Chapter 16: High Renaissance and Mannerism

Martin Luther

He started a theological and political revolution in Europe in 1517 when he nailed his theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

Mannerism

\_______'s fundamental principles pit the ideal, natural, and symmetrical against the actual, artificial, and imbalanced.

Council of Trent

At the \_____ (1545–1563), Catholics responded to the Reformation's split with the Counter-Reformation.

Titian

Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire praised \_____.

Leonardo da Vinci

Francis I of France held \_____'s dying body

divino

Michelangelo's biographers dubbed him "\___."

Cosimo I

In 1563, \_____ of Florence founded the first permanent painting college to teach painters and elevate their reputation.

Canvas

a heavy woven material used as the surface of a painting; first widely used in Venice

Sfumato

a painting technique utilized by Leonardo da Vinci, created a hazy look by rendering figures softly.

Chiaroscuro

a gradual transition from light to dark in a painting. Forms are not determined by sharp outlines, but by the meeting of lighter and darker areas

Glazes

thin transparent layers put over a painting to alter the color and build up a rich sonorous effect

Ignudi

nude corner figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

Acorns

a motif on the ceiling, were inspired by the crest of the chapel’s patron, Pope Julius II.

Last Supper

a meal shared by Jesus Christ with his apostles the night before his death by crucifixion

Sibyl

a Greco-Roman prophetess whom Christians saw as prefiguring the coming of Jesus Christ

Flood story

as told in Genesis 7 of the Bible, Noah and his family escape rising waters by building an ark and placing two of every animal aboard

La Disputà

Opposite of Raphael's Painting School of Athens.

Arcadian

a simple rural and rustic setting used especially in Venetian paintings of the High Renaissance; named after Arcadia

Arcadia

a district in Greece to which poets and painters have attributed a rural simplicity and an idyllically untroubled world

Cassoni

trunks intended for storage of clothing for a wife’s trousseau seen in the background of the painting.

Entombment

a painting or sculpture depicting Jesus Christ’s burial after his crucifixion

Still life

a painting of a grouping of inanimate objects, such as flowers or fruit

Genre painting

painting in which scenes of everyday life are depicted

ambiguity

Mannerist painting's worth lies in its deliberate \____.

The Last Supper

* Painted by Leonardo da Vinci (1494–1498)
* Painted for the refectory, or dining hall, of an abbey of friars.
* A relationship is drawn between the friars eating and a biblical meal.
* Commissioned by the Sforza family of Milan
* Great drama of the moment | Matthew 26:21 | Matthew 26:26–27

Sistine Chapel ceiling

* By Michelangelo (1508–1512)
* grand and massive figures are meant to be seen from a distance; also a grandeur of the Biblical narrative
* 300 figures on the ceiling, with no two in the same pose

Sistine Chapel

* The chapel is dedicated to the Virgin Mary


* Acorns, a motif on the ceiling, were inspired by the crest of the chapel’s patron, Pope Julius II.

Delphic Sybil

* By Michelangelo (1508–1512)
* There is a dramatic contrapposto positioning of the body.
* Shows a combination of Christian religious and pagan mythological imagery.
* One of five sibyls on the ceiling.

The Flood

* By Micheangelo (1508–1512)
* Sculptural intensity of the figure style.
* More than 60 figures are crowded into the composition.

Last Judgment

* By Michelangelo (1536–1541)
* The subject was chosen because of the turbulence in Rome after the sack of the city in 1521.
* Spiraling composition is a reaction against the High Renaissance harmony
* Pope Paul III was the patron.

School of Athens

* By Raphael (1509–1511)
* Commissioned by Pope Julius II to decorate his library.
* Painting originally called Philosophy
* Opposite this work is a Raphael painting called La Disputà,

Venus of Urbino

* By Titian (1538)
* May have been commissioned by the Duke of Urbino as a wedding painting.
* Oil painted in layers; glazes achieve rich color.

Entombment of Christ

* By Jacopo da Pontormo (1525–1528)
* It is placed over the altar of a family chapel near the right front entrance of Santa Felicità in Florence.
* The composition and Mannerist style may reflect the instability in European politics brought on by the Protestant Reformation.

II Gesù

* By Giacomo della Porta (1568–1584)
* Principal church of the Jesuit order.
* Jesuits are seen as the defenders of Counter-Reformation ideals.