Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Volume II: The Western Perspective, Volume II (with CourseMate Printed Access Card)
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Raphael, Philosophy (School of Athens), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy,
Raphael, Galatea, Sala di Galatea, Villa Farnesina, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513. Fresco, 9′ 8″× 7′ 5″.
Thus, Michelangelo set aside Vitruvius, Alberti, Leonardo, and others who tirelessly sought the perfect measure, and insisted the artist’s inspired judgment could identify other pleasing proportions. In addition, Michelangelo argued the artist must not be bound, except by the demands made by realizing the idea.
Moses, from the tomb of Pope Julius II, Rome, Italy, ca. 1513–1515. Marble, 7′ 8 1 –2″high. San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. Not since Hellenistic times
Bramante developed the High Renaissance form of the central-plan church.
Bramante’s first major work in the classical mode was the small architectural gem known as the Tempietto (fig. 17-21) on the Janiculum hill overlooking the Vatican.
Isabella of Spain commissioned the Tempietto to mark the presumed location of Sa...
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Bramante achieved a wonderful balance and harmony in the relationship of the parts (dome, drum, and base) to ...
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the combination of parts and details was ne...
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Donato d’Angelo Bramante, Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, Italy, begun 1502. Contemporaries celebrated Bramante as the first architect to revive the classical style. Roman temples (fig. 7-4) inspired his “little temple,” but Bramante combined the classical parts in new ways.
Donato d’Angelo Bramante, plan for Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1505.
Michelangelo shared Bramante’s conviction that a central plan was the ideal form for a church.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, plan for Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome, Italy, 1546. In his modification of Bramante’s plan (fig. 17-22), Michelangelo reduced the central component from a number of interlocking crosses to a compact domed Greek cross inscribed in
Antonio da Sangallo the  Younger, Palazzo Farnese (looking southwest), Rome, Italy, 1517–1546; completed by Michelangelo  Buonarroti, 1546–1550.
Antonio da Sangallo the  Younger, courtyard of the Palazzo Farnese, Rome, Italy, ca. 1517–1546. Third story and attic by Michelangelo  Buonarroti, 1546–1550.
Declining fortunes prompted the Venetians to develop their mainland possessions with new land investment and reclamation projects. Citizens who could afford to do so set themselves up as aristocratic farmers and developed swamps into productive agricultural land. The villas were thus aristocratic farms surrounded by service outbuildings (like the much later American plantations, which emulated many aspects of Palladio’s architectural style).
Palladio’s influence outside Italy, most significantly in England and in colonial America (see Chapter 21), was stronger and more lasting than any other architect’s.
Andrea Palladio, Villa Rotonda (formerly Villa Capra; looking southwest), near Vicenza, Italy, ca. 1550–1570.
In the 16th century, the Venetians developed a painting style distinct from that of Rome and Florence. Artists in the maritime republic showed a special interest in recording the effect of Venice’s soft-colored light on figures and landscapes.
Here, Titian established the compositional elements and the standard for paintings of the reclining female nude, regardless of the many ensuing variations.
The banner inclining toward the left beautifully brings the design into equilibrium, balancing the rightward and upward tendencies of its main direction. This kind of composition is more dynamic than most High Renaissance examples and presaged a new kind of pictorial design—one built on movement rather than rest.
In this dynamic com pos ition presaging a new kind of pictorial design, Titian placed the figures on a steep diagonal, positioning the Madonna, the focus of the composition, well off the central axis.
Titian, Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne, from the Camerino d’Alabastro, Palazzo Ducale, Ferrara, Italy, 1522–1523. Oil on canvas, 5′ 9″× 6′ 3″. National Gallery, London.
Titian, Venus of Urbino, 1536–1538. Oil on canvas, 3′11″× 5′ 5″.  Galleria degli Uffizi,
Titian’s works established oil-based pigment on canvas as the typical medium of the Western pictorial tradition thereafter.
Titian [employed] a great mass of colors, which served . . . as a base for the compositions.
an implied diagonal opposed to the real one of the reclining figure. Here, Titian used color not simply to record surface appearance but also to organize his placement of forms.
but already in the 1520s another style—Mannerism—had emerged in reaction to it. Mannerism is a term derived from the Italian word maniera, meaning “style” or “manner.”
Mannerism’s style (or representative mode) is characterized by style (being stylish, cultured, elegant).
In contrast, Mannerist painters consciously revealed the constructed nature of their art. In other words, Renaissance artists generally strove to create art that appeared natural, whereas Mannerist artists were less inclined to disguise the contrived nature of art production. This is why artifice is a central feature of discussions about Mannerism, and why Mannerist works can seem, appropriately, “mannered.” The conscious display of artifice in Mannerism often reveals itself in imbalanced compositions and unusual complexities, both visual and conceptu...
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On the right, the artist included a line of columns without capitals and an enigmatic figure with a scroll, whose distance from the foreground is immeasurable and ambiguous—the antithesis of rational Renaissance perspective diminution of size with distance.
Giovanni da Bologna, Abduction of the Sabine Women, Loggia dei Lanzi, Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy, 1579–1583. Marble, 13′ 5 1 –2″high. This sculpture was the first large-scale group since classical antiquity designed to be seen from multiple viewpoints. The three bodies interlock to create a vertical spiral movement.
The keystones (central voussoirs), for example, either have not fully settled or seem to be slipping from the arches—and, more eccentric still, Giulio even placed voussoirs in the pediments over the rectangular niches, where no arches exist.
That the duke delighted in Giulio’s mannered architectural inventiveness speaks to his cultivated taste.
Mannerist architects used classical architectural elements in a highly personal and unorthodox manner, rejecting the balance, order, and stability that were the hallmarks of the High Renaissance style, and aiming instead to reveal the contrived nature of architectural design.
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