High Italian Renaissance Flashcards
Characteristics of High Italian Renaissance
- Continuation of naturalism, but with an emphasis on idealism
- “improving on nature”
- Ideal proportions in the human figure
- Rational construction of space
- Figures are coordinated around a central focus that provides unity and coherence
- Compositional unity resonates with the subject of the painting
Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci, c. 1474
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503
What do you think Leonardo is focused on in this painting? What can you say about the “psychology” behind it? How is the Mona Lisa engaging with the viewer? What is the definition of “subjective” for Leonardo? How can we see this concept in the Mona Lisa?
Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, 1489-1490
How does Leonardo use psychology in Lady with an Ermine? Can anyone remember the story behind this portrait? Do you think the viewer would understand this narrative? What are the psychological cues that would help the viewer “get the point”? Why is Ermine psychologically and perspectively? A: Ermine is the one staring at the viewer, like Mona Lisa Does anyone remember the significance of the Ermine? Whose mascot was the Ermine?
Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, ca. 1497
Raphael, Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, ca. 1517
Raphael, Philosophy (School of Athens). 1509-1511
Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, Sistine Chapel, 1508-1512
Michelangelo, Pieta, c. 1498-1499
Michelangelo, David, 1501-1504
Michelangelo, Last Judgement, Sistine Chapel, c. 1536-1541
Parmigianino, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, 1524
Distorted reflections; created wooden base that is convex; showing off; Early mannerist painting; Virtuoso technique
Pontormo, Entombment of Christ, 1525-1528
Mannerism; Debate whether christ is being represented from descent from the cross of his entombment; Not using rules of perspective, some figures look like they’re floating in the air; Not as easy to pinpoint a central subject; symbolic
Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck, 1534-1540
Elongated, weird bodies; Similar to pieta; Mannerism: “art taken from art”; Willful dificolta; Collonade; looks like wall or single column; disproportional
Titian, Venus of Urbino, c. 1538
Giorgione, The Tempest, ca. 1509
Titian, Pieta, 1576
Define colorito and disegno? Which artists best represent colorito and disegno and where did they come from in Italy?
Colorito (colore) is a term usually applied to 16th-century Venetian painting in which colour is employed in a dominant manner, for sensual expressive purposes and as an important compositional element. Titian
Disegno (drawing and design in an intellectual sense), the hallmark of Florentine art. Michaelangelo
Venice vs. Florence
Venice
- Oil on canvas
- Painterly, “glimmering color/ light”
- Coloring (colorito)
- Landscape, Nature, Erotic subjects
Florence
- Fresco then oil
- Graphic, analytic, theoretical
- Drawing/ design (disegno)
- Painter as God-like creator, rationality
Martin Luther
- German (1483-1546)
- Catholic priest, theologian, University of Wittenberg professor
- 95 Theses (1517)
- Against the Catholic church’s practice of indulgences
- The bible is the central religious authority
- Humans may reach salvation only by their faith, not their deeds
- His writings and beliefs become the foundation of the Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation
- Attacks towards many practices and doctrines
- Spreads all around Europe
- Argued for a religious and political redistribution of power to the Bible
- Triggered wars, persecutions and the Counter-Reformation
Reformation vs. Counter-Reformation
Reformation: Dürer
- Luther’s “95 Theses”
- Read from Bible directly
- No transubstantiation
- Wary of religious images
–ICONOCLASM
Counter-Reformation: Bernini
- Council of Trent
- Grace + good acts
- Priest interprets Bible
- Impressive religious images
–ART THAT SPEAKS TO THE EMOTION
