Art in 16th Century Europe: High Renaissance & Mannerism

Art in 16th Century Europe: High Renaissance & Mannerism

The High Renaissance The High renaissance is marked by the completion of the Sistine Chapel. It was a monument that would establish the Papal Authority. View of the Sistine Chapel

Perugrino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter, 1482-1483
The papacy had based its total authority of the Roman Cotholic Church on this biblical event. In Perugrino Christ delivers the keys to St. peter accompanied by 12 apostles and Renaissance contemporaries.

Mantenga, Dead Christ, 1501 Mantenga, Dead Christ, 1501
Review of the Renaissance:mastery of techniques of visual illusion inovations in perspective & emphasis in naturalism; light & shade A striking realistic study in foreshortening? feet are too small If the artists would have properly represented the body, the feet would have covered much of the body (or the image as a whole). The artist tempered with rules of perspective to better portray his subject. Produces a poignant depiction of a biblical tragedy. It is distinguished by a break in the idealization of most subjects during the renaissance. Notice the fleshy openings of the crosses wounds, and heavy presence of his body in how his physicality is rendered with the sheets.

Sistine Chapel interior
Michelangelo spent 4 years completing the 5,760foot ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel It reflects both the Pope's ambition and the artistic aspirations of Michelangelo. A Grand Drama: a monumental fresco organized around a sequence of narrative panels describing the Creation as recorded in the biblical book Genesis. Michelangelo Sistine Chapel interior

The High Renaissance Michelangelo concentrated his expressive purpose on the human figure. Expressing the beauty of the body in its natural form and also its spiritual and philosophical significance. The composition eventually contained over 300 figures and had at its centre nine episodes from the Book of Genesis, divided into three groups:- God's Creation of the Earth, God's Creation of Humankind and their fall from God's grace, and lastly, the state of Humanity as represented by Noah and his family ----One of the most widely recognized images in the history of painting, Michelangelo shows God reaching out to touch Adam. ----Michelangelo painted a bold and entirely humanistic interpretation of the event, with a massive figure of God imparting life through an extended hand to a languorously reclining nude figure of Adam. Michelangelo, The Sistine Chapel ceiling, Creation of Adam, 1510

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of Martin Luther, 1533
In 1505 CRANACH became court painter a position he maintained for life under various electors. At court, Cranach specialized in portraits. Bold design, intense color, and gracefully outlined costumes typify his court likenesses. He may have invented the full-length portrait as an independent work of art. Like Albrecht Dürer before him, Cranach created fine, valued engravings and woodcuts as well as paintings. Cranach owned a bookshop and a pharmacy and served on the city council in addition to his work at court. As Martin Luther's close friend, he supervised the printing of Luther's propaganda pamphlets; designed woodcuts for Luther's translation of the New Testament; painted altarpieces for Lutheran churches; and painted, engraved, and made woodcut portraits of Protestant Reformers and princes. As a result we must consider the Art of the Counter reformation as emphasizing a need for intense spirituality. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Portrait of Martin Luther, 1533

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, 1541
After the sensation produced by the ceiling he was commissioned to do an altar on the wall of the Sistine chapel. however here is the strongest possible contrast with his own Ceiling. Between the ceiling and the altar: Sack of Rome and the Reformation, and the confident humanism and Christian Neoplatonism of the Ceiling had changed to pessimism and despondency of the Judgment. The bodies are now dramatically in motion around each other, all are going to have to face the final judgement. Is this invocation of fear just coincidence? Or a warning sign for those who follow Luther? Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, 1541

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, 1541
the choice of subject is indicative of the new mood: This is no longer a monument of beauty and perfection, instead it is a demonstration of bewilderment and despair through the unfolding of the basic tenants of the Christian faith: Creation, redemption, damnation, and salvation. to be as much reviled as praised, and only narrowly to escape destruction, though it did not escape the mutilation of having many of the nude figures 'clothed' after his death. The nudes were 'clothed' because of the problems raised by the Reformation and the general hostility towards the idealism of Renaissance Art Unveiling of the Last Judgment Inquisition begins the Council of Trent made the decision to cover the figures The figures soon to be considered grotesque, and covered up, are huge, violently twisted, with small heads, and contorted features. Sain Bartolomeo, who was skinned alive, is depicted with a grotesque face said to be a self portrait of Michelangelo. Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, 1541

