Madonna of the Stairs 1490-92

1. This is the earliest extant work of

Michelangelo.

2. The waxy, translucent slab, like

alabaster, is reminiscent of

Desiderio.

3. Carved in "rilievo schiacciato" it

represents Michelangelo's

exploration of quattrocento

techniques.

4. In both form and content we see the

influence of Greek "stelai".

5. The Madonna's face is in classical

profile and she sits on a square

block, Michelangelo's hallmark.

6. He chose not to show the Child's

face but placed him in an odd

position, either nursing or sleeping

and encased in drapery, suggesting

protection.

7. In the background, four youths

handle a long cloth, identified either

the one used to lower Christ from the

cross or a shroud.

8. Altogether the relief is much closer

to Donatello's Pazzi Madonna then

the intervening lyrical madonnas by

Rossellino and Desiderio.

The Battle is the second piece of Michelangelo. It was carved in white Carrara marble

for Lorenzo de' Medici and left unfinished

1492 - Lorenzo de' Medici dies.

1. Michelangelo then studied

anatomy with the help of the Prior

of the Hospital of Sto Spirito, for

whom he appears to have carved

a wooden crucifix for the high

altar.

2. A wooden crucifix found there

(now in the Casa Buonarroti) has

been attributed to him by some

scholars.

3. The next few years were marked

by the expulsion of the Medici

and the gloomy Theocracy set up

under Savonarola

4. Michelangelo avoided the worst

of the crisis by going to Bologna

and, in 1496, to Rome.

5. He settled for a time in Bologna,

where in 1494 and 1495 he

executed several marble

statuettes for the Arca (Shrine) di

San Domenico in the Church of

San Domenico. Angel with Candlestick - 1494-95

Bacchus – 1497 1. Age of 21 Michelangelo went to Rome for the first

time. We still possess two of the works he created in

this period (Bacchus and Pietà); others must have

been lost for he spent five years there.

2. The statue of Bacchus was commissioned by the

banker Jacopo Galli for his garden and he wanted it

fashioned after the models of the ancients.

3. The body of this drunken and staggering god gives

an impression of both youthfulness and of

femininity.

i. Vasari says that this strange blending of effects

is the characteristic of the Greek god Dionysus.

ii. But in Michelangelo's experience, sensuality of

such a divine nature has a drawback for man: in

his left hand the god holds with indifference a

lionskin, the symbol of death, and a bunch of

grapes, the symbol of life, from which a Faun is

feeding.

iii. Thus we are brought to realize, in a sudden way,

what significance this miracle of pure sensuality

has for man: living only for a short while he will

find himself in the position of the faun, caught

in the grasp of death, the lionskin.

4. The statue was transferred to Florence in 1572.

1499 - Pieta

• Michelangelo’s

first major work he

is 23

• It is the only work

he ever signed.

• The twenty-three

year-old artist

presents us with an

image of the

Madonna with

Christ's body never

attempted before.

• Her face is youthful,

yet beyond time; her

head leans only

slightly over the

lifeless body of her

son lying in her lap.

"The body of the

dead Christ exhibits

the very perfection of

research in every

muscle, vein, and

nerve - Vasari

1. 1501 - David – commissioned by the Arte della Lana

(Guild of Wool Merchant), who were responsible for

the upkeep and the decoration of the Cathedral in

Florence.

2. Was given a block of marble which Agostino di

Duccio had already attempted to fashion forty years

previously, perhaps with the same subject in mind.

3. Portrays the youth in the phase immediately

preceding the battle

4. The artist places him in the most perfect "

contraposto", as in the most beautiful Greek

representations of heroes.

5. The right-hand side of the statue is smooth and

composed while the left-side, from the outstretched

foot all the way up to the dishevelled hair is openly

active and dynamic. The muscles and the tendons

are developed only to the point where they can still

be interpreted as the perfect instrument for a strong

will, and not to the point of becoming individual self-

governing forms.

6. Once the statue was completed, a committee of the

highest ranking citizens and artists decided that it

must be placed in the main square of the town, in

front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the Town Hall.

7. It was the first time since antiquity that a large

statue of a nude was to be exhibited in a public

place.

