Читать книгу 1000 Drawings of Genius - Victoria Charles - Страница 4
15th Century
Оглавление23. Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni), c. 1370–1425, Italian, Saint Benedict Sitting in a Throne, date unknown. Pen and ink on parchment, 24.5 × 17.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. International Gothic.
Florence of the 15th century saw the birth of the Renaissance. The first theorist of this revolutionary art was Leon Battista Alberti, an architect and humanist who represented the ideal of the ‘universal man’. His De Pictura, published in 1435–1436, laid the foundations for the long line of Renaissance theorists that would follow. Although his treatise gives practical examples of techniques for drawing and painting, as earlier texts had done, Alberti’s ‘recipes’ are aimed at a new kind of sensibility. The man who makes paintings and sculptures is no longer a craftsman, but an artist whose work is intellectual as much as manual. Art and science go together, and its key element is perspective, the ‘visual pyramid’ of which Alberti speaks in this short extract dealing with drawing, that has been selected from his second book on painting:
“[Painting] is only worthy of a noble and free spirit, being for me the best sign of its ingenious excellence the dedication to drawing. […]
“The perfection of painting consists of contour, composition, and light and shade […]
“[C]ontour consists of the correct placing of lines, which today is called “drawing”. […] I feel drawings must be done with very subtle lines, hardly visible for the eye, in the way Apelles did […] I would like drawing to be limited to giving contour, for which it is necessary to exercise with infinite diligence and care, since no composition or intelligent use of light can be praised if they are missing the drawing. On the contrary, many times it so happens that a good drawing is enough to please the viewer: this is why drawing is the part on which we must insist the most, for the study of which there can be no better method than the veil, of which I am the inventor. You must take a transparent piece of fabric, commonly called a veil, of any colour. Once we have placed it on a stretcher, we use threads to divide it into many small, equal squares. Afterwards, we place it between us and the object we want to copy, in order for the visual pyramid to penetrate through the transparency of the veil. This veil has many uses: first, it always represents the same immobile surface […] It is absolutely impossible for things not to change when one is painting, since the painter never looks at the object from exactly the same spot […] Therefore, the veil has the advantage that it will always represent the object in the same way. Secondly, with the veil all the parts of the drawing, as well as the contours, will be shown with exact precision; because on seeing that the forehead is on one little square, that the nose is on the one below it, the cheek on the one next to it, the beard on the one further down and, in the same way, all the parts in their respective places, it is very easy to transfer them to the panel or the wall, using the same disposition of squares we have used on the veil. […] I do not share the opinion of those who say: it is not good for painters to get used to the veil or the grid; because it makes things easier and serves to do things well, afterwards they will not be able to do anything by themselves without its help, only with great effort. It is obvious that we do not look into the great or little effort of the painter, but rather praise the painting which has high relief and which looks like the natural bodies it represents. I do not know how this can be achieved by anyone, even half-well, without the help of the veil. For those who wish to progress in art, take advantage of it; and if someone wants to display their knowledge without it, then they must imagine they have it before them, and work as if it were really there, so that with the help of an imaginary grid they can give exact limits to the painting.”
Leon Battista Alberti, De Pictura, 1435-1436
24. Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni), c. 1370–1425, Italian, Six Saints Kneeling, date unknown. Pen and ink on parchment, 24.5 × 17.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. International Gothic.
LORENZO MONACO
(Piero di Giovanni)
(Siena? c. 1370 – Florence, c. 1425)
Lorenzo Monaco was one of the last great exponents of Florentine late Gothic painting. Though he is thought to have been born in Siena, he worked in Florence for more than thirty years. His real name was Piero di Giovanni, but he began to be known as Lorenzo Monaco (Lorenzo ‘the monk’) when he entered the Camaldolense monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 1391. He is known for his frescoes in the Bartolini chapel in Santa Trinità (Florence), but he was mainly a painter of altarpieces.
He received the influence of Duccio and may have been trained by Agnolo Gaddi and Jacopo de Cione. His graceful figures and gold backgrounds, typical of the Italo-Byzantine Gothic, make him perhaps the last great exponent of this school. His work serves as a sharp contrast to his greatest contemporary, Masaccio, who would signal the way for Renaissance painting. Despite this, Monaco would have an important influence on another Renaissance great, Fra Angelico.
25. Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni), c. 1370–1425, Italian, Decorated Initial with Scene of Christ Entering the Temple, 1408–1411. Pen and ink on parchment, 30.5 × 24.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. International Gothic.
26. Anonymous, 15th century, Italian, Two Monks Looking up at a Dragon in a Tower, 1400–1450. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash on vellum, 18.7 × 13.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Late Gothic.
27. Anonymous, 15th century, Italian, The Dominican, Petrus de Croce, Encountering the Devil and Serpents, 1417. Pen and wash on parchment, 24.1 × 13.4 cm. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. Late Gothic.
28. Anonymous, 15th century, Italian, The Shipwreck of Brother Petrus, His Capture and His Audience before a Muslim Ruler, 1417. Pen and wash on parchment, 30.2 × 13.8 cm. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge (Massachusetts). Late Gothic.
29. Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro), c. 1395–1455, Italian, Justice, c. 1427. Pen and ink, brush and brown wash, 19.3 × 17 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
30. Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro), c. 1395–1455, Italian, King David Playing a Psaltery, c. 1430. Pen and ink, and wash, on vellum, 19.7 × 17.8 cm. British Museum, London. Early Renaissance.
FRA ANGELICO
(Guido di Pietro)
(Vicchio di Mugello, c. 1395 – Rome, 1455)
Secluded within cloister walls, a painter and a monk, and brother of the order of the Dominicans, Angelico devoted his life to religious paintings.
Little is known of his early life except that he was born at Vicchio, in the broad fertile valley of the Mugello, not far from Florence, that his name was Guido de Pietro, and that he passed his youth in Florence, probably in some bottegha, for at twenty he was recognised as a painter. In 1418 he entered a Dominican convent in Fiesole with his brother. They were welcomed by the monks and, after a year’s novitiate, admitted to the brotherhood, Guido taking the name by which he was known for the rest of his life, Fra Giovanni da Fiesole; the title of Angelico, the “Angel,” or Il Beato, “The Blessed,” was conferred on him after his death.
Henceforth he became an example of two personalities in one man: he was all in all a painter, but also a devout monk; his subjects were always religious ones and represented in a deeply religious spirit, yet his devotion as a monk was no greater than his absorption as an artist. Consequently, though his life was secluded within the walls of the monastery, he kept in touch with the art movements of his time and continually developed as a painter. His early work shows that he had learned of the illuminators who inherited the Byzantine traditions, and had been affected by the simple religious feeling of Giotto’s work. Also influenced by Lorenzo Monaco and the Sienese School, he painted under the patronage of Cosimo de Medici. Then he began to learn of that brilliant band of sculptors and architects who were enriching Florence with their genius. Ghiberti was executing his pictures in bronze upon the doors of the Baptistery; Donatello, his famous statue of St. George and the dancing children around the organ – gallery in the Cathedral; and Luca della Robbia was at work upon his frieze of children, singing, dancing and playing upon instruments. Moreover, Masaccio had revealed the dignity of form in painting. Through these artists, the beauty of the human form and of its life and movement was being manifested to the Florentines and to the other cities. Angelico caught the enthusiasm and gave increasing reality of life and movement to his figures.
31. Circle of Jan van Eyck (c. 1390–1441), Flemish, Saint Paul, c. 1430. Pen and brown ink, point of the brush and brown ink, with purple and gold heightening, on vellum, 14.6 × 7.9 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Northern Renaissance.
32. Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro), c. 1395–1455, Italian, Christ on the Cross, c. 1430. Pen and brown ink, with red and yellow wash on parchment, 29.3 × 19 cm. Albertina, Vienna. Early Renaissance.
33. Stefano da Verona (Stefano di Giovanni), c. 1374–1438, Italian, Three Standing Figures, 1435–1438. Pen and brown ink over traces of charcoal or black chalk, 30 × 22.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
34. Konrad Witz, c. 1400–1445, Swiss, Virgin and Child in an Interior, date unknown. Pen, brown ink and wash, 29.1 × 20 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Northern Renaissance.
35. Stefano da Verona (Stefano di Giovanni), c. 1374–1438, Italian, The Virgin with Christ Child and St. John the Baptist, 1420–1430. Pen and ink on watermarked white paper, 22.4 × 14.3 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
36. Pisanello (Antonio Pisano), c. 1395–1455, Italian, Three Monkeys in Different Postures, Sketch and Head of Another Monkey, c. 1430. Silverpoint on paper, 20.6 × 21.7 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Early Renaissance.
37. Jan van Eyck, c. 1390–1441, Flemish, Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Albergati, c. 1435. Silverpoint on paper, 21.2 × 18 cm. Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden. Northern Renaissance.
JAN VAN EYCK
(Near Maastricht, c. 1390 – Bruges, 1441)
Little is known of the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, even the dates of their births being uncertain. Jan, as perhaps also Hubert, was for a time in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. He was entered in the household as ‘varlet and painter’, but acted at the same time as a confidential friend, and for his services received an annual salary of two horses for his use, and a ‘varlet in livery’ to attend on him. The greater part of his life was spent in Bruges.
Their wonderful use of colour is another reason of the fame of the van Eycks. Artists came from Italy to study their pictures, to discover what they themselves must do in order to paint so well, with such brilliance, such full and firm effect, as these two brothers. For the latter had found out the secret of working successfully with oil colours. Before their time, attempts had been made to mix colours in the medium of oil, but the oil was slow in drying, and the varnish added to remedy this had blackened the colours. The van Eycks, however, had hit upon a transparent varnish which dried quickly and without injury to the tints. Though they guarded the secret jealously, it was discovered by the Italian, Antonello da Messina, who was working in Bruges, and through him published to the world. The invention made possible the enormous development in the art of painting which ensued.
In these two brothers the grand art of Flanders was born. Like “the sudden flowering of the aloe, after sleeping through a century of suns,” this art, rooted in the native soil, nurtured by the smaller arts of craftsmanship, reached its full ripeness and expanded into blossom. Such further development as it experienced came from Italian influence, but the distinctly Flemish art, born out of local conditions in Flanders, was already fully-grown.
38. Pisanello (Antonio Pisano), c. 1395–1455, Italian, Castle and Landscape, 1440–1450. Sinopia. Museo di Palazzo Ducale, Mantua. Early Renaissance.
39. Circle of Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399–1464), Flemish, Men Shoveling Chairs, 1444–1450. Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk, 30 × 42.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Northern Renaissance.
40. Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono), 1397–1475, Italian, Study for the Monument to John Hawkwood, c. 1436. Metalpoint and white lead on squared paper, 46.1 × 33.3 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
PAOLO UCCELLO
(Paolo di Dono)
(Florence, 1397–1475)
Paolo di Dono was called ‘Uccello’ because he loved birds and the Italian word for bird is uccello. As well as painting on panel and in fresco, he was also a master of mosaics, especially in Venice, and produced designs for stained glass. We can feel the influence of Donatello especially in a fresco representing the Flood and the Recession, whereas the figure in this work is reminiscent of Masaccio’s frescos of the Brancacci chapel. His perspective studies are very sophisticated, recalling the Renaissance art treatises of Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, or Dürer. He was a major proponent of the Renaissance style. However, if his masterwork The Battle of San Romano (1438–1440) has Renaissance elements, Uccello’s gold decorations on the surface of his masterpieces are indebted to the Gothic style.
41. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Faun Attacking a Snake, 1446–1506. Pen and ink on paper, 29 × 17.2 cm. British Museum, London. Early Renaissance.
42. Pisanello (Antonio Pisano), c. 1395–1455, Italian, Tournament, c. 1440–1450. Sinopia. Museo di Palazzo Ducale, Mantua. Early Renaissance.
43. Andrea del Castagno (Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla), before 1419–1457, Italian, Christ in the Sepulchre with Two Angels, 1447. Sinopia. Sant’Apollonia, Florence. Early Renaissance.
ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO
(Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla)
(Castagno, before 1419 – Florence, 1457)
An Italian painter of the Florentine school, Andrea del Castagno was born in Castagno, in the district of Mugello. He followed the naturalism of Masaccio and made use of scientific perspective, gaining wide recognition for his monumental frescoes for the convent of Sant’Apollonia in Florence. These included a Last Supper and three scenes from the Passion of Christ. Another of his principle works (many of them have disappeared) was the equestrian figure of Nicola di Tolentino, in the cathedral of Florence. Castagno added to the Renaissance’s illusionism a strong expressive realism that was influenced by the sculptures of Donatello. He, in turn, would prove influential for succeding generations.
For four centuries, Castagno’s name was burdened with the henious charge of murder. It was said that he had treacherously assasinated his colleague, Domenico Veneziano, in order to monopolise the then-recent secret of oil painting as practised in Flanders by the Van Eycks. This charge was, however, proved to be untrue, as Domenico died four years after Andrea.
44. Pisanello (Antonio Pisano), c. 1395–1455, Italian, A Gentleman and a Lady in Court Clothes, c. 1433–1438. Silverpoint and watercolour, 27.2 × 19.3 cm. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Early Renaissance.
45. Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1420–1497, Italian, St. Laurent with the Virgin and Child and Two Putti, 1450–1460. Pen and brush, 22.8 × 16.2 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
46. Andrea del Castagno (Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla), before 1419–1457, Italian, The Vision of St. Jerome, 1447. Sinopia. Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Early Renaissance.
47. Follower of Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399–1464), Flemish, Louis, Duke of Savoy, c. 1460–1470. Silverpoint on paper, 20.4 × 12.8 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Northern Renaissance.
48. Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono), 1397–1475, Italian, Study for a Chalice, c. 1450–1470. Pen and brown ink, 24 × 9 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
49. Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1399–1464, Flemish, Head of the Virgin, date unknown. Silverpoint on white prepared paper, 12.9 × 11.1 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Northern Renaissance.
ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN
(Tournai, c. 1399 – Brussels, 1464)
He lived in Brussels, where he was the city’s official painter (from 1436), but his influence was felt throughout Europe. One sponsor was Philip the Good, an avid collector. Van der Weyden is the only Fleming who truly carried on van Eyck’s great conception of art. He added to it a pathos of which there is no other example in his country except, though with less power and nobility, that of Hugo van der Goes towards the end of the century. He had a considerable influence on the art of Flanders and Germany. Hans Memling was his most renowned pupil. Van der Weyden was the last inheritor of the Giottesque tradition and the last of the painters whose work is thoroughly religious.
50. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, Christ among the Doctors, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 7.8 × 6 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Early Renaissance.
51. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 7.8 × 6 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Early Renaissance.
52. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, The Last Supper, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 7.7 × 5.9 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Early Renaissance.
53. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 7.5 × 6 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Early Renaissance.
54. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, The Capture of Christ, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 7.6 × 5.9 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Early Renaissance.
55. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, Pilate Washing His Hands, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 8 × 6 cm. Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (Massachusetts). Early Renaissance.
56. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, The Crucifixion, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 8 × 6.3 cm. Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (Massachusetts). Early Renaissance.
57. School of Fra Angelico (c. 1395–1455), Italian, The Lamentation, c. 1450. Brush and brown ink, white gouache, orange wash, incised, on pink-purple prepared parchment, 8 × 6.3 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Early Renaissance.
58. Filippo Lippi, 1406–1469, Italian, Seated Monk, c. 1450–1460. Metalpoint, watercolour and white lead on blue paper, 29.6 × 19.6 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
FILIPPO LIPPI
(Florence, 1406 – Spoleto, 1469)
A Carmelite monk, he lived in a monastery in Florence at the same time as Masolino and Masaccio were painting frescos in Florence. He was ordained a priest in Padua in 1434.
His works show the aesthetic interest of his time through sophisticated drawing and his ability to obtain transparent effects on opaque colours. After his death, his workshop members completed his unfinished frescos. Botticelli was one of his students, as was his son Filippino Lippi. The works of the two former Fra Lippi students link the Early and High Renaissance periods. Works include major fresco cycles for Santa Maria Novella in Florence and for Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.
59. Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono), 1397–1475, Italian, Four Sitting Figures, date unknown. Pen, brown watercolour and white lead on blue paper, 25.8 × 23.9 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
60. Filippo Lippi, 1406–1469, Italian, Preparatory study for The Virgin and Child with Two Angels, c. 1465. Metalpoint, brown watercolour and white lead, 33 × 26 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
61. Filippo Lippi, 1406–1469, Italian, Head of a Woman, c. 1452. Silverpoint, pen, heightening with white lead and touches of red pencil, 30.5 × 20.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
62. Cosmè Tura, c. 1433–1495, Italian, Allegorical Female Figure, 1460–1465. Brush, grey and black ink, white highlights on blue-grey paper, 24.4 × 13.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
63. Jean Fouquet, c. 1425–1478, French, Portrait of an Ecclesiastic, c. 1461. Metalpoint, black chalk on white prepared paper, 19.8 × 13.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
JEAN FOUQUET
(Tours, c. 1425–1478)
A painter and illuminator, Jean Fouquet is regarded as the most important French painter of the 15th century. Little is known about his life but it is quite sure that he executed, in Italy, the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV. Upon his return to France, he introduced Italian Renaissance elements into French painting. He was the court painter to Louis XI. Whether he worked on miniatures rendering the finest detail, or on a larger scale in panel paintings, Fouquet’s art had the same monumental character. His figures are modelled in broad planes defined by lines of magnificent purity.
64. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, St James Being Led to the Execution, 1453–1457. Pen and black chalk on paper, 15.5 × 23.4 cm. British Museum, London. Early Renaissance.
65. Paolo Uccello (Paolo di Dono), 1397–1475, Italian, Angel, c. 1470. Pen and white lead on stained paper, 24 × 26.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
66. Ercole de’ Roberti, c. 1450–1496, Italian, Warrior, date unknown. Pen, silverpoint, grey and blue wash, white lead on prepared grey paper, 40.3 × 25.4 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
67. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, The Risen Christ with St Andrew and Longinus, c. 1472. Pen and ink and wash on paper, 35 × 28.5 cm. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich. Early Renaissance.
68. Ercole de’ Roberti, c. 1450–1496, Italian, Study of a Foot After a Model Sculpture, 1470. Pen, brush, brown ink, brown wash and highlights in white on prepared red paper, 13.7 × 8.7 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
69. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Bust of a Warrior in Profile, c. 1475–1480. Silverpoint on paper, 28.7 × 21.1 cm. British Museum, London. High Renaissance.
70. Gentile Bellini, c. 1429–1507, Italian, Self-Portrait, c. 1480. Silverpoint on paper, 23 × 19.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
71. Gentile Bellini, c. 1429–1507, Italian, A Turkish Woman, c. 1480. Pen and ink, 21.4 × 17.6 cm. British Museum, London. Early Renaissance.
72. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Saint John the Baptist, c. 1480s. Pen and ink on paper, 36 × 15.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
73. Antonio del Pollaiuolo, c. 1432–1498, Italian, Adam, c. 1475. Black pencil, pen and ink on white paper, 28.3 × 17.9 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
74. Antonio del Pollaiuolo, c. 1432–1498, Italian, Eve, c. 1475. Black pencil, pen and ink on white paper, 27.8 × 18.6 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
75. Andrea del Verrocchio, 1435–1488, Italian, Head of an Angel, c. 1470. Black pencil, pen and ink on paper, 20.9 × 18.1 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
76. Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico Bigordi), 1448/1449-1494, Italian, Head of a Woman, date unknown. Silverpoint and white lead on watermarked white paper, 33.1 × 25.4 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
77. Filippino Lippi, c. 1457–1504, Italian, An Apostle and a Young Man, date unknown. Metalpoint, white highlights. Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden. Early Renaissance.
78. Pedro Berruguete (attributed to), c. 1445–1503, Spanish, Moses at Mount Sinai, date unknown. Pen and ink. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
79. After Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, La Bella Simonetta, date unknown. Silverpoint on paper, 34 × 23 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Early Renaissance.
80. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XXXIV, c. 1480–1500. Silverpoint, pen and ink on parchment, 63.5 × 46.8 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
81. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XVIII, c. 1480–1500. Silverpoint, pen and ink on parchment, 32.5 × 47.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
82. Hugo van der Goes (attributed to), c. 1420–1482, Flemish, Sitting Saint, c. 1475. Pen and ink on paper. The Courtauld Gallery, London. Northern Renaissance.
83. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Paradiso, Canto XXVIII, c. 1480–1500. Silverpoint, pen and ink on parchment, 32.5 × 47.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
84. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Purgtorio, Canto XXX, c. 1480–1500. Silverpoint, pen and ink on parchment, 32.5 × 47.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
(Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi)
(Florence, 1445–1510)
Sandro Botticelli was the son of a citizen in comfortable circumstances, and had been, in Vasari’s words, “instructed in all such things as children are usually taught before they choose a calling.” However, he refused to give his attention to reading, writing and accounts, continues Vasari, so that his father, despairing of his ever becoming a scholar, apprenticed him to the goldsmith Botticello: whence came the name by which the world remembers him. However, Sandro, a stubborn-featured youth with large, quietly searching eyes and a shock of yellow hair – he has left a portrait of himself on the right-hand side of his picture of the Adoration of the Magi – would also become a painter, and to that end was placed with the Carmelite monk Fra Filippo Lippi.