Mannerism & Baroque: Reactions to the Renaissance
How did the role of Art change in the period of Reformation & Counter-Reformation? The Reformation The Church had been for some time a notoriously corrupt institution plagued by internal power struggles (at one point in the late 1300s and 1400s there was a power struggle within the church resulting in not one, but three Popes!), and Popes and Cardinals often lived more like Kings or Emperors than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed temporal (or political) power as well as spiritual power, commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and waged war. Luther has four main gripes with the church that I would like to discuss: Transubstantiation - The Sale of Indulgences - The Role of art in the church 4. The role of art in the church Luther and his followers agreed that there should be no art in the church for two reasons: 1. It costs too much money when it could be better spent on feeding the poor. 2. It is too close to a violation of one of the ten commandments which forbids the making of any idol or image of God. What we see as a result is that in areas of Europe which convert to Protestantism is that artists can no longer work for their most important patron — the church! We’ll look at Protestant Holland to see what happens to artists there.

Mannerism Mannerism is a short stylistic period in art. It has formal qualities that are distinguishable. Most of the ideas of Mannerism are traceable implicitly or explicitly in the Judgment: --Waiving of the rules of spatial harmony and perspective, notice a lack of foreshortening.

Tintoretto, The Last Supper, 1592-94
Mannerism (Italy)‏ Tintoretto's Last Supper: takes Jesus and the table out of the middle of the room. a scene of confusion, chaotic, not harmonious After the idealized depiction of the human form and the mastery of perspective achieved in high Renaissance, some artists started to deliberately distort and elongated proportions in disjointed, irrational space for emotional effect- as in Last Judgment Exaggeration of perspective: The converging perspective lines race diagonally away from the picture surface to create a disturbing effect of limitless depth and motion Sickly, dark, disorienting colors (not intended to be descriptive, nor naturalistic, instead a powerful tool to enhance the emotional impact of the whole image The last supper is no longer merely a human event, it is rather the visual manifestation of the mysteries of the Christian faith. is a spiritual, even visionary, interpretation in which solid forms seem to melt away into swirling clouds of dark around the beacon- like glow of Christ's halo in the center. There seems to be a clear division between what is natural and what is supernatural, the secular and the sacred -the angels are translucent, other wordly - separating them from the real world. Tintoretto, The Last Supper,

Mannerism (Spain)‏ El Greco, Portrait of an Old Man, (Self Portrait)
The direct successor to Tintoretto Born in Crete (cont. Greece), but then part of Republic of Venice. Went to Venice and Rome, trained as an artist and was influenced by Mannerism. In 1577 he moved to Toledo, Spain --- the Holy City of Spain. His intense emotionalism appealed to the pious fervor of the Spanish. Spain emerged as a major European power in the late 16th Century, with the centralization of Power in the Monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella, later Charles the V and the enhanced identification of the crown with the Church - The King is chosen by God. Phillip the II became known as “Most Catholic King” El Greco, Portrait of an Old Man, (Self Portrait) Oil on canvass Metropolitan Museum of Art

Key Concept: Mannerism (Spain)‏
El Greco attempted to express religious fervor with exaggerated Mannerism Commissioned in 1586: El Greco's mature works "the devotional intensity of mood reflects the religious spirit of Roman Catholic Spain in the period of the Counter- Reformation El Greco is know for having created problems with King Phillip II because of his inclusion of living people, and because as a major rule the art of the Counter Reformation was supposed to prioritize content over style. Two major scenes are depicted: distinguished as celestial and terrestrial scenes. The brilliant Heaven opens above to radiate the Earthly scene. Above stands the heavenly one� as Heaven lies over the Earth like a cloud Bellow the miracle of St Agustine and St Stephens who carry and bury the faithful and charitable Knight before a crowd of mourners. In between an angel carries the soul from one world to the other aspects of Mannerism: deformation, disproportion, and exaggeration with elongated and undulating figures troubling iconography: "acid" color sense, elongated and tortured anatomy, irrational perspective and light of his crowded composition, An awkward sense that one is contemplating a mystery--an earthly-heavenly drama-- rather than an excited witness to a miracle. The figures feel as though they where being pulled up by heaven and pulled down by the Earth A solemn balc-clad crowd on the background have carefully individualized features, known to have been recognized as the townspeople of Orgaz. - Demonstrated his talent as a portraitist The portrait-like depictions are claimed to be El Greco's gesture to immortalize fellow-citizens of Toledo in the figures of the mourners. El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz,

Key Concept: Mannerism (Spain)‏
The details of the drapery expresses a life of its own. In the drapery of the Saint, we see depicted his own death by being stoned. the boy at the front edge of the picture represents the artist's eight- year-old son, because. El Greco signed the painting on the boy's handkerchief with the date 1587, the year Jorge Manuel was born. El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz

Baroque

Baroque A response to not only Mannerism, but also to the Renaissance as a whole.

