Figure 1.--This unnamed youth was painted by Lorenzo di Credi. The painting is variously dated at 1490. He looks striking modern. His long hair looks like the hair commonly worn by American and European boys in the 1970s. Note the entirely secular content of the portrait. One clear sign of the Renaisance is the immergence of art that was entirely sectular. This arrogant boy clearly has no indication of religios piety whatsoever. |
Italy during the Renaisance was the birth place of modern European art. We have not yet cross indexed tghem here, but plan to do so soon. Interestingly, however, is the rather limited number of modern art work I have been
able to find from Italy.
Anguissola is one of the few
know Renaissance women painters. Unlike most girls of her era, shev was encouraged by her unusually enlightened father. She was trained as a painter when most well-born young women of Renaissance Italy were expectedf to sit closed up in their palazzos and pursue needle work. Her accomplishments led to a life of drama and romance on a grand scale. She became a celebrated portrait painter at the court of Spanish King Philip II. She lived to a hearty old age, an became an international celebrity who was praised by no less an artist than Michelangelo and lauded by artists throughout Europe.
Italian genre and portrait painter. He was born in Ferrara and educated at the Academy of Florence. He achieved success at a young age painting portraits in London, but he moved to Paris in 1872. He was a good friend of the American painter Whistler.
Sandro Botticelli is one of the leading artists of the Italian Renaissance. His painting the "Birth of Venus" is considered one of the masterpices of the Floretinr Renaissance. He was born as Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in Florence. He was the son of a tanner, a very low status trade. Botticello meaning "little barrel" was a nickname, but the name that he is widely known for today. Sandro was first appreticed to a goldsmith and later to the painter Fra Filippo Lippi. He also worked with the engraver Antonio del Pollaiuolo. He painted both Biblical and classical scenes as well as the increasingly popular portrait. Interestingly in sharp contrast to his his equisite lines and reaistic depictions, Botticelli clothed his subjects in contemporary Italian Renaissance clothing.
Lorenzo di Credi was a Florantine painter of the Florentine school. A gifted, but unspectacular Renaissance style. He painted many nativity scenes or other scenes with the Madonna and Child as well as other religious works. More interesting were his deeply personal portraits, including some children showing hair styles and fashions. A long-haired youth painted in 1490 could have come out of any American junior high school in the 1970s. His early work are considered to be somewhat similar to Leonardo's youthful style. He reportedly came to regret doing these secular portraits for which he was undoubtedly well paid. The artist in his later years attemopted to destroy all of his secular paintings which are the ones of greatest interest to HBC.
Lavinia Fontana is the most noted and prolific woman artist of the Renaissance. Lavinia was born in Bologna, a city that was
noted for encouraging the academic and artistic abilities of women--unusual at the time. Women were educated at the University of Bologna when they were not
allowed at other European universities. Bolognese painters chose Caterina dei Vigri (Saint Catherine of Bologna). Fontana is not only the most important woman artist of the Renaissance. She is believed to be the first woman painter known to history to hve had a successful career. As so often is the case in such instances, her father was a paiter. When he died. Fontana supported the family with her poainting. She painted in many genre, but among her religious and secular works showing the clothes worn by the children of Bologna. Many but not all are portraits of the children of wealthy families.
Giotto is very important artist, in part because he played a major role in revolutionizing Western art at the onset of the Renaissance. Before Giotto, Italian art art was flat and strongly influenced by Byzantine forms. Giotto brought realism and individuality to his painting. The people in his paintings are depicted in the long robes worn in medieval Europe for centuries. We noyice few children in his paintings that we can use to illustrate how children dressed at the time.
Andrea Mantegna was a noted Italian painter and engraver of the High Renaisance. Mantegna was noted for his depictions of heroic figures. He is especially known for his foreshortening technique to give dramatic perspective in wall paintings that were viewed from below. He was adopted by an art teacher, but broke with him at age 17 to open his own work shop. His career is associated with the Gonzaga family in Mantua where he worked as court painter. Some of his work provides fascinating glimses of Renaissance court life.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was one of the greatest artists of all time. He had an enormous influence on the art of the Renaissance. Incredibly he felt it was not painting that was his calling, but sculpture. As a result the number of his paintings are limited, but there are numerous drawings, each a masterpiece in their own right. We note one that is a dazzling image of a Florentine boy.
Giovanni Battista Moroni is noted for his numerous children's portraits. The children were often depicted with their father.
Bernardino de Betti is better known as Pinturicchio. He was born in Perugia in 1454 at the heigth of the Italian Renaissance. He was an assistant to Pergino and assisted with the frescos in the Sistine Chappel. He worked for 8 years (1484-92) on the frescos in chapels of the Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. He also painted the walls of what is now the Vatican library. For our purposes here, Pinturicchio's work is notable for the Renaissance fashions that appear in many of his paintings.
Rffaele Monti (Rafael) is one of the great figures of the Italian Renaissance. He was contemprary with Micaelangelo but his much shorter life span limited his artistic career. Both stand as towering figures of the High Renaissance. Rafael was not an innovative artist, but he perfected the innovations made by other more creative spirits. Rafael was a master draftsman to which he was able to add keen psychological insight. Much of his work was religious in nature, but include a number of masterful portraits. We have not yet found, however, images of children which we can use to learn about contemprary fashions.
Titian (Tiziano Vecelliois) is of course one of the great masters, the greatest painter of the Venetian school. Titian's influence on later artists has been profound: he was supreme in virtualy every aspect of painting and fundamentally changed painting with oils technique with his free and expressive brushwork. He worked on a wide range of subjects, but it his wonderfully expressive portraits that offer important information to HBC. He painted portraits for nearly 60 years provising a wonderful record of 16th century scociety. Nearly 100 portraits are known. They include the most poweful figures of the day. Others indvividuals are unknown.
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