The High Renaissance

(slide) Leonardo Da Vinci: 1452 1519 (portrait)

• Born the bastard son of a notary, he went on to become the epitome of the Renaissance Man.
• Inventor, architect, scientist, mathematician, writer, philosopher, engineer, weapons designer, philosopher and artist.

(slide) Da Vinci (Journal page; womb)

• Leonardo believed that reality could only be perceived through careful observation.
• Leonardo sought to understand humans as physical, mental and spiritual beings through keen observation. He shared his insights through painting.

(slide) Da Vinci (Journal page; bird flight)

• We know more about Da Vinci than many artists because he kept extensive journals of his observations, he also wrote diary entries on some of the journal pages.

Da Vinci and Del Verrocchio (Leonardo's angel in Verrocchio's painting)

• In 1466 (age 14) Da Vinci becomes an apprentice at the workshop of Del Verrocchio. Verrocchio is the official sculptor for the Medici family.
• From 1472-1475 Verrocchio and Leonardo work together on this painting, The Baptism of Christ.
• Leonardo paints the angel on the lower left.

(slide) Da Vinci's Angel (close up)
(slide) Leonardo: Annunciation 1473 - 1475 (one of his first paintings)
(slides) Unfinished Adoration of the Magi

• Lorenzo Medici and his brother Giuliano were attacked in a cathedral, Giuliano was killed. Lorenzo and the monks commissioned Leonardo to create a painting for the alter in his memory.

(slides) Leonardo's Madonnas (focuses on human emotion of religion and the humanity of Christ)

(slide) Leonardo

• In Leonardos Madonna paintings one can clearly see his humanist agenda.
• He paints loving mothers at play with their infants.
• He uses keen observation of nature to paint backgrounds and the human figure.
• Leonardo focuses on the reality that Christ was human like we are.

(slides) Leonardo in Milan (two slides of weapons)
(slide) Leonardo's Vitruvian Man (interest in proportion; various applications of Vitruvian Man)
(slide) Studies of Human Anatomy (Da Vinci would make up stuff)
(slide) Leda and the Swan (destroyed by zealot)
(slide) Portrait lady with Ermine (worked with shades rather than lines)
(slide) Madonna of the Rocks (two versions)
(slide) The Virgin and St. Anne: 1508 - 1510 (May appear on test)
(slides) Leonardo's Last Supper (Da Vinci experiments with paints)
(slide) Leonardo's horses (cartoon for Battle of Antarri)
(slide) Leonardo's Horse (unfinished bronze statue 2 stories tall)
(slide) St. Jerome (unfinished; was used as table top)
(slide) Leonardo's Flying Machines
(slide) Leonardo's Bicycle
(slide) Portrait of musician
(slides) Mona Lisa (various versions)

(slide) Michelangelo Buonarroti Renaissance Artist: 1475 -1564

• Architect
• Sculptor
• Painter
• Poet
• Engineer
• He thought that sculptors were superior to painters because the sculptor shares in something like the divine power to make man.
• He said that an artist must proceed by finding the idea the image locked in stone.
• He mistrusted mathematic proportions and trusted self-expression.
• He viewed the human figure as the pinnacle of creation
• He explored the struggle of human existence and emotion
• He saw the artist as an individual genius, able to break conventions to bring forth new ideas. He went as far as to try and defy the Pope.
• He worked for the wealthiest classes.
• He combined ideas of Christianity with ideas of secular humanism and Greek philosophy

(slide) God creating Adam (central panel from Cistine Chapel)

• His most famous image is the Creation of Man from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

(slide) Close up of Adam and God's hands

• Life springs to Adam like a spark from the extended hand of God.
• Recalls the communication between gods and heroes in the classical Greek myths.

(slide) Michelangelo's David 1501 - 1504

• This statue was the mascot for Florence, a symbolically defiant hero of the republic.
• The statue was evocative of classical Greek and Roman works of art, especially Lysippan Athletes.
• Communicates strength, beauty, the perfection of Gods creation.

(slide) Michelangelo's Piata 1498-99 (first commissioned statue)

• Perfect formation of bones and slender musculature of Christ bespeak a mastery earned from dissections at the hospital of Santo Spirito in Florence.
• The ageless virgin is the symbol of the church, who presents for our adoration the timeless reality of Christs sacrifice.

(slide) Pope Julius II: Warrior Pope

• Sought to recreate Caesars Rome.
• Was a warrior and a builder.
• Hired the greatest artists and architects of the day to plan, build and decorate the Vatican.

