A Genius

Roman Pietà

c. 1498-99

Michelangelo

Wikipedia Commons

“No sculptor, not even the most rare artist could ever reach this level of design and grace, nor could he, even with hard work, ever finish, polish, and cut the marble as skillfully as Michelangelo did here for in this statue all of the worth and power of sculpture is revealed.” – Giorgio Vasari

In 1498, Michelangelo, then 22 years old, created what would become one of his most famous works, the Pietà. Praised by Vasari and commissioned by the French Cardinal, Jean de Bilheres Lagraulas, the Pietà stands at 7 feet, 5 inches. The theme – Mary cradling the crucified body of Jesus – was a common subject of the time. The pieta was a German invention showing that through Christ’s life and death there is resurrection. Unlike works previously created by other artists, in Michelangelo’s interpretation of the Pieta, the Virgin is sculpted as young and beautiful rather than an older woman around 50 years of age.

One of the largest problems that Michelangelo faced was in the anatomy of the figures. For the sake of the composition, Michelangelo distorted the form of the Virgin sculpting her lap and thighs larger than life. Her monumental drapery conceals much of her body but if she were to stand up, her figure would tower over that of her full-grown son. Compositionally, the figures take on a pyramidal form with the Virgin’s head at the apex and her drapery at the base. Michelangelo’s skill is apparent in not only the softness and luminosity that he gave his figures but in the drapery of Mary’s garments and “the harmony in the joints and the articulations of the arms, torso and legs, with their finely wrought pulses and veins, that, in truth, it is absolutely astonishing that the hand of an artist could have properly executed something so sublime and admirable in a brief time…”

Venus of Urbino

Titian

Wikipedia Commons

In The Lives of Artists by Vasari, Michelangelo is quoted as praising Titians technique, saying, “no artist could achieve more or paint better.” This excellence is displayed in Titians 1538 oil painting,  Venus of Urbino.

In the foreground a young, nude woman, identified with the goddess Venus, is reclining on a bed. The figure is based upon Titian’s mentor, Giorgione’s own painting, Sleeping Venus. Unlike what many of Titian’s criticizers have said, the figure was not meant as a carnal work but simply a celebration of love within marriage. We know this because not only was the work ordered to celebrate marriage but also in the background of the work itself, servants unpack clothes from the bride’s marriage chest.

Many symbols permeate the picture plane from the figure grasping of a handful of roses-a symbol often attributed to the Virgin Mary to the myrtle bush in the background which was commonly found in wedding bouquets of the period. The dog sleeping at the feet of the woman is a common symbol of fidelity, symbolizing allegiance and faithfulness within relationships. Overall, Vasari, who was a contemporary of Titian, praises the artist, saying he has “has decorated Venice, or rather all of Italy and other parts of the world, with superb paintings, deserves to be loved and respected by all artisans and in many ways to be admired and imitated, like those other artisans who have produced and still are producing works worthy of boundless praise, which will endure as long as the memory of illustrious men.”

Sandro Botticeelli and the Adoration of the Magi

Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli

Google Art Project

Sandro Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi was originally created for a private chapel in Santa Maria Novella and later acquired by the Uffizi where it is shown today. The work is perhaps one of Botticelli’s most famous pieces, not quite as popular as The Birth of Venus or La Primavera, but in overall perspective, it far surpasses those. Commissioned by Cossimo de Medici and completed in 1475, Adoration, truly passed many of Botticelli’s other works where his infatuation with line was very clear. In Adoration many members of the Medici family are pictured: Giuliani’s is seen sitting on the right hand side, outfitted in black and red while Lorenzo stands on the left being fawned over by another spectator, and of course, the benefactor Cossimo is pictured, having the privilege of holding Christ’s feet. It is evident that Botticelli had an understanding of contraposto as exhibited in many of the figures stances in addition to monumentality as seen in the set up of all of the figures in the form of a triangle with Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at the peak. The use of one point perspective is seen in the architecture and setting for the piece, i.e. the shed and its walls.  Even the groups of figures move backwards towards the vanishing point.  This perspective though does not carry over into the building of the upper left which seems to be on its own plane. Overall this piece was one of great importance in the progression of Renaissance art as a whole. 

