Covering the art and culture of the Proto-Renaissance, the Early Renaissance, and the High Renaissance

1. The Italian
Renaissanc
eInstructor: Mrs. Christine Ege
The History and Culture of Arts 2 – DAD Department
Week 8 – 20th April 2016
Week 9 – 28th April 2016

2. • The bridge between the middle ages and the
modern era
• Started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late
Medieval period and later spread to the rest of
Europe, marking the beginning of the Early
Modern Age
• Derived from the rediscovery of classical Greek
philosophy
• "Man is the measure of all things."
• The changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly
experienced across Europe
What is the Renaissance?

3. • Cultural movement
• Began in Italy, and spreading to the
rest of Europe
• Literature, philosophy, art, music,
politics, science, religion, and other
aspects of intellectual inquiry
• Searched for realism and human
emotion in art
• In the revival of Neo-Platonism
• Renaissance humanists did not
reject Christianity
• Pave the way for the Protestant
Reformation
Russian icon of Holy Trinity

4. • The Italian City State
• Politics
• Money
• The Black Death
• Humanism
• Culture
• Classicism
What Lead to the Italian Renaissance

5. • The Italian Renaissance started in
the early 14th century and lasted
until the late 16th century
• Transition between Medieval
Europe and Early Modern Europe
• Before the Italian Renaissance the
time is often referred to as The
Dark Ages
• Europe before the Renaissance was
not “Dark” (physically or
metaphorically)
• The term was coined in the 19th
century to show a difference
between the power of the church
and the humanist ideals of the
Renaissance
Europe in 1215

6. • Italy did not exist as a political
entity in the early modern
period
• Highly urban
• Divided into smaller city
states and territories
• The Kingdom of Naples
• Republic of Florence
• The Papal Sates
• The Milanese
• The Genoese
• The Venetians
Politics of the Italian
City State
Italy in 1215

7. • End of beginning of the 14th century saw a
widespread new form of political and social
organization
• No more Feudalism
• Society was based on merchants and
commerce
• Anti-monarchical thinking
• “Holding both Church and Empire at bay,
these city republics were devoted to notions
of liberty”
Politics and Money
Portrait of Luca Pacioli (1495) Jacopo de’ Barbari (attributed)

8. • Most noticeable merchant republics
were:
• The Republic of Florence
• The Republic of Venice
• Oligarchy
• Responsive states, with forms of
participation in governance and
belief in liberty
• Academic and artistic advancement
• Intellectual crossroads
• Venice was Europe's gateway to
trade with the East
• The wealth such business brought
to Italy meant large public and
private artistic projects could be
commissioned and individuals had
more leisure time for study

9. • 1346 - 1353
• Italy was particularly badly hit by the
plague
• The plague was carried by fleas on
sailing vessels returning from the ports
of Asia
• Spreading quickly due to lack of
proper sanitation
• It is believed that ¼ of the total
population of Europe died during the
plague
• Florence's population was nearly
halved in the year 1347
The Black Death

10. • The resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to
dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on
spirituality and the afterlife
• It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a
new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of
religious works of art
• The demographic decline
• Landholders faced a great loss but for ordinary men and
women, it was just what they needed
• The survivors of the plague found not only that the prices
of food were cheaper but also found that lands were more
abundant, and that most of them inherited property from
their dead relatives
• The Black Death caused greater upheaval to Italy's social
and political structure than later epidemics
Effect of The Black Death on Europe

11. • Latin and vernacular literatures
• Dante Alighieri
• The Divine Comedy
• Mixing Religion with a kind of early humanism
• “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”
• 14th century resurgence of learning based on
classical sources
• Credited to Petrarch
• Florence, in the 14th century
Beginnings of the
Renaissance
Portrait of Dante, Sandro Botticelli

