1. Atlantic Cape Community College
Heritage of the Western World I, II
Keith Carson, Senior Adjunct Professor of History
The Renaissance
Giotto (d. 1337)
Renaissance  Italy (14th/15th cs.)  Raphael (d. 1520)  Mannerism  Baroque
Tintoretto (d. 1594)
renaissance: means, literally, “rebirth”
in search of origins:
1. Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550);
pioneering history of the fine arts
2. Ancient Greece/Rome
3. religious orders: St. Francis of Assisi (Franciscans) and the Dominican Order, or Dominicans
4. Nicola and Giovanni Pisano---sculpture
5. Giotto
6. Byzantine Empire: maniera greca (“Greek,” or Byzantine style)
7. Duccio---painting
8. Venice
9. Northern Europe
Italians of the 15th and 16th cs. regarded their own times as immensely superior to all the
ages since the fall of the Roman Empire about one-thousand years earlier; idea of rebirth
of arts & letters after a sleep of a thousand years
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574 AD)
1. perpetuated the myth that the Renaissance (It: rinascita) was a rebirth, or return to
Ancient Greek and Roman civilization after a long period of aesthetic and artistic decline
known as the Dark Ages
2. Vasari elevated the importance of his home region of Tuscany as central to
Renaissance development and growth
3. Vasari’s conception of the Renaissance as a return to the pure Graeco-Roman source of
higher civilization is to be viewed with a critical eye
a. distorts role Christianity played in the development of art
b. while it is true that particular types of Christian enthusiasm posed a
danger to the evolution of art, Vasari does not adequately acknowledge
the positive, galvanic role the Christian Church played in the development
of Western art

2. 4. Vasari’s historical account of Western art also rested on a misconception between the
self-consciously new age of the Renaissance and the period that preceded it---Medieval,
or Middle Ages; Vasari viewed medieval civilization as a time of more or less
undifferentiated ignorance and stasis punctuated by a few sparks of individual genius; a
more complicated historical interpretation of the Renaissance sees this new age as the
culmination rather than a refutation of medieval tendencies
5. it is not possible to appreciate the energy that infuses many Renaissance works without
acknowledging the debt such works owed not just to classical inspiration, but medieval
Christian spirituality and devotion as well; Renaissance art is not just a classically
inspired rejection of the medieval past
Italian humanism of 13th (1200s) – 16th (1500s) cs.
1. Italy was the epicenter of a profound shift in human sensibilities between 1200 and
1500 AD
2. re-establishment of classical vocabulary of architecture
3. revitalization of realistic interpretation in painting and sculpture
What were the historical causes?
myth: Vasari’s manufactured explanation of Renaissance as an Italian love affair with
antiquity: Roman origin
fact: mixed origins and multiple cultural influences of Renaissance genius: Roman,
Venetian, Byzantine, Northern European, Christian origins
Marsilio Ficino (1492): “This century, like a golden age, has restored to light the liberal
arts which were almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture,
architecture, music, the ancient singing of the Orphic lyre, and all this in Florence.
Achieving what had been honoured among the ancients, but almost forgotten since, the
age has joined wisdom with eloquence, and prudence with the military art…this century
appears to have perfected astronomy, and in Florence it has recalled the Platonic teaching
from darkness into light…”
Lorenzo Valla (c.1406-1457) proclaiming the perfections of the Latin language: “…the
glory of Latinity was allowed to decay in rust and mould…in this age they have been
aroused and come to life again, so greatly increased is the number of good artists and
men of letters who now flourish.”
Renaissance was thought of both as a revival of good Latin literature and of the figurative
arts
Latin: language, or lingua franca, of all educated men in Europe; only a very small
proportion of the population in any given country were educated; with emergence of
modern nation-states came the need for a professional administrative class well-grounded
in Roman law (Latin); professional studies of both clergy and secular officials were based
on Latin

3. Giorgio Vasari (1550) Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects:
important book on art history; Vasari shared the view of the revival of the arts as a rebirth
of antiquity after the long sleep of the Middle Ages
ancient: works made before Constantine (r. 306-337 AD)
old: after Constantine
renaissance: second birth of the arts
French historian Michelet (1798-1874 AD) first used term “Renaissance” to describe a
whole period of history and not confined to the rebirth of letters in Latin and classically
inspired style in the arts
opposing connotative meanings of “renaissance”
Positive Negative
all statesmen are Machiavellian
Italians as conscious exponents of “virtu”
enlightened patrons: Julius II, Leo X monster: Alexander VI
Jacob Burckhardt (1860) Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy; John Addington
Symonds (1875-1886) Renaissance in Italy: both present a rather romantic view of the
period
Heinrich Wölfflin (1899) Classic Art (Ger: Die Klassische Kunst): Burckhardt’s pupil
and successor; deals with art of Italian Renaissance from an almost exclusively formal
point of view; analyses of particular works almost unequaled; explains art of the period as
aesthetic impulses (will-to-form)
humanism: improper usage; Italian art of the 15th/16th cs., even when treating a
“classical” subject, is entirely Christian in its roots and in its meaning; modern usage as
“non-divine” is incorrect; a sort of substitute religion in which man is not only the
measure of all things but also his own end
humanism in the Renaissance: humanitas, a word adapted by Leonardo Bruni from
Cicero and Aulus Gellius to mean those studies which are “humane”----worthy of the
dignity of man (i.e. Greek & Latin literature); distinct from, but not in opposition to,
theological studies; new secular learning of the renaissance was parallel to older clerical
studies; humanism focused on learning language, literature, philosophy, law, and
medicine
shadow of Rome thus always lay over the Italy of the humanists

