Arts in the Renaissance and the Patronage System
Renaissance was a
cultural movement between the 14th century and 17th century in Europe, which
derived from Florence, Italy, and it mainly embodied the humanism. In detail,
people wanted to use Renaissance to take the time back to ancient Rome, because
the kings and popes were very corruptive in medieval Europe, and people wanted
to change that situation. Moreover, it was not merely copying the rules and
society from ancient Rome, but it was a revolution that people were long for
the prosperity of art and science. For the art, patrons' status was as crucial
as artists' because if there were no patrons, most of the artworks would
disappear, and there would be few places for artists to show their thoughts and
intelligence. However, some patrons limit the talent and ideas of those
artists. There were three primary sources of patronage, and they were the Roman
Catholic Church, the kings and the city-states, and wealthy merchants.
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The Virgin of the rocks
Leonardo da Vinci
c. 1485.
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Madonna del prato
Raphael
c. 1506
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At that time, the
Roman Catholic Church was mighty and wealthy because people often donated money
and bought indulgences, so the popes and cardinals were the main sponsors of
these artists. For the Church, they often hired or contracted with famous
artists for the decoration, such as Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). In April
1483, Leonardo got a contact from the Confraternity of the Immaculate
Conception to have an altarpiece for the chapel in Milan, and the painting is
known as The Virgin of the
Rocks now. This painting not
only inherited the styles of predecessors but also showed some special skills
of Leonardo. For the composition of this painting, we can find that it was more
like in the medieval art style, which was a "stable, balanced, pyramidal
figural group" (Stokstad and Cothren
648), and it was from the history but with something different, so we call it
as "a standard feature of High Renaissance Classicism" (648).
Moreover, Leonardo painted the spectacular landscape behind the Virgin and
Child with angels, which let them mix up into a harmony scene. Furthermore,
Leonardo created a special skill which was called sfumato, and we can find this
in this painting; "Leonardo picks out the four figures with spotlights,
creating a strong chiaroscuro… that enhances their modeling as
three-dimensional forms" (650), and with this technique, the painting will
show people "subtle, almost imperceptible, transitions between light and
dark in shading" (650). Later, sfumato became quite famous among artists,
and many of them used this in their paintings, such as Raphael's Madonna del Prato.
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Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena
Raphael
c. 1516 |
In the Roman Catholic
Church, the cardinals' status was merely lower than the pope's, and they owned
a huge amount of wealth and power, for they often corrupted the public assets
of the Church, and they got the protection by noble families and politicians.
Thus, cardinals often decorated their houses as palaces, and they invited
musicians and artists to their home and patronized them, so artists kept close
relationships with them. Raphael (1483-1520) was sponsored by the Church, and
he had a close friend named Bernardo Dovizi, who was a cardinal and private
secretary of Pope Leo X, and Dovizi even arranged the marriage for Raphael with
his niece. Dovizi contracted with Raphael for many artworks, including his
portrait, and then let us have a look at this painting. For the composition, we
can find that the cardinal was seated, and the body and arms formed a triangle
pyramid, which we can also find in Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa;
the composition is classic. Moreover, Raphael also used vivid colors to make a
contrast, because the body was in red, but the sleeves and cardinal's face were
pale, and with the dark background, people can easily focus the figure of this
painting. Apart from that, Raphael also painted other cardinals' portraits, and
we can conclude that Raphael "mastered the art of realism in his
paintings, the ability to 'paint people as more real than they really are,' as
his peers put it…Meticulous brushstrokes give the audience a three-dimensional
character, revealing Raphael's interest in sculpture during those years."
(Wikipedia). In conclusion, Raphael paid great attention to painting figures'
facial details, which can show that he embodied humanism in his paintings, and
it was a symbol of the Renaissance.
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Tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici
with Night and Day
Michelangelo
c. 1526–1531
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Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici
with Dusk and Dawn
Michelangelo
c. 1524–1534
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Apart from the
Church, kings and political families were also the patrons of artists in the
Renaissance. "Patronage of arts was an important public activity with
political overtones…All these patrons expected the artists to reaffirm and
glorify their achievements with works that were not only beautiful but
intellectually powerful" (Stokstad and Cothren 608-609). The House of
Medici built up a family fortune by running the Medici Bank, and then they
became the rulers of the Republic of Florence. Lorenzo de' Medici was very
interested in art and literature, and at that time, he was surprised that there
were no sculptors who were as good as painters, so he opened up a school of sculpture.
Young Michelangelo (1475-1564) was one of the students there, and Lorenzo found
him had an unusual gift on the sculpture that he even often invited
Michelangelo to have dinners with his kids. Though Lorenzo did not contract
many works with Michelangelo, he often introduced Michelangelo to his friends,
and the sculptures in the Medici Chapel were ones of the few works that
Michelangelo created for the Medici family. The Tomb of Giuliano di Lorenzo de'
Medici was with sculptures Night and Day, and the Tomb of Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici was with the
sculptures Dusk and Dawn, and let us have a close look at them. These four
sculptures composed four parts of a day, and the Night was
a sculpture of a virgin, and the other three were sculptures of men. We can
find that Michelangelo created many details in the body, such as the muscle,
which shows the humanism, and we can also see that these bodies were in perfect
shapes that were different from ordinary people, which can show a little bid of
mannerism. When we focus on the emotions of them, we can see that they were
with melancholy and indifference, which can embody the turbulent and hopeless
situation of Florence, because the Medici family were almost end of the control
of Florence.
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DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF
GIOVANNI ARNOLFINI
AND HIS WIFE
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Last but not least,
wealthy merchants were also the sponsors of artists at that time. Because of
the relative peace and early capitalism, many wealthy merchants emerged, and
they wanted to patronize the art to prove their fortune, rights, status, and
knowledge. Giovanni Arnolfini was an Italian merchant who made expensive cloth
and silk, and he contacted with a Netherlandish artist, Jan van Eyck
(1385-1441), to paint his wedding. From the painting, we see that Arnolfini
held his wife's hand, and the mirror and chandelier were in the middle, which
shows the composition was balanced and symmetrical; also, from the window and
the frame of the bed, we can see the linear perspective that the artist used to
show a three-dimensional scene. Moreover, the clothing and other objects were also
symbolic and meaningful; "they are surrounded by luxury objects: lavish
bed hangings, a sumptuous chandelier, precious oriental carpet, and rare
oranges, not to mention their extravagant clothing"(575). These objects
showed the wealthy of Arnolfini and the mindset of showing off, and also, they
embodied the loyalty of the marriage, the flourish, and the religious belief.
Van Eyck was the founder of this style, which is people are indoor and with
many objects as details, and many artists learned it and used it into their
works.
In conclusion, the
patronage system promoted the renaissance art but also impacted it, because not
all the artists were high-hearted for art itself, and many artists wanted to
use their talent to have money and power, such as Titian. However, we cannot
deny the facilitation of art and science, because without these patronages, the
development of capitalism and democracy will go quite slow.
Stokstad,
Marilyn, and Michael Watt Cothren. Art History. Sixth ed., II,
Pearson, 2018.
Wikipedia contributors. "Portrait of a Cardinal (Raphael)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 29 Sep. 2019. Web. 17 Oct. 2019.
Wikipedia contributors. "Medici Chapel." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Jul. 2019. Web. 17 Oct. 2019.
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