ARTID121 - 09 High Renaissance

Beauty, Science, and Spirit in

Italian Art: High RenaissanceART ID 121 | Study of Western Arts

Slide concept by William V. Ganis, PhD NYIT Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology

With modifications by Arch. Edeliza V. Macalandag, UAP

*15th Century

THE HIGH RENAISSANCE

Dissatisfaction with the leadership and policies of the Roman Catholic Church led to the Protestant Reformation.

In response, the Catholic Church initiated the Counter-Reformation.

A facet of the Counter-Reformation was the activity of the Society of Jesus, a religious order known as the Jesuits, which promoted education and missionary work. To deal with heretics, the Catholic Church also established a Church court called the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

The Catholic Counter-Reformation exploited the use of art to promote and reinforce religious and ideological claims.

THE HIGH RENAISSANCE

Developments in Italian 15th-century art ("Early Renaissance") matured during the 16th century ("High Renaissance").

No singular style characterizes the High Renaissance, but the major artists of the period, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian, exhibit a high level of technical and aesthetic mastery.

These artists also enjoyed an elevated social status, while their art was raised to the status formerly only given to poetry.

Mastering everything from a(natomy)to z(oology):

Leonardo da Vinci's wide-ranging interests and scientific investigations informed and enhanced his art. He studied the human body and considered the eyes the most vital organs and sight the most essential function.Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".

Leonardo da Vinci

Virgin of the Rocks

ca. 1485oil on wood

199 cm × 122 cm

While in Milan, Leonardo painted Virgin of the Rocks,

which employs the subtle play of light and dark to

model forms and to express the emotional states of his

figures. The figures, arranged in a pyramidal group, are

placed within a cavern. The optical haziness of the light

creates an atmosphere of psychological ambiguity.

Leonardo da Vinci

Virgin of the Rocks

ca. 1485oil on wood

189.5 cm × 120 cm

While in Milan, Leonardo painted Virgin of the Rocks,

which employs the subtle play of light and dark to

model forms and to express the emotional states of his

figures. The figures, arranged in a pyramidal group, are

placed within a cavern. The optical haziness of the light

creates an atmosphere of psychological ambiguity.

Leonardo da Vinci

Virgin and Child with St. Anne and the Infant St. John

ca. 1505-07charcoal heightened with white on brown

paper4 ft. 6 in. x 3 ft. 3 in.

This drawing employs the subtle sfumato technique of shading

Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper

Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy

ca. 1495-98oil and tempera on plaster29 ft. 10 in. x 13 ft. 9 in.

Leonardo's dramatic Last Supper in the refectory of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan shows

the Twelve Disciples reacting to Christ's pronouncement that one of them will betray him. The forceful and lucid conceptualization of the moment is

enhanced by features in the design of the simple room. Christ is the psychological and also the perspectival focus of the painting. The Twelve

Disciples, who register a broad range of emotional responses, are arranged into four groups of three

unified through gestures and postures.

Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa (La Giaconda)

ca. 1503-1505oil on wood

2 ft. 6 in. x 1 ft. 9 in.

Leonardo's famous portrait of Mona Lisa shows a half-length figure seated

in a loggia with columns against the backdrop of a mysterious uninhabited

landscape. Leonardo uses a smoky chiaroscuro (sfumato) and

atmospheric perspective to enhance the figure's ambiguous facial

expression, which serves to conceal or mask her psychic identity from the

viewer.

Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa (La Giaconda)


2 ft. 6 in. x 1 ft. 9 in.

The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be

called "sfumato" or Leonardo's smoke.

Leonardo da Vinci

Embryo in the Womb

ca. 1510pen and ink on paper

In one of Leonardo's notebooks containing his anatomical studies is a drawing of an Embryo in the Womb. It

is an early example of scientific illustration. Leonardo also worked as

both architect and sculptor.

Donato d’Angelo Bramante

Plan for the new Saint Peter’s

1505

Bramante's ambitious design for the new Saint Peter's consisted of a cross with arms of equal length,

each terminated by an apse. A large hemispherical dome was planned for the crossing, with

smaller domes over subsidiary chapels. A commemorative medal

shows the exterior.

The ambitious Pope Julius II was an avid art patron who understood the

propagandistic value of visual imagery. He commissioned a new design for Saint

Peter's basilica, the construction of his tomb, the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and the decoration of the papal

apartments.

Donato d’Angelo Bramante

Tempietto

San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, Italy

1502

Bramante's design for the Tempietto in the cloister of the

church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, was inspired by ancient

Roman round temples Bramante would have known in Rome and in its environs. The rational design is

balanced and harmonious in the relationship of the parts (dome, drum, and base) to one another

and to the whole. The Tempietto was originally planned to stand

inside a circular colonnade.

Christoforo Foppa Caradosso

Medal showing Bramante’s design for the new Saint Peter’s

1506

Novel and Lofty Things

Michelangelo created works in architecture, sculpture, and painting that departed from High Renaissance regularity. His often complex and eccentric style expressed strength and a looming tragic grandeur. He insisted on the artist's own authority and independence and believed that an artist's own inspired judgment could identify pleasing proportions.Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

David

1501-1504marble

14 ft. 3 in. high

The monumental nude statue of David reveals Michelangelo's early

fascination with the male body. The detailed play of muscles over the figure's torso and limbs serves to enhance the mood and posture of

tense expectation as David watches for the approach of Goliath. The pent-

up energy of David's psychic and muscular tension is contrasted with his apparently casual pose. David is also represented as the defiant hero

of the Florentine republic.


Moses

San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy

ca. 1513-1515marble

approximately 8 ft. 4 in. high

For his own tomb, Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to design

a grandiose, freestanding, two-story structure with some 28 statues. The project was gradually scaled down, and the final tomb, in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, is dominated by the

seated figure of Moses, whose pent-up emotional and physical energy fills

his massive muscular frame.


Bound Slave

1513-1516marble

6 ft. 10 1/2 in. high

In the Bound Slave, believed to have been carved originally for

Julius II's tomb, Michelangelo made the body an expression of

the idea of oppression and a vehicle of intense feelings. The

violent contrapposto reveals the figure's defiance and his frantic

but impotent struggle against his restraints.


Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Vatican City, Rome, Italy

1508-12fresco

approximately 128 x 45 ft.

A Grand Drama: In less than four years,

Michelangelo painted a monumental fresco on the

ceiling of the Sistine Chapel organized around a

sequence of narrative panels describing the

Creation as recorded in the biblical book Genesis..

Sistine Chapel (view facing west)


built 1473

The colossal decorative scheme conceived within a unifying

architectural framework includes the Hebrew prophets

and pagan sibyls on both sides of the central row of scenes

where the vault curves down, and four corner pendentives showing four Old Testament

scenes.

Sistine Chapel (view facing east)


built 1473

In triangular compartments above the windows are shown ancestors of Christ. Nude youths occupy the corners of the central panels, and

small pairs of putti in grisaille support the painted cornice

surrounding the entire central section. Michelangelo

concentrated his expressive purpose on the human figure, in

which he reveals both the beauty of the body in its natural form and also its spiritual and philosophical

significance.

The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Michelangelo BuonarrotiCreation of Adam, Sistine Chapel CeilingVatican City, Rome, Italy | 1511-12 | fresco | approximately 18 ft. 8 in. x 9 ft. 2 in.

In the panel of the Creation of Adam, Michelangelo painted a bold and entirely humanistic interpretation of the event, with a massive figure of God imparting

life through an extended hand to a languorously reclining nude figure of Adam.


Last Judgment


1537-41fresco

Christ on judgment day:

Michelangelo's large-scale Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel shows Christ

as the stern judge of the world, surrounded by the choirs of Heaven

above a group of trumpeting angels. The just ascend on one side, and on the other

the damned are sent down. Below, the dead awake on the left and the damned

are ferried to Hell on the right. Among the martyrs close to Christ is Saint

Bartholomew, holding a knife and his flayed skin (its face a grotesque self-

portrait of Michelangelo). The figures are huge and violently twisted, with small

heads and contorted features.


