High Renaissance and Mannerism

High Renaissance and Mannerism

Titian and Venetian High Renaissance Painting

Historical Background

Enduring Understandings and Essential Knowledge

Number of years after its completion that deterioration was noted: 18

Number of bombs that have hit the refectory: 1

Number of years needed to complete the recent conservation project: 22

Number of years that Leonardo needed to complete the painting: 4

Number of research studies produced during conservation project: 60

Number of hours spent on the conservation project: 50,000

Percentage of the surface that is lost: 17.5

Percentage of the surface painted during the seven previous restorations: 40

Percentage of the surface that was painted by Leonardo: 42.5

Venus of Urbino

Titian

1538

oil on canvas

Shows a nude woman, sensually in her bedchamber - the woman may be divine or mortal

Based on an earlier painting of Venus

Establishes a tradition of a female reclining nude

Division of the composition is important, drawing the eye through the painting

Females in background are handmaids searching for clothing in a traditional wooden clothing chest

Color is a forte of Titian and he uses it masterfully here

- red offsets the lighter colors

- red help create a sense of distance and an implied diagonal

- color used as an organizational tool

Venetian vs. Florentine/Roman

soft modeling line and contour

human-like saints heroic saint figures

Arcadian settings heroic settings

canvas wood/fresco

Inventions and anatomy

The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci

1494-1498

tempera and oil, fresco

A group portrait of Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper

Commissioned by the Sforza family of Milan - the ruling family of Milan

Placement is on the wall of the refectory (dining hall) of a Dominican abbey - the placement is significant to the work because it echoes the friar's eating

Only work remaining in situ - in place

Uses linear perspective, orthogonals point to Jesus

Apostles appear in groups of three, three windows - trinity

Represents the moment when Jesus reveals that one of them will betray him (Matthew 26:21)

The painting is in terrible shape and has been restored many times:

Leonardo used an experimental combination of tempera and oil that did not work well

The fresco was painted on dry plaster, prevents paint from bonding properly

The painting is on wall shared by the kitchen, hot steamy air created moisture problems

Napoleon's army bunked there and used the wall as target practice

The building was bombed during WWII

The Last Supper is a common theme, much like the Lamentation, Nativity, Entombment and Annunciation scenes - see left for two examples

Leonardo was also an accomplished inventor as well as a painter

Modern European art emerges from an interaction with cultures on a global scale. Prior studies highlighted a more narrow geographic or chronological approach.

• Western Europe and the American colonies are at the center of Renaissance and Baroque studies.
• Europe and the Americas are brought into closer alignment with this new course of study. One is not considered more important than the other.
• Europeans brought goods and culture to the Western hemisphere with their trade and conquest.
• Europeans began to collect and organize knowledge from their various expansions around the globe. European influence is on the rise at home and abroad.

The Reformation and Counter-Reformation caused a rift in Christian art of Western Europe.

• In Northern Europe there was an emphasis on non-religious subjects, like portraits, genre paintings and still lifes. In Southern Europe there was an emphasis on religious subjects with much more active and dynamic compositions.

• Spain and France expand into parts of Italy

• Venice remains independent, well supplied and wealthy

• High Renaissance flourishes in Rome, Florence and Venice, but is ended with the sack of Rome in 1527 - sacked by army of Holy Roman Empire

• Mannerism emerges in 1520s - using tension, distortions, unbalanced compositions - fitting for an age of contention

• Catholic church founds the Jesuit order, centered on missionary work and education - they become great patrons of the arts

Paintings

Last Supper as a theme, other artists

High Renaissance: 1495-1520, Rome, Florence, Venice

Mannerism: 1520-1600, Italy

Watch this: http://smarthistory.org/titian-venus-of-urbino/

http://smarthistory.org/titian-madonna-of-the-pesaro-family/

Reclining female nude

Watch this: http://smarthistory.org/leonardo-last-supper/

Composition

1600

1495

High Renaissance Sculpture & Architecture

Patronage and Artists

High Renaissance Painting

Bramante

Pieta

Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City

Michelangelo

1508-1512

fresco

The chapel was painted by several masters including Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio (Michelangelo's teacher) and Michelangelo

