RANUCCIO FARNESE (1542; Washington, National Gallery). Painted by Titian, this work depicts the grandson of Pope Paul III at the age of 12. A letter written in 1542 by the humanist Gian Francesco Leoni to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the sitter’s brother, reports that the portrait was rendered as a gift to the boy’s mother, Girolama Orsini, to commemorate his appointment as prior of San Giovanni dei Forlani, Venice, a property owned by the Order of the Knights of Malta. Ranuccio’s elaborate costume, in fact, includes the insignia of the order emblazoned on his black cloak. The boy’s innocent facial expression provides a stark contrast to the stiff silk attire, codpiece, and sword he is sporting. The favors bestowed upon Ranuccio continued after Titian painted the portrait. In 1545, he was made cardinal, deacon of S. Lucia in Silice in the following year, legate to Piceno and Ancona in 1546–1547, bishop of Farfa and San Salvatore Maggiore in 1547–1563, legate to Viterbo in 1551, and governor of Montefiascone in 1560. These represent only a handful of the many benefices bestowed upon him. Ranuccio presents a classic example of the rampant nepotism that then permeated the papal court.
RAPE OF EUROPA. A mythological story told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses. Europa was the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor and Telephassa. One day, as she played by the beach with her attendants, Jupiter appeared to her in the form of a white bull. At first, she was frightened but soon began to pet the animal, decorate it with flower garlands, and finally she sat on its back, at which point the bull took off with her to Crete. The union of Europa and Jupiter resulted in the birth of Minos, the Cretan king. The scene is often depicted in art, with Titian (1559; formerly Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum) and Paolo Veronese (1580; Venice, Doge’s Palace) providing some of the most striking examples.
RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN. The story of the rape of the Sabine women stems from the writings of the ancient historian Livy. Having founded Rome, Romulus and his men were in need of women to populate the city and ensure its growth. They invited the Sabines to a festival in honor of Neptune and, on the signal given by Romulus, the Romans abducted the women and expelled the men. The Sabines declared war on the Romans but, during battle, their women stood between the two armies and persuaded them to lay down their weapons. Nicolas Poussin painted the Rape of the Sabine Women (1635; New York, Metropolitan Museum) as an orchestrated event filled with theatrical gestures. His work was influenced by Pietro da Cortona’s version (c. 1629; Rome, Capitoline Museum), which presents a more animated composition with lush brushwork. Giovanni da Bologna depicted only one woman being abducted by two males (1581–1582; Florence, Loggia dei Lanzi) and viewed the scene as an opportunity to render one of his complex serpentine compositions. Finally, Peter Paul Rubens rendered the scene (1635–1637; London, National Gallery) as a chaotic piling of desperate figures who form a sharp diagonal from upper left to lower right, in the center a woman pleading to Romulus for the Sabines’ release.
RAPHAEL SANTI (RAPHAEL SANZIO; 1483–1520). One of the greatest figures of the High Renaissance and among the most influential, Raphael’s works are known for their graceful and aesthetically pleasing qualities. Truthfully, although he is among the most admired, he certainly was not as innovative as Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. Raphael was born in Urbino to Giovanni Santi, an average painter and poet who wrote a rhymed chronicle on the artists of the 15th century active in the court of the Duke of Urbino. Raphael was orphaned by age 11 and, as Giorgio Vasari informs, was taken in by Pietro Perugino who was already training him in his studio in Perugia. Raphael’s early style is closely related to that of his master, so much so that his Marriage of the Virgin (1504; Milan, Brera) is completely based on Perugino’s painting of the same subject.
Soon after creating this work, Raphael moved to Florence, where he remained until 1508. There he was exposed to the art of Michelangelo and Leonardo. His Madonna of the Meadows (1505; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) and Madonna of the Goldfinch (1507; Florence, Uffizi) are, in fact, simplified versions of Leonardo’s Virgin and Child compositions. Both utilize Leonardo’s pyramidal arrangements, monumentality of the figures, closely arranged folds of the drapery, and there is even a hint of sfumato, particularly around the eyes. The portraits Angelo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi (c. 1505; Florence, Pitti Gallery) and the Entombment (1507; Rome, Galleria Borghese) also belong to Raphael’s Florentine period. Maddalena Strozzi loosely follows the composition of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa (1503; Paris, Louvre) yet, unlike Leonardo who strove for anatomical and botanical accuracy, Raphael emphasized grace, elegance, and beauty.
By 1510–1511, Raphael was in Rome painting frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican, a commission he received in 1509 from Pope Julius II. In 1511, he had the opportunity to view the Sistine ceiling (1508–1512) by Michelangelo while still in progress. Raphael was greatly influenced by what he saw, so much so that he included Michelangelo in the School of Athens in the Stanza della Segnatura as homage and began to paint in a more monumental mode, similar to that of the older master. In the following years, he continued work in the Vatican, painting the Stanza d’Eliodoro (1512–1514). To this period also belong his Sistine Madonna (1513; Dresden Gemäldegalerie), thought to have been commissioned by Julius II to hang above his funerary bier, and the Donna Velata (c. 1513; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), which seems to portray the same woman who posed for the Sistine Madonna and who may be La Fornarina, Raphael’s lover. In 1513, Raphael was also working for Agostino Chigi, a wealthy Sienese banker and close friend of the pope, in his Villa Farnesina painting mythological frescoes.
