Renaissance Art: Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Study Notes

The High Renaissance of painting was the culmination of various advances in painting technique, including linear perspective, realistic depiction of physical and psychological features, and manipulation of light and darkness.
The style was characterized by total compositional order, balance, and harmony, with individual parts having a complex but balanced relationship to the whole.
The paintings in the Vatican by Michelangelo and Raphael represent the culmination of High Renaissance style in painting.

Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance.
He was born in the Republic of Florence and was inspired by models from classical antiquity.
Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of art arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man.
He is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century, with a large volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences.

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.
He is known for his notebooks, which contain drawings and notes on various subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology.
His pyramidal composition for subjects of the Holy Family is a notable example of his work.

Raphael's paintings in the Vatican, such as The School of Athens (1511) and Parnassus (1511), represent the culmination of High Renaissance style in painting.
His works are characterized by serene mood and luminous colors.
Triumph of Galatea (1512) is his only major classical mythological subject.
Portrait of Pope Julius II (c. 1512) and Pope Leo X with two cardinals (1519) are notable examples of his portraits.
Transfiguration (1520) is an unfinished work.

Giorgione and Titian were both apprentices at Bellini's workshop and collaborated on numerous paintings.
Giorgione's idyllic Arcadian scenes, such as Three Philosophers, influenced his master Bellini and Titian.
Titian's emphasis on nature as a setting was a major contribution of the Venetian School.
His bold new composition for traditional religious subjects, such as the Pesaro Madonna (1519–1528), became a hallmark of the Venetian style.

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