17. High Renaissance

-Soft atmospheric ambiance highlighted by a gently modulated use of light -Bodies sensuously rendered -Florentines and Venetians paint religious scenes, but Florentines see them as heroic accomplishments, whereas Venetians imbue their saints with a more human touch, showing beauty of natural world -Damp Venetian climate caused wooden paintings to warp -Used canvas

Describe Characteristics of Venetian High Renaissance Painting

-mostly humble origins -Guilds -Artists could get famous -Kings sometimes fought over artists -Pope Julius II was a dominant patron of the time, he was greatly devoted to the arts -Women like Isabella d'Este also great patrons of the art -Most artists didn't have noble lives

Describe Patronage and Artistic Life in High Renaissance period

-The Tempietto shows belief in circle as perfection -Classical architecture

Describe characteristics of High Renaissance Architecutre

-Classical ideas from Greece and Rome -Heroic nudity -Little negative space -Usually meant to be seen from front -Marble medium of choice, but there was some bronze -Sculpture left unpainted bc they valued purity of white marble

Describe characteristics of High Renaissance Sculpture

-Northern European artists discovered durability of canvas -Taken up in Venice -da Vinci used painting technique called sfumato, created misty and soft effect, distances viewer from subject -Artists used chiaroscuro, soft transitions btwn light and dark, heightens modeling effects in a work -Venetian artists (ex: Titian) used glazes to increase richness of surfaces -Three-quarter views more fashionable -Portraits more psychological

Describe innovations of High Renaissance Painting

-Roman treatise on architecture by Vitruvius became widely known -Leonardo- Vitruvian man -Geometric shapes -Perfect symmetry -Bramante's architecture

Describe innovations of high renaissance architecture

-Spain and France advanced on Italy -Venice alone in independent power -High Renaissance in cultivated courts -Halt in 1527 when there was a sack of Rome -Mannerism emerged from the ruins

Describe the historical background of High Renaissance art

-Antonio da Sangallo, Farnese Palace, c. 1530-1546, Rome -High Renaissance palace -Sweeping horizontal front, enlarged by Michelangelo -Heavy rusticated entrance and quoins -Each story has different window frames -Heavy cornice crowns the work -Built for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, later elected Pope Paul III

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Bramante, The Tempietto, 1502, Rome -Matryium that commemorates the place where Saint Peter was crucified; commissioned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain -Circular shrine reminiscent of a Greek tholos; no inscriptions, limited carving in the metopes -Columns, called a peristyle, surround a cylindrical cella topped by a dome -Combination of pagan architecture and a Christian theme, common in Renaissance art -Circle represents divine perfection; proportions of width and height of ground floor repeated in upper floor -Light and shadow interplay in the projecting of columns before the main structure

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Giorgione (and Titian), The Pastoral Concert, c. 1508, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris -Soft modeling of figures; rich application of glazes -Shepherds are poets who are playing music in an Arcadian landscape -Muses are inspiring the poets to play by lifting water out of the well of inspiration -Deep chiaroscuro, no clear cut edges

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Giorgione, The Tempest, c. 1510, oil on canvas, Academy, Venice -Intense scholarly debate over the meaning -Soldier on left with halberd is staring at breast-feeding woman -Incongruities in the lightning bolt, the broken columns, the arch that is only half completed -Emerging use of oil paint in Venetian art allows artists to render softer color tonalities and harmonies -Emerging landscape tradition

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-Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece, 1505, originally oil on wood, now oil on canvas, San Zaccaria, Venice -Single cohesive grouping -Serene coloring; glowing colors -Subdued lines -Parallel positions of saints -Sacra conversazione -Bellini was teacher to Giorgione and Titian; introduced them to oil painting

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503-1505, oil on wood, Louvre, Paris -Sfumato and chiaroscuro; atmospheric perspective in the background -A three-quarter turn toward the viewer, relaxed with a gentle contrapposto to the body -Engages the viewer directly, seems to be- but is not- smiling -Pyramidal composition -Psychological intensity

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495-1498, tempera and oil on plaster, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan -Commissioned by the Sforza of Milan for the refectory, or dining hall, of a Dominican abbey -Relationship between the friars eating and a Biblical meal -Only Leonardo work remaining in situ -Linear perspective; orthogonals of ceiling and floor point to Jesus -Apostles in groupings of three, Jesus is alone but before a group of three windows symbolizing the Trinity -Leonardo used an experimental combination of paints to yield a greater chiaroscuro; however, the paints began to peel off the wall in Leonardo's lifetime. As a result, the painting has been restored many times. -Great drama of the moment -Various reactions on the faces of the apostles: surprise, fear, anger, denial, suspicion; anguish on the face of Jesus -Judas falls back clutching his bag of coins, face in darkness

