The Renaissance Era Essay Research Paper The — страница 2

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that set Italian Renaissance art on the course it would follow for centuries. Giotto broke free of the flat, ethereal Byzantine manner of his Italian predecessors by painting convincing human figures with the semblance of weighty pieces of sculpture placed within a convincing illusion of space. Giotto dramatized religious narratives with a keen comprehension of human behavior in a way that later artists seldom equaled or surpassed. In Giotto’s lifetime his most famous work was the mosaic Navicella which is now all but destroyed. (Buser, Thomas. Giotto di Bondone , Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia) The Italian Michelangelo Buonarotti, almost certainly the most famous artist produced by Western civilization and arguably the greatest, is universally viewed as the supreme

Renaissance artist He created monumental works of painting, sculpture, and architecture and left an additional legacy of numerous letters and poems. Through this vast and multifaceted body of artistic achievement, Michelangelo made an indelible imprint on the Western imagination. His lifelong fascination with the sublime form of the human body arose from this thoroughly Florentine sensitivity to the inherent worth and nobility of individuals. One of Michelangelo s greatest work is his sculpture of David, a colossal evocation of athletic prowess and dynamic action. This marble giant was carved in Florence as a symbol of the proud independence of the Florentine republic, whose existence was being threatened by more powerful states. Depicted just before his historic battle with

Goliath, David reveals a psychologically charged state of mind that is reflected in the contrapposto of his pose. In this heroic work Michelangelo successfully fused classical inspiration with Florentine humanism and enhanced this fusion through his own depiction of the male nude. The remainder of Michelangelo’s career was largely controlled by his relationship with the papacy, and from 1505 to 1516 the Vatican became the focal point of his artistic endeavors. Michelangelo’s organization of the Sistine ceiling frescoes represents perhaps the most complex composition in Western art. The space contains an intricate illusionistic architectural structure that serves as a frame for the disposition of the sculpturelike forms. Of the nine central narrative scenes illustrating events

from the creation of the universe as told in Genesis, the most sublime scene is the Creation of Adam, in which Michelangelo’s new vision of human beauty, first articulated in the David, attains pictorial form. In the four years that it took to complete the ceiling, Michelangelo realized the full potential of the High Renaissance style; in the process, he changed the artistic vision of another great High Renaissance master, Raphael, and altered the course of Western art. (Kirwin, W. Chandler. Michalangelo , Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia) Raphael, also known as Raffaello Sanzio, or Santi, was yet another one of the greatest painters of the High Renaissance in Rome. Around 1508-09, Raphael, although only 25 years old, was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to direct the decoration

of the state rooms, Stanze, in the Vatican Palace. Here the painter found an opportunity to apply his classical vocabulary on a grand scale. A major impetus toward both classicism and monumentality was the art of Michelangelo, who was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, also in the Vatican Palace, at the very time of Raphael’s arrival. Among the great religious works painted by Raphael on canvas or panel during his Roman years are the Alba Madonna, the Sistine Madonna, the Madonna of the Chair, and the Transfiguration. In 1515, Raphael painted ten large watercolor cartoons illustrating the Acts of the Apostles as designs for tapestries to be hung in the Sistine Chapel. In 1514, Raphael succeeded Donato Bramante as chief architect of Saint Peter’s Basilica. Raphael

also became the first Superintendent of Antiquities, in 1515, in Rome. Raphael died in Rome at the age of 37 and was buried in the Pantheon amid universal mourning and acclaim. (Kirsch, Edith W. Raphael , Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia) The Renaissance man, the man of universal genius, best exemplified by Leonardo da Vinci. (http://www.encyclopedia.com/) Leonardo is considered the paragon of Renaissance thinkers, engaged as he was in experiments of all kinds and having brought to his art a spirit of restless inquiry that sought to discover the laws governing diverse natural phenomena. What most impresses people today, perhaps, is the immense scope of his achievement. In the past, however, he was admired chiefly for his art and art theory. Leonardo’s equally impressive