Varela APAH

Key Ideas

Renaissance means a "rebirth" suggesting that the 15th and 16th centuries marked an awakening from the "dark ages". The dark ages were actually a great time period where Europe gave rise to laws, language and economics.
New rise to secularism- not a huge focus on the heaven/hell
After the Protestant Reformation in 1517, High Renaissance art was not reflective of so called perfect world. The complexities of Mannerist art better describe this period.
Rome was sacked in 1527 by the Spanish and French troops

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) or the Counter-Reformation, created a new order of priests, the Jesuits.
Jesuits used art as a teaching tool and a religious statement

High Renaissance

Painting

*The High Renaissance was traditionally viewed as a great explosion of creative genius, following a model of art history first proposed by the Florentine Giorgio Vasari.

*Even relatively minor painters of the period, such as Fra Bartolomeo and Mariotto Albertinelli, produced works that are still lauded for the harmony of their design and their technique.

*The elongated proportions and exaggerated poses in the late works of Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto and Correggio prefigure so-called Mannerism, as the style of the later Renaissance is referred to in art history.

*The serene mood and luminous colours of paintings by Giorgione and early Titian exemplify High Renaissance style as practiced in Venice.

*Other recognizable pieces of this period include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Raphael's The School of Athens. Raphael's fresco, set beneath an arch, is a virtuoso work of perspective, composition and disegno.

High Renaissance Sculpture

* Exemplified by Michelangelo's Pietà and the iconic David, is characterized by an "ideal" balance between stillness and movement.

*High Renaissance sculpture was normally commissioned by the public and the state, this becoming more popular for sculpture is an expensive art form.

*Sculpture was often used to decorate or embellish architecture, normally within courtyards where others were able to study and admire the commissioned art work.

*Wealthy individuals like cardinals, rulers and bankers were the more likely private patrons along with very wealthy families & Pope Julius II also patronized many artists