Chapter Nine

Europe, 1500-1600

Prepared by Kelly Donahue-Wallace

Randal WallaceUniversity of North Texas

Gardner's Art through the Ages, Concise Edition by Fred Kleiner

ItalyDates and Places: • 1500 to 1600• Rome, Florence, Milan,

and Venice

People:• Humanism• Reformation/Counter-

Reformation• Powerful courts• Artist-genius Interior, Sistine Chapel,

1473. Fig. 9-1.

ItalyThemes:• Life of Christ and the

Virgin Mary, saints• Portraiture• Mythology, antiquity• Allegory, poesiaForms:• Balance, harmony, ideal

beauty• Venetian color, Mannerist

distortion

RAPHAEL, Madonna in the Meadow, 1505–1506. Fig. 9-

6.

ItalyExample:

• Mathematical linear perspective

• Compositional emphasis on Christ

• Unity through pose and movement

• Studied emotion

• Capturing the observable world

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495–1498. Fig. 9-

3.

ItalyExample:

• Wife of wealthy merchant

• Convincing likeness

• Personality, boldness

• Sfumato, chiaroscuro, atmospheric perspective

• Window onto landscape

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa, ca. 1503–1505.

ItalyExample:

• Papal library with Allegories of philosophy, theology, poetry, and law

• Philosophers of antiquity

• Semi-circular composition, illusionistic space

RAPHAEL, Philosophy (School of Athens), 1509–1511. Fig.9-7.

ItalyExample:

• Visually pleasing proportion, not mathematical rules

• Classical figure with emotion

• Anticipation of battle with Goliath, not victory

• Symbol of Florentine liberty

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, David, 1501–1504. Fig. 9-9.

ItalyExample: • Fresco in pope’s chapel• Old Testament scenes

on ceiling, Judgment on wall

• Creation, Fall, Redemption narratives

• Ignudi, ancestors, prophets, sibyls

• Architectural framework • Expressive human body

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, ceiling, Sistine Chapel, 1508–1512. Fig. 9-10.

ItalyExample:

• Central plan chapel

• Classical order

• Added dome

• Sculptural architecture of volume and masses, solids and voids

• Site of St. Peter’s martyrdom

DONATO D’ANGELO BRAMANTE, Tempietto, 1502(?). Fig. 9-

13.

ItalyExample:

• Adjusts Bramante’s central plan

• Greek cross inscribed in square

• Dome over crossing

• Colossal order

MICHELANGELO, Saint Peter’s,1546.

Fig. 9-14.

ItalyExample: • Private villa • Near Venice• Central plan• Dome over crossing• Four facades like

temple portals• Pantheon likely model• Wrote architectural

treatise

ANDREA PALLADIO, Villa Rotonda, ca. 1550–1570. Fig.9-

16.

ItalyExample:

• Venetian painters love color (colorito), atmosphere, texture

• Oil on canvas glows

• Voluptuous body with smoky shadow

• Portrait or mythology?

• Color organizes composition

TITIAN, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Fig.9-20.

ItalyExample:

• Mannerist painting after 1520

• Self-conscious stylishness, not window onto world

• Complex, exaggerated, difficult

• Unstable composition, unnatural color

PONTORMO, Entombment of Christ, 1525–

1528.Fig. 9-21.

ItalyExample: • Mannerist complicated

allegory • Folly of love revealed

by time• Lascivious, sensuous• Strong contours,

undulating and exaggerated limbs, complex pose shows artist’s skill

BRONZINO, Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time, ca.

1546. Fig. 9-23.

ItalyExample:

• Late Venetian painting

• Pageantry of event

• Classical setting

• Invented characters

• Renaissance balanced composition

• Inquisition challenges subject so changes title

PAOLO VERONESE, Christ in the House of Levi, Italy, 1573.

Fig.9-26.

Holy Roman EmpireDates and Places: • 1500-1600• Germany

People:• Martin Luther• Protestant Reformation • Political change

ALBRECHT DÜRER, Four Apostles, 1526. Fig. 9-

30.

Holy Roman EmpireThemes:• Life of Christ, Virgin

Mary, Saints • Portraits

Forms:• Renaissance illusionism• Surface description• Naturalism HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER, The

French Ambassadors, 1533. Fig. 9-31.

Holy Roman EmpireExample:

• Altarpiece for monastery church with hospital

• Gruesome description of wounds

• Emphasize suffering

• Catholic inclusion of Lamb, Christ’s blood, plague saints

MATTHIAS GRÜNEWALD, Isenheim Altarpiece, ca. 1510-1515.

Fig. 9-28.

Holy Roman EmpireExample:

• Engraving

• Interest in Renaissance proportion of human body

• Combine with northern European surface description and disguised symbolism

ALBRECHT DÜRER, Fall of Man (Adam and Eve), 1504. Fig. 9-

29.