The Patrons of the Renaissance

• Pope (not so) Innocent VIII (1432 – July 25, 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo), was Pope from 1484 until his death.

• Succeeded Pope Sixtus • Died 1492 leaving behind several

illigitimate children

• 1487 married off his elder son Franceschetto Cybo to Maddalena de Medici,

• Lorenzo de Medici, in return obtained the Cardinals hat for his 13 year old son Giovanni the Later Pope Leo X

• His daughter Teodorina Cibl married Gerardo Llisodimare and had a daughter

• Savonarola chastised him for his worldly ambitions

• The unsympathetic Roman chronicler Stefano Infessura provides many lively details, among them the apparent attempt to revive Innocent VIII on his deathbed by blood transfusions from three young male children (who died as well in the process).

• Pope Innocent VIII dies on July 25, 1492

• The three likely candidates for the Papacy

were cardinals Borgia (who becomes Pope Alexander VI ), Ascanio Sforza and Giuliano della Rovere.

• While there was never substantive proof of simony, the rumour was that Borgia, by his great wealth, succeeded in buying the largest number of votes, including that of Sforza, whom, popular rumour had it, he bribed with four mule-loads of silver.

• Della Rovere, jealous and angry, accused Borgia of being elected over him by means of simony and a secret agreement with Ascanio Sforza.

• He at once determined to take refuge from Borgia's wrath at Ostia, and a few months afterwards went to Paris, where he incited Charles VIII of France to undertake a conquest of Naples.

• Accompanying the young King on his campaign, he entered Rome along with him, and endeavoured to instigate the convocation of a council to inquire into the conduct of the pontiff with a view to his deposition

• Pope Alexander, having gained a friend in Charles VIII's minister Briçonnet by offering him the position of cardinal, succeeded in defeating the machinations of his enemy.

• Pope Alexander died

in 1503, and his son, Cesare

fell ill at the same time. Della Rovere did not support the candidature of Cardinal Piccolomini of Siena, who was (on 8 October 1503) consecrated under the name of Pope Pius III, but who died twenty-six days afterwards.

• Della Rovere then succeeded by dexterous diplomacy in tricking the weakened Cesare Borgia into supporting him.

• He was elected as Pope Julius II to the papal dignity by the near-unanimous vote of the cardinals

• Julius II set himself with a courage and determination rarely equalled, to rid himself of the various powers under which his temporal authority was almost overwhelmed.

• Portrait of Julius by Raphael 1511

The pontificate of Julius II (1503–13)

• The "Warrior Pope" who donned armour to lead troops in defence of papal

lands, would forever change the Vatican.

• Dynamic but difficult, with an ego matched only by his vision, Julius was one

of the great patrons of Renaissance art and architecture. In 1505, he took up

the task left incomplete by Nicholas V (r. 1447–55), who had begun an

expansion of the apse of Saint Peter's. Rex Harrison as Pope Julius in ‘the agony and the Ecstasy

• The new apse, Julius decided, would house his tomb

• an enormous freestanding monument designed by Michelangelo.

• Julius soon decided to tear down the Constantinian basilica and rebuild Saint Peter's entirely, an idea met with opposition from parties who felt that the old church, which had existed almost from the dawn of Christianity, should be preserved.

• Michelangelo drawing for Pope Julius’s Tomb

• The reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica, beginning in 1506.

• When Julius took the papal office, the condition of the Church was extremely poor, and he took the opportunity to expand it, modernize it, and leave his impression forever on the Vatican.

• Julius hired Donato Bramante to design the Basilica, a prominent architect and artist of the day.

• Della Rovere wanted the splendour of the new Cathedral to inspire awe in the masses, produce support for Catholicism and prove to his enemies he was a pious and devoted man.

• ―Bramante wanted to build a Basilica that would ‘surpass in beauty, invention, art and design, as well as in grandeur, richness and adornment all the buildings that had been erected in that city’" (Scotti, 47).

• Famous book - famous movie

• Enter the Sculptor

• The tomb was originally

commissioned in 1505 yet was not completed until 1545 in a much reduced scale:

• 1505 - Commissioned by Julius; Michelangelo spends 6 months choosing marble at Carrara

• 1506 - Michelangelo returns to Rome due to a lack of funds available for the project, and is dismissed by an angry and bitter Julius.

