the sixteenth century in Europe
introduction
- Artists took their place among the great minds of the age (for the first time) - outstanding feature of the sixteenth century.
- Dominated by a few artists, all Italians apart from Durer - exceptional in other ways - fame and influence international, spread by printed account of their careers - reproductive engravings.
- Idea that architecture, paintings and sculpture were liberal arts due mainly to Alberti - primarily a writer.
- Knowledge an practice of visual arts were among the accomplishments of a 'universal man'.
- Leonardo Davinci was a scientist/experimental thinker, Michelangelo - poet - known as supreme artists together with Raphael and Titian (no other claims to fame) - overshadowed western art until 19th century.
- Main event in sixteenth century great movement for religious reform.
- Protestant reformation called in the teachings, practices of the catholic church and traditions from European culture - including visual arts.
- Recent new ideas of printing - enabled the writings of reformers to spread widely and quickly.
- What may have remained a minor dispute, became an international issue on which every Christian was obliged to take sides (Martin Luther launched his first protest in 1517 in Wittenberg).
- Western Christendom split into two main denominations.
- Protestant reformation beliefs originated much earlier - humanists praised the importance of the individual.
- Sceptical about Aristotelianism of medieval theology.
- Humanist Desiderius Erasmus from Rotterdam said to have 'laid the egg which Luther hatched" - WHA p.g - 458
- The imitation of Christ (probably Thomas A Kempis) work on anti worldly and anti intellectual piety first printed in 1472 - repeatedly printed in Latin, French, German and English versions probably had as much influence as the Bible - testified to a movement to reform within the Roman church, gathered strength in the 16th century, became self transforming force of the counter reformation.
- Luther admired the imitation of christ - yearned for a more a more direct and personal religion, evolved a new distinctive theory of justification of faith - main point on which protestants separated from the catholics - theology that placed burden of right and wrong on the individual conscience.
- As far as the visual arts are concerned, humanism, the devotio modern and the counter reformation had a more positive influence than protestantism.
- Luther first protested that the poor did not pay for the rebuilding of st peters and it should come from the pope.
- Indifferent to sculpture, opposed the destruction of religious images.
- "I approached the task of destroying images by first tearing them out of my heart, for when they are no longer in the heart they can do no harm when seen by the eyes" Luther, 1525, WHA p.g. 458
- Crucifixes were to be praiseworthy and respected only as images of memorial or witness - more extreme protestants thought them sinful (John Calvin who dominated protestant world after the mid century, but more than one piece of art was inspired by protestantism in his life time).
reform and early sixteenth century art in the north
- Forms, motifs and tenchniques of Italian were only gradually accepted in the north.
- Conspicuos monument needed to commemorate former tudor dynasty (Henry VII) (had reestablished royal power in England after 30 years of civil war) his son looked to italy for a sculptor. Commissioned to Pietro Torrigiano (student with Michelangelo).
- Tomb was obviously Italian, italian imagery and controlled naturalism. Had gothic statues of saints (could be mistaken for gothic later on).
- Italian renaissance style associated with humanist learning.
Hieronymous Bosch
- Most interesting painter of the time.
- Apparently worked in isolation but conversant with a range of religious, astrological, astronomical and travel literature.
- Created disturbing, original imagery.
- The garden of earthly delights (large triptych) is probably his finest work - subject matter and original function still unknown. Named lust, or strawberry painting in the late sixteenth century.
- outer panels, when closed, represent the world under flood, the garden of eden on the left panel, hell on the right - illustrating the origin, indulgence and consequence of sin.
- Completely different to the general renaissance themes.
- Bosch stresses the bad sides of humankind rather than the beauty.
- Italian artists celebrated human flesh, celestial harmony, whereas Bosch condemned the pleasures and de picted agents of the devil.
- Bosch's view of hell was not the same as medieval artists, rather than symbols a hallucinatory image with the new techniques of pictorial representation - image depicted with great precision, giving a strange sense of reality.
- "He endeavoured to find for his fantastic pictures the most out-of-the-way things, but they were always true to nature" - spanyard on Bosch, mid sixteenth century WHA p.g. 461
- Work greatly admired and collected by Philip II of Spain, a patron on Titian.
- Copied in expensive tapestry.
Grunewald
- German painter Mathis Gothardt Neithardt, known as Grunewald since the seventeenth century.
- Name was long forgotten.
- Major work a large polyptych painted for the high altar of the hospital chapel in the monastery of St Anthony of Isenheim.
- Most violent depiction of the crucifixion, boy torn/bruised with a blood stained cloth around his loins. Heavily hangs on the cross, lengthened arms suggest the weight of Jesus' body.
- Seems to have been inspired by mystical writings of St Bridget of Sweden, first printed at the end of the fifteenth century.