The ceiling and the Last Judgement wall were done by Michelangelo

The function of the chapel: where new popes are elected

Ceiling illustrates first few chapters of Genesis accompanied by Old Testament figures and sybils - over 300 figures total, no two are alike

Figures demonstrate Michelangelo's preoccupation with the male nude and his signature style of sculptural figures (painted, but look like sculptures - Michelangelo was first and foremost a sculptor)

Figures like the ignudi (nude corner figures) are not part of the narrative, pure artistic expression

Cornices frame groups, organized

Acorns are a repeated motif - symbol of the patron, Pope Julius II

Patron's agenda: to turn Rome into a flourishing city of the arts, to rival Florence and to unite Italy and extend the power of the Holy Roman Catholic Church

Delphic Sybil

Michelangelo

1508-1512

fresco

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Total of five sybils (a female prophet) - these were Greco-Roman figures whom Christians felt foretold the coming of Jesus

They wear Greek style turbans

Holds a scroll containing her prophecy

Humanist: combines Christian and pagan imagery

Sistine Chapel ceiling

http://smarthistory.org/donato-bramante-tempietto-rome/

http://smarthistory.org/st-peters-basilica-2/

Michelangelo

School of Athens

Raphael

1509-1511

fresco

Apostolic Palace, Vatican City

Commissioned by Julius II to decorate the papal apartments (this room came to be called the Stanza fella Segnatura - the papal library where future popes signed official documents)

On the four walls, Raphael painted works symbolizing the four branches of human knowledge and wisdom - Theology, Law (Justice), Poetry and Philosophy - all required learning for a pope

School of Athens is the Philosophy wall - reconciles and harmonizes Platonists/Aristotelians and humanism/Christianity

Not a "school", but a congregation of the great philosophers and scientists of the ancient world

All depicted conversing and explaining their various theories and ideas

The architecture depicts massive vaults, recalling ancient Roman structures

Statues of Apollo and Athena, patron deities of arts and wisdom look on from the walls

Plato and Aristotle are the central figures - Plato (L) points to heaven (source of his inspiration), Aristotle (R) gestures towards the earth (source of observations of reality)

- those concerned with mysteries that transcend the world stand on the side of Plato

- those concerned with science, math and practical matters are on Aristotle's side

- many of these ancient men are actually portraits of Raphael's contemporaries, Michelangelo, Bramante and Raphael himself

Inspired by Leonardo's Last Supper

- linear perspective

-architectural framework

-vanishing point draws attention to central figures

Overall, Raphael favors lighter tones and clarity over obscurity - contrast with da Vinci

The Flood

• Titian
• Michelangelo
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Raphael

• Pope Julius II - turned Rome into an artistic center and capital of the Renaissance, Michelangelo is his preferred artist

• Art is made in service of the Counter-Reformation under patronage of Pope Paul III, the glory of the church and religion are emphasized

• Academies train artists but successful artists eschew working for one patron, staying busy by working for several and keeping the important ones happy

http://smarthistory.org/michelangelo-david/

http://smarthistory.org/michelangelo-pieta/

http://smarthistory.org/michelangelo-sculptor-painter-architect-and-poet/

• Northern European artists developed the use of oil paint and the use of canvas.