12. • Not a philosophy
• Method of learning
• In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which
focused on resolving contradictions between authors,
humanists would study ancient texts in the original,
and appraise them through a combination of reasoning
and empirical evidence
• 5 humanities:
• Poetry, Grammar, History, Moral philosophy and
Rhetoric
Humanism
Petrarch from the Cycle of Famous Men and Women (ca. 1450), Andrea di
Bartolo di Bargilla

13. • Writing in Vernacular (the local language or
dialect)
• Niccolò Machiavelli
• Thomas More
• Pico della Mirandola
• The Oration on the Dignity of Man
• The humanists believed that it is important to
transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind
and body
• The purpose of humanism was to create a
universal man whose person combined
intellectual and physical excellence and who was
capable of functioning honourably in virtually
any situation
• Uomo universal
• Today we call this a Renaissance Man /
Renaissance Woman
Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam

14. • Florentine cultural life
• Because it was a city based around business
and not religion things such as dance, music,
literature, and partying were much more
important to the Florentines
• The Medici
• Arts patronage
• Encouraged the spread of Florentine art
outside of Florence
Culture

15. • Since the end of the Black Death Florence had
been a centre for cultural development
• This only intensified during the beginning of
the Renaissance
• Major achievements in literature, music,
philosophy, and other arts, as well as science.
• Due to the importance of Humanist ideals
and the abundance of money leisure activities
became more important
• Italy became the recognized European leader
in all these areas by the late 15th century, and
to varying degrees retained this lead until
about 1600
Courtly Bassa Dance

16. • Return to classicism
• In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an
attempt by intellectuals to study and improve
the secular and worldly, both through the
revival of ideas from antiquity, and through
novel approaches to thought
• Florentine painters strove to portray the
human form realistically, developing
techniques to render perspective and light
more naturally
• The birth of capitalism in the late middle ages
Classicism
The interior of the Pantheon (18th Century), Giovanni Paolo
Panini

17. • Some argument as to when the Renaissance
actually begins
• The Proto-Renaissance is important to understand
in terms of its development in art
• This is a time when we see the blossoming of
creativity in the fields of painting, sculpture, and
architecture
• Proto-Renaissance artists were beginning to
examine art in their own way and not stay with the
styles used during the middle ages
The Proto – Renaissance
1300 - 1400

18. • Italian trade routes
• The Mediterranean
• The recovery of lost Greek classics
• The Crusades
• Refugee Byzantine scholars
• Humanist scholars
Influences

19. Duccio, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints (ca. 1308-1311)

20. • Giotto di Bondone
• (1266/7 – January 8, 1337)
• Painter and architect
• Florence
• Considered the first in a line of great
artists who contributed to the Renaissance
• "the most sovereign master of painting in
his time, who drew all his figures and their
postures according to nature.”
• Break with the prevalent Byzantine style
Giotto
Giotto, Legend of St. Francis, Assisi

21. • Madonna and Child, ca. 1310
• Represents the Virgin Mary
and the Christ Child (Maesta)
• Traditional Christian subject
matter
• Very common during the early
renaissance
• First painting of the
Renaissance
• Naturalism
• Change from Gothic Art
• Looking towards humanist
ideals in art
Giotto, Madonna and Child, c. 1310.

22. • First artist to depict three-dimensional figures in
western European art
• Used a much smaller space than other artists
• Emphasizing the importance of the bodies in the
artwork
• Did not want to flatten the painting
• Realistic fabric folds and instead of lines he used light,
shadow, and colour to create the appearance of fabric
• Contours of the body underneath these fabric folds are
also visible, specifically in the Virgin's knees and also
around her breasts
• Giotto used a value scale, a distinct range of light and
darks, to create a sense of volume in his figures
Giotto’s Technique

