colour schemes to unify his pictures.And it was in this sphere that Giorgione achieved the most revolutionary results and influenced his generation and generations to follow.In painting he stressed the contemporaries,notably Titian. expression of emotional states,which,to him were,the heart of His paintings are few,but his influence was great. painting: Major Works: "A good painter has two chief objects-to paint man and the Tempesta,it may be a scene from some classical writer or an intention of his soul.The former is easy,the latter hard,for it must imitator of the classics.The landscape is beautiful and the atmosphere be'expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs...A is calm and pastoral. painting will only be wonderful for the beholder by making that which is not so raised and detached from the wall." Sleeping Venus,a picture of ideal female beauty. (Anthony Blunt:Artist Theory in Italy,1450-1600)Major b.High Renaissance Artists Works: Last Supper,many European art masters have painted on the 1.Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) same subject.But none of their versions has been as impressive as Da Leonardo da Vinci was a painter,a sculptor,an architect,a Vinci's.And none has the enduring value in the art world as his. musician,an engineer,and a scientist.He was a man of many The fresco that Da Vinci did was highly dramatic in presentation talents,a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word. and highly rhythmical in composition.Its effective use of contrast Leonardo was born at a small town near Florence,where he was between light and darkness not only contributes much to the apprenticed to a painter.But he soon surpassed his masters in uniting characterization but helps to give prominence to the theme of good versus evil. precision of line with rhythm of movement,and in finding new ways to show light and shade. Mona Lisa,if Last Supper is the most famous of religious Although Leonardo is generally known as a painter,his actual pictures,then Mona Lisa probably is the world's most famous portrait. output was very small.In fact today only about twelve paintings are looked upon as having been done by him.This is because of his Mona Lisa had as its model wife of a banker.The quietly folded diverse interest,his far-ranging curiosity in nature and his endless hands,the gaze that is directed at the observer,the ambiguity of the scientific experiments and designings.To understand the man one "smile"together help to create a curious effect and a secret effect. has therefore,to read the 5 000 notebooks in which he put down his ii.Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) observations in life and his sketch drawings. Nevertheless,Leonardo had profound understandings of art, Michelangelo was Italian sculptor,painter,architect and poet. which exerted great influence among the painters of his own He was a towering figure of the Renaissance.His drawings were 138 influenced by Giotto and his sculpture showed the influence of 139
Donatello.As a 16th century artist he was forced to depend on the JuliusⅡ. Moses,it was a superhumen figure carved for the tomb of Julius favour of great patrons and had to work on projects against his own will and against his own interests.In fact he felt that the patrons II,which would have been Michelangelo's greatest masterpiece if it were the hindrance of his success. had been carried out as planned. Michelangelo created a style of art in which he freed himself from the old tradition of decoration on the one hand and documentary .iii.Raphael (Raffaello Sancio,1483-1520) Raphael was one of the major painters during the Renaissance. realism on the other.Art was to him the means by which he There is in his work the exquisite harmony and balance of the High expressed his vision of man,man's beauty,man's nobility,his own Renaissance. anguish and his own energy,a means by which he made inquiry into the reality. Raphael had neither the immense range of knowledge of Major Works: Leonard,nor the power of Michelangelo.While these two geniuses were difficult to get on with Raphael was of a sweetness of temper. David,a sculpture,it was commissioned when the artist was only twenty-six years old.It was the result of his studies in Rome of Raphael was best known for his Madonna(Virgin Mary).He ancient sculpture,but it could never be taken for an ancient statue. painted his Madonnas in different postures,against different backgrounds.Among them were Madonna del Granducd, Apart from the muscular body and tense emotion,there is the Mondonna with the Fish,The Sistine Madonna,Madonna of the combination of outer calm and inner tension. Chair,Madonna on the Lawn.Because of his Madonnas with sweet Sistine Chapel,Michelangelo was in the middle of doing a sculpture when he was interrupted and half-being forced and cajoled expressions,he came to be known as the elegant Raphael. into doing a fresco on the ceiling of the chapel.It was so called One of the famous paintings beside the Madonnas is School of