TODAY:

The High Renaissance(1500-1520) in Rome—A

CulminationEnd of the Renaissance Mannerism Challenging Renaissance Standards

The End of an Age

Pope Julius II - 1443-1513

Original name  Giuliano della Rovere, Julius II was the greatest art patron of the papal line (reigned 1503–13) and one of the most powerful rulers of his age. Although he led military efforts to prevent French domination of Italy, Julius is most important for his close friendship with Michelangelo and for his patronage of other artists, including Bramante and Raphael. He commissioned Michelangelo's “Moses” and paintings in the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican.

Donato Bramante - 1444-1514

Italian architect who introduced the High Renaissance style in architecture. In Rome, Bramante served as principal planner of Pope Julius II's comprehensive project for rebuilding the city. St. Peter's Basilica, of which he was the chief architect, was begun in 1506. Other major Roman works were the Tempietto at S. Pietro in Montorio (1502) and the Belvedere court in the Vatican (begun c. 1505).

Donato Bramante

Exterior of the church

begun c. 1492Santa Maria delle

Grazie, Milan

Donato Bramante – Interior view toward

choir1485

Fresco, height of arch 10,6 m

Santa Maria presso San Satiro, Milan

Donato Bramante - Tempietto in cloister of S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome - 1502

Arch of Septimus Severus, Rome – 204 C.E. – general view

Donato Bramante – Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican, Rome – 1506 – detail of upper court

Leonardo da Vinci - 1452-1519

Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time.

Leonardo da VinciThe Mona Lisa (La

Gioconda) 1503-1506Wood panel

H 0.77 m; W 0.53 mINV 779

Classical painting and portraiture redefined

Leonardo da Vinci - The Virgin and Child

with St Annec. 1510

Oil on wood, 168 x 130 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Leonardo da Vinci – Leda - 1508-15Oil on panel, 130 x 77,5 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Leonardo da Vinci - Leda1510-15

Oil on panel, 112 x 86 cmGalleria Borghese, Rome

Leonardo da Vinci - St John the Baptist

1513-16Oil on panel, 69 x 57 cmMusée du Louvre, Paris

Raphael - 1483-1520

Master painter and architect of the Italian Renaissance. Raphael is best known for his paintings of the Madonna and for his large figural compositions in the Vatican in Rome. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition, and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur.

Raphael The Virgin and Child with Saint John the

Baptist (La Belle Jardinière)

1507Oil on wood, 122 x 80

cmMusée du Louvre,

Paris

Raphael Madonna and Child (The Large Cowper Madonna)

1508Oil on wood, 81 x 57 cmNational Gallery of Art,

Washington

Raphael - The School of Athens – 1509 - Fresco, width at the base 770

cmStanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Raphael - The Parnassus - 1509-10 - Fresco, width at base 670 cmStanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Raphael - Disputation of the Holy Sacrament (La Disputa) - 1510-11 - Fresco, width at the base: 770 cm - Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican

Raphael Pope Leo X with

Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de'

Rossi1518-19 - Oil on wood, 154

x 119 cm - Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Raphael - The Transfiguration - detail- 1518-20 - Oil on wood, 405 x 278 cm

- Pinacoteca, Vatican

Michelangelo - 1475-1564

Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Michelangelo was considered the greatest living artist in his lifetime, and ever since then, he has been held to be one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of his works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence.

THE SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING, PAINTED BY MICHELANGELO

In the year 1506, the famous Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (known as Michelangelo) was approached by Pope Julius II and ordered to the paint the Pope's private chapel, the Sistine Chapel. Michelangeo did NOT want the job, but the Pope insisted. For four years, 1508 through 1512, Michelangelo worked on a 65 foot scaffolding, painting what would eventually become the greatest work of art in the Western world. When it was revealed, the world was inspired and shocked.

THE PLAYERS…

Raphael. Portrait of Julius II. c.1512.

National Gallery of London

The warrior pope who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Raphael to paint the Stanze di Raffaello in the Vatican, and Bramante to begin the new St. Peter's Basilica.

Michelangelo – Florentine Pieta 1547-55, Florence Cathederal

Daniele da Volerra, Michelangelo, 1533, Florence, Italy

Michelangelo is famous for creating the fresco ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, as well as the Last Judgment over the altar, and The Martyrdom of St. Peter and The Conversion of St. Paul in the Vatican's Cappella Paolina; among his many sculptures are those of David and the Pietà, as well as the Doni Virgin, Bacchus, Moses, Rachel, Leah, and members of the Medici family; he also designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

The Sistine Chapel was built between 1475 and 1483, in the time of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere. Its basic feature is its function, as the pope's chapel and the location of the elections of new popes. It was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin on 15th August 1483.

The Sistine Chapel Interior

THE SISTINE CEILING9 scenes of the Genesis 4 corner pendentives 4 pairs of bronze nudes above the pendentives 8 triangular spandrels with pairs of bronze nudes 7 prophets 5 sybils 20 ignudi 10 medallions

Quite extraordinary and truly Titanic is the last fresco, smaller in size but sublime in conception: 'Let There be Light!', with God the Father self-begetting and therefore, in a sense, self diminishing. This is a strangely abstract design, characterized by primitive and intentionally artless drawing.

Separation of Light from Darkness1511 - Fresco, 180 x 260 cm -

Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Bay 9 with the Separation of Light from Darkness

The second scene in the chronological order of the narrative, the Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants, is depicted in the large field of the vault of the eighth bay, between the triangular spandrels.

Creation of the Sun, Moon and Planets – 1511 - Fresco, 280 x 570 cmCappella Sistina, Vatican

Bay 8 with the Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants

A divergent meaning has been read into this fresco by the earlier biographers, Condivi and Vasari. The spirit of God with the heavenly host moves above the waters; so they thought in terms of the creation of the great Sea Monster. But the main emphasis is on the moving ('ferabatur super aqua' in Saint Jerome) and the hallowing gesture; the title 'God Blesses the World' is indicated.

Separation of the Sun from the Waters – 1511 – Fresco

155 x 270 cmCappella Sistina, Vatican

Bay 7 with the Separation of the Earth from the Waters

The fourth scene in the chronological order of the narrative, the Creation of Adam, is depicted in the large field of the vault of the sixth bay, between the triangular spandrels. Michelangelo's organization of the Sistine ceiling frescos represents perhaps the most complex composition in Western art. The space contains an intricate pseudo structure of architecture that frames the sculpture-like forms.

The Creation of Adam – 1510 -

Fresco, 280 x 570 cm

Bay 6 with the Creation of Adam

Michelangelo - The Creation – 1510-12 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

In response to the gesture and intense gaze of the Creator, Eve appears to rise from the rocks behind Adam rather than from his body, extending her joint hands. The bodies of the couple appear to be those of adolescents, in contrast to those depicted in the scene of the Fall and Expulsion.

Creation of Eve - 1509-10 - Fresco, 170 x 260 cm

Bay 5 with the Creation of Eve

The sixth scene in the chronological order of the narrative, The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden, is depicted in the large field of the vault of the second bay, between the triangular spandrels. A bold and momentous step towards greater clarity was taken with the Fall of Adam and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Fall and Expulsion form the Garden of

Eden - 1509-10 - Fresco, 280 x 570

cm

Bay 4 with The Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden

Michelangelo The Fall - 1509 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Michelangelo The Expulsion1509 – Fresco -

Cappella Sistina, Vatican

In the center of the background, Noah officiates at the sacrifice on an altar seen from a corner perspective. Giving thanks to the Lord for his salvation from the waters, the patriarch is wearing the same blood-red tunic that he wore when he was tilling the vineyard in the background of the Drunkenness of Noah.

Sacrifice of Noah – 1509 - Fresco, 170 x 260 cm

Bay 3 with the Sacrifice of Noah

The eighth scene in the chronological order of the narrative, The Deluge, is depicted in the large field of the vault of the second bay, between the triangular spandrels. In the doctrine of the typological relationship between the Old and New Testaments, the Deluge was considered to prefigure baptism, while the Ark was the symbol for the Church itself.