Last Judgment


1537-41fresco

Christ on judgment day:

Michelangelo's large-scale Last Judgment fresco in the Sistine Chapel shows Christ

as the stern judge of the world, surrounded by the choirs of Heaven

above a group of trumpeting angels. The just ascend on one side, and on the other

the damned are sent down. Below, the dead awake on the left and the damned

are ferried to Hell on the right. Among the martyrs close to Christ is Saint

Bartholomew, holding a knife and his flayed skin (its face a grotesque self-

portrait of Michelangelo). The figures are huge and violently twisted, with small

heads and contorted features.


Last Judgment


1537-41fresco


Last Judgment


1537-41fresco


Drunkenness of Noah, Sistine Chapel Ceiling (pre-restoration)


1511-12fresco


Drunkenness of Noah, Sistine Chapel Ceiling (post-

restoration)


1511-12fresco

Cleaning of, Sistine Chapel Ceiling


1977-1989

Sistine Chapel (view facing east)


built 1473


Last Judgment


1537-41fresco

RaphaelPhilosophy (School of Athens)Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy1509-11 | fresco | approximately 19 x 27 ft.

In the suite of rooms forming Pope Julius II's papal apartments,

Raphael painted a series of frescoes. On one of the four

walls of the Stanza della Segnatura, he painted the so-called School of Athens, which

shows a congregation of philosophers and scientists of the ancient world conversing and arguing in a vast vaulted

hall decorated with colossal statues of Apollo and Athena. In the center, silhouetted against

the sky, are Plato and Aristotle. Other recognizable figures

gathered around them include Pythagoras, Socrates, Heraclitus, Diogenes, Euclid, Zoroaster, and

Ptolemy; their dignified poses and eloquent gestures

communicate moods that reflect their various beliefs. In the

Stanza della Segnatura, Raphael reconciled and harmonized paganism and Christianity.

Raphael

Marriage of the Virgin

Chapel of Saint Joseph in Città di Castello near Florence, Italy

1504oil on wood

5 ft. 7 in. x 3 ft. 10 1/2 in.

Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin shows Joseph's success in the competition with other suitors

for the hand of Mary. A centrally planned temple is prominent in

the background.

Raphael

Madonna of the Meadows

1505oil on panel

3 ft. 8 1/2 in. x 2 ft. 10 1/4 in.

Raphael's employs a pyramidal composition and uses a subtle chiaroscuro to model the faces and figures in Madonna of the

Meadows.

Raphael

Galatea

Sala di Galatea, Villa Farnesina

Rome, Italy

1513fresco

9 ft. 8 in. x 7 ft. 5 in.

Raphael's joyful and exuberant fresco of Galatea in the Villa

Farnesina shows the nymph on a shell, surrounded by sea

creatures and cupids.

Raphael

Baldassare Castiglione

ca. 1514oil on wood transferred to

canvas2 ft. 6 1/4 in. x 2 ft. 2 1/2 in.

Raphael's portrait, painted in muted and low-keyed tones,

shows the soberly dressed Baldassare Castiglione in

half-length and three-quarter view looking directly out at

the viewer. Raphael explores the Castiglione's personality

and psychic state.

Michelangelo's Pietà, a depiction of the body of

Jesus on the lap of his mother Maryafter

the Crucifixion, was carved in 1499, when the sculptor

was 24 years old.


Tomb of Giuliano de’Medici

Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy

1519-1534marble

central figure approximately 5 ft. 11 in. high

Michelangelo in the Service of the Medici. Following the death of Julius II, Michelangelo entered the service of the

Medici popes (Leo X and his successor Clement VII), who commissioned him to

build a funerary chapel in San Lorenzo in Florence.


