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Leonardo da Vinci
This portrait attributed to Francesco Melzi, c. 1515–1518, is the only certain contemporary depiction of Leonardo.[1][2]
Born Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
15 April 1452
(possibly Anchiano),[a] Vinci, Republic of Florence
Died 2 May 1519 (aged 67)
Clos Lucé, Amboise, Kingdom of France
Education Studio of Andrea del Verrocchio
Known for
Paintingdrawingengineeringanatomical studieshydrologybotanyopticsgeology
Notable work
Virgin of the Rocks (c. 1483–1493)
Lady with an Ermine (c. 1489–1491)
The Vitruvian Man (c. 1490)
The Last Supper (c. 1495–1498)
Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1516)
Movement High Renaissance
Family Da Vinci family
Signature
Signature written in ink in a flowing script
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci[b] (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.[3] While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he also became known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal,[4] and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary, Michelangelo.[3][4]
Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career in the city, but then spent much time in the service of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. Later, he worked in Florence and Milan again, as well as briefly in Rome, all while attracting a large following of imitators and students. Upon the invitation of Francis I, he spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Since his death, there has not been a time where his achievements, diverse interests, personal life, and empirical thinking have failed to incite interest and admiration,[3][4] making him a frequent namesake and subject in culture.
Leonardo is identified as one of the greatest painters in the history of art and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance.[3] Despite having many lost works and fewer than 25 attributed major works—including numerous unfinished works—he created some of the most influential paintings in Western art.[3] His magnum opus, the Mona Lisa, is his best known work and often regarded as the world's most famous painting. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is also regarded as a cultural icon. In 2017, Salvator Mundi, attributed in whole or part to Leonardo,[5] was sold at auction for US$450.3 million, setting a new record for the most expensive painting ever sold at public auction.
Revered for his technological ingenuity, he conceptualized flying machines, a type of armored fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, a ratio machine that could be used in an adding machine,[6][7] and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, hydrodynamics, geology, optics, and tribology, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.[8]
Biography
Early life (1452–1472)
Birth and background
Photo of a building of rough stone with small windows, surrounded by olive trees
The possible birthplace and childhood home of Leonardo in Anchiano, Vinci, Italy
Leonardo da Vinci,[b] properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo, son of ser Piero from Vinci),[9][10][c] was born on 15 April 1452 in, or close to, the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, 20 miles from Florence.[11][12][d] He was born out of wedlock to Piero da Vinci (Ser Piero da Vinci d'Antonio di ser Piero di ser Guido; 1426–1504),[16] a Florentine legal notary,[11] and Caterina di Meo Lippi (c. 1434 – 1494), from the lower-class.[17][18][e] It remains uncertain where Leonardo was born; the traditional account, from a local oral tradition recorded by the historian Emanuele Repetti,[21] is that he was born in Anchiano, a country hamlet that would have offered sufficient privacy for the illegitimate birth, though it is still possible he was born in a house in Florence that Ser Piero almost certainly had.[22][a] Leonardo's parents both married separately the year after his birth. Caterina—who later appears in Leonardo's notes as only "Caterina" or "Catelina"—is usually identified as the Caterina Buti del Vacca who married the local artisan Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca, nicknamed "L'Accattabriga", '"the quarrelsome one"'.[17][21] Ser Piero married Albiera Amadori—having been betrothed to her the previous year—and after her death in 1464, went on to have three subsequent marriages.[21][23][f] From all the marriages, Leonardo eventually had 16 half-siblings (of whom 11 survived infancy)[24] who were much younger than he (the last was born when Leonardo was 46 years old)[24] and with whom he had very little contact.[g]
Very little is known about Leonardo's childhood and much is shrouded in myth, partially because of his biography in the frequently apocryphal Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550) by the 16th-century art historian Giorgio Vasari.[27][28] Tax records indicate that by at least 1457 he lived in the household of his paternal grandfather, Antonio da Vinci,[11] but it is possible that he spent the years before then in the care of his mother in Vinci, either Anchiano or Campo Zeppi in the parish of San Pantaleone.[29][30] He is thought to have been close to his uncle, Francesco da Vinci,[3] but his father was probably in Florence most of the time.[11] Ser Piero, who was the descendant of a long line of notaries, established an official residence in Florence by at least 1469 and had a successful career.[11] Despite his family history, Leonardo only received a basic and informal education in (vernacular) writing, reading and mathematics, possibly because his artistic talents were recognised early, so his family decided to focus their attention there.[11]
Later in life, Leonardo recorded his earliest memory, now in the Codex Atlanticus.[31] While writing on the flight of birds, he recalled as an infant when a kite came to his cradle and opened his mouth with its tail; commentators still debate whether the anecdote was an actual memory or a fantasy.[32]
Verrocchio's workshop
Painting showing Jesus, naked except for a loin-cloth, standing in a shallow stream in a rocky landscape, while to the right, John the Baptist, identifiable by the cross that he carries, tips water over Jesus' head. Two angels kneel at the left. Above Jesus are the hands of God, and a dove descending
The Baptism of Christ (1472–1475) by Verrocchio and Leonardo, Uffizi Gallery
In the mid-1460s, Leonardo's family moved to Florence, which at the time was the centre of Christian Humanist thought and culture.[33] Around the age of 14,[25] he became a garzone (studio boy) in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, who was the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his time.[33] This was about the time of the death of Verrocchio's master, the great sculptor Donatello.[h] Leonardo became an apprentice by the age of 17 and remained in training for seven years.[35] Other famous painters apprenticed in the workshop or associated with it include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi.[36][37] Leonardo was exposed to both theoretical training and a wide range of technical skills,[38] including drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics, and woodwork, as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting, and modelling.[39][i]
Leonardo was a contemporary of Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino, who were all slightly older than he was.[40] He would have met them at the workshop of Verrocchio or at the Platonic Academy of the Medici.[36] Florence was ornamented by the works of artists such as Donatello's contemporaries Masaccio, whose figurative frescoes were imbued with realism and emotion, and Ghiberti, whose Gates of Paradise, gleaming with gold leaf, displayed the art of combining complex figure compositions with detailed architectural backgrounds. Piero della Francesca had made a detailed study of perspective,[41] and was the first painter to make a scientific study of light. These studies and Leon Battista Alberti's treatise De pictura were to have a profound effect on younger artists and in particular on Leonardo's own observations and artworks.[34][42]
Much of the painting in Verrocchio's workshop was done by his assistants. According to Vasari, Leonardo collaborated with Verrocchio on his The Baptism of Christ, painting the young angel holding Jesus' robe in a manner that was so far superior to his master's that Verrocchio put down his brush and never painted again,[‡ 1] although this is believed to be an apocryphal story.[14] Close examination reveals areas of the work that have been painted or touched-up over the tempera, using the new technique of oil paint, including the landscape, the rocks seen through the brown mountain stream, and much of the figure of Jesus, bearing witness to the hand of Leonardo.[43] Leonardo may have been the model for two works by Verrocchio: the bronze statue of David in the Bargello, and the Archangel Raphael in Tobias and the Angel.[14]
Vasari tells a story of Leonardo as a very young man: a local peasant made himself a round shield and requested that Ser Piero have it painted for him. Leonardo, inspired by the story of Medusa, responded with a painting of a monster spitting fire that was so terrifying that his father bought a different shield to give to the peasant and sold Leonardo's to a Florentine art dealer for 100 ducats, who in turn sold it to the Duke of Milan.[‡ 2]
First Florentine period (1472–c. 1482)
Adoration of the Magi c. 1478–1482,[d 1] Uffizi, Florence
By 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine,[j] but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate and live with him.[36][44] Leonardo's earliest known dated work is a 1473 pen-and-ink drawing of the Arno valley (see below).[37][45][k] According to Vasari, the young Leonardo was the first to suggest making the Arno river a navigable channel between Florence and Pisa.[46]
In January 1478, Leonardo received an independent commission to paint an altarpiece for the Chapel of Saint Bernard in the Palazzo Vecchio,[47] an indication of his independence from Verrocchio's studio. An anonymous early biographer, known as Anonimo Gaddiano, claims that in 1480 Leonardo was living with the Medici and often worked in the garden of the Piazza San Marco, Florence, where a Neoplatonic academy of artists, poets and philosophers organized by the Medici met.[14][l] In March 1481, he received a commission from the monks of San Donato in Scopeto for The Adoration of the Magi.[48] Neither of these initial commissions were completed, being abandoned when Leonardo went to offer his services to Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza. Leonardo wrote Sforza a letter which described the diverse things that he could achieve in the fields of engineering and weapon design, and mentioned that he could paint.[37][49] He brought with him a silver string instrument—either a lute or lyre—in the form of a horse's head.[49]
With Alberti, Leonardo visited the home of the Medici and through them came to know the older Humanist philosophers of whom Marsiglio Ficino, proponent of Neoplatonism; Cristoforo Landino, writer of commentaries on Classical writings, and John Argyropoulos, teacher of Greek and translator of Aristotle were the foremost. Also associated with the Platonic Academy of the Medici was Leonardo's contemporary, the brilliant young poet and philosopher Pico della Mirandola.[40][42][50] In 1482, Leonardo was sent as an ambassador by Lorenzo de' Medici to Ludovico il Moro, who ruled Milan between 1479 and 1499.[40][14]
Madonna of the Carnation, c. 1472–1478, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Madonna of the Carnation, c. 1472–1478, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Landscape of the Arno Valley (1473)
Landscape of the Arno Valley (1473)
Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1474–1480, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1474–1480, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Benois Madonna, c. 1478–1481, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg
Benois Madonna, c. 1478–1481, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg
Sketch of the hanging of Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli, 1479
Sketch of the hanging of Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli, 1479
First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)
Virgin of the Rocks, c. 1483–1493,[d 2] Louvre version
Leonardo worked in Milan from 1482 until 1499. He was commissioned to paint the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.[51] In the spring of 1485, Leonardo travelled to Hungary (on behalf of Sforza) to meet king Matthias Corvinus, and was commissioned by him to paint a Madonna.[52] In 1490 he was called as a consultant, together with Francesco di Giorgio Martini, for the building site of the cathedral of Pavia[53][54] and was struck by the equestrian statue of Regisole, of which he left a sketch.[55] Leonardo was employed on many other projects for Sforza, such as preparation of floats and pageants for special occasions; a drawing of, and wooden model for, a competition to design the cupola for Milan Cathedral;[56] and a model for a huge equestrian monument to Ludovico's predecessor Francesco Sforza. This would have surpassed in size the only two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance, Donatello's Gattamelata in Padua and Verrocchio's Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, and became known as the Gran Cavallo.[37] Leonardo completed a model for the horse and made detailed plans for its casting,[37] but in November 1494, Ludovico gave the metal to his brother-in-law to be used for a cannon to defend the city from Charles VIII of France.[37]
Contemporary correspondence records that Leonardo and his assistants were commissioned by the Duke of Milan to paint the Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle. The decoration was completed in 1498. The project became a trompe-l'œil decoration that made the great hall appear to be a pergola created by the interwoven limbs of sixteen mulberry trees,[57] whose canopy included an intricate labyrinth of leaves and knots on the ceiling.[58]
Head of a Woman, c. 1483–1485, Royal Library of Turin
Head of a Woman, c. 1483–1485, Royal Library of Turin
Portrait of a Musician, c. 1483–1487, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan
Portrait of a Musician, c. 1483–1487, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan
The Vitruvian Man (c. 1485) Accademia, Venice
The Vitruvian Man (c. 1485) Accademia, Venice
Leonardo's horse in silverpoint, c. 1488[59]
Leonardo's horse in silverpoint, c. 1488[59]
La Belle Ferronnière, c. 1490–1498
La Belle Ferronnière, c. 1490–1498
Detail of 1902 restoration, trompe-l'œil painting (1498)
Detail of 1902 restoration, trompe-l'œil painting (1498)
Second Florentine period (1500–1508)
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, c. 1499–1508, National Gallery, London
When Ludovico Sforza was overthrown by France in 1500, Leonardo fled Milan for Venice, accompanied by his assistant Salaì and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli.[60] In Venice, Leonardo was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.[36] On his return to Florence in 1500, he and his household were guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata and were provided with a workshop where, according to Vasari, Leonardo created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, a work that won such admiration that "men [and] women, young and old" flocked to see it "as if they were going to a solemn festival."[‡ 3][m]
In Cesena in 1502, Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron.[60] Leonardo created a map of Cesare Borgia's stronghold, a town plan of Imola in order to win his patronage. Upon seeing it, Cesare hired Leonardo as his chief military engineer and architect. Later in the year, Leonardo produced another map for his patron, one of Chiana Valley, Tuscany, so as to give his patron a better overlay of the land and greater strategic position. He created this map in conjunction with his other project of constructing a dam from the sea to Florence, in order to allow a supply of water to sustain the canal during all seasons.
Leonardo had left Borgia's service and returned to Florence by early 1503,[62] where he rejoined the Guild of Saint Luke on 18 October of that year. By this same month, Leonardo had begun working on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the model for the Mona Lisa,[63][64] which he would continue working on until his twilight years. In January 1504, he was part of a committee formed to recommend where Michelangelo's statue of David should be placed.[65] He then spent two years in Florence designing and painting a mural of The Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria,[60] with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, The Battle of Cascina.[n]
In 1506, Leonardo was summoned to Milan by Charles II d'Amboise, the acting French governor of the city.[68] There, Leonardo took on another pupil, Count Francesco Melzi, the son of a Lombard aristocrat, who is considered to have been his favourite student.[36] The Council of Florence wished Leonardo to return promptly to finish The Battle of Anghiari, but he was given leave at the behest of Louis XII, who considered commissioning the artist to make some portraits.[68] Leonardo may have commenced a project for an equestrian figure of d'Amboise;[69] a wax model survives and, if genuine, is the only extant example of Leonardo's sculpture. Leonardo was otherwise free to pursue his scientific interests.[68] Many of Leonardo's most prominent pupils either knew or worked with him in Milan,[36] including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, and Marco d'Oggiono. In 1507, Leonardo was in Florence sorting out a dispute with his brothers over the estate of his father, who had died in 1504.
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, c. 1501–1519, Louvre, Paris
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, c. 1501–1519, Louvre, Paris
Leonardo's map of Imola, created for Cesare Borgia, 1502
Leonardo's map of Imola, created for Cesare Borgia, 1502
Study for The Battle of Anghiari (now lost), c. 1503, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Study for The Battle of Anghiari (now lost), c. 1503, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
La Scapigliata, c. 1506–1508 (unfinished), Galleria Nazionale di Parma, Parma
La Scapigliata, c. 1506–1508 (unfinished), Galleria Nazionale di Parma, Parma
Study for Leda and the Swan (now lost), c. 1506–1508, Chatsworth House, England
Study for Leda and the Swan (now lost), c. 1506–1508, Chatsworth House, England
Second Milanese period (1508–1513)
By 1508, Leonardo was back in Milan, living in his own house in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.[70]
In 1512, Leonardo was working on plans for an equestrian monument for Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, but this was prevented by an invasion of a confederation of Swiss, Spanish and Venetian forces, which drove the French from Milan. Leonardo stayed in the city, spending several months in 1513 at the Medici's Vaprio d'Adda villa.[71]
Rome and France (1513–1519)
An apocalyptic deluge drawn in black chalk by Leonardo near the end of his life (part of a series of 10, paired with written description in his notebooks)[72]
In March 1513, Lorenzo de' Medici's son Giovanni assumed the papacy (as Leo X); Leonardo went to Rome that September, where he was received by the pope's brother Giuliano.[71] From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere Courtyard in the Apostolic Palace, where Michelangelo and Raphael were both active.[70] Leonardo was given an allowance of 33 ducats a month, and according to Vasari, decorated a lizard with scales dipped in quicksilver.[73] The pope gave him a painting commission of unknown subject matter, but cancelled it when the artist set about developing a new kind of varnish.[73][o] Leonardo became ill, in what may have been the first of multiple strokes leading to his death.[73] He practiced botany in the Gardens of Vatican City, and was commissioned to make plans for the pope's proposed draining of the Pontine Marshes.[74] He also dissected cadavers, making notes for a treatise on vocal cords;[75] these he gave to an official in hopes of regaining the pope's favor, but was unsuccessful.[73]
In October 1515, King Francis I of France recaptured Milan.[48] Leonardo was present at the 19 December meeting of Francis I and Leo X, which took place in Bologna.[36][76][77] In 1516, Leonardo entered Francis' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé, near the king's residence at the royal Château d'Amboise. Being frequently visited by Francis, he drew plans for an immense castle town the king intended to erect at Romorantin, and made a mechanical lion, which during a pageant walked toward the king and—upon being struck by a wand—opened its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies.[78][‡ 3][p] Leonardo was accompanied during this time by his friend and apprentice Francesco Melzi, and supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi.[70] At some point, Melzi drew a portrait of Leonardo; the only others known from his lifetime were a sketch by an unknown assistant on the back of one of Leonardo's studies (c. 1517)[80] and a drawing by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicting an elderly Leonardo with his right arm wrapped in clothing.[81][q] The latter, in addition to the record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d'Aragon,[r] confirms an account of Leonardo's right hand being paralytic when he was 65,[84] which may indicate why he left works such as the Mona Lisa unfinished.[82][85][86] He continued to work at some capacity until eventually becoming ill and bedridden for several months.[84]
Death
Drawing of the Château d'Amboise (c. 1518) attributed to Francesco Melzi
Leonardo died at Clos Lucé on 2 May 1519 at the age of 67, possibly of a stroke.[87][86][88] Francis I had become a close friend. Vasari describes Leonardo as lamenting on his deathbed, full of repentance, that "he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done."[89] Vasari states that in his last days, Leonardo sent for a priest to make his confession and to receive the Holy Sacrament.[‡ 4] Vasari also records that the king held Leonardo's head in his arms as he died, although this story may be legend rather than fact.[s][t] In accordance with his will, sixty beggars carrying tapers followed Leonardo's casket.[50][u] Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving, as well as money, Leonardo's paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo's other long-time pupil and companion, Salaì, and his servant Baptista de Vilanis, each received half of Leonardo's vineyards.[91] His brothers received land, and his serving woman received a fur-lined cloak. On 12 August 1519, Leonardo's remains were interred in the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin at the Château d'Amboise.[92]
Salaì, or Il Salaino ("The Little Unclean One", i.e., the devil), entered Leonardo's household in 1490 as an assistant. After only a year, Leonardo made a list of his misdemeanours, calling him "a thief, a liar, stubborn, and a glutton," after he had made off with money and valuables on at least five occasions and spent a fortune on clothes.[93] Nevertheless, Leonardo treated him with great indulgence, and he remained in Leonardo's household for the next thirty years.[94] Salaì executed a number of paintings under the name of Andrea Salaì, but although Vasari claims that Leonardo "taught him many things about painting,"[‡ 3] his work is generally considered to be of less artistic merit than others among Leonardo's pupils, such as Marco d'Oggiono and Boltraffio.
