Content Area: Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200–1750 C.E.
High Renaissance and Mannerism
TIME PERIOD: HIGH RENAISSANCE: 1495–1520, ROME, FLORENCE, VENICE MANNERISM: 1520–1600, ITALY
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: The culture, beliefs, and physical settings of a region play an important role in the creation, subject matter, and siting of works of art.
Learning Objective: Discuss how the culture, beliefs, or physical setting can influence the making of a work of art. (For example: Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper)
Essential Knowledge:
■Renaissance art is generally the art of Western Europe.
■Renaissance art is influenced by the art of the classical world, Christianity, a greater respect for naturalism, and formal artistic training.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Cultural interaction through war, trade, and travel can influence art and art making.
Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art are influenced by cultural interaction.
Essential Knowledge:
■There are the beginnings of global commercial and artistic networks.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art making is influenced by available materials and processes.
Learning Objective: Discuss how material, processes, and techniques influence the making of a work of art.
Essential Knowledge:
■The period is dominated by an experimentation of visual elements, i.e., atmospheric perspective, a bold use of color, creative compositions, and an illusion of naturalism.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art and art making can be influenced by a variety of concerns including audience, function, and patron.
Learning Objective: Discuss how art can be influenced by audience, function, and/or patron. (For example: Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling)
Essential Knowledge:
■There is a more pronounced identity and social status of the artist in society; the artist has more structured training opportunities.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art history is best understood through an evolving tradition of theories and interpretations.
Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art have had an evolving interpretation based on visual analysis and interdisciplinary evidence. (For example: Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling)
Essential Knowledge:
■Renaissance art is studied in chronological order.
■There is a large body of primary source material housed in libraries and public institutions.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Italian city-states with their large bankrolls and small populations were easy pickings for Spain and France, as they began their advances over the Italian peninsula. Venice alone remained an independent power, with its incomparable fleet bringing goods and profits around the Mediterranean.
The High Renaissance flourished in the cultivated courts of princes, doges, and popes—each wanting to make his city-state greater than his neighbor’s. Unfortunately, most of this came to a temporary halt with the sack of Rome in 1527—a six-month rape of the city that did much to undo the achievements of one of the most creative moments in art history. What emerged from the ruins of Rome was a new period, Mannerism, which took art on a different path.
When Martin Luther nailed his theses to the doors of a church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, he touched off a religious and political upheaval that had long-lasting repercussions throughout Europe. Even if this movement, called the Protestant Reformation, was treated as a heresy in Italy, it had a dramatic impact on Italian art. No longer was the High Renaissance sense of perfection a representation of the world as it is, or could ever be. Mannerist distortions were more appropriate in this highly contentious period. Indeed, the basic tenets of Mannerism concern the tension between the ideal, the natural, and the symmetrical against the real, the artificial, and the unbalanced.
The schism that the Reformation caused was met by a Catholic response, framed at the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and later termed the Counter-Reformation. At the Council a new order of priests was created, called the Jesuits, whose missionary activity and commitment to education is still visible around the world today. The Jesuits quickly saw the power of art as a teaching tool and a religious statement, and became great patrons of the arts.
The religious and political upheaval that characterized the sixteenth century was exemplified by the sacking of the city of Rome in 1527. The unpaid army of the Holy Roman Empire, after defeating the French troops in Italy, sought restitution in looting and pillaging the holy city. The desecration of Rome shook all Christendom, especially since it proved that its chief holy place could so easily fall victim to the undisciplined and the greedy.
Patronage and Artistic Life
Most Renaissance artists came from humble origins, although some like Titian and Michelangelo came from families of limited influence. Every artist had to join a trade guild, which sometimes made them seem equivalent to house painters or carpenters. Even so, artists could achieve great fame, so great that monarchs competed to have them in their employ. Francis I of France is said to have held the dying Leonardo da Vinci in his arms, Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire lavished praise upon Titian, and Michelangelo was called “divino” by his biographers.
The dominant patron of the era was Pope Julius II, a powerful force in European religion and politics. It was Julius’s ambition that transformed the rather ramshackle medieval town of Rome into an artistic center and capital of the Renaissance. It was Julius’s devotion to the arts that inspired Raphael and Michelangelo to do their greatest work.
