High Renaissance in the 16th Century

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Table of Contents

Introduction
High Renaissance in Florence
Roman High Renaissance
Venetian Art During High Renaissance
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The development of the High Renaissance art in the 16^th century in the three Italian cities that are rightfully considered to be the places where Renaissance was born – Florence, Rome, and Venice is one of the major interests of this essay. Moreover, typical masterpieces of the art of those cities will be compared and their differences and similarities in the historical and social contexts will be found.

For this kind of assignment, the works by such famous artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian were chosen. To understand the essence of the further analysis it is necessary to define what the Renaissance was when it took place and what were its main characteristic features. The very term “High Renaissance” is of French origin and means “rebirth” if translated into English literally (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

This fact is not surprising because French was considered to be the language that fitted most of all for all artistic matters and the epoch of Renaissance was the actual rebirth of the classical ancient culture that was forgotten during the Early Middle Ages. High Renaissance is the term to indicate the movement that appeared in the Western culture in the early 16^th century and was dominant in art till the early 17^th century (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

The essence of the new art movement lied in the return to classical principles in painting, sculpture, and architecture. In scientific terms, it can be reflected as the return of the wide use of the linear technique in painting, scientific basis, and specific knowledge that allowed the Renaissance artists to reflect nature and human beings with the largest extent of precision. The formation of the term “Renaissance Man” is also attributed to the epoch of the 16^th century when the creator of this term Leonardo da Vinci lived and worked (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

High Renaissance in Florence

Florence is considered to be the birthplace of the High Renaissance. But, in order to see the context in which the High Renaissance was formed in Florence and then substituted by another trend, baroque, it would not be out of place to take a brief look at the historical circumstances of the 16^h century. It was marked by the increase of monarchial power and consequently with the growth of the role of religion.

At the same time, the Italian cities where the Renaissance was born were rather prosperous cities that provided all the possibilities for the development of arts. These cities, and namely Florence, were self-governed cities that enjoyed the status of the Republic and were ruled by rather rich families who had money not only for political activities but for art as well. For instance, the family of Medici who ruled Florence in the 14^th – 16^th centuries praised art and invited the most prominent artists from the whole of Italy. The most prominent representative of the Renaissance in Florence was Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519).

He left a huge amount of the material in the form of scholarly works and masterpieces of arts, and two of them will be analyzed in the paper. The first one is the famous portrait Mona Lisa, and the second one is the tempera Last Supper. The exact date when the portrait was finished is unknown but the scholars suppose it to be 1503 – 1505. The very painting is the portrait of Lisa Gherardini who was the representative of the aristocracy of Florence. The painting itself is a rather skillful piece of work that is considered to be enigmatic. The half-length portrait leaves the impression of being unfinished and leaves space for spectators’ fantasy (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

The techniques used for the painting were traditional of da Vinci who made active use of the pyramid design for placing the figure of the Mona Lisa that allowed him to create an impression of calmness in the picture. The front side of the pyramid is the folded hands of Gioconda, while the skillful use of light and color makes the hidden and underlying images of circles and spheres visible which is necessary for the picture’s being three-dimensional.

The technique of creating a certain frame for the person depicted and the distance between this person and the spectators is typical of da Vinci’s style. He used images of caves, windows, etc. while depicting Madonna with a baby, and in this painting, a chair is the kind of such a frame that keeps distance between the Mona Lisa and the viewers of the picture. All this is typical of the art of Florence of the 16^th century together with great attention paid to rendering emotions of people and their best features (Paoletti & Radke, 2005). Another bright example of da Vinci’s work is the tempera Last Supper that is painted on the wall of the church Santa Maria Della Grazie in Italy.

It is mistakenly called a fresco but it is not because it was painted by the mixture of egg yolk with vinegar and paint that was to be put on the dry plaster. The style of the picture is typical of da Vinci. He skillfully uses light and shadow; colors are selected in order to present the atmosphere of the event of the Last Supper of Christ with his apostles. Leonardo da Vinci managed to reflect the lively expressions of faces of the characters and left another mystery for scholars who try to decode symbols hidden in this tempera.

Patrons of da Vinci were Medici and the church officials from the Della Grazie monastery but there is absolutely no reflection of the fact in his works. He refused to complete works faster even if demanded by patrons because he was a perfectionist and it is reflected in his works (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

Roman High Renaissance

Religious wars, inquisition, and other phenomena of that kind were typical of the 16^th century. However, the rise of people’s interest in social and political life also emerged at that time. Moreover, it was accompanied by the desire for freedom expressed openly by numerous nations. People wanted to feel like human beings and be able to make the decision themselves; they wanted freedom from the king’s power and from the power of the church (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

The same is true about Rome where after the return of Popes from Avignon capture the center of the artistic life of Italy was transferred. Unfortunately, the decay of the Italian city-states and their conquest by French and German invaders stopped the development of the Renaissance (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

The same can be said about Raphael who was taught by Leonardo da Vinci and influenced by Michelangelo. He was the representative of the Florence Renaissance but left a considerable trace in the Renaissance that took place in Rome. In the early 16^th century Rome experienced the revival of its political and cultural power. Pope Julius II invited Raphael to work at the decoration of the Vatican Palace in Rome. The greatest masterpiece by Raphael in Rome was the fresco “School of Athens” painter in 1509 – 1510 (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

This fresco is a nice example of da Vinci’s influence upon Rafael’s work and reflects best of all the typical features of Roman art of the 16^th century – religious topics and characters, perfect skills of artists, and emotional coloring of pieces of art. The style of the “School of Athens” keeps to the best traditions of Leonardo. Raphael depicts skillfully a large group of people and encodes certain symbols in the fresco.