Baroque The period of Counter- Reformation will show two trends:
Religious (Catholic) Baroque (Italy)‏ and Secular (Protestant) Baroque - (Northern Europe)‏

Key Concept: Baroque (Italy)‏
The depiction of the Virgin caused a contemporary stir. It was commission for a church and later rejected. Why could this painting have caused such a stir? The Apostles and Mary Magdalene are mourning her death. He demonstrates them all in great grief, not by a more emotive face, but by hiding their faces, a silent grief. Its not about a range of emotions, but one, the mourning, the death of an individual-- The holiness of the Virgin is discerned only by her thread-like halo. The Virgin’s death is a taboo for the Church - the Mother of God did not die in any ordinary sense but was assumed into Heaven -- his realism was seen by some as unacceptably vulgar - he leaves her legs bare. In order to portray her death as realistically as possible he grabbed a woman’s dead body from the morgue. And not any dead body, but the body of a well- known prostitute. The nuns wanted the Virgin ascending into Heaven with choirs of angels: But, instead Caravaggio was interested in her humanness, and showed the Virgin in all her physicality, her fleshiness. He wanted bodies that were lived in, of this world, not mythological One of the first things you might notice about Caravaggio's style, is the darkness, and the dramatic contrasts of light and dark. There's a word for its effect: tenebroso -- which means dark and gloomy, but refers to dramatic illumination. Caravaggio's novelty was a radical naturalism which combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, approach to chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow. Caravaggio is the to be remembered for pushing the human as the only subject. Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin,

Caravaggio was an iconoclast because he refused to the idealist theories of the renaissance. Look at the gesture, completely overwhelmed by the emotional state. Who is the person crying in front of the virgin? Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin (detail of Magdalene)‏

The penitent Magdalene is a characteristic theme of the Counter Reformation. Melancholy and humility after the conversion of a life of sin. Mary Magdalene illustrated Penance… an ideal subject for the period that the Church wanted to welcome back those who had gone astray in Protestanism. The subject is not idealized She is in contemporary dress, sitting in a low stool, very close to the floor. Caravaggio's heroine is sobbing silently to herself and a single tear falls down her cheek. She is, as it were, poised between her past life of luxury and the simple life she will embrace as one of Christ's most faithful followers. : one of the most important goals of Baroque art is to involve the viewer. Here we are the one’s looking down on her Caravaggio, Penitent Magdalene, 1597

One of Caravaggio's last work: Its darkness and melancholy would suit the gloomy thoughts of the artist's final years. The boy handles his trophy with disgust. 'In that head [Caravaggio] has portrayed himself once again and in the boy he portrayed himself when young: an element of self disgust. The device recalls the way that Michelangelo, in the Last Judgment for the Sistine Chapel, placed an anguished face with features evidently his own onto the flayed body of St Bartholomew, but Caravaggio's mood is closer to one of despair. As a witness to God's light, Bartholomew takes his seat in heaven: Goliath, God's enemy, is doomed to everlasting night. Dirty silver, black and browns dominate the picture. The light illuminates David to looking like a boy from the street, whose sword has just a drop of blood on it. The effect is very dramatic. Remember: He is a contemporary of Shakespeare. Caravaggio painted this scene as though it was happening in the black of night with almost a spot-light effect on the figures – theatricality – dramatic - as if a dark stage that has been illuminated with a spotlight. the technique to make this effect is called: Chiaroscuro from the Italian meaning light (chiaro) + dark (scuro)‏ the technique of placing very light and very dark portions of a work in opposition. The artist uses limited gray tones in this technique. One of the finest examples of this technique is the work of Rembrandt. There is no background -- only darkness. No architecture, no landscape, we focus on the figures. Caravaggio used perspective, chiaroscuro, and dramatic lighting to bring viewers into the painting space and action, almost as if they were the audience of a scene. Caravaggio, David [self portrait as goliath],

