Renaissance Key Figures

Donatello

Donatello’s David

  • end of the story after David has been victorious

  • looks pretty proud of himself, satisfied

  • underscores incredible ability of cleverness to overcome brawn : a boastful symbol of civic pride

  • Medici commission, most likely displayed in the courtyard in their home

Leonardo

Growing interest in classicism drawn from emphasis on humanism : encapsulated in a drawing like Leonardo’s ____(on slides, the one with outstretched body measurements)

Leonards’s The Last Supper

  • a decorative image for the Refectory of monastery of Santa Maria

  • Hazy illuminosity AND he’s experimenting with a new combination of materials: combination of oils on a plaster surface.

  • updating the rules by which the last supper is being presented to us.

  • Compare to Andrea del Castagno’s The Last Supper which is the more traditional representation.

    • In Castagno’s: more angelic and less human, static, conservative.

    • Leonardo’s version has a lot of activity, and seem more human because of their reactions vs. Castagno’s neatly organized network of figures, showing very minimal emotion, with the betrayer on the opposite side of the table.

    • Leonardo’s simplification allows him to show his understanding of perspective, he pulls us further back into space: accentuating

  • He is accredited with triangle assortment of figures to draw attention to a subject, in this case the central figure of Christ

  • We can imagine that if we are part of this order (at the monastery) we would come into this space for our meals

speaks to the element of innovation : plethora of drawings survive from him and show all kinds of modes of study. He was working across the map on a number of different projects : seems he was more inspired by the creative process, an ideas man, and wasn’t afraid to set ideas aside. We have very few finished frescoes and drawing by Leonardo.

Michelangelo

almost trying to rival greco-roman sculpture and surpass the bodies

Michelangelo’s David

  • beginning of the story, hasn’t actually thrown the stone

  • sharing this moment, nervousness or trepidation

    • looking into the distance

    • we can see the tension in his arms : tension across the wrist leading up to the forearm, fingers digging in

  • designed to be a rooftop sculpture on the city hall of Florence.

    • makes it collosal

    • That it is meant for public display. Can also help inform us why we are seeing this moment: more humble, that sense of humanity. We see the contemplative David

  • Change in taste: growing acceptance of human body in this moment

Study of the Libyan Sibyl(chalk on paper) and Libyan Sibyl on Sistine Ceiling

  • creates an incredibly dynamic array of frescoes for the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in Vatican city (he was tasked with re-frescoing it), one of which is Libyan Sibyl

  • also really driven by this idea of draftsmanship

    • we can see it specifically in some of his painterly works and the drawings that correspond.

    • diligent with execution of musculature : ensuring every face of the body was in place, in utmost detail. Known for it.

    • Still interest in color but really emphasizing study of body

    • we see in the study all the attention he put on the smallest detail of the foot: everything carefully defined, nothing left to chance,

Last Judgement

  • comes back to Sistine later, in 1535, moving into late-renaissance art

  • studying from classical sources (ex sculptures that are unearthed) as inspiration : finishing, rebuilding, recreating the sculpture. bringing a fragment back to life (creating a persona, and literally finishing)

  • idea of rivalry comes in : making the figure whole. a rivalry between these eras happening over time

Raphael

  • continued: draftsmanship, linear perspective, relationship between color and composition

  • unique: thrived on the idea of artistic exchange. using ideas from other artists as a personal springboard : absorbed many of the ideas for example from Perugino his teacher. ex Perugino’s Marriage of the Virgin and Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin

    • only some subtle variations

    • similar cast of characters, even replicates playful figure, but flips them

    • baptistry in the background

    • as a burgeoning artist needed to train : as you progressed you would begin to work on the paintings of your studio head: completing parts of the painting, replicating for others

  • starts to take from an even broader network of figures. compare Leonardo’s Mona Lisa with Raphael’s Young Lady with a Unicorn

    • what’s being talked about, what’s being sold. capitalized upon it as a way to create style that was universally coveted

  • Schoolin the room Stanza della Signature

    • Working on renovations in Vatican (commissioned by Julies the 2nd)(at same time of Micheleangelo but he did not have access)

    • Pulls us in to central figures: Aristotle and Plato

    • a gathering of figures (for dialogue) from the past and present: scientists, astrologers, mathematicians, cartographers all dressed in quasi-classical garbs : idea of meeting of minds, nodding to idea of rivalry: present as great as past

    • set within very classical interior

    • propagandistic image : pope open to diverse modes of thinking : visual associations between other religions and heresy : the pope creating an open-minded persona

    • also however suggesting idea of all-encompassing presence of the church

  • Parnassus

    • meeting of great minds in literature, music, theatre, art

    • center: Apollo

    • Mythological homes of the image

    • cultivating the image for the pope but Raphael made sure that his innovative role was present : he puts his portrait in their : including himself in the legacy of his works.

      • A great space for recruiting other commissions

      • Including himself as a great mind

  • From the point of Frescoes like Parnassus and school, he gets so many commissions. recruits a workshop of artists who begin to work alongside him, creating incredible amounts of work in his part.

  • Massacre of the Innocents : collaboration, a dialogue. working in prints. they would work through individual figures side by side. this was not typical in the 16th century. speaks to Raphael as an innovative figure: thinking about role of the artist