The first permanent painting academy was established by Cosimo I of Florence in 1563; its function was to train artists and improve their status in society. The best artists, however, did not need academies, nor did they need patrons. Although some preferred to work for a duke and stay in his graces, the reality was that a duke usually did not have enough commissions to keep a painter occupied. Famous artists did not need this security, and most achieved success by keeping their important patrons satisfied. Michelangelo’s relationship with Pope Julius II was successful in part because Julius became his preferred, although by no means his only, customer. Mannerist painters saw nothing about this situation worth changing.
HIGH RENAISSANCE PAINTING
Northern European artists discovered the durability and portability of canvas as a painting surface. This was immediately taken up in Venice, where the former backing of choice—wood—would often warp in damp climate. Since canvas is a material with a grainy texture, great care was made to prepare it in such a way as to minimize the effect the cloth would have on the paint. Canvas, therefore, had to be primed properly to make it resemble the enamel-like surface of wood. In modern art, the grainy texture is often maintained for the earthy feel it lends a painting.
Leonardo da Vinci used a painting technique known as sfumato, in which he rendered forms in a subtly soft way to create a misty effect across the painted surface. Sfumato has the effect of distancing the viewer from the subject by placing the subject in a hazy world removed from us.
Artists also employed chiaroscuro, which provides soft transitions between light and dark. Chiaroscuro often heightens modeling effects in a work by having the light define the forms.
Venetian artists, particularly Titian, increased the richness of oil-painted surfaces by applying glazes. Glazes had been used on pottery since ancient times, when they were applied to ceramics to give them a highly polished sheen. In painting, as in pottery, glazes are transparent so that the painted surface shows through. However, glazes subtly change colors by brightening them, much as varnish brightens wood.
In portrait painting, instead of profiles, which were popular in the quattrocento, three-quarter views became fashionable. This view minimizes facial defects that profiles enhance. With Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, portraits become psychological paintings. It was not enough for artists to capture likenesses; artists were expected to express the character of the sitter.
The idealization that characterizes Raphael’s work becomes the standard High Renaissance expression. Raphael specialized in balanced compositions, warm colors, and ideally proportioned figures. He favored a triangular composition: The heavy bottom anchors forms securely and then yields to a lighter touch as the viewer’s eye ascends.
Works like Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (Figure 16.1) show a High Renaissance composition, with the key figure, in this case Jesus, in the center of the work, alone and highlighted by the window behind. The twelve apostles are grouped in threes, symmetrically balanced around Jesus, who is the focal point of the orthogonals. Even so, the work’s formal structure does not dominate because the Biblical drama is rendered so effectively on the faces of the individuals.
Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1494–1498, tempera and oil, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan (Figure 16.1)
Figure 16.1: Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1494–1498, tempera and oil, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Form
■Linear perspective; orthogonals of ceiling and floor point to Jesus.
■Apostles are grouped in sets of three
■Jesus is alone before a group of three windows, a symbol of the Trinity.
■A rounded pediment over Jesus’s head acts as a symbolic halo; Leonardo subtlety suggests Jesus’s divinity.
Function
■Painted for the refectory, or dining hall, of an abbey of friars.
■A relationship is drawn between the friars eating and a biblical meal.
Patronage
■Commissioned by the Sforza family of Milan for the refectory of a Dominican abbey.
Materials
■Leonardo experimented with a combination of paints to yield a greater chiaroscuro; however, the paints began to peel off the wall in Leonardo’s lifetime. As a result, the painting has been restored many times and is a shadow of itself.
Content
■Great drama of the moment: Jesus says, “One of you will betray me” (Matthew 26:21); Jesus also blesses the bread and wine, creating a sacred Eucharist (Matthew 26:26–27).
■Various reactions on the faces of the apostles: surprise, fear, anger, denial, suspicion; anguish on the face of Jesus.
■Judas, the betrayer, falls back clutching his bag of coins; his face is symbolically in darkness.
