High Renaissance

In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production
in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian
Renaissance. Most art historians state that the High Renaissance started around 1495 or 1500 and
ended in 1520 with the death of Raphael, although some say the High Renaissance ended about
1525, or in 1527 with the Sack of Rome by the army of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, or about
1530. The best-known exponents of painting, sculpture and architecture of the High Renaissance
include Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante. In recent years, the use of the
term has been frequently criticized by some academic art historians for oversimplifying artistic
developments, ignoring historical context, and focusing only on a few iconic works.[1]

Raphael's frescos in the Raphael

Rooms of the Apostolic Palace in the
Vatican, also commissioned by Pope
Julius II

The Creation of Adam, a scene from

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling
(c. 1508–1512), commissioned by
Pope Julius II

The Last Supper, mural painting by

Leonardo da Vinci
Origin of term

The term High Renaissance was first used by Jacob Burckhardt in German (Hochrenaissance) in
1855 and has its origins in the "High Style" of painting and sculpture of the time period around the
early 16th century described by Johann Joachim Winckelmann in 1764.[2] Extending the general
rubric of Renaissance culture, the visual arts of the High Renaissance were marked by a renewed
emphasis upon the classical tradition, the expansion of networks of patronage, and a gradual
attenuation of figural forms into the style later termed Mannerism.

Time period

Alexander Raunch in The Art of the High Renaissance and Mannerism in Rome and Central Italy,
2007,[3] states the High Renaissance began in 1490, while Marilyn Stokstad in Art History, 2008,
states it began in the 1490s.[4] Frederick Hartt states that Leonardo's The Last Supper, the painting
of which began in 1495 and concluded in 1498, makes a complete break with the Early Renaissance
and created the world in which Michelangelo and Raphael worked,[5] while Christoph Luitpold
Frommel, in his 2012 article "Bramante and the Origins of the High Renaissance," states The Last
Supper is the first High Renaissance work but adds that the peak period of the High Renaissance
was actually 1505 to 1513.[6] David Piper in The Illustrated History of Art, 1991, also cites The Last
Supper writing the work announced the High Renaissance and was one of the most influential
paintings of the High Renaissance, but contradictorily states that the High Renaissance began just
after 1500.[7] Burchkardt stated the High Renaissance started at the close of the 15th century,[8]
while Franz Kugler, who wrote the first "modern" survey text, Handbook of Art History in 1841, and
Hugh Honour and John Fleming in The Visual Arts: A History, 2009, state the High Renaissance
started at the beginning of the 16th century.[9][10] Another seminal work of art which was created in
the 1495–1500 timeframe was Michelangelo's Pietà, housed in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City,
which was executed in 1498–99.

In contrast to most of the other art historians, Manfred Wurdram, in Masterpieces of Western Art,
2007, actually states that the dawn of the High Renaissance was heralded by Leonardo's Adoration
of the Magi of 1481, for which only the underpainting was completed.[11]

As far as the end of the High Renaissance is concerned Hartt, Frommel, Piper, Wundrum, and
Winkelman all state that the High Renaissance ended in 1520 with the death of Raphael. Honour
and Fleming stated the High Renaissance was the first quarter of the 16th century meaning it would
have ended in 1525. By contrast, Luigi Lanzi, in his History of Italian Painting, 1795–96, stated it
ended with the Sack of Rome in 1527,[12] when several artists were killed and many other dispersed
from Rome, and Stokstad agrees. Raunch asserts that 1530 has been considered to be the end of
the High Renaissance. Hartt adds that 1520 to 1530 was a transition period between the High
Renaissance and Mannerism. Traditionally, the end of the High Renaissance in Florence is seen as
marked by the end of the Republic of Florence and the beginning of the Duchy of Florence in 1532.

Architecture

Bramante's Tempietto, designed 1502,

San Pietro in Montorio, Rome

High Renaissance style in architecture conventionally begins with Donato Bramante, whose
Tempietto at S. Pietro in Montorio at Rome was begun in 1510. The Tempietto, signifies a full-scale
revival of ancient Roman commemorative architecture. David Watkin writes that the Tempietto, like
Raphael's works in the Vatican (1509–11), "is an attempt at reconciling Christian and humanist
ideals".[13]

Painting

The High Renaissance of painting was the culmination of the varied means of expression[14] and
various advances in painting technique, such as linear perspective,[15] the realistic depiction of both
physical[16] and psychological features,[17] and the manipulation of light and darkness, including
tone contrast, sfumato (softening the transition between colours) and chiaroscuro (contrast
between light and dark),[18] in a single unifying style[19] which expressed total compositional order,
balance and harmony.[20] In particular, the individual parts of the painting had a complex but
balanced and well-knit relationship to the whole.[21]
 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa or La
Gioconda (1503–05/07) in the Louvre

Painting of the High Renaissance is considered to be the absolute zenith of western painting[22] and
achieved the balancing and reconciliation, in harmony, of contradictory and seemingly mutually
exclusive artistic positions, such as real versus ideal, movement versus rest, freedom versus law,
space versus plane, and line versus colour.[23] 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.

