Origins of Renaissance art
The origins of Renaissance art can be traced back to Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. During this so-called “proto-Renaissance” period (1280–1400), Italian scholars and artists saw themselves as awakening to the ideals and achievements of classical Roman culture. Writers such as Petrarch (1304-1374) and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) looked to ancient Greece and Rome and sought to revive the languages, values and intellectual traditions of those cultures after the long period of stagnation which followed the fall of the Roman Empire. the Roman Empire in the 6th century.
Did you know? Leonardo da Vinci, the quintessential “Renaissance man,” practiced all of the visual arts and studied a wide range of subjects, including anatomy, geology, botany, hydraulics, and flight. His formidable reputation rests on relatively few completed paintings, notably “The Mona Lisa”, “The Virgin of the Rocks” and “The Last Supper”.
The Florentine painter Giotto (1267?-1337), the most famous artist of the proto-Renaissance, made enormous advances in the technique of realistically depicting the human body. His frescoes are said to have decorated the cathedrals of Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence and Naples, although it is difficult to attribute these works with certainty.
Early Renaissance art (1401-1490)
By the end of the 14th century, the proto-Renaissance was stifled by plague and war, and its influences did not re-emerge until the early years of the following century. In 1401, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378-1455) won an important competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the baptistery of Florence Cathedral, beating out his contemporaries such as the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). ) and the young Donatello (c. 1386-1466), who later became the master of early Renaissance sculpture.
The other major artist working at this time was the painter Masaccio (1401-1428), known for his Trinity frescoes in the Church of Santa Maria Novella (c. 1426) and in the Brancacci Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine. (around 1427), both in Florence. Masaccio painted for less than six years, but was very influential during the early Renaissance for the intellectual nature of his work, as well as its degree of naturalism.
Florence during the Renaissance
Although the Catholic Church remained a major patron of the arts during the Renaissance – from popes and other prelates to convents, monasteries and other religious organizations – works of art were increasingly commissioned by civil government, courts and wealthy individuals. Much of the art produced in the early Renaissance was commissioned by the wealthy merchant families of Florence, notably the Medici family.
From 1434 to 1492, when Lorenzo de’ Medici, nicknamed “the Magnificent” for his leadership and support of the arts, died, the powerful family presided over a golden age for the city of Florence. Driven from power by a republican coalition in 1494, the Medici family spent years in exile but returned in 1512 to preside over a new flowering of Florentine art, notably the group of sculptures which today decorate the Piazza della Signoria of the city.
High Renaissance art (1490-1527)
By the end of the 15th century, Rome had supplanted Florence as the leading center of Renaissance art, reaching its peak under the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (son of Lorenzo de’ Medici). Three great masters–Leonardo DeVinci, Michelangelo and Raphael – dominated the period known as the High Renaissance, which lasted roughly from the early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1527.
Leonardo (1452-1519) was the ultimate “Renaissance man” because of the breadth of his intellect, interest, and talent, as well as his expression of humanist and classical values. Leonardo’s best-known works, including “The Mona Lisa” (1503-1505), “The Virgin of the Rocks” (1485) and the fresco “The Last Supper” (1495-1498), showcase his unparalleled ability to depict the light and shadow, as well as the physical relationship between the characters – humans, animals and objects – and the landscape that surrounds them.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was inspired by the human body and created large-scale works. He was the dominant sculptor of the High Renaissance, producing pieces such as the Pietà of St. Peter’s Cathedral (1499) and the David of his native Florence (1501-04). He sculpted the latter by hand from an enormous block of marble; the famous statue is five meters high, including the base. If Michelangelo considered himself above all a sculptor, he also reached heights as a painter, notably with his giant fresco covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, created over four years (1508-12) and representing various scenes from the Genesis.
Raphael Sanzio, the youngest of the three great masters of the High Renaissance, learned from Vinci and Michelangelo. His paintings, notably “The School of Athens” (1508-11), painted in the Vatican at the time Michelangelo was working on the Sixtine Chapel–skillfully expresses the classic ideals of beauty, serenity and harmony. Other major Italian artists working during this era include Sandro Botticelli, Bramante, Giorgione, Titian and Correggio.
Renaissance art in practice
Many Renaissance artworks depicted religious images, including subjects such as the Virgin Mary or the Madonna, and were encountered by contemporary audiences of the time in the context of religious rituals. Today they are considered great works of art, but at the time they were mostly seen and used as objects of devotion. Many Renaissance works were painted as altarpieces to be incorporated into rituals associated with the Catholic Mass and donated by patrons who sponsored the Mass itself.
Renaissance artists came from all levels of society; they generally studied as apprentices before being admitted to a professional guild and working under the tutelage of an older master. Far from being starving bohemians, these artists worked to order and were hired by patrons because they were stable and reliable. Italy’s rising middle class sought to emulate the aristocracy and elevate their own status by purchasing art for their homes. In addition to sacred images, many of these works recounted domestic themes such as marriage, birth, and daily family life.
Expansion and decline
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the spirit of the Renaissance spread throughout Italy, France, Northern Europe and Spain. In Venice, artists such as Giorgione (1477/78-1510) and Titian (1488/90-1576) developed a method of painting with oil directly on canvas; this oil painting technique allowed the artist to rework an image – something that fresco (on plaster) did not allow – and it would dominate Western art to the present day.
Renaissance oil painting, however, dates back even further to the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck (d. 1441), who painted a masterful altarpiece in Ghent Cathedral (c. 1432). Van Eyck was one of the most important artists of the Northern Renaissance; later masters included the German painters Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543).
By the late 1500s, the Mannerist style, emphasizing artificiality, had developed in opposition to the idealized naturalism of High Renaissance art, and Mannerism spread from Florence and Rome to become the dominant style in Europe. Renaissance art, however, continued to be celebrated: the 16th century Florentine artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari, author of the famous work “Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects” (1550), wrote of the High Renaissance as the culmination of all Italian art, a process that began with Giotto at the end of the 13th century.
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