In 1514, Pope Leo X appointed Raphael his official architect and asked him to continue the work of Donato Bramante at St. Peter’s. Raphael provided some drawings, but these were never implemented. Leo also gave him the commission to paint his portrait with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi (c. 1517; Florence, Uffizi) and a series of cartoons for 10 tapestries to be woven in Flanders depicting scenes from the Acts of the Apostles (1515–1516) for hanging on the lower walls of the Sistine Chapel. These proved to be a major influence in the art of Nicolas Poussin, Domenichino, and later European masters such as Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Raphael’s Transfiguration (1517; Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana) he painted for Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, later Pope Clement VII. It was originally intended for the Cathedral of Narbonne in France, but Cardinal Giulio was so impressed when he saw the finished work that he decided to place it instead in the Church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. Raphael died suddenly in 1520 at the age of 37 and the Transfiguration was moved above his tomb in the Pantheon, Rome. His funeral mass was held at the Vatican, a major honor not normally accorded to artists.
REFECTORY. A dining hall in a monastery where meal-taking is permeated with the spirit of prayer and meditation. In the Renaissance, the religious nature of the refectory was often emphasized by the paintings that decorated the walls. These usually depicted scenes from the Bible or the lives of the saints that related to the act of meal-taking. Examples are the Last Supper by Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1340) at Santa Croce, Andrea del Castagno’s (1447) in the Monastery of Sant’Apollonia (both in Florence), and Leonardo da Vinci’s (1497–1498) at Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. Tintoretto painted the Marriage at Cana in the refectory of the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in 1563 and Paolo Veronese rendered the Feast in the House of Levi (Venice, Galleria dell’ Accademia) for the refectory of the Dominican Monastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in 1573, both in Venice. See also REFECTORY, SANT’ APOLLONIA, FLORENCE; REFECTORY, SANTA CROCE, FLORENCE.
REFECTORY, SANT’ APOLLONIA, FLORENCE. The refectory of the Monastery of Sant’ Apollonia boasts frescoes by Andrea del Castagno executed in 1447. The largest scene is the Last Supper, and above it are the Crucifixion, Entombment, and Resurrection. Castagno’s mastery at one-point linear perspective is evident in that the space in which the Last Supper unfolds is so convincing as to appear to pierce the refectory wall to reveal a second room. While little emotion is shown in the facial expressions of the figures in this scene, the marble panels behind them add drama as the veinings are busiest above the heads of Christ, Judas, St. John, and St. Peter. Judas is isolated from the rest by his placement on the opposite side of the table. He is also the only figure without a halo. While the rest of the apostles gesticulate in reaction to Christ’s announcement that one of them will betray him and ponder on its significance, Judas keeps his hand movements to a minimum and seems unaffected. The work shows Castagno’s focus on the representation of the human form. The figures are individualized and in a variety of poses, their heads and halos foreshortened to enhance realism. The draperies are as well defined as they are in Donatello’s sculptures, which were a major influence in Castagno’s art. Above the Last Supper, the three scenes, now in poor condition, occupy one pictorial field, though interrupted by the room’s two windows, with angels above converging toward the center. The Crucifixion is in the middle, with Christ’s head foreshortened to bend toward the viewer below, the Resurrection is on the left, and the Entombment on the right. Christ’s seminude body in these scenes afforded Castagno the opportunity to demonstrate his knowledge of human anatomy. Arm muscles bulge in response to the lifting of arms and they painfully stretch to emphasize Christ’s suffering.
REFECTORY, SANTA CROCE, FLORENCE. The refectory of the Monastery of Santa Croce was frescoed by Taddeo Gaddi in c. 1340 with a complex genealogical theme of special interest to the Franciscans who lived there. The central scene is composed of a Tree of Life with a Crucifixion as its trunk, an appropriate choice since Santa Croce translates to Holy Cross. At the foot of the cross are Sts. Anthony, Dominic, Louis of Toulouse, and Francis, all significant to the Franciscans, as well as grieving figures and a kneeling donor. The donor’s dress of a tertiary Franciscan (a Franciscan lay order) and the Manfredi coast of arms included in the fresco suggest that she may be Mona Vaggia Manfredi who died in c. 1345 and was buried at Santa Croce. From the Crucifixion emanate a series of scrolls to form the branches that weave around medallions containing the bust portraits of the four Evangelists and 12 prophets. The Latin text on the scrolls admonishes the monks to meditate on the mystery of Christ’s sacrifice. Below this scene is the Last Supper, also appropriate since the refectory is where the monks took their meals. The crucified Christ above ties in with this scene, which represents the institution of the Eucharist (Christ’s body and blood) as a sacrament. This is the earliest example of a refectory fresco presenting a monumental rendition of the Last Supper. Earlier, these scenes were mainly confined to narrations of the life of Christ and his Passion. Four smaller scenes at either side of the Tree of Life are the Stigmatization of St. Francis, St. Louis of Toulouse Feeding the Poor and the Sick at Santa Croce, A Priest at Easter Meal Receiving Word of St. Benedict’s Hunger, and Christ in the House of Levi. All but the Stigmatization also appropriately relate to meal-taking.
REFORMATION. The Reformation was a movement of dissent from the Catholic Church that took place in the 16th century and resulted in the birth of Protestantism. It was launched in 1517 when Martin Luther, dissatisfied with the excessive sale of indulgences by the pope to finance the building of St. Peter’s, Rome, and abuses from the clergy, posted his Ninety-Five Theses on the main portals of Wittenberg Cathedral in Germany. These theses attacked the pope and explained Luther’s own position on contrition and penance. Composed in Latin, they were translated into German and dispersed. The movement soon caught on in the major centers of Northern Europe with Philip Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin emerging as leading figures. Some of the Catholic tenets the Protestants questioned were the role of the Virgin Mary in the story of salvation, the validity of sainthood and martyrdom, and the doctrine of transubstantiation when the host becomes the actual body and blood of Christ. The Reformation brought major changes to art since Protestants do not decorate their churches with images or use them for private devotion. Therefore, patronage in Protestant countries centered mainly on portraiture and genre scenes. In Catholic regions, on the other hand, religious scenes that disputed Protestant views, such as the martyrdom of saints, for example, were commissioned in large quantities.