The Deluge - 1508-09 Fresco

280 x 570 cmCappella Sistina,

Vatican

Bay 2 with the Deluge

PROPHETS AND SIBYLS

Between the lunettes and the spandrels depicting Christ's ancestors are the Prophets and Sibyls, who appear to be much larger than they really are. The violence and the power of these figures, however, is not due to their superhuman size, but mostly to their isolation. Each of these figures, in its own way, seems totally enraptured in the spiritual act of contemplation, intuition and ecstasy; they seem the personification of that divine spirit which briefly at times uses them as agents in communicating to other men. It is not known who or what determined Michelangelo to evoke the seven Prophets, and from some primeval limbo the five Sibyls.

God allows the youthful Jonah, the seer of Nineveh whom he rescued from the belly of the whale within three days - the time between Christ's death and his resurrection, - to challenge him.

Jonah1511 - Fresco, 400 x 380 cm

Cappella Sistina, Vatican

The altar wall with Prophet Jonah

Unwinding a scroll with her left hand, the Delphic Sibyl seems to be turning toward the viewer. The effect of movement is accentuated by the swirls of the light blue mantle lined with yellow fabric with red shadows and the pattern of the folds of the light green tunic.

The Delphic Sibyl - 1509Fresco, 350 x 380 cm

Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Bay 1 with the Drunkenness of Noah and Delphic Sibyl

Michelangelo - Drunkenness of Noah (with ignudi and medallions) – painted first - 1509 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Michelangelo The Delphic Sibyl

1509 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

THE PENDENTIVESAt the corners of the vault, two spandrels join to form the larger triangular fields of the pendentives, with one of the two vertices pointing downward rather than up. Their surfaces create notable difficulties from a compositional point of view, especially where it was necessary to paint narratives.

Judith was a patriotic heroine and a symbol of the Jews' struggle against their ancient oppressors in the near east. She is usually shown holding the head of Holofernes, the Assyrian general, whom she has decapitated with a sword.

Judith and Holofernes – 1509 - Fresco, 570 x 970 cmCappella Sistina, Vatican – BEGINNINGS OF COLLAGE!

Two bronze-coloured male nudes also recline on the cornice of the pendentive representing David and Goliath, while the pairs of putti are placed, respectively, at the sides of the thrones of the prophet Zechariah and Joel.

Bronze nudes – 1511 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Michelangelo Ignudo

1509 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Michelangelo Putti

1511 – Fresco - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Frescoes in the triangular spandrelsOccupying the triangular fields between the thrones of the prophets and sibyls, above the lunettes, the eight spandrels of the side walls contain family groups with figures seated or reclining on the bare ground, in poses that seem to draw on the theme of the flight into Egypt. Together with the groups or single figures in the lunettes on either side of the tablets, they represent the generations of Christ's ancestors. Due to the lack of typological elements or precise attributions and, in most cases, of iconographic precedents, it is difficult; if not impossible, to identify the figures represented. But their power lies in the totality of individuals featured.

The figures are in the triangular spandrel in the sixth bay between Ezekiel and the Persian Sibyl. The spandrel is situated over the Rehoboam-Abijah lunette. Michelangelo painted a family group in this lunette.

Ancestors of Christ1511

Fresco, 245 x 340 cmCappella Sistina,

Vatican

Lunette frescoes

In the iconographic scheme of the frescoes painted by Michelangelo, the lunettes, together with the eight smaller triangular spandrels, contain the figures of the Ancestors of Christ according to the sequence of forty generations listed at the beginning of the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The names of the ancestors are written in Latin capitals on a tablet placed in the centre of each lunette, at the top of the window arch, on a rectangular fictive slab, painted in dark tones with light green borders. The tablet is enclosed by its own painted bronze frame, resting on a base and consisting of half balusters at the sides; it is surmounted by a small classical female head.