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-Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John, 1505-1507, charcoal sketch on brown paper, National Gallery, London -Figures arranged in a spatially complex manner -Charcoal drawing with sensitivity to shading and color tones -Upraised finger a motif in Leonardo's art

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-Michelangelo, Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill), c. 1537, Rome -Civic plaza in the center of Rome, built for Pope Paul III -Huge pilasters dominate the structures, cutting vertically through the stories and towering over the viewer -Worked around existing buildings on the site; created a trapezoid plan -Ovel plaza design unifies unusual building angles -Ancient sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, placed at the center of the plaza; a copy has now replaced it

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, fresco from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1511-1512, Rome, Italy -God is flying through the sky; Adam is bound to the earth -God makes Adam in his "image and likeness" -Two extremely powerful figures possess a sculptural quality; Adam was influenced by the Greek Hellenistic sculpture of the Belvedere Torso -Around God the Father's arms is Eve waiting to be born (some scholars suggest it is the Virgin Mary with the Christ child)

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-Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504, marble, Academy, Florence -Figure of David represents Florence as she faced larger, more powerful and threatening states like France -Michelangelo rendered this figure from a block of marble worked on by another artist who abandoned their project -First colossal nude since the ancient world -David anticipates the action of challenging Goliath; great concentration on the face -Slight contrapposto; little negative space; compact pose; monumental forms

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-Michelangelo, Last Judgment fresco from the Sistine Chapel, 1534-1541, Rome -In contrast to the ceiling, there are no cornice divisions; it is one large space with figures more casually grouped -Mannerism shown in the distortions of the body, elongations, crowded groups -Four broad horizontal bands act as the unifying element 1. Bottom left: dead rising, right: the mouth of hell 2. Second level: ascending elect, descending sinners, trumpeting angels 3. Third level: those rising to heaven gathered around Jesus 4. Top lunettes: angels carrying the Cross and the Column, instruments used at Christ's death -Christ in center and gestures defiantly with right hand; complex pose -Justice is delivered: the good rise, the evil fall -Lower right-hand corner has figures from Dante's Inferno: Minos and Charon -Saint Bartholomew holds his skin, a symbol of his martyrdom, but the skin's face is Michelangelo's. An oblique remark about critics who skin him alive with their criticism. -Spiraling composition is a reaction against the High Renaissance harmony of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and reflects the disunity of Christendom caused by the Reformation

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Michelangelo, Moses, 1513-1515, marble, Saint Peter in Chains, Rome -Commissioned by Pope Julius II as part of his immense tomb, which was never completed as planned -Originally meant to be seen from below, oblique angle of the legs would have allowed viewing from this point of view -Horns: mistranslation of Biblical text; Moses thought to have had "horns" coming out of his head after visiting Mount Sinai, an improper translation for "rays" -Figure is in awe, but awesome to the view as well -Figure shows a pent-up energy -Inspired by Greek Hellenistic sculpture Laocoon

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Michelangelo, Pietá, c. 1498, marble, Saint Peter's, Rome -Commissioned for Old Saint Peter's and originally intended as a funerary monument; scenes of mourning over the dead Jesus appropriate for funerary monument -Pyramidal composition; little negative space; compact; monumental; frontal viewpoint preferred, the work was meant to be placed against the wall of a chapel -Heavy drapery masks Mary's size as she easily holds Jesus in her lap -Christ is portrayed as serene -Mary appears to be too young to have a 33-year-old son Michelangelo claimed "Don't you know that chaste women remain far fresher than those who are not chaste? So much more the Virgin . . . never has the least lascivious desire ever arisen that might alter her body . . . " -Signed on the sash across Mary's chest, the only work Michelangelo ever signed

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Michelangelo, Saint Peter's, 1546-1564, Rome -Michelangelo becomes the official architect well into construction -Respected Bramante's plan of a Greek cross and supported the idea of a hemispherical dome like the Pantheon (the shape of the dome was later changed by Giacomo della Porta after Michelangelo's death) -Alternating window designs -Double dome, cf. Brunelleschi's dome of Florence Cathedral -Massive pilasters rise dramatically from the ground, and run through the two stories -Characteristics of Venetian High Renaissance Painting

