Renaissance Notes
Chapter 22 Beauty, Science, and Spirit in Italian Art: The High Renaissance and Mannerism - Notes
The 15th century artistic developments in Italy matured during the 16th century. The 15th century is thus designated the “Early Renaissance” and the 16th century the “High Renaissance”. Although there is no single style that defines the period, there is a distinct level of technical and artistic mastery that does. This is the age of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian, artists whose works exhibit such authority, that later generations of artists relied on these works for instruction.
These exemplary artistic creations further elevated the prestige of artists. Artists could claim divine inspiration, thereby raising visual art to a status formerly only given to poetry. Painters, sculptors, and architects were elevated to a new level and they claimed for their work a high position among the fine arts.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was born in the small town of Vinci, near Florence. He trained in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. He was brilliant man with many interests. His directions foreshadowed those that art and science would take in the future. A discussion of his many interests enhances our understanding of his artistic production. Those interests are seen in his Romulus sketchbooks filled with drawings and notes from his studies of the human body and natural world. He explored optics in-depth, allowing him to understand perspective, light, and color. His scientific drawings are artworks themselves.
Leonardo’s ambition in painting, as well as science, was to discover the laws underlying the processes and flux of nature. Leonardo believed that reality in its absolute sense is inaccessible, and that humans can only know it through its changing images. He considered the eyes the most vital organs and sight the most essential function. In his notes, he repeatedly stated that all his scientific investigations made him a
The 15th century artistic developments in Italy matured during the 16th century. The 15th century is thus designated the “Early Renaissance” and the 16th century the “High Renaissance”. Although there is no single style that defines the period, there is a distinct level of technical and artistic mastery that does. This is the age of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian, artists whose works exhibit such authority, that later generations of artists relied on these works for instruction.
These exemplary artistic creations further elevated the prestige of artists. Artists could claim divine inspiration, thereby raising visual art to a status formerly only given to poetry. Painters, sculptors, and architects were elevated to a new level and they claimed for their work a high position among the fine arts.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was born in the small town of Vinci, near Florence. He trained in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. He was brilliant man with many interests. His directions foreshadowed those that art and science would take in the future. A discussion of his many interests enhances our understanding of his artistic production. Those interests are seen in his Romulus sketchbooks filled with drawings and notes from his studies of the human body and natural world. He explored optics in-depth, allowing him to understand perspective, light, and color. His scientific drawings are artworks themselves.
Leonardo’s ambition in painting, as well as science, was to discover the laws underlying the processes and flux of nature. Leonardo believed that reality in its absolute sense is inaccessible, and that humans can only know it through its changing images. He considered the eyes the most vital organs and sight the most essential function. In his notes, he repeatedly stated that all his scientific investigations made him a