New Techniques and Artists of Renaissance Art

Art began to reveal the changing patterns of consumption among the wealthy elite of society. In the Rural areas of the middle ages society was ready for war and wealthy mean bought military gear. However nobles would employ mercenaries over knights, causing more wealthy people to buy art such as sculptures, paintings, gold dishes, embroidered tablecloths, etc. to decorate their homes.

Individual portraits emerged in the renaissance period, which was a distinct artistic genre movement. Rather than portraying spiritual ideas, as in medieval paintings and sculptures, Renaissance showed the human ideals, often portrayed as more realistic than the stiff paintings of the medieval times. This new art style was more favored by both patrons and artists.

Giotto - was a Florentine painter (1276-1337) who led the way for in the use of realism. His treatment of the body replaced the medieval stiffness and artificialness of the human body represented during the medieval times.

Donatello - (1386-1466) was a Renaissance sculptor from Florence, Italy, who revived the classical figure, with its balance and self-awareness. Michelangelo - was a Florentine painter who spent his young adulthood at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici and complained both in person and in letter about the popes meddling. In 1508, pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine chapel (finished in 1512) Michelangelo went from to Rome from Florence around 1500 and began a series of statues, paintings, and architecture projects, which earned him an international reputation.

Masaccio - Masaccio was a Florentine artist who was regarded as the first great painter of the renaissance period.

Leonardo da Vinci - was labeled a genius during the renaissance. He was born in Vinci, near Florence. In 1472, Leonardo was listed as the master of fluorescent “company of Artists. ” Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa (his most famous piece). He was the first man considers to be a “renaissance man” (multi-talented person). Leonardo tried to understand the hudbt more so he observed dead bodies and experimented with perspective.

Filippo Brunelleschi - (1377-1446) was an architect who looked to the classical past for inspiration when designing a hospital for orphans and foundlings where all of the windows, height, floor plan, and covered walkways with a series of rounded arches, were all in proportion to get a sense of balance and harmony.

Jan van Eyck - (1366-1441) was a Flemish painter who was considered the artistic equal of Italian painters and were actually admired in Italy. Van Eyck was one of the earliest artists who used oil-based paints successfully, as his religious paintings and portraits show a great amount of realism and attention to human personality.