Renaissance Art

One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited
with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the
subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique. The development of perspective was part
of a wider trend towards realism in the arts. To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of
Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method, was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature, and to unravel the
axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated by other artists.
Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others.

Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed, the work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck having particular
influence on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in
representation. (For more, see Renaissance in the Netherlands). Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of
everyday life.

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are examples of Renaissance art.

In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-
century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, formulated the Renaissance style which emulated and improved on classical forms.
Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral. The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be the
church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in Mantua. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica,
combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.

Monalisa by Leonardo da Vinci is a master piece of Renaissance and world art.

The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or
architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and
entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Filippo
Brunelleschi.

Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section
of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not
have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular.

Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written from about the year 1400 to 1600. This section of time is called the Renaissance, a word which means
“rebirth”. The Renaissance comes between the Middle Ages and the Baroque times.

Putting music into time sections does not mean that there were quick changes of type. Music changed slowly. Early Renaissance music was similar to
Medieval music. Slowly music-writers started to try new ideas. A lot of medieval church music had become very hard with lots of rules about rhythms and
clashes of notes to make dissonances. A lot of Renaissance composers wrote music which was smoother and more gentle. The music was still polyphonic
with each voice having a share of melody. Music was starting to become less modal and more tonal. By the time the Baroque period started composers
were using a system of major and minor keys like we do today.

Vocal music

In church music composers wrote not much of masses and motets. The 16th century also saw the birth of the madrigal: secular (not religious) songs which
were often about love. The madrigal started in Italy and became very popular for a short while in England from the 1280s. There were lots of other secular
songs such as the chanson, canzonetta and villanelle. Songs were often accompanied by a flute. Music was an essential part of civic, religious, and courtly
life in the Renaissance. The rich interchange of ideas in Europe, as well as political, economic, and religious events in the period 1400–1600 led to major
changes in styles of composing, methods of disseminating music, new musical genres, and the development of musical instruments. The most important
music of the early Renaissance was composed for use by the church—polyphonic (made up of several simultaneous melodies) masses and motets in Latin
for important churches and court chapels. By the end of the sixteenth century, however, patronage was split among many areas: the Catholic Church,
Protestant churches and courts, wealthy amateurs, and music printing—all were sources of income for composers.

Music notation

An important development during the Renaissance was music notation. Many musicians wrote books about music theory. They are useful for us because
they tell us how music sounded in those days and what people thought about it. Music started to be written on a music stave with five lines. There were still
no barlines in early Renaissance music. Notes were written with white note heads, e.g. the minim (half note) was at one time the shortest note that could be
written (the “minimum” length). Only later did crochets (quarter notes) and quavers (eighth notes) come in. This does not mean that music was slow in
those days, it was just the way it was written.
Key signatures had not yet been invented. Sharps and flats were sometimes shown by accidentals (written in front of the notes). Very often, however, the
performers were expected to know or even decide for themselves the sharps and flats (see musica ficta).

Music printing

Another very important discovery at this time was music printing. Music printing started in Italy in the mid 16th century. It soon spread to other countries.
It now became possible for a lot of people to buy music and sing and play it for themselves.

Composers of the Renaissance

In the early 15th century there was a group of composers known now as the Burgundian School (from Burgundy). Guillaume Dufay was the most famous.
Their music sounded a little bit like medieval music.

Towards the end of the 15th century a style of polyphonic sacred music had been developed that can be heard in the masses of Johannes Ockeghem and
Jacob Obrecht. Ockeghem even composed one piece in which all the parts develop from one idea which was used as a canon.

In the 16th century composers started to write music with a clear beat and regular pulse. These included Josquin des Prez and others from the Franco-
Flemish School. The was a Roman school, to which the famous Italian Giovanni da Palestrina belonged. His way of writing polyphony has been a model
for that style for many centuries. Music students still have to study “Palestrina technique” (how to compose in Palestrina’s style). Although church music at
this time is mainly polyphonic it also has homophonic passages where the voices sing the same words together. This helps to make important words really
clear.

In Venice, from about 1534 until around 1600, a polychoral style developed. Choirs were separated, singing from different parts of the church, often from
galleries. This grand music sounded beautiful in big churches such as the Basilica San Marco di Venezia. These composers are often called the “Venetian
School”. Andrea Gabrieli and later his nephew Giovanni Gabrieli wrote this kind of music, and later Claudio Monteverdi who started in the Renaissance
and lived into the Baroque period.

The end of the Renaissance period

The change to the Baroque musical style happened around 1600. This was the time when opera was invented. This needed a new style of composing. The
composer Monteverdi wrote in the Renaissance style until about 1600, when he changed to the Baroque style.