But he was a realist, as the artists of his day had become, satisfied with the joy and skill of painting, and with the study of the beauty and character of the human subject instead of religious themes. Botticelli made rapid progress, loved his master, and later on extended his love to his master’s son, Filippino Lippi, and taught him to paint. But the master’s realism scarcely touched him, for Botticelli was a dreamer and a poet. Botticelli is a painter not of facts, but of ideas, and his pictures are not so much a representation of certain objects as a pattern of forms. Nor is his colouring rich and lifelike; it is subordinated to form, and often rather a tinting than actual colour. In fact, he was interested in the abstract possibilities of his art rather than in the concrete. For example, his compositions, as has just been said, are a pattern of forms; his figures do not actually occupy well-defined places in a well-defined area of space; they do not attract us by their suggestion of bulk, but as shapes of form, suggesting rather a flat pattern of decoration. Accordingly, the lines which enclose the figures are chosen with the primary intention of being decorative.
It has been said that Botticelli, “though one of the worst anatomists, was one of the greatest draughtsmen of the Renaissance.” As an example of false anatomy we may notice the impossible way in which the Madonna’s head is attached to the neck, and other instances of faulty articulation and incorrect form of limbs may be found in Botticelli’s pictures. Yet he is recognised as one of the greatest draughtsmen: he gave to ‘line’ not only intrinsic beauty, but also significance. In mathematical language, he resolved the movement of the figure into its factors, its simplest forms of expression, and then combined these various forms into a pattern which, by its rhythmical and harmonious lines, produces an effect upon our imagination, corresponding to the sentiments of grave and tender poetry that filled the artist himself. This power of making every line count in both significance and beauty distinguishes the great master – draughtsmen from the vast majority of artists who used line mainly as a necessary means of representing concrete objects.
85. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XXXI, c. 1480–1500. Silverpoint, pen and ink on parchment, 32.5 × 47.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
86. Filippino Lippi, c. 1457–1504, Italian, Standing Youth with Hands Behind His Back and a Seated Youth Reading, 1457/1458-1504. Metalpoint, highlighted with white gouache, on pink prepared paper, 24.5 × 21.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
87. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Paradiso, Canto VI, c. 1480–1500. Silverpoint, pen and ink on parchment, 32.5 × 47.5 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin. Early Renaissance.
88. Gentile Bellini, c. 1429–1507, Italian, Campo San Lio in Venice, c. 1490–1507. Pen and ink on paper, 44.2 × 59.1 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
89. Martin Schongauer, c. 1435–1491, German, Bust of a Man in a Hat Gazing Upward, c. 1480–1490. Pen and carbon black ink, over pen and brown ink, on paper prepared with sanguine wash, 13 × 9.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Northern Renaissance.
90. Filippino Lippi, c. 1457–1504, Italian, Head of an Old Man Leaning, 1480–1483. Silverpoint enhanced with white, on pink paper, 15 × 11.3 cm. Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig. Early Renaissance.
91. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Abundance or Autumn, c. 1480–1485. Pen, ink, wash and black and red chalk on paper, 31.7 × 25.2 cm. British Museum, London. Early Renaissance.
92. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Study for Head of a Young Girl, c. 1483. Silverpoint on paper, 18.1 × 15.9 cm. Biblioteca Reale, Turin. High Renaissance.
93. Filippino Lippi (attributed to), c. 1457–1504, Italian, Virgin and Child Attended by Angels, 1457/1458-1504. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, 17.5 × 22.2 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
94. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Grotesque Profile of a Man, c. 1485–1495. Pen and ink on paper, 12.8 × 10.4 cm. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. High Renaissance.
95. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Head of a Man in Profile, Facing Right, c. 1485–1490. Pen and ink on paper, 7.8 × 5.6 cm. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. High Renaissance.
96. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Two Grotesque Profiles Confronted, c. 1485–1490. Pen and ink with wash on paper, 16.3 × 14.3 cm. Royal Collection Trust, London. High Renaissance.
97. Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico Bigordi), 1448/1449-1494, Italian, Young Woman (study for The Birth of St Mary at Santa Maria Novella), c. 1485. Pen on watermarked white paper, 23.2 × 16.1 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
98. Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528, German, Albrecht Dürer the Elder, 1486. Silverpoint on paper, 28.4 × 21.2 cm. Albertina, Vienna. Northern Renaissance.
99. Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico Bigordi), 1448/1449-1494, Italian, Two Standing Women, c. 1485. Pen on watermarked white paper, 26 × 16.9 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
100. Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528, German, Self-Portrait as a Thirteen-Year-Old, 1484. Silverpoint on paper, 27.3 × 19.6 cm. Albertina, Vienna. Northern Renaissance.
101. Antonio del Pollaiuolo, c. 1432–1498, Italian, Three Nude Men, 1486. Pen and brown ink, brown wash on paper, 26.5 × 35.7 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Early Renaissance.
102. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Emperor Trajan in the Battle Against the Dacians, after 1488–1489. Chalk and pen, 27.2 × 19.8 cm. Albertina, Vienna. Early Renaissance.
ANDREA MANTEGNA
(Isola di Carturo, 1430/1431 – Mantua, 1506)
Mantegna; humanist, geometrist, archaeologist, of great scholastic and imaginative intelligence, dominated the whole of northern Italy by virtue of his imperious personality. Aiming at optical illusion, he mastered perspective. He trained in painting at the Padua School that Donatello and Paolo Uccello had previously attended. Even at a young age, commissions for Andrea’s work flooded in, for example the frescos of the Ovetari Chapel of Padua.
In a short space of time, Mantegna found his niche as a modernist due to his highly original ideas and the use of perspective in his works. His marriage with Nicolosia Bellini, the sister of Giovanni, paved the way for his entrée into Venice.
Mantegna reached an artistic maturity with his Pala San Zeno. He remained in Mantova and became the artist for one of the most prestigious courts in Italy – the Court of Gonzaga. Classical art was born.
Despite his links with Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna refused to adopt their innovative use of colour or leave behind his own technique of engraving.
103. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, The Vitruvian Man, c. 1490–1492. Pen and ink on paper, 34.3 × 24.5 cm. Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice. High Renaissance.
104. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Propulsion Flying Machine, 1487–1508. Pen on white paper. Bibliothèque de l’Institut, Paris. High Renaissance.
105. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, An Angel, c. 1490. Chalk, pen and wash heightened with white on paper, 26.6 × 16.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
106. Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci), c. 1450–1523, Italian, Landscape, 1489–1490. Brush and brown wash, highlighted with white gouache on grey-green prepared paper, 20.4 × 28 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
PERUGINO (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci)
(Citta della Pieve, c. 1450 – Fontignano, 1523)
Perugino’s art, like Fra Angelico’s, had its roots in the old Byzantine tradition of painting. The latter had departed further and further from any representation of the human form, until it became merely a symbol of religious ideas. Perugino, working under the influence of his time, restored body and substance to the figures, but still made them, as of old, primarily the symbols of an ideal. It was not until the 17th century that artists began to paint landscape for its own sake.
However, the union of landscape and figures counts very much for Perugino, because one of the secrets of composition is the balancing of what artists call the full and empty spaces. A composition crowded with figures is apt to produce a sensation of stuffiness and fatigue; whereas the combination of a few figures with ample open spaces gives one a sense of exhilaration and repose. It is in the degree to which an artist stimulates our imagination through our physical experiences that he seizes and holds our interest. When Perugino left Perugia to complete his education in Florence he was a fellow pupil of Leonardo da Vinci in the sculptor’s bottegha. If he gained from the master something of the calm of sculpture, he certainly gained nothing of its force. It is as the painter of sentiment that he excelled, though this beautiful quality is confined mainly to his earlier works. For with popularity he became avaricious, turning out repetitions of his favourite themes until they became more and more affected in sentiment.
107. Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1420–1497, Italian, Scenes of the Life of Saint Joachim, c. 1490. Sinopia. Cappella della Visitazione, Castelfiorentino (Florence). Early Renaissance.
108. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Pallas Athena, c. 1490–1500. Pen and ink on paper, 18.9 × 8.7 cm. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. Early Renaissance.
109. Giovanni Bellini, c. 1430–1516, Italian, Standing Saint, date unknown. Pen, black pencil, brown wash and white lead on paper, 41 × 20 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
GIOVANNI BELLINI
(Venice, c. 1430–1516)
Giovanni Bellini was the son of Jacopo Bellini, a Venetian painter who was settled in Padua when Giovanni and his elder brother, Gentile, were in their period of studentship. Here, they came under the influence of Mantegna, who was also bound to them by ties of relationship, since he married their sister. To his brother-in-law, Bellini owed much of his knowledge of classical architecture and perspective, and his broad and sculptural treatment of draperies. Sculpture and the love of the antique played a large part in Giovanni’s early impressions, and left their mark in the stately dignity of his later style. This developed slowly during his long life. Bellini died of old age, indeed in his eighty-eighth year, and was buried near his brother, Gentile, in the Church of Ss. Giovanni e Paulo. Outside, under the spacious vault of heaven, stands the Bartolommeo Colleoni, Verrocchio’s monumental statue, which had been among the elevating influences of Bellini’s life and art. After filling the whole of the north of Italy with his influence, he prepared the way for the giant colourists of the Venetian School, Giorgione, Titian, and Veronese.
110. Giovanni Bellini, c. 1430–1516, Italian, Head of a Man with a Turban, c. 1490–1500. Pen, brown wash, white lead and black pencil on paper, 22.6 × 18.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
111. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 1439–1501, Italian, A Fortified City, date unknown. Pen and ink on paper. Chigi Saracini collection, Siena. Early Renaissance.
112. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 1439–1501, Italian, A Fortified City, date unknown. Pen and ink on paper. Chigi Saracini collection, Siena. Early Renaissance.
113. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Profile of a Child, c. 1495–1500. Red chalk on paper, 10 × 10 cm. Royal Collection Trust, London. High Renaissance.
114. Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 1439–1501, Italian, Design for a Wall Monument, c. 1490. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, blue gouache on vellum, 18.4 × 18.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Early Renaissance.
115. Jean Perréal, c. 1455–1530, French, Portrait of Philippe de la Platière (1465–1499), 1495. Silverpoint on paper. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Early Renaissance.
116. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Hercules and Antaeus, c. 1490–1500. Pen and ink on paper, 24.6 × 18.4 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
117. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Judith, 1491. Pen, ink, brown wash and white lead on paper, 39 × 25.8 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
118. Andrea Mantegna, 1430/1431-1506, Italian, Copy of a Figure from “The Death of the Virgin”, c. 1492. Metalpoint, pen and ink, brown and grey watercolour and white lead on paper, 32.3 × 10.4 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
119. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Caricature of a Man with Bushy Hair (detail), c. 1495. Pen and brown ink, 6.6 × 5.4 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. High Renaissance.
120. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, A Man Tricked by Gypsies, c. 1493. Pen and ink on paper, 26 × 20.6 cm. Royal Collection Trust, London. High Renaissance.
121. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Study of an Apostle, 1493–1495. Silverpoint, pen and brown ink on blue prepared paper, 14.6 × 11.3 cm. Albertina, Vienna. High Renaissance.
122. Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528, German, Study of Christ Child, 1495. Pen and black ink on paper, 17.2 × 21.5 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Northern Renaissance.
123. Vittore Carpaccio, 1460/1466?-1525/1526, Italian, Study for The Dream of Saint Ursula, c. 1495. Pen, ink and highlights on paper, 10.2 × 11 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
VITTORE CARPACCIO
(Venice, 1460/1466?-1525/1526)
Carpaccio was a Venetian painter strongly influenced by Gentile Bellini. The distinguishing characteristics of his work are his taste for fantasy and anecdote and his eye for minutely observed crowd details. After completing the cycles of scenes from the lives of St Ursula, St George and St Jerome, his career declined and he remained forgotten until the 19th century. He is now seen as one of the outstanding Venetian painters of his generation.
124. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Nativity, c. 1495. Black pencil, pen and ink, white lead, brown wash on paper, 16 × 25.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
125. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, c. 1499–1500. Charcoal heightened with white on paper on canvas, 141.5 × 104.6 cm. National Gallery, London. High Renaissance.
126. Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci), c. 1450–1523, Italian, Christ Rescuing St. Bernard from the Cross, 1493–1496. Sinopia. Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
127. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Italian, Saint Jerome, c. 1495. Silverpoint, white lead and black pencil on paper, 24.6 × 12.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Early Renaissance.