• The use of canvas was taken on by Italian artists, particularly Venetian artists, for portability and a flatter surface than wood (wood would easily warp in the damp climate of Venice)

• Canvas is primed to be as smooth as possible

• Sfumato: forms are rendered in a soft way to create a hazy, misty effect, 'smoky'

• Chiaroscuro: soft transitions between light and dark, no outlines, light defines a form to create modeling

• Idealization of figures - Raphael

Tempietto

The Flood

Michelangelo

1508-1512

fresco

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Details narrative of Noah and his family's escape of the great flood in Genesis

Survivors are shown cliniging dramatically to mountain tops

Man carries drowned son to safety

Crowded composition, over 60 figures

Ark shown in background

The Last Judgement

Michelangelo

1536-1541

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Commissioned by Paul III as a work of the Counter-Reformation

Mannerist style, distorted bodies, elongations and crowded groups

Four broad horizontal bands divide the composition

- dead rising and the mouth of Hell

- ascending to Heaven, descending sinners, trumpeting angels

- those rising gather around Jesus

- angels carry Cross and column, instruments of Christ's death

Shows justice

Lower right-hand shows figures of Dante's Inferno - Minos and Charon

St. Bartholomew is shown skinned, depicting his martydom, the skin of the face is Michelangelo's face

Spiraling composition is at odds with the harmony of High Renaissance compositions

David

The Last Judgement

Delphic Sybil

Palladio

Creation, Adam and God

Time and memory

Watch this: http://smarthistory.org/michelangelo-ceiling-of-the-sistine-chapel/

http://smarthistory.org/michelangelo-last-judgment/

Group compositions

Temptation, Adam and Eve

Watch this: http://smarthistory.org/raphael-school-of-athens/

Villa Rotunda

http://smarthistory.org/palladio-la-rotonda/

Mannerism

Mannerist Painting & Architecture

Mannerists chose to discard conventional theories of perspective so the eye wanders, or to use perspective to create an interesting illusion.

Artists begin exploiting architectural surfaces with illusionistic painting - ceilings and domes "disappear" - embraced by 17th century Baroque artists

Architecture questions the use of classical vocabulary and reinterprets it's use.

Entombment of Christ

Jacopo da Pontormo

1525-1528

oil on wood

Based on a familiar scene to 16th century viewers, Pontormo exploited this familiarity

He omitted the familiar cross and tomb and avoided a perpendiculr composition (contrast with the earlier Northern Renaissance composition of van der Weyden)

Figures seem to float in the air, rotating around a vertical axis

Empty void in center, contrast with High Renaissance compositions which concentrate weight at center

The emptiness is accentuated by the hands

Figures look out in all directions, confusing

Hallmark of Mannerism, elongated limbs and disproportionate heads, bodies bend in odd ways

Colors tend to be vibrant, high key

Il Gesu, facade & interior

Giacomo della Porta (architect of west facade)

Giacomo da Vignola (architect of plan)

1575-1584

brick and marble

Probably one of the most influential buildings of the 16th century, plan and facade

Il Gesu - Church of Jesus

- mother church of the Jesuit order (Society of Jesus)

- the Jesuits became central to the quest to reassert the supremacy of the Catholic church

- particularly interested in preaching, missionary work and education

The church was particularly influential to the Baroque movement

The nave becomes massive and the transept is absorbed, choir is eliminated

- worshipers have a clear view of the celebration of the Eucharist

- church is opened into a single great hall, providing a theatrical setting for the elaborate ceremonies and processions (the Baroque is known for it's theatricality)

The ceiling painting was added later during the Baroque era

Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, 1436

Northern Renaissance

Anguissola, Portrait of the Artist's Sisters and Brother

Parmagianino, Madonna with the Long Neck

The Leftovers, HBO, opening credits

A modern interpretation of Mannerist ceilings

Watch this: http://smarthistory.org/il-gesu-rome/

Assumption of the Virgin, Correggio, 1526-30, fresco, dome of Parma Cathedral, Italy

Correggio was the teacher of Parigianino, a prominent Mannerist

Watch this: http://smarthistory.org/jacopo-pontormo-entombment-or-deposition-from-the-cross/

http://smarthistory.org/bronzino-and-the-mannerist-portrait/

Read this: http://smarthistory.org/a-beginners-guide-to-mannerism/

Composition