LECTURE high renaissance in italy 1480 1520 part 1 LEONARDO DA VINCI develops the high renaissance style another renaissance man engineer bony geology human and animal anatomy fluid dynamics design cartography stage design costume design music instrument design urban planning painting culture weaponry composition musical architecture illegitimate son of a florentine notary he never mastered latin or greek trusting what he could see and experience for himself instead of what he learned in books only trusted direct observation landscape 1473 milestone in the history of art drawing he made after walking up mountain and seeing view drew on the spot and from direct view which was so different at this time this was called en plain air which was out in the open doesn t tell a story is just there for the sake of what s there straight observation flower drawing did plant studies draws leaves stem blossoms and then seed heads at top that goes off to cycle again first to understand life is a process kept all his observations in notebooks such as the rippling in water wrote backwards so no one would steal his ideas kept so many notes with drawings obsessed with how the body operates how it grows into an adult and decays has made bodily drawings that were so accurate they can still be used today embryo in the womb 1510 no one has drawn this before witnessed the death of the mother in the hospital and immediately cut her open to observe his invention of chain link clearly has a connection between the human spine drew the tendons of hands fascinated with flight so designs a wing that is similar to hand worked a lot for ludovico sforza duke of milan the bulk of his career and wasted making machinery and weapons to kill people for sforza designs things that goes through the front lines of army virgin of the rocks 1483 everything reflects real life has group of figures in a landscape mary christ child john the baptist and figure looking out as us pointing to john carefully draws plants and rock formations which are plausible details sfumato is italian for smokey and this can be seen as if there is a haze to compare woman in leonardo s to botticelli s venus his figures are more believable sophisticated and realistic than anyone before but it is sort of unrealistic more ideal since there is a perfect triangle in the the baptist composition him nature to leonardo ideal and real mix once mixed oil and tempera which was not good created flakey composition mona lisa 1503 1505 created international celebrity most famous painting in the world worked on for two years and didn t even give it to her he kept it changed the course of portraiture milestone in the course of it up until this point profile in italy was the dominant style frontal view was introduced in 1480 s you can see her arms and hands which is very different can see whole upper body corkscrew motion in body sense of movement to make her seem more alive in body once this painting was unveiled everyone follows her model leonardo also changed the course of architecture did not build anything but doodled extensively all of his buildings were premised on the vitruvian man maxim coined by protagoras and vitruvius quoted man isn the measure of all things a human body can measure out a perfect square and perfect circle central plan architecture the idea of the highest significance DONATO BRAMANTE all of his buildings are central plan and toyed with leonardo s drawings tempietto 1508 wanted it to be a circular building in square courtyard never got build exactly to his plans meant to mark where st peter was crucified his is not flat architecture he introduced volume and space more of a three dimensional architect becomes the catalyst for future buildings becomes the most important patron of this time pope julius II came up with crazy idea to tear down old st peter s rome consecrated by the emperor constantine himself in 330 now it no longer exists just drawings core of building is still based on bramante s central plan structure there is no clear front or back domes and apses are a motif in create continue crosses dome of pantheon set on the building MICHELANGELO BUONAROTTI 1475 1564 given a long and gushing chapter at the end of vasari s lives of the artists ca described by vasari as the most noteworthy painter sculptor and architect at his 1550 time he was also a poet preferred sculpture surpassed everyone pieta 1498 1500 comes from the flemish idea of mary holding her dead son mary is older and struggling to hold her son in all of these works this is only not shown in michelangelo s piece only work michelangelo has ever signed triangular form is derived from leonardo s triangle david 1501 1504 most famous sculpture in the world originally this was intended to go on the florence cathedral important because he thought it would be high up became such an important figure for florentines they said it should go somewhere better the fame of this sculpture leads to pope julius to call on michelangelo to rome pope julius II tomb 1505 he was brought there to work on his tomb thirty life size figures sistine chapel 1508 1512 made him stop for a while to make him do the sistine chapel built decorated in 1470s this is what michelangelo did 365 figures life of moses was one cycle along the wall life of christ was the second from the lunets that are on the ceiling there are alternating women and men those are prophets and sibyls on the ceiling so complex we still don t know what it means delphic sibyl are from classic world of rome and antiquity they were women who saw the future the prophets also saw the coming of the messiah all points to the christian future ignude ignudi plural don t know who the nudes are we do know the acorns are of julius s past family DISCUSSION there are reason why we call it high renaissance and not renaissance high renaissance a culmination of the renaissance attempt to revive classical principles stylistically blends realism with idealism a time when artists like leonardo and michelangelo have mastered and done something new masted the depiction of nature try to perfect nature LEONARDO DA VINCI sta maria delle grazie s last supper painting 1495 1498 in milan was in the refectory was bombed in wwII painting has been restored like 15 times was heavily damaged not only because of smoke and bombing but because of oil and temp woman named dr phin scraped down to original painting fresco would be more ideal when he told his disciples they