Notes

HIGH RENAISSANCE (1494-1520):

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael

I. Background

A. Leadership of Italian art shifted from Florence to Rome

B. Main art patrons were the Popes

II. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

A. Name means “Leonardo of Vinci, Italy” (his hometown)

B. Renaissance Man (a universal genius)

1. painter 10. optician

2. sculptor 11. anatomist

3. architect 12. mathematician

4. scientist 13. weapons designer

5. inventor 14. botanist

6. engineer 15. cartoonist

7. philosopher and writer 16. musician and singer

8. geologist 17. hydrologist

9. astronomer 18. cartographer

C. Life

1. illegitimate son of a wealthy, upper-class legal notary and a peasant woman

a. father had an affair with the household maid

b. real name: Leonardo di ser Piero

2. earliest master in painting

3. main patron was Pope Leo X (son of Lorenzo de Medici) who said: “Alas! This man will never

do anything for he begins by thinking about the end before the beginning of the work.”

4. famous Leonardo quotes:

a. “Tell me, has anything been accomplished?” (What's new?)

b. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

5. homosexual

a. brought up on charges of sodomy (anal sex) in Florence in 1476

b. sodomy was illegal in Florence at this time, and 14,000 people had been put on trial for this crime

c. if he had been found guilty, the punishment would have been strappado [Italian=“pulley”], the

most popular form of torture

1) victims hands were tied behind their backs

2) leather straps or a rope were tied to their wrists and put over a beam or hook on the ceiling

3) torturers violently jerked on the rope or leather straps, until the victim was hanging from their

arms, then the rope was released

4) victims were dropped down and pulled up continuously

5) heavy weights were often hung from the victim’s ankles

6) people's arms were ripped from their sockets and shoulders broken

7) usually many bones in their bodies were broken

8) only after the victims recovered and were clear from the vices of pain would he or she have

to re-confess their sins

d. sodomy charges against Leonardo were dropped, and he immediately left Florence for Milan

6. kept notebooks or codices (singular - codex) [Latin=“book”]

a. over 4,200 pages still exist, crowded with sketches

b. written in “mirror script” (backwards - from right to left)

c. modern day scholars experimented with the amount of time it would have taken to create these

codices, and realized:

1) if Leonardo worked eight hours a day, six days a week just copying sketches, it would have

taken him 60 years to finish

2) so he was ambidextrous - sketched with his right hand, and wrote backwards with his left

hand simultaneously

7. sketches included inventions of a forerunner of the bicycle, a breathing apparatus for divers, hang gliders,

a helicopter, parachutes, elevators, cogs and wheels, a military tank and other war craft; and a fetus in the womb

8. text: p. 490 (Embryo in the Womb)

9. few of his inventions were ever actually built or constructed during his lifetime

10. Vitruvian Man

a. his most famous sketch from his codices or notebooks

b. depicts a symmetrical male figure inside a square and circle

c. considered to be the most anatomically correct sketch of the human body of its day

d. Vitruvius was a famous Roman architect who believed the circle was the ideal shape; he related

ideal human proportions to geometry

e. this sketch is regarded as a cultural icon today

f. text: p. 405 (Vitruvian Man)

D. Famous Masterpieces

1. Last Supper (1495–1498)

a. text: p. 491

b. location: Santa Maria delle Grazie (“Holy Mary of Grace”), Milan, Italy

1) a church and Dominican monastery (later a convent)

2) painted on the wall above the refectory (dining room) door

3) UNESCO World Heritage Site (1980)

c. subject:

1) Christ shares his final meal with his disciples the evening before his crucifixion in the upper

room of a house in Jerusalem

2) captures the moment when Christ revealed that "One of you will betray me", and asks his

disciples to remember his coming sacrifice through the act of eating bread which “is my body”

and drinking wine which “is my blood” (holy communion)

d. a fresco in his own style

1) experimented with an unstable mixture of materials put on a dry wall

2) used an oil-tempera mixture rather than the time-tested fresco technique of wet plaster

combined with paint

3) painting quickly began to mold, flake and decay during his lifetime

e. most recent art restoration:

1) took 21 years and 50,000 hours (completed 1999)

2) today: 25 visitors at a time are allowed for 15 minutes, after going through a filtration system,

to help reduce the work’s exposure to dust and pollutants

f. details:

1) Judas is the third figure on Christ's right: his face is in shadow, his left hand reaches for bread,

and his right hand holds a bag of silver, (a symbol of his later betrayal of Christ); an overturned

saltcellar in front of him symbolizes bad luck

2) John is first on Christ's right: his body forms a complementary angle opposite Christ’s body

3) Christ is the only figure not in motion; centered under the middle of three windows

g. Renaissance artistic techniques:

1) one point linear perspective

2) pyramid shape

3) balance and symmetry – six disciples (two groups of three) on each side of Christ

4) atmospheric perspective

5) foreground, middleground, background

2. Mona Lisa (1503)

a. text: p. 492

b. location: Musée du Louvre, Paris (10 million visitors last year)