4. Italians of the Renaissance look back into classical history to find their spiritual ancestors
in ancient Rome because they were attempting something no feudal society could
understand let alone emulate
modern society---in its managerial, capitalist, and political aspects---was born in Italy in
the Late Middle Ages
Eastern origins of Western art
1. Byzantine art was a dynamic force capable of renewal and transformation
2. Byzantine artists preceded Italians in effecting a revolution in naturalistic, empathetic
representations of Christian subject matter
3. Byzantine artists developed “volume style” method of depicting immediacy and
corporeality of human form
4. Byzantine artists had also turned away from maneira greca and recovered Graeco-
Roman naturalism before or contemporaneously with Italians
5. Byzantium itself was the last culture with direct links with classical cultures: inheritor
of schools of art (sculpture and painting) represented by Apelles and Phidias
6. Byzantine wall painting demonstrates changes in evolution of their art most clearly
(eastern European church of St. Pantaleimon, Nerezi, modern Macedonia)
between the 12th and 14th cs. there was a constant stream of traffic in people, art, and
ideas between Byzantium and the West
Italian social transformation at end of the 12th c. : Medieval commercial revolution
1. economic and technological change:
a. banking
b. textiles: required considerable workforce to maintain profitable production
c. trade and commerce
2. socio-economic change: break-up of old feudal order [feudal-manorial system]
3. socio-cultural change: development and growth of cities as commercial centers and
need for Christianity to reach out to new urban poor
4. political change: accumulation of regional princes bankrolled by emerging commercial
class
development and growth of textile industry funded by banking interests spurred growth
of urban towns (cities) to support it and threatened medieval feudal-manorial system;
many impoverished laborers migrated from rural areas to towns seeking out better
opportunities
St. Dominic of Osma (1170-1221 AD) founder of the Order of Preachers (OP), or
Dominicans
St. Francis of Assisi (c.1181-1226 AD) founder of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM), or
Franciscans

5. urban missions of Sts. Francis and Dominic---charismatic spiritual leaders---who reached
out to provide care to mass urban poor; church as source of charitable relief in medieval
period and Renaissance prior to development of the nation-state
preaching of Sts. Francis and Dominic and the establishment of religious orders
following their deaths led to a church-building boom in new cities in the early 13th c.
(1200s) for example, Santa Croce, Florence [Franciscan church]
teaching and preaching of St. Francis was rooted in pathos emphasizing vulnerability of
Christ (esp. Nativity, Passion); stigmata; physicality, morbidity, and eros of western art
may be traced to Francis’ influence: mortification of flesh and denial of body
need to make scripture visible to mass illiterate urban poor
transcendent Christ (Christus triumphans) versus mortal Christ (Christus Patiens)
body penitential
body in pain
body bleeding
“The Franciscan faith did not only revolutionize the image of Christ: it also gave an
entirely new status and urgency to narrative art. Emphasis was placed, in particular, on
the Passion of Christ, on his humiliation and isolation and suffering in the days leading
up to his death.” Graham-Dixon (24)
the Great Schism of the 14th c. and the exile of the papacy in Avignon meant that one
great central (but not hereditary) power was removed from central Italy, and the
oligarchical societies of Florence and Venice were able to establish themselves as leading
powers of Italy: ascendency of Venice was maritime, Florence was financial
growth of city of Florence whose burgeoning textile industry was powered by the Arno
River
Florentine bankers and merchants (large scale international financing and commerce)
traded with England and Burgundy which translated into a high percentage of educated,
cultured Florentine elites; these ruling classes eventually became the patrons and
supporters of the new humanist arts, and, in due time, became the public which bought
the books made accessible by the printing press; Renaissance aristocrats were able to
exploit their own unique personal abilities much more so than the feudal aristocracy,
confined as they were to the Church or to a relatively brutish military career
Medici produced cultured bankers, wool merchants, politicians, poets, popes, and a
condottiere

6. Renaissance “articles of faith,” or aesthetics
1. enhanced realism
2. enhanced psychological penetration
3. enhanced persuasiveness
Italian schools of painting: numerous Italian schools of painting arose from the different
factors in each town
virtually dominated by the de Medici family from 1434 to 1494,
Florence lies at the heart of the Renaissance probably, in part, because of
its economic power and stability; after the fall of the Medici in
1494 leadership of Italy began to pass back to Rome
Venice with its eastern interests would naturally be more Byzantine in
outlook
center of a new, rejuvenated papacy [Julius II (r.1503-1513)] that
Rome was one of the great moments of western civilization and
humanity
Venice
1. city on the edge of the terra firma
2. trading and commerce center
3. non-Western contacts
4. Govanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516) “Madonna and Child with Saints” San Zaccaria,
Venice (1505); classical framework bordering Christian thematic work

7. [above: structure of Venetian Republic]
A New Movement in Art: it is not uncommon for a new style in the arts to exist alongside
and older one which it subsequently replaces
in the first quarter of the 15th c. in Florence two new styles were seeking to assert
themselves in the face of traditional forms
in the early 14th c. Giotto had imposed a new and more humanistic vision of the arts in
Western Europe: representations of scenes from the Bible, or the lives of the saints,
depend upon the dramatic gestures and facial expressions of the actors, and the human
figures who carry the action and make it vividly comprehensible to do so through the
immediacy of their naturalism; Giotto made amazing advances in the technique of
representing the human body in a more realistic way than any practiced since classical
antiquity; heavily influenced by sculpture; in his truth to nature preceded by Nicola and
Giovanni Pisano whose sculpture was inspired by antique art
Giotto and Empathy
1. Giotto simplified and reduced elements of art in order to get at the heart of emotions
and meanings of biblical stories
2. Giotto’s sense of drama influenced by sacred theater and sermon, his sense of form
was influenced by sculpture of the time
3. centrality of narrative events are…tinged by a sense of ritual; dramaturgical focus
4. ability to communicate with nuance of gesture or expression; mastery of expression

8. 5. Giotto was the artist, according to Vasari, who decisively turned art away from
primitive Byzantine influence and set western art in a new direction; so-called
annihilation of maniera greca (Greek or Byzantine style)
from the beginning of the 14th c. representational arts in Italy were linked with the:
1. heritage of Roman art, and
2. dramatic possibilities inherent in Christian subject-matter
Black Death of 1348 cut short the movement initiated by Giotto; late 14th c. art tended to
be reactionary to the extreme partly as a result of the plague; not until the early 15th c. are
Giotto’s ideas taken up once more
Duccio (c.1255-c.1319 AD)
1. Cathedral of Siena; Maesta altarpiece (1308-1311)
a. The Virgin and Child Enthroned (Oriental influence)
b. The Transfiguration (spatial arrangement of figures)
2. Siennese familiarity with Near East, China, Moors, and Muslim influences
3. stylistic ambiguity; mix of naturalistic and non-naturalistic impulses in harmony and
balance
4. fluidity of Duccio’s style
rise of new nation-states of Spain, France, England
in 1494 the French learned how easy it was to invade Italy and to subjugate the small,
individual city-states: the Italians learned the lesson of unity too late and, after the
appalling sack of Rome in 1527, France and Spain fought for domination in the distracted
peninsula; not until the 19th c. did Italians again enjoy the liberty to decide their own fate,
even though they continue to be the cultural leaders of the world throughout the 16th c.
and in the 17th c the vast spiritual forces of the Counter-Reformation were directed from
Rome
Northern Europe
1. patterns of influence connected the art/architecture of southern and northern Europe in
13th through 15th cs.
2. growth and development of Burgundian Empire; Ghent; Bruges; Dijon (modern
France); Low Countries; Rhineland
3. construction of French and German cathedrals
4. Roger van der Weyden; Jacques Daret; Jan van Eyck; Robert Campin
5. symbolism, illumination, mix of domesticity and sacred
history of the court of Burgundy: small duchy between France and the Empire maintained
their independence in the hope of truly becoming the Middle Kingdom that they set out to
be; Burgundy was one of the reasons for the Franco-Spanish struggle fought out in Italy
in the 16th c.