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508-1512, fresco, Vatican, Rome -Sistine Chapel erected in 1472 and painted by quattrocento masters including Botticelli and Perugino, as well as Michelangelo's teacher Ghirlandaio -Function: the place where new popes are elected -Michelangelo chose a complicated arrangement of figures for the ceiling, broadly illustrating the first few chapters of Genesis, with accompanying Old Testament figures and antique sibyls-- many based on antique sculptures -Three hundred figures on ceiling, no two in the same pose; Michelangelo's lifelong preoccupation with the male nude in motion -Enormous variety of expression -Painted cornices frame groupings of figures in a highly organized way -Many figures, like the Ignudi, are done for artistic expression rather than to enhance the narrative -Acorns are a motif on the ceiling, inspired by the crest of the patron, Pope Julius II

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Raphael, Galatea, c. 1513, fresco, Villa Farnesina, Rome -Story taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses -Galatea escapes from the Cyclops Polyphemus by riding on a shell pulled by dolphins -Galatea's complex figural pose has hair and head facing left, arms right, one leg raised, and one leg straight -Composition rests on a series of triangles -Lively vibrant bodies energetically and playfully arranged

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Raphael, Madonna with the Goldfnch, c. 1506, oil on panel, Uffizi, Florence -The Holy Family is a perennial theme in Raphael's work -Figures sit in a triangular composition in a lush garden setting -Sweetness of faces of Mary and the Christ child dominate -Clarity of forms; atmospheric perspective; chiaroscuro renders modeling

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509-1511, fresco, Vatican Rome -Commissioned by Pope Julius to decorate his library -Painting originally called "Philosophy" because the pope's philosophy books were meant to be housed on shelving below -One painting in a complex program of works that illustrates the vastness and variety of the papal library -Open, clear light uniformly spread throughout composition -Nobility and monumentality of forms parallel to the greatness of the figures represented; figures gesture to indicate their philosophical thought -Building behind might reflect Bramante's plan for Saint Peter's -In center are the two greatest figures in ancient Greek thought: Plato and Aristotle -Bramante is the bald figure of Euclid in the lower right -Raphael is in the corner at extreme right -Michelangelo resting on the stone block writing a poem -Raphael's overall composition influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Titian, Isabella d'Este, 1534-1536, oil on canvas, Art History Museum, Vienna -Powerful artistic patroness from Mantua -Was actually sixty when portrait was painted, but she wanted to look twenty, earlier portrait was used as a model -Self-assured -Head and hands receive most attention -Garment fades into the background

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Titian, Madonna of the Pesaro Family, 1519-1526, oil on canvas, Santa Maria dei Frari, Venice -Painted to commemorate the Venetian victory won by Jacopo Pesaro at the Battle of Santa Maura in 1502 against the Turks -Jacopo kneels at left with Saint George (?) and a bowing Turk; members of the Pesaro family at right are presented by Saint Francis of Assisi -Saint Peter in center with keys looking down to Pesaro -Strong diagonals and triangles in the work; Madonna and Child placed off center, but still at the focus of interest -Novel approach of asymmetrical composition; visible brushwork in secondary passages -Composition is balanced by color rather than by design -Columns added later by another artist

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas, Uffizi, Florence -May not have been a venus, may have been a courtesan -Sensuous delight in the skin tones -Looks at us directly -Complex spatial environment: figure placed forward on the picture plane, servants in middle space; open window with plants in background -Roses contribute to the floral motif carried throughout the week -Dog perhaps symbolizes faithfulness -Cassoni: trunks intended for storage of clothing for a wife's trousseau -Painting became a standard for future reclining female nudes cf. Manet Olypia, Ingres, The Grand Odalisque

Identify and describe this piece, including its name, the date in which it was created and its location

-Idealization of Raphael's work becomes popular -Balanced composition, warm colors, ideally proportioned figures -Triangular composition -Key figure in the center alone and highlighted -People symmetrically balanced around

JuDescribe characteristics of High Renaissance Painting

-Revitalization of city of Rome under patronage of Pope Julius II led to one of the most creative outbursts in the history of art -High Renaissance artists seek to emulate Roman grandeur by undertaking awe-inspiring artistic projects -High Renaissance compositions are marked by balance, symmetry and ideal proportions. Triangular compositions are also favored. -Venetian painters stress sensuous forms with sophisticated color harmonies. -Portraits reveal the likenesses of the sitters as well as their character personality

What are the key ideas of high renaissance art?

1495-1520

What is the time period of High Renaissance Art?