High renaissance italy

High Renaissance in Italy

Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael,and the Venetian School

Mannerism appears late century…

Italian City States were conquered bySpanish & French invaders.. Venicestayed independent.

High Renaissance flourished in courts ofprinces, dukes & popes… artisticcompetition

High Renaissance Italy….1495-1527 Big Ideas

• Pope Julius II revitalizes the city of Rome• High Renaissance artists try to emulate Roman grandeur

with enormous frescoes, statues, and amazing architecture• Compositions marked by balance, symmetry, and ideal

proportions.. Triangular layout is favored.• Venetian painters take up oil with school of painting with

sophisticated color harmonies• Portraiture reveals likeness of subject PLUS their character

and personality

High Renaissance Italy….Patronage

• Pope Julius II is biggest patron.. Powerful force in Roman andEuropean politics and religion.

• Transformed Rome, a ramshackle medieval town, into an artisticcenter to rival Florence.

• Women were also key patrons, such as Queen Isabella d’Este• St. Peter’s church in Rome is rebuilt, first by Bramante then by

Michelangelo.• Medici still have influence; Michelangelo originally studied sculptures

on one of their estates• Kings and Queens of Europe become patrons of artists such as Da

Vinci and Titian.

High Renaissance Italy….Perspective

• Artists continue to build on Brunelleschi’s work and Albertis, usingarchitectural & atmospheric perspective.

• Raphael’s School of Athens is a masterpiece of architecturalperspective.

• Remember this painting from the early Renaissance?

Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael, Vatican (Fresco view) - Pope’s library

SchoolofAthens

Fresco

Raphael

1510-11

Bramante is bald figure of Euclid

Raphael in extreme right corner

Michelangelo is resting on stone block writing apoem

Overall composition influenced by Da Vinci’slast supper

Raphael continued to work for Julius II’successor, born Giovvanie de Medici

School of Athens, fresco,Vatican

Raphael painted this in PopeJulius II library; Philosophybooks shelved below

Vastness & variety of papallibrary and interests

Buliding behind-Bramante’s planfor St. Peters

Nobility & monumentality offorms

Plato (w/Leonardo’s face)pointing up and Aristotle

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Small Cowper Madonna, Raphael,Oil on wood panel, 1505 (highRenaissance)

Triangular composition favored inRenaissance

Classical allusions; frequentlypainted holy family

Atmospheric perspective behindMary

Raphael was very young

Clarity of forms, sweet expressions;chiaroscuro renders modeling.

Raphael continuedworking for the next Pope,Leo X (who was a Medicifamily member)…

Pope Leo X with CardinalsGiulio de’ Medici and Luigide’ Rossi

1517

Oil on wood

La Pieta, Michelangelo

Marble, 1500, 6’ tall

St. Peter’s, Vatican,

La Pieta in the round

Pyramidal composition

Monumental

Heavy drapery masksMary’s size as she easilyholds Jesus in here lap

Only work Michelangeloever signed

Shows Mary’s beautyand grief

Michelangelo wasGhirlandaio’s apprentice

Patron French cardinal

“Set free the image fromthe stone”

MichelangeloDavid (flashcard)Medium: MarbleSize: height 17' (5.18 m) without pedestalDate: 1501–04Source/ Museum: Galleria dell’Accademia, FlorenceCommissioned as symbol of Florence, representing Florence asshe faced enemies like FranceFirst colossal nude since ancient worldMuscular, tense, at the readyDavid anticipated challenge of Goliath, great concentration onthe faceSlight contrapposto, little negative spaceMarble, not bronze.. Evoked power of ancient art.. Purity ofexpressionInfluence of Spear Bearer by Polykleitos2 minute video on Michelangelo's David

Close ups of David

Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome

Michelangelo, Last Judgment andceiling (45’ x 128’)

Ceiling 1508-12; end wall 1536-41

La Capella Sistina (part 1)

Botticelli and Perugino, Ghirlandio,and Raphael also painted areas ofthe Sistine Chapel (not ceiling)

New popes are elected here

Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel,Michelangelo

1536-41, Vatican, Rome

No cornice divisions like ceiling

Mannerism shown in distortionsof body, elongations,crowded groups

1. Bottom: deadrising/mouth of hell

2. Ascending elect, desc.Sinners, angels

3. Saved around Jesus

4. Lunette: Angels w/cross

Justice shown

Spiraling composition a reactionagainst High Renaissanceharmony; disunity ofchurch from theReformation

Drapery added later

St. Bartholomew modeled oncontemporary critic LOL

Michelangelos’ face in St. Bart’sskin

Moses, Michelangelo, 1513-16, 1542-45,

Commissioned for tomb of Julius II

Never finished (was to be part of a hugeinstallation of sculptures, he was pulled of thisproject to do the Sistine Chapel

Meant to be viewed from below

Horns are mistranslation of Bible; Moses thoughtto have had HORNS coming out of his head,really RAYS (like a halo)

Figure is in awe, heroic body

Inspired by Laocoon

Last Supper, da Vinci, 1495-98,Monastery in Milan, Italy

Experiment with tempera and oilon plaster (FAIL)

Painted for dining hall of amonastery

Linear perspective; orthogonalspoint to Jesus

Groupings of 3

Drama: Jesus says, One of Youwill Betray ME

Judas falls back clutching his bagof coins (bribe to betray Jesus)

Leonardo was a genius, scientist,inventor, and artist who was the 1stmodern mind… because he wantedto observe, not just take the Greeksword for it.