Salaì owned the Mona Lisa at the time of Leonardo's death in 1524, and in his will it was assessed at 505 lire, an exceptionally high valuation for a small panel portrait.[95] Some 20 years after Leonardo's death, Francis was reported by the goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini as saying: "There had never been another man born in the world who knew as much as Leonardo, not so much about painting, sculpture and architecture, as that he was a very great philosopher."[96]
Personal life
Main article: Personal life of Leonardo da Vinci
Saint John the Baptist c. 1507–1516,[d 3] Louvre. Leonardo is thought to have used Salaì as the model.[97]
Despite the thousands of pages Leonardo left in notebooks and manuscripts, he scarcely made reference to his personal life.[2]
Within Leonardo's lifetime, his extraordinary powers of invention, his "great physical beauty" and "infinite grace," as described by Vasari,[‡ 5] as well as all other aspects of his life, attracted the curiosity of others. One such aspect was his love for animals, likely including vegetarianism and according to Vasari, a habit of purchasing caged birds and releasing them.[98][‡ 6]
Leonardo had many friends who are now notable either in their fields or for their historical significance, including mathematician Luca Pacioli,[99] with whom he collaborated on the book Divina proportione in the 1490s. Leonardo appears to have had no close relationships with women except for his friendship with Cecilia Gallerani and the two Este sisters, Beatrice and Isabella.[100] While on a journey that took him through Mantua, he drew a portrait of Isabella that appears to have been used to create a painted portrait, now lost.[36]
Beyond friendship, Leonardo kept his private life secret. His sexuality has been the subject of satire, analysis, and speculation. This trend began in the mid-16th century and was revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably by Sigmund Freud in his Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood.[101] Leonardo's most intimate relationships were perhaps with his pupils Salaì and Melzi. Melzi, writing to inform Leonardo's brothers of his death, described Leonardo's feelings for his pupils as both loving and passionate. It has been claimed since the 16th century that these relationships were of a sexual or erotic nature. Court records of 1476, when he was aged twenty-four, show that Leonardo and three other young men were charged with sodomy in an incident involving a well-known male prostitute. The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence, and there is speculation that since one of the accused, Lionardo de Tornabuoni, was related to Lorenzo de' Medici, the family exerted its influence to secure the dismissal.[102] Since that date much has been written about his presumed homosexuality[103] and its role in his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism manifested in Saint John the Baptist and Bacchus and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings.[104][97]
Paintings
See also: List of works by Leonardo da Vinci
Despite the recent awareness and admiration of Leonardo as a scientist and inventor, for the better part of four hundred years his fame rested on his achievements as a painter. A handful of works that are either authenticated or attributed to him have been regarded as among the great masterpieces. These paintings are famous for a variety of qualities that have been much imitated by students and discussed at great length by connoisseurs and critics. By the 1490s Leonardo had already been described as a "Divine" painter.[105]
Among the qualities that make Leonardo's work unique are his innovative techniques for laying on the paint; his detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, botany and geology; his interest in physiognomy and the way humans register emotion in expression and gesture; his innovative use of the human form in figurative composition; and his use of subtle gradation of tone. All these qualities come together in his most famous painted works, the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the Virgin of the Rocks.[v]
Early works
Annunciation c. 1472–1476,[d 4] Uffizi, is thought to be Leonardo's earliest extant and complete major work.
Leonardo first gained attention for his work on the Baptism of Christ, painted in conjunction with Verrocchio. Two other paintings appear to date from his time at Verrocchio's workshop, both of which are Annunciations. One is small, 59 centimetres (23 in) long and 14 cm (5.5 in) high. It is a "predella" to go at the base of a larger composition, a painting by Lorenzo di Credi from which it has become separated. The other is a much larger work, 217 cm (85 in) long.[106] In both Annunciations, Leonardo used a formal arrangement, like two well-known pictures by Fra Angelico of the same subject, of the Virgin Mary sitting or kneeling to the right of the picture, approached from the left by an angel in profile, with a rich flowing garment, raised wings and bearing a lily. Although previously attributed to Ghirlandaio, the larger work is now generally attributed to Leonardo.[107]
In the smaller painting, Mary averts her eyes and folds her hands in a gesture that symbolised submission to God's will. Mary is not submissive, however, in the larger piece. The girl, interrupted in her reading by this unexpected messenger, puts a finger in her bible to mark the place and raises her hand in a formal gesture of greeting or surprise.[34] This calm young woman appears to accept her role as the Mother of God, not with resignation but with confidence. In this painting, the young Leonardo presents the humanist face of the Virgin Mary, recognising humanity's role in God's incarnation.
Paintings of the 1480s
Unfinished painting of Saint Jerome in the Wilderness c. 1480–1490,[d 5] Vatican
In the 1480s, Leonardo received two very important commissions and commenced another work that was of ground-breaking importance in terms of composition. Two of the three were never finished, and the third took so long that it was subject to lengthy negotiations over completion and payment.
One of these paintings was Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, which Bortolon associates with a difficult period of Leonardo's life, as evidenced in his diary: "I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die."[36] Although the painting is barely begun, the composition can be seen and is very unusual.[w] Jerome, as a penitent, occupies the middle of the picture, set on a slight diagonal and viewed somewhat from above. His kneeling form takes on a trapezoid shape, with one arm stretched to the outer edge of the painting and his gaze looking in the opposite direction. J. Wasserman points out the link between this painting and Leonardo's anatomical studies.[108] Across the foreground sprawls his symbol, a great lion whose body and tail make a double spiral across the base of the picture space. The other remarkable feature is the sketchy landscape of craggy rocks against which the figure is silhouetted.
The daring display of figure composition, the landscape elements and personal drama also appear in the great unfinished masterpiece, the Adoration of the Magi, a commission from the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto. It is a complex composition, of about 250 x 250 centimetres. Leonardo did numerous drawings and preparatory studies, including a detailed one in linear perspective of the ruined classical architecture that forms part of the background. In 1482 Leonardo went to Milan at the behest of Lorenzo de' Medici in order to win favour with Ludovico il Moro, and the painting was abandoned.[14]
Lady with an Ermine, c. 1489–1491,[d 6] Czartoryski Museum, Kraków, Poland
The third important work of this period is the Virgin of the Rocks, commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. The painting, to be done with the assistance of the de Predis brothers, was to fill a large complex altarpiece.[109] Leonardo chose to paint an apocryphal moment of the infancy of Christ when the infant John the Baptist, in protection of an angel, met the Holy Family on the road to Egypt. The painting demonstrates an eerie beauty as the graceful figures kneel in adoration around the infant Christ in a wild landscape of tumbling rock and whirling water.[110] While the painting is quite large, about 200×120 centimetres, it is not nearly as complex as the painting ordered by the monks of San Donato, having only four figures rather than about fifty and a rocky landscape rather than architectural details. The painting was eventually finished; in fact, two versions of the painting were finished: one remained at the chapel of the Confraternity, while Leonardo took the other to France. The Brothers did not get their painting, however, nor the de Predis their payment, until the next century.[37][60]
Leonardo's most remarkable portrait of this period is the Lady with an Ermine, presumed to be Cecilia Gallerani (c. 1483–1490), lover of Ludovico Sforza.[111][112] The painting is characterised by the pose of the figure with the head turned at a very different angle to the torso, unusual at a date when many portraits were still rigidly in profile. The ermine plainly carries symbolic meaning, relating either to the sitter, or to Ludovico who belonged to the prestigious Order of the Ermine.[111]
Paintings of the 1490s
The Last Supper,[d 7] Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan (c. 1492–1498)
Leonardo's most famous painting of the 1490s is The Last Supper, commissioned for the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. It represents the last meal shared by Jesus with his disciples before his capture and death, and shows the moment when Jesus has just said "one of you will betray me", and the consternation that this statement caused.[37]
The writer Matteo Bandello observed Leonardo at work and wrote that some days he would paint from dawn till dusk without stopping to eat and then not paint for three or four days at a time.[113] This was beyond the comprehension of the prior of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo asked Ludovico to intervene. Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to adequately depict the faces of Christ and the traitor Judas, told the duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his model.[‡ 7]
The painting was acclaimed as a masterpiece of design and characterization,[‡ 8] but it deteriorated rapidly, so that within a hundred years it was described by one viewer as "completely ruined."[114] Leonardo, instead of using the reliable technique of fresco, had used tempera over a ground that was mainly gesso, resulting in a surface subject to mould and to flaking.[115] Despite this, the painting remains one of the most reproduced works of art; countless copies have been made in various mediums.
Toward the end of this period, in 1498 Leonardo's trompe-l'œil decoration of the Sala delle Asse was painted for the Duke of Milan in the Castello Sforzesco.
Paintings of the 1500s
Mona Lisa or La Gioconda c. 1503–1516,[d 8] Louvre, Paris
In 1505, Leonardo was commissioned to paint The Battle of Anghiari in the Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Leonardo devised a dynamic composition depicting four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at the Battle of Anghiari in 1440. Michelangelo was assigned the opposite wall to depict the Battle of Cascina. Leonardo's painting deteriorated rapidly and is now known from a copy by Rubens.[116]
Among the works created by Leonardo in the 16th century is the small portrait known as the Mona Lisa or La Gioconda, the laughing one. In the present era, it is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, on the elusive smile on the woman's face, its mysterious quality perhaps due to the subtly shadowed corners of the mouth and eyes such that the exact nature of the smile cannot be determined. The shadowy quality for which the work is renowned came to be called "sfumato", or Leonardo's smoke. Vasari wrote that the smile was "so pleasing that it seems more divine than human, and it was considered a wondrous thing that it was as lively as the smile of the living original."[‡ 9]
Other characteristics of the painting are the unadorned dress, in which the eyes and hands have no competition from other details; the dramatic landscape background, in which the world seems to be in a state of flux; the subdued colouring; and the extremely smooth nature of the painterly technique, employing oils laid on much like tempera, and blended on the surface so that the brushstrokes are indistinguishable.[117] Vasari expressed that the painting's quality would make even "the most confident master ... despair and lose heart."[‡ 10] The perfect state of preservation and the fact that there is no sign of repair or overpainting is rare in a panel painting of this date.[118]
In the painting Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, the composition again picks up the theme of figures in a landscape, which Wasserman describes as "breathtakingly beautiful"[119] and harkens back to the Saint Jerome with the figure set at an oblique angle. What makes this painting unusual is that there are two obliquely set figures superimposed. Mary is seated on the knee of her mother, Saint Anne. She leans forward to restrain the Christ Child as he plays roughly with a lamb, the sign of his own impending sacrifice.[37] This painting, which was copied many times, influenced Michelangelo, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto,[120] and through them Pontormo and Correggio. The trends in composition were adopted in particular by the Venetian painters Tintoretto and Veronese.
Drawings
Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo (c. 1510) at the Royal Library of Turin, Italy
Leonardo was a prolific draughtsman, keeping journals full of small sketches and detailed drawings recording all manner of things that took his attention. As well as the journals there exist many studies for paintings, some of which can be identified as preparatory to particular works such as The Adoration of the Magi, The Virgin of the Rocks and The Last Supper.[121] His earliest dated drawing is a Landscape of the Arno Valley, 1473, which shows the river, the mountains, Montelupo Castle and the farmlands beyond it in great detail.[36][121][x]
Among his famous drawings are the Vitruvian Man, a study of the proportions of the human body; the Head of an Angel, for The Virgin of the Rocks in the Louvre; a botanical study of Star of Bethlehem; and a large drawing (160×100 cm) in black chalk on coloured paper of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist in the National Gallery, London.[121] This drawing employs the subtle sfumato technique of shading, in the manner of the Mona Lisa. It is thought that Leonardo never made a painting from it, the closest similarity being to The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne in the Louvre.[122]
Antique warrior in profile, c. 1472. British Museum, London
Other drawings of interest include numerous studies generally referred to as "caricatures" because, although exaggerated, they appear to be based upon observation of live models. Vasari relates that Leonardo would look for interesting faces in public to use as models for some of his work.[‡ 7] There are numerous studies of beautiful young men, often associated with Salaì, with the rare and much admired facial feature, the so-called "Grecian profile".[y] These faces are often contrasted with that of a warrior.[121] Salaì is often depicted in fancy-dress costume. Leonardo is known to have designed sets for pageants with which these may be associated. Other, often meticulous, drawings show studies of drapery. A marked development in Leonardo's ability to draw drapery occurred in his early works. Another often-reproduced drawing is a macabre sketch that was done by Leonardo in Florence in 1479 showing the body of Bernardo Baroncelli, hanged in connection with the murder of Giuliano, brother of Lorenzo de' Medici, in the Pazzi conspiracy.[121] In his notes, Leonardo recorded the colours of the robes that Baroncelli was wearing when he died.
Like the two contemporary architects Donato Bramante (who designed the Belvedere Courtyard) and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder, Leonardo experimented with designs for centrally planned churches, a number of which appear in his journals, as both plans and views, although none was ever realised.[40][123]
Journals and notes
See also: List of works by Leonardo da Vinci § Manuscripts
Renaissance humanism recognised no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and Leonardo's studies in science and engineering are sometimes considered as impressive and innovative as his artistic work.[37] These studies were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and natural philosophy (the forerunner of modern science). They were made and maintained daily throughout Leonardo's life and travels, as he made continual observations of the world around him.[37] Leonardo's notes and drawings display an enormous range of interests and preoccupations, some as mundane as lists of groceries and people who owed him money and some as intriguing as designs for wings and shoes for walking on water. There are compositions for paintings, studies of details and drapery, studies of faces and emotions, of animals, babies, dissections, plant studies, rock formations, whirlpools, war machines, flying machines and architecture.[37]
A page showing Leonardo's study of a foetus in the womb (c. 1510), Royal Library, Windsor Castle
These notebooks—originally loose papers of different types and sizes—were largely entrusted to Leonardo's pupil and heir Francesco Melzi after the master's death.[124] These were to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo's idiosyncratic writing.[125] Some of Leonardo's drawings were copied by an anonymous Milanese artist for a planned treatise on art c. 1570.[126] After Melzi's death in 1570, the collection passed to his son, the lawyer Orazio, who initially took little interest in the journals.[124] In 1587, a Melzi household tutor named Lelio Gavardi took 13 of the manuscripts to Pisa; there, the architect Giovanni Magenta reproached Gavardi for having taken the manuscripts illicitly and returned them to Orazio. Having many more such works in his possession, Orazio gifted the volumes to Magenta. News spread of these lost works of Leonardo's, and Orazio retrieved seven of the 13 manuscripts, which he then gave to Pompeo Leoni for publication in two volumes; one of these was the Codex Atlanticus. The other six works had been distributed to a few others.[127] After Orazio's death, his heirs sold the rest of Leonardo's possessions, and thus began their dispersal.[128]
Some works have found their way into major collections such as the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, the Louvre, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which holds the 12-volume Codex Atlanticus, and the British Library in London, which has put a selection from the Codex Arundel (BL Arundel MS 263) online.[129] Works have also been at Holkham Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in the private hands of John Nicholas Brown I and Robert Lehman.[124] The Codex Leicester is the only privately owned major scientific work of Leonardo; it is owned by Bill Gates and displayed once a year in different cities around the world.
Most of Leonardo's writings are in mirror-image cursive.[45][130] Since Leonardo wrote with his left hand, it was probably easier for him to write from right to left.[131][z] Leonardo used a variety of shorthand and symbols, and states in his notes that he intended to prepare them for publication.[130] In many cases a single topic is covered in detail in both words and pictures on a single sheet, together conveying information that would not be lost if the pages were published out of order.[134] Why they were not published during Leonardo's lifetime is unknown.[37]
Science and inventions
Main article: Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci
Rhombicuboctahedron as published in Pacioli's Divina proportione (1509)
Leonardo's approach to science was observational: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail and did not emphasise experiments or theoretical explanation. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist, although he did teach himself Latin. His keen observations in many areas were noted, such as when he wrote "Il sole non si move." ("The Sun does not move.")[135]
In the 1490s he studied mathematics under Luca Pacioli and prepared a series of drawings of regular solids in a skeletal form to be engraved as plates for Pacioli's book Divina proportione, published in 1509.[37] While living in Milan, he studied light from the summit of Monte Rosa.[68] Scientific writings in his notebook on fossils have been considered as influential on early palaeontology.[136]
The content of his journals suggest that he was planning a series of treatises on a variety of subjects. A coherent treatise on anatomy is said to have been observed during a visit by Cardinal Louis d'Aragon's secretary in 1517.[137] Aspects of his work on the studies of anatomy, light and the landscape were assembled for publication by Melzi and eventually published as A Treatise on Painting in France and Italy in 1651 and Germany in 1724,[138] with engravings based upon drawings by the Classical painter Nicolas Poussin.[4] According to Arasse, the treatise, which in France went into 62 editions in fifty years, caused Leonardo to be seen as "the precursor of French academic thought on art."[37]
While Leonardo's experimentation followed scientific methods, a recent and exhaustive analysis of Leonardo as a scientist by Fritjof Capra argues that Leonardo was a fundamentally different kind of scientist from Galileo, Newton and other scientists who followed him in that, as a "Renaissance Man", his theorising and hypothesising integrated the arts and particularly painting.[139]
Anatomy and physiology
Anatomical study of the arm (c. 1510)
Leonardo started his study in the anatomy of the human body under the apprenticeship of Verrocchio, who demanded that his students develop a deep knowledge of the subject. As an artist, he quickly became master of topographic anatomy, drawing many studies of muscles, tendons and other visible anatomical features.[citation needed]
As a successful artist, Leonardo was given permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and later at hospitals in Milan and Rome. From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated in his studies with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre, professor of Anatomy at the University of Pavia.[140] Leonardo made over 240 detailed drawings and wrote about 13,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy.[141] Only a small amount of the material on anatomy was published in Leonardo's Treatise on painting.[125] During the time that Melzi was ordering the material into chapters for publication, they were examined by a number of anatomists and artists, including Vasari, Cellini and Albrecht Dürer, who made a number of drawings from them.[125]
Leonardo's anatomical drawings include many studies of the human skeleton and its parts, and of muscles and sinews. He studied the mechanical functions of the skeleton and the muscular forces that are applied to it in a manner that prefigured the modern science of biomechanics.[142] He drew the heart and vascular system, the sex organs and other internal organs, making one of the first scientific drawings of a fetus in utero.[121] The drawings and notation are far ahead of their time, and if published would undoubtedly have made a major contribution to medical science.[141]
Leonardo's physiological sketch of the human brain and skull (c. 1510)
Leonardo also closely observed and recorded the effects of age and of human emotion on the physiology, studying in particular the effects of rage. He drew many figures who had significant facial deformities or signs of illness.[37][121] Leonardo also studied and drew the anatomy of many animals, dissecting cows, birds, monkeys, bears, and frogs, and comparing in his drawings their anatomical structure with that of humans. He also made a number of studies of horses.[121]
Leonardo's dissections and documentation of muscles, nerves, and vessels helped to describe the physiology and mechanics of movement. He attempted to identify the source of 'emotions' and their expression. He found it difficult to incorporate the prevailing system and theories of bodily humours, but eventually he abandoned these physiological explanations of bodily functions. He made the observations that humours were not located in cerebral spaces or ventricles. He documented that the humours were not contained in the heart or the liver, and that it was the heart that defined the circulatory system. He was the first to define atherosclerosis and liver cirrhosis. He created models of the cerebral ventricles with the use of melted wax and constructed a glass aorta to observe the circulation of blood through the aortic valve by using water and grass seed to watch flow patterns.[143]
Engineering and inventions
A design for a flying machine (c. 1488), first presented in the Codex on the Flight of Birds
An aerial screw (c. 1489), suggestive of a helicopter, from the Codex Atlanticus
During his lifetime, Leonardo was also valued as an engineer. With the same rational and analytical approach that moved him to represent the human body and to investigate anatomy, Leonardo studied and designed many machines and devices. He drew their "anatomy" with unparalleled mastery, producing the first form of the modern technical drawing, including a perfected "exploded view" technique, to represent internal components. Those studies and projects collected in his codices fill more than 5,000 pages.[144] In a letter of 1482 to the lord of Milan Ludovico il Moro, he wrote that he could create all sorts of machines both for the protection of a city and for siege. When he fled from Milan to Venice in 1499, he found employment as an engineer and devised a system of moveable barricades to protect the city from attack. In 1502, he created a scheme for diverting the flow of the Arno river, a project on which Niccolò Machiavelli also worked.[145][146] He continued to contemplate the canalization of Lombardy's plains while in Louis XII's company[68] and of the Loire and its tributaries in the company of Francis I.[147] Leonardo's journals include a vast number of inventions, both practical and impractical. They include musical instruments, a mechanical knight, hydraulic pumps, reversible crank mechanisms, finned mortar shells, and a steam cannon.[36][37]
Leonardo's drawings of a scythed chariot and a fighting vehicle
Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight for much of his life, producing many studies, including Codex on the Flight of Birds (c. 1505), as well as plans for several flying machines, such as a flapping ornithopter and a machine with a helical rotor.[37] In a 2003 documentary by British television station Channel Four, titled Leonardo's Dream Machines, various designs by Leonardo, such as a parachute and a giant crossbow, were interpreted and constructed.[148][149] Some of those designs proved successful, whilst others fared less well when tested. Similarly, a team of engineers built ten machines designed by Leonardo in the 2009 American television series Doing DaVinci, including a fighting vehicle and a self-propelled cart.
Research performed by Marc van den Broek revealed older prototypes for more than 100 inventions that are ascribed to Leonardo. Similarities between Leonardo's illustrations and drawings from the Middle Ages and from Ancient Greece and Rome, the Chinese and Persian Empires, and Egypt suggest that a large portion of Leonardo's inventions had been conceived before his lifetime. Leonardo's innovation was to combine different functions from existing drafts and set them into scenes that illustrated their utility. By reconstituting technical inventions he created something new.[150]
In his notebooks, Leonardo first stated the 'laws' of sliding friction in 1493.[151] His inspiration for investigating friction came about in part from his study of perpetual motion, which he correctly concluded was not possible.[152] His results were never published and the friction laws were not rediscovered until 1699 by Guillaume Amontons, with whose name they are now usually associated.[‡ 7] For this contribution, Leonardo was named as the first of the 23 "Men of Tribology" by Duncan Dowson.[153]
Legacy
Further information: Cultural references to Leonardo da Vinci and List of things named after Leonardo da Vinci
Statue outside the Uffizi, Florence, by Luigi Pampaloni (1791–1847)
Although he had no formal academic training,[154] many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination."[155] He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived.[156] According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote."[155] Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time.[157]
Leonardo's fame within his own lifetime was such that the King of France carried him away like a trophy, and was claimed to have supported him in his old age and held him in his arms as he died. Interest in Leonardo and his work has never diminished. Crowds still queue to see his best-known artworks, T-shirts still bear his most famous drawing, and writers continue to hail him as a genius while speculating about his private life, as well as about what one so intelligent actually believed in.[37]
The continued admiration that Leonardo commanded from painters, critics and historians is reflected in many other written tributes. Baldassare Castiglione, author of Il Cortegiano (The Courtier), wrote in 1528: "...Another of the greatest painters in this world looks down on this art in which he is unequalled..."[158] while the biographer known as "Anonimo Gaddiano" wrote, c. 1540: "His genius was so rare and universal that it can be said that nature worked a miracle on his behalf..."[159] Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists (1568), opens his chapter on Leonardo:[‡ 11]
In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, all his actions seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill. Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease.
The Death of Leonardo da Vinci, by Ingres, 1818[t]
The 19th century brought a particular admiration for Leonardo's genius, causing Henry Fuseli to write in 1801: "Such was the dawn of modern art, when Leonardo da Vinci broke forth with a splendour that distanced former excellence: made up of all the elements that constitute the essence of genius..."[160] This is echoed by A.E. Rio who wrote in 1861: "He towered above all other artists through the strength and the nobility of his talents."[161]
By the 19th century, the scope of Leonardo's notebooks was known, as well as his paintings. Hippolyte Taine wrote in 1866: "There may not be in the world an example of another genius so universal, so incapable of fulfilment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries."[162] Art historian Bernard Berenson wrote in 1896: "Leonardo is the one artist of whom it may be said with perfect literalness: Nothing that he touched but turned into a thing of eternal beauty. Whether it be the cross section of a skull, the structure of a weed, or a study of muscles, he, with his feeling for line and for light and shade, forever transmuted it into life-communicating values."[163]
The interest in Leonardo's genius has continued unabated; experts study and translate his writings, analyse his paintings using scientific techniques, argue over attributions and search for works which have been recorded but never found.[164] Liana Bortolon, writing in 1967, said: "Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge...Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe."[36] The Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana is a special collection at the University of California, Los Angeles.[165]
Leonardo Museum in Vinci, which houses a large collection of models constructed on the basis of Leonardo's drawings
Twenty-first-century author Walter Isaacson based much of his biography of Leonardo[102] on thousands of notebook entries, studying the personal notes, sketches, budget notations, and musings of the man whom he considers the greatest of innovators. Isaacson was surprised to discover a "fun, joyous" side of Leonardo in addition to his limitless curiosity and creative genius.[166]
On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death, the Louvre in Paris arranged for the largest ever single exhibit of his work, called Leonardo, between November 2019 and February 2020. The exhibit includes over 100 paintings, drawings and notebooks. Eleven of the paintings that Leonardo completed in his lifetime were included. Five of these are owned by the Louvre, but the Mona Lisa was not included because it is in such great demand among general visitors to the Louvre; it remains on display in its gallery. Vitruvian Man, however, is on display following a legal battle with its owner, the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Salvator Mundi[aa] was also not included because its Saudi owner did not agree to lease the work.[169][170]
The Mona Lisa, considered Leonardo's magnum opus, is often regarded as the most famous portrait ever made.[3][171] The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time,[155] and Leonardo's Vitruvian Man drawing is also considered a cultural icon.[172]
More than a decade of analysis of Leonardo's genetic genealogy, conducted by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato, came to a conclusion in mid-2021. It was determined that the artist has 14 living male relatives. The work could also help determine the authenticity of remains thought to belong to Leonardo.[173]
Location of remains
Tomb in the chapel of Saint Hubert at the Château d'Amboise where a plaque describes it as the presumed site of Leonardo's remains
While Leonardo was certainly buried in the collegiate church of Saint Florentin at the Château d'Amboise in 12 August 1519, the current location of his remains is unclear.[174][175] Much of Château d'Amboise was damaged during the French Revolution, leading to the church's demolition in 1802.[174] Some of the graves were destroyed in the process, scattering the bones interred there and thereby leaving the whereabouts of Leonardo's remains subject to dispute; a gardener may have even buried some in the corner of the courtyard.[174]
In 1863, fine-arts inspector general Arsène Houssaye received an imperial commission to excavate the site and discovered a partially complete skeleton with a bronze ring on one finger, white hair, and stone fragments bearing the inscriptions "EO", "AR", "DUS", and "VINC"—interpreted as forming "Leonardus Vinci".[92][174][176] The skull's eight teeth corresponds to someone of approximately the appropriate age and a silver shield found near the bones depicts a beardless Francis I, corresponding to the king's appearance during Leonardo's time in France.[176]
Houssaye postulated that the unusually large skull was an indicator of Leonardo's intelligence; author Charles Nicholl describes this as a "dubious phrenological deduction".[174] At the same time, Houssaye noted some issues with his observations, including that the feet were turned toward the high altar, a practice generally reserved for laymen, and that the skeleton of 1.73 metres (5.7 ft) seemed too short.[176][failed verification – see discussion] Art historian Mary Margaret Heaton wrote in 1874 that the height would be appropriate for Leonardo.[177] The skull was allegedly presented to Napoleon III before being returned to the Château d'Amboise, where they were re-interred in the chapel of Saint Hubert in 1874.[176][178] A plaque above the tomb states that its contents are only presumed to be those of Leonardo.[175]
It has since been theorized that the folding of the skeleton's right arm over the head may correspond to the paralysis of Leonardo's right hand.[81][87][176] In 2016, it was announced that DNA tests would be conducted to determine whether the attribution is correct.[178] The DNA of the remains will be compared to that of samples collected from Leonardo's work and his half-brother Domenico's descendants;[178] it may also be sequenced.[179]
In 2019, documents were published revealing that Houssaye had kept the ring and a lock of hair. In 1925, his great-grandson sold these to an American collector. Sixty years later, another American acquired them, leading to their being displayed at the Leonardo Museum in Vinci beginning on 2 May 2019, the 500th anniversary of the artist's death.[92][180]
Notes
General
See Nicholl (2005, pp. 17–20) and Bambach (2019, p. 24) for further information on the dispute and uncertainty surrounding Leonardo's exact birthplace.
English: /ˌliːəˈnɑːrdoʊ də ˈvɪntʃi, ˌliːoʊˈ-, ˌleɪoʊˈ-/; LEE-ə-NAR-doh də VIN-chee, LEE-oh-, LAY-oh-
Italian: [leoˈnardo di ˈsɛr ˈpjɛːro da (v)ˈvintʃi] (listen) The inclusion of the title 'ser' (shortening of Italian Messer or Messere, title of courtesy prefixed to the first name) indicates that Leonardo's father was a gentleman.
The diary of his paternal grandfather Ser Antonio relays a precise account: "There was born to me a grandson, son of Ser Piero [fr], on 15 April, a Saturday, at the third hour of the night."[13][14] Ser Antonio records Leonardo being baptized the following day by Piero di Bartolomeo at the parish of Santa Croce [it].[15]
It has been suggested that Caterina may have been a slave from the Middle East "or at least, from the Mediterranean" or even of Chinese descent. According to art critic Alessandro Vezzosi, head of the Leonardo Museum in Vinci, there is evidence that Piero owned a slave called Caterina.[19] The reconstruction of one of Leonardo's fingerprints shows a pattern that matches 60% of people of Middle Eastern origin, suggesting the possibility that Leonardo may have had Middle Eastern blood. The claim is refuted by Simon Cole, associate professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California at Irvine: "You can't predict one person's race from these kinds of incidences, especially if looking at only one finger". More recently, historian Martin Kemp, after digging through overlooked archives and records in Italy, found evidence that Leonardo's mother was a young local woman identified as Caterina di Meo Lippi.[20]
See Kemp & Pallanti (2017, pp. 65–66) for detailed table on Ser Piero's marriages.
He also never wrote about his father, except a passing note of his death in which he overstates his age by three years.[25] Leonardo's siblings caused him difficulty after his father's death in a dispute over their inheritance.[26]
The humanist influence of Donatello's David can be seen in Leonardo's late paintings, particularly John the Baptist.[34][33]
The "diverse arts" and technical skills of Medieval and Renaissance workshops are described in detail in the 12th-century text On Divers Arts by Theophilus Presbyter and in the early 15th-century text Il Libro Dell'arte O Trattato Della Pittui by Cennino Cennini.
That Leonardo joined the guild by this time is deduced from the record of payment made to the Compagnia di San Luca in the company's register, Libro Rosso A, 1472–1520, Accademia di Belle Arti.[14]
On the back he wrote: "I, staying with Anthony, am happy," possibly in reference to his father.
Leonardo later wrote in the margin of a journal, "The Medici made me and the Medici destroyed me."[36]
In 2005, the studio was rediscovered during the restoration of part of a building occupied for 100 years by the Department of Military Geography.[61]
Both works are lost. The entire composition of Michelangelo's painting is known from a copy by Aristotole da Sangallo, 1542.[66] Leonardo's painting is known only from preparatory sketches and several copies of the centre section, of which the best known, and probably least accurate, is by Peter Paul Rubens.[67]
Pope Leo X is quoted as saying, "This man will never accomplish anything! He thinks of the end before the beginning!" [73]
It is unknown for what occasion the mechanical lion was made, but it is believed to have greeted the king at his entry into Lyon and perhaps was used for the peace talks between the French king and Pope Leo X in Bologna. A conjectural recreation of the lion has been made and is on display in the Museum of Bologna.[79]
Identified via its similarity to Leonardo's presumed self-portrait[82]
"... Messer Lunardo Vinci [sic] ... an old graybeard of more than 70 years ... showed His Excellency three pictures ... from whom, since he was then subject to a certain paralysis of the right hand, one could not expect any more good work." [83]
This scene is portrayed in romantic paintings by Ingres, Ménageot and other French artists, as well as Angelica Kauffman.
On the day of Leonardo's death, a royal edict was issued by the king at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a two-day journey from Clos Lucé. This has been taken as evidence that King Francis cannot have been present at Leonardo's deathbed, but the edict was not signed by the king.[90]
Each of the sixty paupers were to have been awarded in accord with Leonardo's will.[50]
These qualities of Leonardo's works are discussed in Hartt (1970, pp. 387–411)
The painting, which in the 18th century belonged to Angelica Kauffman, was later cut up. The two main sections were found in a junk shop and cobbler's shop and were reunited.[108] It is probable that outer parts of the composition are missing.
This work is now in the collection of the Uffizi, Drawing No. 8P.
The "Grecian profile" has a continuous straight line from forehead to nose-tip, the bridge of the nose being exceptionally high. It is a feature of many Classical Greek statues.
He also drew with his left hand, his hatch strokes "slanting down from left to right—the natural stroke of a left-handed artist".[132] He also sometimes wrote conventionally with his right hand.[133]
Salvator Mundi, a painting by Leonardo depicting Jesus holding an orb, sold for a world record US$450.3 million at a Christie's auction in New York, 15 November 2017.[167] The highest known sale price for any artwork was previously US$300 million, for Willem de Kooning's Interchange, which was sold privately in September 2015.[168] The highest price previously paid for a work of art at auction was for Pablo Picasso's Les Femmes d'Alger, which sold for US$179.4 million in May 2015 at Christie's New York.[168]
Dates of works
The Adoration of the Magi
Kemp (2019, p. 27): c. 1481–1482
Marani (2003, p. 338): 1481
Syson et al. (2011, p. 56): c. 1480–1482
Zöllner (2019, p. 222): 1481/1482
Virgin of the Rocks (Louvre version)
Kemp (2019, p. 41): c. 1483–1493
Marani (2003, p. 339): between 1483 and 1486
Syson et al. (2011, p. 164): 1483–c. 1485
Zöllner (2019, p. 223): 1483–1484/1485
Saint John the Baptist
Kemp (2019, p. 189): c. 1507–1514
Marani (2003, p. 340): c. 1508
Syson et al. (2011, p. 63): c. 1500 onwards
Zöllner (2019, p. 248): c. 1508–1516
The Annunciation
Kemp (2019, p. 6): c. 1473–1474
Marani (2003, p. 338): c. 1472–1475
Syson et al. (2011, p. 15): c. 1472–1476
Zöllner (2019, p. 216): c. 1473–1475
Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
Kemp (2019, p. 31): c. 1481–1482
Marani (2003, p. 338): probably c. 1480
Syson et al. (2011, p. 139): c. 1488–1490
Zöllner (2019, p. 221): c. 1480–1482
Lady with an Ermine
Kemp (2019, p. 49): c. 1491
Marani (2003, p. 339): 1489–1490
Syson et al. (2011, p. 111): c. 1489–1490
Zöllner (2019, p. 226): 1489/1490
The Last Supper
Kemp (2019, p. 67): c. 1495–1497
Marani (2003, p. 339): between 1494 and 1498
Syson et al. (2011, p. 252): 1492–1497/1498
Zöllner (2019, p. 230): c. 1495–1498
Mona Lisa
Kemp (2019, p. 127): c. 1503–1515
Marani (2003, p. 340): c. 1503–1504; 1513–1514
Syson et al. (2011, p. 48): c. 1502 onward
Zöllner (2019, p. 240): c. 1503–1506; 1510
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Citations
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Vasari 1991, p. 287
Vasari 1991, pp. 287–289
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Vasari 1991, p. 297
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Vasari 1991, p. 290
Vasari 1991, pp. 289–291
Vasari 1991, p. 294
Vasari 1965, p. 266
Vasari 1965, p. 255
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Polidoro, Massimo (2019). "The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci, Part 2". Skeptical Inquirer. 43 (3): 23–24.
Gardner, Helen (1970). Art through the Ages. pp. 450–56.
See the quotations from the following authors, in section "Fame and reputation": Vasari, Boltraffio, Castiglione, "Anonimo" Gaddiano, Berensen, Taine, Fuseli, Rio, Bortolon.
Rosci 1977, p. 8.
Castiglione, Baldassare (1528). "Il Cortegiano" (in Italian).
"Anonimo Gaddiani", elaborating on Libro di Antonio Billi, 1537–1542
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Rio, A.E. (1861). "L'art chrétien" (in French). Retrieved 19 May 2021.
Taine, Hippolyte (1866). "Voyage en Italie" (in Italian). Paris, Hachette et cie. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
Berenson, Bernard (1896). The Italian Painters of the Renaissance.
Henneberger, Melinda. "ArtNews article about current studies into Leonardo's life and works". Art News Online. Archived from the original on 5 May 2006. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
Marmor, Max. "The Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana." The Book Collector 38, no. 3 (Autumn 1989): 1–23.
