Leonardo Da Vinci

Raphael Sanzio
Michelangelo
Submitted by: Lorraine L.
Lacuesta
Submitted to: Mr. Julius H.
Ramon
Subject: M. A. P. E. H.
Date: February 5,2013
I. Introduction

"The Ghent Altarpiece: The Adoration of the Lamb" (interior view) painted 1432 by Jan van Eyck.
The Renaissance marks the period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages and the
rise of the Modern world. It represents a cultural rebirth from the 14th through the middle of the 17th
centuries. Early Renaissance, mostly in Italy, bridges the art period during the fifteenth century,
between the Middle Ages and the High Renaissance in Italy. It is generally known that Renaissance
matured in Northern Europe later, in 16th century. One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art
was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (12671337) is credited
with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect
Filippo Brunelleschi (13771446) and the subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (14041472)
that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique. The development of perspective was part of a
wider trend towards realism in the arts. To that end, painters also 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 to be much imitated by other artists. Other notable artists include Sandro Botticelli,
working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others.
In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical
buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing
discipline of mathematics, formulated the Renaissance style which emulated and improved on classical
forms. Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral.
The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in
Mantua. 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. The
Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. These can
either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the
form of pilasters. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures
as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the
Old Sacristy (14211440) by Filippo Brunelleschi.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. Nicola Pisano
(c. 1220c. 1278) imitated classical forms by portraying scenes from the Bible. The Annunciation by
Nicola Pisano, from the Baptistry at Pisa, demonstrates that classical models influenced Italian art
before the Renaissance took root as a literary movement.

II. Renaissance Art

Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci. His father
was Ser Piero, a notary; his mother, Caterina, came of a peasant family. They were not married. The
boy's uncle Francesco may have had more of a hand in his upbringing than by either of his parents.
When Leonardo was about 15, he moved to the nearby city of Florence and became an apprentice to
the artist Andrea del Verrocchio. He was already a promising talent. While at the studio, he aided his
master with his Baptism of Christ, and eventually painted his own Annunciation. Around the age of 30,
Leonardo began his own practice, starting work on the Adoration of the Magi; however, he soon
abandoned it and moved to Milan in 1482. In Milan, Leonardo sought and gained the patronage of
Ludovico Sforza, and soon began work on the painting Virgin of the Rocks. After some years, he
began work on a giant bronze horse, a monument to Sforza's father. Leonardo's design is grand, but the
statue was never completed. Meanwhile, he was keeping scrupulous notebooks on a number of studies,
including artistic drawings but also depictions of scientific subjects ranging from anatomy to
hydraulics. In 1490, he took a young boy, Salai, into his household, and in 1493 a woman named
Caterina (most likely his mother) also came to live with him; she died a few years later. Around 1495,
Leonardo began his painting The Last Supper, which achieved immense success but began to
deteriorate physically almost immediately upon completion. Around this same time, Fra Luca Pacioli,
the famous mathematician, moved to Milan, befriended Leonardo, and taught him higher math. In
1499, when the French conquered Lombard and Milan, the two left the city together, heading for
Mantua.
In 1500, Leonardo arrived in Florence, where he painted the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne.
He was very interested in mathematics at this time. In 1502, he went to work as chief military engineer
to Cesare Borgia, and also became acquainted with Niccolo Machiavelli. After a year he returned to
Florence, where he contributed to the huge engineering project of diverting the course of the River
Arno, and also painted a giant war mural, the Battle of Anghiari, which was never completed, largely
due to problems with the paints. In 1505 Leonardo probably made his first sketches for the Mona
Lisa,but it is not known when he completed the painting.
In 1506, Leonardo traveled to Milan at the summons of Charles d'Amboise, the French
governor. He became court painter and engineer to Louis XII and worked on a second version of the
Virgin of the Rocks. In 1507, he returned to Florence to engage in a legal battle against his brothers for
their uncle Francesco's inheritance. In this same year, he took the young aristocratic Melzi as an
assistant, and for the rest of the decade he intensified his studies of anatomy and hydraulics. In 1513, he
moved to Rome, where Leo X reigned as pope. There, he worked on mirrors, and probably the above
self- portrait. In 1516, he left Italy for France, joining King Francis I in Amboise, whom he served as a
wise philosopher for three years before his death in 1519. One of da Vinci's last commissioned works
was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies. The famous artist
died in Amboise, France, on May 2, 1519. Da Vinci's assistant and perhaps his lover, Francesco Melzi,
became the principal heir and executor of his estate.

Leonardos Artworks:
Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa also known as La Gioconda or
La Joconde, or Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of
Francesco del Giocondo is a half-length portrait of a
woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has
been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited,
the most written about, the most sung about, the most
parodied work of art in the world." This figure of a
woman, dressed in the Florentine fashion of her day and
seated in a visionary, mountainous landscape, is a
remarkable instance of Leonardo's sfumato technique of
soft, heavily shaded modeling. The Mona Lisa's
enigmatic expression, which seems both alluring and
aloof, has given the portrait universal fame.
The painting, who was confirmed to be a portrait
of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo,
is in oil on a poplar panel, and is believed to have been
painted between 1503 and 1506. It was acquired by King
Francis I of France and is now the property of the French
Republic, on permanent display at the Muse du Louvre
in Paris.

The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is one of the artist's most well-known works and,
together with the Mona Lisa, was one of the two paintings that helped establish Leonardo's fame as a
painter. The work was commissioned by the Duke Lodovico Sforza, Leonardo's patron, for the
refectory (dining hall) of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan, Italy.The wall painting,
which Leonardo worked on between 1495 and 1498, is not a true fresco. The painter chose not to paint
the piece on wet plaster, since that would severely limit the amount of time he could spend on the
work. Instead he sealed the stone wall with a layer of resin and chalk, and then painted over the sealing
layer with tempera. Unfortunately, though this technique allowed him to depict the scene in exquisite
detail, it did not prove very durable. The piece began deteriorating within only a few years after it was

finished.

The Annunciation
The Annunciation (14721475) is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Uffizi Gallery in
Florence. It depicts the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she will
conceive Jesus Christ and is set in the enclosed courtyard arden of a Florentine villa.The angel holds a
Madonna lily, a symbol of Mary's virginity and of the city of Florence. It is supposed that Leonardo
originally copied the wings from those of a bird in flight, but they have since been lengthened by a later
artist.
The marble table in front of the Virgin probably quotes the tomb of Piero and Giovanni de'
Medici in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence that Verrocchio sculpted in this same period. When
Annunciation came to the Uffizi in 1867 from the monastery of San Bartolomeo of Monteoliveto, near
Florence, it was ascribed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, who was, like Leonardo, an apprentice in the
workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1869, some critics recognized it as a youthful work by
Leonardo.

The Holy Infants Embracing

The Holy Infants Embracing is a painting ascribed to Leonardo da Vinci, housed in the
Capodimonte Gallery in Naples, southern Italy. It is thought to represent the infant Christ embracing
his cousin John the Baptist. The subject matter relates to the two paintings of the Virgin of the Rocks
by Leonardo and numerous other Renaissance works by Raphael and others of the meeting of the two
children on the road to Egypt while escaping the Massacre of the Innocents.The subject of two Infants
kissing was an inspirational source of quite a few (about thirty) copies of pupils and followers of
Leonardo da Vinci. An early sketch of the subject by da Vinci himself is held at Windsor collection.
The sheet shows various studies of Madonna and Baby playing with the cat, while at the very bottom
we see two infants kissing and embracing each other. The sketch is quite different from the version
presented at numerous compositions, while the baby on the right is shown in a very same pose as Jesus
in Virgin of the Rocks. The connection between those paintings is evident in two copies made by Marco

d'Oggiono (one of them - the Thuelin Madonna)and copy made by Bernardino dei Conti (lost during
World War II). Madonna, very much like as the one depicted in Virgin of the Rocks is seen blessing
two kissing children, representing Jesus and St John the Baptist.