RELIEF SCULPTURE. A method of sculpture in which three-dimensional forms are made to project from a flat background. The materials normally used for this technique are stone, clay, or bronze. There are several categories of sculpture relief. The bas-relief technique entails keeping figures and objects attached to the background, allowing them to protrude only slightly. This is a method normally used for coins and medals. The artist must rely on the play of light on the surface to create the three-dimensional effects. An example is Jacopo della Quercia’s reliefs on the main portal of San Petronio in Bologna (1425–1438). In high-relief sculpture, the figures project more emphatically from the background; in some cases they are almost completely on the round. Luca della Robbia’s Cantoria (1431–1438; Florence, Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo) utilizes this technique. Relievo schiacciato, a method devised by Donatello, is a flattened relief that seems as if drawn with the chisel rather than carved, as in his Lamentation (c. 1457), one of the bronze panels for the pulpit of San Lorenzo in Florence. Finally, hollow relief is an inversed technique whereby the sculptor carves into the stone or other material. This method is usually used for the carving of gems.
RELIEVO SCHIACCIATO. A flattened relief that allows for the rendition of convincing, infinite recession into space through optical illusion rather than actual projection. This technique was introduced by Donatello in the 15th century. Among the works he created in relievo schiacciato is his St. George Slaying the Dragon, the relief on the base of his statue of St. George (1415–1417) at Orsanmichele, Florence. In this work, the details of the foreground protrude somewhat from the background stone but, as the image moves away from the viewer, the carving becomes flatter and flatter, until it seems as if drawn with the chisel. Both Desiderio da Settignano and Michelangelo used relievo schiacciato in their sculptures. Desiderio’s Virgin and Child (c. 1460) in the Philadelphia Museum and Michelangelo’s Madonna of the Stairs (1489–1492) in Casa Buonarroti, Florence, are rendered in this technique.
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN (1606–1669). Rembrandt is one of the central figures of Dutch Baroque art. Educated in Latin school and then at the University of Leiden, he was the son of a millworker. He left the university a few months after enrollment to pursue a career as painter. For three years he apprenticed with Jacob van Swanenburgh whose wife was from Naples and who had spent some time in Italy. Swanenburgh surely would have exposed Rembrandt to the Italian mode of painting. In 1624, Rembrandt moved to the studio of Pieter Lastman, who had visited Italy in 1605 and who was then the leading Dutch history painter. Rembrandt’s early style is closely related to that of Lastman, as his Stoning of St. Stephen (1625; Lyons, Musée des Beaux-Arts) denotes. This is his earliest dated painting and includes the Italianate setting and figures he was taught to render by his masters. By the following year, his style became more intimate, with a lesser number of figures placed closer to the viewer, exemplified by his Tobit, Anna, and the Kid (1626; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), a scene from the Apocrypha painted in the manner of the Utrecht Caravaggists with crude figure types pushed to the foreground and wearing torn garments. The scene speaks of repentance as Tobit begs his wife for forgiveness for having accused her falsely of stealing the kid. While the lighting effects of the Utrecht Caravaggists are lacking in this work, they do appear in the Money Changer (1627; Berlin, Staatliche Museen) where the candlelight adds theatrical effects to dramatize the scene. The man depicted examines a coin, his eyeglasses denoting his nearsightedness for not recognizing his avarice. Rembrandt’s Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver (1629; Yorkshire, Mulgrave Castle) represents the culmination of his Leiden period. The work was highly praised by Constantijn Huygens for its successful conveyance of deep emotions, calling Rembrandt the greatest of history painters. With this work, Rembrandt’s mature style emerged, a style characterized by the use of earth tones speckled with a golden glow that seems to come from within the individuals who populate his canvases.
In c. 1632, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam where he acquired an international reputation and became very wealthy. In 1634, he married Saskia Uylenburgh who often appears in his paintings and whose cousin was Hendrik Uylenburgh, an art dealer who gave Rembrandt lodging and studio space when he first arrived in the city and who helped him obtain commissions. In Amsterdam, Rembrandt had the opportunity to study Flemish works, particularly those of Peter Paul Rubens. As a result, his scenes became more monumental and dramatic. His Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp (1632; The Hague, Mauritshuis) shows this change in his art. Contemporary accounts state that Rembrandt by now was so busy that patrons had to beg him and offer exorbitant fees so that the artist would paint their portrait.
The Descent from the Cross (c. 1633; St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum) is part of a series Rembrandt painted for the Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, prince of Orange, for whom Huygens worked as secretary. Inspired by Rubens’ Descent at the Cathedral of Antwerp (1612–1614), which Rembrandt knew from an engraving, the work shows dramatic effects of light and dark and an unidealized, unclassicized, suffering Christ deeply mourned by the figures around him. The Blinding of Samson (1636; Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut) Rembrandt painted for Huygens himself as a gift for having procured the stadholder’s patronage. In the letter Rembrandt sent to Huygens informing him that he was shipping the painting, he gave specific instructions on how the work should be hung so that the maximum dramatic effect could be achieved.
