The first institution to get back on its feet was the Church, the Catholic church as we now call it, though that term was not used at the time because there was only one Christian religion. Through regular donations by church members, the Church was able to accumulate wealth. The principal use for the wealth was to build churches, and it was a point of pride among the clergy and the worshippers to have as beautiful a church as they could afford. Thus the old tradition of painting on walls was applied to the walls of churches. The earliest separate panel paintings were special works to be placed on altars as part of the worship ritual. Naturally, churches wanted paintings of religious subjects, and certain scenes representing religious stories formed a standard repertory: every church needed its Nativity scene and its crucifixion.
At first the artists who worked on church decoration were anonymous craftsmen, as they had always been. By the 1200s city-states were gaining power and enterprises were becoming wealthy through maritime trade, and leaders began to use their wealth to commission art.
1200s
One of the first artists to be widely known by name was Cimabue, who lived in the 1200s. The Louvre has one of his most famous paintings, a very tall altarpiece known as Maesta, or Madonna and Child in Majesty. The Madonna and Jesus surrounded by angels was already a standard subject, and he used the sort of flattened design and extensive gold leaf that artists had been using for centuries. However, his figures are more rounded and natural looking and there is more depth than in standard decoration of the time; he is famous as a fore-runner of the Renaissance period, when full naturalism had been mastered.
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| Cimabue, 1240-1302 The Madonna and Child in Majesty Surrounded by Angels, c. 1280 |
1300s
Altarpieces were the major form of art. Most were fairly large because they were intended to be seen from afar on the altars of churches; some were small because they were intended for home use. Here are a couple of typical examples. Altarpieces were intended to recall well-known stories in a schematic way, rather than trying to capture any part of real life. These are small ones that were displayed in a glass cabinet. The panels are shaped to complement the design. Both Daddi and Veneziano are significant to art history.
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| Bernardo Daddi, 1312-1348 Virgin and Child Surround by 20 Angels and 4 Saints, c. 1338 |
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| Paolo Veneziano, active 1333-1358 Virgin and Child with Saints, 1354 |
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| Pietro da Rimini, 1280 Deposition from the Cross, c. 1330 |
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| Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni), 1392-1450 The Blessed Ranieri Frees the Poor from a Prison in Florence, c. 1440 |
1400s—The Renaissance
The Renaissance style of painting got started around 1400. In the early Renaissance, the big names were Fra Angelico, Andrea Mantegna, Botticelli, and Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Despite the fact that he was a friar in a holy order, Fra Angelico was considered an innovator in his time, and he had a great deal of influence in setting the painting style for the Renaissance. This very large example is from early in his career, and has an old-fashioned look, but notice that these amassed saints and angels are actually quite a lot more natural than those of Veneziano or Daddi, and a certain amount of receding space has been defined for them. Along the bottom is a predella.
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| Fra Angelico, 1417-1455 The Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1432 |
Andrea Mantegna had full command of spatial perspective and human anatomy, as shown in this scene of Christ and two thieves being crucified, a scene known as the Calvary. The contrast is stark between the weeping women and the Roman soldiers gambling.
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| Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506 The Crucifixion, 1456-1459 |
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| Sandro Botticelli, 1445-1510 Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1480 |
Domenico Ghirlandaio excelled in painting frescoes directly on the walls of churches, and he painted relatively few panel paintings that museums could collect. He was the leader of a large workshop where many artists trained, including Michelangelo. This example shows the Virgin Mary greeting her relative Elizabeth, who, despite her advanced age, is pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary went to visit Elizabeth in another town right after the Annunciation. Even though Christ was unborn, Elizabeth was aware of his divine presence. When you gaze on the glorious color of Elizabeth's garment, the graceful figures of the women who accompany them, and the perfect arch framing the city beyond, the story hardly matters.
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| Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1449-1494 The Visitation, 1491 |
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| Pietro Perugino, c. 1450-1523 The Virgin and Child With Angels and Saints Rose and Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1495 |
The princes of the High Renaissance are Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.
Leonardo da Vinci could do anything. Besides being one of the greatest painters of all time, he was a scientist and inventor, and he sold his skills as a military engineer as well. It seems likely that painting well was a little too easy for him, and his genius constantly sought new challenges. Thus he didn't actually complete a large body of work, but each piece seems to be the pinnacle of its type.
Of course, the Mona Lisa is his most famous painting and the most famous painting at the Louvre. However, only the most assertive photographers can bust their way through the hoard of tourists taking selfies with this iconic image, and that does not include me. Since I can't tell the story without mentioning this work, here's an internet grab.
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| Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 Mona Lisa, c. 1506 Internet grab |
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| Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 La Belle Ferronnière, c. 1496 |
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| Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, c. 1503 |
Raphael only lived 37 years, but his output was prodigious and his growth as an artist was amazing. Here's an early work that is a very traditional and literal interpretation of an old story.
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| Raphael, 1483-1520 Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1504 |
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| Raphael, 1483-1520 St. Michael Vanquishing Satan, 1518 |
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| Raphael, 1483-1520 La Belle Jardinière, c. 1507 |
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| Raphael, 1483-1520 Madonna with the Blue Diadem, c. 1512 |
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| Raphael, 1483-1520 Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, c. 1515 |
The death of Raphael in 1520 is considered the end of the Renaissance. It's as though he and da Vinci totally realized the Renaissance aesthetic, and when they were gone, art was forced to change. Painting styles became more self-conscious, figures were elongated into attractive but unrealistic curves, emotional qualities were dramatized; in all, you might say it seems mannered, and this style is referred to Mannerism. Two of the most important Mannerist painters were Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari.
