RENNAISANCE
Renaissance 1300-1600
The Renaissance stood for rebirth and rediscovery of the classical civilizations of Rome, Greece and Egypt. The Moors , who ruled Spain and influenced Europe from 700-1300, preserved, recorded and reissued the scientific, philosophical and artistic heritage of the classical MediterraneanIt was also the time when the sea routes from Europe to Asia, Africa and the Americas were opened and used to great financial gain for the rulers of Europe and its growing merchant middleclass. Many of the inventions accredited to Europeans at this time, were in fact brought home by seafarers and scholars, increased communication created fertile interaction between cultures. Europe, at this time, was a dynamic, and overpopulated, continent and became a central point of trade, distribution and the exchange of goods and ideas. The Camera Obscura was increasingly used by artists, particularly for portraits and landscapes. |
The name 'camera obscura' comes from the Latin words meaning 'darkened room'. The first record of the camera obscura principle goes back to Ancient Greece, when Aristotle noticed how light passing through a small hole into a darkened room produces an image on the wall opposite, during a partial eclipse of the sun.
Later on, in the 10th Century, the Arabian scholar Al Hassan used the camera obscura to demonstrate how light travels in straight lines. In the 13th Century, the camera obscura was used by astronomers to view the sun. A summer day in 1827, France, Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic image with a camera obscura. Photography actually enhanced paintings since it gave the viewer and drawing an accurate view and perspective of the picture. |
Leonardo Da Vinci. (artist, inventor, architect, scientist)
As you know from art history, this was a period of many great artists, but Leonardo DaVinci’s legacy in world art, architecture science and technology is unsurpassed and enduring. His life story is compelling. He was also responsible for the first known photograph, a self portrait.
As you know from art history, this was a period of many great artists, but Leonardo DaVinci’s legacy in world art, architecture science and technology is unsurpassed and enduring. His life story is compelling. He was also responsible for the first known photograph, a self portrait.
Leonardo daVinci was an Italian painter and a genius in many realms of science. He is best known for two paintings: the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper."
Born out of wedlock in Vinci, Italy (just outside Florence), Leonardo’s illegitimate standing kept him from receiving a good education and excluded him from the most lucrative occupations. However, such limitations never hindered (and perhaps even fueled) da Vinci’s desire for knowledge and great ambition. For six years, he learned a wide breadth of technical skills, including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing and sculpting. His ideas and body of work -- which includes Virgin of the Rocks,The Last Supper, Leda and the Swan and Mona Lisa -- have influenced countless artists and made da Vinci a leading light of the Italian Renaissance. Leonardo was and is best known as an artist, the creator of such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, and The Last Supper. Yet Leonardo was far more than a great artist: he had one of the best scientific minds of his time. He made painstaking observations and carried out research in fields ranging from architecture and civil engineering to astronomy to anatomy and zoology to geography, geology and paleontology. |
Da Vinci's most well-known painting, and arguably the most famous painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa," was a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507. It's been said that the Mona Lisa had jaundice, that she was a pregnant woman and that she wasn't actually a woman at all, but a man in drag. Based on accounts from an early biographer, however, the "Mona Lisa" is a picture of Lisa Gioconda, the real-life wife of a merchant, but that's far from certain. Today, the "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass, and is regarded as a priceless national treasure.
His observations and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, including designs for flying machines, plant studies, war machinery, anatomy and architecture. His ideas were mainly theoretical explanations, laid out in exacting detail, but they were rarely experimental. His drawings of a fetus in uterus, the heart and vascular system, sex organs, and other bone and muscular structures, are some of the first on human record. |
“The Mona Lisa” is by far the most popular piece in the art world, with speculation about its background. Also “the last supper” was also considered popular. This piece has been imitated and sold worldwide. His inventions gave insight to greater and better technology especially war machines.
The Turin Shroud
American artist Lillian Schwartz, a graphic consultant at the School of Visual Arts in New York who came to prominence in the 1980s when she matched the face of the Mona Lisa to a Leonardo self-portrait, used computer scans to show that the face on the Shroud has the same dimensions to that of da Vinci.
The Turin Shroud
American artist Lillian Schwartz, a graphic consultant at the School of Visual Arts in New York who came to prominence in the 1980s when she matched the face of the Mona Lisa to a Leonardo self-portrait, used computer scans to show that the face on the Shroud has the same dimensions to that of da Vinci.
Dürer was born in Nuremberg, Germany where he spends most of his life. As a young boy, he started to learn the goldsmith's craft in his father workshop, however he was more inclined towards painting. Between 1496 and 1498, he created the fifteen large woodcuts of the Apocalypse. Albrecht Dürer's biography is harder to trace between 1507-1520, as he did not leave any account regarding his private life between these years. However, the high number of works belonging to this period is indicating intense, hard work. It appears that between 1512 and 1516, Durer's activity as a painter ceased for some time and he devoted himself to making engravings and woodcuts. In 1514 Dürer experienced the great sorrow of losing his mother, who died May 17th, after a long and painful illness. On July 12th, 1520, Dürer set for Netherlands, accompanied by his wife and a maid.During the journey, he made sketches of people and cities, buildings and animals. The festivities and his work did not prevent the artist to keep a close eye on the religious turmoil caused by the Lutheran movement in Germany, and he expressed his support for the leader of the Reform. In the following summer the painter returned to Nuremberg.