(slide) Michelangelo's Tomb for Julius II 1505-1545

• Originally planned for over 40 life sized statues in marble and several bronze reliefs.
• The idea was abandoned by the Pope in 1506.
• Julius died in 1513. The tomb was finished in 1545.
• Only 3 of the originally planned 40 sculptures were ever created. The most important of these is Moses.

(slide) Michelangelo's Moses: 1515

• Intended for a corner position on the second story of the original monument.
• Powerfully muscular figure shows the strength of the prophet, and metaphorically the strength of both Michelangelo and Julius II.
• This figure communicates the power of the God of the old testament, and the corresponding power of the church.

(slide) Michelangelo's Dying Slave - 1512

• Originally planned to flank niches around the lower story of the tomb.
• Stood for victories over the bonds of sin and death.
• Used a twisting sinuous S pattern of compositional movement.

(slide) The Sistine Chapel Ceiling: 1508-1512

• In 1508 the Pope stopped paying Michelangelo for his work on the tomb (refusing to pay for marble already purchased by Michelangelo) and ordered Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel instead.
• Michelangelo got on a fast horse and left town. He finally realized that defying the Pope was pretty much a death sentence, and so, despite his bitter statement that painting was not his profession he began painting the 70 foot high, 5,800 square foot vault of the chapel in the complicated technique called fresco.

(slide) A grand Biblical Drama

• The monumental fresco incorporates the patrons agenda, Church doctrine, and the artists interests.
• The painting depict the Creation, Fall, and Redemption of humanity.
• The paintings exhibit Michelangelos idea that the human body was the manifestation of the soul, state of mind, and character. It was the pinnacle of Gods creation.

(slide) Restoring a Masterpiece

• Years of candle smoke, incense and pollution had discolored the brilliance of the original artwork.
• Work on restoring Michelangelos masterpiece took place between 1977 and 1989.

(slide) Creation of Eve

• God is drawing Eve out from the side of Adam while he sleeps.

(slide) The Fall of Man and Expulsion from the Garden (note the change in Eve's appearance)
(slide) The Last Judgment
(slide) A Modern Painting by Mark Tansey based on the Last Judgment

Much of what we know about Michelangelo comes from letters and contracts that still survive. Michelangelo complained frequently about money issues and pressures from family.

Raphael 1483 - 1520

(slide) Raphael (like other artists was called to work in the Vatican)

• Paints realistic figures in pictorial space using atmospheric and mathematical perspective.
• Pushes a humanist agenda and a return to classicism.
• Is much loved by the pope and the people.
• Paints classical Greek themes as well as Christian themes in the Vatican.
• Tends to idealize people in his paintings.

(slide) Raphael: The School of Athens
(slide) School of Athens

• Plato and Aristotle.
• Plato holds his book,Timaeus and points to heaven, the source of inspiration.
• Aristotle holds his book, Nichomachean Ethics, and gestures toward earth, from which his observations of reality sprang.

(slide) School of Athens: Self Portrait with Euclid
(slide) School of Athens: Heraclitus (Michelangelo)
(slide) School of Athens: Euclid (Bramante)
(slide) Pythagoras and the Harmonic Scale
(slide) Theology: The Disputa

(slide) Disputa: 1509 - 1511

• Pope Julius wanted to be recognized as both a spiritual and temporal leader.
• The two primary frescoes in his apartments represent philosophy and theology.

(slide) Expulsion of Heliodorus (expresses the pope's frustrations with Venice)
(slide) Freeing of St. Peter
(slide) Raphael: Marriage of the Virgin 1504
(slide) The Alba Madonna
(slide) Madonna with the Book
(slide) Granduca Madonna
(slide) Madonna with the Lamb
(slide) Raphael: Portrait of Leo X

Raphael was known for painting the tender and the beautiful, but Michealangelo was known for painting the sublime. Raphael made his works as perfect as possible, leaving off ugly features. Michaelangelo painted the real.

(slide) Galatea: 1513

• Subject matter taken from Metamorphoses by the Roman poet, Ovid.
• Painted for Pope Leo X, the successor to Julius II. Leo just happened to be the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

(slide) Botticelli: Birth of Venus 1482
(slide) Portrait of Count Baldassare Castiglione

(slide) Donatello 1386 - 1466

• Idealized realism in his early work of the 1430s.
• Moved toward a more expressive emotional style in his later work during the 1460s.
• Expresses both the beauty and horror of the human condition.

(slide) David 1420s

• Donatello used the process of making sculpture to help show human emotion, and the plight of the human condition.
• He made expressive use of the materials.
• Was interested in human emotion and the plight of the human condition.