Virgin of the Rocks

The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes the Madonna of the Rocks) is the name used for
two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, and of a composition which is
identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the earlier of
the two hangs in the Muse du Louvre in Paris and the other in the National Gallery, London.
The paintings are both nearly 2 metres (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils. Both were
painted on wooden panel; that in the Louvre has been transferred to canvas.
Both paintings show the Madonna and Christ Child with the infant John the Baptist and
an angel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant
compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel. There are many minor
ways in which the works differ, including the colours, the lighting, the flora, and the way in
which sfumato has been used. Although the date of an associated commission is documented,
the complete histories of the two paintings are unknown, and lead to speculation about which of
the two is earlier.
Two further paintings are associated with the commission: side panels each containing an
angel playing a musical instrument and completed by associates of Leonardo. These are both in
the National Gallery, London.

Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino was a painter and architect from the High Renaissance. Part
of a trinity of great Italian masters, Raphael was perhaps the most productive of them all!. He
was born in 1483 and living just 37 years, Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, house some of the
most magnificent fresco artwork anywhere in the world.
Running a hugely successful workshop, Raphael generated more artists than any other.
His team included established masters, young pupils and journeymen who were all diffused
across Italy after the Sack of Rome in 1527; Raphaels more serene and harmonious qualities
have always been regarded as the highest models by art historians.
Contemporary biographer Giorgio Vasari said: Those who are the possessors of such
rare and numerous gifts as were seen in the Raffaello da Urbino are not merely men, but mortal
gods.
Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles because he had excellent manners and social skills
due to his knowledge of music and literary culture, though he never got on with his great rivals
Leonardo and Michelangelo during the Florentine sojourn.
Assimilating the influence of Florentine art (such as the pyramidal composition of da
Vinci) with his own style, Raphael reached the epitome of the classical spirit, thus, The School
of Athens is a masterpiece without question in the Stanza della Segnatura; Raphael became the
father of history painting - the highest in the hierarchy of genres.
Scuola di Atene is a painting which depicts branches of knowledge: philosophy, poetry,
music, theology and law. The title of Raphaels best-known fresco from 1511 refers to
Aristotles emphasis on wisdom, thus Aristotle and his teacher Plato appear right in the centre
with Plato holding a book in his left hand.
Just a third of this school are Athenians and the architecture contains many Roman elements;
Plato and Aristotle are pointing towards heaven and earth which reflects Timaeus - a bible of
mathematics, time and space by Plato and a copy of which is the book he is holding.
Remaining in Rome until the end of his life, Raffaello Sanzio da Urbinos work has since
been admired for its ease of composition, its clarity of form and how it achieved visually the
ideal of human grandeur. Raphaels premature death on Good Friday was possibly his 37th
birthday and after an extremely grand funeral, he was buried in the Pantheon.

Raphaels Artworks:

The Marriage of the Virgin

The Marriage of the Virgin is part of an
altarpiece created for a church at Citta di Castello,
Italy and shows the marriage of the Virgin Mary and
St. Joseph. The painting, an oil on panel, was
completed in 1504 and is an example of Raphaels
increasing maturity and confidence as an artist. His
colors here are vibrant, and the faces of his
characters are specific and full of calm. In this
painting, Raphael shows off his mastery of
perspective, for the painting is dominated by a
distinctly Italian Renaissance (as opposed to Roman
occupied Palestinian) round temple in the
background, in the frieze of which the painter has
cleverly painted his name and, below it, the date.
The front and back doors of this temple are open,
and through it the viewer can see a bit of the hazy,
sfumato painted background of hills and sky. The
temple sits on a cascade of steps that lead down to a
plaza with walkways that are picked out in a reddish
stone. People in Renaissance garb gather in small
groups, seemingly oblivious to the rather
momentous marriage thats happening in the
foreground.

St. Michael
St. Michael is an oil painting by Italian artist Raphael. Also called the Little St. Michael
to distinguish it from a larger, later treatment of the same theme, St. Michael Vanquishing
Satan, it is housed in the Louvre in Paris. The work depicts the Archangel Michael in combat
with the demons of Hell, while the damned
suffer behind him. Along with St. George, it
represents the first of Raphael's works on
martial subjects.
An early work of the artist, the
painting was executed for Guidobaldo da
Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, in 1504 or
1505 on the back of a draughtboard,
possibly
commissioned
to
express
appreciation to Louis XII of France for
conferring the Order of Saint Michael on
Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Urbino's
nephew and heir. Whatever the impetus for
its creation, by 1548 it hung in the collection
at the Palace of Fontainebleau.

