1

[Type the document title]

MLA Style Formatting Assignment

MLA style is the type of format that students use when they must do a research report. MLA style has very specific formatting rules. Follow the directions below to create your own MLA style Research Paper

1. Open a blank MS Word document and save it as Painters MLA2. Click on Page Layout and set the margins at: 1” top / 1” bottom / 1” left / 1” right3. Click on Insert and open the Header section and select the “Stacks” format4. In the area that says [Type the document title] type your last name 5. Click out of the header and into the main document 6. Click on Home and then click the spacing button in the Paragraph grouping and set the

document to double space (2.0)

7. In the main document create your heading. It should include:

First / Last NameTeacher’s NameClassDate

8. Copy and paste the text from the next page to create your document9. Center your title10. Align your paragraphs to the left11. Indent each paragraph12. Change the spacing to double space (2.0)13. Do a Spell/Grammar Check. Save your work. Turn in to Edmodo!!14. When you are done your document should look like this:

2

[Type the document title]

Great Renaissance PaintersThe period of 1400–1600 is known as the Renaissance. The scholars and artists of this period “rediscovered the culture and thought of ancient Greece and Rome. That is why the period is referred to as the Renaissance (which means the rebirth), alluding to this new point of departure after centuries of slumber during the Middle Ages” (Canto 5). Giorgia Vasari, in his book Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, first published in 1550, divided the Renaissance into three periods. The first period, roughly 1250–1400, he described as “the first Lights, glimmering out of the darkness of the Middle Ages” (Witcombe 3). The second period, the 1400s, was called the Early Renaissance. The 1500s made up the third period, which was known as the High Renaissance.

During the Renaissance, many innovations influenced painters and their work. Oil paint was invented. Linear and atmospheric perspectives were introduced and made paintings more realistic. During the 1400s, painters were trained in anatomy, mathematical perspective, geo metry, and optics (Witcombe 1).

Three important painters of the Renaissance were Jan van Eyck, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. Jan van Eyck painted in Holland and what is now Belgium and France during the Early Renaissance. He is credited with inventing oil paints, which allowed painters to show much more detail than they could with earlier types of paint. There is a dispute about some of Jan van Eyck’s early works. Some of them are thought to have been painted by his older brother, Hubert, who died in 1426, or by both of them. The brothers were the first painters to fully utilize atmospheric perspective, which is the use of a hazy background to achieve depth. They alternated translucent and opaque paint layers to give their paintings a radiant glow (Janson 245).

Leonardo da Vinci was the first High Renaissance master. He was born in Vinci, a small town in Tuscany, and was trained in Florence, Italy, by Verrocchio. In one of his first works, he painted a small angel in the corner of one of Verrocchio’s paintings. After seing how wonderfule it was, Verrocchio was said to have stopped painting. In addition to being a very talented painter, Leonardo was also a military engineer, an architect, an inventor, and a sculptor.

Leonardo is known for his use of sfumato, a fine haze of paint that gives the impression of a foggy atmosphere. Sfumato gives his paintings warmth and makes the scenes seem dreamlike. He perfected the technique in his most famous portrait, the Mona Lisa (a.k.a. Angela Ballerino). Many thin layers of fine haze make the painting appear to glow from within. The Mona Lisa is famous for her mysterious smile. Until recently, her identity was a mystery too. But it is now known that “she was the wife of a Florentine merchant who was born in 1479 and died before 1556” (Janson 290).

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, who is known by his first name, was considered to be a genius by everyone, including himself. He felt that his geniuse was a curse at times. He had a difficult personality, with violent mood swings. However, his customers tolerated his bad behavior because of his great talent.

3

[Type the document title]

Michelangelo was a sculptor as well as a painter. His most famous sculpture is David, the first major sculpture of the High Renaisssance. The huge figure was sculpted in 1501 as a patriotic symbol of the Florentine Republic (Janson 293). In 1508, Michelangelo started a new project—painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. It took him until 1512 to finish it. After four years of lying on his back painting the ceiling, he had a permanent neck ache. He used a techniquie called fresco, which means painting on a wet coat of plaster. He worked in sections, and each section had to be completed in one day, before the plaster dried. The fresco technique makes the paint colores chemically bond with the plaster so the paint will never peel off. Michelangelo’s work can still be seen because he used this long-lasting technique.

These three painters played important roles in the development of painting during the Renaissance. Their outstanding work with new mediums and techniques helped change art and artists forever.