8. THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION

RENAISSANCE CULTURE Early 1400s to Early 1500s

Renaissance philosphy and literature

Italian Renaissance art

The Greats: Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and
        Raphael

Other architectural greats of the Italian
        Renaissance

The lifestyle of the Florentine upper-
        bourgeoisie

Renaissance art in Northern Europe -
        The 1400s

Renaissance art in Northern Europe -
        The later years

Renaissance architecture in Northern
        Europe

The textual material on page below is drawn directly from my work A Moral History of Western Society © 2024, Volume One, pages 275-286.

A Time of Transition Though there was no specific event to mark the end of the middle ages and the on set of the modern era, the 1400s seem to be the all important transition time. This period of transition into modernity, known today as the "Renaissance," was based heavily in Italy, especially the cities of Venice, Florence, Siena, Mantua, Pisa, Milan, Urbino, Rome and Naples – but was also found in significant portions of Northern (mostly coastal) Europe ... through the natural links that commerce produced and by scholars who studied in Italy and took its learning  north.  Thus in addition to a number of vibrant Italian cities, the Renaissance also extended to Bordeaux and Paris (France), London and Bristol (England), Bruges and Antwerp (Flanders) and the coastal German cities (such as Lübeck and Hamburg) of the Hanseatic League ... among a number of other European cities.   On the face of it, it appears that the Renaissance was essentially an economic affair – consequently, a rapid growth of commercial wealth that aided greatly in producing an intellectual revival in the form of a strong interest in pre Christian Greco Roman philosophy, in a dazzling flowering of the fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture) ... dedicated to the glorification of man and his talents ("humanism") rather more than God and his traditional role in the Christian world. The rising power of the European city All of this wealth in trade flowing to the rising European cities would change deeply the way Christians or "Westerners" formed social bonds in order to advance and defend life. In general the merchant cities of Europe went at the matter of acquiring new powers differently than did the princes, the latter tending to see politics as a rather personal matter, something impacting their own status as grand landowners, as overseers of the masses of peasants working those lands for them … and personally as the primary benefactors of the wealth this system provided.   The rising cities went at life with a different attitude directing them.  Like the richest of all of them, the Republic of Venice, urban politics tended to be corporate, drawing into the position of leadership a wider circle of local interests than the single individual dominated kingdoms and principalities.  Most cities were run or managed by a corporate council ... led by individuals elected to office on a regularly recurring basis by committees or guilds of tradesmen and manufacturers. Urbanites were also a different breed of Europeans.  Their business world required the ability to read, write and perform complicated mathematical processes (at a time when the rural feudal princes of the vast European countryside were often illiterate, reading and writing not being a very important factor in their rule).  Their urban world was also larger than the traditional world of rural feudal Europe.  Travel and business connections abroad – not to mention the ability to read and write – gave them a much bigger understanding of how the world works. Europe's urbanites were an independent minded lot, adventurers and risk takers, and always a potential challenge to the medieval ways of rural feudal Europe.  But they were tolerated, even encouraged, by local princes in whose territory these cities found themselves located.  They were, after all, a source of mobile or moneyed wealth ... increasingly more important to local princes and their ambitions than the feudal vassals who were supposed to offer full support at the princes" command ... but who proved most unreliable in times of real need.   So the princes “chartered” the cities ... contracting with them to receive tax monies in exchange for the prince's support of their rather independent ways that the cities required in order to do business successfully.  Once a prince or king granted a city its charter, it had full rights to operate as it saw fit.  Needless to say, cities guarded jealously those chartered rights.  But also kings tended to respect carefully those rights ...  because they depended so much on their cities" financial support. Nonetheless this shift in the local political scene still had its dangers.  The independence of these towns – in keeping with their actual power in this early stage of development – did not provide the air of legitimacy that they needed to feel secure in their liberties within the newly rising order.  At any time these urban charters might be revoked by the local prince or bishop by any whim or fancy (or suspicion).  There really was no "right" of their own that the towns could hold up to these lords in order to demand equitable treatment, at least not until the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s gave them the sense that they had the right to accept or reject political authority in accordance with what their own consciences dictated.   There was no power on earth, only God alone, who had the right to judge them in matters of conscience, even political conscience. Technological Development But in any case, the rapid growth of the trade in European goods called forth industrial growth – and industrial growth called forth new technologies. The number of inventions from newly emerging European inventive minds was phenomenal.  But a few stand out – not only because they added so much to industrial development but because they also came to have such a profound impact on the European mindset or spirit. The clock, with its carefully interworked systems of gears and wheels, seemed to serve as a symbol of the new sense of order which underpinned the whole universe – an order which existed by its own right.   Likewise the compass gave the traveler, especially the new bold class of seafarers, as sense that life had key foundation points – which man of his own could fathom and use for himself. Widespread printing of the Bible But there is no question that the one technological development that most revolutionized the times was the invention of the printing press.  In around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg introduced the new printing process (moveable type) which revolutionized the production of written material – using this new process to produce his amazingly high-quality Gutenberg Bible (in the Latin or Vulgate). The printing process would soon revolutionize the printing and distribution of the Bible in the various European languages actually spoken at the time.  Thus a wide number of local-language translations of the Vulgate Bible soon began to appear in widely available printed form: German (1466), Italian (1471), Dutch (1477) Spanish (1478 – but subsequently suppressed), French (1487), and Czech (1488).   Tyndale's English translation, the first printed English translation, did not come out until much later,1 around 1525 – after much resistance from the Church and from English King Henry VIII (Tyndale was eventually executed for this "crime").  Oddly enough, only four years after Tyndale's execution, Henry VIII authorized his English-language Great Bible to be published … a translation based largely on Tyndale's work! A Shifting Sense of History The 1400s mark both a definite continuity with the long development of Western Christian culture … and yet at the same time a strong departure from many of the ways the Christian community had understood the cosmos around it.  The Christian mind had long (a thousand years) seen the sweep of history in a profoundly dualistic fashion:  there were the times before Christ and the times since then.  Everything before Christ's appearance in history (Before Christ or "BC") had meaning for them only as preparation for this grand event.  Everything since that event (Anno Domini – the Year of the Lord … or "AD") was measured in terms of how it gave fulfillment to God's plan of salvation for human life. Christians traditionally had been certainly mindful of the importance of Rome.  It seemed to them to be no mere coincidence that Rome reached its greatness (presumably in the reign of Augustus) at about the time Christ was born.  To the Christian mind, this was God's way of preparing the civilized world physically to receive the gospel.  They were aware of many of the unique features of Roman thought – but either they dismissed that thought as a carryover from darker days – or as metaphor, pointing to and confirming the gospel message.  Thus they read Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Livy with a profoundly Christian interpretation of the meaning of their works.  So also did they understand Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. But by the 1400s, without dismissing their Christian loyalties or pieties, the Renaissance mind was looking back on the days of Greece and Rome through a new set of eyes.  There had been growing, since the early 1300s (perhaps even earlier) a fascination with Roman ways in themselves, without having to go through some kind of Christian interpretation.  This was timed with the reaction against scholasticism as an arid, intellectually arrogant ambition of the human reason to bring all things under systematic theological mastery.  This was timed with a desire to explore more deeply the "humane" features of human life:  the simple passions, the loyalties, the love that connected human life with God and Christ – and with the rest of the human community.  Things came to be of interest in themselves to the enquiring European mind as it moved through the 1300s and entered the 1400s.  They came to be of interest not because they conformed to some great intellectual system but because they gave life to human existence. Thus did they now approach Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Livy – not to further undergird a well rehearsed medieval world view, but to listen to them speak out of their own times, as fellow humans trying to find in life the same deeper qualities of human existence. Having discovered this wealth of ancient human testimony and being deeply touched by the profundity of its spirit – pagan it might be (certainly was!) – they began to detach themselves all the more from the "darker" Christian mood of the centuries that stood between themselves and that "golden age" 1000 years earlier.   