The High Renaissance
16th century Italy
Leonardo da Vinci: Aloof, mysterious
Michelangelo: tormented and obstinate
Raphael: generous, high minded, refined
Titian
•The period we call the High Renaissance
begins around 1500.
•The style lasts barely 30 years and appears
chiefly in Rome and Venice
•Artists of the High Renaissance saw
themselves not as artisans but as creative
beings.
•They were also inspired by additional
discoveries of Greek and Roman Art and by
the translation of more classical texts
Common High Renaissance
Characteristics in Art
• Stable, triangular, symmetrical, rational
compositions
• References to Classical and Hellenistic Greece
• Often secular
• “idealized” humans
• Humanizing Christianity
• Chiaroscuro
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
“A good painter has two chief objects to paint
– man and the intention of his soul. The
former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be
expressed by gestures and the movement of
limbs … A painting will only be wonderful for
the beholder by making that which is not so
appear raised and detached from the wall”
–Leonardo Da Vinci
• Has come to stand for the concept of
the Renaissance Man.
• the Vitruvian Man was a famous
study of the Roman writer’s ideas
about human proportions.
Leonardo’s drawing emphasizes
symmetry and may allude to unity of
the cosmos.
• Leonardo stressed the need to
advance beyond such
realism and initiated the High
Renaissance’s preoccupation
with the idealization of nature.
• It was an attempt to generalize from
realistic portrayal to an ideal form
•
•
Meant to be the central panel of an altarpiece
Builds on Masaccio’s understanding of
Chiaroscuro
-modeling lights and darks to show
emotional states were at the heart of
Leonardo’s painting
Virgin of the Rocks
Leonardo Da Vinci
c.1485
Oil on Wood
High Renaissance
Louvre version
London version
Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci
1503-1505
Oil on Wood
High Renaissance
•
Lisa Gherardini (24), wife of Florentine
Francesco del Giocondo
• Mona is Italian contraction of
ma donna “my lady”
• Her gaze engages us psychologically
• Sfumato: a technique Leonardo invented
that creates a misty haziness, which makes
this facial expression hard to read.
• Was represented in a loggia with columns,
but the painting was trimmed and columns
were eliminated.
• One of first to depict sitter before
imaginary landscape
-Roads and bridges that lead to nowhere
- Represents rather an ideal than a real woman
- Leonardo thought eyes were most vital organ
•Judas’ face is in shadow
-reaches his left
hand forward as Jesus says
“but behold, the hand of him
that betrayeth me is with me
on the table”
•Disciples show fear, doubt,
rage, protestation, love
creating a psychologically
complex and compelling
painting
•In a delicate/worn state because of Leonardo’s experiments with dry fresco
Last Supper
Leonardo Da Vinci
1495-1498
Oil and Tempera on plaster
(dry fresco, “a secco”)
High Renaissance
•Christ and 12 disciples seated at a table that is parallel to the picture’s edge
•Simple spacious austere room adds drama
•Vanishing point on Christ’s head.
•Christ has just said “one of you is about to betray me” and the group is
responding amongst themselves
•Christ is initiating the ceremony of the Eucharist
•Light from central window serves as a symbolic halo for Christ
Cartoon for Virgin and Child with
Saint Anne and the Infant Saint
John
Leonardo Da Vinci
c.1505-1507
Charcoal heightened with white
on brown paper
High Renaissance
• Glowing light falls gently on the
forms of this tranquil scene
• Robust, monumental figures
(like Giotto’s were) … stately
grace
• Chiaroscuro
• Balanced, Triangular
composition
The Fetus and Lining of the Uterus
Leonardo Da Vinci
c.1511-1513
Pen and Ink with wash over red chalk and
traces of black chalk on paper
High Renaissance
•
•
•
Very few paintings were completed by
Leonardo
Notebooks reveal interest in science
Original scientific illustrations
– He simplified the shape of the uterus
and the lining itself
– Cross sections
•
•
Epitomizes the Renaissance spirit,
setting the stage for the modern world
-Felt that scientific study made him a
better painter
Michelangelo
Art was an inner calling
Encouraged by Lorenzo de’ Medici
Copied Masaccio
“And who is so barbarous as not to understand that the foot of a man is nobler than his shoe, and
his skin nobler than that of the sheep with which he is clothed.” (Michelangelo)
David
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1501-1504
Marble
High Renaissance
13’5”
Currently in Florence
•Commissioned by Wool Merchant Guild (meant for Florence
Cathedral, ended up in the town square)
•Reveals the artist’s fascination with the human form
•Formal references to classical antiquity appealed to Pope Julius II,
who associated himself with humanists and Roman emperors
•Calm before the storm moment!
•Shows tension, psychological insight and emotionalism of
Hellenistic period (also Hellenistic: David is emotionally connected
to an unseen presence)
•David is the Florentine symbol of a defiant hero and a just ruler.
Reminds Florentines that whoever rules Florence, will do the same
Moses
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1513-1515
Marble
High Renaissance
Currently in Rome
•Part of Pope Julius II’s tomb
•Meant to be seen from below and to be
balanced with seven other massive figures
•Tablets of the Law under one arm
•The horns help Renaissance viewers identify
Moses (mistranslated from “rays of light”)
•Head is turned, expression of great intensity,
muscles bulge, veins swell
•Pent up energy (Hellenistic influence)
“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me,
shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough
walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”
(Michelangelo)
Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1519-1534
Marble
High Renaissance
•UNFINISHED
•Twisting body masses in contrary directions
•Common Interpretation: This is showing that
humanities state in the world was considered
one of pain, anxiety, frustration, exhaustion
•Night on left, Day on right, posed with neverrelaxing tension
•
Night is surrounded by an owl, and a
mask representing nightmares
•
(1 of 4 Medici popes)
Bound Slave
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1513-1516
Marble
High Renaissance
•Shows the emotional state of
oppression
•Scholars contest whether it was
meant for Julius II’s tomb and
whether this is really a slave at all
•Violent contrapossto expresses a
frantic but fruitless struggle
I saw the angel in the marble and
carved until I set him free. (Michelangelo)
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1508-1512
Fresco
High Renaissance
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1508-1512
Fresco
High Renaissance
•Julius II commissioned this while tomb project was on hold, and Michelangelo agreed with the hope that the
tomb project would be resumed
•Challenges: lack of fresco experience
•ceiling dimensions (5,000 sq. ft)
•height above the pavement (70ft)
•complicated perspective problems presented by ceiling height and curve
•Over 300 figures; Creation, Fall, and Redemption of humanity (jonah) … sibyls and prophets become
enlightened
•Reminiscent of Classical gods and heroes communicating
•Woman may be Eve … possibly Mary
Last Judgment, altar wall of Sistine
Chapel
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1532-1541
Fresco
High Renaissance
-Counter-Reformation: faith and good works
brings salvation
•Christ is the judge of the world; lifts his
hand in a gesture of damnation
•The figure of St. Bartholomew holding his
own skin after being flayed.
-Represents the satirist and
erotic writer Pietro Aretino who had tried to
extort a valuable drawing from
Michelangelo. He holds the painter's flayed
skin as a symbol of attempted victimization.
•Fig-Leaf Campaign
•Master of Ceremonies said "it was mostly
disgraceful that in so sacred a place there
should have been depicted all those nude
figures, exposing themselves so
shamefully," and that it was no work for a
papal chapel but rather "for the public baths
and taverns."
• Virtual Tour:
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistin
a_vr/index.html
• Michelangelo Pieta
http://youtu.be/6De9SF
c2jhU
Raphael (Rafaello Sanzio)(1483-1520)
Raphael blossomed as a painter at an
early age; at 25 he was already regarded
as one of Italy’s best painters.
– He was acclaimed for his numerous
Madonna’s (portrayal of the
mother of Jesus), in which he attempted
to achieve an ideal of beauty far
surpassing human standards.
•
One of the giants of the High Renaissance
•
Is best known for charming paintings of
angels and Madonna’s.
•
Master draftsman with elegant, refined
line.
•
Defines characteristic features of the High
Renaissance style
– Clear primary and secondary colors.
– Stable triangular compositions
• Raphael is also well-known for his frescoes
in the Vatican palace.
– His School of Athens reveals a world of
balance, harmony and order – basically
the
underlying principles of the art of the
classical
world of Greece and Rome
Plato and
Michelangelo/Heraclitus
School of Athens
Raphael
1509-1511
Fresco
High Renaissance
Pythagoras
• Colossal figures of Athena and Apollo, patron gods of arts and
wisdom
• Plato and Aristotle
– Plato holds his book Timaeus and points to heaven, which inspires him
– Aristotle holds his book Nichomachean Ethics and points to the Earth
from where he made observations of reality
• Scientists concerned with nature and human affairs on right;
Scientists concerned with mysteries that transcend the world
on the left
• Lower left, Pythagoras
• Center foreground, (probably Michelangelo)
• Diogenes on steps
• Raphael on Right
• Decorates the rooms known as the
Stanze di Raffaello,
in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
•Based on Metamorphoses, by Ovid
•Galatea flees from her lover (the
Cyclops), on a shell pulled by dolphins.
•Pagan joy and exuberance expressed
with playful cupids and sea creatures
surrounding her
•Triangular composition
•Movement and energy surround
Galatea
•Cupids foreshortened
•Contrasts with the dematerialized
Venus in Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Galatea
Raphael
1513
Fresco
High Renaissance
•Suggests spiraling compositions of
Hellenistic sculptures
Madonna in the Meadow
Raphael
1505-1506
Oil on Panel
High Renaissance
•Pyramidal composition, like Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks
•Subtle chiaroscuro
•Very influenced by Leonardo, though Raphael preferred
clarity over mystery/obscurity
TITIAN
• The greatest of the Venetian painters of the High Renaissance.
• Known for his use of rich colors.
• His financial success helped to stimulate the use of oil on canvas as the
new and preferred medium for painting.
• Characteristics of Venetian Art –color,
sensuality, oil paint
•Title elevates the
courtesan in her
bedchamber to the
status of classical
mythology
•Was commissioned for
the Duke of Urbino, as
a female nude for his
enjoyment
•Venus reclines on the
bed, linear shadows in
drapery contrast with
her smooth skin
•At her feet is a
sleeping lapdog, to
balance the
composition
•Drape behind thrusts
her figure into the
foreground
•Servants bend over a chest searching for
garments
Venus of Urbino
•Master of color: red unifies the entire picture
•Objects get smaller as they recede into the
background
Titian
1538
Oil on canvas
High Renaissance
Madonna of the Pesaro Family
Titian
1519
-Sacra Conversazione – 2 saints
introduce members of the family
to Mary&Christ
-foreshortened cherub (as in
paintings by Giotto and
Michelangelo)
Tempietto
Bramante
1502
It is meant to mark the traditional
spot of St. Peter's martyrdom
“one of the most harmonious
buildings of the Renaissance”
Brunelleschi style dome
Doric entablature
The Tempietto in the cloister of San Pietro in
Montorio was built by Bramante after 1502, on
the commission of the Spanish monarchs,
Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.o
rg/michelangelo-moses.html
Michelangelo Moses
(Smart History)