"Columbus and the Renaissance" by: Mary Catherine Chesser in: Five Hundred Magazine, Volume 1/No. 1; May/June 1989, Coral Gables, FL 33146 U.S. Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission As if to set the stage for Christopher Columbus' discovery of a New World, Western Europe of the fifteenth century was embarked on the discovery of a New World manifesting itself in masterpieces of sculpture, architecture and painting. This Renaissance, rebirth, was centered in Florence, Italy, largely under the aegis of the ducal Medici family. There emerged new humanistic values and genuine scientific and intel- lectual curiosity. New creative energies were galvanized. From this backdrop of Columbus' era emerged sculpture that awed, buildings that endured, paintings that uplifted. These heritages of the Renaissance have been inspirations over the last 500 years and, like the discovery of Columbus, promise to abide and to inspire new achievements in the centuries to come. Sculpture Sculptors were the first to reflect the new creative move- ment by seeking an attitude toward the human body similar to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Donatello (1386-1466), the greatest and most prolific sculptor of this time, did the most to re- establish this attitude of the sculptured figure perfectly balanced and complete, standing alone without need for a back- ground. A good example is his David, as a young, nude Greek god completed in the 1430s. The body and limbs are realistically modeled and the face reflects emotion. Donatello's David per- manently revolutionized sculpture and set it on a new course. Donatello was a student of Lorenzo Ghiberti, who in 1401 won the competition to design bronze doors for the north portal of the Baptistery in Florence. Ghiberti won over Filippo Brunelleschi who was so disappointed that he turned to architec- ture. Not only did Brunelleschi give the world Florence's Cathedral dome, the Pazzi Chapel, Hospital of the Innocents and San Lorenzo, he also gave the arts a most valuable contribution codifying the laws of linear and aerial perspective, the prin- ciples by which an object can be drawn to give the illusion of three dimensions. He applied these principles to his architec- tural drawings as the first architect to draw and rise detailed, dimensioned drawings and models of his building designs. Brunelleschi's principles of perspective have been applied to sculpture and painting from his time until today. Donatello used them on his bas reliefs and created more natural, dynamic foregrounds and backgrounds that moved rationally into the distance. Luca della Robbia (1400-82) succeeded Donatello as a sig- nificant sculptor in Florence. He did not sculpt free-standing figures but created bas reliefs. His work, Cantoria, a relief for the Cathedral in Florence, established his reputation in the 1430s. This piece demonstrates the compelling mixture of sweet- ness and gravity characteristic of his work. Cantoria was modeled in marble but, for the remainder of his long career, he worked almost exclusively in terracotta which he covered with enamel-like glazes to make the works impervious to weather. Luca himself worked only in blue and white with occasional colors applied to the decorative framework; however, at the end of the century when his studio became a factory, garish altarpieces and Madonna panels were produced by the score. A classical tradition, that died in late antiquity, of the marble portrait bust was revived in the 1450s among the young marble sculptors such as Antonio Rossellino. In 1456, he sculpted the highly esteemed physician, Giovanni Chellini, whose personality was portrayed in the bust with remarkable precision. These portrait busts differed from those of the stylized Roman busts by their individuality and accuracy previously preserved for tomb sculpture aided by death masks. Antonio Possellino was able to impart the subject's personality as well as facial topography. Free-standing bronze sculpture was very different from that of the marble carvers. Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1431-98) was trained as a goldsmith and metalworker and greatly admired Donatello and classic art. His sculpture, Hercules and Antaeus, in 1475 astonished his contemporaries with its free-standing figures engaged in a violent struggle, arms and legs radiating from a central axis. There was no precedent for this statuary design, but the concepts would be repeated many times through the centuries. Slightly younger than Pollaiuolo was Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-88) who worked in marble, bronze, silver and terracotta and was considered to be the greatest sculptor of his day. He was also a painter and teacher of Leonardo da Vinci. Andrea is probably best known for his bronzes Putto with Dolphin, a foun- tain in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio, and Equestrian Monument of Colleoni in Venice, based on Donatello's famous Gattamelata in Padua. Undoubtedly, the most famous Renaissance sculptor was Michelangelo (1475-1564) whose genius was considered by himself and others to be a divine inspiration granted to a very few individuals. Whether a blessing or, as sometimes Michelangelo thought, a curse, this is the element that gave continuity through his work and gave him the faith in the rightness of everything he created. While we know Michelangelo also as a painter, he was the ultimate carver of marble. Sculpture, for him, was not a science but a releasing of men from cold, hard stone. He believed in the duality of body and spirit--the body as the prison of the spirit--which gave his figures their extra- ordinary emotional tension. The David, completed in 1504, exemplifies these unique qualities with heroic scale, superhuman power and beauty, and articulated musculature which became part of Michelangelo's style and, through him, of the Renaissance in general. His sculptures, such as Moses, The Piet , the Dying Slave, and the Rebellious Slave, were expressive of the neo- platonic image of the body as the soul's earthly prison. Architecture Brunelleschi has been credited with creating Renaissance architecture. After losing the Baptistery competition to Ghiberti in 1401, he travelled to Rome with Donatello. There he studied and measured the architectural monuments of the ancients, the first exact dimensions of these structures ever to be made. Perhaps his discovery of perspective came from these studies; whether it did or not, application of Brunelleschi's principles of linear and aerial perspective changed painting and architec- ture forever. In 1417, he won a competition over Ghiberti to design the dome for the Cathedral in Florence. As he was completing the design in 1419, the head of the Medici family commissioned him to add a sacristy to San Lorenzo, a Romanesque church. In looking at the scaled and dimensioned floor plan, we see the simplicity of the traditional transept, nave, and choir. But on closer inspection, we perceive that Brunelleschi's design is based on a square unit. The choir is one square, the transept is three, and the nave is four. Columns to support the nave roof and create aisles within the building are set at the end and midway of each square unit. The resulting church is harmonious, ordered, gracefully proportioned with high round arches, and more open than Romanesque or Gothic structures. Brunelleschi applied these same principles and techniques to the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Maria degli Angeli, and San Spirito, thereby enabling him to organize a stable, precise, articulate system. After Brunelleschi's death in 1446, Leone Battista Alberti (1404-72) became his successor. alberti was a highly educated humanist and, in his architecture, he restated classical theories using Brunelleschi's principles of measurement and stated his own edict that sacred architecture should be based on the circle and the square. He made reference to the Roman Forum by filling in the arches with brick or windows and by flattening the columns into pilasters, schemes which still continue to influence Western architecture. The Saint Andrea and Rucellai Palace in Florence exemplify Alberti's style. Standing midway between Brunelleschi's dome of the Florence Cathedral and Michelangelo's was St. Peter's in Rome. Donato Bramante (1444-1514) applied new more complex spatial relation- ships and cluster of domes to his designs than did Brunelleschi. This new style is shown fully-formed in 1502 in the tempietto, the chapel marking the spot where St. Peter was crucified in Rome. The boldly domed chapel is circular and rests on a three- step platform. The deep overhang of the portico and importance of the cornices and moldings make this monument seem much larger than it actually is. Bramante's next significant commission was to replace the old basilica of St. Peter's. His aim was to "place the pantheon on top of the Basilica of Constantine." Bramante's design was truly magnificent with four identical facades using the same classical forms as the tempietto. At his death, only the four crossing piers had been built. For the next 30 years little more was done by architects trained by Bramante. Finally, in 1546, Michelangelo took charge and gave St. Peter's Basilica the appearance it has today, an appearance familiar to millions throughout the modern world. In Spain, the influence of the Renaissance on architecture was being reflected in El Escorial, the magnificent palace- monastery commissioned by King Philip II and begun in 1563. Spanish architects Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera were clearly influenced by the St. Peter's of Michelangelo, but designed El Escorial in what critics call a somewhat "more sober" concept. The last thirty years of Michelangelo's life were dedicated to architecture. He designed the Campidoglio, atop the Capitoline Hill which was once the center of ancient Rome, and still is a focal point of the modern city. On a grand scale, he designed a trapezoidal piazza faced on three sides by palaces, and on the fourth, stairs leading to the hilltop. Significant architectural monuments were being built in France during the Renaissance. Most important were Chteau of Chambord (1519) and the Louvre (1546). The center portion of Chambord is made of circles and squares much like Alberti's churches. The distribution and subdivision of interior spaces into apartments represents the starting point for modern residen- tial design. The Louvre Palace, designed by Pierre Lescot, was begun by Francis I and completed under Henry II, quadrupling its size. The style is French Renaissance as Lescot, too, was greatly influenced by Bramante and Michelangelo. Painting The major contributions made to painting during the Renais- sance were in portraiture, nude figure studies, and landscape painting. Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-69) brought humanity and naturalness to religious subjects breaking with the rigidity of the Gothic. Even though he was a monk, he was ill-suited to his vows and eloped with a beautiful nun, Lucrezia. Through intercession by his benefactor, Cosimo de' Medici, he and Lucrezia received a special dispensation and were wed. He is know for Madonna Enthroned and the Madonna and child with scenes from the Life of the Virgin. His contemporary, Fra Angelico, was adept at perspective drawing. In his Hilltown detail from Descent from the Cross, he successfully manipulated multiple vanishing points looking up and down the hill. His technical skill in landscapes was important in the development of landscape painting in modern Western art. Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) reached his maturity as an artist in Padua in the 1450's. His greatest achievements were frescoes in the Church of the Eremitani which was almost entirely destroyed by an errant bomb in 1944. The murals gave daring "worms-eye-views" of religious events; his perspective and use of background were impeccable. In Florence, Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510) was trained by Fra Filippo Lippi. For a member of the Medici family, he painted his most famous picture, the Birth of Venus (1480). The genuine nudes are free-moving yet ethereal. Portrait art was greatly advanced by Flemish painters of Northern Europe. Late fifteenth century art was an outgrowth of illumination painting with its hairline detail and texture. Jan van Eyck in 1425 painted the portrait/legal document full of symbolism and detail of the Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanni Cenami. The bride and groom were painted "warts and all." Jan van Eyck and his brother, Hubert, are traditionally credited with discovering oil paints. Hugo van der Goes was the most important Flemish painter after Van Eyck. His masterpiece, the Portinari Altarpiece, was painted in Ghent and sent to Florence for illustration. This composition is full of movement, high contrast of light and dark, and great detail. Domenico Ghirlandaio saw the Portinari Altarpiece in Florence and was greatly influenced by it. Probably the greatest portrait of the Early Renaissance is An Old Man and His Grandson (1480) by Ghirlandaio. It is full of pathos and painted in arching detail. Michelangelo was a painter as well as sculptor and architect and the frescoes of The Sistine Chapel (1508-12) are another memorial to his genius. In the artist's memoirs, he portrays himself as a "limp skin" in the Last Judgment panel. It is impossible to classify Leonardo da Vinci, the earliest High Renaissance Master. At the age of 30, he was a military engineer for the Duke of Milan, only secondarily a sculptor, painter and architect. In his painting, The Virgin of the Rocks (1485), it is surmised that da Vinci was influenced by the Portinari Altarpiece which he surely saw in Florence. The sadly deteriorating Last Supper contained all the elements of the High Renaissance. Making for balanced stability, the vanishing point is located behind the head of Christ. The perspective of the architecture framework is seen in relationship with the figures rather that the reverse as seen in earlier work by others. Each apostle reacts individually according to his own character in a very human manner. In 1502, da Vinci painted his most famous portrait, Mona Lisa. The most intriguing aspect of this painting is the psychological fascination of the sitter's personality. The later years of da Vinci's life were devoted to scientific interests. He sought to understand all the laws of nature. The vastness of his inquiries is found in hundreds of drawings and notes he had planned to incorporate into an encyclopedia. Titian (1477-1576) was said to be the most sought-after portraitist of the High Renaissance. A Venetian, Titian used oils to achieve rich, creamy highlights and dark, deep tones that are transparent. He had an uncanny understanding of human nature as shown in his characters in portraits such as Man with the Glove (1520) and Paul III and His Grandsons (1546). The Renaissance ideals--humanism, classical balance, human values, and intellectual curiosity--were well served by art. However, there is one very unexpected artist of the early six- teenth century named Hieronymous Bosch. Bosch was the greatest master of fantasy. Many of his pieces were owned by Philip II of Spain, a deeply religious, pious man. The dominant theme of Bosch's art was man's damnation based on the medieval concept of heaven and hell. In his The Garden of Delights triptych, the Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden panel portrays fan- tastic animals and plant life inspired by stories from Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. CHESSER1.ART