The paintings in the Vatican by Michelangelo and Raphael are said by some scholars such as
Stephen Freedberg to represent the culmination of High Renaissance style in painting, because of
the ambitious scale of these works, coupled with the complexity of their composition, closely
observed human figures, and pointed iconographic and decorative references to classical antiquity,
can be viewed as emblematic of the High Renaissance.[24]

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.
In more recent years, art historians have characterised the High Renaissance as a movement as
opposed to a period, one amongst several different experimental attitudes towards art in the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth century. This movement is variously characterised as conservative,[25]
as reflecting new attitudes towards beauty,[26] a deliberate process of synthesising eclectic models,
linked to fashions in literary culture,[27] and reflecting new preoccupations with interpretation and
meaning .[28]

Michelangelo's Pietà, 1498–99.

Sculpture

High Renaissance sculpture, as 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. During the High Renaissance there
was the development of small scale statuettes for private patrons, the creation of busts and tombs
also developing. The subject matter related to sculpture was mostly religious but also with a
significant strand of classical individuals in the form of tomb sculpture and paintings as well as
ceilings of cathedrals.

References

1. Marcia Hall, "Classicism, Mannerism and the relflike Style" in The Cambridge Companion to Raphael,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 224.
 2. Jill Burke, "Inventing the High Renaissance from Winckelmann to Wikipedia: an introductory essay (http://
www.ashgate.com/pdf/SamplePages/Rethinking_the_High_Renaissance_Intro.pdf) Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20150923185831/http://www.ashgate.com/pdf/SamplePages/Rethinking_the_High_
Renaissance_Intro.pdf) 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine", in: Id., Rethinking the High Renaissance:
Culture and the Visual Arts in Early Sixteenth-century Rome (http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=6
37&calcTitle=1&title_id=10751&edition_id=11076) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20141108153
848/http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=10751&edition_id=11076)
2014-11-08 at the Wayback Machine, Ashgate, 2012

3. Alexander Raunch "Painting of the High Renaissance and Mannerism in Rome and Central Italy" in The
Italian Renaissance: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, Konemann, Cologne, 1995. Pg. 308

4. Marilyn Stokstad Art History, Third Edition, Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey, 2008, Pg 659.

5. Frederick Hartt, A History of Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture; Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, New York,
1985, pg. 601

6. Christoph Luitpold Frommel, "Bramante and the Origins of the High Renaissance" in Rethinking the High
Renaissance: The Culture of the Visual Arts in Early Sixteenth-Century Rome, Jill Burke, ed. Ashgate
Publishing, Oxan, UK, 2002, pg. 172.

7. David Piper, The Illustrated History of Art, Crescent Books, New York, 1991, pg. 129

8. Jacob Burchhardt, Cinerone 1841.

9. Franz Kugler Handbook of Art History 1841; Franz Kugler Handbook of Art History 1841.

10. Hugh Honour and John Flemming,The Visual Arts: A History, 7th edition, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.,
Great Britain, 2009, pg. 466

11. Mandred Wundrum, "Renaissance and Mannerism" in Masterpieces of Western Art, Tashen, 2007.

12. Luigi Lanzi,History of Italian Painting, 1795–96.

13. D. Watkin, A History of Western Architecture, 4th ed., Watson Guptill (2005) p. 224.

14. Manfred Wundrum "Renaissance and Mannerism" in Masterpieces of Western Art, Tashen, 2007. Page 147

15. Alexander Raunch "Painting of the High Renaissance and Mannerism in Rome and Central Italy" in The
Italian Renaissance: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, Konemann, Cologne, 1995. Pg. 308;
Wundrum Pg. 147

16. Frederick Hartt and David G. Wilkins, History of Italian Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, 2003.

17. Raunch pg. 309

18. Wundrum pg. 148; Hartt and Wilkins

19. Wundrum pg. 147; Hartt and Wilkins

 20. Frederick Hartt, A History of Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture; Harry N. Abrams Incorporated, New York,
1985, pg. 601; Wundrum pg. 147; Marilyn Stokstad Art History, Third Edition, Pearson Education Inc., New
Jersey, 2008. Pg 659

21. Stokstad, Pg. 659

22. Wundrum pg. 145

23. Wundrum pg. 147

24. Stephen Freedberg, _Painting of the High Renaissance in Rome and Florence, 2 vols., Cambridge MA;
Harvard University Press

25. Alexander Nagel, "Experiments in Art and Reform in Italy in the Early Sixteenth Century", in Kenneth
Gouwens and Sheryl E. Reiss eds., The Pontificate of Clement VII: History, Politics, Culture, Ashgate 2005,
385–409

26. Elizabeth Cropper, "The Place of Beauty in the High Renaissance and its Displacement in the History of
Art", in Alvin Vos ed., Place and Displacement in the Renaissance, 1995, 159–205

27. David Hemsoll, 'The conception and design of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling: 'wishing to shed a
little light upon the whole rather than mentioning the parts', in Jill Burke ed., Rethinking the High
Renaissance, Ashgate, 2012

28. Jill Burke, 'Meaning and Crisis in the Early Sixteenth Century: Interpreting Leonardo's Lion', Oxford Art
Journal, 29, 2006, 77–91 (https://web.archive.org/web/20110703043111/http://oaj.oxfordjournals.org/co
ntent/29/1/77.short)

External links

Toward The High Renaissance (https://smarthistory.khanacad Wikimedia Commons has

emy.org/High-Renaissance.html) at Smarthistory media related to Italian
Renaissance art.

Portals: Painting Visual arts

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