Color in Italian Renaissance Art

Titian's Madonna at the Venetian Frari

This piece by Titian shows his use of colorito in the rich shades of reds and blues and the variety of colors he chooses. This piece also is concerned with the layout of the Frari and the vernacular of the time period.

Titian: Bacchus and Ariadne

Comparing Colorito and Disegno

Giovanni bellini

This piece by Titian displays his use of color and technique in blending colors to create depth to his painting. He chooses to blend and form shapes this way, making the painting more life-like and softer as opposed to the use of hard, concrete lines. Titian uses almost every pigment available in Venice at the time, and he uses these pigments in full strength.

Giovanni Bellini, born in Venice, continued his work mainly in Venice. He taught painters such as Titian, Giorgione, and Sebastinao del Piombo. Bellini influenced these painters in his rich color palette choices, which started the Venetian trend of bright and vibrant colors. He also was the one who started using oil paints instead of tempera.

Comparing and Contrasting Colorito VS. Disegno

Even though disegno artists also thought color was important for a piece, they stressed a painting's design. This caused the disegno artists to plan out their pieces on paper, often with multiple detailed drawings and sketches. On the other hand, colorito artists worked out the finer details once painting started and were thus slightly more spontaneous.

Titian and Colorito

Colorito

Colorito was arguably best displayed in Titian's paintings. Deemed one of the greatest colorists of all time, Titian was a student of Bellini. This Venetian school of painting emphasized color over design, which can readily be displayed in the paintings produced by Venetian artists. Titian chose to paint more spontaneously than his disegno counterparts, as he often figured out the minute details of his paintings as he was painting them.

The Importance of Colorito

While the Florentine painters were concerned with disegno, the design of a painting, the Venetian painters were primarily concerned with colorito when it came to paintings. This makes sense since Venice was the center of the pigment industry. This style, in turn, affected the painters of the Baroque era.

Why Colorito In Venice?

History of Color

The history of Italian color begins with Cenninio Cennini, a Tuscan painter who lived from 1370-1440. He authored a book, "Il Libro deli'Arte," which outlined the techniques used in creating paints and colors. This guide describing how to represent faces and objects with color impacted other artists, who in turn impacted the Italian Renaissance.

Venice, as the center for the pigment trade, offered painters many colors to choose from. Furthermore, Venice was influenced by the color of the Byzantine Empire through trade. Also, the painters of the time period saw the effects that the sun had on the buildings and canals of Venice and tried to emulate them in their paintings. Besides this, the humid climate of Venice caused painters to use oil paint. Oil paint was more flexible and dried slower than tempura paint, which allowed Venetian artists to paint without having to plan their pieces out as much as the disegno painters. Oil paint also allowed for richer colors.

Color in Italian Renaissance Art