1000 Drawings of Genius. Victoria Charles
Family with St John the Baptist, Zacharias, and Elizabeth in a Landscape, 1507–1508. Pen and ink on paper, 35.3 × 23.4 cm. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille. High Renaissance.
163. Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475–1564, Italian, Study for the Head of an Old Man, c. 1509. Black chalk, 43.2 × 28 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
(Caprese, 1475 – Rome, 1564)
Michelangelo, like Leonardo, was a man of many talents; sculptor, architect, painter and poet, he made the apotheosis of muscular movement, which to him was the physical manifestation of passion. He moulded his draughtsmanship, bent it, twisted it, and stretched it to the extreme limits of possibility. There are not any landscapes in Michelangelo’s painting. All the emotions, all the passions, all the thoughts of humanity were personified in his eyes in the naked bodies of men and women. He rarely conceived his human forms in attitudes of immobility or repose.
Michelangelo became a painter so that he could express in a more malleable material what his titanesque soul felt, what his sculptor’s imagination saw, but what sculpture refused him. Thus this admirable sculptor became the creator, at the Vatican, of the most lyrical and epic decoration ever seen: the Sistine Chapel. The profusion of his invention is spread over this vast area of over 900 square metres. There are 343 principal figures of prodigious variety of expression, many of colossal size, and in addition a great number of subsidiary ones introduced for decorative effect. The creator of this vast scheme was only thirty-four when he began his work.
Michelangelo compels us to enlarge our conception of what is beautiful. To the Greeks it was physical perfection; but Michelangelo cared little for physical beauty, except in a few instances, such as his painting of Adam on the Sistine ceiling, and his sculptures of the Pietà. Though a master of anatomy and of the laws of composition, he dared to disregard both if it were necessary to express his concept: to exaggerate the muscles of his figures, and even put them in positions the human body could not naturally assume. In his later painting, The Last Judgment, on the end wall of the Sistine, he poured out his soul like a torrent. Michelangelo was the first to make the human form express a variety of emotions. In his hands emotion became an instrument upon which he played, extracting themes and harmonies of infinite variety. His figures carry our imagination far beyond the personal meaning of the names attached to them.
164. Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), 1483–1520, Italian, Leda and the Swan, c. 1507. Pen and ink over black chalk on paper, 31 × 19.2 cm. Royal Collection Trust, London. High Renaissance.
165. Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, attributed to), 1489/1490-1576, Italian, Saint Jerome in the Desert, 1509. Pen and grey ink, 13.6 × 16.7 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
166. Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472–1553, German, Christ and the Adultress, 1509. Brown ink and brown wash, 29.9 × 19.6 cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Kunstmuseum des Landes Niedersachsen, Brunswick (Lower Saxony). Northern Renaissance.
LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER
(Kronach, 1472 – Weimar, 1553)
Lucas Cranach was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, as shown by the diversity of his artistic interests as well as his awareness of the social and political events of his time. He developed a number of painting techniques which were afterwards used by several generations of artists. His somewhat mannered style and splendid palette are easily recognised in numerous portraits of monarchs, cardinals, courtiers and their ladies, religious reformers, humanists and philosophers. He also painted altarpieces, mythological scenes and allegories, and he is well-known for his hunting scenes. As a gifted draughtsman, he executed numerous engravings on both religious and secular subjects, and as court painter, he was involved in tournaments and masked balls. As a result, he completed a great number of costume designs, armorials, furniture, and parade ground arms. The high point of the German Renaissance is reflected in his achievements.
167. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, 1484–1546, Italian, The Mausoleum of Theoderic, c. 1506. Pen and ink on paper. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
168. Fra Bartolomeo (Bartolommeo della Porta), 1473–1517, Italian, Madonna and Child with Saints, 1510–1513. Black chalk, with traces of white chalk, 37.5 × 28.3 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. High Renaissance.
169. Mabuse (Jan Gossart), c. 1478–1532, Flemish, Apollo Citharoedus of the Casa Sassi, 1509. Pen and brown ink, over black chalk, 30.8 × 17.7 cm. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Northern Renaissance.
170. Niccolò dell’ Abate, 1509–1571, Italian, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint Basil the Great and Saint John the Baptist and Donor, 1509–1571. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash mounted on board, 23.2 × 19.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Mannerism.
171. Amico Aspertini, c. 1474–1552, Italian, Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra, date unknown. Pen, ink and wash. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Mannerism.
172. Baldassare Peruzzi, 1481–1536, Italian, Interior View of Santo Stefano Rotondo, date unknown. Pen and brown wash on white paper. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
173. Baldassare Peruzzi, 1481–1536 Italian, The Baths of Diocletian, date unknown. Pen, ink and wash on paper. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
174. Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), 1483–1520, Italian, A Soldier Before the Chapel of St. Peter, date unknown. Pen, ink and wash on paper. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
175. Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), 1483–1520, Italian, Interior View of the Pantheon, c. 1510. Pen and ink on paper, 22 × 40.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
176. Baldassare Peruzzi, 1481–1536, Italian, Theatrical Perspective with Symbolic Monuments of Rome, date unknown.Pen, ink and wash on paper. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. High Renaissance.
177. Leonardo da Vinci, 1452–1519, Italian, Self-Portrait, c. 1512. Red chalk on paper, 33.3 × 21.3 cm. Biblioteca Reale, Turin. High Renaissance.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
(Vinci, 1452 – Le Clos-Lucé, 1519)
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, but more famous as a sculptor, being the creator of the Colleoni statue at Venice, Leonardo was a man of striking physical attractiveness, great charm of manner and conversation, and mental accomplishment. He was well grounded in the sciences and mathematics of the day, as well as a gifted musician. His skill in draughtsmanship was extraordinary; shown by his numerous drawings as well as by his comparatively few paintings. His skill of hand is at the service of most minute observation and analytical research into the