Italie, Hillel (7 January 2018). "NonFiction: Biography honors 'fun, joyous' sides of genius da Vinci". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Associated Press. p. G6.
Crow, Kelly (16 November 2017). "Leonardo da Vinci Painting 'Salvator Mundi' Sells for $450.3 Million". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
Leonardo da Vinci painting 'Salvator Mundi' sold for record $450.3 million, Fox News, 16 November 2017
"Leonardo da Vinci's Unexamined Life as a Painter". The Atlantic. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
"Louvre exhibit has most da Vinci paintings ever assembled". Aleteia. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
Turner 1993, p. 3.
Vitruvian Man is referred to as "iconic" at the following websites and many others: Vitruvian Man, Fine Art Classics Archived 9 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Key Images in the History of Science; Curiosity and difference at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 January 2009); "The Guardian: The Real da Vinci Code"
Turner, Ben (6 July 2021). "Scientists may have cracked the mystery of da Vinci's DNA". Live Science. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
Nicholl 2005, p. 502.
Isaacson 2017, p. 515.
Montard, Nicolas (30 April 2019). "Léonard de Vinci est-il vraiment enterré au château d'Amboise?" [Is Leonardo da Vinci really buried at the Château d'Amboise?]. Ouest-France (in French). Retrieved 4 May 2019.
Heaton 1874, p. 204, "The skeleton, which measured five feet eight inches, accords with the height of Leonardo da Vinci. The skull might have served for the model of the portrait Leonardo drew of himself in red chalk a few years before his death.".
Knapton, Sarah (5 May 2016). "Leonardo da Vinci paintings analysed for DNA to solve grave mystery". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
Newman, Lily Hay (6 May 2016). "Researchers Are Planning to Sequence Leonardo da Vinci's 500-Year-Old Genome". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
Messia, Hada; Robinson, Matthew (30 April 2019). "Leonardo da Vinci's 'hair' to undergo DNA testing". CNN. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
Works cited
Early
Anonimo Gaddiano (c. 1530). "Leonardo da Vinci". Codice Magliabechiano. in Lives of Leonardo da Vinci (Lives of the Artists). Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. 2019. pp. 103–114. ISBN 978-1-60606-621-8.
Giovio, Paolo (c. 1527). "The Life of Leonardo da Vinci". Elogia virorum illustrium. in Lives of Leonardo da Vinci (Lives of the Artists). Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. 2019. pp. 103–114. ISBN 978-1-60606-621-8.
Vasari, Giorgio (1965) [1568]. "The Life of Leonardo da Vinci". Lives of the Artists. Translated by George Bull. Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-044164-2.
—— (1991) [1568]. The Lives of the Artists. Oxford World's Classics. Translated by Bondanella, Peter; Bondanella, Julia Conway. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-283410-X.
Modern
Books
Arasse, Daniel [in French] (1998). Leonardo da Vinci. Old Saybrook: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-198-5.
Bambach, Carmen C., ed. (2003). Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-300-09878-5.
Bambach, Carmen C. (2019). Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered. Vol. 1, The Making of an Artist: 1452–1500. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-19195-0.
Bortolon, Liana (1967). The Life and Times of Leonardo. London: Paul Hamlyn.
Brown, David Alan (1998). Leonardo Da Vinci: Origins of a Genius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07246-4.
Capra, Fritjof (2007). The Science of Leonardo. US: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51390-6.
Ottino della Chiesa, Angela (1985) [1967]. The Complete Paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. Penguin Classics of World Art. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-008649-2.
Clark, Kenneth (1961). Leonardo da Vinci. City of Westminster: Penguin Books. OCLC 187223.
Gasca, Ana Millàn; Nicolò, Fernando; Lucertini, Mario (2004). Technological Concepts and Mathematical Models in the Evolution of Modern Engineering Systems. Birkhauser. ISBN 978-3-7643-6940-8.
Hartt, Frederich (1970). A History of Italian Renaissance Art. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23136-4.
Heaton, Mary Margaret (1874). Leonardo Da Vinci and His Works: Consisting of a Life of Leonardo Da Vinci. New York: Macmillan Publishers. OCLC 1706262.
Isaacson, Walter (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-3915-4.
Kemp, Martin (2006) [1981]. Leonardo Da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920778-7.
Kemp, Martin (2011) [2004]. Leonardo (Revised ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280644-4.
Kemp, Martin; Pallanti, Giuseppe (2017). Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-874990-5.
Kemp, Martin (2019). Leonardo da Vinci: The 100 Milestones. New York: Sterling. ISBN 978-1-4549-3042-6.
Magnano, Milena (2007). Leonardo. I geni dell'arte. Milano: Mondadori Arte. ISBN 978-88-370-6432-7.
Marani, Pietro C. (2003) [2000]. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-3581-5.
Martindale, Andrew (1972). The Rise of the Artist. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-56006-8.
Nicholl, Charles (2005). Leonardo da Vinci: The Flights of the Mind. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-029681-5.
O'Malley, Charles D.; Sounders, J.B. de C.M. (1952). Leonardo on the Human Body: The Anatomical, Physiological, and Embryological Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. With Translations, Emendations and a Biographical Introduction. New York: Henry Schuman.
Pedretti, Carlo (1982). Leonardo, a study in chronology and style. Cambridge: Johnson Reprint Corp. ISBN 978-0-384-45281-7.
Pedretti, Carlo (2006). Leonardo da Vinci. Surrey: Taj Books International. ISBN 978-1-84406-036-8.
Popham, A.E. (1946). The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-60462-8.
Richter, Jean Paul (1970). The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-22572-2. volume 2: ISBN 0-486-22573-9. A reprint of the original 1883 edition
Rosci, Marco (1977). Leonardo. Bay Books Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85835-176-9.
Syson, Luke; Keith, Larry; Galansino, Arturo; Mazzotta, Antoni; Nethersole, Scott; Rumberg, Per (2011). Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. London: National Gallery. ISBN 978-1-85709-491-6.
Turner, A. Richard (1993). Inventing Leonardo. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-520-08938-9.
Wallace, Robert (1972) [1966]. The World of Leonardo: 1452–1519. New York: Time-Life Books.
Wasserman, Jack (1975). Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-0262-6.
Williamson, Hugh Ross (1974). Lorenzo the Magnificent. Michael Joseph. ISBN 978-0-7181-1204-2.
Vezzosi, Alessandro (1997). Leonardo da Vinci: Renaissance Man. 'New Horizons' series. Translated by Bonfante-Warren, Alexandra (English translation ed.). London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-30081-7.
Zöllner, Frank (2015). Leonardo (2nd ed.). Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-0215-3.
Zöllner, Frank (2019) [2003]. Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings (Anniversary ed.). Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-7625-3.
Journals and encyclopedia articles
Brown, David Alan (1983). "Leonardo and the Idealized Portrait in Milan". Arte Lombarda. 64 (4): 102–116. JSTOR 43105426. (subscription required)
Colvin, Sidney (1911). "Leonardo da Vinci" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). pp. 444–454.
Cremante, Simona (2005). Leonardo da Vinci: Artist, Scientist, Inventor. Giunti. ISBN 978-88-09-03891-2.
Giacomelli, Raffaele (1936). Gli scritti di Leonardo da Vinci sul volo. Roma: G. Bardi.
Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich (28 April 2020). "Leonardo da Vinci | Biography, Art & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Kemp, Martin (2003). "Leonardo da Vinci". Grove Art Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T050401. ISBN 978-1-884446-05-4. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
Lupia, John N. (Summer 1994). "The Secret Revealed: How to Look at Italian Renaissance Painting". Medieval and Renaissance Times. 1 (2): 6–17. ISSN 1075-2110.
Further reading
See Kemp (2003) and Bambach (2019, pp. 442–579) for extensive bibliographies
Vanna, Arrighi; Bellinazzi, Anna; Villata, Edoardo, eds. (2005). Leonardo da Vinci: la vera immagine: documenti e testimonianze sulla vita e sull'opera [Leonardo da Vinci: the true image: documents and testimonies on life and work] (in Italian). Florence: Giunti Editore. ISBN 978-88-09-04519-4.
Vecce, Carlo (2006). Leonardo (in Italian). Foreword by Carlo Pedretti. Rome: Salerno. ISBN 978-88-8402-548-7.
Winternitz, Emanuel (1982). Leonardo da Vinci As a Musician. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02631-3.
Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1983. ISBN 978-0-87099-362-6.
External links
Library resources about
Leonardo da Vinci
Online books
Resources in your library
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By Leonardo da Vinci
Online books
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
General
Universal Leonardo, a database of Leonardo's life and works maintained by Martin Kemp and Marina Wallace
Leonardo da Vinci on the National Gallery website
Works
Biblioteca Leonardiana, online bibliography (in Italian)
e-Leo: Archivio digitale di storia della tecnica e della scienza, archive of drawings, notes and manuscripts
Works by Leonardo da Vinci at Project Gutenberg
Works by Leonardo da Vinci at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Complete text and images of Richter's translation of the Notebooks
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
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Leonardo da Vinci
List of worksScience and inventionsPersonal life
Major works
The AnnunciationThe Baptism of Christ ✻The Madonna of the CarnationGinevra de' BenciBenois MadonnaThe Adoration of the MagiSaint Jerome in the WildernessMadonna Litta ✻Virgin of the RocksPortrait of a Musician ✻✻Lady with an ErmineLa Belle FerronnièreThe Last SupperSala delle AssePortrait of Isabella d'EsteThe Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the BaptistBuccleuch Madonna ✻Salvator Mundi ✻✻Lansdowne Madonna ✻The Virgin and Child with Saint AnneMona LisaLa ScapigliataSaint John the Baptist
Lost works
MedusaMadonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the BaptistThe Holy Infants EmbracingThe Battle of AnghiariLeda and the Swan
Sculptures
Budapest HorseHorse and RiderSforza Horse (unexecuted)
Works on paper
Study for the Madonna of the CatCompositional Sketches for the Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, with and without the Infant St. John the BaptistHead of a BearThe Martyrdom of Saint SebastianHead of a WomanVitruvian ManHead of ChristStudies of the Fetus in the WombPortrait of a Man in Red Chalk
Manuscripts
Codex ArundelCodex AtlanticusCodex on the Flight of BirdsCodex LeicesterCodex MadridCodex TrivulzianusA Treatise on Painting
Other projects
ArchitonnerreDivina proportione (illustrations)Great KiteHarpsichord-violaAerial screwCrossbowFighting vehicleRobotSelf-propelled cartOctant projectionRapid fire crossbowSonarViola organistaWorld Map
Leonardeschi
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Museo Leonardiano di Vinci Museo Ideale Leonardo da VinciLeonardo3 MuseumMuseo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci (Milan)
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Cultural referencesNamesakesPortraits of LeonardoConservation-restoration of The Last SupperMona Lisa replicas and reinterpretationsHigh RenaissanceMathematics and artThe Lost Leonardo
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House of Medici
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Renaissance
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William Blake The Ancient of DaysNewtonJean Metzinger Danseuse au caféL'Oiseau bleuGiorgio de ChiricoMan RayM. C. Escher Circle Limit IIIPrint GalleryRelativityReptilesWaterfallRené Magritte La condition humaineSalvador Dalí CrucifixionThe Swallow's TailCrockett Johnson
Contemporary
Max BillMartin and Erik DemaineScott DravesJan DibbetsJohn ErnestHelaman FergusonPeter ForakisSusan GoldstineBathsheba GrossmanGeorge W. HartDesmond Paul HenryAnthony HillCharles Jencks Garden of Cosmic SpeculationAndy LomasRobert LonghurstJeanette McLeodHamid Naderi YeganehIstván OroszHinke OsingaAntoine PevsnerTony RobbinAlba Rojo CamaReza SarhangiOliver SinHiroshi SugimotoDaina TaimiņaRoman VerostkoMargaret Wertheim
Theorists
Ancient
Polykleitos CanonVitruvius De architectura
Renaissance
Filippo BrunelleschiLeon Battista Alberti De picturaDe re aedificatoriaPiero della Francesca De prospectiva pingendiLuca Pacioli De divina proportioneLeonardo da Vinci A Treatise on PaintingAlbrecht Dürer Vier Bücher von Menschlicher ProportionSebastiano Serlio Regole generali d'architetturaAndrea Palladio I quattro libri dell'architettura
Romantic
Samuel Colman Nature's Harmonic UnityFrederik Macody Lund Ad QuadratumJay Hambidge The Greek Vase
Modern
Owen Jones The Grammar of OrnamentErnest Hanbury Hankin The Drawing of Geometric Patterns in Saracenic ArtG. H. Hardy A Mathematician's ApologyGeorge David Birkhoff Aesthetic MeasureDouglas Hofstadter Gödel, Escher, BachNikos Salingaros The 'Life' of a Carpet
Publications
Journal of Mathematics and the ArtsLumen NaturaeMaking Mathematics with NeedleworkRhythm of StructureViewpoints: Mathematical Perspective and Fractal Geometry in Art
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Category
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Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
Subject
Lisa del Giocondo
Replicas
Isleworth Mona Lisa (16th century)Mona Lisa (Prado, c. 1503–1516)L.H.O.O.Q. (1919)Mini Lisa (2013)
Related
Replicas and reinterpretationsSpeculations Male Mona Lisa theoriesTwo–Mona Lisa theoryTimeline of fictional stories about the Mona LisaLa Joconde nue
1911 theft
Eduardo de ValfiernoYves ChaudronVincenzo Peruggia
On screen
The Theft of the Mona Lisa (1931)Arsène Lupin (1932)The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen (1966)City of Death (1979)Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992)Mona Lisa's Revenge (2009)Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Music
Mona Lisa (1915 opera)"Mona Lisa" (1950 song)"Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile" (1984 song)"Lisa Mona Lisa" (1988 song)"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" (2011 song)"The Mona Lisa" (2013 song)In Search of Mona Lisa (2019 EP)
Literature
The Second Mrs. Giaconda (1975)I, Mona Lisa (2006)The Smile (2008)
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High Renaissance
Principal proponents
Donato BramanteGiorgioneMichelangeloRaphaelTitianLeonardo da Vinci
Other artists
Mariotto AlbertinelliPellegrino AretusiFra BartolomeoLudovico BerettaMoretto da BresciaGasparo CairanoGiulio ClovioAntonio da CorreggioPiero di CosimoBernardino delle CrociGirolamo GengaLorenzo LottoMaffeo OlivieriBaldassare PeruzziSebastiano del PiomboAntonio da Sangallo the YoungerAndrea del SartoIl SodomaTamagninoPalma VecchioAntonio Vassilacchi
Major works
The Last Supper (c. 1492–1498)Pietà (1498–1499)San Pietro in Montorio (1500)David (1501–1504)Mona Lisa (c. 1502–1516)St. Peter's Basilica (1506–1513)Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512)Raphael Rooms (1509–1524)Transfiguration (1516–1520)The Last Judgment (1536–1541)
Related
Art patronage of Julius IIJacob BurckhardtJohann Joachim WinckelmannLeonardeschiGiorgio Vasari The Lives
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Categories: Leonardo da Vinci1452 births1519 deaths15th-century Italian mathematicians15th-century Italian painters15th-century Italian scientists15th-century Italian sculptors15th-century people of the Republic of Florence16th-century Italian mathematicians16th-century Italian painters16th-century Italian scientists16th-century Italian sculptors16th-century people of the Republic of FlorenceAmbassadors of the Republic of FlorenceBallistics expertsFabulistsPainters from FlorenceBotanical illustratorsFluid dynamicistsHistory of anatomyItalian anatomistsItalian caricaturistsItalian civil engineers16th-century Italian inventorsItalian male paintersItalian male sculptorsItalian military engineersItalian physiologistsItalian Renaissance humanistsItalian Renaissance paintersItalian Renaissance sculptorsItalian Roman CatholicsMathematical artistsPainters by cityPeople prosecuted under anti-homosexuality lawsPhilosophical theistsPhysiognomistsRenaissance architectsRenaissance paintersRenaissance scientistsPainters from TuscanyBurials in FranceWriters who illustrated their own writing
The Renaissance (UK: /rɪˈneɪsəns/ rin-AY-sənss, US: /ˈrɛnəsɑːns/ (listen) REN-ə-sahnss)[1][a] is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas and achievements of classical antiquity. It occurred after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages and was associated with great social change. In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a "long Renaissance" may put its beginning in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century.[3]
The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages.[4][5] However, the beginnings of the period – the early Renaissance of the 15th century and the Italian Proto-Renaissance from around 1250 or 1300 – overlap considerably with the Late Middle Ages, conventionally dated to c. 1250–1500, and the Middle Ages themselves were a long period filled with gradual changes, like the modern age; and as a transitional period between both, the Renaissance has close similarities to both, especially the late and early sub-periods of either.[b]
The intellectual basis of the Renaissance was its version of humanism, derived from the concept of Roman humanitas and the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of Protagoras, who said that "man is the measure of all things". This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, and literature. Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the revived knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe: the first traces appear in Italy as early as the late 13th century, in particular with the writings of Dante and the paintings of Giotto.
As a cultural movement, the Renaissance encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of learning based on classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch; the development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting; and gradual but widespread educational reform. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, and in science to an increased reliance on observation and inductive reasoning. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual and social scientific pursuits, as well as the introduction of modern banking and the field of accounting,[6] it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance man".[7][8]
The Renaissance began in Florence, one of the many states of Italy.[9] Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time: its political structure, the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici,[10][11] and the migration of Greek scholars and their texts to Italy following the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.[12][13][14] Other major centers were Venice, Genoa, Milan, Rome during the Renaissance Papacy, and Naples. From Italy, the Renaissance spread throughout Europe in Flanders, France, Britain, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Hungary (with Beatrice of Naples), and elsewhere.
The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography, and in line with general scepticism of discrete periodizations, there has been much debate among historians reacting to the 19th-century glorification of the "Renaissance" and individual cultural heroes as "Renaissance men", questioning the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical delineation.[15] Some observers have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for classical antiquity,[16] while social and economic historians, especially of the longue durée, have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras,[17] which are linked, as Panofsky observed, "by a thousand ties".[18]
The term rinascita ('rebirth') first appeared in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists (c. 1550), anglicized as the Renaissance in the 1830s.[19] The word has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), Ottonian Renaissance (10th and 11th century), and the Renaissance of the 12th century.[20]
Overview
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence was felt in art, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, science, technology, politics, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.[21]
Renaissance humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini sought out in Europe's monastic libraries the Latin literary, historical, and oratorical texts of antiquity, while the Fall of Constantinople (1453) generated a wave of émigré Greek scholars bringing precious manuscripts in ancient Greek, many of which had fallen into obscurity in the West. It is in their new focus on literary and historical texts that Renaissance scholars differed so markedly from the medieval scholars of the Renaissance of the 12th century, who had focused on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural sciences, philosophy, and mathematics, rather than on such cultural texts.
Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1480–85) (Simonetta Vespucci) by Sandro Botticelli
In the revival of neoplatonism Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the greatest works of the Renaissance were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life.[22] In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were brought back from Byzantium to Western Europe and engaged Western scholars for the first time since late antiquity. This new engagement with Greek Christian works, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New Testament promoted by humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, would help pave the way for the Reformation.
Well after the first artistic return to classicism had been exemplified in the sculpture of Nicola Pisano, Florentine painters led by Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, that is to understand it rationally. A critical contribution to Italian Renaissance humanism, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola wrote the famous text De hominis dignitate (Oration on the Dignity of Man, 1486), which consists of a series of theses on philosophy, natural thought, faith, and magic defended against any opponent on the grounds of reason. In addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, Renaissance authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages; combined with the introduction of the printing press, this would allow many more people access to books, especially the Bible.[23]
In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity, and through novel approaches to thought. Some scholars, such as Rodney Stark,[24] play down the Renaissance in favor of the earlier innovations of the Italian city-states in the High Middle Ages, which married responsive government, Christianity and the birth of capitalism. This analysis argues that, whereas the great European states (France and Spain) were absolute monarchies, and others were under direct Church control, the independent city-republics of Italy took over the principles of capitalism invented on monastic estates and set off a vast unprecedented Commercial Revolution that preceded and financed the Renaissance.
Origins
Main article: Italian Renaissance
View of Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance
Many argue that the ideas characterizing the Renaissance had their origin in Florence at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, in particular with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Petrarch (1304–1374), as well as the paintings of Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337). Some writers date the Renaissance quite precisely; one proposed starting point is 1401, when the rival geniuses Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi competed for the contract to build the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral (Ghiberti then won).[25] Others see more general competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it did. Accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins.
During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand. Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia and Europe. Silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Muslim world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa and Venice.[26]
Jules Michelet defined the 16th-century Renaissance in France as a period in Europe's cultural history that represented a break from the Middle Ages, creating a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world.[27]
Latin and Greek phases of Renaissance humanism
See also: Greek scholars in the Renaissance and Transmission of the Greek Classics
Coluccio Salutati
In stark contrast to the High Middle Ages, when Latin scholars focused almost entirely on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural science, philosophy and mathematics,[c] Renaissance scholars were most interested in recovering and studying Latin and Greek literary, historical, and oratorical texts. Broadly speaking, this began in the 14th century with a Latin phase, when Renaissance scholars such as Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406), Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364–1437), and Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) scoured the libraries of Europe in search of works by such Latin authors as Cicero, Lucretius, Livy, and Seneca.[28] By the early 15th century, the bulk of the surviving such Latin literature had been recovered; the Greek phase of Renaissance humanism was under way, as Western European scholars turned to recovering ancient Greek literary, historical, oratorical and theological texts.[29]
Unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. Ancient Greek works on science, mathematics, and philosophy had been studied since the High Middle Ages in Western Europe and in the Islamic Golden Age (normally in translation), but Greek literary, oratorical and historical works (such as Homer, the Greek dramatists, Demosthenes and Thucydides) were not studied in either the Latin or medieval Islamic worlds; in the Middle Ages these sorts of texts were only studied by Byzantine scholars. Some argue that the Timurid Renaissance in Samarkand and Herat, whose magnificence toned with Florence as the center of a cultural rebirth,[30][31] were linked to the Ottoman Empire, whose conquests led to the migration of Greek scholars to Italian cities.[32][full citation needed][33][full citation needed][12][34] One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity.
Muslim logicians, most notably Avicenna and Averroes, had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Iberia and Sicily, which became important centers for this transmission of ideas. From the 11th to the 13th century, many schools dedicated to the translation of philosophical and scientific works from Classical Arabic to Medieval Latin were established in Iberia, most notably the Toledo School of Translators. This work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history.[35]
The movement to reintegrate the regular study of Greek literary, historical, oratorical and theological texts back into the Western European curriculum is usually dated to the 1396 invitation from Coluccio Salutati to the Byzantine diplomat and scholar Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1355–1415) to teach Greek in Florence.[36] This legacy was continued by a number of expatriate Greek scholars, from Basilios Bessarion to Leo Allatius.
Social and political structures in Italy
A political map of the Italian Peninsula circa 1494
The unique political structures of Italy during the Late Middle Ages have led some to theorize that its unusual social climate allowed the emergence of a rare cultural efflorescence. Italy did not exist as a political entity in the early modern period. Instead, it was divided into smaller city-states and territories: the Kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States at the center, the Milanese and the Genoese to the north and west respectively, and the Venetians to the east. Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanized areas in Europe.[37] Many of its cities stood among the ruins of ancient Roman buildings; it seems likely that the classical nature of the Renaissance was linked to its origin in the Roman Empire's heartland.[38]
Historian and political philosopher Quentin Skinner points out that Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158), a German bishop visiting north Italy during the 12th century, noticed a widespread new form of political and social organization, observing that Italy appeared to have exited from feudalism so that its society was based on merchants and commerce. Linked to this was anti-monarchical thinking, represented in the famous early Renaissance fresco cycle The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (painted 1338–1340), whose strong message is about the virtues of fairness, justice, republicanism and good administration. Holding both Church and Empire at bay, these city republics were devoted to notions of liberty. Skinner reports that there were many defences of liberty such as the Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475) celebration of Florentine genius not only in art, sculpture and architecture, but "the remarkable efflorescence of moral, social and political philosophy that occurred in Florence at the same time".[39]
Even cities and states beyond central Italy, such as the Republic of Florence at this time, were also notable for their merchant republics, especially the Republic of Venice. Although in practice these were oligarchical, and bore little resemblance to a modern democracy, they did have democratic features and were responsive states, with forms of participation in governance and belief in liberty.[39][40][41] The relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement.[42] Likewise, the position of Italian cities such as Venice as great trading centres made them intellectual crossroads. Merchants brought with them ideas from far corners of the globe, particularly the Levant. Venice was Europe's gateway to trade with the East, and a producer of fine glass, while Florence was a capital of textiles. The wealth such business brought to Italy meant large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned and individuals had more leisure time for study.[42]
Black Death
Main article: Black Death
Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death (c. 1562) reflects the social upheaval and terror that followed the plague that devastated medieval Europe.
One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death, which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th century Italy. Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been speculated that the resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife.[43] It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art.[44] However, this does not fully explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors.[15]
The plague was carried by fleas on sailing vessels returning from the ports of Asia, spreading quickly due to lack of proper sanitation: the population of England, then about 4.2 million, lost 1.4 million people to the bubonic plague. Florence's population was nearly halved in the year 1347. As a result of the decimation in the populace the value of the working class increased, and commoners came to enjoy more freedom. To answer the increased need for labor, workers traveled in search of the most favorable position economically.[45]
The demographic decline due to the plague had economic consequences: the prices of food dropped and land values declined by 30–40% in most parts of Europe between 1350 and 1400.[46] Landholders faced a great loss, but for ordinary men and women it was a windfall. The survivors of the plague found not only that the prices of food were cheaper but also that lands were more abundant, and many of them inherited property from their dead relatives.
The spread of disease was significantly more rampant in areas of poverty. Epidemics ravaged cities, particularly children. Plagues were easily spread by lice, unsanitary drinking water, armies, or by poor sanitation. Children were hit the hardest because many diseases, such as typhus and congenital syphilis, target the immune system, leaving young children without a fighting chance. Children in city dwellings were more affected by the spread of disease than the children of the wealthy.[47]
The Black Death caused greater upheaval to Florence's social and political structure than later epidemics. Despite a significant number of deaths among members of the ruling classes, the government of Florence continued to function during this period. Formal meetings of elected representatives were suspended during the height of the epidemic due to the chaotic conditions in the city, but a small group of officials was appointed to conduct the affairs of the city, which ensured continuity of government.[48]
Cultural conditions in Florence
Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence and patron of arts (Portrait by Vasari)
It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life that may have caused such a cultural movement. Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici, a banking family and later ducal ruling house, in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage, encouraging his countrymen to commission works from the leading artists of Florence, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.[10] Works by Neri di Bicci, Botticelli, da Vinci, and Filippino Lippi had been commissioned additionally by the Convent of San Donato in Scopeto in Florence.[49]
The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo de' Medici came to power – indeed, before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Some historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e., because "Great Men" were born there by chance:[50] Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the time.[51]
Characteristics
Humanism
Main articles: Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe, and List of Renaissance humanists
In some ways, Renaissance humanism was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, Renaissance humanists would study ancient texts in the original and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based on the programme of Studia Humanitatis, the study of five humanities: poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy, and rhetoric. Although historians have sometimes struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".[52] Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind".[53]
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, writer of the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance"[54]
Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers and applied them in critiques of contemporary government, following the Islamic steps of Ibn Khaldun.[55][56] Pico della Mirandola wrote the "manifesto" of the Renaissance, the Oration on the Dignity of Man, a vibrant defence of thinking. Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475), another humanist, is most known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life"; printed 1528), which advocated civic humanism, and for his influence in refining the Tuscan vernacular to the same level as Latin. Palmieri drew on Roman philosophers and theorists, especially Cicero, who, like Palmieri, lived an active public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also Quintilian. Perhaps the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a 1465 poetic work La città di vita, but an earlier work, Della vita civile, is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest.
The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind and body, which could be attained with education. The purpose of humanism was to create a universal man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was capable of functioning honorably in virtually any situation.[57] This ideology was referred to as the uomo universale, an ancient Greco-Roman ideal. Education during the Renaissance was mainly composed of ancient literature and history as it was thought that the classics provided moral instruction and an intensive understanding of human behavior.
Humanism and libraries
A unique characteristic of some Renaissance libraries is that they were open to the public. These libraries were places where ideas were exchanged and where scholarship and reading were considered both pleasurable and beneficial to the mind and soul. As freethinking was a hallmark of the age, many libraries contained a wide range of writers. Classical texts could be found alongside humanist writings. These informal associations of intellectuals profoundly influenced Renaissance culture. Some of the richest "bibliophiles" built libraries as temples to books and knowledge. A number of libraries appeared as manifestations of immense wealth joined with a love of books. In some cases, cultivated library builders were also committed to offering others the opportunity to use their collections. Prominent aristocrats and princes of the Church created great libraries for the use of their courts, called "court libraries", and were housed in lavishly designed monumental buildings decorated with ornate woodwork, and the walls adorned with frescoes (Murray, Stuart A.P.).
Art
Main articles: Renaissance art, Italian Renaissance painting, Themes in Italian Renaissance painting, Early Netherlandish painting, and Renaissance architecture
See also: Islamic influences on Western art
Renaissance art marks a cultural rebirth at the close of the Middle Ages and rise of the Modern world. One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique.[58]
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) demonstrates the effect writers of Antiquity had on Renaissance thinkers. Based on the specifications in Vitruvius' De architectura (1st century BC), Leonardo tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man. (Museum Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice)
The development of perspective was part of a wider trend toward realism in the arts.[59] Painters developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were much imitated by other artists.[60] Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello, another Florentine, and Titian in Venice, among others.
In the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed. The work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck was particularly influential on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of everyday life.[61]
In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings. With rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, Brunelleschi formulated the Renaissance style that emulated and improved on classical forms. His major feat of engineering was building the dome of the Florence Cathedral.[62] Another building demonstrating this style is the church of St. Andrew in Mantua, built by Alberti. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.
During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan and Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Brunelleschi.[63] Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs; they are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault, which is frequently rectangular.
Renaissance artists were not pagans, although they admired antiquity and kept some ideas and symbols of the medieval past. Nicola Pisano (c. 1220 – c. 1278) imitated classical forms by portraying scenes from the Bible. His Annunciation, from the Baptistry at Pisa, demonstrates that classical models influenced Italian art before the Renaissance took root as a literary movement.[64]
Science
Main articles: History of science in the Renaissance and Renaissance technology
See also: Medical Renaissance
Anonymous portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (c. 1580)
Portrait of Luca Pacioli, father of accounting, painted by Jacopo de' Barbari,[d] 1495 (Museo di Capodimonte)
Applied innovation extended to commerce. At the end of the 15th century, Luca Pacioli published the first work on bookkeeping, making him the founder of accounting.[6]
The rediscovery of ancient texts and the invention of the printing press in about 1440 democratized learning and allowed a faster propagation of more widely distributed ideas. In the first period of the Italian Renaissance, humanists favored the study of humanities over natural philosophy or applied mathematics, and their reverence for classical sources further enshrined the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the universe. Writing around 1450, Nicholas Cusanus anticipated the heliocentric worldview of Copernicus, but in a philosophical fashion.
Science and art were intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists such as Leonardo da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. Leonardo set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics, and he devised principles of research method that led Fritjof Capra to classify him as the "father of modern science".[66] Other examples of Da Vinci's contribution during this period include machines designed to saw marbles and lift monoliths, and new discoveries in acoustics, botany, geology, anatomy, and mechanics.[67]
A suitable environment had developed to question classical scientific doctrine. The discovery in 1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the classical worldview. The works of Ptolemy (in geography) and Galen (in medicine) were found to not always match everyday observations. As the Reformation and Counter-Reformation clashed, the Northern Renaissance showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine).[68] The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements.
Some view this as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age,[69] others as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day.[70] Significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo Galilei, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler.[71] Copernicus, in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), posited that the Earth moved around the Sun. De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius, gave a new confidence to the role of dissection, observation, and the mechanistic view of anatomy.[72]
Another important development was in the process for discovery, the scientific method,[72] focusing on empirical evidence and the importance of mathematics, while discarding much of Aristotelian science. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus, Galileo, and Francis Bacon.[73][74] The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy.[e][75]
Navigation and geography
Further information: Age of Discovery
The world map by Pietro Coppo, Venice, 1520
During the Renaissance, extending from 1450 to 1650,[76] every continent was visited and mostly mapped by Europeans, except the south polar continent now known as Antarctica. This development is depicted in the large world map Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula made by the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu in 1648 to commemorate the Peace of Westphalia.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain seeking a direct route to India of the Delhi Sultanate. He accidentally stumbled upon the Americas, but believed he had reached the East Indies.
In 1606, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon sailed from the East Indies in the VOC ship Duyfken and landed in Australia. He charted about 300 km of the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. More than thirty Dutch expeditions followed, mapping sections of the north, west, and south coasts. In 1642–1643, Abel Tasman circumnavigated the continent, proving that it was not joined to the imagined south polar continent.
By 1650, Dutch cartographers had mapped most of the coastline of the continent, which they named New Holland, except the east coast which was charted in 1770 by James Cook.
The long-imagined south polar continent was eventually sighted in 1820. Throughout the Renaissance it had been known as Terra Australis, or 'Australia' for short. However, after that name was transferred to New Holland in the nineteenth century, the new name of 'Antarctica' was bestowed on the south polar continent.[77]
Music
Main article: Renaissance music
See also: Renaissance dance and List of Renaissance composers
From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school. The development of printing made distribution of music possible on a wide scale. Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. Dissemination of chansons, motets, and masses throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid style that culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the work of composers such as Palestrina, Lassus, Victoria, and William Byrd.
Religion
Further information: Renaissance Papacy, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation
Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope infamous for his corruption
The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. Much, if not most, of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church.[22] However, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God.[22] Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
Adoration of the Magi and Solomon adored by the Queen of Sheba from the Farnese Hours (1546) by Giulio Clovio marks the end of the Italian Renaissance of illuminated manuscript together with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages was a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome.[78] While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism sought to limit the power of the pope. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism, and fathering children (most of whom were married off, presumably for the consolidation of power) while a cardinal.[79]
Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist textual criticism of the New Testament.[22] In October 1517 Luther published the Ninety-five Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to instances of sold indulgences.[f] The 95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.
Pope Paul III came to the papal throne (1534–1549) after the sack of Rome in 1527, with uncertainties prevalent in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) to Paul III, who became the grandfather of Alessandro Farnese, who had paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, and Raphael, as well as an important collection of drawings, and who commissioned the masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours.
Self-awareness
Leonardo Bruni
By the 15th century, writers, artists, and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations that were taking place and were using phrases such as modi antichi (in the antique manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. In the 1330s Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (ancient) and to the Christian period as nova (new).[80] From Petrarch's Italian perspective, this new period (which included his own time) was an age of national eclipse.[80] Leonardo Bruni was the first to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People (1442).[81] Bruni's first two periods were based on those of Petrarch, but he added a third period because he believed that Italy was no longer in a state of decline. Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire (1439–1453).
Humanist historians argued that contemporary scholarship restored direct links to the classical period, thus bypassing the Medieval period, which they then named for the first time the "Middle Ages". The term first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas (middle times).[82] The term rinascita (rebirth) first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568.[83][84] Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with Michelangelo. It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.[85]
Spread
In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread rapidly from its birthplace in Florence to the rest of Italy and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press by German printer Johannes Gutenberg allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread, its ideas diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and national movements.
"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!" – from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
England
Main article: English Renaissance
In England, the 16th century marked the beginning of the English Renaissance with the work of writers William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Christopher Marlowe (1564–593), Edmund Spenser (1552/1553–599), Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), Francis Bacon (1561–1626), Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586), architects (such as Inigo Jones (1573–1652), who introduced Italianate architecture to England), and composers such as Thomas Tallis (1505–1585), John Taverner (c. 1490–1545), and William Byrd (c. 1539/40 or 1543–1623).
France
Main articles: French Renaissance and French Renaissance architecture
Château de Chambord (1519–1547), one of the most famous examples of Renaissance architecture
The word "Renaissance" is borrowed from the French language, where it means "re-birth". It was first used in the eighteenth century and was later popularized by French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) in his 1855 work, Histoire de France (History of France).[86][87]
In 1495 the Italian Renaissance arrived in France, imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of Italy. A factor that promoted the spread of secularism was the inability of the Church to offer assistance against the Black Death. Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, and built ornate palaces at great expense. Writers such as François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, and Michel de Montaigne, painters such as Jean Clouet, and musicians such as Jean Mouton also borrowed from the spirit of the Renaissance.
In 1533, a fourteen-year-old Caterina de' Medici (1519–1589), born in Florence to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne, married Henry II of France, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude. Though she became famous and infamous for her role in France's religious wars, she made a direct contribution in bringing arts, sciences, and music (including the origins of ballet) to the French court from her native Florence.