1) #1 - most famous work of art in the Louvre Museum

2) #2 - Venus de Milo

3) #3 – Nike of Samothrace

c. subject:

1) portrait of the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo

a) Lisa Gherardini Gioconda (“La Gioconda” in Italian)

b) a gentle, sad lady who had just lost a member of her family

c) famous nickname for the painting is La Gioconda

2) an idealization of the woman rather than an exact portrait

d. Leonardo created a new format in portraiture:

1) half length not full length view of his subject

2) seated figure appears in a landscape setting

e. restoration: none, due to its precious value

1) oil painting is badly discolored from dirt and old varnish

2) poplar wood upon which it is painted began to warp from the humidity, heat, and light

3) moved to its own specially designed glass case to protect it against the environment, theft

and vandalism

f. archaic smile

1) half smile from the Archaic Period in Ancient Greece

2) Leonardo reinvented it from a kore (female statue)

g. Leonardo loved the painting so much that he carried it with him to France, and it was sold to

France's King Francis I after Leonard's death

h. art theft:

1) stolen in 1911 by an Italian laborer in the Musée du Louvre, and hidden under his bed in a

trunk for two years

2) recovered in 1913 when he tried to sell it to an art gallery in Florence for $100,000

i. most famous work in the entire 40,000 year history of visual arts, due to:

1) fascination with Leonardo’s genius and persona

2) stunning realism and techniques in the artwork

3) mystery of the Mona Lisa’s true identity

4) twists and turns in the painting’s history

j. Renaissance artistic techniques:

1) sfumato [sfoo=MAH-toh]

2) pyramid shape

3) foreground, middleground, background

4) atmospheric perspective

III. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
[mik-el-AN-jel-loe bwo-nahr-ROH-tee]
A. Talents

1. sculptor

2. painter

3. architect

4. military engineer

5. poet

B. Life

1. mother was sick and unable to nurse him, and died when he was six

a. lived with a stonecutter and his wife, a wet nurse (surrogate mother)

b. the stonecutter cut marble from the Carrara mountains and sold it to local sculptors

c. learned to use a hammer and a chisel as his first toys

2. main art patrons:

a. Lorenzo de Medici (or "Lorenzo the Magnificent") invited him to live in his household as his protégé

at age 16 in Florence

b. Pope Julius II was his main patron in Rome

3. famous Michelangelo quote: "Gazing on beautiful things acts on my soul, which thirsts for heavenly light."

4. socially ill at ease, painfully shy, brooding, crusty, a restless genius; had a great rivalry with and jealousy of

Leonardo (who was often the life of the party)

C. Famous Masterpieces

1. Pietà [pee-yah-TAH] [Latin=“pity”] (1497-1500)

a. text: p. 504

b. location: St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican

c. subject:

1) Mary holding dead Christ on her lap after the crucifixion

2) Madonna (Virgin Mary) and Child (Jesus)

3) Mary appears younger than Christ (a symbol of her purity)

d. commissioned by French cardinal Jean de Billheres:

1) a representative in Rome

2) as a funeral monument for his funerary chapel

3) moved to St. Peter’s Basilica in the 18th century

e. Michelangelo carved the statue from marble

1) when he was only 24 years old

2) at 5’8” tall (seated), the statue is larger than life

f. Michelangelo’s only signed sculpture (on Mary’s sash)

1) he was too shy to ask anyone if they liked his new statue

2) he hid behind the pews and listened to viewers’ comments

3) people raved over the beautiful sculpture, but no one knew who had carved it (unsigned

at the time)

4) he heard someone suggest that his rival, Christoforo Solari, probably carved it, so he snuck

back inside St. Peter’s later that night, and carved Michael Angelus Bonarotus Florentinus

Faciebat [Latin= “Michelangelo Buonarroti the Florentine Made This”]

5) so embarrassed by his actions, that he never signed another work

g. art attack:

1) in 1972 a tuxedo-clad Hungarian-born Australian with a hammer smashed more than 50 pieces

of marble off the statue while screaming “I am Jesus Christ!”, before being stopped by guards

2) damage was severe especially to Mary:

a) left arm was broken off and her famous delicately carved fingers shattered as they hit the floor

b) part of her nose was destroyed

c) one of her eyelids was smashed

3) repaired and placed behind bulletproof glass

h. details:

1) statue shipped to the New York World’s Fair in 1964 for display in the Vatican Pavilion in NYC

2) one of the fair’s most popular exhibits (visited by 51 million people, including Professor Felos as a child)

i. Renaissance artistic technique: pyramid shape

2. David (1501-1504)

a. text: p. 494

b. location:

1) Galleria dell’ Accademia, Florence

2) 1.5 million visitors last year

c. subject:

1) Biblical hero David

2) shown in idealized beauty holding a slingshot

d. commissioned:

1) by Florence’s governing body to decorate the façade of the Florence Cathedral

2) David symbolized Florence’s competition with Rome (Goliath), and the ability of Florence to rule its own

city-state, whereas the Pope held power over Rome

3) when the 6-ton statue was nearing completion, Florentine officials realized there was no possibility of

raising it to the roof of the cathedral

4) a committee of artists decided to place it in the Piazza della Signoria, a central square in Florence

5) moved indoors to the Galleria dell’ Accademia in Florence in 1873

6) a replica replaced the statue at the original location – facing Rome

e. restoration and marble cleaning:

1) cost $50,000 in 2004

2) in honor of the statue’s 500th anniversary

f. art attacks:

1) in 1527 rioters against the Medici family in Florence broke off the lower half of David’s left arm, when the

statue was still outdoors; the arm was kept in storage and reattached in modern times

2) in 1991 an Italian vandal smashed the second toe of David’s left foot with a hammer, in the Galleria dell’

Accademia, Florence (statue was moved there in 1873)

3) damages were repairable, and both the arm and toe were restored

g. details:

1) an 18-foot-tall block of Carrara marble had been sitting outdoors for 25 years, and was possibly going to

be offered to Leonardo

2) at age 26, Michelangelo obtained the marble and a commission to carve a statue of David

3) later described that he simply envisioned David in the marble, and then chipped away everything that

was “not David”

h. Renaissance artistic technique: contrapposto

3. Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1508-1512)

a. text: pp. 506-509

b. location: Sistine Chapel, Vatican

1) famous church in the center of the Vatican

2) site of the papal conclave (the process to select a new pope)

c. subject: scenes from Genesis in the Old Testament

d. commissioned:

1) by Pope Julius II to restore the greatness of the papacy

2) Michelangelo tried to refuse the project, but eventually gave in to the Pope’s pressure and demands

e. most recent art restoration on the entire Sistine Chapel:

1) took 14 years and was completed in 1994

2) varnish, soot from candles, dust and grime were removed

3) brilliant colors were revealed for the first time since its creation

f. details:

1) ceiling was originally painted in fresco

2) wet plaster dripped on Michelangelo’s face as he spent four years standing (not lying) on scaffolding

to paint the ceiling

3) covers 700 square yards (size of two tennis courts end-to-end)

4) most famous scene is the Creation of Adam (text: p. 508)

g. modern day: 22,000 tourists visit the Sistine Chapel daily – more than 5.5 million visitors each year

h. Renaissance artistic technique: balance and symmetry

4. St. Peter's Basilica (Michelangelo's work: 1546-1564; church built between 1506 and 1626)

a. text: p. 506 (Plans for St. Peter’s)

b. location: Vatican

c. subject: principal and largest church of Christian world

d. commissioned by: Pope Julius II

e. details:

1) Michelangelo was the chief architect for the apse (semicircular area behind the altar) and the dome

or cupola (height 452')

2) interior holds 60,000 people

f. Renaissance artistic technique: balance and symmetry

IV. Raphael [rahf-ee-EL] (or Raffaello Santi or Sanzio) (1483-1520)

A. Life

1. Italian painter and architect

2. blended religious or mythological scenes with secular (worldly) subjects

3. highly successful in Rome, and commissioned often by popes

B. Famous Masterpieces

1. School of Athens (1510-1511)

a. text: pp. 512-513

b. location: Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican

c. subject: Plato, Aristotle and Greek philosophers enter the Hall of Learning in ancient Athens

d. his most famous painting

e. details:

1) Plato (center left – Leonardo posing) and his student Aristotle (center right) hold copies of their

writings as they gesture up to the heavens and down to the earth

2) Heraclitus (Michelangelo brooding and posing in lower center) leans on a block of marble

3) Euclid (lower right in red – Bramante posing) writes geometry on a slate board

4) Raphael (second one on extreme right) appears in a self-portrait

5) Athena (Roman: Minerva) (Goddess of War and Wisdom) – statue on right

6) Apollo (God of the Sun, Truth, Prophecy, and Music) – statue on left, holding a lyre

f. Renaissance artistic techniques:

1) balance and symmetry

2) one point linear perspective with vanishing point

3) foreground, middleground, background

4) atmospheric perspective

5) contrapposto

6) perspective

7) pyramid shape

2. Sistine Madonna (1513)

a. not in textbook (see PowerPoint)

b. location: Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, Germany

c. subject:

1) Madonna stands on clouds holding the Christ child, flanked by Saints Sixtus and Barbara and thick curtains,

and surrounded by cherubs or angels called putti

2) Papal tiara (crown on left) rests on a balustrade (a barrier), which symbolizes a bridge between the earthly

and heavenly worlds

d. details of putti [POO-tee]:

1) putti [Italian=“chubby little cherubs”]

2) singular: putto

3) often shown naked with wings (usually male)

4) most famous part of this painting, and recognizable today in ads and decorations (especially at

Christmas time)

4) dozens of putti hidden in the clouds surround Mary and Christ

e. Renaissance artistic techniques:

1) pyramid shape

2) balance and symmetry

3) contrapposto