Renaissance Review and The Renaissance Man, Leonardo Da Vinci

                      Leonardo Da Vinci                                                              The Mona Lisa

What were the four things that changed how paintings were done in the Renaissance and from then on?

Let's review:

1. The materials used. There is an interesting progression here from egg tempura and wooden surfaces and panels to fresco walls and ceilings to oil paints on stretched canvas. Oil paints on stretched canvas became the preferred methodology  during this time in art history.Why? Because artists were able to use a wider variety of rich colors and broader value scales to depict more realistic and life like paintings.

2 Perspective. This was very significant because it allows the artist to create the illusion of dimensional space on a flat surface.This technique becomes part of  the foundation for all of European painting over the next 500 years. Da Vinci uses this technique in The Last Supper and The Mona Lisa.

The Last Supper

3. Light and Shadow or Chiaroscuro which is literally translated light /dark in Italian becomes a painting technique perfected by Leonardo Da Vinci and it is used in the Mona Lisa where the light areas, as in the folds of her garments emerge, looking rounded and draped from the dark background of her dress.

4. Pyramid Configuration arranging figures and items in a triangular arrangement or pyramid creates symmetry and a focal point. 

These four new ways of doing things really changed the course for artist during the Renaissance.This time period is so exciting to study because so much was happening during history. Artists were being influence by so many things, science, discovery, exploration, religious change, innovation and inventions. We can see this in the art world as the artist reflected the time, social, political and emotions of the age.

 Vitruvian Man

One such person was Leonardo Da Vinci. Many claimed that he was "The Renaissance Man" because he possessed so many excellent qualities and talents. There was nothing he couldn't do once he set himself to it. He was also found to be handsome and charming. What an interesting person, this Leonardo from Vinci. He was mountain climber, bird watcher and nature lover.  Today we say that he was able to think on both sides of his brain.

Leonardo's Journals on the human body

Leonardo's Journals on flying machines and inventions

This means his logical mathematical mind accomplished just as much as his artistic and creative mind.
Our final project will be a collaborative one. We will work together to paint the Mona Lisa! I look forward to giving you all the details in class.

~ Lots of paints and gesso,  Mrs. W

Annunciation

(The Annotated Mona Lisa, Carol Strickland, Ph.D.pg.32-34)

Photos from Google for educational purpose only

Tempura Paint, Renaissance, and Michelangelo

 Renaissance Naples 

Photo Courtesy of  Tsiosophy.com

We are moving into an exciting time in art history, the Renaissance! Many things were changing during this time.Not only were artists looking forward with new ideas, but they were also looking back and taking classical ideas and giving them new life. According to Carol Strickland Ph.D., who wrote The Annotated Mona Lisa,  

      "While art hardly died in the Middle Ages, what was reborn in the Renaissance-and extended in the                  Baroque period-was lifelike art. A shift in interest from the supernatural to the natural caused this                  change. The rediscovery  of the Greco-Roman tradition helped artists reproduce visual images                      accurately. Aided by the expansion of scientific knowledge, such as an understanding of anatomy and            perspective, painters of the fifteenth through sixteenth centuries went beyond Greece and Rome in                  technical proficiency."

As we study this transition in art history, we will be doing  a color study, to prepare us for our last and final project of the year. Our color study will be to work as an art apprentice. Just as the apprentice mastered the making of his tools and more importantly the art of mixing tempura paint for the master, we will do the same.  Then taking what we have learned, we will study the Sistine Chapel, as we look at tempura painting on dry Fresco, just like Michelangelo!

 "The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection."

~Michelangelo

Below is a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, spend some time really looking at all the paintings, it is such a wonder! I hope to some day to stand within its walls and look up! But for now this virtual tour will have to do. This is the next best thing I promise! Once you have clicked on the link below, click on the 'M' in the bottom left and it will allow your mouse to control the camera direction. Sweet! The + and - allow you to zoom in and out. This is awesome!

Can you tell what is the real architecture of the building and what has been painted? Can you read any of the Latin words that are in the Roman hand on the frieze that is around the room. Are the curtains on the walls real?  What else do you observe?

Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, Italy

Also look at the lay out of the artwork itself, I think Michelangelo was just brilliant!