Pope Julius II
Portrait of Pope Julius II is an
oil painting attributed to Italian
painter Raphael. This painting of
Pope Julius II, who was a popular
subject for Raphael and his students,
was unusual for its time and would
carry a long influence on papal
portraiture. From its beginning, it was
specially hung at the pillars of Santa
Maria del Popolo, at the gates to
Rome, for feast and high holy days.
For many years, a version of
the painting which now hangs in the
Uffizi Gallery was believed to be the
original, but in 1970 opinion shifted.
The original is currently believed to
be the version hanging in the National
Gallery, London.

Sistine Madonna
S
isti
ne Madonna, also called La Madonna di
San Sisto, is an oil painting by the Italian
artist Raphael. Finished a few years before
his death, ca. 15131514, as a commissioned
altarpiece, it was the last of the painter's
Madonnas and the last painting he completed
with his own hands. Relocated to Dresden
from 1754, the well-known painting has been
particularly influential in Germany. After
World War II, it was relocated to Moscow for
a decade before it was returned to Germany.
There, it resides as one of the central pieces
in the Gemldegalerie Alte Meister. The
painting has been highly praised by many
notable critics, and Giorgio Vasari called it a
"a truly rare and extraordinary work".In the
painting, the Madonna, holding the Christ
Child and flanked by Saint Sixtus and Saint
Barbara, stands on clouds before dozens of
obscured cherubs, while two distinctive
winged cherubs rest on their elbows beneath
her. The American travel guide Rick Steves
suggests that the unusual worried expression
on Mary's face reflects her original placement
beside a painting of the Crucifixion

The School of Athens

School of Athens, or Scuola di Atene in Italian, is one of the most famous frescoes by
the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1510 and 1511 as a part of
Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di
Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The Stanza della Segnatura was the first of the
rooms to be decorated, and The School of Athens the second painting to be finished there, after
La Disputa, on the opposite wall. The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and
the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the High Renaissance."

Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy, a small Italian village

near Arezzo, Tuscany. For several generations, his family had worked as bankers in Florence. His
father, Lodovico di Leonardo di Buonarroti di Simoni, also held occasional government positions. At
the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was serving as a Florentine government agent in Caprese
and his mother was in failing health. His parents decided to entrust the care of Michelangelo to the wife
of a stonecutter who lived in the town of Settignano where his father owned a marble quarry and a
small farm. Michelangelo's mother died when he was 6 years old.
From childhood Michelangelo was drawn to the arts. However, his father considered this pursuit
below the family's social status and tried to discourage him. Michelangelo's father recognized his
intellectual potential and enrolled him in the school of master linguist, Francesco Galeota, to prepare
young Michelangelo for a career in business. Michelangelo, however, showed no interest in his
schooling. He preferred to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of painters. Through
the course of his studies, Michelangelo met a student of painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most
fashionable painters in Florence.
In 1488, at age thirteen, Michelangelo followed his interest in the arts, and became an apprentice
in Domenico's workshop. Michelangelo's decision to defy his father and risk his family's social
standing in Florence created a distance between them that would haunt Michelangelo throughout his
life.
In 1489 Michelangelo left his apprenticeship after one year and excepted an invitation from
Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, a retired sculptor and ruler of Florence. There he studied
sculpture and anatomy at the school in the Medici gardens. During his studies, he was introduced to
important scientists, and poets. Though their radical ideas were often at odds with the artist's strong
religious beliefs, these men intrigued him. Their impact is evident even in his earliest works. His most
important works during this time include the Madonna of the Steps (1490-1492) and Battle of the
Centaurs (1491-1492).
Lorenzo de' Medici died in 1492, and the Medici family fell from power. As a
result,Michelangelo decided to return to Florence for a short time prior to moving to Rome. It was there
that he carved his Pieta, a sculpture of Mary supporting the crucified Christ across her knees.
In 1501 Michelangelo returned to Florence. Recognized, as the most talented sculptor of central Italy,
he was commissioned to carve the Biblical hero "David" for the Florence Cathedral. Seven years later
he received one of his most important commissions when Pope Julius II asked him to paint the 12,000
square foot ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564. He excelled in poetry, sculpture, painting, and
architecture, and his idealized and expressive works have encouraged many to regard him as one of the
greatest masters of European art.

