High Renaissance and Mannerism PART 1

1. The High Renaissance and
Mannerism
PART 1

2. High and Late
Renaissance
Florence and Rome
1495-1520
The notion of “fine arts” and the
exaltation of the artist genius
originates.
“All good poets compose their
beautiful poems not by art, but
because they are inspired and
possessed…For not by art does the
poet sing, but by power divine”-
Plato
Artists begin to give form to ideas
that shape the larger cultural
movement, and are indespensible
to this project of transformation.

3. High and Late
Renaissance
Visual Arts achieve status formerly
held only by poetry. Artists become
international celebrities.
Artists socialize with popes and
kings, no longer anonymous
craftsmen.
Birth of the idea of the “brooding”
artist genius.

4. Rome with Renaissance and Baroque Monuments
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5. Leonardo Da Vinci
Born in Vinci (near Florence)
Studied under Verrocchio
The definition of Renaissance Man
Insatiable curiosity-an expert an
many areas:
Botany, geology, geography,
cartography, zoology, military
engineering, animal lore, anatomy,
physical science, hydraulics,
mechanics, optics.
Tried to discover the laws underlying the
flux of nature, but believed that reality in
an absolute sense is inaccessible and
known only through change.
View of the world logical and empirical.

6. Leonardo Da Vinci
Eccentric, Mysterious Personality:
Vegetarian
Purchased caged birds to release them
Highly secretive
Possibly celibate (never married)
Closets relationships with pupils
Gian da Oreno (Salai)

7. Left behind 10,000+ pages of drawings,
ideas, and notes
All written in mirror image, left
handed
Drawing more common in Renaissance-less
expensive paper available (previously
parchment made from skins of young
animals)
7

8. 8

9. LEONARDO DA VINCI, The Fetus and Lining of the Uterus, ca.
1511–1513. wash, over red chalk and traces of black chalk on
paper, 1’ 8 5/8”. Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
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11. Direct observation of nature, a search for observable,
empirical truth.

13. Leonardo in Milan
Trained in Florence, but offers services to
Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.
In letter to the ruler, advertises his
expertise as a military engineer and only
briefly mentions his skill in art.

14. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks,
from San Francesco Grande, Milan, Italy, begun 1483. Oil on wood
(transferred to canvas), 6’ 6 1/2” x 4’. Louvre, Paris.
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15. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Leonardo
da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks
• Altarpiece for Confraternity of
Immaculate Conception (Milan).
• Madonna, Christ, infant John
the Baptist, angel, fleeing
Massacre of the innocents.
• Builds on Masaccio’s use of
chiaroscuro (subtle play of light
and dark)
• Pyramidal composition-UNITY
is a theme of High Renaissance
• Atmospheric perspective and
direct observation of nature
evident in mysterious setting
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16. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Leonardo
da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks
• “Madonna of Humilty”
• Mary is seated on the ground
not a throne
• Natural world is more exalted
Interlocking gestures, emotionally
compelling, visually unified
Bodies move in very graceful and
complex ways. Characteristic of
High Renaissance.
Protected garden metaphor for
purity. Cave as womb ?
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17. Mysterious “grotto” . Accuracy of nature reflects Leonardo’s varied interests.

18. Mary’s right hand guides John the Baptist towards Christ. Left hand foreshortened, protects the
space Christ exists in. Infant Christ gestures upwards to heaven. Empty space of Mary’s womb.

19. Pool of water emphasizes Mary’s purity and foreshadowing of Baptism of Christ by
John. Chasm between the painting and the viewer emphasizes mystery, remoteness.

20. LEONARDO DA VINCI, cartoon for Madonna and Child with
Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John, ca. 1505–1507. Charcoal
heightened with white on brown paper, 4’ 6” x 3’ 3”. National
Gallery, London.
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21. Drawing as a complete work of art
(no perforations for tracing)-although
unfinished.
Sfumato, gradual gradations
Integration of figures into whole
(stability is characteristic of High
Renaissance)
Eternal and spiritual and human
intimacy integrated.
Rhythm of knees almost musical.
Drapery recalls ancient Greek
Sculpture.
Gestures lead to heaven.
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22. 22
LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–1498. Oil and tempera on plaster, 13’ 9” x 29’ 10”. Refectory,
Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

23. Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

24. LEONARDO DA VINCI,
Last Supper
• Refectory (dining room) for Santa
Maria delle Grazie
• “One of you is about to betray me”
Matt. 26:21
• Moment of reaction after
announcement
• AND first Ceremony of the
Eucharist.
• Experimental painting technique
lead to fast deterioration.
• Most recently restored in 1999
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25. LEONARDO DA VINCI,
Last Supper
• Jesus head is focal point of all
converging lines.
• Simplifies setting to focus on
figures and gestures.
• Disciples configured in 4 groups of
3.
• Numerous preparatory studies
with live models-each figure
meant to communicate a specific
emotion.
• Several moments in same story
• Sense of divine eternal importance
(not just 13 people having supper)
without obvious symbols of divine.
• Separation of our world and
pictorial world with barrier of table.
• Christ is calm eye in the center of
emotional hurricane.
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27. Christ is the calm divine center to the hurricane of human worries and concerns. Uniting the
earthly and the divine.

28. Drama and tension between emotional responses of all the figures.
Three windows, four groups of three. (Trinity).

35. Christ and Judas reaching for same bowl?

36. Christ identifies the betrayer as the person who dips with him in a bowl. “He that
dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” (Matthew 26).