• Michelangelo moves to Florence until Julius threatens to wage war on the state unless he returns, which he does.

The Quarries of Carrara

• 1508 - It is rumoured that Bramante and Raphael, apparently jealous of Michelangelo's

commission, convince the Pope that it is bad luck to have his tomb built in his lifetime,

and that Michelangelo's time would be better spent on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the

Vatican Palace

• (assuming that Michelangelo, primarily a sculptor, would have great difficulty in

completing a painting of such scale).

Sistine chapel

• The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna

between 1477 and 1480.

• During this period a team of painters that included Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and

Domenico Ghirlandaio created a series of frescoed panels depicting the life of Moses and

the life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below.

• These paintings were completed in 1482, and on August 15, 1483,Sixtus IV consecrated

the first mass in honor of Our Lady of the Assumption.

1. To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo needed a support; the first idea was by

Julius' favoured architect Donato Bramante, who wanted to build for him a scaffold to be

suspended in the air with ropes.

2. However, Bramante did not successfully complete the task, and the structure he built

was flawed. He had perforated the vault in order to lower strings to secure the scaffold.

Michelangelo laughed when he saw the structure, and believed it would leave holes in

the ceiling once the work was ended. He asked Bramante what was to happen when the

painter reached the perforations, but the architect had no answer.

3. The matter was taken before the Pope, who ordered Michelangelo to build a scaffold of

his own. Michelangelo created a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in

the wall, high up near the top of the windows. He lay on this scaffolding while he painted

1512 - Michelangelo

completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling project and returns to the tomb.

1513 - Between 1512 and 1513, Michelangelo completes three sculptures for the project: the 'Dying Slave' and the 'Rebellious Slave' (now in the Louvre, Paris) and

'Moses' which is now a part of the final design. After these sculptures are completed, Julius dies and the new Pope Leo X abandons the project.

1516 - A new contract is agreed between Michelangelo and Julius' heirs who demand the completion of the project.

• 1520s -"The Genius of Victory"

• 4 unfinished slaves, which now sit in the Academia in Florence with the David

• 1532 - A second new contract is signed by Michelangelo which involves a wall-tomb.

• 1542 - The wall-tomb is begun by Michelangelo after final details are negotiated with Julius' grandson.

• 1545 - The final tomb is completed, and installed in San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome; it includes the original 'Moses' sculpture along with 'Leah' and 'Rachel' (probably completed by Mich's assistants) on the lower level, and several other sculptures (definitively not by Michelangelo) on the upper level.

The slaves

(four in Florence and two in Paris) were intended to be at the lower level of the tomb of

Pope Julius II, while the Moses for the middle level.

From the realized version of the tomb, erected in the church San Pietro in Vincoli in

Rome after several redesign and reduction of the original plan, the slaves were left out.

Clement VII

Original name Giulio de' Medici

(b.1478, Florence, d. 1534,

Rome), pope from 1523 to 1534.

Succeeded his cousin Pope leo

(Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici)

The Sistine Chapel's frescoes

restoration began on

November 7, 1984. The

restoration complete, the

chapel was re-opened to the

public on April 8, 1994

Daniel – Before and after.

• 1527 - the Medici were again expelled from Florence, and Michelangelo, who was politically a Republican in spite of his close ties with the Medici, took an active part in the 1527-29 war against the Medici up to the capitulation in 1530 (although in a moment of panic he had fled in 1529) and supervised Florentine fortifications

• During the months of confusion and disorder in Florence, when he was proscribed for his participation in the struggle, it would appear that he was hidden by the Prior of S. Lorenzo.

• A number of drawings on the walls of a concealed crypt under the Medici Chapel have been attributed to him, and ascribed to this period.

• After the reinstatement of the Medici he was pardoned, and set to work once more on the Chapel which was to glorify them until, in

• 1534 - left Florence and settled in Rome for the thirty years remaining to him.

Pope Paul III succeeded Clement VII (r. 1534–49)

• Original name Alessandro Farnese (b. 1468,

Canino, d. 1549, Rome), Italian noble who was the

last of the Renaissance popes (reigned 1534-49)

and the first pope of the Counter-Reformation.

