Late Renaissance Flashcards
Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1534-41
In Sistine Chapel, over altar, commissioned by Paul III
maniera= mannerism, revels in complexity; twisting, spiraling, foreshortened bodies, mass, nervous, planar compression; reveal spiritual- no real world, no real space, no perspective, no typical proportions= return to Gothic, reject Renaissance approach
pessimistic view of world’s end, strike fear into onlooker, Catholic anxiety
Christ’s attention to damned, muscular, Hellenistic; cult of Virgin to intercede on our behalf
reformatory prudence- nudes given clothes after Michelangelo dies
Jacopo Pontormo, The Descent from the Cross, 1525-28
Mannerism= symbol of Catholic anxiety over Protestant Reformation, in Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicita, Florence, in situ
narrative is not explicit- where are we in story?
Gothic composition- stacked up=further back, figures pressed into foreground, illogical spatial juxtaposition of bodies, most important not in center
color choice illogical/desaturation modelling=shimmering effect
complex narrative, space, arrangment= Mannerism
Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time (The Exposure of Luxury), 1546
commissioned by Cosimo I, grand duke of Tuscany, communicate prestige of Tuscan Duchy
all allegorical figures- Cupid, Venus, Jealousy (screaming old woman), Time (old man), Folly (cherubim with roses), Fraud (female with hands reversed & scorpion tail), Deceit (masks); planar compression, move through scene in circular fashion
feel intellectually superior for deciphering message: if love is tainted by fraud (illicit sex), time will reveal folly of lovers’ ways (syphilis)
Giambologna, Rape of the Sabine Women, 1583- Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence
rape=abduction in art; three-person sculptural ensemble, over life size, inconsequential subject for 1st time-made to show artist’s virtuosity in cutting from one block of marble; title given after completed
must walk around to appreciate b/c complex poses (open, not closed like Michelangelo’s David)
old Sabine man based on Laocoon, figures spiral out into space, activating space around them, twist and contort
Jacopo Tintoretto, The Last Supper, 1594 (Chancel of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, in situ)
excellent example of Venetian approach to painting; sharply foreshortened; Late Venetian Painting= Proto-Baroque, massive painting (typical of Venetians)
Christ establishes Eucharist, angels fly around, indicating miracle
loosely painted- pittoresco; dramatic presentation: tenebroso + composition- eye goes quickly to far right background- diagonal, yet Christ in center with brightest halo
Scene understood through color relationships- dramatic NOT intellectual
