The Renaissance in Italy: A Comprehensive Look at Art
Introduction to the Renaissance
This movement originated in Italy, a region close to the sources that inspired Renaissance artists. Italy was filled with remnants of the Ancient Roman Empire, from which humanists drew valuable lessons. Moreover, Italy had never completely lost its classical spirit, which was preserved to some extent throughout the Middle Ages, during the Romanesque and Gothic periods. It’s also important to remember that Italy was a center of the new economy, with a new society that had new interests and required a new language.
The Architecture of the Renaissance
Renaissance architecture opposed Gothic forms, embracing the principles of classical architecture. However, it wasn’t a mere copy but an interpretation of the underlying laws of classical art. It incorporated Greek and Roman architectural elements, modifying proportions and relying on basic geometric shapes like circles, squares, and cubes. There was a special focus on the mathematical proportions of buildings, both in their plans and in establishing simple relationships of length, height, and depth, derived from modules and detailed mathematical calculations. A balance was sought between the plan and the height, avoiding the dominance of the vertical over the horizontal.
The Architects of the Quattrocento (15th Century)
Florence was the most important center of this period, under the patronage of the Medici family. It was characterized by scientific studies based on perspective and proportion. The second half of the century was marked by abundant and refined decoration.
Filippo Brunelleschi
Brunelleschi was the most significant figure in Quattrocento architecture and a true innovator of the Renaissance style. He paid special attention to proportions, combining monumentality with decorative detail.
Dome of Santa Maria dei Fiori
In Florence Cathedral, built in the 14th century, Brunelleschi covered the dome area with a 42-meter dome, inspired by the Pantheon of Agrippa. On an octagonal drum of 13 meters, with large round windows, he devised ingenious solutions to support the oblique forces. The dome consists of two shells, the exterior being taller to exert more vertical thrust. He also used bricks to lighten the weight. This masterpiece is known for its constructive genius, beauty, and purity of form.
Leon Battista Alberti
Alberti, a scholar and student of antiquity, wrote several treatises, including “De re aedificatoria.” For Alberti, beauty lay in the mathematical principles and proportions of parts and shapes (circle and square). He created various types of architecture, such as the church nave with chapels between buttresses (a precursor to the Baroque Jesuit church), and facades inspired by Roman triumphal arches. Completion of the facade of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Alberti designed the great central door, the friezes, and the upper facade of white and dark green marble, harmonizing the existing Gothic elements with the new, purely Renaissance ones.
The Architects of the Cinquecento (16th Century)
The center of art shifted from Florence to Rome under the patronage of the Pope (Julius II, Leo X, and Sixtus V). To demonstrate the growing power of the church and state, classicism was used more rigorously. The classical orders were employed, creating a solemn and monumental art that avoided dehumanized colossal structures. Measure, balance, and proportion dominated, while the former petite decoration practically disappeared. A style inspired by the monumental impact of architectural elements was preferred, using triangular and semicircular pediments in combination. Centralized domed plants, symbolizing divine order in the universe, were favored.
Donato Bramante
Bramante began with previous forms but transitioned to a new classicism. Captivated by Roman ruins and their grand and colossal prospects, he showed a preference for simple structures. Construction was his primary interest, focusing on problems of geometry, perspective, and simplicity, which characterized the entire architecture of the 16th century.
San Pietro in Montorio
This small circular temple features a circular staircase surrounded by columns on the flat ground floor. The upper floor is a round body surrounded by a balustrade, all topped with a dome. It embodies sobriety, elegance, and a purely Roman robustness.
Andrea Palladio
Palladio’s architectural ideals are presented in his book “The Four Books of Architecture.” He defended absolute rationality against the subjectivism of contemporary Mannerist architects and writers. His work is characterized by the rhythmic succession of arches between lintels and the crowning of facades with sculptures that coincide with the axis of the columns attached to the wall or large gables.
La Villa Capra (Rotunda). The Church of St. George in Venice. The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.
Mannerist Architecture
Mannerist features can be found in earlier works, such as Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library, a prelude to Mannerism. The lobby has limited space, and the columns are inside the wall. Mannerism was a time of cultural crisis, manifested in architecture by questioning the validity of the classical and initiating the dynamic proto-Baroque.
- Facing the absolute objectivity of the Renaissance, the ideal of the artist emphasized the individual.
- Architects did not introduce new elements but combined existing architectural elements in new ways, often arbitrarily.
- Renaissance rationalism was abandoned, with no focus on proportion or harmony.
