2.3: Art and Artists

Medieval art (called "Gothic" after one of the barbarian tribes that had conquered the Roman Empire) had been unconcerned with realistic depictions of objects or people. Medieval paintings often presented things from several angles at once to the viewer and had no sense of three-dimensional perspective. Likewise, Gothic architecture tended to be bulky and overwhelming rather than refined and delicate. The great examples of Gothic architecture are undoubtedly the cathedrals built during the Middle Ages, often beautiful and inspiring but a far cry from the symmetrical, airy structures of ancient Greece and Rome.

Figure 4.3.1: An example of Gothic art. Lorenzo Monaco painted it during the Renaissance period, but the work was created before linear perspective had replaced the “two-dimensional” style of Gothic painting.

In contrast, Renaissance artists studied and copied ancient frescoes and statues in an attempt to learn how to realistically depict people and objects. Just as Petrarch "invented" the major themes of Renaissance thought by imitating and championing classical humanist thought, a Florentine artist, architect, and engineer named Filippo Brunelleschi "invented" Renaissance art through the imitation of the classical world.

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446)

Brunelleschi was an astonishing artistic and engineering genius. As a prominent client of the Medici, and with their political and financial support, he undertook the construction of what would be the largest free-standing domed structure in all of Europe. For generations, the cathedral of Florence had stood unfinished. Its main tower had been built too large and too tall for any architect to complete. No one knew how to build a freestanding stone dome on top of a tower over 350 feet high. By studying ancient Roman structures and employing his own incredible intellect, Brunelleschi built the dome in such a way that the internal structure held together during the construction process. He invented a giant, geared winch to raise huge blocks of sandstone hundreds of feet in the air and into place. The dome was completed in 1413.

While the dome is usually considered Brunelleschi's greatest achievement, he was also the inventor of linear perspective. He determined how to draw objects in two dimensions so that they looked realistically three-dimensional (i.e. having depth, as in looking off into the distance and seeing objects that are farther away "look smaller" than those nearby). Unlike other Renaissance innovations that had direct parallels in other cultures, like the study of ancient texts or a recognizably humanistic approach to philosophy, the linear perspective appears to be one truly unprecedented intellectual invention originating in Europe. It spread rapidly and completely revolutionized the visual arts, resulting in far more realistic drawings and paintings.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Da Vinci was famous as one of the greatest painters of his age. In addition, he was sought after for his skill in engineering, such as overseeing the construction of the naval defenses of Venice and swamp drainage projects in Rome at different points. Hired by a whole swath of the rich and powerful in Italy and France, he would become the official chief painter and engineer of the French king.

Figure 4.3.2: Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Note how the walls and ceiling tiles appear to slant downwards toward a point at the horizon behind Jesus (in the center). That imaginary point - the “vanishing point” - was one of the major artistic breakthroughs associated with linear perspective first discovered by Brunelleschi.

Leonardo's most important "scientific" work at the time had to do with human anatomy. The Catholic Church banned the dissection of corpses. Many Christians believed that the soul needed a site to return to during the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the world, so human bodies were not to be tampered with. Da Vinci received special dispensation from the church to perform human dissections on the bodies of executed criminals to look for the physical organ that contained the soul. His anatomical drawings inspired new generations of physicians to learn how the body functioned based on empirical observation.

Figure 4.3.3: One of Da Vinci’s anatomical sketches, in this case examining the musculature of the shoulder and neck.

Ironically, while Da Vinci was well known as a practical engineer, no one had a clue that he was an inventor in the technological sense: he never built physical models of his ideas, and he never published his concepts.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564)

Michelangelo was the most famous artist of the Renaissance, patronized by the city council of Florence (run by the Medici) and the pope alike. He created numerous works, most famously the statue of David and the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Figure 4.3.4: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling was painted between 1508 and 1512.