They saw history now not as some form of single Christian continuum, but as time in which the once greatness of Roman civilization was lost and was now, a thousand years later, being rediscovered. The Development of the Renaissance Mind We need to make note at this point that who we are talking about in reality composed only a tiny minority of the people of those days.  By and large the mass of the Europeans living in those times probably retained the older medieval world view.  When we are talking about the "Renaissance mind" we are describing a small group of wealthy and powerful businessmen, an equally small number of intellectuals, both secular and religious, and a small, curious group of adventurers.   However, though small in number, they were very powerful in terms of shaping the events of their day.  In any case, it is to them that we look when we describe the Renaissance mind. Though these individuals remained Christian to the core, they began to take a dimmer view of the way that their faith had been mediated by the Church during a 1000 year "dark ages."  They instead sought to validate their Christian faith on the basis of personal loyalties and personal virtue.  These people were doers – who used their minds in service to the needs of the family and local community – the "patria" as they understood it.  They were not contemplatives; monastic life was not for them a Christian ideal.  They were not knights living to honor the code of chivalry; that was much to abstract a notion for them.  They were practical, "earthy" in their interests, and sought to use their considerable worldly talents for the common good.  This was their understanding of their Christian responsibilities, their accountability before God. The Roman Church under Challenge The church was finding itself hard-pressed to maintain its traditional place of authority within the European cultural sphere. It tried to resist its loss of status – but found that circumstances were making it increasingly difficult to hold its own.   For instance, the translation of the Bible from Latin into the languages of the people gave them the power to discern for themselves the word of God.  Through the rapid growth of literacy that accompanied the growth in Bible and other book publication this development became quite extensive.  Thus the church became very alarmed by the publication of the Bible – more alarmed that it was over the publication of pagan Roman and Greek literature – protesting that this wide dissemination of the Bible would cause the emergence of wrong interpretations and subsequently the spread of new heresies. The church well understood that it was thus rapidly losing its monopoly on learning and authoritative knowledge.   Also, with the rise of the secular, humanist spirit, especially in Italy, religion was becoming seen more and more as a matter of internal religious disposition of the individual, and less and less as a matter of the sacraments, teachings and traditions dispensed by the church.   Yet interestingly, many of the church leaders themselves chose to join in with the spirit of the times. Certainly there were those clergy who objected. But by and large the view of the church – notably of its popes, who during the 1400s could be very worldly fellows – was that this intellectual revolution was something to be pursued.  Thus the church was as active a sponsor in this matter.   Indeed, the worldliness of the church was becoming a well-recognized feature. The Roman hierarchy was viewed widely as being venal and corrupt – as secular politics rather than spirituality preoccupied the popes of the 1400s.  The dreams and schemes of the Roman church became more grandiose, overstepping even the wealth of Italy, and beginning to drain the wealth of the church north of the Alps.  And the personal conduct within the highest offices of the church, including the papacy itself, was at times scandalous.   Discontent against the Roman church thus began to spread in the North of Europe by the end of the 1400s.  Led especially by a number of northern humanists, many Europeans began to demand reform the church, not only in its ethical behavior but also in its very lines and features as an institution.  Reform-minded individuals were beginning to demand that the church should drop its medieval trappings and purify itself along the lines of the early church described in scripture. 1Copies of Wycliff's English Bible (completed around 1384) in manuscript form also were circulated widely – although not in printed form until the early-to-mid 1500s. RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE In their "worldliness" Renaissance scholars and writers were an incredibly curious lot.  We have already noted in the pre-Renaissance writers Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer a new spirit … one which would take full form in the following century … that of the full "Renaissance" or "rebirth" of the pre-Christian or classical mindset.  Thus Renaissance philosophers/writers studied carefully all the classic works they could get their hands on.  They already knew Latin; they now took on Greek and even Hebrew.  They wanted to go back to the "sources" themselves of the intellectual foundations of their world.  They took in the works of the early church fathers – more authoritative for them because they were closer to the original events of Christ.  But they also became quite as familiar with the wide range of "pagan" works of Greece and Rome.  The idea was that if it came out of that older age, it was truer, purer … certainly a vast improvement over the political corruption and violence of their own days.  Their writings were thus deeply suggestive of what a better world should look like.  And by taking up this challenge, some of them became literary scholars of the first order. Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457).  Valla studied the linguistic structure of the ancients – and was able to demonstrate that the "Donation of Constantine," by which the popes claimed vast temporal powers received from the Emperor Constantine (early 300s), was actually a much later document employing a much later Latin more characteristic of the Middle Ages – when it was probably written! Detail of the Angel Appearing to Zacharias – by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1486-1490) – depicting four prominent members of the Platonic Academy in  Florence (left to  right): Marsilio Ficino (translated Plato's works into Latin); Cristoforo Landino (student of Aristotle, Petrarch and Dante);  Angelo Poliziano (poet, dramatist and tutor to Lorenzo de Medici's children) and Demetrios Chalkokondyles (taught Greek in Florence) Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Tornabuoni, Florence Thomas Malory (c. 1415-1471) Although little is known about this English writer himself, his Le Morte d'Arthur (published in 1485) was – by bringing back to notice the chivalry of the legendary heroes Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, Guinevere, and the Knights of the Round Table – possibly demonstrating, through the narrative, the dangerous results of moral failure … in an attempt to restore just such legendary chivalry to an English world shattered by the devastating War of the Roses ... going on since 1455.  More about that war in a section below. Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) Erasmus was a Dutch Catholic priest more interested in promoting a rising Humanism than in defending his own church … which was coming under increasing criticism for its "unchristian" behavior. He and his close friend Thomas More both were alarmed at the moral corruption infecting the Church … and the kinds of moral pretensions of church officials (even the popes).  Erasmus' views were cleverly presented in his work The Praise of Folly (1511) as humorous satire.  He also tried to find middle ground between the Catholic Church and the early Protestant Reformers … pleasing neither side in the increasingly bitter debate. In his later years he would offer a written rebuttal to Luther's strongly anti-Catholic writings … particularly over the matter of free will.  Luther did not believe in such free will … because he saw the human heart as fully captive to original sin.  Erasmus depicted God as leaving a large realm of moral choice to the personal will of any individual … making each person quite responsible for the good or bad in the outcome. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) The rather cynical political writer of the Renaissance, Machiavelli, was involved personally as an official for the Republic of Florence, working in the world of Italian diplomatic and military affairs during the 14 years that the Medici were out of power (1498-1512).  In his classic work, The Prince, written most probably in 1513 (but not published until 1532, five years after he died), he merely described that political world quite bluntly – and analyzed its operations quite accurately.  He was particularly direct in describing the acquiring and then wielding of power by any successful political leader … based on what he knew personally about the deceitful and brutal – even murderous – behavior of the political leaders of the day. Machiavelli would be condemned by later Humanists for his less-than-utopian views on human motivations and behavior.  But he was merely an analyst, hoping that a certain amount of very tough political realism, which he had come to understand quite clearly, could be employed by a strong-handed Prince to bring about a united Italy.  His ultimate purpose was to advise such a leader (or perhaps he was also simply informing the commoners of his Republic on such political methods, ones certainly already well-known by any would-be leader of the day) in how to hold off non-Italian European princes (notably the French and Spanish kings) … who viewed the disunited Italian peninsula as a place where they might pick up more territory in their personal rise to power. Young Niccolo Machiavelli - by Santi di Tito Florence, Palazzo Vecchio Machiavelli's study at his country villa at Percussina where he penned The Prince House of Machiavelli, Percussina, Italy Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) Castiglione, as an experienced and amazingly honorable diplomat caught up in the world of Italian political intrigue, wrote The Book of the Courtier (1528) … in an effort to bring that world of corrupt and greedy political diplomacy under some degree of moral restraint and operational civility.  His work became very well-read in Italian court circles – wearied by all of the political intrigue disrupting Italian life – although in the end, it seemed to have had hardly any actual impact on the rough nature of Italian politics of the day. Thomas More (1478-1535) More was a high-level English lawyer, writer and politician, serving as English King Henry VIII's Lord High Chancellor (1529-1532).  As a loyal Catholic, he was deeply opposed to the Protestant Reformation … especially after the very bloody Peasants' Revolt – which he blamed Luther for.  At the same time, he was strongly supportive of his own version of the rising Humanism of the day.  He went on to describe what a well-designed human society should look like in his famous 1516 fictional work Utopia (Greek, actually meaning "no place") … a Republic located on a mythical island – functioning by human design almost like some kind of perfect monastery! But he got himself in trouble with the king when he opposed Henry's efforts to have the pope "annul" his 24-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon (the marriage had failed to bring Henry an all-important male heir) – in order to take on a new marriage with Anne Boleyn (not an uncommon event in those days) … and then in Henry's taking the Church of England out from under papal authority when the pope refused to do so – placing the Church under Henry's own authority as its Supreme Head.  More's refusal to take an oath recognizing Henry in that role ultimately brought about More's execution as a "traitor" in 1535. François Rabelais (? – c. 1553) The Frenchman Rabelais started out as a Franciscan monk, who left the monastery to take up medical studies and then become a doctor.  But he also had a strong interest in scholarly academics … and then ultimately simply writing for pleasure.  And that sense of pleasure led him to write over the period c. 1532 to 1548 a Gargantua and Pantagruel series of four (possibly five) humorous books – which the church disapproved of highly, because they were not only rather vulgar in language but also rather insulting about the behavior of church officials – although they received royal endorsement from both kings Francis I and Henry II of France.   And they proved to be very popular with the French commoner. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) Montaigne was a French politician who enjoyed accompanying his work with written commentaries on society and its ways … and life in general … those writings summed up most beautifully in his collective work Essais (1580).  There was a frank realism about his work – touching on a huge number of issues in life – which subsequently shaped deeply not only French but also other Western authors … all the way up to the present. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Shakespeare, about whom we know very little personally, was an absolutely outstanding English playwright who formed a bridge between the world of the Renaissance and the rising "modern" world.  His portrayal of the human condition under all sorts of varying circumstances is absolutely unparalleled … for all times and circumstances.  He was well-recognized in his own time … but would achieve even greater fame over time … as the brilliance of his works became more clearly understood by subsequent generations.   He could be historical.  He could be comical.  He could be tragic.  He always reached deep inside the human psyche … especially in the tragedies written in the latter part of his career.  Consequently, he left a dramatic legacy behind him … one that no one else has come close to duplicating. King Richard III (1593) The Comedy of Errors (1594) Romeo and Juliet (1597) Julius Caesar (1599) Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1604) King Lear (1606) Macbeth (1606) ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ART This Renaissance spirit of "earthy reality" was well reflected also in the development of the arts.  Art reached beyond traditional religious themes to reflect this interest in the individual – and the passions of the living person.  Classic art would play a huge role in redefining the shape that Renaissance art took on.  Architecture also was called up not only to build churches, but also trade halls and private homes ... these too influenced deeply by classical styling. For more (much, much more) on Renaissance Art: The Early Renaissance The Italian High Renaissance The Northern Renaissance The Late Renaissance Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) A Florentine architect who designed and supervised the construction of the massive dome of Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral ... as well as some of the decorative bronze sculpture adorning the cathedral.  He was also called on to do the design and oversee the construction of several other churches and chapels in Italy.  He also developed the concept of linear perspective – which gives depth to pictorial art.  Filippo Brunelleschi's Santo Spirito – Florence (1430s) Interior of the Santo Spirito Florence's Duomo or cathedral:  The Santa Maria del Fiore, with Brunelleschi's dome or cupola (1420s and 1430s) .. and Giotto's campanile or bell tower (1330s) The interior of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore Brunelleschi - one of the door panels of the Florentine Baptistry (Isaac about to be sacrificed) Donatello Bardi (1386-1466) Donatello was a Florentine sculptor, encouraged by Brunelleschi and supported financially by Cosimo de' Medici, whose classical works – most notably his bronze statue David (not to be confused with Michelangelo's David) – would influence other early Italian sculptors and artists … in the move away from medieval church styles to the classical (Greek and Roman) style … which was on its way to dominating the Renaissance world.   Donatello – St. George (1415-1417) marble Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello Donatello – David  bronze (probably the 1440s) Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) Alberti was a very early full example of the "Renaissance Man."  A quite athletic and high-ranking priest of a noble family, he developed outstanding skills in a wide variety of literary, philosophical, artistic, mathematical and scientific fields.  He was particularly well-known in his time as both an outstanding mathematician and architect (designing the churches of San Sebastiano and Sant' Andrea in Mantua).  But his fame today reaches most notably in his works of art. Leon Battista Alberti – Sant' Andrea, Mantua, Italy (1470-1476) greatbuildings.com Leon Battista Alberti – Interior of Sant' Andrea, Mantua greatbuildings.com Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510) Botticelli was an excellent Florentine artist of both religious subjects (his Madonna and Child with John the Baptist – c. 1475) … and classical mythological subjects (such as his famous Birth of Venus and Primavera paintings – c. 1485).  He also did several of the wall frescoes in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. Sandro Botticelli – Primavera (Spring)  tempera on panel (c. 1470) Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi Sandro Botticelli – Primavera (detail) Botticelli's Birth of Venus – ca. 1482 Scala, Florence The Florentine feminine ideal (Simonetta Vespucci?) – by Sandro Botticelli Städelsches Kunstinstut, Frankfurt For more of Botticelli's work Other quite notable Italian Renaissance artists The "Gates of Paradise" ... doors to Florentine cathedral's baptistry - by Lorenzo Ghiberti (early 1400s) Tomasso Masaccio –  Holy Trinity – 1425 Santa Maria Novella, Florence Fra Angelico – The Annunciation (1440-1441) fresco Florence, Museo di San Marco Fra Filippo Lippi – Madonna and Child (1452) Oil on panel Florence, Palazzo Pitti Ghirlandaio - The birth of the Virgin (c. 1480) Giovanni Bellini – Virgin and Child (c. 1487) oil on panel Bergamo, Accademia Carrara THE GREATS:  DA VINCI, MICHELANGELO, AND RAPHAEL Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Without a doubt the greatest artistic genius of the Renaissance was the Leonardo da Vinci … not only an outstanding Florentine artist and architect, but an equally talented scientist and engineer.  He was exceptionally talented in so many fields that he represented the very highest form of the "Renaissance Man" … an outstanding Humanist!  Leonardo not only produced the famous Mona Lisa painting (1503-1506 and possibly continuing after that) and the equally famous Last Supper mural (1492-1498) – along with many other excellent works of art – his notebook and sketches include some of the most advanced ideas in math and engineering.  These include items ranging from solar power, to optics, to geology, to fighting machines … and insightful portrayals of man's anatomy.  So famous in his own times was Leonardo that French king Francis I had him brought to France, where Leonardo lived out his last days in company with the king.   Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait (ca. 1512) Städelsches Kunstinstut, Frankfurt A younger da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper Fresco on the walls of the refrectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan (prior to restoration) Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper – restored Da Vinci's Mona Lisa Paris, Musée du Louvre The Vitruvian Man (c. 1485) Venice, Galleria dell'Acadèmia From Leonardo da Vinci's studies of flowers   Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of a fetus in utero Venice, Galleria dell'Acadèmia  Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of an assault vehicle Scala, Florence Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of a life preserver Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of a type of helicopter Giraudon, Paris Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of a mechanical hand-cranked wing Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana For more of da Vinci's work Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) On a par with da Vinci, at least in the realm of art and architecture, was Michelangelo, a Florentine artist of exceptional abilities.  In the realm of sculpture, he produced most notably his Pietà (1498-1499) and David (1504).  In the realm of murals, he produced most notably the famous ceiling frescoes of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel … a task which occupied him fully in the period 1508-1512.  In his later years, he was commissioned by Pope Paul III to be the chief architect for the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (1546-1564) … at that point still in its early stages of construction.  It was Michelangelo who designed the most notable church dome of the Renaissance. Michelangelo Buonarroti Michelangelo Buonarroti – bust by Daniele da Volterra Milan, Castello Sforzesco Michelangelo's Pietà St. Peter's Cathedral - The Vatican Michelangelo Buonarroti  – David (1501-1504) marble from the Palazzo Vecchio, Galleria dell'Accademia Michelangelo stands out also as a great architect, in his design of the Vatican's renovated St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome Michelangelo, Bramante and Raphael meet with Pope Julius II (by 18th century artist Horace Vernet) Paris, Musée du Louvre Michelangelo eventually presents Pope Paul IV his model of the St. Peter's Cathedral (by Domenico Cresti da Passignano)   The Sistine Chapel - the masterwork of Michelangelo The Sistine Chapel Vatican, Rome The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel – completed by Michelangelo in 1512 Vatican, Rome The Delphic Sybil – detail from the Sistine chapel ceiling Vatican, Rome For more of Michelangelo's work

Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520) Raphael was another Renaissance artist and architect of great note … even at the early age of eleven, taking up his father's court painting business in Urbino when his father died.  His early works brought him such attention that in 1508 Pope Julius II had him come to Rome to undertake the production of murals for the pope's library … later known as the "Raphael Rooms"!  Among those murals was his famous School of Athens (1509-1511), Raphael – strongly influenced in style by Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel at that same time – actually using individuals of his day (Michelangelo and da Vinci, for instance) to represent these ancient figures!  From this point on, Raphael would be kept busy (until his early death at age 37) by subsequent popes working on various projects in the reworking of the Vatican buildings. These three artists – da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael – would influence deeply the character of Italian art (and elsewhere) for the next several generations.

Raphael Sanzio – Portrait of Agnolo (above) and Maddalena (below) Doni (1505-1506) oil on panel
Florence, Palazzo Pitti

Raphael Sanzio – Madonna of the Meadow (1506) oil on panel
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Raphael Sanzio – The School of Athens (1509-1511) oil on panel
Vatican City, Apostolic Palace

Raphael Sanzio – Baldasare Castiglione (1514-15) oil on panel
Paris, Musée du Louvre

For more of Raphael's work

Andrea Palladio's Villa Rotonda (near Vicenza)

The Palazzo Medici

Giuliano da San Gallo – Villa Poggio, Caiano, Tuscany
constructed for Lorenzo de' Medici, 1480-1485

The Palazzo Davanzati – a typical home of the Florentine elite 

The Palazzo Davanzati – entry hall

The Palazzo Davanzati – staircase in the inner court

The Palazzo Davanzati – the second floor grand salon (overlooking the street)

The Palazzo Davanzati – the Room of the Parrots

The Palazzo Davanzati – the upper-floor kitchen
(located there to keep smoke and odors out of the house)

The Palazzo Davanzati – one of the bedrooms at the rear of the house

The Palazzo Davanzati – another bedroom

Jean de Limbourg – Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry – October (1413 - 1416)
Chantilly, Musée Condé

Enguerrand Quarton – The Villeneuve-les-Avignon Pieta (c. 1455) oil on panel
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Jean Fouquet – Virgin and Child surreounded by Angels (after 1452) tempera on panel
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

FLANDERS

Jan Van Eyck (1390 - 1441)

Jan Van Eyck – The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cerami (1434)
London, National Gallery

Rogier Van der Weyden (1399/1400 - 1464)

Rogier Van der Weyden – The Descent from the Cross (c. 1435) oil on panel
Madrid, Museo del Prado

GERMANY

Konrad Witz – The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1444) oil on panel
Geneva, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire

Stefan Lochner – The Virgin of the Rose Bush (c. 1440) oil on panel
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum

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RENAISSANCE ART IN NORTHERN EUROPE – THE LATER YEARS

FRANCE

Hugo van der Goes (1440 - 1482)

Hugo van der Goes - The Portinari tryptich (c. 1475)
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi 

Hans Memling (c. 1440 - 1494)

Hans Memling – Triptych of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist (c. 1474-1479) oil on panel
Bruges, Hôpital Saint-Jean

Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450 - 1516)

Hieronymus Bosch – The Haywain (1500-1502) central panel of a triptych; oil on panel
Madrid, Museo del Prado

Quentin Metsys (c. 1465 - 1530)

Quentin Metsys – Money Changer and His Wife (1514) Oil on panel

Musée du Louvre, Paris

GERMANY

Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528)

Dürer was a German artist from Nuremberg – patronized by Emperor Maximilian I – who produced elegant church altarpieces and personal portraits.  He brought traditional Gothic woodcuts into modern usage, introduced landscape art with his watercolors, and wrote treatises about mathematically precise perspective and ideal proportions to be employed in artwork.

Albrecht Dürer – Self-portrait (1493) parchment glued on canvas
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Dürer - The Paumgartner Alterpiece (1498)
Alte Pinakothek - Munich

Dürer - The Adoration of the Magi (1504)
Galleria degli Uffizi - Florence

For more of Dürer's work

Lucas Cranach the Elder – Portrait of Johann the Steadfast (1509)
London, National Gallery

For more on Cranach's work

Holbein - The Ambassadors (1533)
National Gallery - London

For more of  Holbein's work


Pieter Bruegel (1525?-1569)

But of another style was the Flemish (Dutch) artist Bruegel.  He took Humanism to a new level … painting scenes of local village life … in all kinds of seasons – involving all kinds of local activities.  Well-known today are such works of his as The Hunters in the Snow (1565) and The Peasant Wedding (1567) … all depicting simply local life.

Bruegel - Hunters in the Snow - 1565

Bruegel - Wedding Feast - 1566

Château de Chambord from above!

Go on to the next section:  Renaissance Politics