to ferry them across to Hell

Demons using pitchforks to pull the bodies from the boat into Hell

Above them, angels are pushing down the damned who are trying to escape – see figure that has come to be known as the “The Damned Man” – such emotion! Look at the face!

Christ is represented as a powerful judge, facing toward the damned and smiting them

ALL of the bodies are amazingly massive, muscular – even the angels. Typical of M’s interest in the body (musculature, etc.)

Unlike ceiling, where the bodies are elegant and proportional, these bodies seem intentionally ugly. Their proportions are all wrong (heads too small for bodies), distorted, and they twist and contort in awkward ways, the muscles are overdrawn (see Christ – torso out of scale with this head)

A time of great turmoil in the church. Protestant Reformation began in between the time that M painted the ceiling and the time he painted the Last Judgment. Optimism seems to have been replaced by pessimism.

St. Bartholomew – holds a knife in one hand and a skin in the other. He was martyred by having his skin removed. But the face we see in the skin is actually a self-portrait of M. He is located between Christ the savior and the damned man. As if St. Bartholomew could let go and drop the skin (M) onto the boat of Charon and into Hell.

Criticized for pagan references

M depicts one of his enemies in hell

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A TALE OF TWO DAVIDS

The story of David and Goliath comes from 1 Samuel 17. The Israelites are fighting the Philistines, whose champion – Goliath – repeatedly offers to meet the Israelites' best warrior in single combat to decide the whole battle. None of the trained Israelite soldiers is brave enough to fight the giant Goliath, until David – a shepherd boy who is too young to be a soldier – accepts the challenge. Saul, the Israelite leader, offers David armour and weapons, but the boy is untrained and refuses them. Instead, he goes out with his sling, and confronts the enemy. He hits Goliath in the head with a stone, knocking the giant down, and then grabs Goliath's sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines withdraw as agreed and the Israelites are saved. David's special strength comes from God, and the story illustrates the triumph of good over evil.

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David
Donatello
1440s(?)
Bronze

First unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity! In traditional contrapposto pose, with the addition of a sassy little hand on the waist.

It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a laurel-topped hat and boots, and bears the sword of Goliath.

The iconography of the bronze David follows that of the marble David: a young hero stands with sword in hand, the severed head of his enemy at his feet. Visually, however, this statue is startlingly different. David is both physically delicate and remarkably effeminate. The head has been said to have been inspired by classical sculptures of Antinous, a favourite of Hadrian renowned for his beauty. The statue's physique, contrasted with the large sword in hand, shows that David has overcome Goliath not by physical prowess, but through God. The boy's nakedness further implies the idea of the presence of God, contrasting the youth with the heavily-armoured giant. David is presented uncircumcised, which is customary for male nudes in Italian Renaissance art.

There are no indications of contemporary responses to the David. However, the fact that the statue was placed in the town hall of Florence in the 1490s indicates that it was not viewed as controversial. In the early 16th century, the Herald of the Signoria mentioned the sculpture in a way that suggested there was something unsettling about it: "The David in the courtyard is not a perfect figure because its right leg is tasteless."^[18] By mid-century Vasari was describing the statue as so naturalistic that it must have been made from life. However, among 20th- and 21st-century art historians there has been considerable controversy about how to interpret it.

Goliath's beard curls around David's sandaled foot, as if the young hero is running his toes through his dead opponent's hair. Goliath is wearing a winged helmet. David's right foot stands firmly on the short right wing, while the left wing, considerably longer, works its way up his right leg to his groin.

The figure has been interpreted in a variety of ways. One has been to suggest that Donatello was homosexual and that he was expressing that sexual attitude through this statue.^[19]^[20] A second is to suggest that the work refers to homosocial values in Florentine society without expressing Donatello's personal tendencies.^[21]^[22] However, during the Renaissance sodomy was illegal, and over 14,000 men had been tried in Florence for this crime,^[23] so this homosexual implication would have been dangerous. A third interpretation is that David represents Donatello's effort to create a unique version of the male nude, to exercise artistic license rather than copy the classical models that had thus far been the sources for the depiction of the male nude in Renaissance art.

Stories about the artist that had been collected and published anonymously in a gossipy 1548 book about the Florentine circle of Cosimo de’ Medici—the artist’s great patron and friend, and the most likely commissioner of David. According to the anecdotes in the volume, Donatello was notorious for falling for his male models and apprentices, pursuing them around Italy in a rage if they left him.

Florence had such a reputation for being accepting of homosexuality that the French called gay sex the “Florentine Vice,” and in Germany, Florenzer was slang for a sodomite. Still, same-sex relations weren’t exactly legal; records show that a huge proportion of men in the city were accused of or charged with the crime of sodomy (including the eminent Leonardo da Vinci, who was working as an apprentice in Florence when he was accused). Conservative monks railed against this acceptance for more than moral reasons, worrying that the growing trend of homosexual relations between unmarried men would lead to a city-wide population decline. Recent studies have also revealed that politicians of the day attempted to combat the issue by opening up brothels to lure them back into the arms of women. Yet relationships between men remained generally accepted, especially in the city’s artistic circles.

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David
Michelangelo
1501-4
Marble

Originally designed to sit on roof of cathedral, but placed in town square for 370 years (now replica there, this one in gallery) – they couldn’t figure out how to get the 6 ton statue up there.

