Medieval & Renaissance Architecture PDF

UAE U Basics of Western Medieval architecture The Renaissance: meaning and relevance Introduction to Art History Dr. Clarisse Roche – HIS 133  Introduction: Medieval Period:  The Medieval period begins wi...

UAE U Basics of Western Medieval architecture The Renaissance: meaning and relevance Introduction to Art History Dr. Clarisse Roche – HIS 133  Introduction: Medieval Period:  The Medieval period begins with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Germanic tribes formed independent kingdoms.  It was a time of violence, illiteracy and isolation. The majority of the population is poor and uneducated. There was little or no trade.  Warfare, raids and diseases triggered the decrease in population.  Christianity was the single unifying force. The medieval society was a blend of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian Traditions.  Around 1000, however, a first revival takes place: it was the birth of ROMANESQUE ART.  Around 1100, new dynamic changes take place, which lead to an economic, political and artistic revival: the GOTHIC ART.  A / Romanesque architecture 1000-1100  During the relatively peaceful period, towns and cities launched ambitious building projects on a scale Europe had not seen since the fall of Rome.  In the endeavour, they turn to Rome for inspiration. The Roman Empire left its stamp across all Europe: aqueducts and other Roman structures could be seen everywhere.  The inventor of the new style borrowed the Roman arch, barrel-vaulted and groin-vaulted ceilings, and the solid masonry walls made by the Romans.  THE NEW STYLE WITH VAULTED STONE ROOFS IS CALLED ROMANESQUE.  The Romanesque style was also inspired by religion. The 10th through 12th centuries were the great age of pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Aerial view of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, One of the grandest Romanesque cathedrals is the pilgrimage church of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, which honours the first bishop of Toulouse, Sernin, who was martyred on the spot. It is the largest Romanesque cathedral in Europe.  The cruciform, or cross-form, is the traditional shape of medieval cathedral.  Like most Romanesque churches, St. Sernin has a cruciform or cross-shaped structure.  The tower that rises from the centre or heart of the cross suggests Christ’s resurrection.  Small semicircular chapels at the east end of the cathedral serve as repository for relics. In that way, pilgrims could access the relics without disturbing the mass. THE NAVE OF SAINT- St. Sernin most impressive SERNIN: feature is its tunnel-like nave, a long barrel vault with the area that begins on the west (ceiling arches) ribs end of the cruciform church. (a)  The two-story-high nave is topped by a barrel- vaulted ceiling, whose (a) weight is transferred from the arches to the piers, which have to be very thick to hold it up. Because of the enormous weight of the stone ceiling, the cathedral walls had to be thick and, as a consequence, Romanesque cathedral had to have small windows.  B / Gothic architecture  French Abbot Suger is credited with being the inventor of Gothic architecture.  He wanted to make the Romanesque Abbey Church of St. Denis (France) bigger and brighter. To solve the problem, Suger invited many of the best architects in Europe to Paris.  Their mutual solutions were pointed arches, ribbed-groin vaults, and flying buttress. Flying buttresses  Flying buttresses or external support, like those shown in this illustration, help hold up the massive roof of the Abbey Church of St. Denis, the first Gothic cathedral.  Stained-glass windows, although not a Gothic invention, are almost synonymous with Gothic architecture. No other age produced windows of such rich colour and beauty.  The technology of manufacturing coloured glass is very old though. Egyptian artists excelled at fashioning colourful glass objects.  But Gothic artists used stained glass in new ways.  In earlier eras, the clergy introduced colour and religious iconography into church interiors mainly with mural paintings and mosaics, often with magnificent effect.  Stained-glass windows differ from mosaics and frescoes in one all-important respect: they do not conceal walls, they replace them and transmit rather than reflect light.  C / Renaissance architecture  Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome.  Renaissance is a French word which means “rebirth”  Against a background of political stability and growing prosperity, the development of new technologies–including the printing press, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration of new continents–was accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially art.  The style of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th century.  It reached its height in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.  In addition to its expression of classical Greco-Roman traditions, Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.  Characteristics of Renaissance Art  Realism: Realistic portrayal of artistic styles. Mastered perspective and anatomy as a means to achieve realism.  Classical: Classical forms and realistic technique.  Individualism: Portrays the person as they are in an effort to describe their maximum or true potential  Art as Philosophy: Symbols, structure, posture, color as a means to determine a realistic portrayal of people and places.  Birth of linear perspective  Renaissance artists invented linear perspective. The main feature of linear perspective is the vanishing point.  In one-point perspective (which means perspective with one vanishing point), the lines on each side of a painting gradually converge like railroad tracks. Birth of linear perspective  Linear perspective is an exact science.  An object location determines its size.  High Renaissance around 1500  In the Middle Ages, Western artists made things, they did not create them. Medieval artists thought that only god could create.  But around 1500, people in the West began to view painters, sculptors, and architects as creators, too.  Almost overnight, art makers evolved from artisans (craftsman) into artists, geniuses who created works of art that seemed to rival nature like Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, Raphael’s The school of Athens and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling.  Though very damaged, The last supper is still one of the greatest masterpieces in art history.  Firstly, the painting is a spectrum of human emotions, captured during a very dramatic moment: when Jesus tells his disciples that one of them is going to betray him. Leonardo shows each of their reactions.  Yet, despite the chaos, the painting is orderly and finely balanced (bilateral symmetry), like all great Renaissance art.  When Leonardo includes symbolism, he does it in a very naturalistic way. For instance, instead of painting a halo behind the head of Jesus, as in a medieval piece of art, Leonardo painted a sunset and overcast sky directly behind Jesus.