"Matthan begat Jacob. Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." (Matthew 1:15-16) - At the top of the entrance wall of the chapel, to the right of the viewer, next to the Eleazar-Matthan lunette, there is the one concluding the genealogical sequence of the ancestors of Christ in the Gospel of St Matthew.

Jacob – Joseph Lunette - 1511-12Fresco, 215 x 430 cm - Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Pre- and Post-Restoration Images

Michelangelo Moses - 1515 - Marble, height 235 cm

S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome - Tomb of Pope Julius

Michelangelo

The Rebellious Slave & The Dying Slave - Rome - 1513-1515H 2.09 m – Musée du Louvre - MR 1589

Michelangelo Crouching Boy

1530-33Marble, height: 54 cm

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

RIGHTDavid 1504

Michelangelo Laurentian Library - 1530 - Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence

RIGHT – Staircase into Library

Michelangelo Last Judgment 1537-41 - Fresco, 1370 x 1220 cm - Cappella Sistina,

Vatican

Tomb of Julius II1545

MarbleS. Pietro in Vincoli,

Rome

Michelangelo

Façade of the Farnese Palace - 1548 - Palazzo Farnese, Rome

Michelangelo - Pietàand detail - c. 1550 - Marble,

height: 226 cm - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo,

Florence

MichelangeloPietà Rondanini,

(unfinished)1552-64

Marble, height: 195 cm

Castello Sforzesco, Milan

Michelangelo – Vatican Pietà -1499 - Marble, height 174 cm, width at the base 195 cm - Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican

Michelangelo Dome of St Peter's

1564Basilica di San Pietro,

Vatican

WHAT’S HAPPENING ELSEWHERE?

Albertinelli Visitation - 1503

Oil on wood, 232 x 146 cmGalleria degli Uffizi,

Florence

Some painters outside of Rome essentially adhere to the standards of the High

Renaissance

Fra Bartolomeo - Deposition - c. 1515 - Oil on canvas, 152 x 195 cm -

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Correggio The Adoration of the

Child1518-20

Oil on canvas, 81 x 67 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Most important Renaissance painter of the school of Parma, whose late works influenced the style of many Baroque and Rococo artists.

Corregio Assumption of

the Virgin1526-30

Fresco, 1093 x 1195 cm

Duomo, Parma

Corregio - Assumption of the Virgin - detail - 1526-30Fresco, 1093 x 1195 cm - Duomo, Parma

CorreggioHead of Christ - Italian,

c. 1530Oil on panel

11 1/4 x 9 1/16 in.94.PB.74 - Getty Museum

- Malibu

Piero di Cosimo The Discovery of Honey - c. 1505-1510 - Oil on panel - Art Museum,

Worcester, MA

Pontormo Sacra

Conversazione1514 - Fresco, 223 x

196 cmSS. Annunziata,

Florence

Andrea del Sarto - The Last Supper - 1520-25Fresco, 525 x 871 cm - Convent of San Salvi, Florence

Veronese Portrait of a Man

c. 1560Oil on canvas, 120 x 102

cmMuseum of Fine Arts,

Budapest Foreshadowing the

Baroque

Veronese St John the Baptist

Preachingc. 1562

Oil on canvasGalleria Borghese,

Rome

Tintoretto - Crucifixion (detail) - 1565Oil on canvas, 536 x 1224 cm (full painting) - Scuola di San Rocco, Venice

MEANWHILE…OUTSIDE OF ITALY, IN THE NORTHERN

REGIONS…

Peter Bruegel the Elder - The Harvesters – 1565 - Oil on wood - 46 1/2 x

63 1/4 in. (118.1 x 160.7 cm) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY Creation of new genre and subject matter – Landscapes and the peasantry

Peter Bruegel the Elder

Peasant wedding - c. 1568 - Oil on wood - 114 x 164 cm (45 x 64 1/2 in.)Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING THIS COURSE!

THIS SUMMER…Mannerism and the Baroque (6 weeks)

NEXT FALL…Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (16

weeks)