In the 1640s, Rembrandt abandoned the overly dramatic historic representations, instead opting for more subdued compositions. This change is reflected not only in his history paintings but also his portraits. His Self-Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill (1640; London, National Gallery) is one of the artist’s many self-representations. In this rendition, he shows himself as a gentleman in expensive costume, fur collar, and jewel-studded hat. The diagonal arrangements of the 1630s have been replaced here by a series of parallel horizontals, resulting in a more stable, less movemented composition. In 1639, Rembrandt attended an auction where Raphael’s portrait Baldassare Castiglione (1516; Paris, Louvre) was put on the block. He made a quick sketch of the work on a small piece of paper, now in the Albertina in Vienna, noting the price and the buyer. The sketch became the prototype for the compositional arrangement in his self-portrait.
In 1642, Rembrandt painted one of his best-known works, the Night Watch (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), one of the most innovative militia portraits ever rendered. Another major work belonging to these years is Rembrandt’s Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer (1653; New York, Metropolitan Museum), commissioned by the Sicilian nobleman Antonio Ruffo, who was also Artemisia Gentileschi’s patron. Aristotle wrote in his Poetics that Homer was the master of all poetry, which is why Rembrandt presented him admiring the poet’s bust. Aristotle in the painting wears a gold chain with a medallion that features the profile portrait of Alexander the Great, his pupil. Supposedly, Alexander, who shared his master’s admiration for Homer, slept with a copy of the Iliad edited by Aristotle under his pillow. Rembrandt’s painting, then, brings together three major historical figures that shaped the world of literature, philosophy, and politics. The work is rendered with thick impasto applied with a palette knife, typical of Rembrandt’s paint application method of the 1650s and 1660s.
The Oath of the Batavians (1662; Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) and Return of the Prodigal Son (c. 1669; St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum) represent Rembrandt’s late phase. The first presents an event from ancient history, as related by Tacitus in the Historiae. A tribe of Batavians from the Lower Rhine (now Holland), led by Claudius Civilis, rose against the Romans. In the painting, the figures are shown engaging in a barbarian swearing of allegiance. The work was commissioned as part of a series on the Batavians to decorate the newly built Amsterdam City Hall as reference to the fight for Dutch independence from Spain led by William of Orange. The second painting is a biblical story Rembrandt rendered not long before his death. It presents the prodigal son returning home to his father after squandering his inheritance.
While Rembrandt enjoyed a successful career, his personal life was plagued by misery. Of his four children with Saskia, only one, Titus, survived. When Saskia died, she gave her husband control of their child’s inheritance, stipulating that, if Rembrandt remarried, the money and properties would be transferred to Titus. Rembrandt, therefore, never remarried. He did take a common-law wife, Geertje Dircx, a widow who had cared for Titus as his wet-nurse. Geertje and Rembrandt had a bitter separation, went to court, and he was forced to pay her alimony. This separation may have had something to do with the presence of Hendrickje Stoffels who in 1647, at age 20, became part of their household. By 1649, Hendrickje was Rembrandt’s mistress and, in 1656, Rembrandt, who spent lavishly on art and other luxuries, declared bankruptcy. Hendrickje died in 1663 and, in 1668, so did Titus, who was then only in his twenties. Rembrandt’s death came in the following year.
RENI, GUIDO (1575–1642). One of the members of the Bolognese School, Guido Reni began his training as painter in the studio of the Flemish master Denys Calvaert in Bologna. After a fallout with Calvaert, Reni moved onto the Carracci School to complete his training. In 1601, he went to Rome to work as one of Annibale Carracci’s assistants on the Farnese ceiling commission (c. 1597–1600; Palazzo Farnese). When he arrived, he was greatly influenced by the art of Caravaggio and began experimenting with the Caravaggesque style. His David with the Head of Goliath (1605–1606; Louvre, Paris) and Massacre of the Innocents (1611; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale) belong to this phase in his career. After this last work, Reni moved toward greater classicism, as is exemplified by his Aurora (1613) in the Casino Rospigliosi, Rome. His colors in this work are more akin to those used by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Annibale, and the grace of the figures is also Raphaelesque. Having completed this work, Reni moved back to his native Bologna where he became the city’s leading master, a position he held until his death in 1642.
In the 1620s, Reni adopted a silvery palette and began using silk instead of canvas. The reason for the change in material is that he witnessed the exhumation of a corpse in which only a piece of silk cloth emerged intact. After this, he became obsessed with using materials that would last beyond his lifespan. His portraits Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini (1625; Los Angeles, County Museum) and Atalanta and Hippomenes (1622–1625; Madrid, Prado) belong to Reni’s silver phase. In his late career, Reni created works in the unfinished style, for instance, his Flagellation (1641; Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale) and Holy Family with Sts. Elizabeth and John the Baptist (1641; private collection). It has been suggested that his paintings look unfinished because he was a heavy gambler and at this point in his life he was plagued with debt and painted as fast as he could to generate a higher income. Recently discovered documents show, however, that the paintings were still in his studio when he died, which would prove such suggestion wrong. Though the reasons for his change in style have been the cause of much debate, what is certain is that Reni was an exceptional artist who had a great impact on the younger generation, including Simon Vouet, Eustache Le Seur, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
REPOUSSOIR FIGURE. From the French répousser, which translates to to push back. A repoussoir figure is an illusionistic device used to increase the sense of depth in a painting. A figure is placed in the foreground, usually seen from behind or shadowed to define the viewer’s position outside the pictorial space. Giotto in the Lamentation, one of the frescoes in the Arena Chapel, Padua (1305), used two seated figures with backs toward the viewer for this purpose. Similarly, Caravaggio included a repoussoir figure in the Calling of St. Matthew in the Contarelli Chapel, Rome (1599–1600, 1602).
