The
High Renaissance
The Renaissance:
Artistic Periods
• Early Renaissance
• High Renaissance
• Northern Renaissance
Renaissance Artists at
Midcentury and Beyond
The earlier artists…
• Sandro Botticelli
– Constructed compositions with line instead
of tonal contrast.
– Liked painting mythological scenes.
• Leon Battista Alberti
– Architect, first to study treatises written by
Roman architects
SANDRO BOTTICELLI. The Birth of Venus (c. 1486). Tempera on canvas. 5’8 7⁄8” x 9’1 7⁄8”.
A unique mythological painting from the Renaissance in
Florence, and the first non-religious nude since classical
antiquity, The Birth of Venus (Nascita di Venere) belongs
to the group of mythological pictures painted by Sandro
Botticelli.
The Birth of Venus depicts the moment when, having
emerged from the sea in a shell, Venus lands at Paphos in
Cyprus. She is blown towards the shore by Zephyrus -
god of the winds - and the breeze Aura, while a Hora of
Spring stands on dry land poised to wrap a cloak,
decorated with spring flowers, around Venus to cover her
nudity. The fine modeling and white flesh color gives her
the appearance of a statue, an impression fortified by her
stance which derives from the sculpture of ancient Greece
It was commissioned by Lorenzo the Magnificent
(1449-92) of the Medici Family.
LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI. Palazzo Rucellai, Florence (1446–1451).
In 1446, Leon Battista Alberti, whose texts On Painting and On
Architecture established the guidelines for the creation of
paintings and buildings that would be followed for centuries,
designed a façade that was truly divorced from the medieval
style, and could finally be considered quintessentially
Renaissance.
The home was just one of many important commissions that
Alberti completed for the Rucellais—a wealthy merchant family.
Each tier decreases in height from the bottom to top. On each tier,
Alberti used pilasters, or flattened engaged columns, to visually
support the entablature. On the first tier, they are of the Tuscan
order, on the second tier they are of the Ionic order, and on the
third they are Corinthian.
On the second and third tiers, Alberti used smaller stones to give
the feeling of lightness, which is enhanced by the rounded arches
of the windows, a typically Roman feature.
The High Renaissance
The High Renaissance
• Established the artist as “genius”
• The elevation of the artist’s social status
The artists:
• Leonardo da Vinci - painter, scientist,
inventor, and musician
• Raphael - classical painter
• Michelangelo Buonarotti - painter, sculpture,
architect, poet
• Donato Bramante - architect
This period represented a culmination. The tentative artistic
explorations of the Proto-Renaissance, which caught hold
and flowered during the Early Renaissance, burst into full
bloom during the High Renaissance.
Artists no longer pondered the art of antiquity. They now
had the tools, technology, training and confidence to go their
own way, secure in the knowledge that what they were doing
was as good - or better - than anything that had been done
before.
Additionally, the High Renaissance represented a
convergence of talent - an almost obscene wealth of talent -
concentrated in the same area during the same small window
of time. Astounding, truly, considering what the odds against
this have to have been.
Florence met the end of its Renaissance heyday in the 1490s
for several reasons. First, Lorenzo de Medici - arguably the
greatest of the Medici - died in 1492.
The High Renaissance unlike the Early Renaissance extended
out from Florence. A little bit in Milan (per early Leonardo), a
little bit in Florence (per early Michelangelo), smaller bits
scattered here and there throughout northern and central
Italy and a whole lot in Rome.
Leonardo began producing his important works in the 1480's,
so most art historians agree that the 1480's were the start of
the High Renaissance. Raphael died in 1520. One could argue
that either Raphael's death or the Sack of Rome, in 1527,
marked the end of the High Renaissance. No matter how it's
figured, though, the High Renaissance was of no more than
forty years' duration.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. The Last Supper (1495–1498). Fresco (oil and tempera on plaster). 13’9” x 29’10”.
The subject of the Last Supper is Christ’s final meal with his apostles
before Judas identifies Christ to the authorities who arrest him, a
common theme that had been painted many times.
Leonardo’s Last Supper is dense with symbolic references. Attributes
identify each apostle. For example, Judas Iscariot is recognized both as
he reaches to toward a plate beside Christ (Matthew 26) and because he
clutches a purse containing his reward for identifying Christ to the
authorities the following day. Peter, who sits beside Judas, holds a knife
in his right hand, foreshadowing that Peter will sever the ear of a soldier
as he attempts to protect Christ from arrest.
The twelve apostles are arranged as four groups of three and there are
also three windows. The number three is often a reference to the Holy
Trinity in Catholic art. In contrast, the number four is important in the
classical tradition (e.g. Plato’s four virtues).
Andrea del Castagno, Last Supper, 1447, tempera on plaster (Sant'Apollonia, Florence)
Andrea del Castagno’s Last Supper (1447) is typical of the Early
Renaissance. The use of linear perspective in combination with
ornate forms such as the sphinxes on the ends of the bench and the
marble paneling tend to detract from the spirituality of the event. In
contrast, Leonardo simplified the architecture, eliminating
unnecessary and distracting details so that the architecture can
instead amplify the spirituality.
LEONARDO DA VINCI. Madonna of the Rocks (c. 1483). Oil on panel, transferred to canvas. 78 1⁄2” x 48”.
Normally when we have seen Mary and Christ (in, for example, paintings
by Lippi and Giotto), Mary has been enthroned as the queen of heaven.
Here, in contrast, we see Mary seated on the ground. This type of
representation of Mary is referred to as the Madonna of Humility.
Mary has her right arm around the infant Saint John the Baptist who is
making a gesture of prayer to the Christ child. The Christ child in turn
blesses St. John. Mary's left hand hovers protectively over the head of her
son while an angel looks out and points to St. John. The figures are all
located in a fabulous and mystical landscape with rivers that seem to lead
nowhere and bizarre rock formations that recall the Dolomite mountains of
northeastern Italy. In the foreground we see carefully observed and
precisely rendered plants and flowers.
This is the first time that an Italian Renaissance artist has completely
abandoned halos. But Leonardo found another way to indicate divinity—by
giving the figures ideal beauty and grace. We immediately notice Mary's
ideal beauty and the graceful way in which she moves, features typical of
the High Renaissance. After all, we would never mistake Leonardo's group
of figures for an ordinary picnic.
Giotto, Ognissanti Madonna (c.1310) Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna of the Rocks (c.1483)
RAPHAEL. The School of Athens (1510–1511). Fresco. 26’ x 18’.
Raphael, was summoned to the Vatican by the Pope Julius II
and given the largest, most important commission of his life -
the decoration of the Papal Apartments. Located on the upper
floor of the Vatican palace, this room was used by the Pope as a
library. It was here, that Raphael painted his famous fresco The
School of Athens (Scuola di Atene).
The general theme of the picture, indeed the whole room, is the
synthesis of worldly (Greek) and spiritual (Christian) thinking.
The School of Athens represents all the greatest mathematicians,
philosophers and scientists from classical antiquity gathered
together sharing their ideas and learning from each other
(including Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, and Pythagoras). These
figures all lived at different times, but here they are gathered
together under one roof.
The Tombs of Guiliano and
Lorenzo de’Medici
Medici Chapel (Cappella Medicea) is the chapel housing monuments
to members of the Medici family, in the New Sacristy of the Church
of San Lorenzo in Florence. The funereal monuments were
commissioned in 1520 by Pope Clement VII (formerly Cardinal
Giulio de' Medici), executed largely by Michelangelo from 1520 to
1534, and completed by Michelangelo's pupils after his departure.
The two monumental groups (for the tombs of Lorenzo, Duke di
Urbino, and Giuliano, Duke de Nemours) are each composed of a
seated armed figure in a niche, with an allegorical figure reclining on
either side of the sarcophagus below. The seated figures, representing
the two dukes, are not treated as portraits but as types. The two
tombs, while similar in overall composition, present subtle contrasts
and in many ways comment on the public persona of each man.
The tomb of Lorenzo de'Medici, Duke of Urbino, includes the Statue of Lorenzo, Dusk
and Dawn. Standing 20' 8" x 13' 9"
Lorenzo, whose face is shaded by a helmet, personifies the
reflective man. Lorenzo receding into the shadows, his body
closed, his legs crossed, and his mind deep in thought. It is a
figure deserving of his nickname Il Pensieroso, "The
Thoughtful One.”
