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Giorgione (Impressionism): *
The link between Impressionism & Giorgione (like Leonardo) is primarily in his use of refined chiaroscuro called sfumato—the delicate use of shades of colour to depict light and perspective, a technique he began around the same time as Leonardo. This gave Giorgione's works the magical glow of light for which they are celebrated. In addition Giorgione introduced a new range of subjects. Besides conventional altarpieces & portraits he painted pictures that told no story, whether Biblical or classical, or if they professed to tell a story, neglected the action & simply embodied in form & colour moods of lyrical or romantic feeling, much as a musician might embody them in sounds. Finally The Castelfranco Madonna (1504) shows another innovative aspect of Giorgione, the use of an unusual visual angles. While it is typical sacra conversazione composition, the extreme height of the Virgin’s throne is most unusual & creates a very different effect from the pictures of this type by Bellini and others where the throne is only slightly raised & the figures are on an equal level.
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Castelfranco Madonna
1504, altarpiece in sacra conversazione form—Madonna enthroned, saints on either side forming an equilateral triangle, giving the landscape background an importance which marks an innovation in Venetian art (quickly followed by his master Bellini & others). Giorgione painted this for his home town of Castelfranco. The armoured figure is St. George or St. Liberalis (patron saint of Castelfranco). The traditional composition is lightened by the novel use of such elements as the throne & landscape, which take up a good portion of the background. Noteworthy also is the absence of any reference to ecclesiastical elements of architecture. The technique used by Giorgione is pittura sanza disegno (painting without drawing). This was a new approach which revolutionised the Venetian school & was used in The Tempest as well. Titian, a pupil of Giorgione, later became one of the most important exponents of this style.
The Tempest
1506-08, first landscape in the history of Western painting; subject of this painting is unclear, but its artistic mastery is apparent. It portrays a soldier and a breast-feeding woman on either side of a stream, amid a city's rubble and an incoming storm. The multitude of symbols in The Tempest offer many interpretations, but none is wholly satisfying. The painting's features seem to anticipate the storm. The colours are subdued, the lighting soft; greens & blues dominate. The landscape is a not a mere backdrop, but forms a notable contribution to early landscape painting; the painting has a 'silent' atmosphere.
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Mantegna (plane layers): *
The San Zeno Altarpiece-The Agony in the Garden (right panel of the predella)
triptych -1457–60, for the Basilica di San Zeno (main church of Verona). The space effect is one of layered surfaces, great solidity which have a strong corporal feel.
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Tintoretto (directional energy): *
Finding of the body of St Mark
1562-66; series of large canvases depicting the acquisition by Venice of the body of Saint Mark. Venetians are removing corpses from tombs along the right wall and from a crypt in the background. In the left foreground, the standing luminous saint with a faint halo appears & beseeches them to stop as his body has been found and lies pale at his feet, strewn on an oriental rug. In the centre of the canvas, an elder (portrait of the commissioner) kneels acknowledging the miracle. Elsewhere in the room, the figures are either astonished or oblivious to the apparition. In places, the work appears unfinished. The foreshortening is accentuated by the tiles, and the wall tombs, and finally by rays of light seeming to emerge from the crypt in the background. In the foreground at the right, a contorted half-naked man is described as "possessed by demons", above him hover strands of smoke. Other quizzical markings occur on the ceilings. This composition exemplifies Tintoretto's preference for dramatic effects of perspective and light. It has a strong sense of linear logic, our eyes are drawn down the emptied, boxlike vista, but this is undermined by an irrational play of light & shade. The painting suggests the simultaneous existence of different levels of reality through the use of a range of pictorial techniques.
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landscape-painters of Holland (backgrounds & atmospheres): *
Hunters in the Snow (winter) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder; in 1565, a wealthy patron in Antwerp, commissioned him to paint a series of paintings of each month of the year. This famous set of landscapes with genre figures depicting the seasons is the culmination of his landscape style; he employs elements of the world landscape (an imaginary panoramic landscape seen from an elevated viewpoint that includes mountains and lowlands, water, and buildings) but transform them into his own style. They incorporate a genre scenes with several figures in the foreground with the panoramic view seen past or through trees. Five of these paintings survive; some of the months are paired to form a general season. His work follows traditional Flemish luxury books of hours (e.g., the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry;1416) which included calendar pages showing the Labours of the Months, depictions set in landscapes of the agricultural tasks, weather, and social life typical for that month. These works are much larger than the Book of Hours, each 3 x 5 feet. It was a large commission (the size of a commission was based on how large the painting was). In 1565, the Calvinist riots began and it was only 2 years before the Eighty Years' War broke out. Bruegel may have felt safer with a secular commission so as to not offend Calvinist or Catholic
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Crucifixion, Orvieto Cathedral
Our eyes are drawn to the immediate 6 figures who crowd the foreground, notably the Virgin who is horizontal having swooned; great nobility of form (which influenced Michelangelo), well drawn with great detail; in the background are an inconspicuous (& smaller) crucifixion scene, ill defined shapes on the horizon, a Renaissance building, clouds. These details fill the background but add little; the impact of the painting comes from the detailed & colourful figures of the foreground.
Compare this to Rembrandt’s’ Christ on the Cross below (oil, 1631) we have a completely dark background which pushes the figure to the foreground, dramatic chiaroscuro (lighting the left side of the body); shadow not line is what adds definition.
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Mantegna (foregrounds and reliefs): *
The Lamentation of Christ
1480, shows a dead Christ supine on a marble slab, watched over by the Virgin Mary, Saint John & St. Mary Magdalene weeping for his death. A common medieval and Renaissance theme but treated in an extraordinary manner. The rich contrasts of light & shadow, is infused by a profound sense of pathos. The realism & tragedy of the scene are enhanced by the violent perspective, which foreshortens and dramatizes the recumbent figure, stressing the anatomical details, in particular, the thorax. The holes in Christ's hands & feet, as well as the faces of the two mourners, are portrayed without any concession to idealism. The sharply drawn drapery covering the corpse adds to the dramatic effect. The composition places the central focus of the image on Christ's genitals which is related to a theological emphasis on the Humanity of Jesus. We see a harrowing study of a strongly foreshortened cadaver with an intensely poignant depiction of a Biblical tragedy. This is one of many examples of Mantegna’s mastery of perspective. At first glance, the painting seems to display an exact perspective; however, careful scrutiny reveals that Mantegna reduced the size of the figure's feet, which, as he must have known, would cover much of the body if properly represented.
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Raphael -The Marriage of the Virgin (1504)
Space has been created with clear perspective, lines converge at vanishing point centre of picture; strong symmetry & balance with even lighting, calm atmosphere, great clarity with multiple colours (red, blue, gold) in foreground which dominate the blue/brown/green background; scale (e.g. figures) clearly used to suggest depth as does detail, especially facial
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Rembrandt -Susanna (1636)
dark muted background, dark tones, background lines indistinct & details lack clarity, more suggestive; main figure has strong dramatic light from one side with anatomic details picked out. She is pushed forward by the background
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Rembrandt (no foreground): *
The art of Florence is contrasted with Rembrandt’s approach to space.
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Books of Hours (Duke of Berry): *
Man of Sorrows, with Duke Charles I of Savoy and his wife (148589)
Note the horizon line visible thru the windows
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Spengler refers to the Books of Hours, at Chantilly and at Turin. This somewhat confusing reference relates to the fact that the Duke commissioned several Books of Hours. The 1416 inventory of his estate includes the Très Riches Heures as well as parts of the Turin-Milan Hours, the Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry and the Belles Heures. The most celebrated manuscript was the Très Riches Heures which is held by the Institut de France, Musée Condé at Chantilly. Spengler’s second reference is to a book named the Turin-Milan Hours, a partially destroyed illuminated manuscript which is not strictly a book of hours. It is of exceptional quality & importance, contains several miniatures of about 1420 attributed to either Jan van Eyck, his brother Hubert van Eyck, or an artist very closely associated with them. It was kept in Turin until destroyed in a fire (1904).
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