RENAISSANCE ART

§ 1. Introduction
The Renaissance, an age of discovery, found painters deeply concerned with investigations
and experiments. New importance was given to the human figure, which now became one of
the essential motifs of all painting and the basis of Renaissance humanism. In its initial stages
Renaissance painting was stimulated by antique sculpture to an intensive study of the human
body — its structure and mechanism. The 15th century artists were fascinated by science,
mathematics, geometry and above all perspective. The breadth of knowledge of these artists
was astounding, ranging from the simplest craft processes to the highest intellectual
speculation.

The Early Renaissance

§ 2. Giotto (1266/76—1337)
The history of painting in Western Europe begins with the thirteenth-century pioneer,
Giotto. From the relatively stiff artistic background of his time Giotto developed a majestic,
sculptural style which set Italian art on its future path. Although his technical contribution to
painting is enormous, Giotto's great feeling for humanity makes his work a high point in the
movement toward the humanizing of art and life begun early in the century. In both respects he
is a key figure, his personality stamped on the whole course of Italian art. For more than two
hundred years after his death artists acknowledged their debt to this master of monumental
dignity and controlled emotional strength.
The young Giotto helped with the frescoes in the great church of St Francis in Assisi.
Here the young apprentice absorbed both the flat-patterned, emotional art of his own teacher
(Cimabue, a Florentine artist) and the rounded forms of the painters from Rome who had been
influenced by the ancient sculptures in the Eternal City. Giotto combined these qualities to
form a new and personal style.
In a "St Francis" done for the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Giotto repeated the
powerful sculpturesque impression and sense of dignity achieved by him earlier in his frescoes
painted at Padua. To these elements he added the quality of decorative symmetry. "The Death
of St Francis" reveals a carefully balanced composition which increases the effectiveness of the
presentation in a way that was to become increasingly characteristic of Italian art.
In a neat shallow box space the deathbed is flanked by two doorways, each with its group
of five mourners. Another five stand against the rear wall, while three figures kneel on either
side of the bed. The actuality and solidity of these figures is heightened by the draperies
covering them. This powerful impression of form is apparent even over the shoes of the
foreground characters whose faces are not seen, but whose reality cannot be doubted.

§ 3. Masaccio (1401—1428/29)
Giotto's method had been to outline the figure and, through the powerful contour, suggest
a third dimension. Line was a shorthand method of indicating form; it carried the eye of the
spectator in the directions desired by the painter. Masaccio achieved a considerable optical
illusion of depth in his landscapes, as well as in the painting of architectural constructions,
applying the laws of perspective. Masaccio's method is illustrated by the famous "The Tribute
Money". It differentiates between the light that falls on a rounded figure and the shadows it
casts — more or less what actually happens in nature. The light-and-dark, or chiaroscuro
technique was conceived almost at one stroke. During a period of perhaps three years, the artist
developed this new way of building up the mass of a form and of placing it in a given part of
three-dimensional space. The effect of his remarkable feat can be traced in the work of the great
masters of the High Renaissance.
Masaccio was also able to portray figures out of doors so convincingly that they appear
to blur as they move away from us. Linear perspective reproduces the effect of forms growing
smaller in the distance. With his new aerial perspective Masaccio pointed out that they also
grow dimmer and out of focus.

§ 4. Van Eyck (1370/85—1441)

Realism became a force that gave new life to art in the whole of Europe during the early
fifteenth century, and one of its leading figures was the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck.
Jan van Eyck discovered for himself that the illusion of reality could be heightened by a
systematic arrangement of light and shade which subdued the colour of the object and created
atmosphere.
The paintings of Jan van Eyck have an enamel-like surface giving an almost jewelled
effect; the particularly shiny and transparent quality is due to the use of the newly-developed
oil-and-egg emulsion. The rooms are filled with atmosphere that seems so real as to be almost
tangible. This atmospheric effect is a constant feature of Flemish painting. Along with the
luminous detail and highly polished finish of the various objects, it turns up once more in the
Dutch painters of the seventeenth century like Vermeer.
Van Eyck's great masterpieces are the paintings for the altar at Ghent: "The Betrothal of
the Arnolfini" and "The Rollin Madonna" (or "The Virgin with Chancellor Rollin"). He reached
his greatest triumph in the painting of portraits which stressed the unique human features of
each individual.

§ 5. Botticelli (1445—1510)
Botticelli is one of the great poetic painters — sensitive, withdrawn from the world,
interested in the expression of a delicate and exquisite feeling unmatched in his or almost any
time. In strong contrast to the sculpturesque scientific method of the Giotto-Masaccio tradition,
Botticelli's work is a gentle, lyrical, poetic style worked out with flat picture surfaces and
decorative flowing linear effects. Emotionally it is never brutal or overpowering, but diffident,
reserved, subtly suffering.
"The Birth of Venus" is the poet-painter's evocation of the goddess of love out of the sea.
In a remote and self-absorbed way, she stands on a cockleshell, blown shoreward by breezes
represented on the left. The semicircular composition is completed by the woman on the right
who eagerly waits to receive the nude goddess. In spite of this arrangement the picture is not
balanced in the monumental Masaccio manner; it is rather a series of twisting, turning lines and
forms. The painter is not interested in stressing the three-dimensional or sculptural quality, but
rather in evoking emotional effects through the restlessness of outline and mood.
The movement begins with the intertwined forms of the breezes as they fly toward the
right, their draperies blowing wildly and wings tensely arched. It continues with the
deliberately off-centered Venus and her curling, snake-like hair. Finally it ends in the forward-
moving, draped woman and the sinuously curved, almost metallic covering she holds ready for
the goddess. The eye of the spectator follows the restless curving lines and constantly changing
movement from one side to the other and from top to bottom. Although Venus is the central
figure, the artist has placed her far enough to the right to lead us in that direction. Nor is she the
dramatic centre of the work, for the energetic breezes and the eager young woman at the right
are just as significant.
 A special place in the treasury of world graphic art belongs to Botticelli's superb series of
pen drawings for Dante's "Divine Comedy" which date from about 1485—1490. His other
drawings rank just as high.
Botticelli's exquisite, poetic drawing of "Abundance" has long been looked upon as
perhaps the most beautiful Florentine drawing in the world. It is not a study for a painting, but
a drawing done for its own sake and highly finished. It is a fine pen drawing with brown wash
on a light reddish ground heightened with white. The horn of plenty and the children on the left
are done in black chalk. While as a rule we speak of Botticelli as a linearist, it is clear that in
this masterpiece there is added a tonal effect which is the result of a skilful combination in the
use of brush and pen.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND PROPER NAMES

Giotto ['dʒ(i)otəu] Джотто Jan Vermeer [vз:'miə] van Delft Ян
St Francis [sn(t)'fra:nsis] Cв. Франциск Вермеер Делфтский
Cimabue [,t∫ima:'bu(:)i] Чимабуэ Ghent [gent] Гент (a city in East Flanders,
Santa Croce [,sæntə 'krəut∫i] Caнта Kроче Belgium)
(a church in Florence, Italy) "The Betrothal of the Arnolfini"
Florence ['flbrəns] Флоренция “Портрет Жана Арнольфини и его жены”
Padua ['pædjua] Падуя "The Rollin Madonna" ("The Virgin with
Masaccio [mə’za:t∫(i)əu] Мазаччо Chancellor Rollin") “Мадонна канцлера
(настоящее его имя Томазо ди Джованни) Роллена”
"The Tribute Money" “Чудо с динарием” Sandro Botticelli ['sa:ndrəu ,boti't∫eli]
Flanders ['fla:ndəz] Фландрия Сандро Боттичелли
Jan Van Eyck ['iən væn 'aik] Ян ван Эйк "Abundance" “Poг изобилия”

