Italy in the Renaissance Note the cities of

Italy in the Renaissance Note the cities of Florence, Rome, Milan, Venice, and Urbino.

Sample pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks (Some 15, 000 such pages survive!)

Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, 1495 -98 Painted on the wall of a refectory (dining hall) of a convent in Milan

Leonardo, Last Supper Actual-size early (c. 1520) copy of the Last Supper by Giampietrino, a close follower of Leonardo

Diagram of Last Supper showing orthogonals converging on the head of Christ

Christ gesturing toward a piece of bread and reaching for a glass of wine (“This is my body. . this is my blood”; Matthew 26)

High Renaissance vs. Early Renaissance Andrea del Castagno, Last Supper (c. 1450)

Details of Andrea del Castagno’s Last Supper

Castagno Leonardo

Frescoes by Raphael representing the four principal fields of Renaissance learning: • Philosophy • Theology • Poetry (or Literature) • Law Stanza della Segnatura (“Room of the Signature”) in the Vatican Palace, Rome. Originally the study of Pope Julius II: nephew of Pope Sixtus IV and patron of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Bramante. Raphael painted it from 1508 to 1511.

The School of Athens (“Philosophy”)

School of Athens Note: Plato holds a copy of his treatise Timaeus (labeled TIMEO); Aristotle holds a copy of his Ethics (labeled ETICA). Plato and Aristotle: the two most important ancient Greek philosophers

Detail

Another detail

Detail: Diogenes and others

Detail: Pythagoras and others, including Pope Julius’s nephew, Francesco Maria della Rovere

Detail: “spherical” group of figures, including Bramante—the great High Renaissance architect—in the guise of the philosopher-mathematician Euclid.

Detail including Raphael’s self-portrait

Contemporary statements about the nature of painting: Leonardo: Painting is una cosa mentale (“a mental thing”) Michelangelo: Si dipinge col cervello, e non con le mani (“you paint with your brain, and not with your hands”) Contrast these statements with the one Italians made about Flemish painting: “The northerners have their brains in their hands” – hanno il cervello nelle mani. Detail including Raphael’s self-portrait

Frescoes in the “Room of Galatea” in the Villa Farnesina, Rome A villa is a rural or suburban residence: a sort of country estate. The Villa Farnesina was originally owned by Agostino Chigi, banker to three successive Renaissance popes. Raphael, Galatea, c. 1513

Botticelli, Birth of Venus, c. 1485 Raphael, Galatea, c. 1513 Early Renaissance vs. High Renaissance

Raphael, Galatea Detail

Raphael, Galatea, c. 1513 Titian, Pesaro Altarpiece, 1526

Masaccio, Trinity, c. 1425 Titian, Pesaro Altarpiece, 1526 Early Renaissance vs. High Renaissance

Detail Titian, Pesaro Altarpiece

Detail: members of the Pesaro family Titian, Pesaro Altarpiece