Three High Renaissance Masters (Italy, 16th century)

Courtesy: Marian Brandt, unsplash

The period in art history known as the High renaissance is a peak, unrivaled by other periods before it. It was at this time that classical antiquity's spirit awakened from its slumber, and became expressed anew in the hands of new masters. These virtuosos did not only surpassed middle age's gothic traditions, they also carved new paths and rose art to new heights, mapping out what's possible for artists of later generations.

Perhaps, the single greatest achievement of these masters is their triumph in reconciling realism with design. Medieval artists faced the challenge of creating artworks that are either ideal in form, but deprived of aliveness, or artworks that are a loyal portraiture of nature but lacks an order to bind them. It took human genius to solve these dilemmas, and the renaissance masters have just that. When it was their turn, art was ripe for the picking. Art would transcend its limitations and the expression of beauty and reality, at the same time, became possible. 

High renaissance peaked on these three masters: Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

* * *

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in 1452, in the Italian region of Tuscany. As a child, Leonardo showed glimpses of what he would become through his sketches of nature. He would often wander in meadows and forests, observing life in its various forms, and capturing it in his sketchbooks. 

At age 14, he apprenticed under a Florentine master, Andrea Del Verrocchio. In Verrocchio's workshop, he learned many things: sculpting, painting, smithing, drafting, and the theories that would serve as foundations for his life's work.

Courtesy: leonardodavinci.net

His consummate curiosity made him a man ahead of his time. He would not settle with what he read or heard from other people without confirming it for himself. He was a scientist as much as an artist. This predilection made him an inventor of many things: weapons of war, prototype flight machines, and models of human body. He saw art and science as keys that can uncover the mysteries of life; they were his guide in his ceaseless probes on the origins of being.

His artistic achievements culminate in two of his famous paintings. The last supper, made when he was 46 years of age, was a painting that spurred innovation. It is one of the first artworks that was able to reconcile the 15th century art dilemma of realism and form.

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

The scene portrays the moment when Jesus announced to his apostles that one of them will betray him. There is a gush of emotion, differences in reactions, and above all chaos in the apostles. This disorder however is perfectly contained by Christ's calm demeanor in the center. It's what made the painting balanced, fluid, and rich that if we look at it every detail feels like a part of a larger whole. Arrangements like grouping the apostles in groups of threes and the perspective of the room felt natural and unforced. The earthly colors used too are in symmetrical balance.

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

Mona Lisa, his most known work, is another triumph. People in Leonardo's time could have hardly guessed what trickery is behind this portrait that seemed to have a life of its own. The secret is Leonardo's invention called Sfumato, a painting technique that obscures color tones and lines. What this produced is a vision of haze, especially in Mona Lisa's expression that leaves us guessing if there's sadness or mockery in her smile. This was a breakthrough for painting at the time, and it's a testament to Leonardo's genius, skill, and depth of knowledge. 

Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of the High Renaissance, was an artist of unparalleled deftness. He was born in 1475 in Florence and trained under Domenico Ghirlandaio. Both of them share an inclination to classical spirit. Young Michelangelo was exposed to Greek and Roman techniques under Ghirlandaio's tutelage. As genius dictates, Michelangelo was not content even with this rich apprenticeship. He was not satisfied with mimicry. He studied beyond classical statues and observed the human body itself. At age 30, he was considered a master, capable of rendering human physique in all its beauty, twists, and turns. 

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

This mastery was a frequent request of the Catholic church to carry commissions. His most frequent suitor, Pope Julius II, allowed him means that few artist of Michelangelo's time could hope to have. The church's orders were many, among them Pope Julius II's tomb that was never completed. Statues that was intended to be put on this tomb carry with them a grandeur that makes one wonder what it could have been. One of them is a sculpture called The dying slave.

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

It represents a moment of release. A moment where death claims a mortal body, expressed in a form of catharsis. This putting of grace in statues is the reason why Michelangelo was revered then, and revered now. Even death once Michelangelo expressed it, became a beautiful truth worthy of appreciation. 

In the year 1508, he started work on another papal commission. Pope Julius II wanted Michelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel's ceiling. Hesitant because he considers himself a sculptor, he accepted on grounds of propriety. He worked in solitude for four years, pouring on it artistic skills the world has never seen.

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

When it was completed in 1512, visions of the doctrine that enveloped man's mind for millennia was put into majestic display. The most famous one of them being The creation of man, depicting the moment God breathed life into Adam. Michelangelo's mastery of human anatomy was evident on all figures in the frescoes. It was truly the pinnacle of classical art, something that only an artist of Michelangelo's divine genius could put into being.

It was a turn of fate that another master of equal genius was born in the same time as Leonardo and Michelangelo. The third renaissance master, Raphael, was born in the city of Urbino. He apprenticed under the Umbrian master, Perugino. Under the Umbrian School, occupied with the use of light, perspective, and geometric composition, Raphael would learn the elements that would ascend his art to great finesse years later. 

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

His training culminated in early works such as the beautiful Madonna Del Granduca. A finest example of Raphael's immaculate ability to instill life-and grace-to his artworks. This touch was unheard of in Raphael's time, the rendering of the Madonna during the middle ages that are often stale and rigid, pale in comparison to this Renaissance creation. 

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

Raphael differed to his predecessors as it was an ideal beauty that he wanted to put in his canvas, not the predilection to regard things as nature dictates. It is only history that can judge the truth of this philosophy. His art however speaks without hints of prevarication. He painted the truth of the Madonna as he saw it and it was beautiful, as befitting the virgin mother and young messiah in her cradle. 

Raphael was also among the first artists to depict movement in the visual arts with ease and rhythm. This was another attribute that artists of the 15th century longed to achieved. In his The triumph of Galatea, a fresco Raphael made for a wealthy patron's villa, all the solutions to the dilemma of movement was laid bare. The keys were composition and poise. 

Courtesy: Wikimedia commons

The fresco is a scene from Greek mythology when the nymph Galatea heard a song from his lover, Polyphemus, while travelling the sea. A close observation of the picture reveals careful order within chaos. The angels, both above and below, serve as playful frames; their arrows guides beholders to the painting's point of attention that is Galatea in the center. The characters in the sides in their commotion, counter-balances the graceful nymph as she turns and hovers the sea effortlessly. What all these resulted is contained motion, a sophisticated arrangement of forms that combined movement with sincerity and elegance. 

* * *

All of these achievements are testaments to human creativity. Such is the magnitude done by these High Renaissance artists that they remain unsurpassed to this day. Like what their mentors did, they now serve for us as masters, guiding our course as we continue our conquest of beauty and truth through art.

Study notes: The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich