Floor 1 Renaissance

The Renaissance like most technical terms in art, has an ambiguous definition; at least there is no full agreement as to when it began in painting, and no agreement as to when it ended. Certainly everyone agrees in general that the Renaissance began in Florence. The date is more questionable. The beginning of the Fifteenth century, 1401, is the commonly accepted date for the beginning of the period, however if one includes Giotto, a Florentine artist from a century before (born about 1267; died 1336 or 7) then the date should be seventy-five years earlier. See the Mezzanine for the art of Middle Ages including Giotto.

How one defines the end of the Renaissance is of more debate; 1520 is used as the end marker, at least in this museum, a time when distinct changes in artistic style set in, but no single alternative style emerged. That puts the length of the Italian Renaissance as 120 years; some scholars believe 300 years a more appropriate interval.

The main thrust of the Renaissance was a shift of interest away from institutions and religion to man. It represents the birth of the humanist tradition. Thus in some sense the Renaissance is still not over.

Characteristic of the Renaissance was a change in attitude toward the artist as a person. In the middle ages the artist was just a craftsman; in the Renaissance he became an important person, a creative element; he began to be respected like scholars and authors. He was suddenly acceptable as company for the high class social crowd. This meant signing and taking responsibility for his work. This also gave rise to an artistic hubris, where the artist thinks he knows better what should go into a painting than the patron who is paying. In music this change in artistic attitude did not happen fully until Beethoven, around 1800 (a good 400 years later).

To get a feeling for European Art from the Renaissance and afterward here are a series of thumbnail pictures from the museum.

Click on a thumbnail to visit the museum gallery with pictures from that period. See if you can find the picture you clicked on.

1400 Dufay Josquin-des-Pres	Early Italian Renaissance   Ghirlandaio   Mantegna	Late Gothic (Northern Europe)   Van der Weyden   Van der Goes
1490 Tallis Palestrina	High Italian Renaissance   Michelangelo   Raphael	Northern European Renaissance   Dürer   Cranach
1520 Byrd Gabrieli	Mannerism   Arcimbaldo   Parmigiano
1600 Montiverdi Lully Purcell	Baroque Spanish/Italian Tradition    Velazquez        Sacchi  Low Lands Tradition Rembrandt  French Tradition Poussin
1700 Vivaldi Telemann Bach Handel	Rococo   Bouchet   Fragonnard   Guardi

Visit the museum 1st floor where all the Renaissance art is located.