Michelangelo gives us an image of a mysteriously
introspective man. The light, interrupted by the figure's
helmet and hindered by his left hand, fails to reach any part
of his face. His left elbow rests forbiddingly on a closed
money box decorated with a fierce mask.
Dawn and Dusk
Dawn and Dusk
DAWN
In lifting her veil from her head, the figure of Dawn suggests the emergence
of light from the cloak of darkness. She is portrayed as a young woman with
firm, high breasts and a voluptuous body but with a face contorted by grief
Michelangelo took care to complete the faces of the two female figures in this
series, giving the virgin Dawn a tragic and burdened countenance, which
contrasts with the slumberlike serenity of Night.
DUSK
The male figure of Dusk faces the Virgin Mother, giver of life, as does his
male counterpart, Day. While his face is unfinished, it is possible to identify
in his ill-shapen features a slight resemblance to Michelangelo himself.
The tomb of Giuliano de' Medici stands 20' 8" x 13'9" for the Medici Chapel of San
Lorenzo in Florence.
Giuliano is posed in an extroverted manner. Though never finished,
the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici in the Medici Chapel is the only one
of Michelangelo's great architectural-sculptural projects to be realized
in a form approaching completion. Built between 1520 and 1534, it is
widely held to be one of Michelangelo's most stunning achievements.
The pose of the central figure on the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici,
arms resting at his sides and legs comfortably apart, and its open
composition suggest a cheerful duke, generous in both mind and spirit.
In fact, the figure holds in his hand several coins, as if an intended gift.
Light plays freely on his beautiful face, yet the figure is lacking in
energy and seems to wilt under the burden of the Roman armor.
Night and Day
Night and Day
NIGHT
The only one of the four allegorical figures reclining on the sarcophagi in the chapel
to be clearly identified by her attributes, Night is accompanied by an owl, a mask,
and a clutch of poppies. A moon is on her diadem. Her muscular body reflects
Michelangelo's habit of working from a male model even for his female nudes. In fact,
several of the artist's sketches for Night, using a male model, are still preserved.
The masterful detail evident in the portrayal of Night on the tomb of Giuliano de'
Medici has earned its status as the most admired of the four figures on the Medici
sarcophagi.
DAY
The only one of the four allegorical figures reclining on the sarcophagi in the chapel
to be clearly identified. As in the sculpture of Dusk on the tomb of Lorenzo de'
Medici, Michelangelo has given this figure a haunting expression by adopting an
unfinished surface for his face and contrasting it with the highly polished finish of
the rest of his body. Seen through a veil of marble, his pained expression takes on a
haunting quality. The muscular development of Day surpassed even the rippling
might of David or Moses, yet the figure appears to grow weary from the mass of his
own body, echoing the tired dejection seen in the sculptures of the dukes.
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Renaissance Architecture
Italian Renaissance architects based their theories and
practices on Classical Roman examples. The Renaissance
revival of Classical Rome was as important in architecture as
it was in literature. A pilgrimage to Rome to study the
ancient buildings and ruins, especially the Colosseum and
Pantheon, was considered essential to an architect’s training.
Classical orders and architectural elements such as columns,
pilasters, pediments, entablatures, arches, and domes form
the vocabulary of Renaissance buildings. Vitruvius’s writings
on architecture also influenced the Renaissance definition of
beauty in architecture. As in the Classical world, Renaissance
architecture is characterized by harmonious form,
mathematical proportion.
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Bramante, et al. Saint Peter's Basilica, begun 1506 completed 1626 (Vatican City)
Pope Julius II commissioned Bramante to build a new basilica—
this involved demolishing the Old St Peter's Basilica that had been
erected by Constantine in the 4th century. This ancient church was
in disrepair. But tearing it down was a bold manouever that gives
us a sense of the enormous ambition of Pope Julius II, both for the
papacy as well as for himself.
The site is a very holy one—it is (according to the Church) the site
of the burial of St. Peter. Bramante did the first plan for the new
church.
He proposed an enormous centrally planned church in the shape
of a Greek cross enclosed within a square with an enormous dome
over the center, and smaller domes and half-domes radiating out.
When Bramante died, Raphael took over as chief architect for St.
Peter's, and when Raphael died, Michelangelo took over. Both
Michelangelo and Raphael made substantial changes to
Bramante's original plan.