VOCABULARY NOTES
§ 1. renaissance п возрождение: thе украшение рукописи рисунками, цветис-
Renaissanсе эпоха Ренессанса, тыми прописными буквами).
Возрождения; the Еаrly ~ Ранний Easel painting includes such genres: роrtrait
Ренессанс, Раннее Возрождение; the Нigh ~ (portraiture) портретная живопись;
(Late) ~ Высокий (Поздний) Ренессанс, landscape ~ пейзажная живопись; sea-
Высокое Возрождение аttr. use: ~ art, scape (marine) ~ маринистская живопись;
literature, painting, pаinters, architecture, genre ~ жанровая живопись; still-life ~
еtс. натюрмортная живопись; animal ~
paint vt, vi писать (красками), заниматься анималистская живопись; historical ~
живописью: to ~ а picture писать картину; историческая живопись; poster ~
to ~ from nature писать с натуры; to ~ in плакатная живопись; the ~ of battle pieces
oil(s) писать маслом; to ~ in water-соlours (scenes) батальная живопись. But: battle-
писать акварелью; раint п краска: а box of scenes (pieces) — батальные сцены,
~s (а ~ box) этюдник; everyday scenes — жанровые сценки;
painting п 1) живопись urban ~ урбанистская живопись, еtс.
Note: Тhе art of painting covers а variety of 2) картина: an oil ~ (an oil) картина,
activities usually distinguished by their написанная маслом; a water-colour ~ (а
techniques, the main ones being fresco water-colour) картина, написанная ак-
painting (фресковая живопись), еаsel варелью; а landscape ~ (а landscape)
painting (станковая живопись) and пейзаж; а still-life ~ (а still-life)
illumination (иллюминирование, натюрморт; painter п художник, живопи-
сец: а portrait ~ портретист; а landscape ~
пейзажист; an animal ~ анималист; а ~ solidity of figures весомость фигур; solid
battle-pieces (scenes) баталист; а sea-scape a весомый, массивный
~ маринист; а genre- ~ жанрист; а poster- foreground п передний план. Апt.
~ плакатист, еtc. background; in the ~ на переднем плане;
perspective п перспектива; linear ~ аttrib.use: ~ figures, objects, characters, etc.
линейная перспектива (This term is § 3. suggest vt подсказывать, намекать,
applied to the representation of space in a наводить на мысль, е.g. The blue in the
painting or drawing by the application of the background suggests distance, be barely ~ed
principles of perspective. These are based on едва намечаться, е.g. The background
the commonly accepted phenomena that figures are barely suggested.
objects tend to appear smaller as they chiaroscuro [ki,a:rəs’kuərəu] (ит.) п
recede, and that receding lines tend to светотень (treatment of light and shade in
converge to one or two vanishing points.) painting). Sуп. The play of light and shade
aerial ~ воздушная перспектива (Here Note: Better than any technical trick,
receding distances are evoked by gradations chiaroscuro brings out a picture’s basic
in tone and colour) atmosphere, accentuating only the essential
§ 2. sculptural а скульптурный: ~ style 1) details. It also makes possible a comprise
манера лепки; 2) скульптурная манера в between a subject’s linear and coloured
живописи (а manner of painting representation.
characteristic of sculpture; painting in which at one stroke мгновенно
forms seem to possess the weight and build up (the mass of a) form создавать
solidity of sculpture); ~ quality скуль- форму
птурность (в живописи); sculpturesque а three-dimensional [d(а)i'men∫ənl] а
похожий на скульптуру, рельефный: а ~ трехмерный, пространственный,
impression производящий впечатление объемный
скульптуры; ~ modeling лепка, как в blur vi становиться менее ясным,
скульптуре; а ~ fresco рельефная (т.е. затуманиваться
производящая впечатление out of focus не в фокусе
рельефа) фреска § 4. subdue vt зд. ослаблять, уменьшать,
(well)-rounded forms объемные формы смягчать: tо ~ the light, colour of smth.; ~d
composition п композиция colours мягкие, приглушенные краски
Note: The aim of composition is to organize surface (or surface texture) п фактура,
or arrange in a certain way groups of figures структура, текстура поверхности
and decorative elements, and to distribute (картины)
surfaces so that a balance is established Note: Surface texture varies greatly and
between empty and full spaces in a canvas. stems from a combination of factors. A
Often the naked eye can detect a linear surface may be smooth or, on the contrary,
geometrical outline on which the elements rough. The depth of the painted layer may
of a picture have been placed. One of the range all the way from transparency to
simplest of all geometrical figures, the complete opacity. Smooth finishes, in which
triangle, forms the basis of the pyramid on marks are barely visible, are typical of the