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. The moment when Christ resuscitates and emerges from his tomb, triumphant over death. The scene is often depicted in art, with Christ usually shown stepping out of his sarcophagus while holding a banner that symbolizes his triumph. On the tomb lean sleeping soldiers ordered by Pontius Pilate to guard the site. Andrea del Castagno included a Resurrection scene with these elements among his refectory frescoes in the Monastery of Sant’ Apollonia, Florence (1447), as did Hans Pleydenwurff on one of the panels of the Hof Altarpiece (c. 1470; Munich, Alte Pinakothek) and Dirk Bouts in his panel in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena (c. 1455). Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection of c. 1458 (San Sepolcro, Museo Civico) painted for the San Sepolcro town hall also includes these elements and represents the coat-of-arms of San Sepolcro (Holy Sepulcher) said to have been founded by two pilgrims who brought relics from Christ’s tomb to the town. Mathias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (fin. 1515; Colmar, Musée d’Uterlinden) does not include the banner, though the resurrected Christ is enclosed in a magnificent halo of red and yellow, a symbol of hope to those who suffered at the Hospital of the Order of St. Anthony in Isenheim, the work’s original location.
RETABLE. See ALTARPIECE.
RIBALTA, FRANCISCO (1564–1628). Spanish painter from the Catalán region. Ribalta traveled to Madrid in 1581 to receive his training and perhaps to try to obtain a post as court painter. This was not to be since Philip II died in 1598. However, while in Madrid, Ribalta had the opportunity to study the works of Titian in the royal collection. He left Madrid and settled in Valencia where Archbishop Juan de Ribera, who was directing the Counter-Reformation in the region, had a splendid collection of paintings and a keen interest in art. Among the works in his collection figured some by El Greco, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Giovanni Baglione, as well as a copy of Caravaggio’s Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Cerasi Chapel, Rome (1600). This last allowed Ribalta to become well acquainted with Caravaggism, which he eventually adopted as his own.
Archbishop Ribera gave Ribalta commissions, including the altarpiece for the College of Corpus Christi, which depicts the Last Supper (1606). He also created a series of paintings on the life of St. James for the church dedicated to the saint in Algemesí (1603–1606). These works were rendered utilizing the Mannerist style Ribalta learned during a trip to Rome. By c. 1620, however, he suddenly changed to Caravaggism, creating some of his most admired works, among them St. Bernard Embracing Christ (c. 1625; Madrid, Prado), the depiction of a vision experienced by the saint who founded the Cistercian Order and who was deeply devoted to Christ. The work presents tenebristic lighting with figures pushed close to the foreground and set against the undefined, dark background from which they emerge. Ribalta’s Caravaggism, and particularly its deep emotionalism and theatrical lighting effects, proved to be a major force in the development of Spanish Baroque art, and particularly that of Francisco de Zurbarán and Jusepe de Ribera.
RIBERA, JUSEPE DE (LO SPAGNOLETTO; 1591–1652). Born in Jativa, near Valencia, Jusepe de Ribera was one of the most notable painters of Baroque Spain. Nothing is known of his training, though some believe he may have studied with Francisco Ribalta. At the age of 16, he went to Naples, then part of the Spanish domain, a trip that coincided with Caravaggio’s stay in that region. As a result, Ribera adopted the Italian master’s style. In 1611, Ribera is documented in Parma, working for Ranuccio Farnese, and in 1613 he was in Rome where he remained until 1616 and where he requested admittance into the Accademia di San Luca. His Allegory of Taste (1616; Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum) belongs to this early period in his career. A Caravaggist composition, it shows a crude male eating eels. The still life in the foreground, the dark background, and the diagonal entry of light into the pictorial space are elements borrowed from Caravaggio.
In 1616, Ribera moved to Naples where he remained for the rest of his life. He began to sign his paintings Jusepe Ribera Hispanus to assert his nationality in a region where outside masters were normally not welcomed. A versatile artist, Ribera painted mythologies such as his Drunken Silenus (1626), religious scenes such as his St. Jerome and the Angel of Judgment (1626; both Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte), portraits such as his Magdalena Ventura with Her Husband and Child (1631; Toledo, Museo Fundación Duque de Lerma), and genre works such as his Girl with a Tambourine (1637; private collection) and Clubfooted Boy (1642; Paris, Louvre). By the mid-1620s, in response to the art of Guido Reni, Ribera loosened his brushwork and muted his colors. He also pushed his figures deeper into the picture plane. Ribera enjoyed a successful career, catering to both Italian and Spanish patrons, among them Philip IV of Spain. Though a Spaniard, stylistically Ribera’s works should be categorized as Italian.
RICHELIEU, CARDINAL ARMAND JEAN DU PLESSIS (1585–1642). First minister of France, Cardinal Richelieu was educated in the Collège de Navarre, Paris, in the military arts and at the Collège de Calvi in theology. He received the bishophric of Luçon in Poitou in 1607, and the cardinalate in 1622. He came to the attention of Marie de’ Medici, regent to Louis XIII of France, and was appointed secretary of state in 1616. In 1624, after his successful mediation between Marie and her son, Richelieu was promoted to first minister. Though it was through Marie’s intervention that he had obtained the post, his relations with her eventually became strained and she and the Duke of Orleans unsuccessfully conspired against him.