- Particular purpose and meaning, permanently visible where patients would spiritually prepare themselves for medical treatment. mainly for the diseases of blood and skin (including syphilis which struck Europe in the late 1490s)
Protestant art
- German artists suffered due to lack of patronage.
- Basel - one of the great countries of printing and book production, humanism and protestantism.
- Demand for portraits of reformers in Protestant countries.
- Most common art, apart from satirical prints.
- Attempts were made to depict Lutherian ideas and reformed religious art by Lucas Cranach the Younger, Holbein and Durer.
- Shows both new and old testament rather than just the old as a predecessor to the new.
- Incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of christ were the essentials of Christianity (to Luther).
- Durer created obvious protestant art - meant for city halls not churches.
- Duper became a fan of Luther after a personal crisis.
- Durers figures (St John, St Peter, St Paul, St Mark) intended to exemplify the four humours or temperaments - sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic - elements forming the basis of all creation.
- His painting may have been a plea for balance and sanity.
- "now in my old age I have come to see...that simplicity is the ultimate goal of art" - Durer - WHA p.g 465
- Completely abandoned secular works in his last years as an artist.
the high renaissance in italy
- First quarter of 16th century one of political stress/almost constant warfare in italy.
- Florence still an important artistic centre.
- Northern Italy twice invaded by the French.
- Rome sacked by German and Spanish mercenaries.
- High renaissance art was serene and elevated conception, had great controlled energy and classical balance.
- Creation of a small group of artists - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.
- Individualists - never formed a group although similar.
leonardo da vinci
- First quarter of 16th century one of political stress/almost constant warfare in italy.
- Florence still an important artistic centre.
- Northern Italy twice invaded by the French.
- Rome sacked by German and Spanish mercenaries.
- High renaissance art was serene and elevated conception, had great controlled energy and classical balance.
- Creation of a small group of artists - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.
- Individualists - never formed a group although similar.
harmony, unity and raphael
- Leonardo opened the eyes of artists to great new possibilities.
- Fra Bartolommeo, even though originally opposed to him learned new things - had the problem of rendering three dimensional naturalism with symmetry and poise.
- Contrapposto - where one part of the body is twisted in the opposite direction to another.
- Raphael (and other renaissance artists) shared this problem.
- He reached the solution convincingly in more than one painting.
- Idea of grouping Virgin and Child with infant St John was Leonard's - Raphael derived his organic system of composition and chiaroscuro from him.
- Leonardo's idea of harmonious unity inspired architects as well as artists.
- Donato Bramante first to use ideas in architecture - more radical than predecessors - initiated a new phase in architecture.
- Rome became the centre of European art since antiquity.
- Bramante may be the reason why Raphael was given the chance to decorate the popes private apartments in the vatican.
- He created paintings that alluded to the four branches of humanist learning - theology, philosophy, poetry and jurisprudence. Walls devoted to each one.
- Final wall maintains a perfect balance between different stands in humanist culture.
- Reference to Leonardos paintings found in his fresco.
- Thought that Heraclitus referred to Michelangelo and plato to Leonardo (in Raphael's fresco).
- While Raphael was painting the Stanza della Signature, Michelangelo was working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
- Works of this order have never been creating at the same time before.
- Two artists nothing alike in background - Raphael son of a painter, with traditional medieval craftsmanship, ended him brief life as a weathly man, owning a palace in Rome, with a staff of assistance and servants.
- Michelangelo was unsociable, mistrustful, moody, untidy, obsessed with his work - archetype of 'man of genius' - was a poet as well as sculptor, painter and architect. Come from a Florentine family with claims to nobility, although became poor.
- Created larger plan life-size statue of David - seen as symbolising the new republic by some Florentines.
- First sculpture of this size carved since antiquity.
- Originally intended for cathedral exterior.
- Hands and feet oversized, swollen veins and muscles.
- Conceived the sistine chapel ceiling as an imaginary structure rising above the chapel.
- Almost single handedly created the fresco.
- Structure provided three distinct zones for figurative paintings - ancestors of christ, figures of prophets, first three periods into which the the history of the world was divided into at the time - God creating the sun and moon, land and water, God and Adam with outstretched arms - giving Adam spirit that lets man move, thing and feel, Scene with the creation of eve and expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden. Final scenes devoted to Noah, man chosen by god to continue the human race.
- Images intended to be seen my the pope sat on his throne - chancel. Read in reverse and upside down to anyone else visiting.
- Between thrones of prophets and Sybil's - nude adolescents. Designed to hide the joins between upper zones of the fresco.
- Interpreted as wingless angels with athletic limbs - flexing muscles as if proud of gods work.
- Raphael first to respond to the impact of the ceiling - just have seen some before completing his 'school of athens' and his figure of Heraclitus.
- Inspired by whole ceiling when designing a set of tapestries to hang beneath - paid more than Michelangelo was to complete whole ceiling.
- Michelangelo evolved new conception of architecture - an ornament in itself.
michelangelo
the venetian high renaissance
- Venice remained one of the richest cities in Europe throughout the century.
- Flourishing industrail centre for textiles and glass.
- Only important Italian city to resist political and economic domination by France, Spain or papacy.
- One of few that remained republican.
- Vetetian art followed the same independent path - due to particular pattern of patronage.
Giorgione
- Giovanni Bellini still the best painter in venice in 1506 - as written by Durer.
- Giorgione and Titian becoming well known.
- Giorgione only has one surviving documented work - highly damaged fresco.
- No more than 6 easel paintings can be attributed to him - abundance evidence of his fame.
- Introduced a new type of technique, new style and new type of picture.
- First to exploit new tecnhnique of working of canvas rather than panel.Used pigments mixed with oil and flexible resins (rather than hard resins used in low countries) Great freedom of brushwork with thick and richly opaque colours.
- Made no proprietary drawings.
- Began compositions by roughly mapping out on the canvas.
- Evoked atmosphere and mood eloquently.
- Can be compared to Raphaels 'school of athens'.
- Painting of two nude women and two clothed men, unknown if Giorgione or Titian.
titian
- Dependant on public commissions for fame and fortune - even though had numerous private commissions.
- Given his first chance to reveal his brilliance when ask to paint the assumption of the virgin for the high altar of S Maria dei Frari - largest ever painted in Venice - designed to catch the eye of anyone entering the nave.
- Had knowledge of recent developments in Tuscan art.
- Didn't stick to venetian conventions.
- Used contrapposto technique.Possibly greatest Renaissance painter of all.
- Had none of da Vinci's scientific interests Michelangelo's religious and poetic interests. Not like Raphael who was an architect as well as a painter.
- Became the founder of painting - made oil paint on canvas main medium of later western art - exploiting all possibilities for the first time.
- Developed a painterly technique, using colour to emphasise.
- Rendered forms and textures with amazing skill.
- Made himself the most sought after painter in Europe - with help from his writer friend Pietro Aretino.
- Enabled him to work for whoever he wanted, at his own pace with his own choice of subject - no other earlier artist had this freedom.
- Created 'love poetry'.
- Attitudes to his subjects of paintings becomes clearer in his 'poesies' - erotic mythological scenes he created for Philip II of Spain.
- Only used mythological figures/stories to create new and original compositions.
- Would use his fingers as a tool - not a new technique but outcome of a new attitude towards painting.
- Titians paintings were equivalents not imitations of the real world.
tintoretto and veronese
- In 1550'a Titian worked mainly for Philip II of Spain - allowing his assistants to create works (usually copies of earlier ones) for less important patrons.
- By far the most famous Venetian artist - painted little for his city.
- Public commissions went to younger artists - Tintoretto and Veronese.
- Tintoretto began in Titians studio where he learned his technique.
- Apparently aimed to combine the colouring of Titian with the drawing of Michelangelo.
- He was the reverse of Titian in character - volatile, unworldly.
- Grew up during the counter reformation.
- Veronese added irrelevant details to his images - including dogs, dwarfs, german soldiers and parrot.
- Devout catholic.
- Paintings aren't merely decorative - creates imaginary worlds with elegance and grandeur - of marble, gold, expensive fabric.
mannerism and mannerisms
- Sometimes used to describe Palladio and Tintoretto.
- Has a range of meanings.
- Used in 16th century writings to describe social behaviour.
- Highly prized quality of stylishness which implied ease of manner, virtuosity, fluency and refinement.
- Found in antique statues admired by Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.
- Used as a derogatory term to describe mid to late 16th century artists and their paintings with bright colours, distorted perspective and over refined detail.
- May be the reaction against or continuation of high renaissance - maybe an expression of the spiritual crisis at the time or sophisticated art created for arts sake - stylish style exemplifying aesthetic theories of the 16th century.
pieter bruegel the elder
- Many Flemish artists visited Rome and returned to the north where they practiced Italiante styles - favoured by the church and state.
- Bruegel began painting moralising subjects of a strange nature referencing the style of Bosch.
- Few of his works could be contemplated with a straight face.
- Worked for private collectors of educated taste.
el greco
- Italian mannerisms disregarded by Bruegel transformed into deeply emotional religious art by El Greco.
- Began painting icons in Byzantine style for Greek community.
- Succumbed to the influence of Titian, Tintoretto and Michelangelo.
- Visited Rome during counter reformation.
- El Greco offered to paint something more 'decent and virtuous' when Michelangelo's 'last judgement' was attacked- possibly a myth, but indicates his ambition.
- Aim of El Greco's art was to arouse religious fervour and elevate the spirit above the everyday world of sensory perceptions.
- Translated physical into incandescent spirituality.
- Used foreshortening of the body to a non illusionistic effect.
- Left behind traditional iconography.
- Was a visionary - described as a great philosopher by a contemporary.