Masters of Renaissance Art

The original ninja turtles

  • Course Length: 4 weeks
  • Course Type: Short Course
  • Category:
    • Humanities
    • High School

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We all remember those classically handsome, irresistibly green TV heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The only thing more impressive than their insatiable appetite for pizza was their decidedly awesome names: Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael.

Obviously, it made tons of sense for the greatest caped crusaders known to reptile kind to be named after mega-famous Italian Renaissance artists who happened to be their own brand of art history hero. And why wouldn't they be? Those Renaissance Masters changed art more in 100 years than anyone had done before—or has since.

We decided to vent our fanboy love by introducing the world at large to the amazing accomplishments of these four masters of Renaissance art.

In this course, you will

  • get the scoop on the Renaissance (hey there, humanism!) and what was so special about this Florence place, anyway. 
  • explore the techniques mastered by our four artists, including sfumato, linear perspective, and contrapposto.
  • cover the lives and accomplishments of our greats, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
  • examine in depth the greatest works of art of the Renaissance, including the pietas, the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's basilica, and a whole host of Madonnas.
  • ponder the tension between classical humanism and religious themes in Renaissance art (you deep art history lover, you!).

Unit Breakdown

1 Masters of Renaissance Art - The Original Ninja Turtles: Renaissance Masters in a Half Shell

Your complete guide to Donatello, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael and why they're important.


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.04: What a Relief

We don't see a lot of bas-relief sculpture around today, a type of sculpture where figures and scenes are slightly raised ("sculpted") out of a flat background. It's not a frequent sight at Pier 1, or the quickie mart, or whatever. We see standing sculptures and paintings, but bas-relief hovers between 3D and 2D, and that confuses people. "Is it a frieze? Is it sculpture? I can't tell!"

ALT_TEXT
"How did he get up there? Hey, wait! Come back!"
(Source)

Whatever it is, Donatello was its Renaissance master like nobody's business. His title in the heavyweight bas-relief arena is undisputed and, today, we'll see why that is.

To get the scoop on Donnie's mad bas-relief skills, we'll amble down memory lane through an exhibit put on by The Henry Moore Institute in 2004 that showcased some of Donatello's works and other examples of bas-relief. Our guide, Serena Davies, fills us in on what exactly what it was that our purple turtle did differently, and—hint—the "Renaissance spirit" shows up again. We have a hunch that might be a recurring theme, but it's too early to tell.

We could just take Ms. Davies at her word on Donatello's chisel prowess, but frankly, we don't know her. She may write for a respected newspaper, and she seems charming, but we'll hedge our bets and do some of our own digging just to be sure. We'll snuggle up close with two of Donatello's most famous bas-reliefs, The Ascension and The Feast of Herod, to check out for ourselves just how magnificent they are, and by the time we're finished, even Ms. Davies will be impressed. If that is, in fact, her real name.


Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.04: Donatello's Bas-relief

In the land of bas-relief, Donatello was king. In fact, The Henry Moore Institute produced an entire exhibit about bas-relief in 2004, and Donatello was the star of their show.

Since the institute doesn't still have the show up (hello, it was 10 years ago), read Serena Davies's review from the Telegraph, "Donatello's Depth of Vision," and watch for her tip off about what two "crucial elements" Donatello contributed to the art form.


Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 1.04: Get some perspective.

According to the reading, Donatello's major contributions to bas-relief were realistic perspective, or the ability to create an illusion of physical depth when there isn't any, and naturalism, which is the ability to make things look similar to the way they are in reality. Or, you know, nature. Basically, naturalism is something's "real-looking-ness."

But what the heck is bas-relief in the first place? Watch this quick time lapse video on how it works to find out. Spoiler alert: this is a long, complicated process. It took ages, and thousands of teeny, tiny cuts, tweaks, and spackles, and Donnie never had the benefit of time lapse photography. What a trooper.

Davies's review mentions two reliefs of Donatello's that we're focusing on specifically: The Ascension and The Feast of Herod. Donatello's Ascension lives at the Victoria and Albert Museum, while The Feast of Herod is live on location on the Baptismal Font in the cathedral of Siena, Italy. While both are stellar examples of bas-relief, they are far from identical twins. They're more like fraternal twins, or maybe even half-siblings. They're different, is what we're saying.

  1. First, it's time to get up close and personal with The Ascension. Listen to the audio or read the transcript of The Victoria and Albert Museum's Description of the Ascension Relief by Donatello, and then answer these sweet little questions we thought of just for you.

    1. What's rilievo schiacciato?

    2. If there is "very low relief," is there a high relief? What would it look like? Get your Google on if need be.

    3. Does the depth, or varying depths, of a relief have anything to do with its perspective? If so, what's the connection? Does it get shallower or deeper the farther back the perspective goes?

  2. Now, we feast our eyes on…The Feast of Herod. (Sorry, we couldn't help it.) Listen to Kenny Mencher's discussion of the work starting at 7 minutes, 15 seconds, and answer a few more questions.

    1. Is this relief higher or lower than The Ascension?

    2. How does Donatello create realistic perspective in the work?

    3. Do you think this relief is more or less emotionally expressive than The Ascension?

  3. To cap off this knowledge adventure, briefly compare The Feast of Herod to The Ascension in about 250 words and, while you're at it, explain how they both demonstrate Donatello's mastery of perspective and naturalism.