He portrays Aristotle as Michelangelo and Plato as da Vinci, moreover, there is an image of Raphael himself hidden in the crowd of people in the background of the fresco. These symbols are a pure reflection of the epoch’s ideas among which education dominated. Raphael tried to compare ancient Greece to the Italian contemporary to him, and the main reason for the comparison was the huge number of prominent scholars and great attention to education and equality of people’s rights (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

Another bright example of the Roman Renaissance is the sculpture Pieta by Michelangelo created in 1498 – 1500. This sculpture was ordered by the Cardinal of San Dionigi who wanted it to decorate the Basilica of San Pietro in Rome.

The Pieta is the sculpture of Madonna holding the dead Christ in the arms after he had been taken off the Cross. The young face of Madonna seems to be the symbol of the young age of the whole mankind that she represents. Her grief is the grief of mankind for its sins and for Christ who died for them. The use of marble allows the viewer to observe all the play of light and shadow in the sculpture that seems to add to its emotional coloring. Here, the main difference from all other Renaissance works lies – Michelangelo was a rather emotional person and his works are full of emotion and drama compared to works by Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

Venetian Art During High Renaissance

The 16^th century is the starting point of the High Renaissance and the transition from the Medieval Age to the Modern World. It can be explained by the fact that the traditional Medieval outlook of the world that was based on religion was transformed into the anthropocentric outlook the central point in which was taken by a human being as the greatest creation of the divine forces. Venice was a kind of the Medieval Empire that possessed lands in Italy, Greece, and the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and art was on the rise in this city-state. Venetian doges, i. e. the rulers of this city-state were the patrons of arts and did not save money for the cultural development of their power state. It was so because they understood the importance of morality and culture for the formation of a solid and patriotic nation (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

Venetian High Renaissance is quite similar to the art of Florence and Rome, but it also has its own peculiarities. The subjects that were chosen more often than others were certain mythological and religious characters while the topic of a human being was reflected in their context. The luxurious dresses and accessories pictured in pieces of Venetian art of the 16^th century are also signs of specifically Venetian style. The most prominent representatives of the Venetian High Renaissance were Giovanni Bellini and Titian, skillful painters who brought Venetian art to the highest level of its development (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

The work by Giovanni Bellini considered in this essay is called “Feast of Gods”. It was created in 1514 and is considered to be one of the brightest examples of Venetian art of the High Renaissance in the 16^th century. Patronage of Venetian doges and the Duke of Ferrara allowed Bellini to create a series of mythological paintings in which, however, the main role is attributed to human beings and their perfection (Paoletti & Radke, 2005). In this fact, the major characteristic of the Venetian Renaissance can be found.

They are human beings and their freedom, although the subjects can vary considerably from Florence or Roman Renaissance the main topic remains the same. The style of the work is similar to the Florence and Roman High Renaissance in its use of color, light, and shadow to express the emotions of the character and make the painting look more realistic (Paoletti & Radke, 2005). The same is true about the work by Titian who was famous as a portraitist depicting the perfection of the human body.

The work by Titian titled the “Venus of Urbino” is typical to the Venetian Renaissance as it reflects one of the aspects of personal freedom – the young lady is nude in the picture but her emotion and facial expression demonstrate the absence of concern about that. She is seen as sharing her emotions with the viewers and displaying the full freedom of being herself and being proud of her body (Paoletti & Radke, 2005). Titian uses calm colors to depict the woman in combination with the bright red and golden which help to show the reaction of the society to the freedom displayed by this woman. The use of light and shadow effects is another peculiarity of Titian’s style of painting.

Titian was also known for his talent of rendering the inner feelings of the persons he depicted and the “Venus of Urbino” is not an exception to this rule. In this painting, Titian managed to render the confidence of the woman. Although the sitter for the painting was an ordinary woman, Titian managed to picture her as the real Venus that had power over its spectators (Paoletti & Radke, 2005).

Conclusion

The styles of Renaissance in the three Italian cities analyzed in this paper have their similarities and differences. The same can be said about the patronage of art in those cities, and the symbolism that the pieces of art have. The style of the Renaissance is similar in the three cities because the leading trend of the time was anthropocentrism and perfection of a human being, its freedom, and its self-identity. However, the patronage of art was different in the compared cities – Florence and Venice supported their artists with the help of aristocracy that financed the art development while in Rome art was patronized by the church and the Pope himself.

In this paper, the main principles of the High Renaissance of the 16^th century in Florence, Rome, and Venice are reflected. The author of the work compared and analyzed the masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian and pointed out the main similarities and differences in their styles of painting. Also, the historical and political contexts of the High Renaissance development were considered together with the patronage the above-mentioned painters had. This paper clarifies that the High Renaissance developed in rather difficult circumstances and reflected the main trends of the 16^th century. The painters and sculptors of the High Renaissance were rather talented artists and their works have typical features of their styles.

Works Cited

John T.Paoletti & Gary M. Radke Art in Renaissance Italy. Prentice Hall; 3rd edition, 2005.

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