Piero della Francesca's Polyptych of the Misericordia

Altarpiece of the Misericordia in its entirity, Wiki Commons

The Polyptych of the Misericordia is one of the earliest works of the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca's, located in the Pinacoteca Comunale of Sansepolcro. The central panel is of the common motif of the Virgin of Mercy. The Madonna della Misericordia or Virgin of Mercy is a traditional motif in Christian art, which displays the Virgin Mary with an outstretched mantle. In the image, she uses her mantle to protect her worshippers. The Compagnia della Misericordia, a confraternity of Borgo San Sepolcro, commissioned this piece in 1445. They commissioned Piero, a native of the town, to paint a polyptych for them.

Close-up of the Misericordia, Wiki Commons

This particular style was odd for the time in that the style goes back to the Proto-Renaissance, a period which many artists during Piero’s time had been moving away from. In actuality, the style of this piece was not only Piero’s, but also that of the conservative Compagnia. In fact, it is the confraternity that stipulated the golden background and that the multi-part altarpiece be created in retrograde style.

The hierarchal scale of the Madonna dominates the central panel and aims to create a comfort between the figure and the viewer. In actuality, the figure seems displeased and abrasive. Her blue mantel is a common symbol of the Virgin, representing the color of the heavens. At her feet, eight figures crowd around, kneeling in reverence, displaying Piero’s portrait-like style. Among these figures, kneels one member of the misericordia, his identity is concealed by the black-hooded uniform of the confraternity. The oldest two panels, to the left of the main panel, depict St. Sebastian and St. John the Baptist. Towards 1450 he finished the figures of St. Andrew and St. Bernardino. Overall, despite the piece being a step backwards in terms of the developments in the style of the Renaissance period, the piece is, in actuality stunning. 

Vasari: Filippo Lippi

Madonna and Child Google Art Project

Many Renaissance painters made the relation between Mary and child and that of a real mother and baby. Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child with Two Angels  (1460 - 1465) is one of the most beautiful paintings of the Florentine Renaissance, a daring example of the humanizing of religion that goes back to Giotto and his Arena Chapel in Padua. Vasari himself praises Lippi, saying that he "was so highly esteemed for his good qualities that the many other blameworthy things he did were compensated for by his rare talent."

The Virgin Mary Google Art project

Created for the Villa of Poggio Imperiale, this tempura on wood panel is truly one of Lippi’s greatest works. Unlike previous similar works, the Virgin is not holding the child; instead he is being held up to her, almost in a sort of offering, by two angels. Lippi actually is believed to model his Madonna on Lucrezia, a former nun whom he persuaded to run away with him after he fell in love with her while painting another portrait of her as the Virgin Mary.  Although they never married, Lucrezia bore him two children, a son and a daughter. Lippi’s love for Lucrezia is evident in the care and tenderness with which the Virgin in painted. Her sculpted face, the shadows playing on her cheek, her bowed nose and strong lips - all is crisply yet tenderly seen. Her beauty is undeniable; the large pearl over her meticulously arranged hair and a string of pearls receding back from her forehead create a striking triangle.

Filippino Google Art Project

In the painting, two angels present Christ to Mary, one of which, in the foreground, smiles out towards the viewer. This angel in the foreground is believed to be the son of Lucrezia and Lippi, Filippino. What further sets this painting apart from other Madonna and child works is the setting. Instead of portraying Madonna on a grandiose throne, Lippi has her sitting on a fifteenth century Florentine chair. Her elegant garments and rich jewels further the idea that the Madonna is in fact being posed in a modern Florentine home. It is this action of clothing the figures in contemporray wear that, accroding to Vasari, "began to encourage others to abandomn a simplicity that can more readily be termed old-fashioned in keeping with the style of antiquity." The jewels in her hair and on her dress are reflective of the secular part of Florence, a world which Lippi himself embraced when he quit the monastery.  Overall the composition of the piece from the landscape outside of the window, which illuminates Mary, to the foreground containing the figures, truly set this piece apart from the multitude of other religious Renaissance paintings. As Vasari says in The Lives, Lippi "in short was such a great painter that in his own day no one surpassed him and only a few have done so in our own times."