Tomb of Giuliano de’Medici

Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy

1519-1534marble

central figure approximately 5 ft. 11 in. high

The sculpted tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo in the New Sacristy were left unfinished by

Michelangelo. The tomb of Giuliano contains a statue of Giuliano in a niche at the apex, with

below a pair of contorted figures that rest on the sloping sides of the sarcophagus (a female

figure of Night and a male figure of Day), and, possibly, a pair of recumbent river gods at the

base. The meaning of the ensemble remains unclear. The figure of Giuliano, representing the

active man, is an ideal human type. The figure of Lorenzo in the niche opposite represents the

contemplative man.

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger

Palazzo Farnese

Rome, Italy | ca. 1530-1546

Before he became Pope Paul III, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese commissioned Antonio da Sangallo to build the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The design expresses

the classical order, regularity, simplicity, and dignity of the High Renaissance. On the third level of the interior courtyard, Michelangelo replaced the columns of

Sangallo's design with overlapping pilasters.


Capitoline Hill

Rome, Italy

designed ca. 1537

Michelangelo's reorganization of the Capitoline Hill (the Campidoglio) in Rome

incorporated the existing Palazzo dei Senatori and the Palazzo dei

Conservatori (the façade of which he redesigned) into a balanced and

symmetrical design. He added a new building (the Museo Capitolino) opposite the Palazzo dei Conservatori and at the same angle to the Palazzo dei Senatori, which created a trapezoidal plan for the

piazza. In the center of the piazza, which was given an oval pavement design, was

placed (against the advice of Michelangelo) the Roman equestrian

statue of Marcus Aurelius, which, because it was believed to represent

Constantine, served as a symbol of the triumph of Christianity over the pagan

Roman Empire.

Michelangelo BuonarrotiCapitoline Hill and Museo CapitolinoRome, Italydesigned ca. 1537


plan for Saint Peter’s


1546

During his supervision of the building of the new Saint Peter's,

Michelangelo preserved Bramante's original centralized

plan but reduced and unified the central component to a compact, domed Greek cross inscribed in a square and fronted with a double-

columned portico.


elevation for Saint Peter’s


1546-1564

On the exterior, he employed the colossal

order, the vertical extension of which

extends up through the attic stories into the

drum and the dome to unify the whole building. Michelangelo's final plan for a hemispheric dome

was not adopted by Giacomo della Porta,

who, long after Michelangelo's death, built a dome with an

ogival section.


elevation for Saint Peter’s


1546-1564

The commercial and political power enjoyed by Venice during the 15th century declined in the 16th century due largely to the discoveries in the New World and the economic shift from Italy to Hapsburg Germany and the Netherlands. Moreover, since the Turkish conquest of Constantinople, Venice had lost control of the eastern Mediterranean. Venice remained independent despite attacks by the League of Cambrai, composed of Spain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Papal States.

Giovanni Bellini

San Zaccaria Altarpiece

Santa Zaccaria, Venice, Italy

1505oil on wood transferred to

canvas16 ft. 5 in. x 7 ft. 9 in.

The primacy of color.Giovanni Bellini's monumental

sacra conversazione (holy conversation) altarpiece in San

Zaccaria, Venice, shows the Virgin enthroned with the Christ Child in

the company of four saints. The figures are bathed in an evocative, soft-colored light. The harmonious, balanced presentation of luminous

colors results in an image that gently radiates a feeling of serenity

and spiritual calm.

Giovanni Bellini

San Zaccaria Altarpiece

Santa Zaccaria, Venice, Italy

1505oil on wood transferred to

canvas16 ft. 5 in. x 7 ft. 9 in.

The primacy of color.Giovanni Bellini's monumental

sacra conversazione (holy conversation) altarpiece in San

Zaccaria, Venice, shows the Virgin enthroned with the Christ Child in

the company of four saints. The figures are bathed in an evocative, soft-colored light. The harmonious, balanced presentation of luminous

colors results in an image that gently radiates a feeling of serenity

and spiritual calm.

Giovanni Bellini and Titian

The Feast of the Gods

1529oil on canvas

5 ft. 7 in. x 6 ft. 2 in.