Michelangelos
Artworks:
La Pieta
The Piet (1498
1499) is a masterpiece of
Renaissance sculpture by
Michelangelo
Buonarroti,
housed in St. Peter's Basilica in
Vatican City. It is the first of a
number of works of the same
theme by the artist. The statue
was commissioned for the
French cardinal Jean de
Billheres,
who
was
a
representative in Rome. The
sculpture, in Carrara marble,
was made for the cardinal's

funeral monument, but was

moved to its current location, the
first chapel on the right as one
enters the basilica, in the 18th
century. It is the only piece
Michelangelo ever signed.

The Creation of Adam

The Creation of Adam is arguably the most famous section of Michelangelo's fresco Sistine
Chapel ceiling painted circa 1512. It is traditionally thought to illustrate the Biblical creation narrative
from the Book of Genesis in which God breathes life into Adam, the first man. Chronologically the
fourth in the series of panels depicting episodes from Genesis on the Sistine ceiling, it was among the
last to be completed. It is the most well-known of the Sistine Chapel fresco panels, and its fame as a
piece of art is rivaled only by the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The image of the near-touching
hands of God and Adam has become one of the single most iconic images of humanity and has been
reproduced in countless imitations and parodies. Along with Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, The
Creation of Adam and the other Sistine Chapel panels are the most replicated religious paintings of all
time.

The Conversion
of Saul
This is the first of
two
large
frescoes
Michelangelo made in
Paul's Chapel (Cappella
Paolina) in the Vatican.
The other one shows The
Crucifixion of Peter. The
chapel was built as a
private chapel for pope
Paul III. The frescoes were
painted opposite each other
on the long walls of the
chapel.
Michelangelo
started working on this
fresco in 1542. The
depiction of the figures in
the sky shows strong
resemblance
to
his
previous project: The Last
Judgement in the Sistine
Chapel, which he finished
in 1541. The fresco shows
the moment that Saul, a
fanatical persecutor of
christians, is hit by a divine
beam of light, which leaves
him lying on the ground,
blinded. A voice tells him
to continue his journey to
Damascus.
There
a
christian called Ananias
makes him see again. Now named
Paul, he joins the apostles.

Last Judgement
The Last Judgment is a
canonical fresco by the Italian
Renaissance
master
Michelangelo
executed on the altar wall of the Sistine
Chapel in Vatican City. The work took
four years to complete and was done
between 1536 and 1541 (preparation of
the altar wall began in 1535.)
Michelangelo began working on it some
twenty years after having finished the
Sistine Chapel ceiling.
The work is massive and spans
the entire wall behind the altar of the
Sistine Chapel. It is a depiction of the
Second Coming of Christ and the final
and eternal judgment by God of all
humanity. The souls of humans rise and
descend to their fates, as judged by
Christ surrounded by prominent saints
including
Saints
Catherine
of
Alexandria,
Peter,
Lawrence,

Bartholomew, Paul, Peter Simon, Sebastian, John the Baptist, and others.

The Crucifixion of St. Peter

The Crucifixion of St. Peter is a fresco painting by the Italian Renaissance master
Michelangelo Buonarroti (c. 15461550). It is housed in the Cappella Paolina, Vatican Palace, in the
Vatican City, Rome. It is the last fresco executed by Michelangelo. The artist portrayed St. Peter in the
moment in which he was raised by the Roman soldiers to the cross. Michelangelo concentrated the
attention on the depiction of pain and suffering. The faces of the people present are contracted in a
horrified grim, and several of the observers seem going to die. Pope Paul commissioned this fresco by
Michelangelo in 1541 and unveiled it in his Cappella Paolina.
Restoration of the fresco completed in 2009 revealed an image believed to be a self-portrait of
Michelangelo himself. The figure is standing in the upper left corner of the figure, wearing a red tunic
and a blue turban. Blue turbans were often worn by Renaissance sculptors to keep the dust out of their
hair.