In his capacity as first minister, Richelieu was able to secure for France a position as the leading power of Europe. He restricted the power of the feudal nobility and severely punished those who tried to rebel against the monarchy. In 1627, he seized La Rochelle, a Huguenot stronghold and, by 1629, defeated the French Protestants, abolishing with the Peace of Alais their political rights and protections. To check Marie de’ Medici’s pro-Hapsburg policies, he strengthened the French army and navy and made the necessary alliances with Protestant states to prevent the further expansion of Hapsburg dominion. Cardinal Richelieu was well known for his art patronage. He was the protector of the Sorbonne University, had its buildings restored, and its chapel built by Jacques Lemercier. He was also the patron of Simon Vouet and Philippe de Champaigne.
ROAD TO CALVARY. After Christ endured the Flagellation and mocking, he was forced to carry his own cross up to Calvary where he was stripped of his clothes and crucified. The scene was depicted several times by Hieronymus Bosch, the version in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ghent (1490) being the most poignant as it shows Christ surrounded by the ugly humanity that caused his suffering. Similarly, Simone Martini chose a crowded representation (c. 1340–1344; Paris, Louvre), his dramatized by the flailing arms of Mary Magdalen and the Virgin who trail behind Christ. El Greco, on the other hand, painted the scene with the bleeding Christ alone, holding the cross, and looking up to heaven as if to denote that he has accepted his fate (c. 1590–1595; New York, Oscar B. Cintas Foundation).
ROBBIA, LUCA DELLA (c. 1399–1482). The best-known member of the Florentine della Robbia family of sculptors. Luca della Robbia’s earliest documented work is the Cantoria for the Cathedral of Florence of 1431–1438, now housed in the Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo. Della Robbia is known mainly for his glazed terracotta reliefs, such as the ones filling the roundels in Filippo Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel at Santa Croce in Florence he executed in c. 1443–1450 with images of saints. He is credited with the invention of the half-length Virgin and Child type glazed in white and set against a blue background that emphasizes the affection shared by the figures. An example is the Madonna of the Apple in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, of 1455–1460 where the Christ Child smiles as his mother lovingly presses her head against his. The success of the Cantoria earned della Robbia further commissions from the committee of the cathedral works, among them two lunette terracotta reliefs titled the Resurrection (1442) and the Ascension of Christ (1446; both Florence, Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo). These works he executed in the same white and blue glazes as his Virgin and Child reliefs. Other notable works by della Robbia include the Tabernacle in the Church of Santa Maria in Peretola (1443), the Tomb of Bishop Benozzo Federighi (1453; Santa Trinità, Florence), and the Capuccini Tondo (c. 1475; Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello).
ROBUSTI, MARIETTA (1560–1590). Marietta Robusti was the daughter of Tintoretto, who trained her as painter. As most female artists of the period, she specialized in portraiture, her skill in the field earning her an international reputation. Both Emperor Maximilian II and Philip II of Spain invited Marietta to their courts, but her father refused to let her go, instead marrying her off to Jacopo d’Augusta, the head of the Venetian’s silversmiths’ guild. A precondition for the marriage was that Marietta was to remain in her father’s household and continue working as his assistant for the rest of his life. Four years later, Marietta died in childbirth, at the age of 30.
Though Marietta attained great fame while living, the scholarship on her artistic activities is rather pitiable. The only work attributable to her with certainty is the Portrait of an Old Man and a Boy (c. 1585; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), attributed to her father until 1929 when her signature was discovered. There are also three paintings in the Madrid Prado currently assigned to her, one believed to be a self-portrait and the two others unidentified Venetian ladies. Also attributed to Marietta is the Portrait of a Woman as Flora in the Wiesbaden Museum.
ROELAS, JUAN DE (c. 1588–1625). Spanish painter who became the leading figure in Seville during the first two decades of the 17th century, only to be eclipsed by Diego Velázquez, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Esteban Murillo. Roelas first worked in Valladolid in c. 1600. Until 1606, he served as a priest in the town of Olivares, near Seville, which gave him the opportunity to forge relationships with Sevillian patrons. In 1617, he went to Madrid in the hopes of becoming royal court painter, an effort that resulted in failure. In 1621, he returned to Olivares, where he died four years later. Roelas is best known for the altarpiece he painted for the Church of St. Isidore in Seville (1613), a work that depicts the saint’s death on the lower tier and the heavenly glory that awaits him above. Other works by Roelas include his Adoration of the Name of Jesus (1604–1605; Seville, University Chapel), Vision of St. Bernard (1611; Seville, Hospital de San Bernardo), and Martyrdom of St. Andrew (c. 1612; Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes). As his style is closely related to that of Tintoretto, he is often referred to as the Spanish Tintoretto.
ROKEBY VENUS (1648; London, National Gallery). Known as the Rokeby Venus as it once formed part of the Morritt Collection at Rokeby Hall in Yorkshire, the work was created by Diego Velázquez for Gaspar Méndez de Haro, Marquis of Carpio and Heliche and nephew of Count-Duke Olivares, Philip IV’s minister. It was listed in his collection in 1651, hanging on the ceiling above a bed, which indicates that the work was meant as a private erotic image. It was probably painted by Velázquez in Italy, where he traveled from 1648 until 1650 to purchase antiquities for the king’s collection. One of those works was a Recumbent Hermaphrodite from the Greek Hellenistic era whose pose recalls that of the Rokeby Venus, which no doubt served as the prototype. The painting is rare for Spain, as deep religious devotion impeded the rendering of erotic subjects. Venus’ modesty here contrasts with the voluptuous reclining nudes by Titian and Giorgione who were surely on Velázquez’s mind when he rendered the image. Unlike her unabashed Italian counterparts, Velázquez’s Venus is turned away from the viewer and her reflection in the mirror is blurred to protect the identity of the woman who served as the model.
