Painting

A

Early Renaissance Painting

The development of the principles of linear perspective by various architects and sculptors early in the 15th century enabled painters to achieve in two-dimensional representation the illusion of three-dimensional space. Many of the early Renaissance artists—such as Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, and Andrea Mantegna—employed dramatic perspectives and foreshortening, a method of drawing so as to produce the illusion of the extension of an object or figure into space. Innovations were also made in representing human anatomy and in exploiting new media, with oil painting competing with the general use of the tempera and fresco techniques. Painters exploiting the potential of the new medium worked by building up layers of transparent oil glazes, and the canvas surface replaced the older wood panel. Somewhat later, other artists, notably the Venetians, became noted for their glowing oil colors—in particular, Domenico Veneziano, Giovanni Bellini, and Giorgione.

B

High Renaissance Painting

The masters of the High Renaissance were Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian. Paradoxically, Leonardo left but a handful of paintings, so occupied was he with the scientific observation of phenomena and with technological inventions. Because of his experiments with the medium, attempting to use oil pigments on dry plaster, his surviving fresco paintings have badly deteriorated—as is the case, notably, with the Last Supper (1495-1497, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan). Raphael perfected earlier Renaissance discoveries in matters of color and composition, creating ideal types in his representations of the Virgin and Child and in penetrating portrait studies of his contemporaries. The Vatican's Sistine Chapel in Rome, with its ceiling frescoes (1508-1512) of the Creation and the Fall and the vast wall fresco (1536-1541) of the Last Judgment, attest to Michelangelo's genius as a painter. In Venice, a tradition of coloristic painting reached its climax in the works of Titian, whose portraits demonstrate a profound understanding of human nature. His masterpieces also include representations of Christian and mythological subjects, and his numerous renderings of the female nude are among the most celebrated of the genre.

C

Mannerism

A self-conscious, somewhat artificial style known as Mannerism arose in Italy about 1520. Complexity and distortion were emphasized rather than harmony of line, color, or composition; even religious Mannerist paintings are disquieting to the viewer. Among the Mannerists were Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino, Tintoretto, and Agnolo Bronzino. Best known of the later painters in the Mannerist style was El Greco, who had studied in Italy but settled finally in Spain. His intensely emotional approach charged even landscape—as in his View of Toledo (1600?-1610, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)—with apocalyptic meaning.

D

Northern European Renaissance Painting

The influence of the Italian Renaissance affected northern Europe at the beginning of the 15th century, but this renewal of artistic and cultural activity was not based on classical antiquity. Rather, it was marked by an acute interest in human beings and their surroundings and by a meticulous recording of natural detail in paintings. Generally speaking, an interest in ancient art and a knowledge of linear perspective did not develop in the north until the 16th century, and even then, not all artists availed themselves of the discoveries that were made in Italy.

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One of the most important of 15th-century Netherlandish painters was Jan van Eyck who, with some assistance from his brother Hubert, painted the remarkable polyptych (many-paneled) Ghent Altarpiece (completed 1432, Church of Saint Bavon, Ghent, Belgium). Its 24 panels contain hundreds of figures, as well as a rich variety of vegetation so carefully rendered that more than 30 plant species can be identified. Other outstanding Flemish artists of the period were Rogier van der Weyden, who focused on emotional drama in his religious paintings; Hans Memling, who created delicate, graceful figures against ethereal backgrounds; and Hugo van der Goes, who painted a superb altarpiece (1476?, Uffizi, Florence) with a wealth of precise details for the Italian Portinari family. Characteristic of all these artists was the use of symbols, or iconography. Objects stood not simply for themselves but conveyed abstract ideas; a crystal vase, for example, meant purity. Linear perspective was unknown among the Flemish; nevertheless, their achievements with oil glazes and tempera have never been surpassed.

In France, the most important painter of this period was Jean Fouquet, a superb portraitist as well as a miniaturist, who was influenced both by earlier Flemish art and contemporary Italian painting. Evidence of his visit to Italy in the 1440s is seen in the representation of an Italian Renaissance church in the background of one of the panels (1450?) of the two-panel devotional painting known as the Melun Diptych. One panel is in Berlin, Germany, at the Staatliche Museen and the other is in Antwerp, Belgium, at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts.

Great masterpieces were created in the early 1500s by painters who, more interested in the expressive value of their subjects, ignored perspective, anatomy, and correct proportions. An example is the Garden of Earthly Delights (about 1505 to about 1510, Prado, Madrid), a triptych by the Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch; it is a surreal conglomeration of sensuously suggestive human and animal shapes and strange plant forms. Another example of the characteristic 16th-century northern exaggeration of human form is the profoundly moving work, Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1515?, Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, France), by the German painter Matthias Grünewald. In contrast, another German artist, Albrecht Dürer, truly the Renaissance genius of the north, is renowned for his superb rendition of the human figure. A Christian humanist whose scientific curiosity was comparable to that of Leonardo, Dürer was inspired by the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus and by Martin Luther—as demonstrated in the engraving Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513) and the twin paintings the Four Apostles (1526?, Alte Pinakothek, Munich), both of which display his remarkable draftsmanship. Still another renowned German-born artist was Hans Holbein the Younger, who is principally remembered for his portraits, especially those of England's Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More.

Among the 16th-century Netherlandish painters, Pieter Bruegel the Elder is most notable; his scenes of peasant life, many of which are satirical comments on human folly, are highly esteemed. Drawing on myth, parables, and proverbs, Bruegel's engaging paintings have charmed viewers for more than 400 years.

VI

Baroque Painting

Baroque art of the 17th century is characterized by its dynamic appearance, in contrast to the relatively static classical style of the Renaissance (see Baroque Art and Architecture). Typical of the baroque style are diagonal compositional lines, which give a sense of movement, and use of strong chiaroscuro (contrasts of light and shadow). Both these techniques created a grandiose, dramatic style appropriate to the vital spirit of the Counter Reformation. Many painters of the early 17th century also began to turn away from the artificiality of Mannerism in an attempt to emulate more closely the natural world.

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