• The worldly Paul III was a notable patron of the

arts and at the same time encouraged the

beginning of the reform movement that was to

affect deeply the Roman Catholic Church in the

later 16th century.

• He called the Council of Trent in 1545.

• would take over a commission ordered by

Clement VII in the last year of his rule to have the

artists fresco the altar wall of the chapel with the

Last Judgment (1536–41).

• Michelangelo's apocalyptic vision depicts

hundreds of human souls rising from the earth

and ascending to heaven or being pulled into hell

under the thunderous hand of Christ the Judge,

rendered against a blue sky that suggests a

dematerialization of the chapel wall.

• Pope Paul III – Titian

1543

Farnese Family

1. Italian family that ruled

the duchy of Parma and

Piacenza from 1545 to

1731.

2. The family became noted

for its statesmen and

soldiers, especially in the

14th – 15th century, as

well as by contracting

politically useful

marriages.

3. In 1545 Pope Paul III, a

Farnese, detached Parma

and Piacenza from the

papal dominions and

made them into duchies.

The last judgement

Where

West wall of the Sistine chapel

God

God’s majesty rather than his

fatherhood is seen here.

The world

Irredeemably corrupt, this was the

orthodox viewpoint at that time.

Christ

Christ the Judge is represented as a

great avenging Apollo

The power of the painting comes

from the artists tragic despairs.

Self portrait.

He paints himself in as a

flayed skin.

An empty envelope of dead

surface, drained of his

personhood through artistic

pressure.

Saint Bartholomew

He was martyred by being

flayed alive.

Through his sacrifice he is

saved and this is M’s promise

of salvation.

The Last Judgement • He began work on it in 1536

at the age of 61.

• In the interval there had been the Sack of Rome and the Reformation, and the confident humanism and Christian Neoplatonism of the Ceiling had curdled into the personal pessimism and despondency of the Judgement.

• It was unveiled in 1541 and caused a sensation equalled only by his own work of thirty years earlier, and was the only work by him to be as much reviled as praised, and only narrowly to escape destruction, though it did not escape the mutilation of having many of the nude figures 'clothed' after his death.

• Paul III, who had commissioned the Judgement, immediately commissioned two more frescoes for his own chapel, the Cappella Paolina; these were begun in 1542 and completed in 1550. They represent the Conversion of St Paul and the Crucifixion of St Peter.

• The angels in the

middle blow their

horns to raise the

dead. One of them

holds the Book in

which all has been

written down and

upon which Jesus

will base his

judgment.

• To the left, the

chosen are escorted

to Heaven by angels.

• On the far left of the ring made

by the blessed stand the

women - saints, virgins and

martyrs, along with the sibyls

and heroines of the Old

Testament.

• The gigantic figure, who seems

to be protecting a young girl

who kneels beside her, is

usually identified as Eve.

• At the bottom of the painting the

boatman Charon can be seen ferrying the

damned into hell.

• Charon is the mythical boatman of

Roman and Greek mythology who ferried

the damned to hell. He is featured in

Dante's Devine Comedy, and also in

Virgil's Eneid,

The detail shows a group of elect standing to the right of

Christ.

• The figure holding the cross has been variously identified as the Cyrenean who came to Christ,s aid on the way to Calvary.

• Below to the right, the St Sebastian

• He clasps in his hand the arrows which are the symbol of his martyrdom.

• To the left, Catherine of Alexandria turns towards St Blasius.

• In the original picture both of them were entirely naked

• Scandalising contemporaries

St Catharine of Alexander

• To the right, the damned are going to Hell.

Michelangelo was inspired by Dante’s Inferno.

Charon (with oar) and his devils are leading

the damned to judge Minos (with snake).

The damned

• being sucked down into hell.

They are reminiscent of the descriptions in Dante's Inferno, which Michelangelo knew by heart.

• The judgment passed on them is represented by the figure in the centre who seems to be suffering an inner torment

• Similar to that of the artist himself: despair, remorse, and the fear of physical and spiritual annihilation.

The Figure of Christ a mighty

avenging Apollo

Jesus is seated in the middle

with his mother Mary at his

side.

The two large figures are Paul

(left) and Peter (right, with keys

in hand).

The figure underneath and to

the right of Jesus is St.

Bartholomew - a self-portrait by

Michelangelo. In his hand, his

mortal skin.

St Bartholomew with Michelangelo's

self portrait

St Peter – with his keys

Coversion of St Paul – 1542

Crucifixion of St Peter – 1546- 50

• The last sculpture of the artist, it remained unfinished when he died.

• fashioned up to six days before his death: the Pietà Rondanini

• This also marks the development undergone by the whole European culture: from the Renaissance, from the revival of Antiquity and the rediscovery of nature, to the splitting up of the Christian Church, the return of faith after the Counter Reformation and the Manneristic art of an El Greco.

• According to Vasari, he had already begun to work on it in 1555,

• He destroyed the first version of this.

• This version, still unfinished at the artist's death, was probably begun not much later then 1555.

• The unity between Mother and Son is even more intimate. It is almost impossible to tell whether it is the Mother supporting the Son, or the Son supporting the Mother, overcome by despair.

• Both are in need of help, and both hold themselves up in the act of invocation and lament before the world and God.

Early Raphael 1.Raphael’s teacher

Pietro Perugino (1478-1523)

2.particular talent Had precocious talent from the beginning and an absorber of influences.

Whatever he saw he took possession of always growing from what was taught him.

3.Perugino’s ‘Crucifixion with the Virgin etc... .’ was given to the church of San Gimigniano in 1497 when Raphael was only 14.

Raphael in Florence

1504-08.

Who were working there?

Leonardo and

Michelangelo both

were working there.

Who influenced him the

most?

Particularly by

Leonardo

Paintings take on a

more serious graphic

energy.

Give an example of this

influence

Cowper Madonna

Softness of contour

and perfection of

balance.

The faces have the

inwardness of

Leonardo, made firm

and unproblematic.

Michelangelo Holy

Family

Raphael’s Alba

Madonna.

1508 Raphael is summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II 1. He was to remain in the city serving successive popes until his death.

2. His first commission was the decoration of the Stanza della Segnatura, a room

located on the upper floor of the Vatican palace and almost certainly used by

the Pope as a library.

3. This room and the other rooms of the papal apartments already contained

works by Piero della Francesca, Perugino and Luca Signorelli, but the Pope

decided that these works would have to be sacrificed to accommodate the

young artist's frescoes.

The four Stanze di Raffaello

1. ("Raphael's rooms") in

the Palace of the Vatican

form a suite of reception

rooms, the public part of

the papal apartments.

2. Julius commissioned

frescoes for the interior

of the Vatican palace.

3. He asked Raphael to

paint four stanze, or

rooms, for use as papal

offices and reception

spaces.

4. One of these, the Stanza

della Segnatura, contains

Raphael's famous fresco

The School of Athens.

Executed in 1510–11,

This view of the Stanza della Segnatura shows the Parnassus (Poetry) in the left lunette, and

School of Athens (Philosophy) in the right. The popular but somewhat misleading name the

School of Athens dates back only to the eighteenth century.

1. Below the tondo on the

vault representing

Philosophy, ancient

philosophers have

assembled in the School

of Athens.

2. In the centre Plato and

Aristotle carry books

they have written:

Timaeus and Ethics,

respectively.

3. Their gestures are rich

in meanings: Plato

points upward, into the

sphere of higher

thoughts.

4. With his outstretched

hand Aristotle is

presumably alluding to

his mastery of natural

phenomena.

5. On the steps in front of

Aristotle rests the Cynic

philosopher Diogenes,

with the cup that he

tossed away.

Plato 1. Is the idealist he points upward

towards divine inspiration. Human

reason is rooted to the earth

divine reason floats in the sky

above the heads of the

philosopher’s theologians and

church fathers who try to interpret

it.

2. Beyond him to the left are the

philosophers who appealed to the

intuition and to the emotions,

3. They are nearer to the figure of

Apollo and they lead to the wall of

Parnassus.

Aristotle 1. To the right is Aristotle the man of

good sense holding out a

moderating hand.

2. Beyond him are representatives of

men engaging in rational activities

logic grammar and geometry.