ROMANO, GIULIO (GIULIO PIPPI; c. 1499–1546). Italian Mannerist painter, architect, and engineer, the chief pupil of Raphael whom he assisted in the frescoes of the Villa Farnesina (1513–1518) and at the Vatican Palace. In c. 1524, Giulio went to Mantua to work for Federigo Gonzaga as his architect, painter, and engineer. He received the position at the recommendation of Baldassare Castiglione who was Federigo’s agent. Giulio was charged with draining the marshes that threatened the health of the inhabitants of Mantua and with building a hydraulic system that prevented the flooding of the Rivers Po and Mincio. He also built the Palazzo del Tè (1527–1534), a suburban villa used by the Gonzaga for recreation purposes and also for Federigo’s horse-breeding ventures. Giulio then frescoed the Sala dei Giganti (Room of the Giants) with his masterful rendition of the Fall of the Giants (1530–1532), painted at great speed so it would be finished in time for Emperor Charles V’s visit to Mantua. Giulio also contributed the frescoes in the Sala dei Cavalli (Room of the Horses) where Federigo’s favorite horses were portrayed on the walls overseen by the Gods on Mount Olympus featured above them. In c. 1540, Giulio built his own house in Mantua, a Bramantesque structure that reflected his great success as architect and painter. His influence as architect was great, particularly outside of Italy. Francesco Primaticcio, who assisted Giulio in the Palazzo del Tè, took his master’s Mannerist architectural vocabulary to France where it was adopted by the members of the Fontainebleau School. There the style spread to other parts of Europe. The palace of the Duke of Bavaria at Landshut, in fact, is built in Giulio’s manner.
ROME. Ancient tradition has it that Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus in the mid-eighth century BCE, a dating supported by archaeological evidence of early settlements found on the Palatine Hill. Romulus became Rome’s first king, establishing a monarchic form of government that lasted until 509 BCE when the Senate abolished monarchic rule and established a republic. In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar, who had declared himself Rome’s dictator, was murdered and in 27 BCE his great-nephew and adopted son, Octavian, became Rome’s first emperor, taking on the name Caesar Augustus. The Roman Empire eventually grew to become one of the largest and most powerful of the ancient era, and in fact so huge that in the third century CE Diocletian was forced to set up a tetradic ruling system to ensure its proper administration.
Constantine the Great, who ascended the imperial throne in 324, did away with Diocletian’s tetradic form of government, declared himself sole ruler, and moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople (now Istanbul), splitting the empire into two. With the Edict of Milan (313) he granted Christians the freedom to worship openly and soon after he built Old St. Peter’s to mark the saint’s tomb, with this establishing Rome as the center of Christendom. In 321, he gave the Church the right to own and sell property, and donated to Pope Sylvester I the Lateran Palace in Rome. Soon landowners began granting their properties to the papacy, most in the vicinity of Rome, though some of the lands were as far south as Sicily. In 754–756, the Frankish King Pepin reaffirmed the Church’s ownership of the Roman duchy and made further land donations to the papacy in the Umbrian, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, and Campania regions of Italy. In 781, and again in 787, Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, reconfirmed the papacy’s ownership of the territories his father had endowed to the papacy, and gave the Church added lands in Umbria, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Campania, Tuscany, Lazio, and Calabria. The Papal States were extended further when in 1115 Countess Matilda of Tuscany bequeathed to the pope her domain in the Marche region. With these donations, the papacy became the largest landowner on the Italian peninsula, dominating most of the Tyrrhenian coast to the west, and a large portion of the Adriatic coast to the east.
For most of the medieval era, Rome was plagued with strife among the great feudal families, especially the Colonna and Orsini, and the power struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman emperors. Though Giotto, Pietro Cavallini, and Jacopo Torriti had been active in the region, it was not until the papacy could be ensured a permanent seat in Rome that the city became a major player in the development of the Renaissance. Martin V, who returned the papacy to Rome in 1420 after the Great Schism, initiated the restoration of pilgrimage sites, such as the Church of St. John Lateran, to lure pilgrims to the area and encourage economic growth. He commissioned Masolino, Gentile da Fabriano, and Antonio Pisanello to provide works to embellish these sites. Other popes followed suit, but it was not until the reign of Nicholas V that Rome was systematically improved under the direction of Leon Battista Alberti. By the 16th century, Rome had become a major center of art, thanks to the presence of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante and, by the 17th century it was the capital of the art world, a position it held until the dawn of the 18th century, when France took the lead. See also SACK OF ROME.
ROSSELLINO, ANTONIO (1427–1479). Italian sculptor, the brother of Bernardo Rossellino. Antonio was from a family of artists from the town of Settignano and a close associate of Desiderio da Settignano from whom he adopted the Sweet Style. His most important commission is the Tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal (1460–1466) in the Church of San Miniato, Florence. Rossellino was also a masterful portraitist. His busts of the physician Giovanni Chellini (1456; London, Victoria and Albert Museum) and the historian Matteo Palmieri (1468; Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello) are among the finest of the period.