Content
■The only Leonardo da Vinci work remaining in situ.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 73
Web Source https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/93/
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Composition
–Justinian and Theodora (Figures 8.5, 8.6)
–Basquiat, Horn Players (Figure 29.5)
–Niobides Krater (Figures 4.19a and 4.19b)
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1508–1512, fresco, Vatican City, Italy (Figures 16.2a and 16.2b)
Form
■Masculine modeling of forms.
■Bold, direct, powerful narrative expression.
Function
■Function of the chapel: the place where new popes are elected and where papal services take place.
■Name derives from Pope Sixtus IV, who was the patron of the building’s redesign between 1473 and 1481.
Content
■Michelangelo chose a complicated arrangement of figures for the ceiling, which broadly illustrates the first few chapters of Genesis in nine scenes, with accompanying Old Testament figures and antique sibyls—many based on antique sculptures; the Old Testament figures and antique sibyls foretell the coming of Christ, and they express a spirit of Neoplatonism.
■The grand and massive figures are meant to be seen from a distance, but also echo the grandeur of the Biblical narrative.
■300 figures on the ceiling, with no two in the same pose; a tribute to Michelangelo’s lifelong preoccupation with the male nude in motion.
■Enormous variety of expression.
■Painted cornices frame groupings of figures in a highly organized way.
■Many figures are done for artistic expression rather than to enhance the narrative; the ignudi, for example.
Figure 16.2a: Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, 1508–1512, fresco, Vatican City, Italy
Figure 16.2b: Sistine Chapel, begun 1472, Vatican City, Italy
Context
■Sistine Chapel was erected in 1472 and painted by quattrocento masters, including Botticelli, Perugino, and Michelangelo’s teacher, Ghirlandaio; Michelangelo’s ceiling was added to these.
■Quattrocento paintings are of the life of Christ and the life of Moses; Michelangelo needed a different topic for the ceiling; he chose the cosmic theme of creation.
■Michelangelo’s paintings are painted over the window level of the chapel as well as the ceiling.
■The chapel is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as such the central panel on the ceiling depicts Eve, the archetype of Mary, who, according to tradition, began the redemption necessitated by the sin of Eve and Adam.
■Acorns, a motif on the ceiling, were inspired by the crest of the chapel’s patron, Pope Julius II.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 75
Web Source http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina.html
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Subdivided Compositions
–Golden Haggadah (Figure 12.10a, 12.10b, 12.10c)
–Giotto, Lamentation (Figure 13.1c)
–Pentheus Room (Figure 6.13)
Michelangelo, Delphic Sybil, c. 1508–1512, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy (Figure 16.2c)
Figure 16.2c: Michelangelo, Delphic Sybil, c. 1508–1512, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy
Form and Content
■The sibyl wears a Greek-style turban.
■Her head is turned as if listening.
■She has a sorrowful expression.
■There is a dramatic contrapposto positioning of the body.
■She holds the scroll containing her prophecy.
■She is a powerfully built female figure.
Context
■One of five sibyls (prophetesses) on the ceiling.
■Greco-Roman figures whom Christians believed foretold the coming of Jesus Christ.
■This shows a combination of Christian religious and pagan mythological imagery.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 75
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Time and Memory
–Calendar Stone (Figure 26.5c)
–Lukasa (memory board) (Figure 27.11)
–Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Figures 29.4a, 29.4b)
Michelangelo, The Flood, c. 1508–1512, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy (Figure 16.2d)
Figure 16.2d: Michelangelo, The Flood, c. 1508–1512, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy
Form
■Sculptural intensity of the figure style.
■More than 60 figures are crowded into the composition.
Function
■One of the scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Content
■Story details Noah and his family’s escape from rising floodwaters, as told in Genesis 7.
■The few remaining survivors cling to mountain tops; their fate will be sealed.
■A man carrying his drowned son to safety will meet his son’s fate as well.
■The ark in the background is the only safe haven.
■The salvation of the good (as opposed to God’s destruction of the wicked) is stressed.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 75
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: The Power of Water
–Viola, The Crossing (Figure 29.18b)
–Hokusai, the Great Wave (Figure 25.5)
–Wright, Fallingwater (Figure 22.16a)
Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1536–1541, fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy (Figure 16.2e)
Figure 16.2e: Michelangelo, Last Judgment, fresco from the Sistine Chapel, 1536–1541, Vatican City, Italy
Form
■In contrast to the ceiling, there are no cornice divisions; it is one large space with figures greatly integrated.