Bernini - (b. 1598, Napoli, d. 1680, Roma) Italian artist who was perhaps the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and an outstanding architect as well. He transformed the bust portrait into and art form in itself Bust of Cardinal Armand de Richelieu ---the bust was not intended for a niche or a monument, but for display, rather like an easel painting. ---the thin cut of the torso and the treatment of the drapery evoke the presence of the man; notice the slight turn of the head and subtle facial expression; as if he was caught in the middle of something. A characteristic of Baroque is an enhancement of naturalism, to evoke the presence of the subject: in the messy hair, the asymmetry of his mustache, the half-button piercing through the edge of his cloak. Constanza is another story. How differently is she from the bust of the cardinal? Can anyone guess who she is? She was his lover, and he made her sensual presence tangible in a block of stone. Notice te mouth he leaves just slightly opened. She appears as if caught unaware, Baroque art in Italy became the means of expressing passions of the soul in the body: Love, suffering, anger, tenderness, joy, fury, fear, contempt, tranquility, longing, despair. Bernini, Gian Lorenzo Bust of Cardinal Armand de Richelieu Bernini, Gian Lorenzo Bust Costanza Bonarelli 1635

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa is the central marble group of a sculpture complex designed and completed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. It is one of the sculptural masterpieces of High Roman Baroque. The chapel is an explosion of colored marble, metal, and detail. Light filters though a window above Teresa, underscored by gilded rays. The dome is frescoed with the illusionistic cherub-filled sky with the descending light of the Holy Ghost allegorized as a dove. On the side walls, are life-size reliefs of the Cornaro family, present and discussing the event. If we follow the metaphor of a theater, it feels as though we’ve got front row seats. We have immediately become a part of the work of art. It surrounds us, and we are literally inside of it. This is, as we have seen, a typical feature of baroque art — breaking down the barrier between the work and the viewer, to involve us more. Why would this be a characteristic of Baroque art? Bernini, Gian Lorenzo The Ecstasy of Saint Therese

St. Theresa was a nun who was canonized (made a Saint by the Church) because of the spiritual visions she experienced. She lived during the middle of the 16th century in Spain — at the height of the Reformation. When we look at the Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Bernini we have to consider the the effect being produced by the work. St. Theresa wrote several books in which she described her visions. This is her description of the event that Bernini depicts: Beside me, on the left, appeared an angel in bodily form. He was not tall but short, and very beautiful; and his face was so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest rank of angels, who seem to be all on fire. In his hands I saw a great golden spear, and at the iron tip there appeared to be a point of fire. This he plunged into my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he pulled it out I felt that he took them with it, and left me utterly consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me utter several moans. The sweetness caused by this intense pain is so extreme that one cannot possibly wish it to cease, nor is one’s soul content with anything but God. St. Theresa describes her intensely spiritual experience in very physical, even sexual terms so we can relate. Something divine, and sacred is felt in the Body. We know that an important goal of Baroque art is to involve the viewer. This work becomes representative of the baroque because people could relate: ---Movements of the soul where expressed in the surface/exterior of the body. ---This is not a physical but a spiritual pain, though the body has some share in it. After all, being visited by an angel and filled with the love of God is no small experience. How can we ordinary mortals hope to understand the intensity and passion of this experience except on our own terms? Outward manifestation of the State of Saintliness – demonstration of faith by martyrdom & ecstasy Bernini has allowed the experience of something otherwise tangible to become purely visual. Bernini, Gian Lorenzo The Ecstasy of Saint Therese

For next Lecture: Northern Baroque

Key Concept: Northern Baroque (Rembrandt)‏
The artist in his studio,

Self-Portrait 1629 Self Portrait as a Young Man 1634 -SOLD AT 15.6 MILLION

Portrait of Saskia with a flower 1641 Saskia in Pompous dress 1642

Hendrickje Bathing in a River 1654 Portrait of Hendrickje Stofells 1659

Self-Portrait 1658 Self Portrait 1668

Key Concept: Northern Baroque
Vermeer, The milkmaid 1658

Key Concept: Northern Baroque
Fin Vermeer, Woman with a Pearl Necklace

Art in 16th Century Europe: High Renaissance & Mannerism

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Art in 16th Century Europe: High Renaissance & Mannerism"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

Art in 16th Century Europe: High Renaissance & Mannerism

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Art in 16th Century Europe: High Renaissance & Mannerism"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback