Painting in the Renaissance

by Una D'Elia

  plaster was still wet. The artist then applied

  extremely painful position, painting a

  the paint. Once the day’s work was finished,

  stick-figure on a ceiling.

  any remaining unpainted plaster was cut

  away, leaving a clean edge at which to

  begin painting the next day.

  Paint

  Paint was made of rocks, plants, or even

  Difficulties of Fresco

  dirt ground up into a powder to make

  Artists had to climb up on wooden

  a pigment and then mixed with water.

  scaffolding to reach the high parts of walls

  This paint was applied to the plaster

  using brushes. Small brushes made

  and ceilings. They also had to endure plaster

  of ermine tail tips glued to a wooden

  and wet paint dripping down on them,

  handle were used for fine details. Very

  particularly when painting a ceiling.

  large brushes made of hog bristles

  Michelangelo hated painting the ceiling of

  glued to a handle were used to paint

  the Sistine Chapel, one of the most famous

  large patches of color or backgrounds

  frescoes from the Renaissance. He wrote a

  with few details.

  poem in which he complained that to paint

  17

  Altarpieces

  In the Renaissance, altarpieces were like

  watching over those in the painting. Painters

  stage sets for church ceremonies. People

  such as Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin

  prayed, looking up at altarpieces for

  made use of symbolism in this way. In the

  inspiration while music played, perfumed

  Mérode Altarpiece, Campin painted a kettle

  incense burned, and priests in heavily

  of water and a towel in order to symbolize

  embroidered silk robes raised gold

  the Virgin Mary’s purity.

  chalices filled with wine.

  Patrons and Saints

  Patrons paid for altarpieces in order to honor

  God and the saints, in particular their patron

  saints. Every Christian had a patron saint,

  who was usually the saint after whom the

  person was named. They believed a patron

  saint would help pass on a person’s prayers

  to God. A patron saint could also be a

  protector of a group of people, such as

  travelers, children, sailors, or carpenters, or

  be concerned with helping things, such as

  animals, or creating things, such as music.

  Patrons also paid for altarpieces as a way to

  display their piety and wealth publicly.

  Symbolism

  Some artists used symbolism in their

  This painting by Piero della Francesca was the

  altarpieces. This means that a simple object

  central panel of a larger altarpiece. It shows

  can have a deeper meaning or stand for

  the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ,

  something else related to the Christian

  protecting people by sheltering them under her

  theme of the piece. For example, a candle

  robe. The man whose face is covered by a black

  that has been blown out can symbolize

  hood is a member of a confraternity, a religious

  Jesus’s life that was cut short by being

  organization whose members hid their faces so

  crucified on the cross. In contrast, a candle

  that they would not seem too proud of their

  that is lit can symbolize the presence of Jesus

  acts of charity.

  18

  Making an Altarpiece

  surface, and was scratched with fine patterns

  Altarpieces were made on wooden panels

  to make the light reflect more brilliantly off

  in Italy in the 1300s and 1400s. Often a

  the surface. Sometimes, pieces of painted

  carpenter built the panel and frame. The

  glass or jewels were glued to the painting,

  painter covered the panel with a fine cloth

  adding to its rich effect.

  and with gesso, a plaster-like paste that

  makes a very smooth surface for painting.

  Tempera paint was applied last. It was

  made from pigments ground from rocks,

  The painter drew the scene on the gesso,

  dirt, charred wood, plants, and even beetles,

  usually using charcoal, and marked which

  which were the source for a common red

  areas were to be painted and which were to

  paint. The most expensive pigment, lapis

  be covered with gold leaf, or thin pieces of

  lazuli, was royal blue in color and was made

  real gold. The artist applied the gold leaf to

  from a rock found only in the mountains of

  the panel using a reddish sticky substance

  Afghanistan. The ground-up pigments were

  called bole. The red showed through the gold

  boiled and mixed with egg according to

  leaf, giving it a rich, warm color. The gold

  complex recipes. When the paint dried,

  was carefully polished to create a shiny

  it created a hard, shiny surface.

  Simone Martini painted the Annunciation , the moment when the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is pregnant with Jesus, on an altarpiece for Siena Cathedral. Gold leaf has been applied and then indented with punches to create complex and brilliant patterns in the gold.

  19

  Oil Paint

  In the early 1400s, painters in Flanders,

  Jan van Eyck

  which is modern-day Belgium, discovered

  The first person who perfected the use of

  a new medium for painting: oil paint. Oil

  glazes in oil paints to create brilliant colors

  paint is made from pigments mixed with

  was Jan van Eyck, who worked in Flanders

  oil rather than egg or water. The use of oil

  in the early 1400s. He began by making an

  paint spread to Italy around 1500 and

  underpainting, using a thin layer of oil paint

  then all over Europe.

  to create shadows on white gesso. After the

  underpainting dried, van Eyck diluted some

  Advantages of Oil

  new oil paint with a lot of linseed oil and

  Artists prefer to use oil paint because it

  used this to paint over the underpaint so

  remains wet for a long time, unlike tempera

  that it formed a glaze. The shadows of the

  which dries very quickly. With oil, artists

  underpaint remained visible through this

  could change their minds, wipe off one area

  glaze. Van Eyck painted many layers of glazes

  of their work, and repaint. Artists could also

  in different colors. Light travels through the

  create soft shadows by painting on an earlier

  glazes and is absorbed by the deep layers of

  wet layer and letting one color bleed into the

  shadow. In areas without shadows, the light

  other. In addition, they could apply oil paints

  reflects off the white gesso underneath so

  in thin, translucent layers, called glazes, so that the painting seems to glow.

  that people looking at a

  painting could see through

  one layer of color to another

  one underneath.

  Madonna and Child with
r />   Chancellor Rolin by Jan van

  Eyck painted in oil about

  1435. He was one of the first

  artists to make use of oil

  paint, which became popular

  because it allowed artists to

  paint in translucent glazes

  and so paint deeper darks

  and more brilliant lights.

  20

  Titian was working on this painting of the Virgin Mary mourning over the death of Christ for his own tomb. He died before finishing it, so the figure of Christ is still only roughly sketched out with a few quick strokes of paint. Had he finished the painting, Titian would have added more paint, not with careful fine strokes but rather with rough blobs, as he did at the end of his life.

  A Mysterious Atmosphere

  Leonardo da Vinci used oil paint, applied in

  Painting with Blobs

  glazes, to create soft-looking figures without

  In the middle of the 1500s, Titian, an

  sharp outlines. In paintings such as the Mona

  artist who lived and worked in Venice,

  Lisa, illustrated on the next page, Leonardo

  Italy, decided to create paintings with

  used oil glazes to blur the edges of the

  an unfinished, energetic look. He began

  figures in his paintings so that you cannot

  painting on rough canvas rather than

  tell where the skins ends and the hair

  on smooth wooden panels or finely

  begins, and so that the hills seem to rise out

  woven canvas. He applied oil paint

  quickly with a large brush and his

  of the mist. The transitions of tones across

  fingers. This left big, rough strokes on

  this and other paintings is so subtle and

  the canvas which, from close up, made

  gradual that they are hardly noticed. This

  the paintings look like blobs. From

  gives his paintings a strange and mysterious

  further away, the paintings looked more

  atmosphere, called sfumato, a word which

  alive than carefully finished paintings.

  means “smoky” in Italian.

  21

  Portraits

  Before the Renaissance, portraits were

  in a war. When a king wanted to marry, he

  very rare and were only painted of kings

  sent an artist to paint portraits of possible

  and other powerful people. Beginning

  brides to see if they were beautiful. Not all

  in the 1400s, Renaissance artists painted

  portraits were flattering. To shame escaped

  portraits not only of great rulers but

  criminals, the government of Florence, Italy,

  also of merchants, wealthy craftspeople,

  had artists paint, on the outside walls of

  bankers, and children from rich families.

  public buildings, humiliating life-size

  portraits of criminals dangling upside-down

  Powerful Portraits

  for all to see. The wife of the writer

  A portrait of a powerful ruler could inspire

  Baldassare Castiglione owned a portrait of

  respect or even fear in his people. Portraits

  her husband, which was painted by Raphael.

  could also help people remember someone

  When her husband was traveling, she spoke

  who had died or was away, perhaps fighting

  to the portrait, imagining it was real.

  Piero della Francesca painted the duke and duchess of Urbino in profile. The duke was only ever painted from this side as he had lost his right eye in a hunting accident.

  22

  Kinds of Portraits

  Portraits were painted on walls, wooden

  Sitting for Portraits

  panels, canvases, paper, and vellum with

  Rich and powerful people did not want

  fresco, tempera, and oil. The most expensive

  to pose for hours while artists painted

  ones were life-size portraits of the full body.

  their portraits. Nobles usually posed for

  Nobles also owned miniature portraits,

  a brief time while artists made drawings

  of their faces. Then, the nobles lent the

  which were sometimes no more than 1 inch

  artists fancy clothes and suits of armor.

  (2.5 cm) wide. These were worn on a chain

  An apprentice posed, wearing the

  or as a brooch, or kept hidden as a token of

  clothes or armor, so that the artist

  a secret love.

  could finish the painting when the

  noble was no longer there.

  Ideal and Real Portraits

  In Italy, portraits painted in the 1400s

  were usually profiles, seen from the side,

  seem dignified and noble. In Flanders,

  like the faces of Roman emperors on coins.

  people were painted in a three-quarter view,

  The subjects look distant, which makes them

  looking out at viewers, which makes them

  seem more real and friendly. To add to the

  realism, Flemish artists painted details such

  as wrinkles and the stubble on a man’s chin,

  even though this may have made the portrait

  less flattering.

  Leonardo da Vinci wanted to create a sense

  of movement in his portraits and to portray

  a person’s thoughts. His most famous work,

  the Mona Lisa, unlike other Italian portraits of the time, has her body facing to the side

  with her head turned to the viewer, as if she

  were smiling at someone walking into the

  room. The movement is just a slight twist of

  the body and a half smile, enough to make

  the portrait come alive, as if she could speak.

  The Mona Lisa is probably a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the wealthy Florentine

  merchant Francesco del Giocondo.

  23

  The Human Body

  Paintings made in the Middle Ages show

  Contrapposto

  the human body out of proportion and

  Renaissance artists tried to capture

  without the proper muscle and bone

  movement of the human body in their

  structure. In the Renaissance, artists

  paintings rather than paint people standing

  learned to paint the human body in a

  stiffly, the way artists did in the Middle Ages.

  newly realistic way by studying ancient

  One pose that Renaissance painters copied

  statues, nude models, and anatomy.

  from ancient statues is called contrapposto,

  which means “contrasting pose” in Italian.

  Nudes

  The contrapposto pose has one straight leg

  Unlike the Middle Ages, when people

  and one bent leg, which is more relaxed and

  thought the body was sinful and something

  makes figures look as if they are about to

  to hide, educated people in the Renaissance

  walk forward. Try standing with both legs

  believed that a beautiful body was a sign of

  stiff, and then with one leg bent, to see which

  inner goodness. Artists painted heroes, gods,

  feels more natural. The pose also involves

  and even saints in the nude. Michelangelo

  tilting the shoulders in one direction while

  painted nudes in the scenes from the Bible

  the hips tilt the other way. This creates a

  on the ceiling and end wall of the Sistine

  sense of movement and
tension in the figure.

  Chapel. Paintings of nudes were kept in

  the homes of wealthy patrons and even

  in churches. Sometimes, church officials

  objected to this display of nudity, particularly

  in religious art, so some nudes were covered

  with painted drapery.

  Jesus Christ is wearing only a loincloth so that

  he can be baptized with water from the Jordan

  River by John the Baptist. Piero della Francesca

  painted Jesus with a realistic contrapposto

  pose and a beautiful, almost glowing white

  body, to show that he is divine.

  24

  Botticelli created a painting

  of Primavera , which means

  “spring” in Italian, by

  painting a delightful garden

  inhabited by mythological

  gods and goddesses. The three

  Graces, who dance on the left,

  and Venus, in the center,

  are made ideally beautiful

  according to Renaissance

  standards, with long necks,

  small heads, rounded bellies,

  and broad hips.

  Idealizing the Body

  Even though artists painted the human

  Many women in paintings were portrayed

  body realistically in terms of its anatomy

  with these curves, making them look

  and position, they also exaggerated certain

  impossibly beautiful. Then, as now, real

  features to make people look more beautiful

  women tried to make themselves look like

  than they really were. In the 1400s, men in

  these ideal beauties. They covered their faces

  portraits, in mythological paintings, and in

  with white powder, dyed their hair blond,

  paintings of saints were all shown as being

  plucked hair from their foreheads, and

  tall, slim, and graceful, which was what

  wore high shoes.

  people considered beautiful for men at the

  time. In the 1500s, men were painted with

  Human Anatomy

  bulging, exaggerated muscles to make them

  Andreas Vesalius wrote a seven-volume

  look like superhuman heroes.

  book on human anatomy in 1543. It

  included detailed, carefully illustrated

  Female Beauty

  pictures done by well-trained artists to

  Sometimes saints and other important

  show the human skeleton and muscles.

  Vesalius was also an anatomy teacher,

  women were shown with huge muscles to

  who used illustrations in addition to