Renaissance Art: Key Works and Concepts
Key Works of the Renaissance
Here are some significant artworks from the Renaissance period:
- Giotto: Kiss of Judas, From the Arena Chapel, 1305-06
- Duccio: Virgin and Child, 1285
- Filippo Brunelleschi: Dome of Florence Cathedral, 1420–1436
- Donatello: David, c. 1446–1460
- Masaccio: Trinity with the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, and Donors, 1425–1427
- Sandro Botticelli: Birth of Venus, c. 1484–1486
- Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa, 1503–1506
- Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper, 1495–1498
- Raphael: The School of Athens, 1510–1511
- Michelangelo: Pietà, 1500
- Michelangelo: David, 1501
- Giorgione: The Tempest, 1506
- Titian: “Venus” of Urbino, 1538
- Titian: Pesaro Madonna, 1519–1526
- Workshop of the Master of Flémalle: Merode Altarpiece, c. 1425-1430
- Jan van Eyck: Double Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife, 1434
- Matthias Grünewald: Isenheim Altarpiece, 1510–1515
- Albrecht Dürer: Four Apostles, 1526
- Hans Holbein the Younger: The French Ambassadors, 1533
- Parmigianino: Madonna with the Long Neck, 1534–1540
- Michelangelo: Last Judgment (Sistine Chapel), 1536–1541
- Veronese: Feast in the House of Levi, 1573
- Caravaggio: Bacchus, 1595–1596
- Caravaggio: The Calling of St. Matthew, 1599–1600
- Artemisia Gentileschi: Susannah and the Elders, 1610
- Gianlorenzo Bernini: David, 1623
- El Greco: Burial of Count Orgaz, 1586
- Diego Velázquez: Las Meninas, 1656
- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo: The Immaculate Conception, c. 1660–1665
- Peter Paul Rubens: Henry IV Receiving the Portrait of Marie de’ Medici, 1621–1625
- Rembrandt van Rijn: The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (The Night Watch), 1642
- Johannes Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance, c. 1664
Key Concepts in Renaissance Art
- Humanism: Any attitude that gives priority to human endeavor rather than those of gods, spirits, animals, or any other non-living thing.
- Classicism: (Definition missing in original text)
- Allegory: In a work of art, an image that symbolizes an idea, concept, or principle, often moral or religious.
- Iconoclasm: The smashing of religious images.
- One-Point Perspective: A method of representing the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface by delineating a horizon line and orthogonal lines. These recede to at one point (multiple point perspective) on the horizon line (called vanishing points), giving the appearance of spatial depth. Also called mathematical or science perspective or linear perspective.
- Fresco: A painting technique in which water-based pigments are applied to a surface of wet plaster (called buon fresco). The color is absorbed by the plaster, becoming a permanent part of the wall. Fresco secco is created by painting on dried plaster, and the color may flake off. Murals of both methods are called frescoes.
- Idealization: A process in art in which artists strive for their objects and figures to attain perfection, based on pervading cultural values and/or their own ideals.
- Tenebrism: The use of strong chiaroscuro (strong darks and artificially illuminated areas) to create a dramatic contrast of light and dark in a painting.
- Vanitas: An image, particularly popular in Europe in the 17th century, in which objects depicted in a work symbolize the transience of life. Vanitas paintings are usually still lifes or genre subjects. Also called memento mori.
- Altarpiece: An artwork that is placed above and either on or behind an altar of a Christian church or any other religious platform. Usually, it is a votive painting, a set of painted and/or carved panels (diptych or polyptych).
- Diptych: Two panels of equal size (usually decorated with paintings or reliefs) hinged together.
- Stylization: Figures or objects in a work of art that are not represented naturally but are designed to conform to a particular pattern or artistic approach. This includes the Egyptian canon of proportion, cubist fragmentations of figures into interpenetrating planes, and so on.