The High Renaissance

16th century ItalyLeonardo 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)• 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

“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

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Virgin_of_the_Rocks_London.png

• 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 RocksLeonardo Da Vinci

c.1485Oil on Wood

High Renaissance

Louvre version

London version

Mona LisaLeonardo Da Vinci

1503-1505Oil on Wood

High Renaissance

• Lisa Gherardini (24), wife of Florentine Francesco del Giocondo

• Mona is Italian contraction ofma 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

Last Supper

Leonardo Da Vinci

1495-1498

Oil and Tempera on plaster (dry fresco, “a secco”)

High Renaissance

•In a delicate/worn state because of Leonardo’s experiments with dry fresco

•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

•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

Cartoon for Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John

Leonardo Da Vincic.1505-1507Charcoal 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 UterusLeonardo Da Vincic.1511-1513Pen and Ink with wash over red chalk and

traces of black chalk on paperHigh 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

“If people knew how hard I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all.” (Michelangelo) Michelangelo

Art was an inner calling

Encouraged by Lorenzo de’ Medici

Copied Masaccio

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

“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)

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)

“If people knew how hard I worked to achieve my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all.” (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 never-relaxing 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

A man paints

with his brains and not

with his hands. (Michelangelo)

•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

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1508-1512

Fresco

High Renaissance

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/sistina_vr/index.html

• Michelangelo Pieta http://youtu.be/6De9SFc2jhU

Raphael (Rafaello Sanzio)(1483-1520)

• 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 frescoesin the Vatican palace.

– His School of Athens reveals a world ofbalance, harmony and order – basically the

underlying principles of the art of the classical world of Greece and Rome

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 themother of Jesus), in which he attempted to achieve an ideal of beauty far surpassing human standards.

School of Athens

Raphael

1509-1511

Fresco

High Renaissance

Plato and Michelangelo/Heraclitus

PythagorasPythagoras

• 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

•Suggests spiraling compositions of Hellenistic sculptures

Galatea

Raphael

1513

Fresco

High Renaissance

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

Venus of Urbino

Titian

1538

Oil on canvas

High Renaissance

•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

•Master of color: red unifies the entire picture

•Objects get smaller as they recede into the background

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.org/

michelangelo-moses.htmlMichelangelo Moses

(Smart History)