Italian Renaissance Painting: Quattrocento and Cinquecento Masters
Italian Renaissance Painting: Key Periods and Artists
In Renaissance Italy, many artists, including sculptors and architects, were also painters. The era saw significant developments, particularly during the Quattrocento and Cinquecento periods.
The Quattrocento (15th Century): Florence
Florence was the epicenter of the Quattrocento. Its representative works embody Renaissance ideals through beauty and technical innovation, such as the revolutionary use of perspective.
Quattrocento Characteristics
- Breaks from medieval conventionalisms, relying on the observation of reality, which is often idealized.
- Painting abandons dependency on architecture, emerging as an independent art form.
- The study of human anatomy becomes essential.
- Focus on the conception of spatial representation.
- Emphasis on drawing (disegno) as the foundation.
- Painters strive to depict reality accurately.
Innovations in Perspective
Perspective techniques developed significantly, arranging figures and objects within a visual pyramid converging at a vanishing point:
- Linear Perspective: Objects appear smaller as they recede, creating a sense of depth and distance for the viewer.
- Aerial Perspective (Atmospheric Perspective): Colors and details fade with distance, and light variations near objects help build volume and suggest depth. Light is crucial not only for volume but also for chromatic richness and tonal variability.
Themes and Techniques
- Themes: Subject matter became more varied, including religious scenes, mythological narratives, portraits, and historical representations.
- Techniques: Common techniques included mural painting (especially fresco), egg tempera on panel for easel painting. From the mid-15th century, the technique of oil on canvas spread, allowing artists to work in the studio and transport large-format pieces.
The Cinquecento (16th Century): Rome
The artistic center shifted to Rome during the Cinquecento (High Renaissance). Interest in vast architectural landscapes diminished; architecture served mainly to enhance the monumentality of figures and scenes.
Cinquecento Characteristics
- Emphasis shifts to the main theme of the work, eliminating anecdotal details.
- The artist’s objective becomes the representation of fundamental human types possessing eternal and timeless beauty.
- Light not only creates volume but also blurs outlines (sfumato), softening forms.
- Increased representation of motion, which would eventually lead to Mannerism.
Major High Renaissance Painters
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Born in the mid-15th century, Leonardo bridged the Quattrocento and Cinquecento. A quintessential Renaissance humanist and intellectual, he sought a scientific basis for his art, considering the intellect fundamental to all artistic activity. He wrote a treatise on painting. Leonardo introduced the concept of valuing the atmosphere enveloping figures, the basis of his aerial perspective and sfumato (smoky, blurred outlines). This led to richness in chromatic tonality and softened contours. Around 1503-1506, he painted the famous portrait, the Mona Lisa.
Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Primarily an architect and sculptor, Michelangelo’s paintings are strongly influenced by sculptural concepts, emphasizing plasticity and relief. His style, sense of color, and the dynamic energy (terribilità ) of his figures contrast with the Venetians, Leonardo’s sfumato, and the serene figures of Raphael. His pivotal painting work occurred between 1508 and 1512 in the Sistine Chapel, when Pope Julius II commissioned him to paint the ceiling with an extensive iconographic program from the Old Testament. From 1536 to 1541, he painted the great Last Judgment on the altar wall of the same chapel.
Raphael (1483-1520)
Raphael of Urbino perhaps best defines the ideal characteristics of the 16th-century High Renaissance. Born in Urbino and dying young in Rome at age 37, he excelled in design and compositional organization. His compositions, often based on classical geometric foundations, achieve beauty through the softness of color, creating a style governed by harmony. He synthesized the inheritance of the great Quattrocento painters, showing an early predilection for the theme of the Virgin and Child. His fundamental works include the large frescoes in the Vatican Stanze (Raphael Rooms), among which the School of Athens is most famous.