A mythological picnic.Giovanni Bellini's Feast of the Gods

(derived from Ovid's Fasti ) is a new kind of mythological painting that

shows the Olympian gods as peasants enjoying a picnic in a

shady, rural place of rustic peace and simplicity. Bellini and other

Venetian artists focused on color and the process of paint

application, whereas Florentine and Roman artists were more

concerned with sculpturesque form, drawing, and design (disegno).

Venetian artists developed a "poetic," lyrical, and sensual art, whereas artists in Florence and Rome gravitated toward grand,

heroic, esoteric, and intellectual themes.



1529oil on canvas

5 ft. 7 in. x 6 ft. 2 in.












1529oil on canvas

5 ft. 7 in. x 6 ft. 2 in.










Giorgionne da Castelfranco

Pastoral Symphony

ca. 1508oil on canvas

3 ft. 7 in. x 4 ft. 6 in.

Poetry in motion. Giorgione's so-called

Pastoral Symphony, which shows two voluptuous nude

females accompanied by two clothed young men in a landscape with a shepherd,

exemplifies the Venetian poetic manner in its

eloquent though enigmatic evocation of a dreamy,

tranquil, pastoral mood.

Giorgionne da Castelfranco

The Tempest


2 ft. 7 in. x 2 ft. 4 3/4 in.

Stormy weather. Giorgione's enigmatic painting The Tempest

shows a lush landscape with human figures in the foreground threatened by stormy skies and

lightning.

Titian

Assumption of the Virgin

Santa Maria Gloriosa del Frari, Venice, Italy


22 ft. 6 in. x 11 ft. 10 in.

A master of color. Titian was a supreme colorist and the most

extraordinary and prolific of the great Venetian painters.

Titian's large altarpiece of the Assumption of the Virgin in

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice uses vibrant color to

infuse the image with a drama and intensity.

Titian

Madonna of the Pesaro Family

Santa Maria dei Frari, Venice, Italy

1519-1526oil on canvas

approximately 16 x 9 ft.

A dazzling display of color. Titian's Madonna of the Pesaro Family in the

church of the Frari, Venice, shows Pesaro, bishop of Paphos in Cyprus and commander of the papal fleet,

who had led a successful expedition in 1502 against the Turks during the

Venetian-Turkish war, being received by the Madonna together with saints

and a Turkish prisoner of war. The monumental figures are placed on a steep diagonal with the Madonna at

the apex off to the right.

Titian

Meeting of Bacchus

and Ariadne


5 ft. 9 in. x 6 ft. 3 in.

Bacchanalian revelry. Titian's Meeting of

Bacchus and Ariadne shows Bacchus,

accompanied by his boisterous and noisy

retinue, arriving to save Ariadne, who had been abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos.

The rich, luminous colors add to the painting's

sensuous appeal.

Titian

Venus of Urbino

1538oil on canvas

4 ft. x 5 ft. 6 in.

A Venetian Venus. Titian's so-called Venus of Urbino

shows a nude woman reclining on a luxurious pillowed couch. Although she

is posed as the goddess of classical

mythology, the woman is probably a

courtesan seen in her bedchamber.

Color plays a prominent role in the composition.

Titian

Isabella d’Este


3 ft. 4 1/8 in. x 2 ft. 1 3/16 in.

A powerful patroness. Titian's portrait of a poised

and self-assured Isabella d'Este is a psychological

reading of the body's most expressive parts--the head

and the hands.

Andrea del Sarto

Madonna of the Harpies

1517oil on wood

6 ft. 9 in. x 5 ft. 10 in.

A Madonna with sphinxes:

The sphinxes in this Andrea del Sarto painting were

misidentified as harpies. The composition is based

on a massive and imposing figure pyramid, the static

qualities of which are relieved by the opposing

contrapposto poses of the flanking saints - a favorite

and effective High Renaissance device to

introduce symmetry.