Baroque Art
Baroque painting

A defining statement of what Baroque signifies in painting is provided by the series of paintings executed by Peter Paul Rubens for Marie de Medici at the
Luxembourg Palace in Paris (now at the Louvre),[ in which a Catholic painter satisfied a Catholic patron: Baroque-era conceptions of monarchy,
iconography, handling of paint, and compositions as well as the depiction of space and movement.

There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona; both approaching emotive dynamism with different styles.
Another frequently cited work of Baroque art is Bernini's Saint Theresa in Ecstasy for the Cornaro chapel in Saint Maria della Vittoria, which brings
together architecture, sculpture, and theatre into one grand conceit.

The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, which, through contrast, further defines Baroque.

The intensity and immediacy of baroque art and its individualism and detail—observed in such things as the convincing rendering of cloth and skin textures
—make it one of the most compelling periods of Western art.

A rather different art developed out of northern realist traditions in 17th century Dutch Golden Age painting, which had very little religious art, and little
history painting, instead playing a crucial part in developing secular genres such as still life, genre paintings of everyday scenes, and landscape painting.
While the Baroque nature of Rembrandt's art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting
shared a part in this trend, while also continuing to produce the traditional categories.

Baroque sculpture
In Baroque sculpture, groups of figures assumed new importance, and there was a dynamic movement and energy of human forms— they spiraled around
an empty central vortex, or reached outwards into the surrounding space. For the first time, Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles. The
characteristic Baroque sculpture added extra-sculptural elements, for example, concealed lighting, or water fountains. Aleijadinho in Brazil was also one of
the great names of baroque sculpture, and his master work is the set of statues of the Santuário de Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas. The soapstone
sculptures of old testament prophets around the terrace are considered amongst his finest work.

The architecture, sculpture and fountains of Bernini (1598–1680) give highly charged characteristics of Baroque style. Bernini was undoubtedly the most
important sculptor of the Baroque period. He approached Michelangelo in his omnicompetence: Bernini sculpted, worked as an architect, painted, wrote
plays, and staged spectacles. In the late 20th century Bernini was most valued for his sculpture, both for his virtuosity in carving marble and his ability to
create figures that combine the physical and the spiritual. He was also a fine sculptor of bust portraits in high demand among the powerful.

Bernini's Cornaro chapel: the complete work of art

A good example of Bernini's work that helps us understand the Baroque is his St. Theresa in Ecstasy (1645–52), created for the Cornaro Chapel of the
church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. Bernini designed the entire chapel, a subsidiary space along the side of the church, for the Cornaro family.

Saint Theresa, the focal point of the chapel, is a soft white marble statue surrounded by a polychromatic marble architectural framing. This structure works
to conceal a window which lights the statue from above. In shallow relief, sculpted figure-groups of the Cornaro family inhabit in opera boxes along the
two side walls of the chapel. The setting places the viewer as a spectator in front of the statue with the Cornaro family leaning out of their box seats and
craning forward to see the mystical ecstasy of the saint. St. Theresa is highly idealized and in an imaginary setting. St. Theresa of Avila, a popular saint of
the Catholic Reformation, wrote of her mystical experiences aimed at the nuns of her Carmelite Order; these writings had become popular reading among
lay people interested in pursuing spirituality. In her writings, she described the love of God as piercing her heart like a burning arrow. Bernini literalizes
this image by placing St. Theresa on a cloud while a Cupid figure holds a golden arrow (the arrow is made of metal) and smiles down at her. The angelic
figure is not preparing to plunge the arrow into her heart— rather, he has withdrawn it. St. Theresa's face reflects not the anticipation of ecstasy, but her
current fulfillment, which has been described as orgasmic.

This is widely considered the genius of Baroque although this mix of religious and erotic imagery was extremely offensive in the context of neoclassical
restraint. However, Bernini was a devout Catholic and was not attempting to satirize the experience of a chaste nun. Rather, he aimed to portray religious
experience as an intensely physical one. Theresa described her bodily reaction to spiritual enlightenment in a language of ecstasy used by many mystics,
and Bernini's depiction is earnest.

The Cornaro family promotes itself discreetly in this chapel; they are represented visually, but are placed on the sides of the chapel, witnessing the event
from balconies. As in an opera house, the Cornaro have a privileged position in respect to the viewer, in their private reserve, closer to the saint; the viewer,
however, has a better view from the front. They attach their name to the chapel, but St. Theresa is the focus. It is a private chapel in the sense that no one
could say mass on the altar beneath the statue (in 17th century and probably through the 19th) without permission from the family, but the only thing that
divides the viewer from the image is the altar rail. The spectacle functions both as a demonstration of mysticism and as a piece of family pride.

