Italian Renaissance Painting: Quattrocento and Cinquecento
**Painting of the Quattrocento**
The roots of Renaissance painting are found in the art of Giotto. In this century, the altarpiece disappears, and with it, the subordination of the subject to a set. Without failing to have a constant presence, the religious theme is treated as profane. The landscape theme, idealized beauty, the volume of the shapes, and spatial sense are the cardinal dimensions of Renaissance painting. In the fifteenth century, drawing is a crucial element. This results in an appearance of flat shapes. Light is controlled with increasing perfection. The fifteenth-century painter is obsessed with capturing depth. The landscape is cultivated with passion, serving for depth effects and framing the figures. The composition is complicated; it is not uncommon to introduce several scenes in one painting.
Fra Angelico, Masaccio, and Paolo Uccello
In Florence, Fra Angelico is the link to the Gothic: his meaning and curvilinear style are reminiscent of the international gold, but his conception of the volume represents the emergence of a new element. He is the painter of the Annunciation, where he can deploy his calm temperament. Landscapes, lines, and colors are in great balance. Masaccio and Paolo Uccello‘s concern about the volume in the figures of Masaccio and the depth in the landscapes of Uccello, discover one of the goals of Renaissance painting.
Sandro Botticelli
In the last generation of the century, Sandro Botticelli is included. His drawing, traveled by nervous strokes, the movement that stirs up all its forms, and the sadness looming over all painted faces are both an expression of the mood of the painter and the melancholy that pervades life in the Florentine order of the century. His landscapes of spring and the glorification of the naked human body culminated Quattrocento items, as shown in The Birth of Venus. The evolution of art from Fra Angelico to Botticelli is clear: the movement, the idealization of the beauty of the body, the intensity of feeling, depth, and joy of the landscape trace the paths of fifteenth-century painting.
Piero della Francesca and Mantegna
But some teachers are among the revolutionaries who anticipate the next century’s values, like Piero della Francesca. Frescoes in the Legend of Santa Cruz show his ability to handle light and delicate nuances. More revolutionary is the art of Mantegna, in their stone, in his twisting and depth of his compositions.
**Cinquecento**
Color is handled more loosely, gaining prominence at the expense of drawing. The forms take on a rounded appearance. For volume, the artist uses multiple resources: shading, placing the arm in front of the portrait bust, and so on. The scenes take on a depth that now seems natural. The landscape is no longer always spring; misty funds, rocks, sunsets, and romantic hues lend the scene. The composition is clear, often triangular. The figures relate to each other, representing a single scene in every frame. Florence remained the capital of art, but its top figures moved to Rome. In general, educated painters drawing in Florence attach greater importance to other schools.
Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo
Three giants this school brings to the Cinquecento: Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Leonardo da Vinci is the archetypal Renaissance man. Two of his paintings, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, are top-ranking examples in the history of painting. Already in the Virgin of the Rocks, he subjected drawing to a blur effect that provides air, volume, and enigmatic figures. In the faces, a soft smile introduces the same vague impression in the field of expressions. All these values shine in his Last Supper, a large, recently restored fresco. Raphael’s work is enormous. Annunciations and religious subjects, portraits, and great compositions are the three chapters of his work. His great contribution lies in his conception of space, in the depth and breadth of space in the moving figures of the great compositions, as can be seen in his School of Athens. Michelangelo would have to repeat the features of his sculptural art to define the pictorial values of his contribution in the Sistine Chapel, with biblical scenes of Creation and the Last Judgment. With it, dynamism is fulfilled. In their works are all roots of Mannerism. The giants who move without enough space, the atmosphere becomes distressing. It’s a dramatic world, very different from the equilibrium and optimism of the first Renaissance man.
Key Features of Cinquecento Painting
- After the technical achievements of the Quattrocento, concern about the content
- Lesser importance of the architectural and anecdotal
- The picture becomes less important, and the figures begin to be shaped by the light
- Simple compositions framed in geometric figures (painters seek the help of geometry to group the figures. The world is ruled by order and mathematics)
- Cult of beauty
**The Venetian School**
In the fifteenth century, the Bellini and Carpaccio lay the foundations for a school that will be characterized by its worship of color, always prevailing over drawing. In the sixteenth century, a series of great masters like Titian discover the possibilities of the Baroque.
Features of the Venetian School
- Cult of color, preferably light shades
- Importance of secondary issues. In the story, the same attention is given as the main theme
- Exaltation of wealth. Parker, music, and jewelry define the environment
- Poetic contemplation of the landscape, which is filled with lights and feels romantic passion
Titian
Titian is the portraitist of the school (Equestrian Portrait of Charles V) and the master of soft, rounded forms. In The Bacchanalia, he turns a mythological theme into a social framework and takes the composition to be placed on an angle, a splendid female nude, getting shine on fabrics and glass, and effects of blue light in the heavens and forests.