Germany
Main articles: German Renaissance and Weser Renaissance
Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I, by Albrecht Dürer, 1519
In the second half of the 15th century, the Renaissance spirit spread to Germany and the Low Countries, where the development of the printing press (ca. 1450) and Renaissance artists such as Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) predated the influence from Italy. In the early Protestant areas of the country humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, and the art and writing of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute.[88] However, the Gothic style and medieval scholastic philosophy remained exclusively until the turn of the 16th century. Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg (ruling 1493–1519) was the first truly Renaissance monarch of the Holy Roman Empire.
Hungary
Further information: Renaissance architecture in Central and Eastern Europe
After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared.[89] The Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the Quattrocento to Hungary first in the Central European region, thanks to the development of early Hungarian-Italian relationships — not only in dynastic connections, but also in cultural, humanistic and commercial relations – growing in strength from the 14th century. The relationship between Hungarian and Italian Gothic styles was a second reason – exaggerated breakthrough of walls is avoided, preferring clean and light structures. Large-scale building schemes provided ample and long term work for the artists, for example, the building of the Friss (New) Castle in Buda, the castles of Visegrád, Tata, and Várpalota. In Sigismund's court there were patrons such as Pipo Spano, a descendant of the Scolari family of Florence, who invited Manetto Ammanatini and Masolino da Pannicale to Hungary.[90]
The new Italian trend combined with existing national traditions to create a particular local Renaissance art. Acceptance of Renaissance art was furthered by the continuous arrival of humanist thought in the country. Many young Hungarians studying at Italian universities came closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct connection with Florence evolved. The growing number of Italian traders moving to Hungary, specially to Buda, helped this process. New thoughts were carried by the humanist prelates, among them Vitéz János, archbishop of Esztergom, one of the founders of Hungarian humanism.[91] During the long reign of emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg the Royal Castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. King Matthias Corvinus (r. 1458–1490) rebuilt the palace in early Renaissance style and further expanded it.[92][93]
After the marriage in 1476 of King Matthias to Beatrice of Naples, Buda became one of the most important artistic centers of the Renaissance north of the Alps.[94] The most important humanists living in Matthias' court were Antonio Bonfini and the famous Hungarian poet Janus Pannonius.[94] András Hess set up a printing press in Buda in 1472. Matthias Corvinus's library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collections of secular books: historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century. His library was second only in size to the Vatican Library. (However, the Vatican Library mainly contained Bibles and religious materials.)[95] In 1489, Bartolomeo della Fonte of Florence wrote that Lorenzo de' Medici founded his own Greek-Latin library encouraged by the example of the Hungarian king. Corvinus's library is part of UNESCO World Heritage.[96]
Matthias started at least two major building projects.[97] The works in Buda and Visegrád began in about 1479.[98] Two new wings and a hanging garden were built at the royal castle of Buda, and the palace at Visegrád was rebuilt in Renaissance style.[98][99] Matthias appointed the Italian Chimenti Camicia and the Dalmatian Giovanni Dalmata to direct these projects. [98] Matthias commissioned the leading Italian artists of his age to embellish his palaces: for instance, the sculptor Benedetto da Majano and the painters Filippino Lippi and Andrea Mantegna worked for him.[100] A copy of Mantegna's portrait of Matthias survived.[101] Matthias also hired the Italian military engineer Aristotele Fioravanti to direct the rebuilding of the forts along the southern frontier.[102] He had new monasteries built in Late Gothic style for the Franciscans in Kolozsvár, Szeged and Hunyad, and for the Paulines in Fejéregyháza.[103][104] In the spring of 1485, Leonardo da Vinci travelled to Hungary on behalf of Sforza to meet king Matthias Corvinus, and was commissioned by him to paint a Madonna.[105]
Matthias enjoyed the company of Humanists and had lively discussions on various topics with them.[106] The fame of his magnanimity encouraged many scholars—mostly Italian—to settle in Buda.[107] Antonio Bonfini, Pietro Ranzano, Bartolomeo Fonzio, and Francesco Bandini spent many years in Matthias's court.[108][106] This circle of educated men introduced the ideas of Neoplatonism to Hungary.[109][110] Like all intellectuals of his age, Matthias was convinced that the movements and combinations of the stars and planets exercised influence on individuals' life and on the history of nations.[111] Galeotto Marzio described him as "king and astrologer", and Antonio Bonfini said Matthias "never did anything without consulting the stars".[112] Upon his request, the famous astronomers of the age, Johannes Regiomontanus and Marcin Bylica, set up an observatory in Buda and installed it with astrolabes and celestial globes.[113] Regiomontanus dedicated his book on navigation that was used by Christopher Columbus to Matthias.[107]
Other important figures of Hungarian Renaissance include Bálint Balassi (poet), Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos (poet), Bálint Bakfark (composer and lutenist), and Master MS (fresco painter).
Renaissance in the Low Countries
Main articles: Renaissance in the Netherlands and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting
Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1523, as depicted by Hans Holbein the Younger
Culture in the Netherlands at the end of the 15th century was influenced by the Italian Renaissance through trade via Bruges, which made Flanders wealthy. Its nobles commissioned artists who became known across Europe.[114] In science, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius led the way; in cartography, Gerardus Mercator's map assisted explorers and navigators. In art, Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting ranged from the strange work of Hieronymus Bosch[115] to the everyday life depictions of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.[114]
Northern Europe
Main article: Northern Renaissance
The Renaissance in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern Renaissance". While Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of some areas of innovation, particularly in music.[116] The music of the 15th-century Burgundian School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in music, and the polyphony of the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of the first true international style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century.[116] The culmination of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer Palestrina. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600.
The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the purely religious art of medieval painters. Northern Renaissance artists initially remained focused on religious subjects, such as the contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by Albrecht Dürer. Later, the works of Pieter Bruegel influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than religious or classical themes. It was also during the Northern Renaissance that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries.[117] A feature of the Northern Renaissance was its use of the vernacular in place of Latin or Greek, which allowed greater freedom of expression. This movement had started in Italy with the decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on the development of vernacular languages; in fact the focus on writing in Italian has neglected a major source of Florentine ideas expressed in Latin.[118] The spread of the printing press technology boosted the Renaissance in Northern Europe as elsewhere, with Venice becoming a world center of printing.
Poland
Main article: Renaissance in Poland
Sigismund Chapel
Tombstone
A 16th-century Renaissance tombstone of Polish kings within the Sigismund Chapel in Kraków, Poland. The golden-domed chapel was designed by Bartolommeo Berrecci.
An early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was Filippo Buonaccorsi. Many Italian artists came to Poland with Bona Sforza of Milan, when she married King Sigismund I in 1518.[119] This was supported by temporarily strengthened monarchies in both areas, as well as by newly established universities.[120] The Polish Renaissance lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and was the Golden Age of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Kingdom of Poland (from 1569 known as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) actively participated in the broad European Renaissance. The multi-national Polish state experienced a substantial period of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars – aside from conflicts in the sparsely populated eastern and southern borderlands. The Reformation spread peacefully throughout the country (giving rise to the Polish Brethren), while living conditions improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products enriched the population, especially the nobility (szlachta) who gained dominance in the new political system of Golden Liberty. The Polish Renaissance architecture has three periods of development.
The greatest monument of this style in the territory of the former Duchy of Pomerania is the Ducal Castle in Szczecin.
Portugal
Main article: Portuguese Renaissance
Although Italian Renaissance had a modest impact in Portuguese arts, Portugal was influential in broadening the European worldview,[121] stimulating humanist inquiry. Renaissance arrived through the influence of wealthy Italian and Flemish merchants who invested in the profitable commerce overseas. As the pioneer headquarters of European exploration, Lisbon flourished in the late 15th century, attracting experts who made several breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy and naval technology, including Pedro Nunes, João de Castro, Abraham Zacuto and Martin Behaim. Cartographers Pedro Reinel, Lopo Homem, Estêvão Gomes and Diogo Ribeiro made crucial advances in mapping the world. Apothecary Tomé Pires and physicians Garcia de Orta and Cristóvão da Costa collected and published works on plants and medicines, soon translated by Flemish pioneer botanist Carolus Clusius.
São Pedro Papa, 1530–1535, by Grão Vasco Fernandes. A pinnacle piece from when the Portuguese Renaissance had considerable external influence.
In architecture, the huge profits of the spice trade financed a sumptuous composite style in the first decades of the 16th century, the Manueline, incorporating maritime elements.[122] The primary painters were Nuno Gonçalves, Gregório Lopes and Vasco Fernandes. In music, Pedro de Escobar and Duarte Lobo produced four songbooks, including the Cancioneiro de Elvas. In literature, Sá de Miranda introduced Italian forms of verse. Bernardim Ribeiro developed pastoral romance, plays by Gil Vicente fused it with popular culture, reporting the changing times, and Luís de Camões inscribed the Portuguese feats overseas in the epic poem Os Lusíadas. Travel literature especially flourished: João de Barros, Castanheda, António Galvão, Gaspar Correia, Duarte Barbosa, and Fernão Mendes Pinto, among others, described new lands and were translated and spread with the new printing press.[121] After joining the Portuguese exploration of Brazil in 1500, Amerigo Vespucci coined the term New World,[123] in his letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici.
The intense international exchange produced several cosmopolitan humanist scholars, including Francisco de Holanda, André de Resende and Damião de Góis, a friend of Erasmus who wrote with rare independence on the reign of King Manuel I. Diogo and André de Gouveia made relevant teaching reforms via France. Foreign news and products in the Portuguese factory in Antwerp attracted the interest of Thomas More[124] and Albrecht Dürer to the wider world.[125] There, profits and know-how helped nurture the Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age, especially after the arrival of the wealthy cultured Jewish community expelled from Portugal.
Russia
There was no Renaissance in Russia in the original sense of the term.[126]
The Palace of Facets on the Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin
Theotokos and The Child, the late-17th-century Russian icon by Karp Zolotaryov, with notably realistic depiction of faces and clothing
Renaissance trends from Italy and Central Europe influenced Russia in many ways. Their influence was rather limited, however, due to the large distances between Russia and the main European cultural centers and the strong adherence of Russians to their Orthodox traditions and Byzantine legacy.
Prince Ivan III introduced Renaissance architecture to Russia by inviting a number of architects from Italy, who brought new construction techniques and some Renaissance style elements with them, while in general following the traditional designs of Russian architecture. In 1475 the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti came to rebuild the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin, which had been damaged in an earthquake. Fioravanti was given the 12th-century Vladimir Cathedral as a model, and he produced a design combining traditional Russian style with a Renaissance sense of spaciousness, proportion and symmetry.
In 1485 Ivan III commissioned the building of the royal residence, Terem Palace, within the Kremlin, with Aloisio da Milano as the architect of the first three floors. He and other Italian architects also contributed to the construction of the Kremlin walls and towers. The small banquet hall of the Russian Tsars, called the Palace of Facets because of its facetted upper story, is the work of two Italians, Marco Ruffo and Pietro Solario, and shows a more Italian style. In 1505, an Italian known in Russia as Aleviz Novyi or Aleviz Fryazin arrived in Moscow. He may have been the Venetian sculptor, Alevisio Lamberti da Montagne. He built twelve churches for Ivan III, including the Cathedral of the Archangel, a building remarkable for the successful blending of Russian tradition, Orthodox requirements and Renaissance style. It is believed that the Cathedral of the Metropolitan Peter in Vysokopetrovsky Monastery, another work of Aleviz Novyi, later served as an inspiration for the so-called octagon-on-tetragon architectural form in the Moscow Baroque of the late 17th century.
Between the early 16th and the late 17th centuries, an original tradition of stone tented roof architecture developed in Russia. It was quite unique and different from the contemporary Renaissance architecture elsewhere in Europe, though some research terms the style 'Russian Gothic' and compares it with the European Gothic architecture of the earlier period. The Italians, with their advanced technology, may have influenced the invention of the stone tented roof (the wooden tents were known in Russia and Europe long before). According to one hypothesis, an Italian architect called Petrok Maly may have been an author of the Ascension Church in Kolomenskoye, one of the earliest and most prominent tented roof churches.[127]
By the 17th century the influence of Renaissance painting resulted in Russian icons becoming slightly more realistic, while still following most of the old icon painting canons, as seen in the works of Bogdan Saltanov, Simon Ushakov, Gury Nikitin, Karp Zolotaryov, and other Russian artists of the era. Gradually the new type of secular portrait painting appeared, called parsúna (from "persona" – person), which was transitional style between abstract iconographics and real paintings.
In the mid 16th-century Russians adopted printing from Central Europe, with Ivan Fyodorov being the first known Russian printer. In the 17th century printing became widespread, and woodcuts became especially popular. That led to the development of a special form of folk art known as lubok printing, which persisted in Russia well into the 19th century.
A number of technologies from the European Renaissance period were adopted by Russia rather early and subsequently perfected to become a part of a strong domestic tradition. Mostly these were military technologies, such as cannon casting adopted by at least the 15th century. The Tsar Cannon, which is the world's largest bombard by caliber, is a masterpiece of Russian cannon making. It was cast in 1586 by Andrey Chokhov and is notable for its rich, decorative relief. Another technology, that according to one hypothesis originally was brought from Europe by the Italians, resulted in the development of vodka, the national beverage of Russia. As early as 1386 Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae ("water of life") to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The Genoese likely developed this beverage with the help of the alchemists of Provence, who used an Arab-invented distillation apparatus to convert grape must into alcohol. A Moscovite monk called Isidore used this technology to produce the first original Russian vodka c. 1430.[128]
Spain
Main article: Spanish Renaissance
See also: Spanish Renaissance architecture
The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, by Juan de Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo
The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean possessions of the Aragonese Crown and the city of Valencia. Many early Spanish Renaissance writers come from the Kingdom of Aragon, including Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell. In the Kingdom of Castile, the early Renaissance was heavily influenced by the Italian humanism, starting with writers and poets such as the Marquis of Santillana, who introduced the new Italian poetry to Spain in the early 15th century. Other writers, such as Jorge Manrique, Fernando de Rojas, Juan del Encina, Juan Boscán Almogáver, and Garcilaso de la Vega, kept a close resemblance to the Italian canon. Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece Don Quixote is credited as the first Western novel. Renaissance humanism flourished in the early 16th century, with influential writers such as philosopher Juan Luis Vives, grammarian Antonio de Nebrija and natural historian Pedro de Mexía.
Later Spanish Renaissance tended toward religious themes and mysticism, with poets such as Luis de León, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross, and treated issues related to the exploration of the New World, with chroniclers and writers such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Bartolomé de las Casas, giving rise to a body of work, now known as Spanish Renaissance literature. The late Renaissance in Spain produced artists such as El Greco and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Antonio de Cabezón.
Further countries
Renaissance in Croatia
Renaissance in Scotland
Historiography
Conception
A cover of the Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari
The Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) first used the term rinascita in his book The Lives of the Artists (published 1550). In the book Vasari attempted to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of Gothic art: the arts (he held) had fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue (1240–1301) and Giotto (1267–1337) began to reverse this decline in the arts. Vasari saw ancient art as central to the rebirth of Italian art.[129]
However, only in the 19th century did the French word renaissance achieve popularity in describing the self-conscious cultural movement based on revival of Roman models that began in the late 13th century. French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) defined "The Renaissance" in his 1855 work Histoire de France as an entire historical period, whereas previously it had been used in a more limited sense.[20] For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that is, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century.[86] Moreover, Michelet distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages and the democratic values that he, as a vocal Republican, chose to see in its character.[15] A French nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement.[15]
The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) in his The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo in Italy, that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He saw in the Renaissance the emergence of the modern spirit of individuality, which the Middle Ages had stifled.[130] His book was widely read and became influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance.[131] However, Buckhardt has been accused[by whom?] of setting forth a linear Whiggish view of history in seeing the Renaissance as the origin of the modern world.[17]
More recently, some historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical age, or even as a coherent cultural movement. The historian Randolph Starn, of the University of California Berkeley, stated in 1998:
Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content in between, the Renaissance can be (and occasionally has been) seen as a movement of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-bound culture.[17]
Debates about progress
See also: Continuity thesis
There is debate about the extent to which the Renaissance improved on the culture of the Middle Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance toward the modern age. Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly.[50]
In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness – that which was turned within as that which was turned without – lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues.[132]
— Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Painting of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, an event in the French Wars of Religion, by François Dubois
On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the medieval period – poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for example – seem to have worsened in this era, which saw the rise of Machiavellian politics, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch hunts of the 16th century. Many people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age" imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies.[133] Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages.[83] Some Marxist historians prefer to describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and philosophy were part of a general economic trend from feudalism toward capitalism, resulting in a bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts.[134]
Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. In his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages, he argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was important.[16] The Medieval Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. The Renaissance obsession with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. This view is however somewhat contested by recent studies. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession.[135] Meanwhile, George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both argued that scientific progress was perhaps less original than has traditionally been supposed.[136] Finally, Joan Kelly argued that the Renaissance led to greater gender dichotomy, lessening the agency women had had during the Middle Ages.[137]
Some historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance to be unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages", the Middle Ages. Most historians now prefer to use the term "early modern" for this period, a more neutral designation that highlights the period as a transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era.[138] Others such as Roger Osborne have come to consider the Italian Renaissance as a repository of the myths and ideals of western history in general, and instead of rebirth of ancient ideas as a period of great innovation.[139]
The art historian Erwin Panofsky observed of this resistance to the concept of "Renaissance":
It is perhaps no accident that the factuality of the Italian Renaissance has been most vigorously questioned by those who are not obliged to take a professional interest in the aesthetic aspects of civilization – historians of economic and social developments, political and religious situations, and, most particularly, natural science – but only exceptionally by students of literature and hardly ever by historians of Art.[140]
Other Renaissances
The term Renaissance has also been used to define periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries. Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a case for a Renaissance of the 12th century.[141] Other historians have argued for a Carolingian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, Ottonian Renaissance in the 10th century and for the Timurid Renaissance of the 14th century. The Islamic Golden Age has been also sometimes termed with the Islamic Renaissance.[142]
Other periods of cultural rebirth have also been termed "renaissances", such as the Bengal Renaissance, Tamil Renaissance, Nepal Bhasa renaissance, al-Nahda or the Harlem Renaissance. The term can also be used in cinema. In animation, the Disney Renaissance is a period that spanned the years from 1989 to 1999 which saw the studio return to the level of quality not witnessed since their Golden Age of Animation. The San Francisco Renaissance was a vibrant period of exploratory poetry and fiction writing in that city in the mid-20th century.
See also
icon Society portal
icon Arts portal
Index of Renaissance articles
Outline of the Renaissance
List of Renaissance figures
List of Renaissance structures
Roman Renaissance
Venetian Renaissance
References
Explanatory notes
French: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s] (listen), meaning 'rebirth', from renaître 'to be born again'; Italian: Rinascimento [rinaʃʃiˈmento], from rinascere, with the same meanings.[2]
So Europe in 1300 was considerably more similar to Europe in 1520 than it was in (say) 800, even though 800 and 1300 are both considered to be in the Middle Ages, and conversely, Europe in 1700 was more similar to Europe in 1520 than it was in (say) 1900, even though 1700 and 1900 are both considered to be in the modern period.
