Exercise 1

Among other Greco-Roman genres of art, Italian Renaissance artists revived portraiture.  Examine the following portraits by Italian painters: Portrait of a Man and Woman by Fra Filippo Lippi (c. 1440); Matteo Oliveri by an anonymous painter (1440/1450);  Giuliano de'Medici by Sandro Botticelli (c. 1478);  Portrait of a Young Man by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1480); and Portrait of a Young Man by Agnolo Bronzino (1530).  How did Italian Renaissance portraiture evolve? What broad stylistic changes over time can you detect in these examples? To what extent did these artists try to represent the unique individuality of the subject? Some of these artists you know: what elements of their signature styles can you see in these portraits?

Exercise 2

Renaissance artists often took up historical subjects, such as battles.  For example, around 1435 Paolo Uccello painted the Battle of San Romano to commemorate an important Florentine victory.  Later Leonardo da Vinci prepared drawings toward a large work celebrating another Florentine victory at the Battle of Anghiari.  And in 1548, Titian painted a triumphant Charles V at the battle of Mühlberg.  Examine each of these works: what Renaissance artistic principles do you see in them? What aspects of Titian's style do you detect in his portrait of Charles V? The drawing of the Battle of Anghiari is actually by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (see Chapter 16) after a sketch by da Vinci that is lost: what elements of da Vinci's style can you detect in the surviving drawing? What stylistic features would  you guess belong to Rubens? Finally, looking ahead toward the Northern Renaissance (Chapter 15), take a look at Albrecht Altdorfer's rendition of Alexander the Great's victory at the Battle of Issus: what Italian Renaissance techniques can you detect in this painting? what features strike you as un-Renaissance or un-Italian and why?