Born illegitimate (bastard), he couldnot study Greek nor Latin, so couldnot read much. Instead he learnedto observe, draw, and document,filing thousands of pages ofsketches of inventions, botanicaland anatomical illustrations.

This is a charcoal for a paintingfrom around 1500.

Da Vinci's Genius

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci

1503, Louvre, Paris…

21” x 30”

3/4 profile, triangular composition

Sfumato, chiaroscuro used infigure, atmospheric perspective inbackground

Mysterious smile, psychologicalintensity

Lots of mysteries and legendssurround this painting (da Vincicode); recently have discoveredremains of da Vinci’s model

(da Vinci code?)

Da Vinci studied anatomy,dissected cadavers, and wasin reality a scientist.

Vitruvian Man, ink, 1490

He studied and quantifiedhuman proportions with theVitruvian man, based on thework of the Greek scholdVitruvius.

amazon video, go to 24minutes

High Renaissance Italy….Women and the Arts

• Women generally not allowed to study orapprentice, with a few exceptions

• Women were also key patrons, such asQueen Isabella d’Este

• Properzia de’Rossi notable exception -sculptor

• Sofia Anguissola - skilled painter who didmany portraits

Queen Isabella d’Este,by Titian, oil on canvas

Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife

1525, Properzia de’ Rossi

Bologna

Famous woman sculptor;mastered miniaturecarvings such as the LastSupper on a peach pit!

Carving in cathedral ofSan Petronio in Bologna

Only woman included inVasari’s biography

Got over an unhappy loveaffair by carving thispanel, according to Vasari

Rival male sculptor kepther from being paid fairlyfor her work

The Chess Game

1525, Sofia Anguissola

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Well known portait painter,eventually went to theSpanish court

Well educated in the arts,did portraits but due tohere social status andgender could not sell them

Michelangelo critiquedone of her drawings

Court painter in Spain for20 yers

Rivaled Titian

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Self-portrait,SofonisbaAnguissola

Oil on cardboard

2.5” x 3.25”

1552

Noli Me Tangere, LaviniaFontana

Oil on canvas

1581

Bologna was center foraccopmlished women painters

She was in her 20s when shepainted scene of Jesusappearing to Mary Magdalenbefore returning to heaven

Tiny figures at tomb inbackground give plunge intodepth and sapce

Mannerist style painting

Venice & the Venetto

• Venice was major naval power• Rich light, pattern, and color inspired by

Byzantium• Oil painting universally preferred on both

wood and canvas• Giorgione & Titian early; later Veronese

and Tintoretto

The Tempest,Giorgione (f. card)

1506 (Venetian School)

Oil on canvas

Studied w/Bellini

Meaning debated

POESIE- paintedpoems, viewersenjoyed trying tounderstand what ishappening

Emerging use of oil inVenice; softer tones

Emerging landscapetradition

Lightning, mysteriousruins in landscapeGypsy girlbreastfeeding baby

Titian was Giogrione’s apprentice. Also studied with Bellini … again poesie, paintedpoem. Are the 2 nudes the musician’s muses? Mythical world plus real world,landscape

Pastoral Concert,Allegory on theInvention ofPastoral Poetry

Titian, VenetianSchool, 1510

Oil on canvas

Louvre

Chiaroscuro, noclear cut edges

Venus of Urbino, Titian, oil on canvas, 1538.

Sensuous painting, skin tones, probably a courtesan, looks directly at viewer, deepspace in picture, flora motif. Dog = faithful, standard for future reclining female nudes

Titian’s later workbecame moreexpressive.

This piece has loosebrushstrokes anddiagonals, finishedin late 1570s inVenice

Pieta

Feast in the House of Levi, Veronese, oil on canvas, 1573 (Venetian school). Originallylast supper, was called before Pope’s Inquisition to question presence of drunks,dwarves, etc. at last supper…. Changed title to another supper instead to avoid beingjailed and tortured. Continued classical perspective and painted for Dominicanmonastery

Last Supper, Tintoretto, 1594, Oil on canvas (Venetto), developed from Titian’s style,mannerist elongated forms, radiant light around Christ and angels, corner view, still lifeon tables and cat - deep chiariscuro… fast painter, Daughter became artist.

MANNERISM INITALY•Intellectually intricate subjects

•Highly skilled techniques

•Beauty for beuaty’s sake

•Elegeant, elongated figures

•Distortionf of formal conventions

Fall of the Giants

Fresco, 1530-32,

Palazzo del Te, Mantua(Mannerist architecture)

Unusual spiraling composition

Giulio Romano

Entombment, Pontormo

Oil & tempera on wood, altarpiecein church in Florence

Mannerist painting with twisted,elongated figures and spiralingcomposition (what’s in center?)

Little background.

High key colors

Yearning

Which are men and which arewomen???

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Astronomy, or Venus Urania

Bronze gilt, 15” high, 1573

Mannerist sculpture

Assumption of the Virgin,Correggio, fresco, dome inParma Cathedral, Italy, 1530

Spiraling composition againtypical of mannerism

Saints at bottom, thjen Virginescorted to heaven with angels,Christ waits for Mary

Glowing colors prefigures theBaorque

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Madonna with the long Neck,Parmigianino, oil on wood, 1534-40,Florence

7 feet by 4 feet

Small head, long neck, delicate,graceful gestures

Elongated and detahced limbs

Column perspective looks odd

Pose reminiscent of la Pieta

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Portrait of a YoungMan, Bronzino, oil onwood, 1540

Mannerist painter.

Captures subject’sphysical appearanceas well as personality.

Bronzino worked forthe Medici as well asPontormo.