9. new emphasis on the joy of living and in the vanities of this world made their appearance
at the court of Burgundy, centered on Dijon, at the very end of the 14th c.: gayer, more
sophisticated deliberately elegant and even precious approach to the world spreading
quickly into France and Italy
examples from the court of Burgundy show this new so-called International Gothic:
1. altarpiece probably commissioned by Melchior Broederlam in the early 1390s for the
Charterhouse at Champmol near Dijon
2. products of the Giottoesques
3. Sienese painters such as Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers
results of the pervasive influence of widespread trend in thought and culture; in these
cases it indicates the rather widespread pervasiveness of ideas from Italy to Avignon,
which as seat of the exile papacy at Avignon for over seventy years, was a center for the
dissemination of Italian ideas and the permeation of the Gothic North which eventually
bore its fullest fruit in the conjunction of North/South in International Gothic
blending of Christian themes with secular groups (e.g. aristocracy/nobility and ruling
class) and figure (e.g. main portico of Charterhouse at Champmol has sculpted figures
representing Duke Philip and his Duchess presented by their patron saints to the Virgin
Mary) resolved the inherent tensions, at least temporarily, between empty Roman
materialism and secularism, and Christian idealism and theology; the association of
important noble or ruling figures with religious figures plays some role in the
conceptualization and development of what eventually came to be called “divine right;”
the equation of the divine with the imperial is perhaps best embodied in the monarchy of
the early modern nation-state
development of court art: commissioning of artists to produce works of art for wealthy
patrons who knew little and cared less about the nobler qualities of painting and sculpture
Lorenzo Monaco (c.1370/72 – 1425 AD) his work from 1414 marks the arrival of art in
Florence; art was in the Giottoesque style; Lorenzo was Sienese, but settled in Florence
and became a Camaldonesian in the Monastery of St. Maria degli Angeli where there was
a famous school of manuscript illuminators; influenced by Giotto and Sienese art of the
beginning of the 14th c.; traditional style popular in Florence at the time
content of court art: content of the pictures is expressed in a style which in itself is an
elaboration of something fundamentally old-fashioned and therefore more easily
acceptable because more easily assimilable; thin, elegant figures have no real weight; the
artist has been more concerned with the rich, elaborate costumes than with any attempt to
represent figures in three-dimensions

10. works of Lorenzo Monaco and Limbourg brothers
1. Adoration of the Magi – Monaco
2. Month of May from The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry – Limbourg Brothers
3. Coronation of the Virgin – Monaco
triumph of International Gothic
1. marked arrival in Florence of Gentile da Fabriano (c. 1370 – 1427); commissioned by
Palla Strozzi to paint an adoration of the Magi
2. Antonio Pisanello (c. 1395-1455) supreme exponent of international gothic; may have
worked under Gentile
3. use of drawings in international gothic as the raw material for the details of pictures
Great divide of the 15th c: battle between two competing styles seeking to replace the
dying Giottoesque tradition in Florence at the beginning of the 15th c.
 Gentile v. Masaccio
 Ghiberti v. Donatello
crucial difference is between the interest in purely decorative naturalism to a new and
vivid realism: move from flat patterns to use of chiaroscuro (play of black and white) in
striking realism of heavy, un-idealized features and massive bulk
Ghiberti represents a continuation in the sculpture of International Gothic
Donatello: highly charged emotional character of his depictions of people introduces yet
another element---influence of Gothic survives in Donatello’s use of silhouette;
Donatello’s work is permeated by an ultra-powerful realism and even a cult of ugliness
used for expressive reasons
Donatello, statue of St. George sculpted for a niche on the outside of Orsanmichele
(c.1420)
1. free-standing statue personifying the Christian virtues of knighthood
2. its importance is less the statue itself as for the small relief under the statue which
heralds things to come
3. Donatello’s use of delicately graded depth of relief is apparent in “The Feast of Herod”
the creation of an ideal space and of a complete illusion of a true world; this identity of
purpose between the painter and the sculptor coming at about the same historical moment
marks clearly the break between the older forms represented by Gentile and the new ideas
developed by Renaissance artists

11. Formal Properties of Renaissance Art
1. chiaroscuro
2. atmospheric perspective
3. one point perspective
4. monothematic
Donatello’s David was the first nude cast in bronze since classical times
1. easily relaxed pose
2. tender modeling of the forms rippling softly, smoothly under the bronze skin
3. sharply shadowed under the strange peaked hat
4. David is also evidence of the rebirth of the classical past
Donatello’s David is evidence of the final emergence of that new spirit which was to
inform the Renaissance: sense, not of a lesson learned by rote, not of a model to be
imitated, but of a parity of creation, of equality with the tradition that inspired it, of
continuity of thought and feeling, even though the purpose to which the art was dedicated
was entirely different
Donatello “Gattamelata” : heavy figure of the successful mercenary soldier, relaxed and
confident in his conqueror’s pose on his huge and richly harnessed horse stems ultimately
from the Imperator type of Roman portraits; and the ugly face, full of character, derives
patently from the astonishing realism of Roman funerary busts
Masaccio (b.1401)
1. entered Guild of Painters in Florence (1422)
2. in 5 or 6 years work was able to revolutionize Florentine painting and achieve a
measure of fame carried on by Michelangelo in the next century
3. Masaccio died in Rome at the age of 27 years
4. major works
a. Carmelite polyptych (Pisa); also Pisa Polyptych (1426-1427)
b. Carmelite frescoes (Florence) in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria
del Carmine (1425-1426)
Masolino: flaccid indefiniteness of form and lack of solidarity
Masaccio: directness of lighting and clarity of spatial position

12. architecture of Brunelleschi and the writings and architecture of Alberti
1. other great controlling factor in the revival of the arts in Florence in the 15th c.
2. Brunelleschi’s greatest achievement was building of the dome of Florence Cathedral;
work which he could never have completed without knowledge of Roman construction
methods acquired from his study of the ruins of antiquity
3. Alberti’s significance lies in his architectural writings; De Re Aedificatoria first printed
in 1485, although written about 1450, became the first theoretical work on the subject of
architecture since the Roman Vitruvius (died c. 15 BC)
Dome of the Florence Cathedral
Brunelleschi (b. 1577)
1. never touched by those qualities of smallness and preciousness characteristic of
international gothic; all his thinking was large in scale
2. inspired by the repertory of classical Roman architecture in form and detail; like
Donatello, Brunelleschi absorbed and recreated those forms without being slavishly
bound to the sources that inspired him
3. great dome is more a feat of engineering than architecture; huge cavity demanded
engineering innovations for its covering qualities beyond those of architecture alone
Alberti’s architectural writing and aesthetic works
1. treatise on paiting (p. 1435) dedicated to Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della
Robbia, and Masaccio
2. established two great principles:
a. naturalism could be achieved by the use of perspective
b. figures could be composed into dramatic groups so as to make
the narrative clear rather than to form a pious tableau
3. Alberti’s importance as an innovator is attested to by the consistency with which these
two principles are worked out in 15th c. Florentine painting and sculpture

13. both Brunelleschi and Alberti represent a transition from wall architecture to space
architecture: in both artists this change came late in their careers
Artist/Sculptor Architectural Type Description
Loggia degli Innocenti; Old Sacristy, or the
Brunelleschi wall architecture nave of Santa Lorenzo treats the wall as the
most important element: the arches of an arcade
are but sections cut away from the plane of the
wall
Palazzo Rucellai concentrates on elevations as
a solid piece of masonry the parts of which are
coordinated so as to stress the coherence of the
Alberti wall architecture plane surface; also, in the Tempio Malatestiano
in Rimini (started about 1450) was never
finished, but where side arcades of arches borne
on piers instead of columns stress the continuity
of the wall area
Santa Maria degli Angeli (1430s) Florence
concentrates on the shapes of spaces to be
enclosed by the walls: it is the richness and
complexity of the internal space that is
important and the wall is merely the means by
which this is manifested; Santa Spirito uses half
columns instead of pilasters between the side
Brunelleschi space architecture chapels and the curve of the wall at the back of
the chapels create a succession of undulations;
vistas of receding arches one within the other in
the aisle elevations, and the recession of the
aisles themselves as they form an ambulatory
round the church and enclose the central large
cruciform space within their smaller and more
complex units; all create an impression of
spaces flowing out from each other and being
conceived by the architect for their spatial
significance rather than the concentration on
the walls as a limiting and defining element
Basilica di Sant'Andrea in Mantua links the
forms of the façade, those of the loggia
immediately within it, and those of the interior
Alberti space architecture of the church in one interlocked sequence of
shapes each part being significant through its
relationship to another and not as individual
elements
St. Francis (d. 1226) was canonized in 1228 AD
St. Dominic (d. 1221) was canonized in 1234 AD
Franciscans and Dominicans were two great missionary orders that fell outside of the
framework of existing religious life

14. Franciscans: preaching and missions
Dominicans: abandoned rule of corporate poverty; education, learning, extirpation of
heresy
religious revival of the 12th/13th cs.
1. focus on practical issues resulting from a renewal of social conscience
2. rise of new more popular form of mysticism among religious
3. new iconography of the Life of Christ and, in particular, the Life of the Virgin:
assumed a new importance through the intensification of her cult accompanying the
spread of mendicant orders
great devotional books of the era: circulated in manuscript enjoying enormous popularity
and influence
Jacopo da Varagine (1255-1266) Golden Legend
Anonymous Italian Franciscan (end of the 13th c.) Meditations on the Life of Christ
Ludolf the Carthusian (mid-14th c.) Life of Christ
Jan van Ruysbroeck (2nd half of the 14th c.) Mirror of Eternal Salvation
Thomas a’Kempis (1418) Imitation of Christ
Netherlands: in the late 14th c. and early 15th c. a lively center of religious revival
impact of Devotio Moderna on the art of the century (14th-15th cs.)
1. clearest influence is in the new iconography
2. importance of mystery plays
3. from dramatic representations to complex Biblical plays of nativity, Apocryphal
Gospels (cont: account of childhood of the Virgin); legends and miracles of the saints
emergence of new iconography preceded in Germany and Bohemia by aftermath of
Italian Trecento (14th c.) painting; outstanding quality of Italian---Tuscan---art during the
14th c. slowly permeated the whole of western European painting
in France and Flanders a complete break with current flowing from Italy is marked by
emergence of Claus Sluter in Dijon in last 15 years of the century
Flemish 15th c. painting
1. Master of Flémalle
2. Robert Campin
3. Jan van Eyck

15. Jan van Eyck: outstanding characteristic of van Eyck’s works are the shimmering quality
of the light, a magic blending of realism and poetry in the treatment of nature, and use of
certain perspective devices; in 1425 van Eyck entered service of Philip III, Duke of
Burgundy serving him until the end of his life; realism---minute concentration on detail---
that is the striking aspect of van Eyck’s work
Flemish technique of oil in painting is ahead of other regions of western Europe
most Florentine artists working at about the middle of the 15th c. who were trained in the
International Gothic were attracted to the new classical realism of Masaccio, but on the
whole they tended to eventually be more deeply influenced by the aggressively dramatic
realism of Donatello than by the more classical forms of Masaccio; in many ways both
styles can be observed working in many of the major figures of the period; Fra Angelico,
Fra Filippo Lippi, Uccello, Domenico Veneziano, and Castagno
arts in Florence in the period from about 1430 to 1460 show that the development of
ideas was complicated
outside Florence four separate strands developed:
1. Siena (main currents derived from Florence)
2. Central Tuscany and Urbino with Piero della Francesca
3. Padua and Mantua with Mantegna
4. Ferrara
Roger van der Weyden (b. 1399/1400 in Tournai) painter to the city of Brussels until his
death in 1464
1. different from Jan van Eyck in greater elegance of van der Weyden’s figures and the
profound pathos of his characterization
2. Roger captures a more relaxed humanity than van Eyck’s “Als Ich Kan” --- that motto
of pure pride with its intense impassiveness; Roger van der Weyden has a tenderness of
feeling, and adventurousness of spirit, and ease that van Eyck lacks
3. van der Weyden is a supreme portrait painter (e.g. Magdalen)
4. van der Weyden’s sympathy rather than van Eyck’s impassive chill was the touchstone
for a generation of artists
5. it was not van der Weyden’s actual forms, his style, or his ideas that were so pregnant
for the next generation as his power lay in his emotional quality, in the feeling that he
himself released in his works and stimulated in others, and his profound humanity and
sensitiveness to sorrow is one of his links to Robert Campin, and one of the dividing
factors between him and Jan van Eyck

16. Dieric Bouts (1415-1475) influence was more widespread than the limited number of his
works suggest
Eyckian approach to the representation of nature, informed by quite another spirit of
humanity, runs through the second half of the 15th c. and well into the 16th c; Eyckian
realism
The Avignon Pieta is the greatest French painting of the 15th c. and one of the most
sublime representations of the subject in all art
German art of the 15th c.
1. not studied much outside German-speaking countries
2. fragmentary nature of 15th c. German art; even more so than France
3. extreme provinciality of the idiom
4. followers of fashion set in Flanders
5. level of artistic competence of regional styles is far lower
printing, like the wheel, is one of the half dozen great inventions of mankind
invention of moveable type together with the use of the screw press made up the basic art
of printing, unchanged for centuries , and it was certainly established as a commercial
proposition by 1450
Johannes Gutenberg (c.1394/99-1468 AD) Mainz goldsmith who perfected his process
for printing in exile at Strasbourg about 1440; by 1450 he was in business in Mainz;
within thirty years (1480) presses were established all over Europe, largely run by
Germans, and the modern age had begun
in fact, printing dates from much earlier, since the woodcut principle was known long
before the 15th c. or even the end of the 14th c.; so far as is known, block-books were
produced by about 1430, although the earliest datable example is from 1470, a good
twenty years after the invention of printing; block-books seemed to have died out by
1480 replaced by the more satisfactory method of combining woodcut illustration with
type
first attempts to illustrate a book with engravings on metal date as early as 1477; this
technique was unsuccessful, for technical reasons, and was not revived until much later
as a means of illustrating books
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528 AD): incomparably the greatest artist to practice extensively
as an engraver; heir to all the technical advances in Germany; produced some 200
woodcuts and 100 line-engravings in 1486 he was apprenticed to Michael Wolgemut who
produced all kinds of art, including painting and woodcuts for book illustration which
were printed by Anton Koberger, the greatest printer in Germany; worked as a book
illustrator from 1492 (Basel) to 1494 (Strasbourg); 1494-1495 traveled to Venice and,
perhaps, also Mantua and Cremona; during this travel-year he first came into contact with

17. Italian Renaissance work of sufficient quality to change course of Dürer’s development;
particularly, the work of the engraver Mantegna, including Battle of the Sea Gods and the
Death of Orpheus; Dürer was great graphic artist, which had certain advantages over
printing; prints could be finished in less time than paintings; subject of prints could be
anything whereas paintings were of two types at that period in Germany---religious
themes or portraits; prints were not historically tied to traditional iconography because it
was a new medium; Dürer combined great rapidity of thought with teeming
inventiveness; he also had a bent for the linear; examples of Dürer’s large woodcuts: The
Men’s Bath House (1497); Prodigal Son (1498); The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
(1498); 1500 marks turning-point for Dürer towards theory: study of proportion in
humans/animals as well as perspective and his innate feeling for physical qualities and
natural detail; Adam and Eve (1504) influenced by Leonardo da Vinci even if he was
limited in his knowledge of da Vinci’s work
in Venice, Dürer studied mathematics, geometry, and Latin as well as humanist literature;
he also consorted with scholars and humanists
during this period a new kind of engraving evolved based on Italian chiaroscuro print;
that is, a print, usually a woodcut, printed in more than one color so as to give the effect
of tone; Dürer now began to make prints which, while still purely in black and white, also
managed to convey the idea of a middle tone; this was achieved by evenness of cutting
and by planning the print in zones of light, middle tone, and shadow [e.g. Great Passion
(1511); St. Jerome in his Study (1513-14); Melancholia (1513-14)]
in his painting of Adam & Eve of the same period, Dürer makes an over-conscious
attempt to reconcile gothic forms and proportions with renaissance canons of ideal
beauty; Trinity Altar based on Augustine’s City of God
mainspring of Dürer’s life and work is to be found in the basic dichotomy of his mind:
patient, humble observer of realistic detail, visionary in art embedded with idea of
using as a best-loved technique line- artist as a creator inspired by God
engraving on copper---a technique
demanding an exacting and objective
accuracy
Renaissance views of art
Dürer viewed art as an unteachable mystery; he sought to rationalize his inspiration by
principles and recognized that unrestrained fantasy and impulsive imitation of nature
were not enough; art must also be controlled by knowledge; Dürer recognized that his
contemporaries were lacking sound training in theory and he tried to remedy this in
himself; yet he was equally convinced that theories in-themselves were incapable of
doing justice to the immensity of God’s creation and that any good results derived from
sound theoretical foundations in the arts was still entirely dependent on the artist’s own
intelligence and ability to reshape and transcend theory

18. Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci had taken for granted that ideal beauty could be created by
the artist; Dürer lays down as a law that it can not: man may not enter in so close a
communion with God as to be able to recreate ideal beauty; the artist may create better
figures, but not the best
first half of the 15th c. Florentine sculpture is dominated by
Ghiberti and Donatello
Florentine sculpture became a matter either
second half of the 15th c. of the acceptance of Donatello’s ideas, or a
reaction against them
most important early 15th c. Italian sculptor
outside Florence was Jacopo della Quercia (1374/5-1438) of
Siena
Donatello: robustness of form; use of linear effects for their emotive or dramatic force;
Donatello’s work characterized by energy and inventiveness
Ghiberti: delicacy of form; use of linear effects for their decorative and poetic qualities
Rossellino brothers, Benardo (1409-1460) and Antonio (c.1427-1479), were architects
and building contractors as well as sculptors: major works are two large, important tombs
which involve architecture almost as much as sculpture
Bernardo Rossellino: Bruni Tomb, Santa Croce, Florence
Antonio Rossellino: Tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal, San Miniato, Florence
see also: paintings of Domenico Veneziano; works of Fra Filippo; Desiderio da
Stettignano (c.1430-1464), Tomb of Carl Marsuppini; Mino da Fiesole (1429-1484)
last quarter of the 15th c. the two most important Florentine workshops were run by Piero
(d.1496) and Antonio Pollaiuolo and Andrea Verrocchio; Pollaiuolo brothers are first
recorded as painters in the 1460s
Andrea Verrocchio (c.1435-1488): David (made before 1476) compared with Donatello’s
David (c.1431-1433)
Piero Pollaiuolo was an artist of no more than moderate competence as witnessed by the
trouble caused by his Virtues commissioned by the Florentine Chamber of Commerce
Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo:
1. Tomb of Sixtus IV, St. Peter’s, Rome (contains reliefs of Virtues, Liberal Arts)
2. Tomb of Innocent III, St. Peter’s, Rome

19. Donatello’s David (1431-33): classical antiquity is still standard by which sculpture was
to be judged; relaxed pose and understated expression
Verrocchio’s David (before 1476): tense, alert; mischievous expression; minute details of
veins and the thin forms of elbow, neck, and the hair given the sharpest relief
Donatello’s Gattamelata, Padua: heavy figure of successful mercenary soldier relaxed
and confident in a conquering pose on his huge, richly harnessed horse; stems from
Imperator type Roman portraits; less skilled in casting Donatello had to support all four
of the horse’s hooves
Verrocchio’s Colleoni Monument, Venice: attempts to render military bravado by
technical feats such as horse with one foot raised; portentous frown and stiff-legged
swagger of condottiere seated high in saddle and half-turned in a strained attitude; village
bully
tendency toward overstatement as is seen in Verrocchio is sometimes called Quattrocento
Mannerism which conveys the slightly exaggerated quality of much of the best work
done in the last quarter of the 15th c.----a period in Florence of great political upheaval
and confusion; best examples are found in the works of Botticelli and Filippino Lippi; not
necessarily unique to Florence as is observed in the works of Northerners Bosch and
Grünewald exhibiting the same general outlook
Hieronymous Bosch (c.1450-1516 AD) Crucifixion; The Ship of Fools
Mathis Nithardt-Gothardt, known as Grünewald, (1470-1528 AD) Crucifixion stands as
absolute extreme pole from the elegiac serenity of the High Renaissance which was in its
final stage in Rome at the time; harkens back to expressive violence of Romanesque,
portrayal of ghastly wounds, agonized feet and hands, dying face
Botticelli (c.1445-1510 AD) artist who also crosses the dividing line between hopeful
confidence of the 15th c. and the dark fulfillment of the Savonarola period; urgency and
passionate desire to express emotion in his works; perhaps was a student of Fra Filippo so
that he would have inherited the skills of the Italian Renaissance before his first
identifiable commission in 1470; elaborate images of Neoplatonist interpretations of
pagan ideals (e.g. Venus) allegorical, contemplation of Divine Beauty; imagery becomes
less esoteric and more clearly Christian
Botticelli’s works:
Birth of Venus
Madonna of the Magnificat
Deposition
Mars and Venus
Leonardo da Vinci: regarded even by his contemporaries as an astonishing virtuoso; to
the men of the 16th c. he seemed have been the last of the primitives, or the first of the
generation active around 1500 which they regarded as the culmination of the whole
process of the Renaissance

20. frequently Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo are taken together in these terms, but
it is important to remember that Leonardo was born about 1452 and was already,
therefore, at work long before the others who are usually thought of as his
contemporaries
better parallel might be with Bramante with whom Leonardo was in contact with in Milan
in the 1480s-1490s, and was probably decisive for many aspects of Milanese art around
1500
Leonardo has always been famous because of the fantastic range of his genius: artist,
anatomist, natural scientist, aeronautical designer, etc.
Leonardo apprenticed with Verrocchio
Leonardo becomes a Master in the Guild of Painters (1472); he was living with
Verrocchio in 1476 “when an anonymous accusation of homosexuality was made against
him. The accusation was almost certainly true, and may explain some of Leonardo’s
characteristics such as his tendency to live as a recluse, and his proneness to abandon
things half done.” ????? neutrality of last claim is specious at best, laughable at worst
what does homosexuality have to do with the “…proneness to abandon things half done.”
How does Leonardo’s sexual orientation, his alleged gayness, help to explain this habit?
Or, rather, does the fact that this book on the history of art (Linda and Peter Murray) in
the Renaissance---published in 1963, when homosexuality was still incorrectly viewed as
disordered---helps to explain a thinly veiled, patently offensive homophobic reference to
homosexuality as if it were some sort of mental disorder
wide-ranging use of and experimentation with broad spectrum of techniques: wax, oil,
etc.
renowned for his angel wings
copius, detailed notes and drawings on anatomy [both human and animal 9esp. horse)],
botany, architecture, and other subjects
Adoration of the Magi (commissioned in 1481) Leonardo left it unfinished; solution to
the problem of representing a large group of figures crowded around a central grouping
of Madonna and Child; sometimes considered watershed of Renaissance art

21. Last Supper: in the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie (known to
have been working on it in 1497)
1. first painting of the High Renaissance
2. way in which Leonardo goes far beyond his predecessors in the attempt to render the
inner drama of the precise moment at which Christ announces that one of his disciples
shall betray him
3. earlier examples, like Castagno’s, or even a contemporary one such as Ghirlandaio’s,
simply dispose of the disciples on either side of the central figure; Judas singled out on
the other side of the table
4. in Leonardo’s picture there is for the first time a grouping of the Apostles not merely
symmetrically, but in small groups of three contrasted types that balance each other as
they turn questioningly one to the other, and yet interlock through the whole composition
as the meaning of Christ’s words and the emotions they evoke through them; Judas is
singled out not only by being made villainous looking, but by the way he starts back at
his own guilty knowledge, and his head so placed that, alone among all the figures, his
face is in the shadows
5. when the Pryor complained to Leonardo that the artist would come in the morning,
stand looking at the picture for half an hour, put on a dozen brush strokes, and leave for
the day, Leonardo explained he was having trouble in visualizing the face of anyone as
wicked as Judas, but he also suggested that if there was a great hurry he could substitute
the Pryor’s portrait
6. idea of artist as meditative philosopher and not simply as a highly skilled workman
who covered so many square feet of wall per day was strange to his contemporaries
16th c. conception of artist as a creative genius, like the poet and unlike the ordinary
craftsman, can certainly be traced back to Leonardo
Leonardo’s anatomical drawings were made from actual dissection on bodies
Madonna and Child with Saint Ann
Mona Lisa
Raphael and Michelangelo were executing their greatest works in 1513 which
commenced a four year stay in Rome at the Vatican for Leonardo, but nothing came of it
and it was an unproductive period for da Vinci; he went to France accepting an offer from
Francis I, but died two years later in 1519
Leonardo’s overworked surface and compound of naturalism, tenderly idealized and
reticent smiles
diversity of styles of the last years of the 15th c; two followers of Piero della Francesca
afford a good example of this diversity of styles:
1. Signorelli: developed powerful linear style; almost obsessive with outline and with the
dramatic possibilities of the male nude that looks forward to Michelangelo
2. Perugino: master of Rafael; originator of a phase sometimes called Early Classicism

