The artwork of the following artists represents the themes, motifs, techniques, and styles of art during this time.
Peruginio (1445-1523)
Perugino is, after Raphael, the greatest painter of the Umbrian school. His tenderness of color and simplicity of style evolved into a more contemplative expression in his later years. He studied under Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, assisted Piero della Francesca at Arezzo, and was a fellow pupil of Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi in Verrocchio's studio in Florence. In 1479 Perugino was summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to help decorate the Sistine Chapel. Some of his work there was destroyed to make room for Michelangelo's Last Judgment. The remaining fresco, Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, is one of the greatest paintings from the second half of the 15th cent. because of its simplicity and clarity of composition. From 1486 to 1491 Perugino worked mainly in Florence. Important works of that period are the Madonna with Saints and Angels (Louvre); Pietà (Pitti Palace, Florence); The Crucifixion, fresco (Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence); Madonna Enthroned with Saints (Vatican); and The Crucifixion (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.). His last period (1505-23), centering mainly about Umbria, was one of great productivity. He had many pupils and assistants, among them the youthful Raphael. From 1496 to 1498 Perugino worked on the great altarpiece, The Ascension, for San Pietro of Perugia. He also undertook the decoration of the audience hall of the Cambio in Perugia, consisting of allegorical figures and two sacred subjects, Nativity and Transfiguration. In 1500 he painted the altarpiece, Madonna and Saints, for the Certosa of Pavia. Other works of the last period are Triumph of Chastity (Louvre), a panel painted for the study of Isabella d'Este at Mantua; Virgin between St. Jerome and St. Francis and The Adoration of the Shepherds, his last work (both: National Gall., London); and Annunciation (National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.).
Bramante (1444-1514)
A painter and architect, Bramante created the most prototypical examples of High Renaissance architecture and mastered perspective in his paintings. After 1499 he left for Rome, where he designed the simple but graceful cloister for Santa Maria della Pace and the exquisitely proportioned circular Tempietto in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. His most important work, however, was his plan for St. Peter's, probably conceived as a centrally planned (Greek cross) and domed structure of enormous size and impressiveness. He favored central plans and a sense of noble severity, especially in his Roman period. Although St. Peter's was later remodeled into a longitudinal structure, Bramante is responsible for the essential proportions of the east end, and his design influenced the appearance of many smaller churches.
Brunelleschi (1377-1446)
Brunelleschi was the first great architect of the Italian Renaissance, a Florentine by birth. Trained as sculptor and goldsmith, he designed a trial panel, The Sacrifice of Isaac (1401; Bargello, Florence) for the bronze doors of the Florence baptistery. The commission, however, was won by Lorenzo Ghiberti . Thereafter, Brunelleschi became more interested in architectural planning. He made several trips to Rome, where he devoted himself to the study of classical buildings. About 1420 he drew two panels in perspective (now lost) that had important consequences for both architectural and art theory. The Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, reveals his systematic use of perspective in the careful proportioning of the interior structure and in the articulation of spatial volumes. In the Ospedale degli Innocenti (foundling hospital; 1419-45), Brunelleschi introduced a motif that was widely imitated during the Renaissancea series of arches supported on columns. In 1420 he began to build the dome for the cathedral in Florence. This octagonal ribbed dome is one of the most celebrated and original domical constructions in architectural history. Brunelleschi's other works include the churches of Santa Maria degli Angeli and Santo Spirito and the Pazzi Chapel, all in Florence. His designs exhibit beauty of detail and elegance, as well as mastery of construction.
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
________Michelangelo, mainly known during his early life as the student of Bertoldo di Giovanni, a sculptor employed by the Medicis, lived with the family from 1490 to 1492. ALthough Michelangelo claimed that he was self-taught, one might perceive in his work the influence of such artists as Leonardo, Giotto, and Poliziano. He learned to paint and sculpt more by observation than by tutelage. Michelangelo was known to be extremely sensitive, and he combined an excess of energy with an excess of talent. Throughout Michelangelo's sculpted work one finds both a sensitivity to mass and a command of unmanageable chunks of marble.
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In 1504 he sculpted one of his most renowned and appreciated works, a portrayal of David, about 14 ft high in stature and in a classical style, giving him a perfectly proportioned body and musculature. Michelangelo's approach to the figure has been contrasted to that of Donatello, who gave David a more youthful and less muscular frame. Michelangelo showed mastery of the human figure in painting as well.
______ The artist was recalled to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He placed 12 figures about the ceiling's edge; originally these figures were to represent the 12 apostles of Christ. Finally, Michelangelo painted seven prophets and five sybils. Within the ring of prophets and sybils were nine panels on biblical world history. At the rear of the chapel Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment (1534), considered by many to be his masterwork. The painting depicts Christ's damnation of sinners and blessing of the virtuous, along with the resurrection of the dead and the portage of souls to hell by Charon.
_____Michelangelo also excelled as an architect. His Capitoline Square was located on Rome's Capitoline Hill. Its shape, more a rhomboid than a square, was intended to counteract the effects of perspective. At its center was a statue of Marcus Aurelius. From 1540 to 1550 Michelangelo redesigned St. Peter's Church in Rome, completing only the dome and four columns for its base before his death.
Da Vinci (1452-1519)
_______Da Vinci is arguably the most versatile contributor to the Renaissance and responsible for the term "renaissance man" because of his own incredible accomplishments in various fields. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist. He depicted in his drawings, with scientific precision and consummate artistry, subjects ranging from machines to caricatures; he also executed intricate anatomical studies of people, animals, and plants.
______The culmination of Leonardo's art during his first period in Florence is the magnificent unfinished Adoration of the Magi. This work accurately represents the integration of dramatic movement and chiaroscuro that characterizes Da Vinci's style. The Plagues of 1484 and 1485 drew his attention to problems of town planning, an interest which was revived during his last years in France. In 1483, Leonardo, with pupil Ambrogio de Predis, was commissioned to execute the famous Madonna of the Rocks. Now badly damaged, Leonardo's fresco of the Last Supper was begun c.1495 and completed by 1498.Leonardo's own experiments with the fresco medium account in part for its disintegration, which was already noticed by 1517. Deterioration and repeated restorations had obliterated details and individual figures. Later, Leonardo engaged in theoretical work in mathematics and pursued his anatomical studies at the local hospital. He also entered the service as a military engineer.
______In Florence, he was commissioned to execute paintings and frescoes in the 1550's, such as the celebrated "Mona Lisa".
Later, he continued his scientific investigations in geology, botany, hydraulics, and mechanics.
Titian (1490-1576)
_______"Titian was a Venetian painter and one of the very first rank among the artists of the Renaissance, Titian had an immense influence on succeeding generations of painters, especially in his use of color. After the deaths of Giorgione and of Giovanni Bellini, Titian was established as the finest painter in Venice. In 1553 Titian began work on a cycle of mythological pictures for Philip II. Also for Philip II he executed a large number of religious works intended for the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial. Among these were Adam and Eve (c.1570) and the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (1564-67). After 1552, Titian remained in Venice, living in princely splendor and surrounded by friends who included the writer Pietro Aretino and the architect Jacopo Sansovino .
Botticelli (1444-1510)
_______"Florentine painter of the Renaissance, whose real name was Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi . He was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, whose delicate coloring can be seen in such early works as the Adoration of the Kings (National Gall., London) and Chigi Madonna (Gardner Mus., Boston). Elements of the more vigorous style of Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio soon entered his paintings, e.g., Fortitude (Uffizi), St. Augustine (Ognissanti), and Portrait of a Young Man (Uffizi). He was one of the greatest colorists in Florence and a master of the rhythmic line. He became a favorite painter of the Medici, whose portraits he included, in addition to a self-portrait, among the splendid figures in the Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi). In 1481 Pope Sixtus IV asked him to help decorate the Sistine Chapel. After painting three biblical frescoes he returned to Florence, where he reached the height of his popularity. Through the Medici he came into contact with the Neoplatonic circle and was influenced by the ideas of Ficino and Poliziano. His mythological allegories, Spring, Birth of Venus, Mars and Venus, and Pallas Subduing a Centaur, allude, in general, to the triumph of love and reason over brutal instinct. Probably in the 1490s he drew the visionary illustrations for the Divine Comedy. He painted a set of frescoes for the Villa Tornabuoni (Louvre) and created a series of radiant Madonnas, including the Magnificat and the Madonna of the Pomegranate (Uffizi). From Alberti's description, he re-created the famous lost work of antiquity, The Calumny of Apelles. Religious passion is evident in the Nativity (National Gall., London), Last Communion of St. Jerome (Metropolitan Mus.) and Pietà (Fogg Mus., Cambridge). In the 19th cent. the Pre-Raphaelites rediscovered him. Supported by Ruskin, they admired what they considered to be the extreme refinement and poignancy of his conceptions.
Raphael (1483-1520)
_______"Raphael was a major Italian Renaissance painter, born in Urbino. In Raphael's work is the clearest expression of the exquisite harmony and balance of High Renaissance composition.