■The Mannerist style is shown in the distortions of the body: elongations and crowded groups.
Function
■Last Judgment scenes are traditional on altar walls of chapels, although this was not the original choice of subject matter for the wall.
Patronage
■Pope Paul III was the patron.
Context
■The subject was chosen because of the turbulence in Rome after the sack of the city in 1521.
■Counter-Reformation message: the true path to salvation is through the Catholic Church.
■Spiraling composition is a reaction against the High Renaissance harmony of the Sistine Ceiling and reflects the disunity in Christendom caused by the Reformation.
■In the spirit of the Counter-Reformation, the genitalia were painted over after Michelangelo’s death.
Content
■Four broad horizontal bands act as the unifying element:
1.Bottom: dead rising on the left and the mouth of hell on the right.
2.Second level: ascending elect, descending sinners, trumpeting angels.
3.Third level: those risen to heaven are gathered around Jesus.
4.Top lunettes: angels carrying the cross and the column, instruments used at Christ’s death.
■Christ, in center, gestures defiantly with right hand; complex pose.
■Justice is delivered: the good rise, the evil fall.
■Lower right-hand corner has figures from Dante’s Inferno: Minos and Charon.
■Saint Bartholomew’s face is modeled on a contemporary critic. Saint Bartholomew holds his skin, a symbol of his martyrdom, but the skin’s face is Michelangelo’s, an oblique reference to critics who skinned him alive with their criticism. It may also represent Michelangelo’s concern over the fate of his soul as expressed in his poetry.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 75
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Group Compositions
–Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper (Figure 16.1)
–Rivera, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Almeda Park (Figure 22.20)
–Lam, The Jungle (Figure 22.12)
Raphael, School of Athens, 1509–1511, fresco, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, Italy (Figure 16.3)
Figure 16.3: Raphael, School of Athens, 1509–1511, fresco, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City, Italy
Form
■Open, clear light uniformly spread throughout the composition.
■Nobility and monumentality of forms parallel the greatness of the figures represented; figures gesture to indicate their philosophical thought.
■Raphael’s overall composition was influenced by Leonardo’s Last Supper (Figure 16.1).
Patronage and Function
■Commissioned by Pope Julius II to decorate his library.
■This is one painting in a complex program of works that illustrate the vastness and variety of the papal library.
■Painting originally called Philosophy because the pope’s philosophy books were meant to be housed on shelving below.
Content and Context
■Opposite this work is a Raphael painting called La Disputà, based on religion; religious books were placed below; parallels drawn between the two themes expressed in the paintings.
■To the left of Philosophy is Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus, referencing literature.
■The building depicted in the background might reflect Bramante’s plan for Saint Peter’s; Bramante appears as the bald Euclid in the lower right.
■In the center are the two greatest figures in ancient Greek thought: Plato (with the features of Leonardo da Vinci) on the left pointing up, and Aristotle (perhaps with the features of the architect Giuliano da Sangallo) pointing out. Their gestures reflect their philosophies.
■On the left are those interested in the ideal (followers of Plato); on the right, those interested in the practical (followers of Aristotle).
■Raphael is on the extreme right with a black hat.
■Michelangelo, resting on the stone block writing a poem, represents the philosopher Heraclitus (inspired by the pose of Isaiah on the Sistine Chapel ceiling); the figure was added later and was not part of the original composition.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 76
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Referencing the Past
–Smith, Trade (Figure 29.12)
–Rodin, Burghers of Calais (Figure 21.15)
–Barry and Pugin, Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) (Figures 12.5a and 12.5b)
VENETIAN HIGH RENAISSANCE PAINTING
In contrast to the Florentines and Romans, whose paintings valued line and contour, the Venetians bathed their figures in a soft atmospheric ambiance highlighted by a gently modulated use of light. Bodies are sensuously rendered. While Florentines and Venetians both paint religious scenes, Florentines choose to see them as heroic accomplishments, whereas Venetians imbue their saints with a more human touch, setting them in bucolic environments that show a genuine interest in the beauty of the natural world. This natural setting is often called Arcadian.