Antonio Allegri da Correggio


Dome fresco of Parma CathedralParma, Italy

1526-1530fresco

A view of the sky:

In addition to pulling together many stylistic trends, including

those of Leonardo, Raphael, and the Venetians, Correggio also

created the illusion that the dome of the Parma Cathedral

has disappeared and in its place is a vision of the Assumption of

the Virgin. His style is sometimes called "proto-Baroque."

Antonio Allegri da Correggio


Dome fresco of Parma Cathedral

Parma, Italy

1526-1530fresco

MANNERISM

Mannerist art and architecture generally places an emphasis on staged and contrived imagery, on elegance and beauty, on imbalanced compositions, and on unusual visual and conceptual complexities. Space in Mannerist paintings may appear ambiguous, and traditional themes may be presented in unconventional or unexpected ways. Mannerist art may be restless, with figures shown distorted, exaggerated, and with affected but often sinuously graceful postures. Mannerism's requirement of "invention" led artists to produce self-conscious stylizations involving complexity, caprice, fantasy, elegance, perfectionism, and polish.

Jacopo da Pontormo

Descent from the Cross

Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicità, Florence, Italy

1525-1528oil on wood

10 ft. 3 in. x 6 ft. 6 in.

Mannerist Painting

The figures crowded into Pontormo's Descent from the Cross are disposed in a shallow, ambiguous space around the

frame of the picture, leaving a void in the center of the composition. The

twisting, bending figures, painted in clashing colors, have elongated limbs

and small, oval heads.

Parmigianino

Madonna with the Long Neck

ca. 1535oil on wood

7 ft. 1 in. x 4 ft. 4 in.

Mannerism's elegance and grace:

The body of the Madonna in Parmigianino's unfinished Madonna

with the Long Neck has been artificially attenuated to create an

elegant and exquisitely graceful figure.

Bronzino

Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time

(The Exposure of Luxury)

ca. 1546oil on wood

5 ft. 1 in. x 4 ft. 8 3/4 in.

An allegorical love scene:

In the following painting, Bronzino demonstrated the Mannerist's fondness

for extremely learned and intricate allegories that often had lascivious

undertones.

Bronzino

Portrait of a Young Man

ca. 1530soil on wood

approximately 3 ft. 1 1/2 in. x 2 ft. 5 1/2 in.

A mannered portrait:

A staid and reserved formality is a standard

component of Mannerist portraits.

Sofonisba Anguissola

Portrait of the Artist’s Sisters and Brother

ca. 1555

Portraying familial intimacy:

Sofonisba Anguissola's group portrait shows her

two sisters and brother in lifelike natural poses

against a neutral ground.

Giacomo della Porta

façade of Il Gesù

Rome, Italy

ca. 1575-1584

Some architects in the later 16th-century continued to

adhere to High Renaissance ideals.

Anticipating the Baroque:

Giacomo della Porta's design for the façade of il

Gesù unites the lower and upper stories through scroll

buttresses and uses a progressive accumulation of

pilasters and columns and bay decoration that builds

to a dramatic climax at the central bay. Giacomo da

Vignola's plan for Il Gesù is dominated by a huge nave

space and a domed crossing.

Tintoretto

Miracle of the Slave

1548oil on canvas

14 x 18 ft.

Mannerist drama and dynamism:

The composition of Tintoretto's dramatic

Miracle of the Slave is constructed using a

counterpoint of contrary motions; for any figure

leaning in one direction, another figure counters it. A dynamic group of robust

figures in the center sweep together in an

upward serpentine curve, their motion checked by

the plunging inverted figure of Saint Mark,

moving in the opposite direction.

Tintoretto

Last Supper

Chancel. San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy

1594oil on canvas

12 ft. x 18 ft. 8 in.

A visionary last supper:

Tintoretto's Last Supper is a spiritual, even visionary,

interpretation in which solid forms seem to melt away into swirling clouds

of dark around the beacon-like glow of

Christ's halo in the center. The converging

perspective lines race diagonally away from the

picture surface to create a disturbing effect of limitless depth and

motion.