37. Bag of silver coins

45. The expressions of the body reveal the soul (one’s internal nature).

46. Preparatory studies
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48. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa, ca. 1503–1505. Oil on wood,
2’ 6 1/4” x 1’ 9”. Louvre, Paris.
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49. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa
• Lisa di Antonio Maria Gherardini- wife of wealthy Florentine
Francesco del Giocondo
• Mona Lisa- ma donna, “my lady”
• Pyramidal composition
– Originally in a “loggia” (balcony) that framed the
scene
– Removed at some point but partial columns at base
remain
• Psychological intensity
– Engages the viewer directly (unusual for a woman)
• Mysterious background creates enigmatic mood
– Atmospheric perspective
– Sfumato (misty haziness)
– Blurring of precise planes

53. Engages viewer directly with mysterious smile (Frued: mothering and seductive simultaneously).
No eyebrows.

54. sfumato
A painting technique using an imperceptible, subtle transition from light to dark, without any clear break or line. The
theory was developed and mastered by Leonardo da Vinci, and the term derives from the Italian word fumo,
meaning vapor, or smoke.
54

55. Copy found in the Prado (Spain) made at the same time as Leonardo painted by
assistant. How are they different emotionally ?

56. The art of portraiture confirms the
values of humanism’s emphasis on
the individual and was more and
more popular during the
Renaissance.

57. Initial portraits painted in profile,
later Northern European artists
experiment with ¾ view in
believable spaces.
Note the different emotional impact.
Oil rather than tempera paint gives it
more life.

59. Today as “she” hangs in the Louvre Museum (average viewer gest only 15
seconds of time)…the most famous painting in the world…WHY?

60. Stolen August 1911 by Italian
handyman Vincenzo Peruggia
Recovered in 1913. Hid overnight in
a closet and walked out the door
with it the next day. Arrested when
he tried to sell it 2 years later.
Painting becomes famous.

62. …most famous paitning in the world.....
Why??

64. Marcel Duchamp

65. Leonardo’s Death and
the Changing Status of
the Artist
Spent the last years of his life in
France working for King Francis I-
often visited by the King (remember
that the artist was considered only
a skilled artisan in the Middle Ages
and for much of the Early
Renaissance).
In the High Renaissance, we find
that artists are considered
intellectuals, and that they keep
company with the highest levels of
society.
Said to have died in the arms of the
king.

66. Raphael
Raffaello Santi
Talented, popular, and beloved artist who died
young at 37 after excessive partying.
(entombed in the Pantheon)
His style combines the sculptural aspect of
Michelangelo and the feeling of Leonardo and
the detail and light of his teacher (Perugino).
Master of balance, clarity and harmony
Won a commission to paint frescoes in the
papal apartments:
• Stanza della Segnatura: Theology
(Disputà), Law (Justice), Poetry
(Parnassus), and Philosophy (School of
Athens)
• Paintings symbolize and sum up
Western learning during the
Renaissance

67. Raphael
Personality:
Good looking, charming, cultured,
accessible (unlike Leonardo,
Michelangelo).
Tremendously successful very early.
Preferred light over dark. Clarity and
calm over struggle and tension.
Ladies man. Died at 37 from
“excessive partying”

68. Madonna of the
Meadow
• Adopted Leonardo’s pyramidal
composition, modeling of faces
in subtle chiaroscuro.
• Landscape reflects Perugino’s
lighter tonalities and blue skies.
• Preferred clarity over obscurity-
not fascinated with mystery like
Leonardo.
• Quickly achieved fame for his
Madonnas.
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69. RAPHAEL, Philosophy (School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy, 1509–1511. Fresco, 19’ x 27’.
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70. RAPHAEL, Philosophy (School of
Athens)
• Julius II awarded decoration of the
Papal apartments in Vatican.
Stanze della Segnatura (Room of
the Signature)-the Papal Library
and office.
• Four walls symbolize 4 branches of
human knowledge: Theology, Law,
Poetry, Philosophy.
• Philosophy (School of Athens)-
congregation of great philosophers
and scientists from Ancient world.
• Set in vast Roman style coffered
hall with statues of Apollo and
Athena (deities of Art and Wisdom).
• Plato and Aristotle are the central
figures. Other figures share
gestures and glances like
Leonardo’s Last Supper.
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72. Theology given equal billing as philosophy- a very liberal moment in Church history- a far cry
from Christianity of the Middle Ages. Classical learning united with teachings of the church.

77. Plato vs. Aristotle
• Plato holds Timaeus, points to
Heaven, source of inspiration.
• Aristotle holds Nichomachean
Ethics, gestures towards the earth,
from which observations of reality
sprang.
• Philosophers concerned with
ultimate transcendent mysteries
stand on Plato’s side. On Aristotle’s
side are thinkers concerned with
nature and human affairs.

82. Discovered laws of harmony in music in mathematics- there is a reality that transcends the
reality that we see. (music of the spheres).

86. Michelangelo is painting Sistine Chapel ceiling next door at the same time. Raphael gives
homage as lonely and brooding Heraclitus all things in flux).

87. …over on Aristotle’s side:

88. Euclid- Geometry. Interested in measure, the practical.

89. Bramante: architect of new St. Peters

92. …a history of the accumulation of knowledge..

93. • Raphael includes himself amongst intellectual…artist no longer anonymous craftperson.

94. A space that ennobles the figures it contains….based on Roman models.

97. Music, poetry
(Plato’s side)

98. God of War and
Wisdom
(Aristotle’s side)