The damp Venetian climate caused wooden paintings to warp and crack, frescoes to peel and flake. Artists opted for canvas, a more secure and lightweight surface that could maintain the integrity of a work for an indefinite period.
Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas, Uffizi, Florence (Figure 16.4)
Figure 16.4: Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas, Uffizi, Florence
Form
■Sensuous delight in the skin tones; layers of glazes produce rich, sonorous effect.
■Oil painted in layers; glazes achieve rich color.
■Complex spatial environment: figure placed forward on the picture plane, servants in middle space; open window with plants in background.
Content
■Venus looks at the viewer directly.
■Venus is reclining in an open space in a luxurious Venetian bedroom.
■Roses contribute to the floral motif carried throughout the work; roses with their thorns symbolize the beauty and problems of love.
■The dog may symbolize faithfulness.
Context
■May not be Venus; may be a courtesan in the tradition of a female reclining nude.
■Cassoni: trunks intended for storage of clothing for a wife’s trousseau seen in the background of the painting.
■May have been commissioned by the Duke of Urbino as a wedding painting.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 80
Web Source www.titian.org/venus-of-urbino.jsp
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Female Reclining Nude
– Manet, Olympia (Figure 21.3)
– Ingres, La Grande Odalisque (Figure 20.3)
– Mutu, Preying Mantra (Figure 29.25)
MANNERIST PAINTING
Typical High Renaissance paintings have a perspective grid on a plaza that leads the eye to a central point (cf. School of Athens) (Figure 16.3). Mannerists chose to discard conventional theories of perspective by having the eye wander around a picture plane—as seen in Pontormo’s Entombment (Figure 16.5)—or use perspective to create an interesting illusion. Although heavily indebted to High Renaissance forms, the Mannerist uses these as starting points to freely vary the ideals of the previous generation. It is the ability of the Mannerists to defy the conventional classical order and rationality that gives the style much of its appeal.
A new artistic subject, the still life, is born in the Mannerist period. Although understood as the lowest form of painting, it gradually becomes an accepted art form in seventeenth-century Holland. Genre paintings are also introduced, as scenes of everyday life become acceptable in finished works of art.
For many years scholars saw the demanding compositions of Mannerist paintings as crude reflections of High Renaissance art—the aftermath of a great period. But scholars have slowly come to realize that the unusual complexities and ambiguous spaces—the artifice—of Mannerist art is its most endearing quality. This is an intensely intellectual art form that is deliberately complex, seeking refinement in unusual compositions and contrived settings. The irrational spatial effects rely on an exaggeration of forms, obscure imagery, and symbolic enigmas whose consequence is puzzling, stimulating, and challenging. It is the calculated ambiguity of Mannerist painting that gives it its enduring value.
Jacopo da Pontormo, Entombment of Christ, 1525–1528, oil on wood, Santa Felicità, Florence (Figure 16.5)
Figure 16.5: Jacopo da Pontormo, Entombment of Christ, 1525–1528, oil on wood, Santa Felicità, Florence
Form
■Anticlassical composition.
■Linear bodies twisting around one another.
■In the center of the circular composition is a grouping of hands.
■Hands seem disembodied.
■No ground line for many figures; what is Mary sitting on?
■Elongation of bodies.
■Some androgynous figures.
■No weeping, just yearning.
■High-keyed colors, perhaps taking into account the darkness of the chapel the work is placed in.
Context
■The painting is called Entombment of Christ, although there is no tomb, just the carrying of Jesus’s lifeless body.
■It is placed over the altar of a family chapel near the right front entrance of Santa Felicità in Florence.
■The composition and Mannerist style may reflect the instability in European politics brought on by the Protestant Reformation.
■There is a self-portrait on the extreme right of the painting.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 78
Web Source on Mannerism http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/hd_zino.htm
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Scenes of Grief and Loss
–Giotto, Lamentation (Figure 13.1c)
–Kollwitz, Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht (Figure 22.4)
MANNERIST ARCHITECTURE
Mannerist architecture invites us to question the use of classical vocabulary on a sixteenth-century building. Drawing on a wealth of antique elements, the Mannerist architect playfully engages the viewer in the reuse of these elements independent of their original function. These are commonly seen in works in which a bold interlocking of classical forms is arranged in a way to make us ponder the significance of ancient architecture in the Renaissance.
