Transcript High Renaissance

High Renaissance
16.3
High Renaissance
 One of the most remarkable things about the
Renaissance was its great wealth of artistic talent.
 Between the years 1495-1527, known as the High
Renaissance , the master artist Leonardo,
Michelangelo, and Raphael created timeless
masterpieces.
 All three lived in Italy and were commissioned by the
popes of Rome to create ambitious artworks that
glorified religious themes.
 Like all artists before them, these great masters
dreamed of achieving new levels of excellence.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
 Even when he was a child, people saw that Leonardo da
Vinci was blessed with remarkable powers. He had
gracious manners, a fine sense of humor, and great
physical strength.
 Leonardo also had a curiosity that drove him to explore
everything.
 As he grew older, he studied architecture, mathematics,
sculpture, painting, anatomy, poetry, literature, music,
geology, botany, and hydraulics.
 It is estimated that he completed 120 notebooks filled
with drawings surrounded by explanations. The subjects
range from anatomy to storm clouds to rock formations
to military formations.
Leonardo’s Sketchbooks
Leonardo dissected cadavers at a time
when the practice was outlawed. The
enabled him to learn how arms and
legs bend and how muscles shift as the
body moves.
He was especially interested in
the head, practically how the
eye sees and how the mind
reasons. He searched for the
part of the brain where senses
meet, believing that this was
where the soul would be found.
The Last Supper (explained)
Leonardo da Vinci
Fresco - 1495-98
 Leonardo left many projects unfinished because of the
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results did not please him or because he was eager to move
on to a new task.
He was also experimenting, and many of these experiments
ended in failure. Perhaps his biggest “failure” is his version
of The Last Supper.
This was a magnificent painting that began to flake off the
wall shortly after he applied the final brushstroke because
he had used a new painting technique.
The last supper had been painted many times before, and
so Leonardo probably welcomed the challenge of creating
his own version.
He had an entire wall to work on in a dinning hall used by
monks in the Monastery of Santa Maria delle grazie in
Milan.
The Last Supper
The Last Supper (explained)
 Used linear perspective and designed the scene so that it would look like a
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continuation of the dining hall.
Christ is at the center of the composition.
All the lines of the architecture lead to him silhouetted in the window.
He has just announced that one of the apostles (Judas) would betray him, and his
news has unleashed a flurry of activity around the table. Only Christ remains
calm and silent, and this further sets him apart from the others.
The apostles are grouped in threes, all expressing disbelief in his statement
except Judas.
The 3rd figure on Christ’s right, Judas, leans on the table and stares at Christ his
expression a mixture of anger and defiance. He is further set apart by the fact that
his face is the only one in shadow.
Leonardo chose not to spread his figures out because that would have reduced the
impact of the scene. Instead he jammed them together to accent the action and
drama.
Leonardo broke with tradition and chose to include Judas, but he made him easy
to find to show that Judas was separated from the other apostles in a spiritual
way rather than a physical way.
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
C.1503-06. Oil on Wood
 As a perfectionist,
Leonardo was never
entirely satisfied with
his efforts. When he
died, he still had in his
possession the Mona
Lisa portrait.
 He had been working
on it for 16 years. Yet,
he claimed it was still
unfinished.
 Is now one of the most
popular artworks ever
created.
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
 Ranked along side Leonardo as one of the greatest
artists of the Renaissance was Michelangelo
Buonarroti.
 Like Leonardo, Michelangelo was skilled in many
fields, including sculpture, painting, and poetry.
 Everything that Michelangelo set out to do was on a
grand scale. For this reason, many projects were
never completed.
 Pope Julius II assigned the artist to paint the ceiling
of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
1508-12. Fresco.
 The chapel is about 40 ft. wide and 133 ft. long and has a
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rounded ceiling.
Michelangelo was not excited to start the project because of
how difficult and time consuming it would be, painting
ceilings was deemed less important than painting wall space,
and he saw himself as a sculptor and not a painter.
