Sculpture – Early/High Renaissance Art

Donatello. Combination of classical and Christian iconography

Donatello.

Donatello. Probably Habbakuk.

Donatello. Marble

Donatello. First life size sculpture in Western Europe to be seen in the round since antiquity.

Donatello. First larger than life size equestrian sculpture since antiquity

Donatello. Carved from wood

Age of individual genius
Artists as genius emerges
Patronage shifting from guilds to wealthy citizens to church
Growing interest of antiquity

Man became measure of all things
Idealized images of the male and female, often nudes
Portraiture rediscovered
Human figure sculpted in the round.

Michelangelo. Thought to be a self portrait of himself young. Prefigures technique of David.

Michelangelo. First important commissioned work in Rome.
Symbolic (lion skin – symbol of death, bunch of grapes – symbol of life, small figure is a satyr, Bacchus is the essence of unregenerate soul trapped in

Michelangelo. First major religious commission. Housed in St. Peter’s in Rome. Unusual for its high degree of finish. Only work the artists ever signed.

Michelangelo. Commissioned by the Board of Works. First free standing colossal sculpture since antiquity. Originally intended for the facade of the cathedral.

Michelangelo. Christ is visibly dead
There is none of the elegant classicism of the St. Peter’s Pieta
The virgin is overcome by grief, without the strength to support the body of her son. Represents Nicodemus.

Michelangelo. His last work, left unfinished. Skeletal, attenuated forms, expressing a deepening faith, his loneliness and profound disillusionment with forms of physical beauty.