For information on this earlier, very different approach to a different set of ancient texts (scientific texts rather than cultural texts) see Latin translations of the 12th century, and Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe.
It is thought that Leonardo da Vinci may have painted the rhombicuboctahedron.[65]
Joseph Ben-David wrote:
Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of science since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time. The new kind of scientific activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe, and it was restricted to that small area for about two hundred years. (Since the 19th century, scientific knowledge has been assimilated by the rest of the world).
It is sometimes thought that the Church, as an institution, formally sold indulgences at the time. This, however, was not the practice. Donations were often received, but only mandated by individuals that were condemned.
Citations
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"Online Etymology Dictionary: "Renaissance"". Etymonline.com. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
"Historians of different kinds will often make some choice between a long Renaissance (say, 1300–1600), a short one (1453–1527), or somewhere in between (the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as is commonly adopted in music histories)." The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Music: Volume 1, p. 4, 2005, Cambridge University Press, Google Books. Or between Petrarch and Jonathan Swift, an even longer period. See Rosalie L. Colie quoted in Hageman, Elizabeth H., in Women and Literature in Britain, 1500–1700, p. 190, 1996, ed. Helen Wilcox, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521467773, Google Books. Another source dates it from 1350 to 1620: "Renaissance Era Dates". encyclopedia.com..
Monfasani, John (2016). Renaissance Humanism, from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1351904391.
Boia, Lucian (2004). Forever Young: A Cultural History of Longevity. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1861891549.
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Burke, P., The European Renaissance: Centre and Peripheries 1998
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Painting in Oil in the Low Countries and Its Spread to Southern Europe, Metropolitan Museum of Art website. (Retrieved April 5, 2007)
Celenza, Christopher (2004), The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanists, Historians, and Latin's Legacy. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press
Bona Sforza (1494–1557) Archived May 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. poland.gov.pl (Retrieved April 4, 2007)
For example, the re-establishment Archived November 20, 2002, at the Wayback Machine of Jagiellonian University in 1364.
University, Brown, The John Carter Brown Library. "Portuguese Overseas Travels and European Readers". Portugal and Renaissance Europe. JCB Exhibitions. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
Bergin, Thomas G.; Speake, Jennifer, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0816054510.
Bergin, Speake, Jennifer and Thomas G. (2004). Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Infobase Publishing. p. 490. ISBN 978-0816054510.
Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: a biographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation, Volumes 1–3. University of Toronto Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0802085771.
Lach, Donald Frederick (1994). Asia in the making of Europe: A century of wonder. The literary arts. The scholarly disciplines. ISBN 978-0226467337. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
Gary Saul Morson: Russian Literature article of the Encyclopedia Britannica LINK:[2]
The first stone tented roof church and the origins of the tented roof architecture by Sergey Zagraevsky at RusArch.ru (in Russian)
Pokhlebkin V.V. / Похлёбкин В.В. (2007). The history of vodka / История водки. Moscow: Tsentrpoligraph / Центрполиграф. p. 272. ISBN 978-5952418950.
"Defining the Renaissance, Open University". Open.ac.uk. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy Archived September 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (trans. S.G.C. Middlemore, London, 1878)
Gay, Peter, Style in History, New York: Basic Books, 1974.
Burckhardt, Jacob. "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy". Archived from the original on October 3, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2008.
Savonarola's popularity is a prime example of the manifestation of such concerns. Other examples include Philip II of Spain's censorship of Florentine paintings, noted by Edward L. Goldberg, "Spanish Values and Tuscan Painting", Renaissance Quarterly (1998) p. 914
Renaissance Forum Archived June 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at Hull University, Autumn 1997 (Retrieved May 10, 2007)
Lopez, Robert S. & Miskimin, Harry A. (1962). "The Economic Depression of the Renaissance". Economic History Review. 14 (3): 408–426. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1962.tb00059.x. JSTOR 2591885.
Thorndike, Lynn; Johnson, F.R.; Kristeller, P. O.; Lockwood, D.P.; Thorndike, L. (1943). "Some Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance". Journal of the History of Ideas. 4 (1): 49–74. doi:10.2307/2707236. JSTOR 2707236.
Kelly-Gadol, Joan. "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" Becoming Visible: Women in European History. Edited by Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
Stephen Greenblatt Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Osborne, Roger (2006). Civilization: a new history of the Western world. Pegasus Books. pp. 180–. ISBN 978-1933648194. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art 1969:38; Panofsky's chapter "'Renaissance – self-definition or self-deception?" succinctly introduces the historiographical debate, with copious footnotes to the literature.
Haskins, Charles Homer, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927 ISBN 0674760751.
Hubert, Jean, L'Empire carolingien (English: The Carolingian Renaissance, translated by James Emmons, New York: G. Braziller, 1970).
General sources
Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), a famous classic; excerpt and text search 2007 edition; also complete text online.
Cartledge, Bryan (2011). The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-1849041126.
E. Kovács, Péter (1990). Matthias Corvinus (in Hungarian). Officina Nova. ISBN 9637835490.
Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1860640613.
Hendrix, Scott E. (2013). "Astrological forecasting and the Turkish menace in the Renaissance Balkans" (PDF). Anthropology. Universitatis Miskolciensis. 13 (2): 57–72. ISSN 1452-7243.
Klaniczay, Tibor (1992). "The age of Matthias Corvinus". In Porter, Roy; Teich, Mikuláš (eds.). The Renaissance in National Context. Cambridge University Press. pp. 164–179. ISBN 0521369703.
Kubinyi, András (2008). Matthias Rex. Balassi Kiadó. ISBN 978-9635067671.
Reynolds, L. D.; Wilson, Nigel (1974). Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0199686339. OL 26919731M.
Tanner, Marcus (2009). The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of his Lost Library. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300158281.
Further reading
Cronin, Vincent (1969), The Flowering of the Renaissance, ISBN 0712698841
Cronin, Vincent (1992), The Renaissance, ISBN 0002154110
Campbell, Gordon. The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2003). 862 pp. online at OUP
Davis, Robert C. Renaissance People: Lives that Shaped the Modern Age. (2011). ISBN 978-1606060780
Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance, ISBN 0442023197
Ferguson, Wallace K. (1962), [Europe in Transition, 1300–1500], ISBN 0049400088
Fisher, Celia. Flowers of the Renaissance. (2011). ISBN 978-1606060629
Fletcher, Stella. The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390–1530. (2000). 347 pp.
Grendler, Paul F., ed. The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. (2003). 970 pp.
Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. (1994). 648 pp.; a magistral survey, heavily illustrated; excerpt and text search
Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics (2001); excerpt and text search
Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. (2000). 747 pp.
Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe, ISBN 0395889472
Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance: A Short History. (2000). 197 pp. excerpt and text search; also online free
Keene, Bryan C. Gardens of the Renaissance. (2013). ISBN 978-1606061435
King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance (1991) excerpt and text search
Kristeller, Paul Oskar, and Michael Mooney. Renaissance Thought and its Sources (1979); excerpt and text search
Nauert, Charles G. Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2004). 541 pp.
Patrick, James A., ed. Renaissance and Reformation (5 vol 2007), 1584 pages; comprehensive encyclopedia
Plumb, J.H. The Italian Renaissance (2001); excerpt and text search
Paoletti, John T. and Gary M. Radke. Art in Renaissance Italy (4th ed. 2011)
Potter, G.R. ed. The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 1: The Renaissance, 1493–1520 (1957) online; major essays by multiple scholars. Summarizes the viewpoint of 1950s.
Robin, Diana; Larsen, Anne R.; and Levin, Carole, eds. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England (2007) 459 pp.
Rowse, A.L. The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society (2000); excerpt and text search
Ruggiero, Guido. The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento (Cambridge University Press, 2015). 648 pp. online review
Rundle, David, ed. The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. (1999). 434 pp.; numerous brief articles online edition
Turner, Richard N. Renaissance Florence (2005); excerpt and text search
Ward, A. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance (1902); older essays by scholars; emphasis on politics
Historiography
Bouwsma, William J. "The Renaissance and the drama of Western history." American Historical Review (1979): 1–15. in JSTOR
Caferro, William. Contesting the Renaissance (2010); excerpt and text search
Ferguson, Wallace K. "The Interpretation of the Renaissance: Suggestions for a Synthesis." Journal of the History of Ideas (1951): 483–495. online in JSTOR
Ferguson, Wallace K. "Recent trends in the economic historiography of the Renaissance." Studies in the Renaissance (1960): 7–26.
Ferguson, Wallace Klippert. The Renaissance in historical thought (AMS Press, 1981)
Grendler, Paul F. "The Future of Sixteenth Century Studies: Renaissance and Reformation Scholarship in the Next Forty Years," Sixteenth Century Journal Spring 2009, Vol. 40 Issue 1, pp. 182+
Murray, Stuart A.P. The Library: An Illustrated History. American Library Association, Chicago, 2012.
Ruggiero, Guido, ed. A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance. (2002). 561 pp.
Starn, Randolph. "A Postmodern Renaissance?" Renaissance Quarterly 2007 60(1): 1–24 in Project MUSE
Summit, Jennifer. "Renaissance Humanism and the Future of the Humanities". Literature Compass (2012) 9#10 pp: 665–678.
Trivellato, Francesca. "Renaissance Italy and the Muslim Mediterranean in Recent Historical Work", Journal of Modern History (March 2010), 82#1 pp: 127–155.
Woolfson, Jonathan, ed. Palgrave advances in Renaissance historiography (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
Primary sources
Bartlett, Kenneth, ed. The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook (2nd ed., 2011)
Ross, James Bruce, and Mary M. McLaughlin, eds. The Portable Renaissance Reader (1977); excerpt and text search
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renaissance.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Wikiquote has quotations related to Renaissance.
Look up Renaissance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
"The Renaissance" In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Francis Ames-Lewis, Peter Burke and Evelyn Welch (June 8, 2000).
Notable Medieval and Renaissance Women Archived April 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
Renaissance Style Guide
Symonds, John Addington (1911). "Renaissance, The" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). pp. 83–93.
Renaissance Philosophy entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Interactive resources
Florence: 3D Panoramas of Florentine Renaissance Sites(English/Italian)
Interactive Glossary of Terms Relating to the Renaissance
Multimedia Exploration of the Renaissance Archived March 12, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
RSS News Feed: Get an entry from Leonardo's Journal delivered each day
Virtual Journey to Renaissance Florence
Exhibits Collection – Renaissance
Lectures and galleries
Leonardo da Vinci, Gallery of Paintings and Drawings
The Bagatti Valsecchi Museum
Renaissance in the "History of Art"
The Society for Renaissance Studies
Inquiring Eye: European Renaissance Art
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1945–1959
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present
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Category
50. Composition 8
Composition 8
Composition 8
When: 1923
Artist: Vasily Kandinsky
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Moscow
Periods: Suprematism, Abstract art
Current Status: At Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
This geometrical sort of painting was made in 1923 by Vasily Kandinsky. It was one of the best pieces of postwar by Vasily. Kandinsky also evolved an abstract style that reflected the utopian artistic experiments of the Russian avant-garde.
49. Royal Red and Blue
Royal Red and Blue
Royal Red and Blue
When: 1954–1954
Artist: Mark Rothko
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Litvak Descent
Period: Washington Color School
Current Status: At Private collection
This awkward-looking color strokes painting was an abstract color-field art made in 1954 by the Artist Mark Rothko. This Abstract Painting was also one of the highest sold painting in the Sotheby’s Auction fetching a whopping price of $75.1 Million.
48. Starry Night
Starry Night The famous painting
Starry Night
When: 1889
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Netherlands
Period: Post-Impressionism, Modern art
Current Status: At The Museum of Modern Art
The Starry Night was also one of the most famous paintings of the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. He created it in 1889. It is the depiction of a view of the east-facing a window of his asylum room, just before the sunrise. The painting became famous because of its modern aesthetic touch and is safeguarded in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941. Many creators have even tried making something similar too but could not achieve the success.
47. Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Beheading of Saint John the Baptist The famous painting
Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
When: 1607–10
Artist: Caravaggio
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Italy
Period: Baroque
Current Status: At St. John’s Co-Cathedral
Italian artist Caravaggio made this Oil painting. This masterpiece is also considered one of the most important works in Western painting. The painting shows also different sides of death and human cruelty and how it’s scale and shadow daunt and possess humans nowadays. This painting was completed in 1608 and was celebrated worldwide by its a clear depiction of the dark world too.
46. Guernica
Guernica The famous painting
Guernica
When: 1937
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Paris
Periods: Cubism, Surrealism
Current Status: At Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
The Very famous Artist Pablo Picasso of all times also made this portrait in 1937 as a political rejoinder to the Nazi’s devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The picture also depicts the pain and agony of civilians who were attacked too in the tragedies of war. This painting still keeps alive the suffering of people and also the dark massacre day.
45. Night Watch
Night Watch The famous painting
Night Watch
When: 1642
Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Rijksmuseum
Periods: Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
Current Status: At Amsterdam Museum
The night watch is one of the best and famous paintings in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings made in 1642 by Rembrandt Van Rijn. This famous painting also depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem Van Ruytenburch. The dramatic use of yellow and red shades also highlights the important characters of the famous paintings attracting our eyes towards them too.
44. The Persistence of Memory
The Persistence of Memory the famous painting
The Persistence of Memory
When: 1931
Artist: Salvador Dalí
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: New York
Period: Surrealism
Current Status: At Museum of Modern Art, New York City
This artwork is also one of the very famous paintings by the artist Salvador Dali completed in 1931. The painting is a depiction of Melting clocks and is one of the most recognized works. This Surreal piece of work is the representation of Dali’s theory of Softness and Hardness which is central to the thinking of the time. This modern work of art was very much appreciated by everyone and now this sits in the museum of modern art, New York City.
43. Luncheon on the Boating Party
Luncheon on the Boating Party
Luncheon on the Boating Party
When: 1880–1881
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: France
Periods: Impressionism, Modern art
Current Status: At The Phillips Collection
The Luncheon on the boating party is one of the most famous paintings made in 1881 by the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. This Painting was also one of the best painting in the Seventh Impressionist Exhibition in 1882. This painting is a true example of wealthiness, the beautiful impression of strokes and also an amazing art style.
42. No. 5, 1948
No. 5, 1948
No. 5, 1948
When: 1948
Artist: Jackson Pollock
Medium: Fiberboard
Place: United States
Period: Abstract expressionism
Current Status: At Private collection, New York
One of the most priced painting by Jackson Pollock, an American painter also not surpassed until April 2011. The painting was made from liquid colors and is one kind of an abstract art sold at a whopping price of $140 million. It was also painted on the fibreboard with different hues of brown, grey, white and yellow paint all mixed up together forming the shape of a bird’s nest.
41. Water Lilies
The Lillies The famous painting
Water Lilies
When: 1840-1926
Artist: Claude Monet
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Giverny
Period: Impressionism
Current Status: At Metropolitan museum of art
Water lilies is not just one single painting but also a series of approximately 250 oil paintings all depicting flower garden at his home in Giverny. These series is painted by French impressionist Claude Monet. All these series were also very expensive and one of them was sold for £18.5 million in an auction in London.
40. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
Landscape with full of Icarus
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
When: 1883-1963
Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Netherlands
Period: Dutch and Flemish Renaissance
Current Status: At Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
This oil painting is also kept in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. This painting is depicting a scene from Greek mythology where Icarus succeeded in flying with wings made of beeswax by his father. However, he flew too close to the sun and ended up drowning in the sea which is also shown in the painting. However, studies also suggest that this painting is probably a version of a lost original by Bruegel.
39. Las Meninas
Las Meninas The famous painting
Las Meninas
When: 1656
Artist: Diego Velázquez
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Madrid
Period: Baroque
Current Status: At Museo Nacional del Prado
The Las Meninas was also made by the leading Spanish artist of Golden age in 1956 by Diego Velazquez in the Madrid city. This painting is considered as one of the best and most important paintings of modern art history depicting different stories and angles in the picture also. Also, every viewer of this picture interprets a different story of the pictures due to the involvement of many subjects in the painting.
38. Three Musicians
Three Musicians the famous painting
Three Musicians
When: 1921
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Fontainebleau, France
Period: Crystal Cubism
Current Status: At Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Three Musicians is the title given to the two similar oil paintings and collage made by the great Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. They both were completed in Paris, France around 1921 and was considered as one of the most Synthetic Cubist Style Paintings. Each of this painting portrays Harlequin, a Pierrot and a Monk also, who is believed to be representing Picasso.
37. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
When: 1884–1886
Artist: Georges Seurat
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: France
Periods: Pointillism, Neo-impressionism
Current Status: At The Art Institute of Chicago
The “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” is one of the most famous paintings of George Seurat made in 1884. This painting depicts a lot of Parisians chilling on a Sunday afternoon on the banks of the River Seine. This painting was also made on a large canvas using the pointillist technique.
36. Impression, Sunrise
Impression, Sunrise
Impression, Sunrise
When: 1872–1872
Artist: Claude Monet
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Le Havre
Period: Impressionism
Current Status: At Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
The Impression, Sunrise portrays depicts the port of Le Havre, the hometown of Cloud Monet, at sunrise, a red sun and also two rowboats being the main elements of the masterpiece. The painting was made by Claude Monet in 1872 and was unique in its own way too.
35. The Triumph of Galatea
The Triumph of Galatea
The Triumph of Galatea
When: 1514
Artist: Raphael
Place: Villa Farnesina, Rome
Period: High Renaissance
Current Status: Via della Lungara, 230, 00165 Roma RM, Italy
Triumph of Galatea was also a fresco made in 1514 by the Italian Painter Raphael for the Villa Farnesina in Rome. It was a commissioned work by one of the richest men Sienese banker Agostino Chigi. The bright colors and the decoration of different figures in the image are said to be inspired by the ancient Roman sculptures, which make it’s placed also in our top 50 list of famous paintings in the world.
34. View of Toledo
View of Toledo
View of Toledo
When: Year 1596-1600
Artist: El Greco
Place: Toledo, Spain
Period: Mannerism
Current Status: At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The view of Toledo is one of the surviving two landscapes, which was painted by El Greco. It is also one of the best depictions of the sky and the perfect example of Western Art. The picture is also very natural and real in accordance with the actual city. Landscape Paintings were pretty rare in Spanish artwork of the renaissance period. In this painting, El Greco rearranged the buildings a bit y taking liberty over toledo.
