Cimabue

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Cimabue 1230-1302• Italian painter and mosaicist, born in

Florence. He was one of the most important artists of his time.

• Began to break away from the formalism of Byzantine/Gothic art which was predominant in Italy at that time.

• Introduced a more lifelike treatment/interpretation of traditional subjects.

• He was the forerunner of the realistic Florentine school of the early Renaissance founded by Giotto.

• Believed to have been Giotto’s teacher.

Cimabue Giotto

Giotto 1267-1337• Italian/Florentine painter, sculptor, and

architect.

• Giotto was recognized as the first genius of art in the Italian Renaissance. “The Father of the Rennaisance”.

• He dealt largely in the traditional religious subjects, but he began to give these subjects an earthly, full-blooded life and force. Adding very human touches.

• Giotto was a master storyteller through his paintings.

Giotto

Most murals/wall paintingsFresco = freshPainting is done on wet or “fresh plaster” famous for his fresco’s used for Gesso – made from glue mixed with finely ground chalk. Used to create a painting surface for egg tempera painting.

Masaccio Giotto

Masaccio

Masaccio 1401-1427• Masaccio, the first great painter of the Italian

Renaissance, whose innovations in the use of scientific perspective changed this modern era in painting.

• He joined the painters guild in Florence in 1422. His remarkably individual style owed little to other painters, except possibly the great 14th-century master Giotto.

• He was more strongly influenced by the architect Brunelleschi and the sculptor Donatello, both of whom were his contemporaries/peers in Florence.

Leonardo and Masaccio

Modanno of the Rocks/Virgin of the Rocks

Three Phases of Renaissance1400-1600

• Giotto – Early Renaissance

• Masaccio – Mid Renaissance

• Leonardo - High Renaissance

Renaissance – a renewed interest in art/literature/science.

Rebirth

•Folds in cloth, angels wings drawn from real birds, flowers painted from life, nothing painted from his imagination

•Strong composition /\unified, harmonious whole (circles/triangels used to achieve balance)

•Leonardo’s work was mysterious

Madonna of the Rocks Leonardo-

Louvre 1490 on canvas

National Gallery of London 1506on wood

Louvre

Leonardo• There has never been an artist who was more

fittingly, and without qualification, described as a genius. Leonardo came from an insignificant background and rose to universal acclaim becoming a master painter.

• Leonardo was the son of a local lawyer in the small town of Vinci in the Tuscan region. His father acknowledged him and paid for his training becoming an apprentice to Verrochio

• His overabundance of talents caused him to treat his artistry lightly, seldom finishing a picture, and sometimes making rash technical experiments.

Verrocchio The Baptism of Christ

The Last Supper• Unsuccessful fresco –mixed egg, linseed oil, and

pigments

• Painting finished in 1517 at which time it began flaking off

• Further damaged by Napolean troops when they used the room as a stable for their horses

• Painting underwent 7 restoration attempts. Restoration took 20 years. Uncovering details including facial features, food.

• The Last Supper, comissioned by Lodovico – ruler of milan in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan (in the room in the monestary that the friars ate).

• What is the central focus/vanishing point that establishes perspective

Leonardo’s sketchbooks•Studying anatomy to achieve proper proportions

•Dissected human corpses•Sketched portraits of models

Leonardo wrote many of his notes in his sketchbook.

•Signature as it appears in sketchbook•Leonardo used mirror handwriting – attempt to keep thoughts private

Leonardo’s sketchbooks

Chiaroscuro- modeling from light to dark to show form.Folds in the clothes – painted from real subjects.

Mona Lisa•Leonardo spent 4 years painting the Mona Lisa

•Considered his most famous painting.

•Elisabetta Giocondo (wife of an officer of Florence – modeled for this portrait

•Leonardo brought in jesters, musicians, singers to entertain the model while he worked

•Used technique - sfumato

Raphael’s Drawing

Sfumato – misty background, softening lines so that objects do not have outlines, creating the illusion of space. Aerial /Atmospheric Perspective -Leonardo called it the perspective of disappearance.

Did Leonardo incorporate himself into this portrait?

Who painted this Madonna and Child?