Giacomo della Porta, Il Gesù façade, 1568–1584, brick and marble, Rome (Figure 16.6a); nave by Giacomo da Vignola, 16th century (Figure 16.6b)
Figure 16.6a: Giacomo della Porta, Il Gesù façade, 1568–1584, brick and marble, Rome
Figure 16.6b: Giacomo da Vignola, Il Gesù nave, 16th century, Rome, Italy
Form
Façade:
■Column groupings, tympana, and pediment emphasize the central doorway.
■A slight crescendo of forms directs the viewer to the center.
■The two stories separated by a cornice; united by scrolls and a framing niche.
■The letters of Jesus’s name (IHS) are over the central doorway in a cartouche.
■Patron: Cardinal Farnese has his name placed directly over the cartouche with Jesus’s name.
Interior:
■Interior has no aisles; meant for grand ceremonies.
■Ceiling painting (cf. Figure 17.6).
Function
■Principal church of the Jesuit order.
Context
■Jesuits are seen as the defenders of Counter-Reformation ideals.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 82
Web Source https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giacomo-della-Porta
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Relationship of Façade to Interior
–Chartres Cathedral (Figure 12.4a, 12.4b, 12.4c)
–Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel (Figure 15.1a, 15.1b)
–Hadid, MAXXI (Figure 29.2b)
VOCABULARY
Arcadian: a simple rural and rustic setting used especially in Venetian paintings of the High Renaissance; named after Arcadia, a district in Greece to which poets and painters have attributed a rural simplicity and an idyllically untroubled world
Canvas: a heavy woven material used as the surface of a painting; first widely used in Venice (Figure 16.4)
Cassone (plural: cassoni): a trunk intended for storage of clothing for a wife’s trousseau (Figure 16.4)
Chiaroscuro: a gradual transition from light to dark in a painting. Forms are not determined by sharp outlines, but by the meeting of lighter and darker areas (Figure 16.1)
Cinquecento: the 1500s, or sixteenth century, in Italian art
Entombment: a painting or sculpture depicting Jesus Christ’s burial after his crucifixion (Figure 16.5)
Flood story: as told in Genesis 7 of the Bible, Noah and his family escape rising waters by building an ark and placing two of every animal aboard (Figure 16.2d)
Genre painting: painting in which scenes of everyday life are depicted
Glazes: thin transparent layers put over a painting to alter the color and build up a rich sonorous effect
Ignudi: nude corner figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling (Figure 16.2c)
Last Supper: a meal shared by Jesus Christ with his apostles the night before his death by crucifixion (Figure 16.1)
Neoplatonism: a school of ancient Greek philosophy that was revived by Italian humanists of the Renaissance
Sfumato: a smoke-light or hazy effect that distances the viewer from the subject of a painting (Figure 16.1)
Sibyl: a Greco-Roman prophetess whom Christians saw as prefiguring the coming of Jesus Christ (Figure 16.2c)
Still life: a painting of a grouping of inanimate objects, such as flowers or fruit
SUMMARY
The Papal Court of Julius II commissioned some of the greatest works of Renaissance art to beautify the Vatican, including starting construction on the new Saint Peter’s. Artists sought to rival the ancients with their accomplishments, often doing heroic feats like carving monumental sculptures from a single block of marble, or painting vast walls in fresco.
The Venetian school of painting was at its height during this period, realizing works that have a soft, sensuous surface texture layered with glazes. Sfumato and chiaroscuro are widely used to enhance this sensuous effect.
Mannerist artists broke the conventional representations of Italian Renaissance art by introducing intentionally distorted figures, acidy colors, and unusual compositions to create evocative and highly intellectual works of art that challenge the viewer’s perceptions and ideals. Perspective was used as a tool to manipulate a composition into intriguing arrangements of spatial forms.
The questioning of artistic values extends to the types of paintings as well. Still lifes and genre paintings, long considered too low for sophisticated artists, make their first appearance.
