Michelangelo and the Great Masters of the Renaissance

Explore the great Renaissance masters through studio apprenticeships, learning core art and design principles including perspective, proportion, depth, atmospheric perspective, color theory, light, and drawing from nature.

Explore the medieval roots of renaissance art, with romanesque architecture, the Black Death, and wealth-driven church art, highlighting the Madonna enthroned with the child as a transitional work.

Explain the renaissance as a transition from the middle ages to modernity, highlight humanism and Medici patronage, and introduce sacred geometry via the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence.

Giotto, founder of the Renaissance in western art, translates biblical narratives into pictorial scenes through drawing from nature, using evolving proportionality and perspective in the Arena Chapel frescoes of Padua.

Explore the north doors of the Florence baptistery, a 28-relief quattrofoil program, and trace the rediscovery of perspective, from Bruno Lenski's experiment to Donatello's renaissance painting.

Explore the shift from early to full Renaissance through Florence gates of Paradise, highlighting accurate observation of the human figure and architecture and the rise of one-point perspective and foreshortening.

Discover Masaccio's pioneering use of scientific perspective in the Brancacci Chapel frescoes, including the Tribute Money and the Holy Trinity, with vanishing point at Christ's face and atmospheric perspective.

Explore Andrea Mantegna’s mastery of early perspective, using a low horizon and two perspectives to convey depth, with Italian towns as Jerusalem analogues and real landscapes.

Explore Botticelli’s birth of Venus, Primavera, and the Annunciation, noting wispy figures, decorative water, and the use of three-quarter poses with rhythmic composition influenced by Mantegna.

Explore Leonardo da Vinci’s mastery of one-point perspective, color perspective, and depth depiction, highlighting the Last Supper, Madonna and child variants, and the Mona Lisa.

Explore Leonardo's extensive notebooks and sketchbooks, detailing daily studies in anatomy, engineering, and science, and his pursuit of painting, invention, and flight from parachutes to helicopters.

Explore Leonardo da Vinci's ideal city for Milan through site analysis, one-point perspective, and water management, presenting a two-level plan with circulation below and habitation above.

Raphael's rise from his father's workshop to major works like the School of Athens and Madonna paintings, highlighting his one-point perspective and Renaissance influence.

Explore Michelangelo's mastery of subtraction sculpture at the academy in Florence, revealing anatomically detailed figures carved from Carrara marble, and his study of anatomy through the four form-making processes.

Explore Michelangelo's mastery of figurative drawing, anatomy, and fresco painting as seen in his Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Creation of Adam, key works of High Renaissance art.

Examine Titian’s evolving style, from precise outlines to looser, more natural brushwork and dramatic light that foreshadows Baroque. Compare works like the Gypsy Madonna, Venus of Rubino, and late portraits.

Explore the course catalog for Michelangelo and the great masters of the Renaissance. Gain a concise overview that aligns with the course title and lecture catalog.