23. Giotto, Madonna and Child, c. 1310.

24. Giotto, Madonna and
Child, c. 1310.
Cimabue, Madonna
Enthroned with Angels
and Prophets (ca. 1280-
90)

25. • 37 scenes
• Arranged around the lateral
walls in three tiers
• Starting in the upper register
with the story of Joachim and
Anna, the parents of the
Virgin and continuing with
the story of Mary
• The life of Jesus occupies two
registers
• The Last Judgment fills the
entire pictorial space of the
counter-façade
• Much of the blue in the fresco
has been worn away by time
• Between the scenes are
quatrefoil paintings of Old
Testament scenes
• Jonah and the Whale

26. Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ), Cappella degli Scrovegni, Giotto
The Kiss of Judas, Cappella degli Scrovegni, Giotto

27. • Giotto's figures are not
stylized or elongated and do
not follow the Byzantine
models
• They are solidly three-
dimensional
• Faces and gestures that are
based on close observation
• Foreshortening
• Having characters face
inwards, with their backs
towards the observer creating
the illusion of space
• Uses forced perspective
devices so that they resemble
stage sets
• Careful arrangement of the
figures in such a way that the
viewer appears to have a
particular place and even an
involvement in many of the
scenes

28. • Series of three fresco panels
• 1338 to 1339
• The series consists of six different scenes:
• Allegory of Good Government
• Allegory of Bad Government
• Effects of Bad Government in the City
• Effects of Bad Government in the
Country
• Effects of Good Government in the
City
• Effects of Good Government in the
Country
Lorenzetti
Justice in the Allegory of Good Government (1338 – 9), Ambrogio Lorenzetti

29. • Use of a skewed perspective
• Cityscape and the figures’ scale, as well as the perspective, do
not seem to follow a rational form
• The perspective is derived from the gaze line of Justice
• Justice’s line of gaze is directed across to the corner of the
room
• Science of optics of the time in Siena
• In the time of Lorenzetti, the belief was that sight was not
only the act of seeing, but of understanding as well
• The word for vision meant both to see and the image that the
mind created
• When the viewer is placed into the mind set and
understanding of a Sienese citizen of the day, it strengthens
the argument that the perspective is from that of Justice, as
her gaze then creates and illuminates this peaceful scene
Perspective ????

30. Effects of Good Government (1338 – 9),
Ambrogio Lorenzetti

31. Allegory of Bad
Government
(1338 – 9),
Ambrogio
Lorenzetti

32. • Beginnings of Renaissance church building
• Leads to a “Rebirth” in classical forms of
architecture
• The Early Renaissance is when we start to see many
of the things which we associate with the
Renaissance
• Perspective, Domed Architecture, Sculpture,
Humanism
• See a real movement away from the ideas of the
middle ages and the Byzantine Empire
• Power of the Patron
The Early Renaissance
1400 - 1500

33. • Renaissance ideals first spread from
Florence to the neighbouring states of
Tuscany such as Siena and Lucca
• The Tuscan culture soon became the model
for all the states of Northern Italy
• In 1417 the Papacy returned to Rome, but
that once imperial city remained poor and
largely in ruins through the first years of the
Renaissance
• The nature of the Renaissance also changed
in the late 15th century
• In the early Renaissance artists were seen as
craftsmen with little prestige or recognition,
but by the later Renaissance the top figures
wielded great influence and could charge
great fees
Spread of the
Renaissance

34. Ghiberti
• Lorenzo di Bartolo (Lorenzo
Ghiberti)
• 1378 – December 1st 1455
• Florentine Italian artist of the
Early Renaissance
• Bronze doors of the Florence
Baptistery
• Gates of Paradise
• Trained as a goldsmith and
sculptor,
• Established an important
workshop for sculpture in metal

35. • Ghiberti's career was dominated by his two
successive commissions for pairs of bronze
doors to the Florence Baptistery
• Major masterpiece of the Early Renaissance
• Famous during their time
• Ghiberti first became famous when as a 23-
year-old he won the 1401 competition for
the first set of bronze doors
• Brunelleschi was the runner up
• To carry out this commission, he set up a
large workshop in which many artists
trained, including Donatello
• Ghiberti was commissioned to produce a
second set for another doorway in the
church, this time with scenes from the Old
Testament

