2. The Venetian School
• In the sixteenth century, artists such as
Giorgione and Titian preferred a gentler,
more sensuous approach to oil painting
than had been adopted by the Florentine
School. The Venetians used warm
atmospheric tones.
• Distant from the influence of the Papacy,
Venetian artists did not shy away from
controversial (erotic/pagan) themes.
• Poetic (poesia)
• Both Classical and Renaissance
poetry inspired Venetian artists
• This makes understanding the
subject matter difficult
2
3. GIOVANNI BELLINI, Saint Francis in the Desert,
ca. 1470–1480. Oil and tempera on wood.
• Saint Francis in ecstatic
moment
• BUT-No more “stage props”
of divinity (gold rays,
angels)
• Naturalism (beautiful details
on rocky ledge, landscape)-
borrowing from Northern
European artists.
• Miraculous stance, but
everyday life continues.
• Landscape emerges as
great theme.
3
4.
5. GIOVANNI BELLINI and TITIAN, Feast of the Gods, from the Camerino d’Alabastro, Palazzo Ducale, Ferrara, Italy, 1529. Oil on canvas,
5’ 7” x 6’ 2”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Widener Collection).
5
6. GIOVANNI BELLINI and TITIAN, Feast of
the Gods, from the Camerino d’Alabastro,
Palazzo Ducale, Ferrara, Italy, 1529
• Bellini painted figures, Titian (his
student) completed landscape
after his death.
• “Arcadian” landscape
(Arcadia=idyllic, peaceful rustic
place of simplicity)
• Duke of Ferrara (Alfonso d’Este)
commissioned for his private
room the Camerino d’Alabastro
(White Room). Preferred
mythological subjects.
• Scene from Ovid’s Fasti
• Some amorous activity hinted at,
pagan sensuousness, never-
ending pleasure. Bacchanalia.
(Ancient Gods on Spring Break)
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7.
8.
9.
10. Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, 1510.
Invented the “Recumbent Nude”
Nude mirrors landscape- sleep suggests the world of dreams.
11. GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO,
The Tempest, ca. 1510. Oil on canvas,
2’ 8 1/4” x 2’ 4 3/4”. Galleria
dell’Accademia, Venice.
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12. GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO, The
Tempest.
• Mysterious and inscrutable
• Adam and Eve banished from
the Garden?
• Changes in painting revealed by
X-ray suggest that no definitive
narrative was planned.
• Uncertainty contributes to
enigma.
• Painting almost more about
transient effects of weather-
figures seem tacked on as an
excuse
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13.
14.
15.
16.
17. GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO (and/or TITIAN?), Pastoral Symphony, ca. 1508–1510. Oil on canvas, 3’ 7 1/4” x 4’ 6 1/4”. Louvre,
Paris. 17
18. GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO (and/or
TITIAN?), Pastoral Symphony.
Venetian painting:
• “poesia”-painting as poetry
• Focus on lyrical and sensual
• Concrete narratives often elusive
• Giorgione-died young from plague
(33) but developed poetic manner
• Aristocratic artists make music and
poetry
• Nude women represent Allegorical
muses drawing water from the well
of inspiration
• “Wandering shepherd” symbolizes
the poet.
• Landscape eminent
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19. Titian
• (Tiziano Vecelli)
• Extraordinarily prolific painter and a supreme colorist
• Establishes oil on canvas rather than wood panel as the
norm.
• Believed color and mood were more important than line
(design) and science
• Would paint entire canvas red first
– Using brushstrokes to create a textured surface
20. TITIAN, Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne, from the Camerino d’Alabastro, Palazzo Ducale, Ferrara, Italy, 1522–1523. Oil on canvas, 5’ 9”
x 6’ 3”. National Gallery, London. 20
21. TITIAN, Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne, from
the Camerino d’Alabastro, Palazzo Ducale,
Ferrara.
• Another commission for Alfonso
d’Este’s Camerino d’Alabastro
(White Room)-”pleasure chamber”
• Ancient Latin poem by Catallus
• Bacchus (God of Wine and
Intoxication), arrives on island of
Naxos where Ariadne has been
abandoned by Theseus (slayer of
the Minotaur).
• Rich luminous colors, sensual
appeal
• Based one figure off of recently
unearthed Laocoon
21
23. TITIAN, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas, 3’ 11” x 5’ 5”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
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24. TITIAN, Venus of Urbino, 1538. Oil on canvas,
3’ 11” x 5’ 5”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
• Commissioned by Duke of
Urbino (Guidobaldo II)
• Borrows from Giorgione
• Sensual Italian Courtesan
elevated allegorically to Roman
Goddess of love by title
• Composition divided in two,
clever recession of space into
smaller units.