Statue was begun earlier but abandoned. 26 yo Michelangelo convinced the committee that he should be the one to complete the work

no earlier Florentine artist had omitted the giant altogether. David v. symbolic for Florence at this time – Medici family, who had been steadily gaining power and influence over the 1400s had been driven out a decade earlier and this monk named Savonarola lowkey made Florence a theocratic state at the end of the 1400s, burning a bunch of literature and art. The Pope excommunicates him and he is executed. So the Florentine republic sees themselves as David and the Medicis and Savonarola as Goliath. In fact, when they got rid of the Medicis, they liberated Donatello’s David from their garden ☺

According to most scholars, David is depicted before his battle with Goliath.^[22] Instead of being shown victorious over a foe much larger than he, David looks tense and ready for battle after he has made the decision to fight Goliath, but, before the battle has actually taken place. His brow is drawn, his neck tense, and the veins bulge out of his lowered right hand. His left hand holds a sling that is draped over his shoulder and down to his right hand, which holds the handle of the sling.

The twist of his body effectively conveys to the viewer the feeling that he is about to move; an impression heightened with contrapposto.

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RAPHAEL (1483 – 1520)

Died young (only 37)
Learned painting from his father; then an apprentice to other artists
Very popular (artistically and personally) while he lived
Most completely expressed all the qualities of the High Renaissance
From Leonardo, he learned the pyramidal structure and chiaroscuro
From Michelangelo he learned contrapposto and how to create dynamic figures

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“SCHOOL OF ATHENS”�RAPHAEL�RENAISSANCE�1509-11�FRESCO

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Raphael as Apelles

Bramante as Euclid

DaVinci as Plato, and Aristotle

In the center of the fresco, at its architecture's central vanishing point, are the two undisputed main subjects: Plato on the left and Aristotle, his student, on the right. Both figures hold modern (of the time), bound copies of their books in their left hands, while gesturing with their right. Plato is depicted as old, grey, and bare-foot. By contrast, Aristotle, slightly ahead of him, is in mature manhood, wearing sandals and gold-trimmed robes, and the youth about them seem to look his way. In addition, these two central figures gesture along different dimensions: Plato vertically, upward along the picture-plane, into the vault above; Aristotle on the horizontal plane at right-angles to the picture-plane. It is popularly thought that their gestures indicate central aspects of their philosophies, for Plato, his Theory of Forms, and for Aristotle, an emphasis on concrete particulars. Many interpret the painting to show a divergence of the two philosophical schools. Plato argues a sense of timelessness whilst Aristotle looks into the physicality of life and the present realm.

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LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452 – 1519)

Quintessential “Renaissance Man”
Interests included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, and cartography.
Fascinated by flight; built flying contraptions
Avid mountain climber
Lived for a time in a hospital, studying skeletons and dissecting more than 30 cadavers.
He could sing “divinely” and “his charming conversation won all hearts”
His “personal beauty could not be exaggerated”
But…distractible (his fatal flaw!). So many interests. Less than 20 complete works survive.

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“THE LAST SUPPER”�DA VINCI�RENAISSANCE�FRESCO

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“MONA LISA”�DA VINCI�RENAISSANCE�1503-1506 (MAYBE UNTIL 1517)�OIL ON POPLAR PANEL

The painting is probably of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini

Traditional renaissance (and DaVinci) portrait – pyramidal structure, naturalism, beauty standards and modesty of the Virgin Mary

DaVinci used a favorite technique called sfumato – he didn’t draw outlines and blended heavily to create a sort of fuzzy but naturalistic effect. This is most clear at the figure’s mouth and eyes and is part of why people feel so drawn to this portrait and see her as having a secret.

This is also reinforced by the background, which is thought to be an imaginary landscape. It has only a winding road to indicate humans living there and so have a wild and mysterious feeling to it. With the horizon line so high in the painting, the landscape feels paired with the figure.

On 21 August 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire came under suspicion and was arrested and imprisoned. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was brought in for questioning. Both were later exonerated.^[78]^[79] The real culprit was Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, who had helped construct the painting's glass case.^[80] He carried out the theft by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with the painting hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.^[20]Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed that Leonardo's painting should have been returned to an Italian museum. Peruggia may have been motivated by an associate whose copies of the original would significantly rise in value after the painting's theft.^[81] After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was exhibited in the Uffizi Gallery for over two weeks and returned to the Louvre on 4 January 1914.^[82] Peruggia served six months in prison for the crime and was hailed for his patriotism in Italy.

On 30 December 1956, Bolivian Ugo Ungaza Villegas threw a rock at the Mona Lisa while it was on display at the Louvre. He did so with such force that it shattered the glass case and dislodged a speck of pigment near the left elbow.^[84] The painting was protected by glass because a few years earlier a man who claimed to be in love with the painting had cut it with a razor blade and tried to steal it.^[85] Since then, bulletproof glass has been used to shield the painting from any further attacks. Subsequently, on 21 April 1974, while the painting was on display at the Tokyo National Museum, a woman sprayed it with red paint as a protest against that museum's failure to provide access for disabled people.^[86] On 2 August 2009, a Russian woman, distraught over being denied French citizenship, threw a ceramic teacup purchased at the Louvre; the vessel shattered against the glass enclosure.^[87]^[88] In both cases, the painting was undamaged.

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“Birth of Venus”�Botticelli�

What makes this Renaissance??

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“Virgin of the Rocks”�da Vinci�

What makes this Renaissance??

https://rentonschools.instructure.com/courses/31647/discussion_topics/57461?module_item_id=511830https://rentonschools.instructure.com/courses/31647/discussion_topics/57461?module_item_id=511830

https://rentonschools.instructure.com/courses/31647/discussion_topics/57461?module_item_id=511830