ROSSELLINO, BERNARDO (1409–1464). Italian sculptor and architect who came from a family of artists from Settignano. As sculptor, Bernardo’s most important commission was the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni (c. 1445) in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence, a work that set the standard for Renaissance wall tombs. It consists of an effigy laid out on a bier, a sarcophagus below bearing a laudatory inscription, and a tondo of the Virgin and Child supported by angels on the lunette above. Stylistically, Rossellino’s art is closely related to the classicism of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Luca della Robbia. As architect, Rossellino assisted Leon Battista Alberti while working on the Palazzo Rucellai (beg. c. 1453) in Florence. His greatest success was the rebuilding of the town of Pienza, south of Siena, in 1459–1462 for Pope Pius II, a commission that represents a major achievement in the history of urban planning. See also ROSSELLINO, ANTONIO.
RUBENS, PETER PAUL (1577–1640). Peter Paul Rubens was born in Seigen where his father was exiled. When Rubens was a year old, the exile was lifted and the family went to Cologne. Rubens’ father died in 1589, and his mother, Maria Pijpelinckx, moved with her children to her native Antwerp. She ensured that Rubens receive a proper education by sending him to Latin school. She also placed him as a page boy in the service of the Countess of Ligne where he experienced court life for the first time. Rubens’ training as painter began in the studio of Tobias Verhaecht, his mother’s cousin, but soon he transferred to Adam van Noort’s workshop, and finally to that of Otto van Veen who was interested in learning and familiar with the Italian mode of painting as he had trained with the Mannerist Federico Zuccaro in Rome. Not only did van Veen expose Rubens to Italian art but also to the art of Hans Holbein the Younger and Hendrik Goltzius. Rubens became an independent master in 1598.
In 1600, Rubens went to Italy, and there he entered into the service of the Gonzaga in Mantua. Vincenzo Gonzaga encouraged Rubens to visit other cities on the Italian peninsula, including Rome, where he became acquainted with the art of Caravaggio, which was to have an impact on his art. While in Rome, Rubens received the commission to paint the Ecstasy of St. Helen, Mocking of Christ, and Elevation of the Cross (1601), all for the Chapel of St. Helen in the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Awkward in the treatment of the figures and their gestures, these are Rubens’ first documented works. Rubens’ style improved in great measure when in 1603 the Duke of Mantua sent him to Spain on a diplomatic mission, which gave him the opportunity to study the works of Titian in Philip III’s collection. While there, Rubens painted the Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma (1603; Madrid, Prado), a work that clearly borrows from the Venetian master’s portrait Charles V on Horseback (1548; Madrid, Prado) in style and composition.
By 1604, Rubens was back in Italy and in 1606 he went to Genoa to work for the Doria. Among the paintings he rendered for them is the Portrait of Brigida Spinola Doria (1606; Washington, National Gallery), a member of the Genoese ruling family dressed in a splendid silk gown rendered in the loose brushstrokes Rubens learned from Titian. Rubens’ trip to Italy ended abruptly in 1608 when he received notice of his mother’s illness. Back in Antwerp by 1609, Rubens was appointed official court painter to Albert and Isabella, the Archdukes of Flanders and, in the same year, he married Isabella Brant. He commemorated the union by painting the Honeysuckle Bower (1609–1610; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), a portrait of himself and his new bride in an intimate moment. Also in 1609, the fathers of the Church of St. Walburga asked Rubens to paint an altarpiece depicting the Elevation of the Cross (1610–1611; Antwerp, Cathedral), a Caravaggist rendition with crude figure types that contrast with Christ’s classicized anatomy, the setting a lush Titianesque landscape rendered in loose strokes. This commission was followed by the Descent from the Cross (1612–1614), painted for the Guild of Harque-busiers for their altar in Antwerp Cathedral, an emotive rendition of the event. To these years also belong his Four Philosophers (1612; Florence, Palazzo Pitti), the homage Rubens paid to his deceased brother and his teacher Justus Lipsius, and Castor and Pollux Seizing the Daughters of Leucippus (1618; Munich, Alte Pinakothek), a playful mythological rendition.
In 1622–1625, Rubens was working for Marie de’ Medici, the widow of Henry IV of France and mother of Louis XIII, rendering the Medici Cycle for the Luxembourg Palace. The original commission called for over 40 paintings that related the lives and heroic deeds of Henry and Marie. Of these, only the scenes relating to Marie’s story were executed and are now displayed in the Louvre in Paris. Isabella Brant died in 1626 and in 1629 Rubens was knighted by Charles I of England for the diplomatic missions and works he created while in his service, including The Apotheosis of James I (1629) on the ceiling of the Banqueting House in Whitehall Palace Inigo Jones had built (1619–1622). In 1630, Rubens married 16-year-old Helena Fourment, who would appear in a number of his paintings, including the Woman in the Pelisse (1638; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) and Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment, and Their Son Peter Paul (c. 1639; New York, Metropolitan Museum). In the last decade of his life, Rubens withdrew from court life and spent most of his time in his estate, Steen Castle near Mechelen, painting mainly portraits and landscapes, among them the Landscape with Steen Castle (1636) in the London National Gallery. Rubens died in 1640 from gout.
RUSTICATION. The term refers to large blocks of stone that are roughly cut and applied to building façades to grant a bold surface texture. The use of rustication allows for statements of masculinity and power, as the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence (beg. 1436) by Michelozzo denotes. The Mannerists used rustications to create anticlassical structures, such as Giulio Romano’s Palazzo del Tè in Mantua (1527–1534) and Bartolomeo Ammannati’s Palazzo Pitti courtyard in Florence (beg. 1560) where these rough surfaces appear in unexpected places, such as columns, windows, and arches.