CHAPTER 12:
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MANNERISM
1494-1564
As a Florentine, Leonardo DaVinci is technically of the early Renaissance, but his great genius and the styles he introduced really made him the first of the High Renaissance artists.
The Baptism of Christ (1472-75)
Leda and the Swan
1505-10
Adoration of the Magi (1481-82)
Leonardo probably suffered from ADD. He often left works unfinished as his brain led him to more fantastic thoughts of science and invention. Here are a few of them:
Design for a Flying Machine, c. 1488
A spring driven car
Paddle wheel for a boat.
Underwater breathing apparatus
Parachute
Swim fins for the hands
Helicopter
Tank
Spotlight
TIZIANO (Titian) 1485-1576
Titian painted successfully throughout the Renaissance. Looking at a few of his works in chronological order can illustrate much of the development of Humanism in the Renaissance.
1510: The Mona Lisa is seven years old; the Sistine Chapel is two years from completion; Martin Luther has just received his second Bachelor’s Degree and his two years away from completing his doctorate in Divinity.
St. Mark Enthroned with Saints
1510
Painted to celebrate the end of a plague which had struck the city in 1510,
four saints who are traditionally invoked for protection from the plague -
Saints Cosmas and Damian to the left, Roch and Sebastian to the right - are
placed in pairs on each side of the altar where saint
Mark, patron saint of
1516-18: Warfare in
the east; peace between
Assumption of the Virgin
1516-18
The powerful figures of the Apostles reflect the influence of Michelangelo and the painting demonstrates clear similarities to works of Raphael. The painting creates dramatic force and dynamic tension which will become from this moment on the most obvious characteristic of his work.
At the bottom are the Apostles (humanity), amazed and
stunned by the wondrous happening. St Peter is kneeling with his hand on his
breast,
The Madonna, slight and bathed in light, is surrounded by a host of angels that accompany her joyfully hailing.
Above is the Eternal Father, serene and noble majesty, calling the Virgin to him with a look of love.
1520-1524: Magellan’s ships sail around the world; Martin Luther is excommunicated and declared an outlaw; Cortez defeats the Aztecs; Ponce de León dies; the Peasants War (part of the reformation) begins.
Bacchus and Ariadne
1523-24
1530-35: Copernicus tells us the solar system is
heliocentric; The Prince is published five year’s after Machiavelli’s
death; Anabaptists (right wing Christians) seize Münster; Henry VIII breaks
with
Titian: Saint Mary Magdalene. c.1530-1535
1540’s: John Calvin publishes his ideas on Protestantism;
first contact made with
David and Goliath. Oil on canvas. 1540s
As varying forms of Christianity began to be accepted, Titian has to tighten up some of his work.
Penitent Mary Magdalene
1560s
Giorgione
(c.1477-1510)
Concert Champetre. c.1510-1511
This work is the outstanding masterpiece of the Venetian Renaissance, the summit of Giorgione's creative career, so much so that according to some it may have been painted, or at least finished, by Titian rather than Giorgione. The female figures in the foreground are the Muses of poetry, their nakedness reveals their divine being. The standing figure pouring water from a glass jar represents the superior tragic poetry, while the seated one holding a flute is the Muse of the less prestigious comedy or pastoral poetry. The well-dressed youth who is playing a lute is the poet of exalted lyricism, while the bareheaded one is an ordinary lyricist. The painter based this differentiation on Aristotle's "Poetica".
Giorgione: Sleeping Venus
c. 1510
Raphael (1483-1520 )
Spozalizio (The Engagement of Virgin Mary)
1504
The group attending the wedding repeats the circular rhythm of the composition. The three principal figures and two members of the party are set in the foreground, while the others are arranged in depth, moving progressively farther away from the central axis. This axis, marked by the ring Joseph is about to put on the Virgin's finger, divides the paved surface and the temple into two symmetrical parts.
A tawny gold tonality prevails in the color scheme, with passages of pale ivory, yellow, blue-green, dark brown and bright red.
The polygonal temple dominates the structure of this composition. In keeping with the perspective recession shown in the pavement and in the angles of the portico, the figures diminish proportionately in size.
Leonardo's influence is particularly strong in The Blessing Christ (1506). The Resurrected Christ bears the symbols of the Passion. The figure displays a smoothness of surface and a soft chiaroscuro modeling which clearly surpass the abilities of Raphael's master.
The figures of The Sistine Madonna (1513-14), stand on a bed of clouds, framed by heavy curtains which open to either side. The Virgin, confident and yet hesitant, appears to descend from a heavenly space, through the picture plane, out into the real space in which the painting is hung. Generations of visitors have been deeply impressed by the way in which Raphael portrayed the Madonna in this painting. Almost everyone is familiar with the angels leaning on the balustrade.
Christ Falls on the Way to
The painting was executed for the
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
Michelangelo's Pietà was carved in 1499, when the sculptor was 24 years old.