• Suggestive gaze and hand
• Lapdog in place of Cupid
• “Venetian Red”- Bed sheets
echo the maid
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28. TITIAN and PALMA IL GIOVANE, Pietà, ca. 1570–1576. Oil on canvas, 11’ 6” X 12’ 9”. Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice. 28
29. Venice
– Poetry of senses
– Nature’s beauty
– Pleasures of Humanity (Eros)
Florence & Rome
– Esoteric, intellectual themes
– Conceptions of religion
– Grandeur of the ideal
30. Mannerism
1525-1600
All problems of representing reality
had been solved and art had
reached a peak of perfection and
harmony – Now what?
Answer: replace harmony with
dissonance, reason with emotion,
and reality with imagination
A reaction to the classical rationality
and balanced harmony of the high
Renaissance.
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31. Mannerist Painting
Highly subjective, arbitrary light
Unusual color
Dramatic composition – often with
vacant centers
Writhing/twisting/elongated bodies:
Figura Serpentinata
Less emphasis on balance,
symmetry, and rational
composition (values of High
Renaissance)
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33. JACOPO DA PONTORMO, Entombment of Christ,
Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicità, Florence, Italy, 1525–
1528. Oil on wood, 10’ 3” x 6’ 4”.
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34.
35.
36. JACOPO DA PONTORMO, Entombment of
Christ.
• Characteristic Mannerist colorations
(odd pinks, greens and blues)
• Omits cross and Christ’s tomb
• Creates void (symbol of loss and grief)
in center of composition, accentuates
group of hands filling the hole
• Anxious glances cast in all directions
• Includes bearded self-portrait
• Athletic bending, twisting, distortions,
odd figural placements and spaces
• Elastic elongation of limbs
• Small, ovular heads
36
37. JACOPO DA PONTORMO, Entombment of Christ,
Capponi Chapel, Santa Felicità, Florence, Italy, 1525–
1528. Oil on wood, 10’ 3” x 6’ 4”.
37
44. PARMIGIANINO, Madonna with the Long Neck, from the Baiardi
Chapel, Santa Maria dei Servi, Parma,Italy, 1534–1540. Oil on
wood, 7’ 1” x 4’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
44
45. PARMIGIANINO, Madonna with the Long
Neck.
• Embodies elegant stylishness that
was principle aim of Mannerism
• Sinuous, swaying elongation,
Attenuation and delicacy-marks of
Aristocratic taste
• Enigmatic capital (Painting is
actually unfinished (has to flee
Rome-Charles V invades)
•
• Enigmatic figure with a scroll
• Madonna’s neck compared to
ivory column
• Figural distortions and crowded
composition
• Reference to Michelangelo’s Pieta
45
52. BRONZINO, Portrait of a Young Man, ca. 1530–
1545. Oil on wood, 3’ 1 1/2” x 2’ 5 1/2”.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (H. O.
Havemeyer Collection, bequest of Mrs. H. O.
Havemeyer, 1929).
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53. BRONZINO, Portrait of a Young Man,
• Cool sophistication and
detachment
• Hyper-articulate elegance
• Very “posed” and obvious
artificiality
• Identity is understood as a
performance
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54. BRONZINO, Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time, ca.
1546. Oil on wood, 5’ 1” x 4’ 8 1/4”. National Gallery,
London.
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55. BRONZINO, Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time.
• Learned allegory with lascivious
undertones
• Cupid fondles Venus (mother), Folly
is about to shower with Rose petals.
Both attempt to steal from the other.
• Time draws back the curtain to
reveal the transgression.
• Temptation appears as a snake with
girls head holding honeycomb in
switched hands.
• Masks represent deception.
• Other figures represent Envy and
Oblivion.
• A dark statement on the pitfalls of
Romantic love.
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84. PAOLO VERONESE, Christ in the House of Levi, from the refectory of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy, 1573. Oil on canvas, 18’ 3” x
42’. Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.
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85. PAOLO VERONESE, Christ in the House of
Levi.
• Originally titled “Last Supper”
• Christ sits in the center of the
splendidly garbed elite of Venice
• Holy Office of Inquisition accuses
Veronese of Impiety
• First ever trial of the right to artistic
expression
• Veronese simply changes the title
rather than the image
85