Chapter+13++The+Renaissance+and+Mannerism+in+Italy

=The Renaissance and Mannerism in Italy= The Early Renaissance, which occurred during the fifteenth century, was a time when old ideas were challenged and new ideas began to take hold. One reason for this upheaval was the spread of the bubonic plague, which undermined traditional belief systems and spawned widespread social unrest and turmoil. The Medici family lead by Giovanni de' Medici and his son Cosimo, along with Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo, made Florence the cultural center of Renaissance Europe though their financial support of the arts. The de' Medicis were humanists, believing in the worth and dignity of the individual, and valuing the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, and especially the works of Plato. Individual genius, which was viewed as the worldly manifestation of divine truth, was allowed to flourish during Renaissance Italy as never before in Western culture. Sculptors such as Alberti and Donatello used linear perspective in organizing their compositions. Renaissance architects such as Brunelleschi and Alberti demonstrated a renewed interest in ancient Roman models,with their mathematically determined proportions and emphasis on orderliness, clarity, and logic of construction. Renaissance artists such as Masaccio and Piero emphasized the art of perspective, the principles of which had been little used since ancient Roman times. The greatest influence on early Renaissance music was Guillaume Dufay, who wrote many motets: compositions that set a sacred text to polyphonic choral music. One factor that led to the popularity of music during this period was the rise of music printing. The most famous writer of this period was Petrarch. His sonnets introduced one of the predominant themes of the Renaissance lyric poetry: the expression of the speaker's love for a woman, and the complexity of love. Florence's domination of Italian culture ended in 1494 when Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola took control of the city.

One famous artist of the High Renaissance was Leonardo da Vinci, painter of "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa." He did not share the Florentine taste for classical humanist scholarship. Pope Nicholas V helped a reborn Rome replaced Florence as the cultural center of the Renaissance. Raphael, considered the epitome of High Renaissance painters, became particularly famous for his paintings of the Madonna. Although Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor, he was compelled to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Pope Julius II. The musical composer most closely identified with the High Renaissance is Josquin Des Pres, composer and director of the Sistine choir. Two famous writers of the period were Castiglione, who supported the tenets of Renaissance humanism, and Michiavelli, who challenged those tenets.

Go to: http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/mona-lisa-%E2%80%93-portrait-lisa-gherardini-wife-francesco-del-giocondo?selection=44896 to find out more about one of the most famous paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa.

Go to: http://www.360cities.net/image/basilica-di-santa-maria-del-fiore-florence-cathedral-ascending-to-the-dome#-35.73,-58.49,110.0 to take a 360 degree tour of the Florence Cathedral.

The vast monies in Florentine hands combined with a great sense of civic pride to give the city unparalleled opportunities for expansion and public works. The results can be seen in the explosion of building, art, sculpture, and learning that stretched throughout the century. the great banking families of Florence built and supported art to enhance their reputations, that of their cities,and partly as a form of explanation for the sin of taking interest on money - a practice forbidden by the church. We tend to view Flor3ence today from the perspective of their generosity.

Other forces were of course at work. The urban workers were exploited; they had rioted during the end of the fourteenth century and were ready for further protest. An undercurrent of religiosity in the city manifested itself most conspicuously in the rise of Savonarola, who not only appealed to the common people but who also had a reputation for sanctity that could touch the lives of an educated man like Pico della Mirandola and a powerful one like Lorenzo the Magnificent. Every Florentine could visit the Duomo or see the art in the city's churches, but not everyone was equally touched by the great renaissance in ideas and art that bubbled up in Florence.

Most puzzling about Florence in this period is the sheer enormity of artistic talent it produced. Florence was not a huge city; it often portrayed itself as a David in comparison to a Roman or Milanese Goliath. Yet this relatively small city produced a tradition of art that spanned the century: In sculpture Donatello and Michelangelo bridged the generations, as did Masaccio and Botticelli in painting. Part of the explanation, if course, was native talent, but part of it also lies in the character of a city that supported the arts, nurtured artists, and enhanced civic life with beauty and learning.

Mannerism was a stylistic trend which began to develop in Italian art as early as 1`520. It reflects an age of anxiety and crisis and was inspired by the great masters of the High Renaissance.

Mannerism is marked by its rejection of many of the principles of the High Renaissance such as use of primary colors, scientific spatial construction, and natural body proportions. The Mannerist mode emphasizes extravagance and exaggeration. Two of the most characteristic painters of the mannerist style are Parmigianino and Bronzino. A Florentine Mannerist sculptor who worked in France was Benvenuto Cellini. Mannerist architecture is extremely unorthodox, often contradicting the classical rules of architecture.

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