- Striking and picturesque effects were sought.
Examples: Passage Palace and the Uffizi in Florence by Vasari, with two faced facades that create a very narrow space, favoring the view.
Renaissance Sculpture in Italy
The classical feeling first appeared in sculpture, as it did in architecture, unlike in Gothic Europe. In the Trecento in Siena and Pisa, Nicholas and John Pisano conveyed a naturalistic and modern art. Italy was the birthplace of this early outbreak due to the abundant remains of Roman sculpture. Materials like marble and bronze were used, reaching great perfection. The protagonists were man and nature, accentuating naturalism and the operational representation of reality, sometimes idealizing it to create models that expressed the human ideal as conceived in the Renaissance. The expressiveness of the figures was also important. Sculptures were created in the round, including busts, full-length figures, burial grounds, and equestrian statues. Reliefs were also used, employing high, medium, and low relief to give the illusion of depth. Renaissance sculpture was characterized by proportion, symmetry, and the canon. Although Christian religious symbolism was still present, it was subordinated to the pursuit of beauty, with a focus on the formal beauty of the figures. Anatomy was studied through nudes and portraits, and mythological themes also recurred.
The Sculpture of the Quattrocento (15th Century)
The Quattrocento was a century of Florentine sculpture, controlling all techniques and styles.
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Ghiberti was the first great Renaissance sculptor, although his formal style retained many elements of the International Gothic world. He was particularly remarkable for the pictorial view of his reliefs.
Second Doors of the Baptistery in Florence
In 1401, a competition was held for the missing doors of the Baptistery of Florence. Major artists, including Brunelleschi, participated, but Ghiberti won. The doors depict gospel scenes in bronze. While the frame and composition retain Gothic elements, such as curves and cardboard figures, there are also classical innovations, such as volume.
Puerta de la Gloria of the Baptistery in Florence.
Donatello
Donatello was the most important sculptor of the 15th century. He always sought to represent man full of life, capturing human values in his figures.
San Marcos
His early works still show stylized and curved forms characteristic of International Gothic. However, the figure stands out because it was removed from its architectural position.
San Jorge. Bronze David
The young David is pensive and melancholy, wearing a typical Tuscan hat. The composition invites viewers to admire it from all points of view. It is fully classical, appearing naked in contrapposto.
The Gattamelata, Padua.
The Sculpture of the Cinquecento (16th Century)
In contrast to the 15th century, the 16th century saw the predominance of Roman sculpture over Florentine, similar to architecture. Formally, the delicacies and love for detail of the Quattrocento gave way to a monumental grandeur and simplicity, hinted at in the works of Jacopo della Quercia.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo was one of history’s greatest geniuses, a poet, painter, architect, and, above all, a sculptor. His exceptional quality and extraordinary understanding of the forms of the body and the complexities of the mind made him the universal prototype of the sculptor. In marble, he could express any concept, idea, or purpose, even the most complex. His figures, made of white Carrara marble, are always great, monumental, and full of vitality. In his time, he was almost deified, and his works, including unfinished ones, have been studied earnestly for centuries. A personality full of rebellion and idealism, he spent his life searching for the Idea of Beauty. His figures are neither real nor ideal. His early works were still classical, inspired directly by the ancients, but after knowing the work of Jacopo della Quercia, its monumental imprint gave a final twist to his work. The beautiful balance between form and movement, typical of the Quattrocento, was broken for motion, leading to delusional works that would influence Mannerism and the Baroque.
Mercy Vatican
This work reflects his studies of classical works. It is a superb work of perfect balance between a monumental conception of pure and closed volumes, and a refined and delicate beauty and Neoplatonic rational triangular composition. The extreme youth of the Virgin was intentional, expressing not a real, grieving mother, but the eternal and ageless Virginity.
David
This heroic, larger-than-life nude is impressive in its greatness, breaking the traditional iconography that represented him as a teenager. Made on a huge block of marble, but long and narrow, it forced him to create an almost flat work. The features of his art are evident: “terribilitá,” the terrible and threatening nature of his figures, the tension of anatomy, motion, and centripetal content with inward members, the lack of symmetry in the position, the passion of the perfect face, and anatomical study, giving the impression that the figure is alive. The position is Hellenic, but the hands, the terrible gesture, and the zigzag arrangement of the body communicate a tension that is classical but also the starting point of Mannerism.
The Tomb of Pope Julius II: The Moses and the Slaves.