37. • Filippo Brunelleschi
• 1377 – April, 15 1446
• Florentine designer and a key figure in
architecture
• Recognised to be the first modern engineer and
architect
• Started out his career as a goldsmith and sculptor
• Competed with Ghiberti for the commission of
the doors of the baptistery of Florence
• Was trained in the gothic or medieval manner of
architecture
• Became obsessed with new classicism in
architecture and urbanism
• Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the
building of the dome of Florence Cathedral
Brunelleschi

38. • 1419
• Commission to complete the dome of the Cathedral
of Florence
• Work occupied a great deal of Brunelleschi's life
• No dome of that size had been built since antiquity.
• Work began in 1420 and was completed in 1436.
• The dome contains over 4 million bricks and the
structure rests on a drum not on the roof itself, this
allowed the dome to be built without the need for
scaffolding from the ground
• The two shells of the dome are supported by ribbed
reinforcements and are joined by horizontal and
vertical struts through which the staircase weaves it's
way to the top of the structure
• The base of the dome is tensioned by horizontal
chains of iron and wood
The Dome of the Florence
Cathedral

41. • Brunelleschi, demonstrated the geometrical
method of perspective, used today by artists, by
painting the outlines of various Florentine
buildings onto a mirror
• When the building's outline was continued, he
noticed that all of the lines converged on the
horizon line
• Soon after, nearly every artist in Florence and in
Italy used geometrical perspective in their
paintings
• Lines converged approximately to a vanishing
point, and the rate at which the horizontal lines
receded into the distance was graphically
determined
• Quattrocento art
Perspective

42. Linear Perspective =
creating a sense of depth in
an architectural space by
using orthogonals and a
vanishing point.
The School of Athens (1509 – 1511)
Raphael, Vatican City

43. Linear Perspective =
creating a sense of depth in
an architectural space by
using orthogonals and a
vanishing point.
Vanishing Point : the point
at which all the orthogonals
meet
The School of Athens (1509 – 1511)
Raphael, Vatican City

44. Linear Perspective =
creating a sense of depth in
an architectural space by
using orthogonals and a
vanishing point.
Vanishing Point : the point
at which all the orthogonals
meet
Orthogonals : name for
architectural lines that head
straight towards or away
from the viewer. They are
the lines that are
perpendicular to the picture
plane.
The School of Athens (1509 – 1511)
Raphael, Vatican City

45. Pietro Perugino, Sistine Chapel Fresco, Vatican City

47. • Bankers
• Giovanni de’ Medici changed the family from a minor
banking family into the leading political family in
Florence
• The Albizzi
• The Popes
• The Medici were highly popular amongst the general
public
• This helped them gain power in Florence
• As they became more popular they started spending
money to enrich the culture of Florence
The Medici
Verrocchio, Portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici

48. • Cosimo de' Medici was highly popular among the
citizenry, mainly for bringing an era of stability and
prosperity to the town
• Cosimo was also an important patron of the arts
• Lorenzo's court included some of the Renaissance’s
most well known artists
• Although he did not commission many works himself,
he helped them secure commissions from other
patrons
• Michelangelo even lived with Lorenzo and his family
for five years
• Lorenzo was also considered himself an artist and poet
Patrons of Art
Giorgio Vasari, Posthumous portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici

49. • Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi
• c. 1386 – December 13, 1466
• Early Renaissance sculptor from Florence
• He studied classical sculpture
• Worked in stone, bronze, wood, clay, stucco
and wax
• Is most known for working in the round
• Changed the way sculpture was created
during the Renaissance
• Was one of the first artists to work for the
Medici family
Donatello

50. • Around 1430, Cosimo de' Medici, the foremost art
patron of his era, commissioned from Donatello the
bronze David for the court of his Palazzo Medici
• This is now Donatello's most famous work
• First known free-standing nude statue produced
since antiquity
• Conceived fully in the round, independent of any
architectural surroundings
• Allegory of the civic virtues triumphing over brutality
and irrationality
• First major work of Renaissance sculpture
Relationship with The
Medici
The David, Donatello

51. • Some have perceived the David as having
homo-erotic qualities
• Argued that this reflected the artist's own
orientation
• This may not be surprising in the context of
attitudes prevailing in the 15th- and 16th-
century Florentine republic
• Little detail is known with certainty about his
private life, and no mention of his sexuality
has been found in the Florentine archives
• Many historians believe that Cosimo de
Medici was also homosexual given the types
of artists he employed as well as his close
relationship with them
The David, Donatello

52. The David, Donatello

53. Masaccio
• Tomaso Cassai
• Born in 1401 in Florence into a very poor family
• In 1422 he became friends with Donatello and
Brunelleschi and was influenced by their work
• Giotto was also a major source of inspiration
• Rejection of the International Gothic style
• He is one of the first artists to use a vanishing point
in his work
• In about 1428 the artist left Florence and travelled
to Rome where he died at the age of 27
• Masaccio's early demise has meant that very few
works exist that are entirely attributed to him
Masaccio, The Expulsion (1426–1427)

54. Masaccio, Resurrection of the Son of Theophilus

55. Masaccio, Tribute Money, c. 1427.

56. • Born in Venice
• Depth of religious feeling with a human
pathos which is his own
• His paintings from the early period are all
executed in the old tempera method
• Romantic sunrise colour
• Bellini is most known for his colour and is
seen as the father of Venetian colouring
techniques
• He was commissioned to do works
throughout Italy (Naples) and introduced
his love of distinct colour to other artists
through the country
Bellini
Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child (c. 1480)

57. Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child
with John the Baptist and Saint
Elizabeth

58. Feast of the Gods (ca. 1514)
Giovanni Bellini and Titian
Oil on Canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. USA

59. Feast of the Gods (ca. 1514)
Giovanni Bellini and Titian
Oil on Canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. USA
Bacchus and Ariadne (ca. 1520 – 1523),
Titian

60. Sacra conversazione dell'accademia

61. • Very few details of Botticelli's life
• Known that he became an apprentice when
he was about fourteen years old as a
goldsmith
• Monumentality of Masaccio's painting
• Intimate and detailed style
• By 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop
• Considered to be one of the first true
masters of Italian Renaissance painting
• Only in later life did he come in to his own
(with a unique style) as a painter
Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Young Woman (1484)

62. The Primavera
• Botticelli was greatly
influenced by the study of
antiquity
• He was trying to mixt
antiquity and the ideas of
medieval Italian Christianity
• The Primavera is one of his
best examples of this mixture
• He is expressing different
parts of classical ideals that he
felt fit well with the life of
people in Florence at the time
• Powerful humanist scene
Botticelli, Primavera (c. 1482)

63. Botticelli,
Primavera (c.
1482)

65. The Birth of Venus
• Ovid’s Metamorphoses
• Venus is portrayed naked on a shell on the
seashore; on her left the winds blow gently
caressing her hair with a shower of roses
• On her right a handmaid (Ora) waits for
the goddess to go closer to dress her shy
body.
• The meadow is sprinkled with violets,
symbol of modesty but often used for love
potions.
• The work would mean the birth of love and
the spiritual beauty as a driving force of
life
• The Medici commissioned the Birth of
Venus
• The Birth of Venus is the first example in
Tuscany of a painting on canvas
• Moreover the special use of expensive
alabaster powder, making the colours even
The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli

66. The Birth
of Venus,
Sandro
Botticelli

69. Sandro Botticelli,
Madonna and Child
with St. John the
Baptist (c. 1470–
1475)
Sandro Botticelli,
Lamentation over
the Dead Christ
(c. 1490-92)