Giulio RomanoInterior courtyard façadeof the Palazzo del TèMantua, Italy1525-1535

A Mannerist Mantuan mansion:

Mannerist architecture uses classical architectural elements in a highly personal and unorthodox manner. Giulio Romano's design for the Palazzo del Tè in Mantua includes a number of unconventional and humorously eccentric structural features such as slipping keystones, voussoirs in horizontal pediments, and large Tuscan columns carrying incongruously narrow architraves that appear to break midway between the columns and seem unable to support the weight of the triglyphs above.

Paolo VeroneseChrist in the House of Levi1573 | oil on canvas | 18 ft. 6 in. x 42 ft. 6 in.

Paolo Veronese

Christ in the House of Levi

1573oil on canvas

18 ft. 6 in. x 42 ft. 6 in.

A problematic painting of Christ:

Veronese's huge monumental painting of

Christ in the House of Levi (originally called Last

Supper) shows Christ seated with other figures (robed

lords, their colorful retainers, clowns, dogs, and

dwarfs) in a great open loggia framed by three

monumental arches. When originally titled the Last

Supper, the Holy Office of the Inquisition accused

Veronese of impiety. Veronese changed the

painting's title to the present one.

Paolo Veronese

Triumph of Venice


approximately 29 ft. 8 in. x 19 ft.

Venice triumphant:

Veronese's illusionistic ceiling painting Triumph of Venice

shows, within an oval frame, a pictorial glorification of the

state of Venice. Personified as a woman, and being crowned

by Fame, Venice is shown enthroned between two great,

twisted columns in a balustraded loggia, garlanded with clouds, and attended by

figures symbolic of its glories.

Andrea Palladio

Villa Rotunda

near Vicenza, Italy

ca. 1566-1570

Inspired by the ancients:

Andrea Palladio's employs a central plan design for

the Villa Rotonda near Vicenza that has four identical façades and

projecting porches (each resembling a Roman

temple) arranged around a central dome-covered rotunda inspired by the

Pantheon. The parts of the building are

systematically related to one another in terms of

calculated mathematical relationships.

Andrea PalladioVilla Rotunda

near Vicenza, Italy

ca. 1566-1570

Andrea Palladio

Villa Rotunda

near Vicenza, Italy

ca. 1566-1570

Andrea Palladio

west façade ofSan Giorgio Maggiore

Venice, Italy

begun 1565

Shadow and surface:

Andrea Palladio's design for the façade of San

Giorgio Maggiore in Venice integrates the high

central nave and lower aisles into a unified façade

design by superimposing a tall, narrow classical

porch on a low broad one.

Andrea Palladiointerior of San Giorgio MaggioreVenice, Italy begun 1565

Techniquesthe use of perspective: The first major treatment of the painting as a window into space appeared in the work of Giotto di Bondone, at the beginning of the 14th century. True linear perspective was formalized later, by Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. In addition to giving a more realistic presentation of art, it moved Renaissance painters into composing more paintings.

foreshortening - The term foreshortening refers to the artistic effect of shortening lines in a drawing so as to create an illusion of depth.

sfumato - The term sfumato was coined by Italian Renaissance artist, Leonardo da Vinci, and refers to a fine art painting technique of blurring or softening of sharp outlines by subtle and gradual blending of one tone into another through the use of thin glazes to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. This stems from the Italian word sfumare meaning to evaporate or to fade out. The Latin origin is fumare, to smoke. The opposite of sfumato is chiaroscuro.

chiaroscuro - The term chiaroscuro refers to the fine art painting modeling effect of using a strong contrast between light and dark to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality. This comes from the Italian words meaning light (chiaro) and dark (scuro), a technique which came into wide use in the Baroque Period.; Sfumato is the opposite of chiaroscuro.

Balance and Proportion: proper sizes.

Sources

• http://websites.swlearning.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=0155050907&discipline_number=436

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_art • Art Through the Ages, 12th/11th ed., Gardner

Documents

ARTID121 - 09 High Renaissance