Mannerist Sculpture
Mannerist sculpture moved away from the classical ideal. Its defining feature is the figura serpentinata, drawing a spiral ascent. Works feature complicated movements with several points of view, not just a principal perspective. Michelangelo’s Tomb of Lorenzo de Medic already showed examples of Mannerism, with figures beyond the frame and the space that contains them, with a centrifugal force that makes them unstable, low tone, and tense. The proportions seem broken.
Examples: The Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna, with a serpentinata movement forming a group of figures, various points of view, and gestures that neglect classical harmony. Perseus with the head of Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini, with blood and tears in his exaggerated musculature, and a bulbous-shaped pedestal that anticipates Baroque ornamentation.
The Painting of the Renaissance in Italy
Italian cities experienced a huge boost and constant evolution in painting. The number of artists is so large that we will only see an overview of its evolution and the main figures.
Evolution of Painting in the Quattrocento
The precedent is fundamental to look at the figure of Giotto, the great master of the 14th century. The fundamental religious issue remains, but it is sometimes treated as if it were a profane topic. Mythological themes also grew, reflecting the individualism of the time, and portraits became more common. Compositions became more complicated, but the meaning of the whole unit was very important. Light was used with ever greater perfection, especially to capture volumes, but there was a lack of cohesion between color and shape, typical of Italian painting at the time. Color was not a result of light but a colored surface bounded by the line. Drawing was the central element, so contours were sharp. The 15th-century painter was obsessed above all with capturing depth and perspective, used to depict landscapes and architectures. There was also a move towards movement. Idealized beauty was sought, especially evident in the nude. The study of man in all aspects, especially in the representation of their feelings, was important.
Fra Angelico
An artist of the International Gothic tradition, Fra Angelico represents a continuation of the medieval religious spirit, invested with new forms, a sober use of perspective, decorative and architectural elements of the classical repertoire, light, anatomy, and a new conception of volume.
The Annunciation
This topic allowed him to display his gentleness and calm temperament. There is a balance in the landscape, lines, and colors (colorful drawing and soft), and clear pictorial examples of architecture.
Tomasso Masaccio
Masaccio was the creator of a powerful and monumental sensitivity, completely independent of any memory of the Gothic sensibility and linked directly to the sculptural grandeur of Giotto. Masaccio’s statement represents the new style, as Brunelleschi and Donatello represent it in architecture and sculpture.
The Trinity fresco in Florence
This fresco features a fully Renaissance architectural background, monumentality in the figures, volume, and linear perspective.
Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli was the most famous personality of the second half of the 15th century. An exquisite, refined, and edgy cartoonist, he was the wonderful creator of mythological compositions with wavy lines and precise contours.
The Birth of Venus
This painting features the characteristic nervous drawing of lines, waving movement of his figures, undulating forms, sadness and melancholy in their faces, spring landscapes, depth, and the glorification of the naked human body. He was not interested in space and perspective; the background is only a decorative pretext. The mysterious and indeterminate appearance of Venus is under the influence of Neoplatonism.
Allegory of Spring
Botticelli’s Neoplatonism is also evident in his taste for allegory. There is no Renaissance perspective or depth, accentuating the feeling of unreality.
Evolution of Painting in Cinquecento
Florence remained the capital of art, but its figures moved to Rome, where the Pope was now the largest sponsor, or traveled to different cities. There was a better use of color, losing its empire and contour drawing, but Florentine painters gave it greater importance than other schools. Light took on a new importance, and with it, shadows, almost absent in the previous century. Shapes were rounded and not as flat as before, thanks to the chiaroscuro of light and shadow, which achieved volume, along with other resources (like putting an arm in the foreground). There was no longer an obsession with perspective; depth was now achieved in a more natural, effortless way. Landscapes were richer and more varied, some light, some misty or crepuscular. The composition was clear, often with triangular figures interacting with looks and gestures, with a single scene or highlighting the principal clearly.
Leonardo da Vinci
The transition from the Quattrocento to the Cinquecento is exceptionally embodied by Leonardo da Vinci, who has always been considered the epitome of a Renaissance man for his passion for all forms of knowledge. He was a scientist, writer, and artist. A pupil of Verrocchio, he certainly grew between sculpture and painting, but he was particularly a painter and engineer. As a painter, his great creation is the “sfumato,” a pictorial artifice that dispenses with the clear and precise contours of the Quattrocento and wraps everything in a vague sort of fog, which blurs the profiles and creates an impression of total immersion in the atmosphere. The landscape acquires a mysterious dimension, and the characters a distant and enigmatic charm. He had many imitators, and his influence was decisive in leading artists such as Raphael and Correggio.
