1000 Paintings of Genius. Victoria Charles
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cm, Musée Condé, Chantilly
Here is one of the artist’s finest portraits. Simonetta Vespucci is depicted as Cleopatra with the asp around her neck. The snake, also being a symbol of immortality, reinforces the strange atmosphere of this work.
147. Fra Filippo Lippi, c. 1406–1469, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Madonna and the Child Enthroned with Saint John the Baptist, Victor, Bernard and Zenobius (Altarpiece of the Otto di Pratica), 1486. Tempera on panel, 355 × 255 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
148. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, The Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1490. Tempera on panel, 378 × 258 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
149. Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1449–1494, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, An Old Man with his Grandson, 1488. Tempera on panel, 62 × 46 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
This is the first time that a character is portrayed with such realism showing clearly disfiguring details. This portrait conveys the deep affection between the man and the boy. The motif of the open window on a landscape in the background was borrowed from the Flemish Renaissance and brought to Italy in the mid-fifteenth century by artists such as Filippo Lippi.
150. Andrea Mantegna, 1431–1506, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, c. 1490. Tempera on canvas, 68 × 81 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
A nearly monochromatic vision of Jesus mourned by three figures was in Mantegna’s collection at the time of his death; this Dead Christ includes Saint John, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. His inventory of 1506 referred to a work fitting this description, presumably the very same picture, and it ended up in Gonzaga collections later in the century. This is a searing image of Christ laid out on his funeral slab, an intense vision of Christ’s suffering and death. The wounds in his hands are like torn paper, as is the spear gash in his side. Mantegna has played with the rules of perspective here, making the head large; it should be much smaller than the feet because the figure is strongly foreshortened. To make the work in proper perspective would have made the face of Christ too small to elicit strong empathy from the viewer. The monochromatic, golden-brown colouring helps to move this painting to another realm of passion and religious fervour. The viewers would sympathise with the sorrowful Mary, John, and Mary Magdalene who appear in truncated form on the left, pouring out their grief in open mourning.
151. Pietro Perugino, 1450–1523, High Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, St Sebastian, c. 1490–1500, Oil on wood, 176 × 116 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
152. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, The Last Supper, 1495–1498, Oil and tempera on stone, 460 × 880 cm, Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Refectori, Milan
The perfection of grouping achieved in The Last Supper would of itself be sufficient to mark an epoch in the annals of painting. Its ease and rhythm are sublime. The figures, placed on two planes in perspective, are further arranged in groups of three, with the exception of Christ, who, isolated in the centre, dominates the action. If we turn to expression and gesture, we must again do homage to the master’s extraordinary perception of dramatic effect. The Saviour has just uttered the fateful words: “One of you shall betray me,“ with sublime resignation. In a moment, as by an electric shock, he has excited the most diverse emotions among the disciples, according to the character of each. Sadly, Leonardo painted in oil and tempera on a dry wall, such a defective process that three-quarters of the work may be said to have been destroyed by the middle of the sixteenth century. The skill and the knowledge necessary in order not to destroy their balance, to vary the lines without detracting from their harmony, and finally to connect the various groups, were so tremendous that neither reasoning nor calculation could have solved a problem so intricate; but for a sort of divine inspiration, the most gifted artist would have failed.
153. Lorenzo di Credi, c.1458–1537, High Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Venus, c. 1493, Oil on canvas, 151 × 69 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
154. Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi), 1445–1510, Early Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints, c. 1490. Tempera on panel, 140 × 207 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
155. Giovanni Bellini, c. 1430–1516, Early Renaissance, Venetian School, Italian, Sacred Allegory, c. 1490, Oil on panel, 73 × 119 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
156. Hieronymus Bosch, c.1450–1516, Northern Renaissance, Dutch, The Ship of Fools, after 1491, Oil on panel, 58 × 33 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Hieronymus Bosch
(c.1450–1516 ‘s-Hertogenbosch)
Born in the middle of the century, Bosch experienced the drama of the highly charged Renaissance and its wars of religion. Medieval traditions and values were crumbling, paving the way to thrust humankind into a new universe where faith lost some of its power and much of its magic. His favourite allegories were hell, heaven and lust. He believed that everyone had to choose between one of two options: heaven or hell. Bosch brilliantly exploited the symbolism of a wide range of fruit and plants to lend sexual overtones to his themes.
157. Vittore Carpaccio, c.1465-c.1525, High Renaissance, Venetian School, Italian, The Dream of St Ursula, 1495. Tempera on canvas, 274 × 267 cm. Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice
Vittore Carpaccio
(c. 1465 Venice – c. 1525 Capodistria)
Carpaccio was a Venetian painter strongly influenced by Gentile Bellini. The distinguishing characteristics of his work are his taste for fantasy and anecdote and his eye for minutely-observed crowd details. After completing the cycles of Scenes from the Lives of St Ursula, St George and St Jerome, his career declined and he remained forgotten until the nineteenth century. He is now seen as one of the outstanding Venetian painters of his generation.
158. Hieronymus Bosch, c.1450–1516, Northern Renaissance, Dutch, Christ Mocked (The Crowning with Thorns), 1490–1500, Oil on oak panel, 73.8 × 59 cm, National Gallery, London
159. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, Lady with an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani), 1483–1490, Oil on panel, 54 × 39 cm, Czartoryski Museum, Cracow
Favourite portrait of the Duke of Milan, the Lady with an Ermine is part of a series of animated portraits painted by Leonardo in Milan: dynamism is given by the bust facing the left side of the panel and the head turned toward the right.
Leonardo da Vinci
(1452 Vinci – 1519 Le Clos-Lucé)
Leonardo’s early life was spent in Florence, his maturity in Milan, and the last three years of his life in France. Leonardo’s teacher was Verrocchio. First he was a goldsmith, then a painter and sculptor: as a painter, representative of the very scientific school of draughtsmanship; more famous as a sculptor, being the creator of the Colleoni statue at Venice, Leonardo was a man of striking physical attractiveness,