This painting by Bronzino is a perfect example of Mannerism, and it is one of my favorites. Noli me tangere, meaning "touch me not" are the words Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene when she recognized him after his resurrection. The way Jesus pulls back perfectly expresses that "don't touch me" feeling. Magdalene's exaggerated posture perfectly expresses yearning. Compositional tension is characteristic of Mannerism. Jesus doesn't want Mary to try to touch him because, essentially, he's a ghost, a spirit, a vision. He appeared to a few people on earth before making his final ascent to Heaven.
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| Agnolo Bronzino, 1503-1572 Noli me tangere, 1561 |
Vasari was thoroughly imbued with the art of the Renaissance, having written about the masters of the previous generation in his book Lives of the Artists. This book is considered the foundation of the study of art history. His painting style had less flourish than Bronzino's, but the longer you look at the painting below the more innovative it seems. The Annunciation is a standard subject, but this one is reversed; the angel Gabriel is generally shown on the left, but appears on the right in this version. Usually there is some sense of separation between the human and the immortal, and the angel looks rather grand with wings in rainbow hues, but in this painting Gabriel is the same size as Mary and occupies the same space; the two could be girlfriends having a chat. The angel does have a nice cloud to float on and its wings match its costume perfectly.
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| Giorgio Vasari, 1512-1574 The Annunciation, c. 1567 |
1500s—The Venetian School
Most of the Italian artists covered so far were centered in Florence or Rome. Venice was like another country, with its own leaders, its own economy, and its own artists. Major artists of the Venetian school included Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. Although the Venetian school is always associated with rich coloration, the painters were so different that the main thing they shared was location and patronage.
Titian was the dominant force in Venetian art for a half century in the 1500s. His output was vast and varied. The Louvre showed only a few examples. This next work, in a rather grainy iPad photo, has a relaxed and intimate quality. Mary is showing Jesus a bunny; Jesus, a very realistic infant, seems eager to play with it. Joseph, who is typically treated as a sort of by-stander, is petting a lamb in the background, perhaps thinking about rabbit stew. The other woman is an unexplained bonus, just a pretty figure to round out the scene.
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| Titian, 1490-1576 The Madonna of the Rabbit, c. 1530 |
Tintoretto had a penchant for large scenes on broad canvases. He strained to find a subject big enough to meet his vaulting ambition. For awhile he was preoccupied with trying to paint Heaven and all its occupants, and I have seen several works on this theme. Taking painting to the maximum! In this one, the reason all these beings have gathered is to observe the Coronation of the Virgin Mary by Jesus.
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| Tintoretto, 1518-1594 The Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1580 |
Veronese had a rich and colorful style that I find especially appealing. He, too, was given to extravagance of expression. The painting below, for instance, depicts a standard story of Jesus having supper with a couple of travelers that he meets on the road after his resurrection; each of them holds a staff. Usually this scene has only one or two other characters, who are waiting table. But that was way too simple for Veronese. He had to have a bunch of extra characters, including a pretty lady and a bunch of kids. Oh yes, and what painting is complete without a nice bit of architecture and a little scenery.
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| Veronese, 1528-1588 Supper at Emmaus, c. 1559 |
1600s—The Baroque Period
Baroque art is characterized by great drama, rich, deep colour, and intense light and dark shadows. In Italy, the period was dominated by Caravaggio and Guido Reni.
It's almost impossible to mention Caravaggio without mentioning his wild and crazy life. His work was popular with patrons and he could have been successful, but he was quarrelsome and violent, and engaged in all sorts of self-destructive behavior, finally resulting in death at the age of 38. His personality seems to show up in his edgy realism, his dramatic subjects and his high-contrast lighting. Other painters were captivated by his work, and his influence was profound and wide-spread. The Louvre has one of his best works.
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| Caravaggio, 1571-1610 The Fortune Teller, 1597 |
Guido Reni was very prolific and very popular in his time, and the Louvre has several of his canvases. He was a contemporary of Caravaggio, but you could say his aesthetic was the opposite. Where Caravaggio was dark and edgy, Reni was bright, balanced and harmonious. While Caravaggio's characters look real, Reni's are idealized. He painted both religious and mythological scenes.
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| Guido Reni, 1575-1642 The Annunciation, c. 1629 |
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| Guido Reni, 1575-1642 Abduction of Helen, c. 1629 |
Giovanni Paolo Pannini, one of my favorite painters, liked to depict buildings, both exteriors and interiors; figures are present merely to show the building's purpose and size. He specialized in Roman ruins, and in this one he clumps a bunch of these together, without regard to actual location, and throws in a pyramid and an obelisk from Egypt to boot.
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| Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1691-1765 Architectural Caprice with a Preacher in Roman Ruins, c. 1750 |
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| Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1691-1765 Gallery of Views of Modern Rome, 1758 |
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| Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1691-1765 Musical Fête, 1747 |
Conclusion
You can trace the history of Italian art from the altarpieces of the 1300s to the architectural depictions of the 1700s at the Louvre. It's a good story.