3. Raphael curiously places himself

in this group next to an alleged

portrait of Leonardo da Vinci

1. the painting offers a hint of

what Bramante's church

interior might have looked like,

while not based on an actual

building, all suggest Raphael's

familiarity with Bramante's

designs.

2. The painting depicts an

imaginary gathering of Greek

philosophers, many rendered

as portraits of Raphael's

contemporaries.

3. Plato and Aristotle preside over

the group, the former probably

painted in the likeness of

Leonardo da Vinci.

1. Below them Euclid 1. Is a portrait of Bramante, the

building representing Bramante‘s

idea for a new St Peter’s.

2. Heraclitus is the figure in the

foreground.

1. Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel

ceiling.

2. Michelangelo would not have let

anyone into the building whilst he

was working, but Bramante had the

key.

3. It is possible he let the young

Raphael in.

4. The detail represents Heraclitus

with the features of Michelangelo.

3. In the groups the seekers after revealed

truth are arranged with the same regard

for their relations with each other.

1. with the philosophic scheme of the

whole room consists in grasping

imaginatively all the is best in the

thought of the time and these walls

represent the summit of human

achievement.

1: Zeno of Citium 2: Epicurus — 3: Unknown — (Frederik II of Mantua?) 4: Anicius

Manlius Severinus Boethius 5: Averroes 6: Pythagoras 7: Alcibiades or Alexander

the Great 8: Antisthenes or Xenophon 9: Hypatia — (Francesco Maria della Rovere

or Raphael's mistress Margherita.) 10: Aeschines or Xenophon? 11: Parmenides

12: Socrates 13: Heraclitus (Michelangelo). 14: Plato holding the Timaeus (

Leonardo da Vinci). 15: Aristotle holding the Ethics 16: Diogenes of Sinope 17:

Plotinus 18: Euclid or Archimedes with students( Bramante) 19: Strabo or

Zoroaster (Baldassare Castiglione or Pietro Bembo). 20: Ptolemy R: Apelles

(Raphael). 21: Protogenes — (Il Sodoma or Perugino)

1. On the right side of the

scene, Euclid who is

explaining to his pupils a

geometric diagram he has

drawn on a slate.

2. It is thought that Raphael

was here portraying the

architect Bramante.

3. Behind stands the

geographer Ptolemy,

recognizable thanks to his

crown and world sphere,

and the astronomer

Zoroaster, who is

presenting the sphere of

the stars.

• Raphael appears as himself, listening to a lecture by the astronomer Ptolemy.

• Raphael's decoration of the stanze continued under Julius's successor, Leo X ( 1513–21).

• The rooms vary widely in subject matter, but invariably stress the pope's status as Christ's vicar on earth, the long history of the papacy, and its continuing protection by God.

This view of the Stanza della Segnatura shows the Cardinal Virtues in the left lunette; left of

window: Justinian Presenting the Pandects to Trebonianus; right of window: Gregory IX

Approving the Decretals; on the right wall: Disputation of the Holy Sacrament (Theology).

1. The fresco can be seen as a portrayal of the Church Militant below, and the Church Triumphant above.

2. A change in content between a study and the final fresco shows that the Disputa and The School of

Athens can be seen as having a common theme: the revealed truth of the origin of all things, in other

words the Trinity. This cannot be apprehended by intellect alone (philosophy), but is made manifest in

the Eucharist.

3. The painting is built around the monstrance containing the consecrated Host, located on the altar.

4. Figures representing the Triumphant Church and the Militant Church are arranged in two semicircles,

one above the other, venerate the Host.

5. God the Father, bathed in celestial glory, blesses the crowd of biblical and ecclesiastical figures from

the top of the composition.

6. Immediately below, the resurrected Christ sits on a throne of clouds between the Virgin (bowed in

adoration) and St John the Baptist (who, according to iconographic tradition, points to Christ).

7. Prophets and saints of the Old and New Testament are seated around this central group on a semi-

circular bank of clouds similar to that which constitutes the throne of Christ. They form a composed

and silent crowd and, although they are painted with large fields of colour, the figures are highly

individuated.

1. At the bottom of the picture space, inserted in a vast landscape dominated by the altar

and the eucharistic sacrifice, are saints, popes, bishops, priests and the mass of the

faithful.

