Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452-1519) Leonardo Da Vinci is the most well known of The Old Masters of the Renaissance period in Europe. Born April 15th, 1452 an illegitimate son of a Florence, Itlay notary, Piero da Vinci, and a young woman named Caterina in a small town of Vinci, Leonardo had artistic talent at a young age, he was apprenticed to Andrea Verrocchio in 1469, a leading Renaissance master of that time. Leonardo stayed and studied at the progressive Florence workshop where he aquired a varitey of skills in the arts. He became a member of the painters' guild in 1472 and by 1478 he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. By 1482 Leonardo left Florence for Milan and worked for Duke Lodovico Sforza for the next 18 years. He was the court artist, and worked on many projects that saw him branch out into civil and military engineering, anatomy, mathematics, physics, and biology. In 1499, when Leonardo's patron along with the town of Florence fell under French rule during a time France was expanding its presence into Italy, Da Vinci left to seek work elsewhere. Over the course of the next several years traveling between Florence and central Italy Leonardo worked as a map maker and civil engineer for Cesare Borgia a prince of Spain who was granted the title duke by the French king Louis X11. Finally settled back in Florence around 1503 Leonardo completed several of his famous works during this period which included his most famous the Mona Lisa, and others while in residence. He also continued his studies of anatomy and biology, even going as far as dissecting human cadavers to study and take sketches of the different body parts and functions.

In 1506 he was invited by the French government to come to Milan and work there. Which he did, only returning one more time to visit Florence during the seven years he stayed in Milan. Always fascinated with the stuctural way in which things worked, he started to devote more time to making and keeping his notes than to his art, and sculpturing. In 1516 Leonardo left Italy and became architectural advisor to King Francis 1 of France. Leonardo died May 2, 1519 at age 67. Leonardo, in keeping his notes, did write them in script from right to left. You can hold them up to a mirror and read them. He kept meticulous notes on every field of study conducted by him including ovservations of birds in flight, other animals, and most certainly humans. The flow of water, study of plants, and the principal functioning of light. Also included in his notes or manuscripts was how to grind lenses, the construction of canals, but the most interesting are the sketches he made of things not dreamed of in his time. Sketches that look like the modern hang-gliders of the 20th century, and sketches of what we would recognize as our helicopters of today. Crude but yet with artistic flair and structural integrity along with the sheer inventivness of the drawings shows how creative Leonardo was.

---

http://www.allpaintings.org/v/Renaissance/Leonardo+da+Vinci/

Sleeping Venus (1508-1510)

Sleeping Venus (1508-1510)

Artist: Giorgione (1477 — 1510)
Title: Sleeping Venus
Deutsch: Schlummernde Venus
Year: between 1508 and 1510
Technique: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 108 × 175 cm (42.52 × 68.90 in)
Current location: Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

This painting was done by Giorgione in approx. 1509 c. It was unfinished at the time of his death and the sky was later finished by Titian. (Titian also painted a similar Venus, but it was not as agitated and unsettled as Giorgione's nude.) Obviously a painting with underlying erotic implications, this can be seen by the Venus' raised arm (the exposed arm pit a symbol of sexuality) and also the blatant placement of her left hand. The sheets are a silver colour (a cold colour rather than a more commonly used warm tone) and they are very rigid looking (in comparison to Titian's or Velzquez's Venus'). The landscape mimicks the curves of the nude and this in turn relates the human body back to natural, organic object.

Leda (1508)

Leonardo da Vinci - Leda

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

---

http://www.allpaintings.org/v/Renaissance/Leonardo+da+Vinci/Leonardo+da+Vinci+-+Leda+1508+15.jpg.html

---

Renaissance (1400-1600)

Mona Lisa (1503–1506)

Mona Lisa (1503–1506)

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)
Title: Mona Lisa
Italiano: La Gioconda (Monna Lisa)
Français : La Joconde
Year: 1503–1506
Technique: Oil on poplar
Dimensions: 77 cm × 53 cm
Current location: Louvre, Paris

---

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) is a sixteenth-century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel in Florence, Italy by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci during the Renaissance. The work is currently owned by the Government of France and is on display at the Louvre museum in Paris under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Arguably, it is the most famous and iconic painting in the world.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose facial expression is frequently described as enigmatic. Others believe that the slight smile is an indication that the subject is hiding a secret. The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work. In 1911, it was stolen and copied; the copies were sold as the genuine painting. It was recovered in 1913.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa.jpeg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa

---

1500s paintings | Leonardo da Vinci paintings | Paintings of the Louvre | 16th-century portraits | Portraits by Italian artists

The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)

The Birth of Venus

Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Title: The Birth of Venus
Bosanski: Rođenje Venere.
Česky: Zrození Venuše.
Dansk: Venus' fødsel.
Deutsch: Geburt der Venus.
Español: El nacimiento de Venus.
Eesti: Veenuse sünd.
Français : La Naissance de Vénus.
Italiano: La nascita di Venere.
日本語: ヴィーナスの誕生
한국어: 비너스의 탄생
Polski: Narodziny Wenus.
Slovenčina: Zrodenie Venuše.
Suomi: Venuksen syntymä.
Svenska: Venus födelse.
Türkçe: Venüs'ün Doğuşu
Русский: Рождение Венеры.
中文: 维纳斯的诞生
Year: 1486
Technique: Tempera on canvas
Dimensions: 172.5 × 278.5 cm (67.91 × 109.65 in)
Current location: Galleria degli Uffizi

---

The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

---

Origins

In the past many scholars thought that this large picture may have been, like the Primavera, painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici's Villa di Castello, around 1482, or even before. This was because Vasari, in his 1550 edition of the Lives of the Artists wrote: "...today, still at Castello, in the villa of the Duke Cosimo, there are two paintings, one the birth of Venus and those breezes and winds that bring her to land with the loves, and likewise another Venus, whom the Graces adorn with flowers, denoting the Springtime." But the Birth of Venus, unlike the Primavera, is not found in Medici inventories of the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries, which has led some recent scholars to rethink the patronage, and hence the meaning, of the painting. In the last 30 years most art historians have dated the painting, based on its stylistic qualities, to c. 1485-87.

---

Interpretation

The iconography of Birth of Venus is very similar to a description of the event (or rather, a description of a sculpture of the event) in a poem by Angelo Poliziano, the Stanze per la giostra. No single text provides the precise content of the painting, however, which has led scholars to propose many sources and interpretations. Art historians who specialize in the Italian Renaissance have found a Neoplatonic interpretation, which was most clearly articulated by Ernst Gombrich, to be the most enduring way to understand the painting.

For Plato - and so for the members of the Florentine Platonic Academy - Venus had two aspects: she was an earthly goddess who aroused humans to physical love or she was a heavenly goddess who inspired intellectual love in them. Plato further argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. So, looking at Venus, the most beautiful of goddesses, might at first raise a physical response in viewers which then lifted their minds towards the Creator. A Neoplatonic reading of Botticelli's Birth of Venus suggests that fifteenth-century viewers would have looked at the painting and felt their minds lifted to the realm of divine love.

More recently, questions have arisen about Neoplatonism as the dominant intellectual system of late fifteenth-century Florence, and scholars have indicated that there might be other ways to interpret Botticelli's mythological paintings. In particular, both Primavera and Birth of Venus have been seen as wedding paintings that suggest appropriate behaviors for brides and grooms.

---

Style

Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism; in comparison to his contemporary Domenico Ghirlandaio, Botticelli seldom gave weight and volume to his figures and rarely used a deep perspectival space. In the Birth of Venus, Venus' body is anatomically improbable, with elongated neck and torso. Her pose is impossible: although she stands in a classical contrapposto stance, her weight is shifted too far over the left leg for the pose to be held. Moreover, were she actually to stand on the edge of the shell (which cannot be identified as real), it would certainly tip over. The bodies and poses of the winds to the left are even harder to figure out. The background is summary, and the figures cast no shadows. It is clear that this is a fantasy image.

Venus is an Italian Renaissance ideal: blonde, pale-skinned, voluptuous. Botticelli has picked out highlights in her hair with gold leaf and has emphasized the femininity of her body (long neck, curviness). The brilliant light and soothing colors, the luxurious garden, the gorgeous draperies of the nymph, and the roses floating around the beautiful nude all suggest that the painting is meant to bring pleasure to the viewer.

---

Classical inspiration

The central figure of Venus in the painting is very similar to Praxiteles' sculpture of Aphrodite. The version of her birth, is where she arises from the sea foam, already a full woman.

In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva.

The pose of Botticelli's Venus is reminiscent of the Venus de' Medici, a marble sculpture from classical antiquity in the Medici collection which Botticelli had opportunity to study.

---

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_nascita_di_Venere_(Botticelli).jpg

---

1486 paintings | Botticelli paintings in the Uffizi | Venus Anadyomenes | Paintings depicting Greek myths | Paintings of Venus

Renaissance (1400-1600)

Renaissance

(1400-1600) Italy became a center of commerce between Europe and Eurasia, thus a Cultural Diffusion point between the Europeans and the Muslims. Also, Italy was home to many wealthy families, willing to finance education. The Medici family ruled Florence and advocated the arts and sciences. These aristocrats among others would pay people to learn and create for them, spreading knowledge into the lower classes. With this rebirth of intellect came the greater interest in Ancient Greek and Roman culture that inspired the revival of Classicism. The Italian Renaissance is divided into three major phases: Early, High, and Late Renaissance. The Early Renaissance was lead by sculptor Donatello, architect Filippo Brunelleschi, and painter Masaccio. They began the movement on the foundations that development and progress was integral to the evolution and survival of the arts. They found their inspiration form antiquity, creating realistic figures that portrayed personality and behavior. They focused on the laws of proportion for architecture, the human body, and space. The term Early Renaissance encompasses most 15th century art. The High Renaissance sought to create a generalized style of art that focused on drama, physical presence, and balance. The major artists of this period were Leonardo Da Vinci, Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. The period lasted only a short time from 1495 to 1520. The Late Renaissance was put into motion by the sack of Rome in 1527, forcing artists to relocate to other artistic centers in Italy, France, and Spain. During this time, anti-classical sentiments began to emerge, eventually developing into the Mannerist movement. Throughout the Renaissance period, artists first began to experiment with oil-based paints, mixing powdered pigments with linseed oil. The slow-drying nature of the medium allowed the painter to edit his work for several months. Perspective and attention to light became important to artists, as well as architectural accuracy in backgrounds. Popular subject matter included Biblical characters and subjects from Greek and Roman mythology. Renaissance art placed a large emphasis on the importance of the Madonna in art. Taking inspiration from classical Roman and Greek art, Renaissance artist were also interested in the human body, particularly the nude. They attempted to idealize the human form and were shown in physical perfection and purity with expression and unique personality. During this period, the gap dividing other creative thinkers such as poets, essayists, philosophers and scientists from artists began to decrease.

---

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)	The Birth of Venus by Botticelli

---

Renaissance (1400-1600)