Bacchus (1497) The body of this drunken and staggering god gives an impression of both youthfulness and of femininity. Vasari says that this strange blending of effects is the characteristic of the Greek god Dionysus. But in Michelangelo's experience, sensuality of such a divine nature has a drawback for man: in his left hand the god holds a lion skin, the symbol of death, and a bunch of grapes, the symbol of life, from which a Faun is feeding. Thus realize what significance this miracle of pure sensuality has for man: living only for a short while he will find himself in the position of the faun, caught in the grasp of death, the lion skin.
David (1504) Michelangelo breaks away from the traditional way of representing David. He does not present us with the winner, the giant's head at his feet and the powerful sword in his hand, but portrays the youth in the phase immediately preceding the battle: perhaps he has caught him just in the moment when he has heard that his people are hesitating, and he sees Goliath jeering and mocking them. The artist places him in the most perfect "contraposto", as in the most beautiful Greek representations of heroes. The right-hand side of the statue is smooth and composed while the left-side, from the outstretched foot all the way up to the disheveled hair is openly active and dynamic.
The muscles and the tendons are developed only to the point where they can still be interpreted as the perfect instrument for a strong will, and not to the point of becoming individual self-governing forms.
David's oblique gaze and determined frown embody the 'terribilità' characteristic of all Michelangelo's work.
The
The
Sistine Chapel has so much to see.
Let’s look at a few of the images closer.
The Creation of Adam
Creation of Woman
The composition forms a right-angled triangle with Adam
as the horizontal and God the Father the vertical element, and Eve, in an
attitude of adoration, striving towards the hand of God as a diagonal
hypotenuse. Theirs is a harmonious Pythagorean unity of spirits prior to their
separation.
Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Planets
David and Goliath
Drunkenness of Noah
The degradation of the Patriarch, who was chosen by God
to outlive the Flood and ensure the survival and redemption of mankind, was due
not to an overdose of wine but to human loss of spiritual memory; to the
hypnotic sleep of man oblivious to his origin, enacted here by the father of
the race. The sons who stripped and ridiculed him do not know what they are
doing and understand neither themselves nor their fate. Noah's devotion and
piety pacifies the Father and gives unto God what is God's. For his sake the
Eternal has decided to redeem mankind. If the sons mock their father it is
their own shame, not his; it is the fall and the inexorable karma of the race
which men in their blindness neither see nor understand.
The Fall and Expulsion from
Garden of Eden
Sacrifice of Noah
The Deluge
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Portraits of Dürer's parents (1490)
Self-Portrait at 26 (1498)
Madonna and Child (Haller Madonna)
c. 1498 Dürer can never quite
believe in the ideal of other painters. His Madonna has a portly, Nordic
handsomeness, and the Child a snub nose and massive jowls. The Child seems to
sigh, hiding behind His back the stolen fruit that brought humanity to disaster
and that He is born to redeem.
Lot Fleeing with his Daughters from
c. 1498
Self-Portrait in a Fur-Collared Robe
1500
The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand 1508
This depicts the legend of the ten thousand Christians
who were martyred on Mount Ararat, in a massacre perpetrated by the Persian
King Saporat on the command of the Roman Emperors
Hadrian and Antonius.
Madonna and Child with the Pear
1526
Hans Holbein (1497-1543)
Adam and Eve 1517
The play of light over the fluting of the architectural
shell behind the two figures carves out the space into which the delicately
shadowed crown, hair and face of the Madonna are set. The twisting of the
child's body emphasizes the weight the Madonna's arms must carry, and Christ's
projecting feet and the foreshortening of his own and his mother's arms stress
the space his torso occupies.
In his elegant face and hands, the squatting youth bears
striking resemblance to the Mary figure. The naked boy and the Child Jesus also
correspond to figure types found in Italian Renaissance paintings, and it is
conceivable that Holbein was inspired by compositions
by Raphael and Leonardo.
Jakob Meyer's deceased
first wife Magdalene in the painting was the result of the death of Meyer's two
sons during Holbein's first English absence: he
decided to include all members of his family, living and dead, rather than omit
any individual. The great skill and delicacy of the detailing of Anna's
hair-band, catching the translucent light over the pearls, recalls the
attention to detail of the Flemish masters and their early explorations of the
powers of oil paint.
Henry VIII (after 1537) Henry VIII stands in the
foreground like a colossus with legs apart and knees straight. His broad
shoulders, emphasized by his heavy clothing, exaggerate the already unusual
physical presence of this large man, whose sex is additionally stressed by a
prominent girdle and codpiece. The king thus appears as the epitome of vigor
and potency.
Jane Seymour, Queen of
1536
Portrait of Anne of Cleves c.
1539
Henry's displeasure at finding Anne
of Cleves more like a `fat Flanders mare' when she
arrived for the marriage ceremony in January 1540 cost Holbein
dear in prestige, and he received no further important work from this quarter.
Portrait of Catherine Howard
1540-41 Catherine Howard (1520-42) was the fifth wife of
King Henry VIII. Her downfall came when Henry learned of her premarital
affairs.