because it was the chapel in the Vatican which had been built by Pope Athens,a painting depicting two leaders of philosophy,Plato and Sixtus IV.For four years,Michelangelo worked on a 30-feet high Aristotle engaged in argument and surrounded by their audience who scaffolding in the Sistine Chapel,lying on his back and looking had a great variety of attitudes. In his short life of thirty-seven years,his achievements were upwards,to cover the whole ceiling and vault of the building with nine scenes from the First Book of the Bible,the Genesis. great,ranging from paintings to designing of buildings,from portrait painting to mural painting. The frescoes show the stupendous mastery of the artist and it is the evidence of the anguish of a man who was prevented to do what he preferred and forced to do what was commissioned,and proved iv.Titian (about 1488-1576) A Venetian painter.Titian was the most prolific of the great that he could do well. Venetian painters of the western world,a supreme colorist,and in a Dying Slave,a marble statue destined for the tomb of Pope 141 140
broad sense,the father of the modern mode of painting.His painting da Vinci. is acknowledged to have established oil colour on canvas as the typical One after another the cradles of Italian Renaissance,Florence, medium of the pictorial tradition in western art. Venice,Naples,Milan were pillaged and devastated in the Italian Major Works: Wars,in which Spain,France and England fought for the control of The Venus of Urbino,an official version for paintings of its resources.The wars,lasting for 60 years which ended with the popular theme:the reclining nude. Spanish supremacy was to leave Italy under foreign control for more Sacred and Profane Love,an oil painting with figures firmly than three centuries thereafter. drawn and boldly and brilliantly colored. Madonna of the Pesaro Family,this is the great work which established the reputation and personal style of Titian. Man with the Glove,a proof that Titian was not only a prolific IlI.Reformation and Counter-Reformation painter of mythological and religious subjects but also highly skilled portrait painter. The Reformation was a 16th century religious movement as well as a socio-political movement.It began as Martin Luther posted on 5.Decline of the Italian Renaissance the door of the castle church at the University of Wittenberg his 95 The feuds of families,the conflicts of classes and the rivalry theses,inviting to debating on matters of practice and doctrine in the between the city-states kept the economic structure of Italy in the Church in 1517.This movement which swept over the whole of traditional local order,making it impossible for Italy to compete with Europe was aimed at opposing the absolute authority of the Roman the countries in Northern Europe that were uniting themselves and Catholic Church and replacing it with the absolute authority of the expanding their economy. Bible.The reformers,priests,humanists and others denied that the In world trade Italy had lost its supremacy because of the church authorities and priests were the only authority in the discovery of America in 1492 and therounding of the Cape of Good interpretation of the Bible and believed in direct communication Hope in 1488,the opening of an all-water route to India which between the individual and God.To enable this direct provided a cheaper means of transport. communication,the reformists engaged themselves in translating the The Protestant reformation forced the Roman Catholic Church to tighten its control over thought,speech and publication. Bible into their mother tongues.The demands of the reformists also included that of simplifying rituals,abolishing heavy taxes levied on Consequently,the joyous spirit that was once prevalent among the their countrymen and abolishing the indulgences,the centuries-old intellectuals had given place to a spirit of pessimism.No longer could Italy produce literary and artistic giants like Dante and Leonardo practice of paying money to replace the performance of the deed of penance. 142 143
The interests of the reformists covered a wide range,from to be burnt at stake.This triggered off the Hus War of the Czech wishing to see institutional reform of the Church,to making the people for national liberation. Bible accessible to the common folks,to liberating national economy and politics from the interference of the Roman Catholic Church and 2.Martin Luther (1483-1546)and His Doctrines carrying out wars in the interests of the peasants and revolution in the Martin Luther was the German leader of the Protestant interests of the bourgeoisie. Reformation.His doctrine marked the first break in the unity of the Catholic Church 1.Pre-Luther Religious Reformers a.Beginning of the Reformation a.John Wycliffe (about 1330-1384) Martin Luther was a priest,a vicar and a professor of theology. Chief forerunner of Reformation,John Wyclif was a Yorkshire His experiences in church matters and his study of the Scriptures led man by birth.He taught