22. Signorelli (b. 1440s at Cortona) active as painter by 1470; early influence of Piero della
Francesca; soon went to Florence where he became absorbed by new ideas regarding
movement and anatomy; received commission for one of the frescoes of the Sistine
Chapel; died in 1523; typical example of Signorelli’s art work and one of the
characteristic works of the Late Quattrocento is the fresco cycle which he painted for the
Cathedral of Orvieto between 1499 and 1503
during the 1490s the political state of central Italy had been more than usually upset, and
Florence, in particular, had passed through the extraordinary episode following the death
of Lorenzo de Medici and the expulsion from the city of his heirs
apocalyptic preachings of Savonarola had set the city afire with intrigue and bought it to
the brink of civil war; Savonarola provoked the pope to such a degree that he was
excommunicated; sought to establish a theocracy in Florence; martyr to cause
French invasion and conquest of Italy in 1494 seemed to fulfill Savonarola’s prophecy
and the reputation of the Italian princes as great professional soldiers and commanders
was irretrievably shattered; it became clear that a modern centralized state, like France,
could easily dominate a loose federation of Italian city-states, none of which could ever
be trusted to keep faith with its temporary allies; 1499 French took possession of Duchy
of Milan
half of the 16th c. was spent in warfare between France and Spain fought out in Italy for
control of the peninsula; warfare provided living example of the apocalypse as law and
order collapsed
to many Italians at the time, it seemed as if the Antichrist had arrived and the End of the
World was at hand
Signorelli’s frescoes The Damned, Resurrection of the Flesh at the Cathedral of Orvieto
(1499-1503)
1. normally strident and harsh color sense has here an appropriateness markedly lacking
in his more pacific subjects
2. Resurrection scene provides a fascinating commentary on the difference between the
empirical anatomy that so obsessed Florentine artists of the 15th c. and Leonardo’s really
profound studies in anatomy
3. he anticipates Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel, both in the ceiling, and even
more in the Last Judgement: the difference between them is not simply that Michelangelo
had a deeper imagination and greater technical mastery; Signorelli’s figures, in fact, sum
up all the advances in knowledge that had been made since Masaccio onwards and they
have forcefulness and clarity
4. problem with Signorelli, like that of Botticelli or Filippino, is that all the parts compete
against one another so that the fresco as a whole becomes filled with a multiplicity of
gesticulating figures and it is impossible amid the uproar to determine which is the
important figure and which are the subordinate ones

23. Perugino: offers precisely this feeling of lucidity and simplification of narrative in his
work; 1481 commissioned to point the key frescoes in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican;
this was the most important commission of the 15th c; focused and balanced so as to draw
the eye to the central figure in a calm, orderly gaze
Michelangelo learned the techniques of fresco painting in the studio of Domenico
Ghirlandaio (1449-1494 AD); Ghirlandaio painted a number of large frescoes in various
Florentine churches as well as the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican; Raphael learned to paint
frescoes from Perugino
in the late 15th c. the Christian world was thought of as a growing naturally out of pagan
antiquity
stylistically Ghirlandaio’s art was sober, and somewhat old-fashioned, but his essential
prosaic mind made him open to influence from Flanders and left him comparatively
untouched by the emotional enthusiasms of stimulated painters like Botticelli
Adoration of the Shepards on the altarpiece of the Sassetti Chapel--- Ghirlandaio: shows
clear traces of Flemish naturalism and especially the influence of Hugo van der Goes
Ghirlandaio was obsessed with the idea of the antique world; classicism
Antonello da Messina (1430-1479 AD) Italian painter of the 15th c. who achieved high
degree of skill in oil paiting comparable to Flemish oil paintings; for example, St. Jerome
in his Study would seem to indicate some training in Flanders (possibly Roger van der
Weyden, or Jan van Eyck); San Cassiano altarpiece
Venetian painting of the late 15th c. derives very largely from a fusion between the work
of Mantegna and that of Antonello da Messina; fusion found expression in Giovanni
Bellini---most important and typical Venetian painter of the late 15th c.
enshrinement; enthronement of Madonna and Child surrounded by saints so that all
figures appear to be emotionally related ; idea that occurs by the mid-15th c. in works of
Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Domenico Veneziano
studies in perspective by Jacopo Bellini in sketch books
image and symbolism of the Madonna figure and the cult of the Virgin
1. varies from human mother with child to the divine figure of universal motherhood
(more than human)
2. humanist attitude towards things divine; accessibility of and convergence of the divine
and the human
3. Virgin represented as Glory: simple humanity is entirely replaced by the effulgent
majesty of a celestial virgin

24. 4. acquisition by the Madonna of many non-human attributes: Queen of Heaven [e.g.
Raphael’s Madonna di Foligno (1512)]
5 development of less exalted though equally separating qualities of otherness:
sophistication, fashionably languorous grace, deliberate consciousness of role, and an air
of attainability that she (Madonna) communicates to her son
High Renaissance: Synthesis and Evolution
the preceding developments culminated, in the generation after 1500, in a brief flowering
of all arts in Italy, usually called the High Renaissance
beginning of High Renaissance corresponds with the pontificates of Julius
II (r.1503-1513) and Leo X (1513-1521)
disaster of the sack of Rome by the
end of High Renaissance Imperial Troops of Charles V of the Holy
Roman Empire in May, 1527 just as
decisively ended it
although it is true that Michelangelo’s work in the Medici Chapel, the Last Judgement,
the Rondanini Pitea, and above all his conception of St. Peter’s, are all much later than
1527; however, what is most important is that they are fundamentally different in style
and form from St. Peter’s Pieta, David, and the Sistine Chapel as well as different from
Bramante’s ideal for St. Peter’s
Bramante (d. 1514); Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519), and Raphael (d.1520): with them the
Renaissance passed into history
watershed which divides:
Giovanni Bellini (c.1430-1516) Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Piero della Francesca (c.1415-1492) Tintoretto (1518-1594)
Giorgione Titian El Greco
(c.1477/8-1510) (c.1473/90-1576) (1541-1614)
salient characteristics of High Renaissance: harmony, symmetry, and above all
understanding and a recapturing of classical antiquity in the service of new ideals
tempietto in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio in Rome [Bramante (1502)]:
 perfect symmetry
 mysterious effect of the harmony of its elements
 classical purity in individual proportions
Early Classicism prepared way for Raphael’s simple compositions