On February 11, 1542, Parliament passed a bill of
attainder declaring it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. Two
days later Catherine was beheaded in the
All told, Henry VIII had six wives.
In a time when church laws were being questioned and
governments were unstable, art turned to a movement called MANNERISM, which
comes from the Italian “maniera,” which meant
“virtuoso technique.” Artists looked to Art itself rather than to the subject
matter or nature.
The fingers in Bellini’s Madonna of
the Meadow anticipates Mannerism, as does the long face of the
Madonna.
Madonna dal Collo
Lungo (Madonna with Long Neck) 1534-40
It is a
work of intense if somewhat aloof poetical feeling, this effect mainly arising
from the splendid abstraction of the forms, so smoothly rounded under the cool
and polished color.
Legs and feet following long curved
lines not for any symbolism or meaning—just for the sake of Art itself.
Agnolo
Bronzino: Venus, Cupide and
the Time (Allegory of Lust) 1540-45 Figures are meant to be allegorical, but
the artwork itself shows similar lines and curves.
Giorgio Vasari, frontispiece to Lives of the Artists,
1568 shows the intense, overwhelming decorative aspects of Mannerism.
Giuseppe
Arcimboldo: Vertemnus 1591
A portrait of an important ruler done entirely in food
and flowers
El Greco:
Mary Magdalen in Penitence
1576-78
An Allegory with a Boy Lighting a Candle in the Company
of an Ape and a Fool 1577-79
GRECO, El
Annunciation
1595-1600
GRECO, El
Pietà
c. 1575
(Next slide: The Purification of the
1571-76)
MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
Last Judgment
1537-41
Late Titian
Titian: The Flaying of Marsyas.
1575-1576
Music in the Renaissance added chords rather than
individual notes . . .
Adrian Willaert (1490-1562)
furthered the musical work of Josquin des Pres, by putting more variation and
modulation into choral numbers, thus making them somewhat abstract
"Le dur travail"
“Vecchie letrose non Valete niente" Fa”
An easier example might be this: notice the modulation of
individual voices within the choral ensemble.
Churches did have organ music, but little else, since the
15th century. Of course, some were
bigger than others.
Violins had been around in one form or another since the
9th century, but the instrument we call “violin” today really came into its own
in the 16th century.
The harpsichord also became popular in the Renaissance.
Harpsichord strings are plucked, not hit, as in a piano.
While instruments such as the harpsichord, recorder, and
lute were not considered serious instruments for composition, many folk
melodies were composed; a few were remembered, including this piece, said to
have been composed by Henry VIII:
Or this bagpipe tune, later given
lyrics by Robert Burns:
And this one, proving the Renaissance may not be that far
away . . .
These instruments were perfected in the Renaissance,
where they would lie in wait until the Baroque Period, when composers like
Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel would really develop classical music.
In the field of Literature, Gaspara Stampa (1524-1554)
embraced the Petrarchan sonnet from a woman’s point of view. Petrarch, you will remember, wrote poems to
his imaginary love, Laura. Stampa’s poetry was addressed to Collaltino di
Collalto, a love not quite imaginary.
(Many believed Stampa’s favors were given quite freely.) She died at the age of 31, of fever, colic,
and mal de mare.
Every planet above, and every star,
Gave my lord their powers at his birth:
Each one gave him of their special worth,
To make a single perfect mortal here.
Saturn gave him depths of understanding,
Jupiter for fine actions gave desire,
Mars a greater skill than most in warfare,
Phoebus, elegance and wit in speaking.
Venus beauty too, and gentleness,
Mercury eloquence, but then the moon
Made him too cold for me, in iciness.
Each of these graces, each rare boon,
Make me burn for his fierce brightness,
And yet he freezes, through that one alone.
Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) published The Courtier in 1527, a
book which described proper customs and manners of the age. The ideal courtier is nobly born, skilled in
military arts, sports, and dancing, well-educated in classical and modern languages,
music and painting, and gracious in conversation. However, with all these
skills he does everything with certain nonchalance. Unlike the woman worship of chivalry,
Castiglione’s idea women were nobly born, not curious or affected, graceful,
witty, educated, discrete, and a good housewife and manager of the home. She should blush when she hears vulgar
language, dance and sing well (but not too well), and to treat her husband with
honest affection, not wantonness.
Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527)
The Prince, written in 1513 focused on the
practical problems a monarch faces in staying in power Its main theme is that princes should
retain absolute control of their territories, and they should use any means of
expediency to accomplish this end. Here are a few of his more famous
quotations:
“Before all else,
be armed.”
“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
“One who deceives will always find those who allow
themselves to be deceived.”
“Politics have no relation to morals.”
“The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.”
“War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope
except in arms.”
“War should be the only study of a prince. He should
consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive,
and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.”
Obviously, The Prince was
extremely unpopular among many groups, but it was extremely important because
it foreshadowed the next major step in Humanism—political revolution.
As Smokey says, “Goodnight.”