Despite numerous intellectual and literary advances, the most long-lived achievements of the Italian Renaissance were made in the realm of art. Of all the arts, painting was undoubtedly supreme. One reason for this was that in the early fifteenth century the laws of linear perspective were discovered and first employed to give the fullest sense of three dimensions. Fifteenth-century artists also experimented with effects of light and shade (chiaroscuro) and for the first time carefully studied the anatomy and proportions of the human body. By the fifteenth century, too, increase in private wealth and the partial triumph of the secular spirit had freed the domain of art to a large extent from the service of religion. As we have noted above, the Church was no longer the only patron of artists. The fifteenth century was characterized also by the introduction of painting in oil, probably from Flanders. The geniuses of the age of Renaissance in Europe were Michelangelo (1475-1564), Raphael (1483-1520), and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Both Michelangelo and Leonardo belonged to Florence, and Raphael spent most of his life in Rome.
PAINTING
Leonardo
da Vinci: (1452-1519)
Perhaps
the greatest of the Florentine artists was Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), one
of the most versatile geniuses who ever lived. Leonardo was practically the
personification of the "Renaissance man": he was a painter,
architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, and inventor. Leonardo was an
artist with scientific temper. His great paintings reflect not only his
exceptional mastery over light, shade and colour but a careful study of human
anatomy and problems of perspective. Will Durant says, "With all his limitations
and incompleteness he was the fullest man of the Renaissance, perhaps of all
time."
Last
Supper: The Last Supper depicts
Jesus Christ announcing at his last supper meeting that one of them was going
to betray him.
Mona
Lisa: Mona Lisa is the
painting of a merchant's wife, Madonna Elisabetta, with a most enigmatic smile
which has kept all the art-lovers wondering for centuries.
Leonardo's
other two paintings which evoke great admiration are The Virgin of the Rocks
and The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.
Michelangelo:
(1475-1564)
Michelangelo
was a contemporary of Leonardo and Raphael. Like Leonardo he was a Florentine
and a versatile genius. He rose to prominence as a celebrated sculptor but by
no means less great in other fields such as painting, architecture,
engineering, and poetry.
The
Sistine Chapel: Pope Julius II
preferred this great artist to Raphael to paint the curved ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel at the papal palace at the Vatican. The fresco on the ceiling,
when completed after four years of hard work, unfolded the biblical drama of
the story of God, creation of man, the great prophets and the flood. At any
rate it was the most superhuman and marvellous work ever accomplished by a
single artist. Michelangelo executed another fresco, the Last Judgment which
may be considered another immortal work.
The
Fall of Man: Michelangelo's The Fall
of Man depicts together in one scene the biblical story of Adam and Eve's
temptation and their punishment. Centered in the composition is a fig tree, representing
the tree of knowledge.
The
Last Judgment: In the enormous Last
Judgment, a fresco done for the Sistine Chapel's altar wall in 1536.
Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final
judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, resulting in the approval of
some and the penalizing of others. The concept is found in all the canonical
gospels, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew.
Raphael
Sanzio: (1483-1520)
Raphael
belonged to the Florentine school of painting. He was an architect too. He was
employed in the service of Popes Julius II and Leo X. He surpassed Michelangelo
in painting by creating dimensions (width, height and distance) to all his
works. Pope Julius employed him to paint the walls and ceilings of his room.
Madonna:
Raphael had become famous for his
lovely paintings of Madonna.
Architecture
The
Gothic architecture was discarded and it was replaced by the Renaissance
architecture that is the revival of ancient Greek and Roman types. One can see
the rounded-arch and "severely plain line of ancient Greek temple or the
Roman dome" replacing the pointed and "fanciful lofty gothic".
The
St. Peter's Church: The St. Peter's
Church at Rome offers a typical Renaissance style. To design this new church,
Pope Julius chose Donato Bramante. Bramante was very much influenced by old
Greek and Roman architecture. Bramante laid out the ground-plan. The work went
on very slowly, and both Pope Julius and Bramante died. Now it was left to Pope
Leo X to collect more funds to complete the construction work. Raphael did some
work as an architect, but the lion's share of the credit went to Michelangelo
who designed and built the dome. The peak of the dome rose to 400 feet in
height when measured from the ground.
Sculpture
The
first master- sculptor of Renaissance in Italy was Lorenzo Ghiberti
(1378-1455). He was a Florentine who worked for twenty years to make two pairs
of bronze doors for the Baptistery at Florence. They were so magnificent in
design, and perfect in workmanship, that Michelangelo exclaimed that they were
"worthy of being placed at the entrance of paradise". Ghiberti
included his own portrait on one of the bronze doors. He carved the life-like
figures on the metal panel which came to be emulated by other sculptors.
Donatello
(1386-1466) was the greatest sculptor of early renaissance period. His
best-known works are the statues of St. Mark in Venice and St. George in
Florence. His lesser-known works include the equestrian,
"Gattamelata" at Padua, and decorative reliefs for the singing
gallery at the Cathedral in Florence.
Michelangelo
became famous as a sculptor when he made a statue in Rome at the instance of
the French ambassador. It is called the 'Pieta', and it showed the body of
Christ carried by His mother. It was the finest showpiece evoking deep
emotions. When he went to Florence, his home town in 1501, he carved another
masterpiece, 'David', for the Council of the Republic.
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