Mannerist architects seek to combine conventional architectural elements in a refined and challenging interplay of forms. It is this ambiguity that gives Mannerism a fascination today.
PRACTICE EXERCISES
Multiple-Choice
Questions 1 and 2 refer to the image below.
1.The literary source for this work is
(A)the New Testament
(B)The Odyssey
(C)the Qur’an
(D)The Metamorphosis
2.This type of painting is a departure from High Renaissance painting in that it
(A)relies on symbolism to convey its meaning
(B)has exaggerated and elongated figures
(C)is painted with a quick and visible brushstroke
(D)is meant for private viewing rather than public display
3.Sixteenth-century Italian painting was revolutionary for the
(A)introduction of guilds, which organized the arts into professional groups
(B)patronage of preaching orders of friars such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, who stressed teaching
(C)introduction of a capitalist market system, which bought and traded works as commodities
(D)first permanent painting academy, which trained artists and improved their status in society
4.The Venetian High Renaissance differs from the Florentine High Renaissance in its great emphasis on
(A)foreshortening
(B)chiaroscuro
(C)warm and rich colors
(D)mythological scenes
5.Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper provided a general inspiration for Raphael’s School of Athens. This can be particularly seen in their use of
(A)strict symmetry, which adds balance to the composition
(B)self-portraits in discreet locations
(C)linear perspective, which creates a unified architectural framework
(D)contemporary faces placed on people from the past
Short Essay
Practice Question 3: Visual Analysis
Suggested Time: 15 minutes
This work is Raphael’s School of Athens painted from 1509–1511.
Explain how Raphael created a sense of perspective in this work.
Using specific visual evidence, discuss at least two ways in which Raphael has placed emphasis on the figures in the center.
Explain why the emphasis has been placed on these figures and what the meaning of this emphasis is in relationship to the work as a whole.
ANSWER KEY
1.A
2.B
3.D
4.C
5.C
ANSWERS EXPLAINED
Multiple-Choice
1.(A) This painting is Pontormo’s Entombment of Christ, a scene taken from the New Testament.
2.(B) This painting is different from High Renaissance art in that it shows a Mannerist delight in “mannered” figure styles: exaggerated and elongated poses.
3.(D) The first permanent painting academy was opened in Florence in 1563. It sought to train artists and improve their status in society.
4.(C) Venetian High Renaissance paintings, like those by Titian, are often painted in warm and rich colors.
5.(C) All of these characteristics are true of one or the other painting, but the only one that characterizes both works is the unified architectural setting based on linear perspective.
Short Essay Rubric
Task |
Point Value |
Key Points in a Good Response |
Explain how Raphael created a sense of perspective in this work. |
1 |
Answers could include: ■Linear perspective brings our eye to the center of the composition. ■Our eye is drawn to the middle by the sloping walls on the side of the painting and by the rising floor pavements at the bottom of the painting. ■The sky-lit background behind the two central figures brings us deeper into the composition. |
Using specific visual evidence, discuss at least two ways in which Raphael has placed emphasis on the figures in the center. |
2 |
Answers could include: ■The sky-lit background behind the two central figures highlights them; in contrast to the other figures, which are backed by walls and steps. ■The lines of linear perspective in the painting point directly to the central figures. ■The composition is basically symmetrical; in the center the two figures balance each other. |
Explain why the emphasis has been placed on these figures… |
1 |
Answers could include: ■The two figures represent Aristotle and Plato, who are seen as the central figures in ancient philosophy. ■In the Renaissance, people viewed Aristotle and Plato as the founders of philosophical thought. ■The two differing views of philosophy are given equal weight as expressed by Aristotle and Plato’s symmetry and balance. |
…and what the meaning of this emphasis is in relationship to the work as a whole. |
1 |
Answers could include: ■Since Aristotle and Plato are seen as the central figures in ancient philosophy, they are centrally placed in the painting. ■Aristotle and Plato had differing views of philosophy and their views are expressed in their gestures, the books they carry, and by the thinkers grouped on either side of them. ■The faces of contemporaries are placed on the bodies of many of the figures, including Plato who is represented as Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci was thought to represent the greatest of modern thinkers. |