70. Sandro Botticelli,
Giuliano di'
Medici (c. 1475)
Sandro Botticelli,
Portrait of a young
man with red hat
(c. 1485)

71. • Seen as the height of the artistic achievements of the Italian
Renaissance
• Some of the most famous artists of the Renaissance come
from this time period
• Sees the spread of the Renaissance outside of city states like
Florence
• First movement to southern Italy
• Then movement to northern Italy
• Then movement to northern Europe
• New techniques were created and perfected during this time
period that we still use today
High Renaissance
1495 - 1527

72. • Separation between East and West
• Fall of Constantinople
• Time of great turmoil in Europe
• Wars between many nation
• 100 years war
• Politics and religious thinking
• The reformation
• Indulgences
Europe in 1453

73. • Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
• 15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519
• Born near Florence
• Educated in the studio of painter Andrea del
Verrocchio
• Invention, painting, sculpting, architecture,
science, music, mathematics, engineering,
literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy,
botany, writing, history, and cartography
• Florence, Milan, Rome, Venice, France
Leonardo da Vinci

74. Leonardo’s
Death
• Spent the last years of his life
in France
• King Francis I
• Often visited by the King
• Artists are considered
intellectuals
• Highest levels of society
• Said to have died in the arms
of the king
• Lived at a time when power of
the artist was changing

75. • Left behind 10,000+ pages of drawings, ideas, and
notes
• Anatomy
• Inventions
• Sketches
• Mirror image
• Left handed drawing and writing
• Less expensive paper
• No longer the use of vellum
• Drawing became available to more people
• People liked to draw
Drawings & Inventions

79. 79

80. • 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
80
LEONARDO DA VINCI, cartoon for Madonna
and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint
John, ca. 1505–1507.

81. • 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
Madonna of the Rocks
Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks

82. 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.
• This was important because it represented a very
important part of the bible “The Immaculate
Conception”
• At the time this painting was commissioned the
Pope said that anyone who did not believe in the
immaculate conception of Christ would be
excommunicated from the church.

86. • 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
The Last Supper
LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–
1498

87. LEONARDO DA VINCI,
Last Supper, ca. 1495–
1498. Oil and tempera
on plaster, 13’ 9” x 29’
10”. Refectory, Santa
Maria delle Grazie,
Milan.

88. • 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.

89. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–
1498

91. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–
1498

93. Preparatory
studies

94. • 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
The Mona Lisa
LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa, ca. 1503–1505

95. Sfumato
• Soft, vague or blurred
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452-
1519) became the most
prominent practitioner of
sfumato
• His famous painting of the
Mona Lisa exhibits the
technique
• Leonardo da Vinci described
sfumato as "without lines or
borders, in the manner of
smoke or beyond the focus
plane"
• Correggio, Raphael and
Giorgione

99. • Raffaello Santi
• Talented, popular, and beloved artist
• Died young at 37
• 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
Raphael

100. • Julius II awarded decoration of the Papal
apartments in Vatican
• Stanze della Segnatura (Room of the
Signature)
• 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
The School of
Athens
RAPHAEL, Philosophy (School of Athens), Stanza della
Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy, 1509–1511. Fresco,
19’ x 27’.

101. RAPHAEL, Philosophy
(School of Athens),
Stanza della Segnatura,
Vatican Palace, Rome,
Italy, 1509–1511. Fresco,
19’ x 27’.

105. Plato vs. Aristotle
• Plato holds Timaeus, points to
Heaven, source of inspiration
• Aristotle holds Nichomachean
Ethics, gestures towards the earth,
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.

106. RAPHAEL, Philosophy
(School of Athens),
Stanza della Segnatura,
Vatican Palace, Rome,
Italy, 1509–1511. Fresco,
19’ x 27’.

109. The Sistine
Madonna
• The Madonna, holding the Christ Child
• Flanked by Saint Sixtus and Saint Barbara
• Two distinctive winged cherub rest on
their elbows beneath the Madonna
• The painting was commissioned by Pope
Julius II in honour of his late uncle, Pope
Sixtus IV
• Altarpiece for the basilica church of the
Benedictine Monastery of San Sisto in
Piacenza
• Considered one of Raphael's greatest
religious works
The Sistine Madonna, Raphael, 1512

111. La Fornaria
• In the painter's studio at his death in 1520
• Modified and then sold by his assistant
Giulio Romano
• The woman is traditionally identified with
the fornarina (baker) Margherita Luti
• Raphael's Roman lover
• Pictured with an oriental style hat and bare
breasts
• Her left arm has a narrow band carrying the
signature of the artist, RAPHAEL URBINAS
• X-Ray analyses have shown that in the
background was originally a Leonardesque-
style landscape in place of the myrtle bush,
which was sacred to Venus, goddess of love
and passion
La Fornaria, Raphael, 1518 - 1520

113. • “Il Divno” (the divine one)
• Architect, poet, engineer, sculptor…..reluctant painter
• Sculpture superior to painting because of it’s divine power
to “make man”
• The “idea” is the reality the artist’s genius must bring
forth-the absolute idea is beauty and originates in the
divine.
• Mistrusted application of mathematics to proportion
(unlike Leonardo)-measure and proportion should be kept
in the eye and the hands.
• Asserted the artists authority over the patron-bound only
by the idea. (artistic license)
• Ultimate Humanist artist-a style of vast, expressive
strength, complex, titanic forms with tragic grandeur.
Michelangelo

114. Personality:
• A complex, brooding genius. Solitary,
tempestuous, willful….Michelangelo
casts the mold for the persona of the
Artist in Western Civilization
• Famous for battles of will with Pope
Julius II
• Abstemoious (lived like a poor man
despite great wealth). Rough, uncouth,
dirty, melancholy, unsociable
• Devout Catholic
• Homosexual, wrote love poems to
Tommaso dei Cavalieri
• Crummy father, wanted son to be a
lawyer. Not impressed by fame, and
asked son for money. (Daddy Issues ?)

115. • Created for the funeral of a local cardinal
• Carved out of one piece of stone
• Weight of Christ lifeless body expressed in
stone
• "It is certainly a miracle that a formless
block of stone could ever have been
reduced to a perfection that nature is
scarcely able to create in the flesh.”- Vasari
• Considered to be one of Michelangelo's
greatest works
• Not his most famous at the time, but his
most detailed
The Pieta
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Pieta, ca. 1498-1500.

118. • Commissioned by Florence Cathedral building
committee
• Used a giant 18” block of marble that other
sculptors had abandoned
• David shown before confrontation over Goliath
• First colossal nude since ancient times
• Career making piece for 26 year old artist
• Embodies Humanist ideas- celebration of the
individual, and celebration of the artist as
creator of divine works
• Contrapposto (of course)
The David
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI,
David, 1501–1504.

120. • 3 times the size of average human (17”)
• Involves the spectator by implying
sculptural arena beyond the pedestal
• Colossal size communicates heroic
importance of mans actions
• Potential rather than accomplishment.
• Looking towards challenge of the future
• A celebration of mankind, here and now
• The ultimate monument to HUMANISM

125. • Tablet of the Law (Commandments) under
one arm.
• Appears angry, almost in motion-pent up
wrath at Israelites for worshipping the
Golden Calf
• Musculature expresses energy and might.
Strong influence from Hellenistic sculpture
• The "rays of light" that were seen around
Moses' face after his meeting with God on Mt
Sinai were commonly expressed as horns.
(mistranslation of Hebrew word for “rays”)
• Seated “contrapposto”
• “terribilita” (awe inspiring grandeur)
• Swirling beard and drapery full of energy
Tomb of Pope Julius
II
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Moses, ca. 1513–1515

126. • The “Warrior Pope”
• Chose the name Julius after Julius Caesar
• Commanded armies of the Papal State
• Taste for the colossal
• Huge art patron
• Large scale projects required a lot of $$$, and many
Church members saw this as indulging papal art,
architecture, and lavish lifestyles
• Used the visual imagery for propaganda
• Commissioned work to represent his authoritative
image and reinforce the primacy of the Catholic Church
• Sistine Chapel
Pope Julius II

127. Tomb of Julius II
• First papal commission for
Michelangelo
• Original design called for two
story structure with 28 statues
(unprecedented size)
• Project interrupted due to lack
of funds
• Completed with 1/3 of
planned figures- (Julius
would’ve been very
disappointed)

129. • A chapel in the Apostolic Palace
• The official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City
• Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes
its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between
1477 and 1480
• During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance
painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino,
Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Roselli,
created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and
the Life of Christ
• Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope
Julius II, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling
• Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by
which a new pope is selected
The Sistine Chapple

131. • Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II
in 1508 to repaint the vault, or ceiling, of the
Chapel
• It was originally painted as golden stars on a blue
sky.
• The work was completed between 1508 and 2
November 1512
• 5,800 sq ft, 70 ft high, 300 figures (completed in 4
years)
• Biblical narrative of Genesis, (9 scenes) Creation
to Adam and Eve, Life of Noah
• Old Testament scenes placed in pendentives
(David, Judith, Haman, Moses, Brazen Serpent).
• Other figures: Ancestors of Christ, Sibyls,
Prophets, nude youths.
• THEMES: Chronology of Christianity, conflict of
good and evil, energy of youth and wisdom of age.
The Celling of the
Sistine Chapple
Michelangelo Buonarroti, ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1508-
1512

132. • To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo
needed a support
• Michelangelo created a flat wooden platform
on brackets built out from holes in the wall,
high up near the top of the windows
• Contrary to popular belief, he did not lie on
this scaffolding while he painted, but painted
from a standing position
• Michelangelo used bright colours, easily
visible from the floor
• He was originally commissioned to paint only
12 figures
• The Apostles
• He turned down the commission because he
saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter
• The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to
paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a
compromise.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1508-
1512

147. • Commissioned by Pope Paul III as part of
the Counter-Reformation
• Christ as Stern Judge
• Terrifying vision of damnation goes beyond
Signorelli
• Saint Bartholomew (self-portrait?)
• Purposeful lack of beauty in many figures
• Rises on left, descends on right
• Unlike other sacred narratives, which
portray events of the past, this one
implicates the viewer
• It has yet to happen and when it does, the
viewer will be among those whose fate is
determined
The Last Judgment
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Last Judgment, altar wall of
the Sistine Chapel 1536–1541.

148. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Last
Judgment, altar wall of the Sistine Chapel
(FIG. 22-18), Vatican City, Rome, Italy,
1536–1541. Fresco, 48’ x 44’.
• Fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in
Vatican City
• It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and
the final and eternal judgment by God of all
humanity
• The souls of humans rise and descend to their
fates, as judged by Christ surrounded by prominent
saints
• Done between 1536 and 1541
• Michelangelo began working on it twenty five years
after having finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling
• While traditional medieval last judgments showed
figures dressed according to their social positions,
Michelangelo created a new standard
• The artist portrayed the separation of the blessed
and the damned by showing the saved ascending
on the left and the damned descending on the right
148

154. 154

159. • Art Historians argue as to when exactly the Italian
Renaissance ended
• Some even argue that it has never ended
• Seeming it was never a set art movement, and was
more about ideals, many people believe that it
continues on to this day
• Historically we mark the end of the movement by
two things
1. Savonarola in 1494 – 1498
2. French invasions in the early 16th century
The End of
The Italian Renaissance

160. End of the
Italian
Renaissance• Influence of Savonarola
• Decadent lifestyle
• Changing ideas of what
should be represented in art
• Spanish and German invasions
• The Reformation
• Changing ideas of what
should be represented in art
• Continuation of the Italian
Renaissance
• The Northern Renaissance
• Modern and Contemporary
Art
• Humanism in Art