The Late Renaissance and Mannerism in 16th Century Italy

Events:

• Reorientation of trade routes from the east (Italy in prime location) to the west (discovery of America)

• Ever increasing threat of Turkish invasion

• Machiavelli publishes The Prince 1532: advocates that each situation determines whether one should be good or bad-moral and economic relativity

• Classical calm, harmonious images no longer in fashion

• Artistic license practiced more freely and openly (for a little while at least)

Map of 16th Italy

Protestant Reformation

Events:• Martin Luther 95 Theses,

1517– Founder of Lutheranism– 95 arguments against the

Catholic church• Indulgences• Role of artworks, abuse of

power/idolatry • Access to the Bible

Lucas Cranach, Portrait of Martin Luther, 1533. Oil on 14 ½” x 18.” Galleria degli

Uffizi, Florence.

Rome

Example: • Adjusts Bramante’s

central plan • Greek cross inscribed in

square• Dome over crossing• Colossal order

Michelangelo, plan for new Saint Peter’s,1546.

Italy

Michelangelo, plan for new Saint Peter’s, 1546.

Donato d’Anegelo Bramante, Original plan for St. Peter’s, Rome, 1502-1511. Fig. 15.5

ItalyDates and Places: • 1500 to 1600• Rome, Florence, Milan,

and Venice

People:• Humanism• Reformation/Counter-

Reformation• Powerful courts• Artist-genius

Interior, Sistine Chapel showing Interior of the Sistine Chapel with frescoes by

Michelangelo, Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, and others, 1473-1541. Fig.15.9

RomeExample:• Commissioned by Pope

Paul III (Farnese)• Subject reflects time

based on Matthew• New take on traditional

topic with possible pagan references

• Compression of space• Dynamic design• Dramatic compositionMichelangelo, Last Judgment, with detail of St. Bartholomew from the Sistine Chapel, fresco,

1534–1541, 48’x44.’ Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. Fig. 16.5

Rome

Michelangelo, detail scenes from Last Judgment, with detail of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Fresco, 1534–1541, 48’x44.’ Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Rome

Michelangelo, Last Judgment, with detail of St. Bartholomew from the Sistine Chapel, fresco, 1534–1541, 48’x44.’ Sistine Chapel, Vatican City. Fig. 14.28

Self-portrait of Michelangelo

Italian MannerismGeneral characteristics:• c. 1520-1580• Elegant and refined, sophisticated • Artificial (versus naturalism of High

Renaissance style)• Courtly style • Overelaborate distortion• Compositional tension, not clarity• Psychological tension• Impresses one with a feeling of awkwardness• Self-conscious stylishness, not window onto

world • Complex, exaggerated, difficult• Unstable composition, unnatural color

Rosso Fiorentino, Descent from the Cross, 1521. Oil on panel, 11’ x 6’5 ½.” Pinacoteca Comunale, Volterra,

Italy. Fig. 16.2

Agnolo Bronzino (1503-1572) Example: Florence• Elegant conception • Figures elongated and have

energetic, angular postures • Arranged to create a decorative

pattern • No strong emotions, superficial • Shallow space • Forms tend to adhere to the

vertical plane • Mannerist refinement and artifice

prevail over nature and feeling

Agnolo Bronzino , Allegory of Venus: Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time, ca. 1546. Oil on

panel, 5’1” x4’8 ¾.” National Gallery, London. Fig. 16.3

Tiziano Vecellio (Titian 1488/90-1576)Example: • Oil on canvas glows• Voluptuous body with smoky shadow,

framed by curtain • The artist was extremely successful and

was even given the freedom of the city of Rome during a visit in 1546. The last twenty-five years of Titian's life were spent mainly as a portrait-painter and in the service of Philip II of Spain. He had painted Philip's portrait in 1550 and had also painted Philip's father The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.The artist's later paintings are executed with great freedom. He was so comfortable with his medium that one of his pupils, who had watched him work, stated that he finished the pictures 'more with his fingers than his brush'.

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas, 3’ 11” x 5’ 5.” Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Fig. 16.11

Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1509. Oil on canvas, 3’6 ¾” x 5’ 9.”

Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas, 3’ 11” x 5’ 5.” Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Fig. 16.11

Manet, Olympia, 1865. Oil on canvas, 4’ 3” x 6’ 3.” Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Venice

Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-1594. Oil on canvas, 12’x18’8.“ San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. Fig 16.13

Jacopo Robusti “Tintoretto” (1518-1594)

Example: • “Paint like Titian,

design like Michelangelo”

• Counter-Reformation painting

• Strong diagonals, site specific

• Strong use of light and dark

• Mysterious light source• Natural and supernatural

worlds• Exaggeration of poses• Judas again in the dark

Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-1594. Oil on canvas, 12’x18’8.“ San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. Fig

16.13

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, c. 1495–1498. Fresco (oil and tempera on plaster), 15’ 1 1/8” x 28’ 10 ½.” Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Fig. 15.2

Tintoretto, Last Supper, 1592-1594. Oil on canvas, 12’x18’8.“ San Giorgio Maggiore,

Venice. Fig 16.13

Vicenza

Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotonda, ca. 1567–1570.Vicenza, Italy. Fig.16.14.

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580)

Example: • Greatest architect of late

16th century• Synthesizes elements of

Mannerism with High Renaissance ideals

• Near Venice• Central plan• Dome over crossing• Four facades like temple

portals• Pantheon likely model• Wrote architectural treatise,

Four Books of Architecture (1570)

Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotonda, ca. 1567–1570.Vicenza, Italy. Fig.16.14.

Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotonda, ca. 1567–1570. Vicenza, Italy. Fig.16.14.

Reconstruction of an Etruscan temple after Vitruvius

Pantheon, 118-125 CE, Rome.

Andrea Palladio (1506-1580)Example: • Design aesthetic based on

humanist education• Private residence, built for

Venetian cleric• Classic temple portico (porch)

with Ionic columns support entablature crowned by pediment

• Symmetry in design=dignity and grandeur

• Strict symmetry is both Classical and Renaissance element

Andrea Palladio, floor plan Villa Rotonda, ca. 1567–1570.Vicenza, Italy. Fig.16.14.