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In 1525, he published an important scientific work, "The Teaching of Measurements with Rule and Compass." In 1526, Dürer created his last great painting work, the "Four Apostles," his gift for the City of Nuremberg Council. In 1527, he published his "Art of Fortification. “ Another large work, the four-volume "Human Proportions," was in preparation to be printed when the artist died suddenly on April 6th, 1528. He left a vast oeuvre: about 60 paintings, 250 woodcuts, 100 engravings, 6 etchings and more than 1,000 drawings and watercolours.
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse , Adam and Eve and The Holy Family with the Dragonfly are some of his greatest works.
Dürer exploited the new printing technology to broadcast cheap, mass produced prints throughout Europe. In doing so, Dürer combined self promotion and spiritual values, making him the first international |
The print revolution.
The invention of Movable Type printing has been wrongly accredited to Gutenberg of Germany. He was, however, the first European to use this invention and he created the first mechanized printing press, which caused both a technological and political revolution in Europe.
Copyright issues had to be addressed, literacy spread (though not common until the 20th century) new ideas went on a rampage within established structures, paper manufacturing, bookbinding and publishing became new and thriving commercial ventures. The woodblock printers tried to shut down the new businesses by violent protest, the Inquisition burnt books and imprisoned, thumb-screwed and water-boarded authors, printers and publishers alike, but to no avail, the WORD was ‘out’, and there was no getting it back in.
The invention of Movable Type printing has been wrongly accredited to Gutenberg of Germany. He was, however, the first European to use this invention and he created the first mechanized printing press, which caused both a technological and political revolution in Europe.
Copyright issues had to be addressed, literacy spread (though not common until the 20th century) new ideas went on a rampage within established structures, paper manufacturing, bookbinding and publishing became new and thriving commercial ventures. The woodblock printers tried to shut down the new businesses by violent protest, the Inquisition burnt books and imprisoned, thumb-screwed and water-boarded authors, printers and publishers alike, but to no avail, the WORD was ‘out’, and there was no getting it back in.
Woodblock printing Woodblock printing was invented by the Chinese. It was invented in China around 800 AD. Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and woodblock printing remained the most common East Asian method of printings books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century.
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Printing with movable type
The world's first known movable-type system for printing was created in China around 1040 A.D. by Bi Sheng during the Song Dynasty following that, the first metal movable-type system for printing was made in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty (around 1230). The diffusion of both movable-type systems was, however, limited: They were expensive, and required an enormous amount of labour involved in manipulating the thousands of ceramic tablets, or in the case of Korea, metal tablets required for scripts based on the Chinese writing system, which have thousands of characters. |
Typecasting. Typecasting was invented in Baltimore, America, 1884 by Ottmar Mergenthaler.
Type casting is a technique for casting the individual letters known as sorts used in hot metal typesetting by pouring molten metal into bronze moulds called matrices. |
The first European to be accredited with the invention of printing was Johannes Gutenberg.
The first book to be printed in China, when translated from Chinese, is the Diamond Sutra.
The first book printed in Europe from movable types was the Bible, printed by Gutenberg, at Strasburg, in 1455. This work is sometimes described as the Mazarine Bible, and occasionally as the “forty-two line” Bible. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book in the West. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status.
An incunabula is a book printed before 1501 or an artifact of an early period.
A uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greekscribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek, Latin, and Gothic.
The first book to be printed in China, when translated from Chinese, is the Diamond Sutra.
The first book printed in Europe from movable types was the Bible, printed by Gutenberg, at Strasburg, in 1455. This work is sometimes described as the Mazarine Bible, and occasionally as the “forty-two line” Bible. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book in the West. Widely praised for its high aesthetic and artistic qualities, the book has an iconic status.
An incunabula is a book printed before 1501 or an artifact of an early period.
A uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greekscribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek, Latin, and Gothic.
The effects of the movable type printing revolution of 500 years ago with the 20 year old www. revolution
It gave writing a steady feel and look and enhanced the reading experience. It increased literacy being available to the general public, brought down the cost of books and transformed learning. Books became very cheap and finished a lot faster, while the scribes and to prepare and hand write them. The world wide web provides free electronic books and if you want to pay online you it is much easier than just stocking up on books which over the years will turn into a room of books unless you are a book collector or so. with the printing press, printing became a lot faster but the world wide web dispatched that affordability to an extreme where you don’t have to wait. Seeing that people are more active and on the go, apps have become very popular.