2. They represent the Church which has acted, and which continues to act, in the world,

and which contemplates the glory of the Trinity with the eyes of the mind.

3. Following a fifteenth century tradition, Raphael has placed portraits of famous

personalities, both living and dead, among the people in the crowd.

4. Bramante leans on the balustrade at left; the young man standing near him has been

identified as Francesco Maria Della Rovere; Pope Julius II, who personifies Gregory the

Great, is seated near the altar Dante is visible on the right, distinguished by a crown of

laurel.

5. The presence of Savonarola seems strange, but may be explained by the fact that Julius

II revoked Pope Alexander VI's condemnation of Savonarola (Julius was an adversary of

Alexander, who was a Borgia).

Baldassare Castiglione

1. Humanist and a writer, was

one of the most important

men of the Italian

Renaissance.

2. His popular book "Il

cortegiano" (The Courtier)

summed up the tastes and

culture of the Renaissance, it

gives insights into the

thinking and culture at the

court of Urbino at the turn of

the 16th century, and is

written in a style that is

delightfully clear and

precise.

3. Rubens admired Raphael's

portrait of Castiglione so

much that he copied it.

Giorgione Tempest 1505

1. Though many interpretations

of the subject of this small

painting have been

suggested, none of them is

totally convincing.

2. Thus the mystery remains of

what exactly the significance

is of the fascinating

landscape caught at this

particular atmospheric

moment, the breaking of a

storm.

3. Who are these figures? There

is no recognisable genre to

this theme.

4. A naked women nursing her

young? And a shepherd

observing absorbed in private

reveries, and every other

detail, from the little town

half-hidden and the course of

the stream to the ancient

ruins, the houses, the towers

and the buildings in the

distance .

Giorgione - The Three Philosophers - 1509

The Three Philosophers 1. A work of the last couple of

years of Giorgione's life,

seems it was finished by

Sebastiano del Piombo.

2. The subject matter has long

been a source of

disagreement.

3. In addition to interpret the

painting as three

philosophers (or three

mathematicians) it is also

assumed that the painting

represents the three Magi

4. Whatever the precise theme,

one can find three ages of

man, three distinct

temperaments, and three

different nations

1. The painting probably began as a

depiction of the the Magi, who are

recorded in the Gospel as visitors who

followed a star sign to Bethlehem

2. The three magi were apparently

astrologers, a prominent form of

divination even in Renaissance Italy.

3. The ages of man is seen from the seated

youth on the left embarking on a study

1. He is dressed in Springtime

simplicity, solitary dreaming and

hopeful looking to the future

4. Held mentally and debated by the middle

aged man.

1. Two elders seem to converse but

also debate with themselves

experience has made them more

weighty and earnest

2. The central man has the appearance

of a man of substance hands free for

work

5. Stored in material form by the sage

1. Grasps a sky chart the astrologers

guide to star divination

1. The three figures occupy the right hand

side of the picture

2. The rest is the trees and rocky cave and

beyond that, a sunny landscape with a

village.

3. It suggests some metaphors

4. To venture into the unknown darkenss of

the cave

5. To enter into the sunny meadow of

familiarity beyond

6. Search within the spirit or enjoy the

world with its rewards

7. Each man debates the same questions

each with the attitude that time brings

8. Another suggestion is

i. The Old man represents the

timeless philosophy of Aristotle

ii. The Middle man represents Islamic

culture and learning

iii. The young man represents

modernistic natural philosophy we

now call science. 9. The modern approach of Giorgione is the

use of a personal motive that is not in line

with pictorial conventions of the time.

10. This gives his work an element of mystery

and is not easy to ‘read’.

The Adoration of the shepherds

(Allendale nativity)

Giorgione melts into Titian

The focus of the painting is the evening

light and this emphasis on light and

landscape had a major influence on the

work of Titian

The Venetian emphasis on light is the

overriding concern and it unifies all

aspects of the painting and the mood is

an overrall silence and stillness

The world seems to have come to a

standstill

Parents child and Shepherds are lost in

an eternal reverie a prolonged sunset

that will never end

Giorgione uses the element of light to

portray a sense of spirituality to the

world.

He is able to portray the world as it is

but transports us beyond its confines