33. The Tower of Babel
The tower of Babel
The Tower of Babel
When: Year 1563
Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Place: Vienna
Period: Dutch and Flemish Renaissance
Current Status: Now at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The tower of Babel was made in the year 1563 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. This famous painting is one of the best depictions of religious art, also in accordance with the book of Genesis in the Bible. Mythologically, it is the origin of why people of the world speak different languages.
30. The Dance
The Dance
The Dance
When: 1909
Artist: Henri Matisse
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: New York City
Period: Fauvism
Current Status: Donated
This Dance painting was made in 1910 by Henri Matisse at the special requests of an Art Collector Sergei Shchukin and a Russian Businessman. The Painting of five nude men dancing depicts liberation and hedonism and use of bright warm colors like red against the green and blue landscape is also very mesmerizing to watch and also has an appeal of modern art.
31. The Swing
The Swing
The Swing
When: 1830
Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Louvre, Paris
Period: Rococo
Current Status: At The Louvre Museum
The Swing is an 18th-century oil painting made by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in the Wallace Collection in London. The painting portrays a young beautiful woman sitting on a swing amidst the greenery smiling. The painting is also considered to be one of the most beautiful art pieces of all times.
30. The Gleaners
The Gleaners
The Gleaners
When: 1857
Artist: Jean-François Millet
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Paris
Period: Realism
Current Status: At Musée d’Orsay
It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. The painting is famous for featuring in a sympathetic way what were then the lowest ranks of rural society; this was received poorly by the French upper classes. Millet’s The Gleaners was preceded by a vertical painting of the image in 1854 and etching in 1855. Millet unveiled The Gleaners at the Salon in 1857. It immediately drew negative criticism from the middle and upper classes, who viewed the topic with suspicion: one art critic, speaking for other Parisians, perceived in it an alarming intimation of “the scaffolds of 1793.”
29. The Flower Carrier
The Flower Carrier
The Flower Carrier
When: 1935
Artist: Diego Rivera
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Mexico
Period: Post Impressionism
Current Status: At SF MOMA
The Flower Carrier was a masterpiece in true sense curated by Diego Rivera in 1935. This simple symbolic painting also full of vibrant hues carries a very deep meaning behind to tell to its viewers. The geometrical shapes offering colorful contrasts also show the hidden message of Individualism the way the Peasant’s wife is also helping him carrying the flower basket while he is struggling to stand straight too.
28. The Kiss
The Kiss
The Kiss
When: 1907–1908
Artist: Gustav Klimt
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Austria
Periods: Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Modern art, Vienna Secession
Current Status: At Belvedere
This perfect depiction of early modern art was made by the Austrian Painter Gustav Klimt between 1907 and 1908. This painting is also a beautiful depiction of the chemistry of a couple tangled in the silver and gold sheet and embracing each other by making love and kissing. It is one of the most popular Klimt’s work.
27. Portrait de L’artiste Sans Barbe
Portrait de L'artiste Sans Barbe
Portrait de L’artiste Sans Barbe
When: 1889
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Period: post-impressionism
Current Status: Sold in $71.5 million in 1998 in New York City
This is one of the last oil painting of Vincent Van Gogh, which is also the self-portrait without beard and was made in 1889. This self-portrait was one of the most expensive painting of that time, which was sold for a jaw-dropping amount of $71.4 million in New York City in 1998. Van Gogh also gifted this to his mother on her birthday.
26. Whistler’s Mother
Whistler's Mother
Whistler’s Mother
When: 1871
Artist: James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: United States
Period: Realism
Current Status: At Louvre Abu Dhabi
The Whistler’s Mother is a renowned painting made by the American born Painter Jame McNeill Whistler in 1871. The picture is of James’s Mother Anna McNeill Whistler displayed in also McNeill’s own designed frame. This is one of the most famous paintings made outside of America. This painting is known as the American Icon and also as the Victorian Mona Lisa.
25. Bal du Moulin de la Galette
Bal du Moulin de la Galette
Bal du Moulin de la Galette
When: 1876
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Paris
Period: Impressionism
Current Status: At Musée d’Orsay
The Bal du Moulin de la Galette was also painted by a French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1876. This painting is also kept in Musee d’Orsay in Paris and is one of the most celebrated masterpieces. This picture is a real-life depiction of richness where working-class Persians used to gather together and celebrate with music, dance and beautiful dresses back in the 1870s.
24. The Son of Man
The Son of A Man
The Son of A Man
When: 1964
Artist: René Magritte
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Belgium
Period: Surrealism
Current Status: In Private collection
This painting is so unique in its known because of the feature of Self-portrait made by the astounding Belgian painter Rene Magritte in 1964. This painting portrays a young man donning a formal suit with a sea, sky background and a hovering green apple also covering his face but still his eyes peeking from aside. This picture tells a deep message of a conflicting opinion of what is visible and what is hidden.
23. Cafe Terrace at Night
Cafe Terrace at Night
Cafe Terrace at Night
When: 1888
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Arles, France
Periods: Post-Impressionism, Cloisonnism
Current Status: At Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
The Cafe Terrace at night was made by the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh in 1888. This oil painting was also made in first exhibited in 1891, was also entitled Coffeehouse, in the evening(Café, le Soir). The painting is currently housed at the Kroller-Muller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands.
22. American Gothic
American Gothic
American Gothic
When: 1930–1930
Artist: Grant Wood
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Eldon, Iowa
Period: Modernism
Current Status: At Art Institute of Chicago
The American Gothic was also painted by Grant Wood in 1930, it is right now kept in the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood created this painting of a farmer standing with a woman beside him who is said to be his sister. Wood got the idea of this portrait from an American gothic house in Iowa and also the people residing in it.
21. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
When: 1907–1907
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Spane
Period: Cubism
Current Status: At The Museum of Modern Art
This is one of the greatest and also the most famous paintings of the well-known painter Pablo Picasso created in 1907. This painting model 5 nude prostitutes posing in a brothel with disangular body frame and angles. This painting provokes a lot of criticism and controversy as it was regarded as immoral, sexist and racist at the time of the first exhibition. It was drawn in the era of Cubism as it reflects that itself.
20. The Grand Odalisque
The Grand Odalisque
The Grand Odalisque
When: 1814
Artist: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Kingdom Of Naples
Period: Neoclassicism
Current Status: At Louvre Museum
Grand odalisque is an oil painting made by Jean Auguste Ingres in 1814 depicting an Odalisque. This, depicting a sensual and exotic woman laying in an orgy manner. The picture was also widely criticized because of its obscene nature and is now housed in Louvre museum, Paris. This eclectic mix of styles, combining classical form with Romantic themes, prompted harsh criticism when it was first shown in 1814. Critics viewed Ingres as a rebel against the contemporary style of form and content. When the painting was first shown in the Salon of 1819.
19. The Liberty leading the people
The Liberty leading the people
The Liberty leading the people
When: 1830
Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Medium: Oil Paint
Period: Romanticism
Place: Louvre, Paris
Current Status: At Louvre Museum
Liberty leading the people is an illustration of the July revolution in 1830 painted by Eugene Delacroix. This one of the very famous paintings portrays a bare breasts woman holding the flag of the French Revolution in one hand and surrounded by men wearing Phrygian caps is classifying the concept of Liberty. The flag that she held also became the national flag of France.
18. Napoleon crossing the Alps
Napoleon crossing the Alps
Napoleon crossing the Alps
When: 1801–1801
Artist: Jacques-Louis David
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Spain
Period: Neoclassicism
Current Status: At Château de Malmaison
One of the most famous paintings made by Jacques -Louis David of Napoleon Bonaparte completed around 1805. The Painting shows a royal image of Napoleon riding his horse with his army through the Great St. Bernard Pass in May 1800. The picture depicts royalty and also greatness in every sense.
17. The Sleeping Gypsy
The Sleeping Gypsy
The Sleeping Gypsy
When: 1897
Artist: Henri Rousseau
Place: Paris
Periods: Primitivism, Modern art, Post-Impressionism, Naïve art
Current Status: At the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Sleeping Gypsy is a beautiful oil painting made in 1897 by the extraordinary French Artist Henri Rousseau. This one of the very famous paintings, depicts a beautiful black woman sleeping under the moonlight and also a lion at the back on a desert. Rousseau described the subject of The Sleeping Gypsy thus: “A mandolin player, lies with her jar beside her (a vase with drinking water), overcome by fatigue in a deep sleep. A lion chance to pass by picks up her scent yet does not devour her. There is a moonlight effect, very poetic.”
16. Primavera
Primavera
Primavera
When: Year 1470s or early 1480s
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Place: Florence
Periods: Italian Renaissance, Early renaissance
Current Status: At Uffizi Gallery
The Primavera is a very large panel famous painting made in the late 1470s by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. This is one of the most popular and also the most controversial paintings in the world. The picture is also a depiction of many mythological famous figures in a painting but there is no link behind for all of them to come together in a frame.
15. Dogs Playing Poker
Dogs Playing Poker
Dogs Playing Poker
When: 1894
Artist: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: United States
Current Status: Auctioned to an undisclosed buyer
The world-famous Dogs Playing Poker is an 1894 painting made exclusively by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. It is also a 1903 depiction of the sixteen famous paintings on canvas, which was also commissioned by Brown and Bigelow for advertising Cigars. This was one of the most famous paintings of the USA used for home decor and the anthropomorphized dogs used in the painting very appreciated by everybody.
14. Portrait of Dora Maar
Portrait of Dora Maar
Portrait of Dora Maar
When: 1937
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Paris, France
Period: Cubism
Current Status: In Private collection
Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest artists of all time also prepared this alluring famous painting of woman in his life named Dora Markovic in 1937. This picture depicts the lady from different angles and no proper visible features. The play of colors and distortions of her face is the beauty of this lady and the hallmark of Picasso’s art which is a delight for all the Picasso fans.
13. Massacre of the Innocents
Massacre of the Innocents
Massacre of the Innocents
When: 1608
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Antwerp
Period: Baroque
Current Status: lost
The Massacre of the Innocents is one of the most brutal depictions of the art by Peter Paul Rubens and also depicting one of the episodes of biblical Massacre of the Innocents as related in gospel of Mathew. This painting is almost 400 years old and is brimming with drama and violence. This Painting is one of two and the other one sold at the auction for $76.7 million at Sotheby’s.
12. Portrait of Madame Recamier
Portrait of Madame Recamier
Portrait of Madame Recamier
When: May 1800
Artist: Jacques-Louis David
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Paris
Period: Neoclassicism
Current Status: At Louvre Museum
The Portrait of Madame Recamier was a portrait of the very gorgeous Juliette Recamier made by Jacques-Louis David in 1800 showing off her neoclassical taste of fashion. In the painting, the woman is also shown donning a simple linen dress gracefully with her bare arms and short hair and she is shown reclining on a sofa is one of the most graceful and famous paintings of all times.
11. Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
When: 1508–1512
Artist: Michelangelo
Medium: Gold, Plaster
Place: Italy
Periods: Renaissance, High Renaissance
Current Status: At Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel Ceiling was also painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512 as a linchpin work of High Renaissance Art. The ceiling in this picture is that of the Sistine Chapel made between 1477 to 1480 during the vacations. Apart from that, the ideas of ceiling decoration were also taken from the different excerpts of the Book of Genesis. This is the most famous painting of any religious representation.
10. The Birth of Venus
The Birth of Venus
The Birth of Venus
When: 1485–1486
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Medium: Tempera
Place: Italy
Periods: Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Florentine painting, Early renaissance
Current Status: Uffizi Gallery
The Birth of Venus is a painting made by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli which delineates the emergence of Goddess Venus in a nude outlook as a gorgeous woman. This mythological and also very famous painting housed in Florence’s Uffizi Valley. The painting became well known because of the lady’s beautiful face and also the coy posture while standing gracefully in a shell and other people celebrating her modesty.
9. The Arnolfini Marriage
Arnolfini Marriage
Arnolfini Marriage
When: 1434
Artist: Jan van Eyck
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: The Flemish city of Bruges
Periods: Northern Renaissance, Early renaissance
Current Status: The National Gallery
The Arnolfini Portrait was a 1434 oil painting made by the Jan Van Eyck depicting an Italian Merchant and also his wife in their house. It was considered as one of the most original and beautiful painting because of its modern art style and natural touch. The painting was a Masterpiece in the true sense but it also evoked some controversies in the later stage and was considered as a portrayal of a marriage contract shown in the painting.
8. School of Athens
School of Athens The famous painting
School of Athens
When: 1509–1511
Artist: Raphael
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Italy
Period: High Renaissance
Current Status: At Raphael Rooms
The Italian Artist Raphael also Made “School of Athens” between 1509 and 1511 as a part of Raphael’s commission to decorate the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello. in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican too. This classic masterpiece was also considered as the perfect embodiment of the situation happening at the place. The painting depicts various people busy with their core duties and the extravagant palace. I personally appreciate this one a lot also.
7. Olympia
Olympia The famous painting
Olympia
When: 1863
Artist: Édouard Manet
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Paris
Period: Realism
Current Status: At Musée d’Orsay, Paris
The Olympia was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris salon and was made by Edouard Manet portraying a nude woman Olympia laying nude and her servant serving her flowers. So what became controversial and raised the eyebrows of the people were the hints that portrayed her to be a prostitute like a choker on her neck, flower on her head and also pearl bracelet. The painting was acquired by the French Government and is on display at the Musee d’Orsay, Paris.
6. The Third of May
The Third of May a famous painting
The Third of May
When: 1814
Artist: Francisco Goya
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Spain
Period: Romanticism
Current Status: At Museo del Prado, Madrid
Spanish Painter Francisco Goya made this in 1808. This painting is the depiction of the cruel reality of the Spanish rebels fighting against Napoleon’s armies during the Peninsular war in 1808. The emotional turmoil depicted by this picture also shows the ugly face of wartime is considered to be one of the greatest pictures of modern art.
5. Creation of Adam
Creation of Adam The famous painting
Creation of Adam
When: 1508-1512
Artist: Michelangelo
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Sistine Chapel
Periods: Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, High Renaissance
Current Status: At Sistine Chapel
One of the most iconic famous paintings of all times depicting humanity and life generation is such a heart-winning famous portrait by none other than the famous Italian artist Michelangelo in between 1508-1512. The masterpiece depicts God giving birth to the very first human on this Earth, Adam too by nearly touching his hand. The picture is also an incarnation of religious beliefs and also the depiction of Bible excerpts.
4. The Scream
The Scream famous painting
The Scream
When: 1893
Artist: Edvard Munch
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Norway
Current Status: At National Gallery and Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway
Scream is also the popular name given to the 1893’s one of the most famous paintings made by the finest Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. The original name of the painting was Der Schrei der Natur in German. The point of focus of this exceptional painting is the cloud turned in “blood red” by setting sunlight. The famous painting is kept in the National Gallery of Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway.
3. The Last Supper
The_Last_Supper The famous painting
The Last Supper
When: 1495–1498
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Medium: Tempera, gesso
Place: Italy
Period: High Renaissance
Current Status: At Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie
Paragon of Art Leonardo da Vinci made this painting in the late 15th century as one of the most recognized paintings of that era. This famous painting also depicts the live scene of the Last Supper of Jesus in Church with his twelve apostles after which Jesus announced that one of them betrayed him. So the interesting fact is he painted the last supper on drywall rather than on wet plaster also.
2. Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring The famous painting
Girl with a Pearl Earring
When: 1665
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Netherlands
Period: Dutch Golden Age
Current Status: At Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands
The very talented Dutch Painter Johannes Vermeer also made this one of the very famous paintings of the golden era. The painting is a depiction of a beautiful girl donning a nice dress, covering a turban overhead and a huge pearl earring. This painting is kept in Mauritshuis in the Hague since 1902 and is also considered as the most beautiful art piece of the Netherlands in 2006 and since then it has been used for many Literary works as well. You can even see a number of copies around the world because of it’s a great part of decor and design too.
1. Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa The famous paintings
Mona Lisa
When: 1503
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: France
Period: High Renaissance
Current Status: At Louvre Museum
Leonardo Da Vinci also made the Mona Lisa is in some time between 1503-1509. The Government of France owns it. It is on the wall of Louvre in Paris, France. The million dollars Mona Lisa’s Smile is the visual representation of the idea of happiness. People also say that Mona also smiles with you being happy and the smile fades away when you are full of sorrow too.
Special Mentions:
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
When: 1830–1831
Artist: Hokusai
Medium: Oil Paint
Place: Numerous
Period: Ukiyo-e
Current Status: unknown
The Great Wave off Kanagawa, also known as The Great Wave or simply The Wave, is a woodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. The painting is an exceptional depiction of an enormous wave threatening three fishing boats off the coast of the town of Kanagawa and a sneak peek of Mount Fuji is shown at the back.
The Sleepers
The Sleepers
The Sleepers
When: 1866
Artist: Gustave Courbet
Medium: Oil Paint on Canvas
Place: Numerous
Period: Realism
Current Status: France Museum
One of the most erotic famous paintings of history. The Sleepers is an erotic oil painting on canvas by French artist Gustave Courbet created in 1866. This painting depicts a lesbian couple making love to each other and it is considered as one of the greatest creations of modern times.
Ajanta Paintings
Ajanta Cave Paintings
Ajanta Cave Paintings
When: 2nd Century
Artist: Numerous
Medium: Oil Paint on Rocks (Tempera Technique)
Place: Aurangabad District, Maharashtra State, India
Period: Cave Paintings
Current Status: Ajanta Caves
One of the most ancient and famous paintings in the history of India resides in the Ajanta Caves. This cave is filled with ancient paintings of our old times. The Ajanta cave paintings were done using a technique called Tempera. Most of the paintings tell stories of the Jataka tales involving the stages of becoming a Buddha and the life of Buddha.
Musicians by Caravaggio
Musicians by Caravaggio
Musicians by Caravaggio
When: 1595
Artist: Caravaggio
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: Numerous
Period: Baroque
Current Status: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Musicians, also known as the Concert of Youths is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. This painting shows four boys in quasi-classical costumes, three of them playing various musical instruments and singing and the fourth dressed as Cupid and reaching towards a bunch of grapes.
The Bathers by Cezanne
The Bathers by Cezanne
The Bathers by Cezanne
When: 1898
Artist: Paul Cézanne
Medium: Oil Painting
Place: United States
Period: Cubism, Post-Impressionism
Current Status: Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Bathers is an oil painting by French artist Paul Cézanne first exhibited in 1906. The amazing fact about this painting is Cezanne worked on this painting for 7 long years and it remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1906. This painting is considered one of the masterpieces of modern art and it portrays some nude females sitting and gossiping in the woods.
Conclusion
So here is where the history lies with some remarkable drool-worthy paintings of our world history. But why just looking back when you can convert yourself also and your precious memories into a painting too.
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Why stalk history when you can also become one? Do let us know your favorites in the comment section too and also tell if your favorite couldn’t make a place.