Before he could start working he needed to build scaffolding
stretching the length of the chapel.
Accepting no help, he would lay on his back painting the wet
plaster he applied to the ceiling. He claimed after finishing
that he could never fully stand in the upright position.
He divided the ceiling in to 9 sections and in these he painted
the story of humanity from the Creation to the Flood.
When he was finished he had painted 145 pictures with more
than 300 figures!
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Raphael (1483-1520)
 Raphael Sanzio was successful, wealthy, and admired
throughout his brief but brilliant career.
 As a child in a small town in central Italy, he was
apprenticed to a respectful artist. He learned to use soft
colors, simple circular forms, and gentle landscaping in
his paintings.
 The young, ambitious artist never traveled to Florence to
study the works of the leading artists of the day. From
Leonardo he learned how to use shading to create the
illusion of form. From Michelangelo he learned how to
add vitality and energy to his figures.
 By blending the ideas of those artists in his own works,
he became the most typical artist of the Renaissance.
The School of Athens
Raphael
1509-11
 In 1508, about the same time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine
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Chapel, Pope Julius II summoned Raphael to paint a series of
rooms in the Vatican Palace.
In the first of these rooms he painted frescoes celebrating the four
domains of learning: theology, philosophy, law, and the arts. The
most famous of these paintings is The School of Athens.
The “school” to which this works refers is actually two opposing
schools of philosophy represented by the two great classical
philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
He placed these two figures before an open archway and to further
emphasize their importance he arranged all the perspective lines so
they would converge at the vanishing point placed between these
two figures.
On one side of the composition are ancient philosophers concerned
with the mysteries of the here and now and on the other side are
philosophers and scientists interested in nature and the affairs of
humankind.
The School of Athens
Renaissance Women Artists
 You may have noticed that in the coverage of art
periods up to this point, there has been no mention
of women artists. The reason for this is that few
works by women artists completed before the
Renaissance have come to light.
 Furthermore, it was not until the Renaissance had
passed its peak that women artists were able to make
a name for themselves as serious artists.
 Even in the enlightened period, it was not easy for
women to succeed as artists because of the obstacles
that they had to overcome.
Role of Women in the Medieval Period
 During the Medieval period, most women were expected
to ten to duties within the household.
 Their first responsibilities were those of wife and mother.
If that failed to occupy all their time, they were required
to join their husbands in the backbreaking chores
awaiting in the fields.
 Women were, in general, excluded from the arts because,
as women, most of them were prevented from gaining
knowledge and skills needed to become artists.
 Their involvement in art was limited, for the most part ,
to making embroideries and tapestries and occasionally
producing illuminated manuscripts.
The Role of Artists
 During the Renaissance, the new importance attached to
artists made it even more difficult for women to pursue a
career in art.
 Artists at that time were required to spend longer periods
in apprenticeship. During this time they studied
mathematics, the laws of perspective, and anatomy.
 Serious artists were also expected to journey to major art
centers. There they could study the works of famous
living artists as well as the art of the past. This kind of
education was out of the question for most women in the
15th and 16th centuries.
 Only a handful were determined enough to overcome all
these barriers and succeed as serious artists. One of these
women was Sofonisba Anguissola.
Sonfonisba Anguissola (1532 – 1625)
 The first Italian women to gain a worldwide reputation as an
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artist.
She was the oldest in a family of 6 daughters and 1 son born to
a nobleman in Cremona about 12 years after Raphael's death.
Sonfonisba’s father was pleased to find that all his children
showed an interest in art or music. He encouraged them all,
especially his oldest daughter.
She was allowed to study with local artists, and her skills
quickly recognized.
Her father wrote to Michelangelo about her and his response
was for her to study and copy as part of her training.
Many of her early works were portraits of her family and
herself. Her father sent these portraits to various courts.
While still in her twenties the King of Spain asked her to join
his court and paint portraits of the royal family.
A Game of Chess
Sofonisba Anguissola
1555