Leon Battista Alberti De Pittura 1435 – treatise on painting

The Renaissance: The Triumph of Linear Perspective

• At left, frescoes from Roman villa, ca. 79 AD

• (From villa of P. Fannius Synistor, buried by eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Walls rescued in 20th century, now in Met Museum)

• Had Classical artists, that modern viewers admire so much, been able to master linear perspective? Why do you say yes or no?

Use of axonometric

perspective in Chinese

painting --

Along the River During

the Qingming Festival

(detail),

Zhang Zeduan,

12th Century

R: Illustration of the difference between axonometry as it is used in Chinese painting (left), and linear perspective. The key features of axonometry are its high vantage point and the parallel lines of projection in the three principal directions. The latter point explains why axonometry is often referred to as 'parallel perspective'. Beams and pillars do not taper off; their size and geometry remains constant. The size of the figures in the foreground and background remains constant, and a light source and shadows will be absent.

Is vision itself

“culturally constructed?”

Schematic drawings of “Reverse perspective”L: A cube, represented in linear perspectiveR: As represented in reverse perspective

Other perspective systems

Byzantine icon showing use of reverse perspective –What tells us this is different from linear persp?

Raphael1483-1520

Raphael Part I:

Training

What does it mean to be an artist in the Renaissance?

Albrecht Dürer – Artist drawing with the aid of a perspective device

Why does the artist use the grid? What does this help him do?

Cartoon (preparatory drawing) for fresco “The School of Athens” by Raphael

Left: Giotto. Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (Ognissanti Madonna) c.1305-1310. Tempera on panel.

Right: Raphael. The Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel.

What differences? What difference does the use of perspective make?

Perugino, Marriage of the Virgin, c. 1500-04 (oil on panel, 234 x 185 cm), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen

Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel. 170 x 117 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

“It is well known that . . . Raphael greatly altered and improved his style, through having seen the works of the foremost masters, and he never reverted to his formermanner, which looks like the work of a different and inferior hand.”

Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13. Oil on canvas

Raphael. Marriage of the Virgin, 1504. Oil on panel. 170 x 117 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

“It is well known that . . . Raphael greatly altered and improved his style, through having seen the works of the foremost masters, and he never reverted to his former manner, which looks like the work of a different and inferior hand.”

Raphael, The Sistine Madonna, c. 1512-13. Oil on canvas

Raphael Part II: Frescoes

Making a fresco:

Series of giornate (singular = giornata)

Make cartoon, do

Pouncing on contour lines, sprinkle with charcoal.

Philosophy

Jurisprudence

Theology

Poetry

Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, ca. 1508-12, (fresco), Papal Apartments, Vatican

Scale comparison: Madonna of the Meadows (aprox. 3 ft x 2 ft), Sistine Madonna (aprox. 8ft x 6ft) and the Disputa (aprox. 18 ft x 24 ft)

Raphael, Stanza della Segnatura, ca. 1508-12, (fresco), Papal Apartments, Vatican

Leonardo da Vinci Vitruvian Man c. 1485-90

Studies for the Disputa

Perspective - Foreshortening

Making a fresco:

Series of giornate (singular = giornata – literally, “day’s work”)

Make cartoon, do Pouncing on contour lines, sprinkle with charcoal.

Day 2

Leonardo da Vinci. The Last Supper. 1495–1498. 15’ 2" × 28’ 10”. Oil paint on plaster, Leonardo’s own invented (unsuccessful) technique

Apollo

Pythagoras

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Diogenes

Michelangelo / Herakleitus

Athena

Ptolemy

Euclid

Zoroaster

Apollo

Pythagoras

SocratesPlato

Aristotle

Diogenes

Heraclitus

Athena

Ptolemy

Euclid

Zoroaster

Raphael, The School of Athens, ca. 1509-11, Stanza della Segnatura, Papal Apartments, Vatican

Rome, St. Peter’s Basilica, new building as designed by architect Bramante – begins construction 1503

Raphael, Self-Portrait, 1509

Da Vinci self Portrait, ca. 1500

Albrecht Dürer Melancholia IEngraving 1514

DelacroixMichelangelo in his Studio c. 1850

Raphael Part III:

Oil Painting / Portraiture

Step 1: Grind pigment Step 2: Add binder (here, linseed oil)

--With tempera, would be egg

Step 3: Mix Step 4: Smooth

Common supports for oil paintings in the 16th century: canvas (top left) and panel (right), as well as copper plates (bottom left)

Gesso – thin layer of plaster that helps to make a smooth, ideal surface for paint application.

Portraiture

Joseph Wright, The Corinthian Maid, 1782-84.

•Desire to create a likeness of a living person, with some relation to the artist, such as a friend or a patron •Idea that the image should be created in the presence of the person being depicted•Sometimes, idea of memorializing the person, or idea that the portrait will stand in the person’s place: •Alberti says “As the effort of learning may perhaps seem to the young too laborious, I think I should explain here how painting is worthy of all our attention and study. Painting possesses a truly divine power in that not only does it make the absent present…but it also represents the dead to the living many centuries later…through painting, the faces of the dead go on living for a very long time.”

Olmec head, found at site of San Lorenzo (Tabasco, Mexico), Olmec culture, ca. 1200-400 BC(As seen in Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, Mexico)

Raphael, Portraits of Agnolo Doni and Maddelena Doni, c. 1506 (oil on panel, 63 x 45 cm), Pitti Palace, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, begun c. 1503 (oil on panel, 77 x 53 cm), Louvre, Paris

Use of sfumato

Raphael, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, ca. 1512 (oil on canvas, 82 x66 cm), Louvre, Paris

Raphael. Portrait of a Young Woman (“La Fornarina”) ,1518-19, oil on panel, 85 x 60 cm

Use of chiaroscuro