High and Late Renaissance art

Leonardo da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci

Previous portraits in the renaissance had the subject looking off into the distance, Ginevra making direct eye contact, the portrait turned towards the viewer. Subject was made to look more attractive.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa

Not popular until she was stolen in the 1920s. Most reproduced image in art. Vinci was obsessed with this piece until he died, and had it on him when he died. Half of her face is serious, the other is smiling. She is staring into your soul. Horizon line doesn't match up.background is so contrary to what would actually be in a tuscan countryside. Hands resting on arm of the chair. He dissected like three or four sets of hands to get mona lisa's hands correct. She's wearing a vail. No line drawing underneath (chiaroscuro).

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper

Image fading due to his experimenting with paint. Soldiers used the heads in this painting as target practice and then leaned rations against it so after WW11 it was covered in mold. Early example of psychological realism with reaction to Jesus saying one of you will betray me.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Pieta

Calm, idealized expression (very Greek in that way) mary. Mary is very serene about this sorrow, Jesus looks more like he's sleeping than dead. Pyramid configuration.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, David

His First monumental sculpture of the high renaissance. Worked at night, isolated, so much that his hands would bleed. Looks more mature than other davids, not leaning on anything, no head of goliath. Takes place before he kills goliath. He's thinking, planning. He's depicted as if he were a god. Thinking makes us godlike, which is what he's doing. He is the symbol of humanism. Moment of thought > moment of action. Physically perfect bc he's a god, but a god bc he thinks. 

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Sistine Ceiling

Fresco. 10,000 square feet of design on a rounded barrel vault, had to play with foreshortening to account for this. Each figure in his painting is 10-18 feet tall. Creation of Adam looks like a brain, the spark of life (maybe evidence he dissected bodies).

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Creation of Adam

depicts God Creating Human Life

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Last Judgement

Depics many martyrs, often with the way they were killed (ex, st bartholomew with the knife he was flayed with, holding his skin that has michelangelo's self portrait in it).

St. Peter's Basilica

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rondanini Pietà

Donato Bramante, Tempietto

Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione

Raphael, Alba Madonna

pyramid configuration

Raphael, The School of Athens

School in this context means belief in something. Plato and Aristotle are the two central figures with everyone fanning around him. Plato points to the heavens as that's where thoughts come from. Aristotle points to the earth because he believes in the power of observation. Socrates, Pythagoras, euclid, Diogenes, zeno, and epicurious are also there. No roof because they’re looking into heaven, and bc human potential and thought cannot be contained by anything. 

Giorgione, Adoration of the Shepherds

depicts the bible story of the shepherds visiting Jesus as a baby. Linear perspective is used as well as contrast between coloring. Bushes = joy of jesus’ birth

Mary and jesus should be in the center, but are not; Left room for more landscape

Titian, Pastoral Concert

Titian, Venus with a Mirror

Parmigianino, Madonna with the Long Neck

Tintoretto, Christ at the Sea of Galilee

Tintoretto, Last Supper

El Greco, The Resurrection of Christ

Veronese, Feast in the House of Levi

Villa la Rotonda

Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and The Devil

Matthias Grunewald, The Small Crucifixion

First instance of this level of uncomfortableness; bruising all over, hands show he's writhing in pain, wood bends from his weight, despair on the faces of john and the marys. 

Emotion > realism 

Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Thomas More

Somber but serious, psychological realism. Painting captures his essence

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow/The Return of the Hunters (Winter)

Shows the difficulty of survival for peasants hunting in the snow. Even though the experience is cold, the warmth of the community is shown. Peasants are nameless/ faceless, they put in the worth without getting the glory, but that doesn't take away from the importance of their community.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

If you fly too high and get too cocky, arrogance and pride will only lead to your downfall.