The Rocks Virgin
Shown as a Grand Master of the triangular composition and lighting effects, the figures stand out from the darkness of the cave behind them, giving it an air of mystery. It is one of his paradigmatic works for the balanced composition, the idealization of the models, and aerial perspective. The figures have no profile; their limits are lost in a fog known as “sfumato.”
La Gioconda or Mona Lisa
One of the world’s most famous portraits, a bust with hands extended in front. The soft blur of light and shadow contrasts also lend an air of volume and enigmatic figures, achieving a perfect “vanished” effect. The soft, enigmatic smile produces an inaccurate impression, susceptible to various interpretations. No less admirable is the distant landscape and lighting effects, atmosphere, and aerial perspective interposing between the lady and her surroundings.
Last Supper of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan
A grand fresco, today almost reduced to ruins due to poor storage conditions and the new technique used by Leonardo, an oily mixture of temple. The composition is very neat, introducing a new sense of balance. Groups gesture and express different emotions on their faces. Only Christ remains still and silent, all illuminated by the front light and the landscape background, which helps achieve deep insight.
Rafael Sanzio
His work is great, covering many topics: religious, portraits, and great compositions. He was not an innovator but an artist who brought to perfection the findings of the previous ones, perhaps the artist who best embodies the perfection of the classical. He is particularly remarkable for the charm of his “Madonna.” He also stands out for the quality of his pictorial elements: light, composition, etc. But his major contribution is the breadth and depth he gives to his compositions.
Betrothal of the Virgin
This painting features great depth of perspective, closed by a temple in the background, and staggering figure sizes.
The School of Athens
Plato and Aristotle are in the midst of a spacious architectural frame, an allegory of philosophy. Considered Raphael’s masterpiece and the prototype of Renaissance painting for its harmony and perfection: perspective, composition of a large number of characters, expressive power of gesture, color, etc.
Fire in the Borgo
This painting demonstrates proficiency in the human body and the expression of emotions.
La Madonna del Gran Duque
Leonardo’s influence is evident in the smooth gradation of light, the slight twist of the bodies, and the melancholy of the Virgin.
Madonna of the Goldfinch
A perfect example of 16th-century painting. The pyramidal composition of the Virgin and Child San Juan is linked with gestures and looks. Notable volumes are set against a distant landscape background.
Portrait of Cardinal del Prado
Rafael was also a great portraitist, seeking above all to create an idealized and complacent portrayal.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Basically a sculptor, his figures retain the importance of drawing, the desire for movement, and a pictorial sculptural appearance. He exerted a major influence on contemporary and later artists, especially those of Mannerism.
Fresh from the Vault of the Sistine Chapel
Nine Stories of Genesis are flanked by ignudi, Prophets, and Sibyls in the vault. In the lunettes are the Kings of Israel, media points of the ancestors of Christ, and dramatic Bible stories on the walls and corners. His figures are full of dynamism, the colors used are cold and blue, very expressive, profiles get a sculptural volume, the technique is loose and vigorous brushwork, and the figures are great and terrible in expression. The Creation of Adam is emphasized, where God’s creative act is projected through the electrical contact of fingers, presenting the act of creation with a grandeur never equaled.
Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel
This work reflects a bleak and pessimistic vision from the mid-16th century. The God of Justice, totally naked (covered by Volterra), punishes opponents with force, over a human flood in various forms and attitudes in motion. Colossal and dynamic, with a lack of space for figures and a feeling of angst and drama, all these traits are the roots of Mannerism.
Mannerist Painting
Mannerist painting features an arbitrary use of color and proportions that are altered at will, usually extending the figures. It is also characterized by anguished expressions, a serpentine style, abundant foreshortening, constrained by narrow frames, and sometimes black backgrounds, highlighting the figures as genuine objects of light. These latter features are almost Baroque.
Bronzino
His figure compositions are characterized by forced twisted attitudes, enhancing the drama, as seen in Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time.
Correggio
A master of foreshortening, light, soft and weightless forms, and delicate features in female figures and children, such as Ganymede and Leda and the Swan in mythological themes, or Noli me tangere in religious themes. He paved the way for Baroque frescos.
Parmigianino
Characterized by artful compositions, typical of Mannerism, as in his Madonna of the Long Neck.