Italian Renaissance Painting: From Gothic to Mannerism
Italian Painting
From Gothic to Renaissance
In the Gothic period, painters emerged who departed from the Byzantine style and took the first steps toward the Renaissance, which consolidated in the 15th century. The most important changes are:
- The retablo becomes less important and independent “table” paintings emerge.
- There is a growing concern with the representation of:
- Landscape and nature
- Physical beauty, including the nude
- Volume
- Light and its effects on bodies and elements within the painting
- Painting is seen as an intellectual exercise, with more scientifically studied aspects such as:
- Movement and the study of linear perspective. Aerial perspective emerges in the Cinquecento.
- Figure ratios
- Composition
- Religious themes still prevail, but mythological, allegorical, and historical themes appear.
Techniques
For mural painting, the fresco technique is used. For easel painting, the panel is used as a support, along with tempera. In the second half of the 15th century, oil painting is introduced.
Quattrocento
- Italian painting is essentially linear and focused on drawing.
- The perspective used is primarily linear.
- Landscape backgrounds are very common.
- The compositions of the paintings are often complex, with many figures and elements.
- The principal Italian painters of the Quattrocento worked in Florence and can be divided into two groups:
- First half of the 15th century (early Renaissance): Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca.
- Second half of the 15th century: Mantegna and Botticelli (in Florence and Padua/Northern Italy).
Fra Angelico
He is a transitional painter between Gothic and Renaissance. He used classical architectural backgrounds and focuses on perspective, light, and anatomy. He preserved elegance and curvilinear effects.
His style is smooth, quiet, and sweet, and his paintings are centered on religious themes.
- The Annunciation (Museo del Prado)
Tommaso Masaccio
He adopted a powerful and monumental aesthetic. He was concerned with volume, and his figures are characterized by gravity and grandeur, with sober colors.
His most important work was the Brancacci Chapel frescoes, where he developed several scenes, such as:
- The Tribute Money
- The Holy Trinity
Piero della Francesca
He is characterized by his use of light.
His paintings are characterized by their clear and scientifically calculated composition.
- The Madonna of Federico da Montefeltro
Sandro Botticelli
He is the highest representative of Florentine painting in the second half of the 15th century. He was an exquisite, refined, and nervous draftsman. His works are characterized by undulating lines and precise contours, marked in dark tones. His compositions are famous for their mythological and allegorical nudes and their integration of nature.
Mythological Works:
Botticelli was a great student of classical mythology and made many paintings with mythological themes as a basis, to which he applied Neoplatonic significance.
- Birth of Venus
- Primavera
- Venus and Mars
Portraits:
- Simonetta Vespucci
Religious Works:
- Madonna of the Magnificat
- Pietà
Cinquecento (First Half of the 16th Century)
The completion of the Renaissance process is characterized by:
- The desire for simplification, clarity, and grandeur.
- More attention is paid to facial expressions.
- An increasingly idealistic style of painting.
- Color becomes more important and is used more “loosely”. Contours are not as precise. The use of chiaroscuro increases.
- Aerial perspective also appears.
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo was a “universal man” – a painter, scientist, and philosopher. He was trained in the Quattrocento style.
He developed the “sfumato” technique (a pictorial surface without the sharp and precise contours of the Quattrocento, wrapping everything in a vague sort of fog that softens profiles and gives the impression of full immersion in the atmosphere). It represents the third dimension or depth through the blurring of distant objects.
- Adoration of the Magi
- The Virgin of the Rocks
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
- Mona Lisa
- The Last Supper
Raphael Sanzio of Urbino
He represents the perfection of painting. He had many influences but created and evolved a new style:
- In his early days, the influence of his teacher, Perugino, is crucial, with the use of symmetrical compositions.
- The Marriage of the Virgin
- The Madonna of the Grand Duke
- The Holy Family of the Lamb (Museo del Prado)
- Portrait of a Cardinal (Museo del Prado)
- The School of Athens
- The Fire in the Borgo
- The Transfiguration
Michelangelo
Michelangelo paid special attention to the volume of figures, anatomy, and drawing. His paintings present vivid colors, and drawing was paramount. His figures have forced movements and positions.
In his early years in Florence:
- The Holy Family
- The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (Vatican)
- The Last Judgment
Second Half of the 16th Century
We can distinguish between Mannerism and the Venetian School.
Mannerism
Features:
- Mannerist art is exaggerated, unreal, and consciously convoluted.
- Anatomical proportions are altered at will, and elongated figures appear.
- Colors are usually very bright.
- Strange illuminations are used.
Italian Mannerist Works:
- Madonna with the Long Neck by Parmigianino
- Allegory of Love and Time by Bronzino
- Deposition from the Cross by Pontormo
- Winter by Arcimboldo
Venetian School
Venice remained outside the Mannerist environment, which developed mainly in Florence and Rome. A school emerged there that would have an enormous influence on the Baroque. Compared to the rest of Italy, Venetian painters presented a more optimistic art with the following characteristics:
- Their paintings maintain classical balance and serenity but have a sensuality (painting addressed to the senses) and a taste for reality seen from its most optimistic side, which deviates slightly from classicism. Characteristic are female nudes in which the forms begin to be somewhat affluent.
- Importance of color: Venetian painting is not very linear but very colorful, sometimes applied with a very “loose” technique, with contours that are not sharply delimited (broken brushwork). They favored warm tones, more appropriate to present a beautiful and opulent environment.
- Maximize aerial perspective.
- Relevance of anecdotal elements: They pay much attention to anecdotal details, with the main underlying theme sometimes appearing relegated to second place (in this, they coincide with Mannerism).
- Exaltation of wealth: They enjoy representing luxurious surroundings with elements such as palaces, jewels, fabrics, musical instruments, etc.
- Contemplation of the poetic landscape: Landscape backgrounds are common, where the landscape is depicted in a very poetic way through light and lighting (dark or foggy landscapes give a sense of sadness, luminous landscapes, joy, etc.).
Titian
He is the highest representative of the Venetian School. He used a technique based on touches of color paste.
Mythological Works:
- Bacchus and Ariadne (Museo del Prado)
- Venus of Urbino
Portraits:
He was a great portraitist, creating the prototype of the official portrait – solemn and luxurious.
- Charles V on Horseback
- Portrait of Empress Isabella
- Portrait of Philip II
- Self-Portrait (Museo del Prado)
He also created religious paintings throughout his life.
- The Crowning with Thorns
Paolo Veronese
He is the great decorator of Venetian painting, and his scenes are filled with luxury. His characters are very characteristic, dressed in Venetian fashion.
- The Feast in the House of Levi
- The Wedding at Cana
- Moses Saved from the Waters of the Nile (Museo del Prado)
- Jesus among the Doctors (Museo del Prado)
Jacopo Tintoretto
He clearly shows Mannerist characteristics. He knew how to combine Michelangelesque elements and Mannerist features. His works are characterized by violent, tense movement, a taste for strong colors, and strong contrasts of light and shadow.
- Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet
- The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark
Albrecht Dürer
Born in Nuremberg, he was an engraver and painter.
- Knight, Death and the Devil
- Adam and Eve (Museo del Prado)
- Self-Portrait (Museo del Prado)