Art 176

Pope Julius II 1512 oil on wood High Renaissance Vatican --- As one of the highly regarded masters of the time, Raphael was also frequently granted commissions by the politically and socially powerful people of his age, as indicated by this image here, his portrait of the pope Julius II. Remarkably, it is a kind of portrait that intensely reveals the humanity of its subject, featuring the type of close psychological observation of character that we've seen developing in the portraits of this time, and applied here even to the leader of the church. The portrait was painted near to the time of the pope's death, and instead of an iconic image of unwavering power, considering the strength of the church at the time, Raphael has produced instead a deeply contemplative characterization, the leader not dressed in full ceremonial garb, but the equivalent of everyday clothes. It shares this in common with the Mona Lisa, perhaps, in which Leonardo chose not to emphasize trappings of the subject's wealth, but rather an underlying human character. Thus, the portrait is some further evidence of Julius's position as a kind of humanist pope, and his participation in the artistic ideas of his day, allowing this work of art to examine the direct human experience.

green back

Last Supper / Christ of Levi 1573 oil on canvas Mannerism Venice, Italy --- As we pointed out, the example by Bronzino just considered was a prime instance of the courtly patronage attached to much Mannerist work. Church institutions, however, did not stop commissioning art, and at this time, the Church's influence on art, in the mid to late 16th century, was tremendously informed by the effects of the Counter Reformation, which was again the Catholic Church's response to accusations that it was a corrupt, and impious institution. Where art was concerned, the Church decreed that its images now had to be especially reverent, and not frivolous (or, as the decree put it, "unusual"), so we saw how even the work of an artist as renowned as Michelangelo had come under fire within this climate. Narration Video clip

little darker

Infancy Cycle of Christ 1260 Marble Proto-Renaissance Baptistery pulpit, Pisa, Italy ---- -conscious look at classical Greek and Roman art, regarded as an ideal within human aesthetic history -we see some of this interest appearing in this late Gothic and pre-Renaissance time shown here by fashioning church stands where sermon is preached -structurally - traits of classical: the decorative marble columns topped here by a Corinthian capital-dates back to ancient Greece and the rounded arc prominent during Roman time...opposed to the recent pointed arch of the Gothic architecture popular at the time. *fusion leading up to the Renaissance...incorporating medieval features as well. EX: Here, the trefoil design within the arches don't have a classical root nor do the animal forms supporting the bases of the columns, instead medieval bestiary tradition. *fusing of new classicism, with medieval elements that formed after classicism. EX: reintroduction of classical aesthetic one of the panel's decorating the sides of the pulpit/stand. These are compositions' style draws strongly from Roman precedent *the strategy of using a densely packed composition of bulky forms, piled into a relief surface. The subject matter of this panel is a set of events of the infancy cycle of Christ, including his miraculous conception, birth, and his infancy. In this composition we see the Virgin Mary depicted multiple times: *left, shown in scene of the Annunciation when Angel Gabriel comes to deliver news to Mary that she will bear the son the God. *center, as part of the Nativity/the birth of Christ. *underneath, the infant Christ is seen being washed. stylistic traits also revived from classical art - can be seen especially again in the newfound interest in emphasizing full figures. artists no longer content letting figures remain the kind of flattened schematic forms like earlier medieval Christian images instead, new attention to careful observation of how things like draperies fold and fall, in reaction to the human form, a strong sculptural concern in classical figural depiction along with rendering of the face, as an idealized and expressionless visage. sometimes we'll see the very forms themselves have been appropriated from earlier models. This is something that happens pretty frequently, as new traditions build on older ones - existing visual culture to draw from, work from, and re-contextualize. -Here, too, artists have begun attempting a fusion, between the now dominant Christian faith, and an older visual system ex: we can see kind of precedent they hoped to adopt in something like the sculpture shown in fig. 1.4, of a goddess worshipped as part of the pagan religion of Rome. --What we see, here in the pre-Renaissance time in Italy, is artists like Nicola Pisano inserting forms into his art which are distinctly of the classical visual culture. --In this case--not because such images constituted the popular imagery of the time... as the circumstance may have been when the earliest Christian images drew from pagan art. --Now-- done purposely to capture this distinct sense of Roman-ness, to exploit the ties to classicism that could be declared through motifs like these. not be the only kind of influence that contributes to Renaissance art so what we'll really see in the formation of Renaissance art is a kind of negotiation between some of these different artistic trajectories, which will then later blend into a new and distinctive approach to art that is used to convey its contemporary take on humanism.

white grey/marble

Summary: The Renaissance takes shape Late 13- early 14th century Proto-Renaissance Italy --- We've looked in this module at a number of aspects of the reassertion of humanism brings us to Renaissance proper, start around the 1400s - the rebirth from what they thought of as a kind of dark ages. partly to revive attention on the accomplishments of mankind, and in the world of art, this celebration will lead also to the lauding of the artist as personality. whole idea of the artist as a persona, the cult of personality surrounding the artist, and the celebrity of the artist in the history of western art, some ways most directly traceable to the time beginning here. There will be political and social implications, too, to these artistic developments, as patrons increasingly begin to understand the power of images to influence ideas, and then jockey to position themselves in this new social climate as being particularly cultured. in the art patronage that follows, almost a sense of competing humanism, courts frequently seeking to hire the most famed artists and architects, in order to establish themselves as especially prestigious within these new modes of thinking. question of how to reconcile these two huge influences on Italian society at the time - the humanistic on the one hand, versus the religious on the other - this will be one of the big questions faced, as we look to a future of Renaissance art.

Giotto, Last Judgment, 1305, fresco, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy