A notable result of the increased status of the arts during the Renaissance was the
sense of competition between the artists themselves. Nowhere was this more
pronounced than in Italy, where the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo –
and between Michelangelo and Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo – not only
drove the production of great works of art, but also led to important areas of
collaboration.
There will also be discussion of the literary contribution of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of
the Artists. Dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, its expanded second
edition included more than 200 artists’ biographies, spanning a period of 300 years.
Vasari’s ground-breaking book combines fascinating descriptions of artworks with
delightful anecdotes about their creators, but to what extent have our views of
Renaissance art been influenced by his opinions and criteria? We will conclude by
drawing together strands from the preceding weeks, allowing time for discussion.
- Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519
- Michelangelo 1475-1564
- Raphael 1483-1520
- Sebastiano del Piombo 1485-1547
Tot stand gekomen naar aanleiding van een competitie:
→ Lorenzo Ghiberti, North Doors of Florence Baptistery, 1403-24
→ Filippo Brunelleschi, Dome of Florence Cathedral, completed 1436
→ Leonardo da Vinci, Design for the dome of Milan Cathedral, 1487-90.
In 1564 the Scuola invited leading artists in Venice to participate in a competition to decorate the Sala dell' Albergo - Giuseppe Salviati, Federico Zuccari, Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto
Tintoretto's winning entry - The Apotheosis of St Roch, 1564. Scuola Grande di San Rocco
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| ← Sebastiano del Piombo (after partial designs by Michelangelo), The Raising of Lazarus, 1517-19. National Gallery, London. → Raphael and workshop, The Transfiguration, 1516-20. Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome |
........There seems nothing strange about the cardinal commissioning two paintings for the same cathedral but Vasari would have us believe that there was a little devilment with the cardinal’s request as, in a way, it was to pit the two artists against one another and of course the cardinal was well aware of
as we know Raphael’s “artistic enemy” was Michelangelo, who was therefore only too willing to lend Sebastiano a hand with the work by supplying him with sketches that could be incorporated into the Raising of Lazarus.
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| Giorgio Vasari, Self-portrait, c.1567. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence |
De Levens van Giorgio Vasari
Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori
Op het hoogtepunt van de renaissance schreef de schilder, architect en kunsttheoreticus Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) zijn Levens, het eerste kritische kunsthistorische werk van zijn tijd. Vasari beschouwde de kunst uit zijn tijd als het toppunt van het menselijk kunnen en als het hoogtepunt van een ontwikkeling die begin veertiende eeuw door Giotto was begonnen. Bij Giotto was werd de kunst opnieuw geboren en ontwikkelde zich steeds verder, om in de zestiende eeuw absolute volmaaktheid te bereiken. Het hoogtepunt van deze artistieke evolutie was volgens Vasari het werk van de ‘goddelijke’ Michelangelo.
Vasari beschrijft in zijn boek deze ontwikkeling om de komende generaties kunstenaars te onderwijzen in hoe de kunst deze perfectie had bereikt en te zorgen dat zij in staat waren deze perfectie vast te houden. Dit doet hij met vlotte pen en oog voor detail, aan de hand van een reeks biografieën van de grootste schilders, beeldhouwers en architecten, vanaf het einde van de dertiende eeuw tot en met Vasari’s eigen tijd; Cimabue, Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Leonardo, Rafael, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Titiaan en vele anderen.
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| St Luke Painting the Virgin (c. 1565) by Giorgio Vasari (St Luke a self-portrait). Fresco. Santa Annunziata, Florence |
The author of the first comprehensive history of Western art
Vasari’s concept was that art of his own time was the culmination of three centuries of progress of skill and technique, a progress that had as its overall aim the goal of representing the world with evermore naturalism. This meant not only the ability to paint realistically but also to do so with a sense of disegno (‘design’, ‘drawing’ or ‘draughtsmanship’) and personal maniera (‘style’ or ‘manner’). The ancient artists of Greece and Rome had been in possession of such talents. Over the previous three centuries, Vasari’s own countrymen had re-learned them.
“With Rome’s fall,” he wrote, “the most excellent craftsmen, sculptors, painters, and architects were likewise destroyed, leaving their crafts and their very persons buried and submerged under the miserable ruins and the disasters that befell that more illustrious city.” The innovations of Cimabue and Giotto in the 14th centuries set the revival of art in motion.
The next stage on the path towards art’s rebirth came with the figures of Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio. This roughly corresponded to the 15th century. Finally, perfection was reached by the artist’s of Vasari’s own time, dominated by the talents of Leonardo, Raphael and most especially, Michelangelo. Michelangelo is treated as the ultimate expression of the renewal, an artist who “triumphed over ancient artists, modern artists, and even Nature herself.”
Key to his understanding of artistic greatness was the idea that the artists of Italy had regained the greatness of the classical past. The trouble with the Lives is that he was writing from an extremely partisan position, since he was principally interested in advocating Florence and Rome as the very centres of artistic excellence, with hardly any reference to the art that was being made outside of Italy. As a result, Vasari makes little mention of the artistic activity outside of Italy, such as in Northern Europe.