theology and philosophy at Oxford.He him to post on the door of the castle church at the University of made many vigorous attacks in both Latin and English on orthodox Wittenberg his 95 theses,making open protests against the church doctrines.For that and for his anti-clerical associations and indulgences that had been in practice for centuries.He quoted the activities,he was condemned as a heretic first time in 1380 and Scripture in support of his belief that men are redeemed by faith and second time in 1382.He died in retirement in 1384. not by the purchase of indulgences.This won sympathy among the John Wyclif believed that Christ is man's only overlord and that exploited peasantry who had to yield a good part of their fruits of salvation depends upon predestination and grace rather than on labour to the Church,as well as among the civil authorities who were membership of a visible church.He spread the doctrine that the Bible forced to see their funds drained to the Roman Catholic Church for is the supreme authority and insisted that all men have access to the their worldly pleasures. Scriptures in the vernacular.To practise what he preached,he took That was the beginning of the Reformation,and as it up the translation of the Bible into English for the first time. developed,it went beyond the institutional reform of the church and became one of the mainstreams for the liberation of national politics b.Jan Hus(1372-1415) from the Roman interference and for the liberation of economic A Bohemian Czech religious leader,Jan Hus was a theologian domination by the Roman Catholic Church. and preacher dedicated to preaching in Czech language.In his sermons he attacked the abuses of the Church.He was imprisoned b.Translation of the Bible and exiled for his reformist ideas and patriotic activities.His writings One of the doctrines of Martin Luther was that the Bible was the were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church who sentenced him supreme authority and man was only bound to the law of the word of 144 145
God,not the word of the clergy. German language "The individual",Luther believed,is as alone before the 3.John Calvin (1509-1564)and Calvinism almighty as a man facing the evening sky-nothing can stand John Calvin was a French theologian who became increasingly between him and God.Martin said flatly,"The Christian man interested in the rebellion against the conservative theology and the must examine and judge for himself." movement of reformation of the Church.He put his theological thoughts in his Institutes of the Christian Religion,which was Before the Reformation,very few people in Europe read the considered one of the most influential theological works of all times. Bible.Martin Luther,with his translation of the New Testament Calvin rejected the papal authorities and devoted himself to the and later,the whole Bible into the vernacular made the Bible work of reformation in Geneva,where he set himself the task of accessible to every man,to the average church goer.Because of that constructing a government based on the subordination of the state to Martin could claim that the average man was better educated than the church,a type of government which later came to be known as many priests had formerly been and with that the control Pope had on the Presbyterian government.Calvin's influence was widespread, the German mind could never be restored. particularly in England and Scotland,and the Netherlands Calvinism stressed the absolute authority of the God's will, c.Gospel of Love and Ideas of Equality holding that only those specially elected by God are saved.Its belief Direct communication with God meant that the absolute control was that any form of sinfulness was a likely sign of damnation of the Catholic Church over the minds of the people was now losing whereas ceaseless work could be a sign of salvation.This belief serves ground.As Martin Luther declared that all believers were priests,so so well to help the rising bourgeoisie on its path that many historians he preached that all occupations were holy,from the blacksmith at have suggested that Calvinism was one of the main courses of the his forge to the potter at his wheel.In spite of his democratic ideas, capitalist spirit. however,Martin Luther stoutly opposed the peasants'war(1524- 1525)in Germany,a revolt his own spirit helped to foster.In the 4.Reformation in England history of Germany,Martin Luther was more than a religious leader, By the middle of the sixteenth century,all northern Europe was he was a fighter for democracy and nationalism,a humanist who aroused in the Protestant Revolt.The ideas of Martin Luther and helped to build a competent educational system and a writer Calvin had spread to as far as the Scandinavian kingdoms.And whose forceful language helped fix the standards of the modern through John Knox,a priest and a follower of Calvin,protestantism was established in Scotland,and was generally known as Scottish D Great Ages of Man:-Reformation Presbyterianism. 146 147