which so many Italian Renaissance early painters. This may be easily seen from
compositions are based. the works of Jan van Eyck.
carefully (well-) balanced ~ хорошо § 5. evoke vt вызывать, пробуждать: to ~
уравновешенная композиция; closely emotions, feelings memories; to ~ а parallel
(tightly-) knit компактная композиция (заставить вспомнить); evocation п вызы-
actuality of figures реальность фигур; вание к жизни, воскрешение в памяти.
intertwine vt, vi сплетать(ся), пе- “draughtsmanship”, е.g. Rubens was both a
реплетаться): ~ ed forms good colourist and an excellent draftsman.
off-centre figures смещенные вправо или study п этюд, подготовительный рисунок:
влево от центра фигуры а ~ for a painting, e.g. Ivanov made a great
curve п кривая (линия), изгиб; curve vt, vi number of studies of heads for his picture
изгибать(ся), гнуть (ся); curved а “Christ Appears before the People”
изогнутый, искривленный; curving а finish п 1) окончательная обработка
изгибающийся, извивающийся поверхности; фактура поверхности: rough
draw vt, vi чертить, рисовать: to ~ a line, a ~ неровная (рельефная) поверхность кар-
picture; to ~ in pencil, in pen and ink, in тины; smooth ~ гладкая поверхность; 2)
crayon, in chalk, in charcoal, in pastel, in тщательное выписывание до мельчайших
sanguine (crayon) рисовать карандашом, подробностей: highly polished ~; 3)
тушью, цветным восковым карандашом завершенность
(или цветными мелками), мелом, углем, wash п тонкий слой (краски), жидкая
пастелью, сангиной; to ~ from nature; to ~ (разбавленная) краска, особ. акварель,
from life рисовать с натуры; to be ~ n размывка: brown ~; thin ~; etc., e.g. It is a
sharply быть резко очерченным; drawing pen drawing tinted with brown-reddish
п 1) рисование (the art of drawing, еtc.); 2) wash.
рисунок: а pencil ~ карандашный black chalk черный мел (мелок); red
рисунок; а pen and ink ~ рисунок тушью; chalk сангина, «красный мел»
а charcoal ~ рисунок углем; а pastel ~ linearist п мастер линии
рисунок пастелью a tonal effect тональность. Sуп. tonality
Note: The English for "Он — прекрасный brush п 1) кисть: ~ stroke мазок; 2) перен.
мастер рисунка (рисовальщик)" is "Не is искусство художника; brush-work,
an excellent draftsman (draughtsman)" and brushing п манера художника
the English for "мастерство рисунка" is (накладывать краски)
 WORK ON THE TEXTS
I. Translate the italicized words and phrases from the texts. Give a back translation
without consulting the texts.
II. Translate in written form the last paragraph in the text on Masaccio (§ 3) and the
paragraph beginning with “The Birth of Venice…”, ending with “…the restlessness of the
outline and mood (§ 5).
III. Find the English equivalents for:
§ 1 — одна из основных тем; античная скульптура; интенсивное изучение человеческого
тела; начиная от простых ремесел и кончая высшими проявлениями интеллектуальных
теоретизирований;
§ 2 — его творчество становится вершиной этого движения благодаря его человечности;
в начале века;
§ 3 — внимание зрителя направлялось благодаря ей (линии) в нужном направлении; в
пейзажах, а также в изображении архитектурных построек; можно проследить в
творчестве великих мастеров Высокого Возрождения;
§ 4 — приглушал цвет предмета и создавал иллюзию воздушной среды; прозрачность;
эффект воздушности; его величайшие шедевры;
§ 5 — объемная; (строго) научная манера (живописи); изящный, поэтичный рисунок; рог
изобилия и дети слева нарисованы черным мелом
IV. Explain the following
“from the relatively stiff artistic background of his time” (§2); "Line was a shorthand method of
indicating form" (§ 3)
V. Answer the following questions:
1. What was the subject matter of Renaissance painting? 2. What were Renaissance artists most
fascinated by? 3. What contribution did Giotto make to art? How does his personality relate to
the epoch he lived in? 4. What new elements does Giotto introduce in art and how are they
revealed in the "Death of St Francis"? 5. What qualities characterise Masaccio's new aerial
perspective? 6. What can you say about the surface quality of Van Eyck's paintings? How is it
brought about? 7. What are the characteristic features of Botticelli's style? 8. How does Bot-
ticelli personally relate to his style? 9. How does the composition of The Birth of Venus" differ
from the arrangement of Masaccio's pictures? 10. What is the emotional effect of Botticelli's
composition? 11. Where has the artist placed Venus in the picture and why? 12. How is the
drawing "Abundance" executed?
VI. Retell the texts in great detail.
VII. Give a summary of the texts on the Early Renaissance.
VIII. Watch the video presentation of pictures by Botticelli on youtube.