Download Italian Renaissance

Artistic Rebirth
Durante degli Alighieri, “Dante”
1265-1321 AD
▌Italian Renaissance
(Below) Photo of some Italian calligraphy from
Dante’s Inferno, the first part of the Devine
Comedy where as the narrator, Dante
experiences the nine circles of Hell before
Purgatory and eventually Paradise.
Considered one of the most important world
literary works, it allegorically represents the
soul’s journey to God.
(Above) Statue of
Dante in Verona,
where he spent
much time.
(Right)Illustration
of the Hell, scene
from Dante’s
Inferno.
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
Artistic Rebirth
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, “Donatello”
1386-1466 AD
(Left) Statue of Donatello
(Right) Statue in Florence of Judith and
Holofernes by Donatello, symbolizing the
Republic’s freedom.
(Left) Pulpit in San Lorenzo.
Bertoldo, a pupil of Donatello’s, completed
the Work.
Bertoldo, of whom Michelangelo was a
pupil, connects the lineage of Florentine
sculpture from Donatello, to Bertoldo, to
Michelangelo.
Artistic Rebirth
Bertoldo di Giovanni
1435-1491 AD
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
Shown left, “An Old Man and his Grandson” and
right, “Portrait of Giovanna”.
Shown below is a wall mural from the bottega of
Ghirlandaio.
Having been one of the individuals who spanned the
early and later parts of the Florentine Renaissance,
Ghirlandaio was an accomplished painter whose
work includes wall scenes of the Sistine Chapel.
Later, impressed by the drawing ability of the young
Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio would accept him into his
studio and provide him with his earliest training in
the art of fresco.
Artistic Rebirth
Domenico Ghirlandaio
1449-1494 AD
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
(Left) Located in the left arch of the Loggia dei Lanzi,
Perseus with the Head of Medusa depicts the Greek
account of her decapitation. Her hair, said to be
snakes, provided distraction but those whom looked
her in the eye turned to stone. A small portrait
blended into Perseus’ hair is said to be Cellini himself.
Artistic Rebirth
Benvenuto Cellini
1500-1571 AD
(Right) Representing a chapter in Rome’s founding,
the statue depicts the story that early Roman men so
outnumbered women that they acquired wives from
the nearby Sabine families. The use of the word
“rape” in this context (Latin from raptio), refers to an
abduction and not a sexual violation.
Artistic Rebirth
Giambologna (Born Jean Boulogne)
1529-1608 AD
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
(Right) Self portraits of Rafael.
(Below) The School of Athens in the Rafael room at the Vatican.
Considered his masterpiece, it represents philosophy and depicts
his contemporaries as Greek philosophers. In the center (left), da
Vinci’s face is shown on Plato, Sangallo’s on Aristotle, Rafael’s on
Fornarini (left in white), and Michelangelo’s on Heraclitus (by
himself front-left).
Artistic Rebirth
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, “Rafael”
1483-1520 AD
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
Artistic Rebirth
Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519 AD
▌Italian Renaissance
(Left) The original to this
self portrait executed as red
chalk on paper, is believed to
be da Vinci. It has widely
become known as the
“Renaissance Man”.
(Below left) da Vinci’s
studies
of
mechanics,
anatomy, and other scientific
areas are unprecedented and
likely not repeated until the
likes of Thomas Jefferson.
(Above) Perhaps the most iconic painting
of all time, the Mona Lisa remains
enigmatic. This photo of the painting
taken in the Louvre, is still able to convey
the sublime features of the Work,
specifically the emotive expression,
delicate insinuations, and masterful
composition and arrangement.
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
Artistic Rebirth
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
1475-1564 AD
▌Italian Renaissance
(Right) Called the “Belvedere Torso” (Vatican Museums) and
credited to Apollonios, it is believed to have inspired Michelangelo.
(Far right) “Dying Slave” (1513-1516) was to be paired with
another sculpture “Rebellious Slave” on the tomb of Pope Julius
II. Its unfinished quality is typical of Michelangelo’s work as he
sought only to free the object bound within the stone.
(Left) Pieta, “Pity” (14981499), completed when
Michelangelo was only 24,
cemented his genius and
the investment the Medici
made in the prodigy.
Forming a pyramidal
shape, the life-size form
of Jesus appears naturally
across the lap of Mary
whose flowing drapery
conceal her monumental
scale. Being divine, Mary
is depicted youthful, both
faces
resolved
and
accepted their fate.
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
Artistic Rebirth
Michelangelo
1465-1564 AD
David, referred to in its day as the
“giant”
and
Michelangelo’s
masterpiece sculpted from the
“Duccio” stone, symbolized the
attitude of the Florentines just as
David is represented at the moment
he decides to engage Goliath but
before the battle has started. Sling in
his left hand, stone in his right,
David’s face expresses both fear and
the confidence while the scene is
played out in a form called
contrapposto,
suggesting
motion.
Having been marked by previous
sculptors, geologists question how
Michelangelo executed the work
without a failure.
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
Artistic Rebirth
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
1475-1564 AD
The frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are the monumental painting task
accomplished by Michelangelo for Pope Julius II between 1508-1512. Having devised a
scaffolding with lifts and stairs and allowing for the roll of the vault, Michelangelo worked
fervently until completed, upon which his neck was difficult to bend for months and his
corneas were burned from paint drippings.
Though Michelangelo was assigned
the task of painting the Apostles in
the twelve pendentives, he demanded
artistic control of the program.
In the center, nine scenes show God’s
creation of the World, God’s
relationship with Man, and Man’s fall
from God’s grace. The surrounding
pendentives and lunettes illustrate
Prophets and Sibyls and the Ancestors
of Christ.
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
Artistic Rebirth
Michelangelo
1465-1564 AD
▌Italian Renaissance
Though previously featured, the dome of St.
Peter’s Basilica was an effort that
Michelangelo had a special affinity for.
Having studied Brunelleschi’s dome and the
Pantheon, his input and the drawings he left
were crucial to ensuring the realization of
this masterpiece.
Sacrestia Vecchia
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
Artistic Rebirth
Santa Maria della Vittoria/Cornaro Chapel
1620 by Carlo Maderno/Bernini
Standing as the only completed work by
Moderno, this church is most noted for
Bernini’s masterpiece in the Cornaro Chapel,
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. Owing to an entry in
St. Theresa of Avila’s journal, the statue marks
her vision of an angel piercing her heart with a
golden line (of light or an arrow), causing her
ecstasy.
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect
▌Italian Renaissance
Artistic Rebirth
At the Louvre
Various Works
(Right) Roman version of The Three Graces (beauty, charm, and joy).
(Below) Dating to the 2nd Century BC is Antioch’s Venus de Milo. This Work has always
received great admiration because even in her antiqued state with scratches and gauges, she’s
an example of simple and understated beauty. Likely, her left hand held an apple (of gold).
© Professor Mark Comeau | Architect