Baroque architecture

The Baroque style is noted as first being developed by Seljuk Turks, according to a number of academics like Hoag, John D (1975). Islamic architecture.
London: Faber. ISBN 0571148689. In Baroque architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing, colonnades, domes, light-and-shade (chiaroscuro),
'painterly' color effects, and the bold play of volume and void. In interiors, Baroque movement around and through a void informed monumental staircases
that had no parallel in previous architecture. The other Baroque innovation in worldly interiors was the state apartment, a processional sequence of
increasingly rich interiors that culminated in a presence chamber or throne room or a state bedroom. The sequence of monumental stairs followed by a state
apartment was copied in smaller scale everywhere in aristocratic dwellings of any pretensions.

Baroque architecture was taken up with enthusiasm in central Germany (see e.g. Ludwigsburg Palace and Zwinger Dresden), Austria and Russia (see e.g.
Peterhof). In England the culmination of Baroque architecture was embodied in work by Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas
Hawksmoor, from ca. 1660 to ca. 1725. Many examples of Baroque architecture and town planning are found in other European towns, and in Latin
America. Town planning of this period featured radiating avenues intersecting in squares, which took cues from Baroque garden plans.In Sicily, Baroque
developed new shapes and themes as in Noto, Ragusa and Acireale "Basilica di San Sebastiano"

Another example of baroque architecture is the Cathedral of Morelia Michoacan in Mexico. Built in the 17th century by Vincenzo Barrochio it is one of the
many baroque cathedrals in Mexico.

Baroque Architecture is "A style of architecture originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a
century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, dynamic opposition and interpenetration of spaces, and the
dramatic combined effects of architecture, sculpture, painting, and the decorative arts." p. 133 A Visual Dictionary of Architecture by Francis D.K. Ching

Baroque theatre

In theatre, the elaborate conceits, multiplicity of plot turns, and variety of situations characteristic of Mannerism (Shakespeare's tragedies, for instance)
were superseded by opera, which drew together all the arts into a unified whole.
Theatre evolved in the Baroque era and became a multimedia experience, starting with the actual architectural space. In fact, much of the technology used
in current Broadway or commercial plays was invented and developed during this era. The stage could change from a romantic garden to the interior of a
palace in a matter of seconds. The entire space became a framed selected area that only allows the users to see a specific action, hiding all the machinery
and technology - mostly ropes and pulleys.

This technology affected the content of the narrated or performed pieces, practicing at its best the Deus ex Machina solution. Gods were finally able to
come down - literally - from the heavens and rescue the hero in the most extreme and dangerous, even absurd situations.

The term Theatrum Mundi - the world is a stage - was also created. The social and political realm in the real world is manipulated in exactly the same way
the actor and the machines are presenting/limiting what is being presented on stage, hiding selectively all the machinery that makes the actions happen.

The films Vatel, Farinelli, and the staging of Monteverdi's Orpheus at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, give a good idea of the style of productions
of the Baroque period. The American musician William Christie and Les Arts Florissants have performed extensive research on all the French Baroque
Opera, performing pieces from Charpentier and Lully, among others that are extremely faithful to the original 17th century creations.

Baroque Music
The term Baroque is also used to designate the style of music composed during a period that overlaps with that of Baroque art, but usually encompasses a
slightly later period. J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel and Antonio Vivaldi are often considered its culminating figures.

It is a still-debated question as to what extent Baroque music shares aesthetic principles with the visual and literary arts of the Baroque period. A fairly
clear, shared element is a love of ornamentation, and it is perhaps significant that the role of ornament was greatly diminished in both music and
architecture as the Baroque gave way to the Classical period.

It should be noted that the application of the term "Baroque" to music is a relatively recent development. The first use of the word "Baroque" in music was
only in 1919, by Curt Sachs, and it was not until 1940 that it was first used in English (in an article published by Manfred Bukofzer). Even as late as 1960
there was still considerable dispute in academic circles over whether music as diverse as that by Jacopo Peri, François Couperin and J.S. Bach could be
meaningfully bundled together under a single stylistic term.

Many musical forms were born in that era, like the concerto and sinfonia. Forms such as the sonata, cantata and oratorio flourished. Also, opera was born
out of the experimentation of the Florentine Camerata, the creators of monody, who attempted to recreate the theatrical arts of the Ancient Greeks. Indeed,
it is exactly that development which is often used to denote the beginning of the musical Baroque, around 1600. An important technique used in baroque
music was the use of ground bass, a repeated bass line. Dido's Lament by Henry Purcell is a famous example of this technique.