25. Michelangelesque complexity of Late Mannerism are illuminated by Signorelli’s tortured
nudes
Raphael was born in Urbino in 1483; received provincial training under Perugina; went to
Florence to transcend his provincialism by studying Leonardo and Michelangelo
full development of Raphael’s style: School of Athens
Medici were early patrons of Michelangelo
David (completed in 1504): this raw-boned youth, arrogant in his strength and superbly
conscious of the impending victory over his unseen opponent has always been a sort of
ideal Florentine; ideal creation of purest strain of 15th c. Florentine art beginning with
Masaccio, Donatello, Castagno, and going through Pollaiuolo
ideal of High Renaissance in Florence: male nude, tensed in the anticipation of violent
action, every muscle gliding under the skin so that the spectator feels only that he is in the
presence of perfection and serene confidence; and always the tragic sense of the human
condition was, for Michelangelo, yet to come, but in 1504 was still in the future
in 1508 Michelangelo began his huge task in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican lying on
his back for years on end interpreting and expressing the story of Divine Creation
Creation of Adam: simply as the spark of life given Man by God
twenty years earlier nobody would have had the technical mastery to create so perfect a
human form; only Leonardo’s Last Supper had attempted to render psychological
situations in terms of gesture and expression
Mannerist art is inconceivable without the impulse given by Michelangelo to virtuosity
“…enlightened by such a fount of life, removing darkness from your eyes…” – Vasari
Michelangelo sets a standard primary to all other factors economic, political, and even
religious being secondary
political situation in Venice, remaining as only Italian city-state independent of Holy
League of 1508, allowed Titian to lay new territory in arts in richness of color and depth
of tone; opulence and subtlety of oil medium; provided Giorgione with medium to
explore new ideas and to experiment with new effects [e.g. Giorgione, Tempest (c.1508)]
increasingly complex nature of content

26. Giorgione, Sleeping Venus (c.1510) left unfinished by Giorgione’s premature death in
1510; completed by Titian; with it dawned a new era in the arts; choice of a nude woman
marked a revolution in art, and is considered by some authorities one of the starting
points of modern art
rise of secular education; secular patronage (Medicis, etc) v. clerical patronage
Mannerism: European art style that developed between 1520 and 1600; rejected the calm
balance of High Renaissance in favor of emotion and distortion; works of art reflected
tension that marked Europe at this critical transition in history
examples of Mannerism:
Michelangelo (1475-1564) Dying Slave (1513) marble, Louvre
Michelangelo The Dead Christ (1536-1541) black chalk, Louvre
Ross Fiorentino (1494-1540) Allegory of Salvation (1521) oil, LA County
Museum of Art
Jacopo Carrucci da Pantormo Halberdier (c.1528) oil (and tempera) transferred to
(1494-1557) panel, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA
School of Fountainbleau Dianna the Huntress (mid-16thc.) canvas, Louvre
Paolo Veronese Mars and Venus united by Love, oil on canvas,
Louvre
mannerism: Italian “manierismo” from maniero – manner, or style [1520-1590]
originated as a reaction against harmonious classicism and idealized naturalism of the
High Renaissance; standards of formal complexity of the male nude had been set by
Michelangelo and norm of idealized beauty by Raphael versus mannerist successors for
whom “an obsession with style and technique in figural composition often outweighed
the importance and innate meaning of the subject matter”
for the mannerists, highest value was placed upon the apparently effortless solution of
intricate artistic problems, such as the portrayal of the nude in complex and artificial
poses
Mannerist characteristics:
artificiality pictorial fantasy; visual references to antique; strange, jarring
spatial relationships
artiness constricting spaces
cultivation of elegance juxtaposition of unnatural, intense colors
self-conscious abnormality of scale
technical facility irrational mix of classical motifs
sophistication indulgence in the bizarre, or grotesque
exaggeration elongation and stylized features

27. High Renaissance: deep, linear perspective
Mannerism: flattened, obscure perspective
Richard Feigen: “Mannerism exploits the improbable, it has a linear elegance that brings
it to the edge of distortion. It celebrates grace over reality and form over content.
Mannerism began the journey into the world of the mind, of metaphor that eventually
culminated in the Symbolism of the Nineteenth Century and the Surrealism of the
Twentieth Century.”
mythological to religious to symbolic to abstract
Giorgio Vasari: maniera, de maniera, “the hand” - refers to three great artists of
Renaissance[i.e. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael]
Attribute High Renaissance Mannerism
abnormal, exploits
content normal, supernormal, ideal strangeness of subject
universal sometimes with
uncontrollable emotion
direct, compact, elaborate, involved,
narrative comprehensible obstruse, deliberately
hidden meaning
controlled, measured, space is disjointed,
formal space harmonious, symmetrical, spasmodic, just foreground
ideal, balanced, logical plane or hidden middle
plane
composition integrated, centralized (core conflicting, acentral, seek or
composition) violate frame
easily posed with possibility tenseness; tensely posed;
figures of movement with confined; sometimes
anatomical correctness extended contra posta
proportions normative, idealized, attenuated, exaggerated,
proportionate elongated
color order, harmony, balance contrasting; surprising use
and placement
substance natural artificial
comparison of David as subject of art: Donatello, Michelangelo, Bernini
Sources: Andrew Graham-Dixon (1999). Renaissance. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press; Linda and Peter
Murray (1963). The Art of the Renaissance. New York: Thames and Hudson, Inc.; [websites]: www.artlex.com;
www.artnet.com; www.britannica.com.
© Keith Carson (2010) All rights reserved.