Kindle Notes & Highlights
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...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Bramante achieved a wonderful balance
and harmony in the relationship of the parts
(dome, drum, and base) to ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
the combination
of parts and details was ne...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
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...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
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.