Italy: A Closer Look - Italy - page 594

(popular with the Medicis) stands in stark contrast to Donatello's manly St. Mark
statue of 1411, also in Florence's Bargello museum.
To gain some perspective on the early Renaissance, take a look at Masaccio 's
works in Florence. His 1427 Trinità fresco, in Santa Maria Novella church, was said
to have “punched a hole in the wall” with its innovative use of perspective to create
depth in a two-dimensional painting. Masaccio's fresco cycle, in the Santa Maria del
Carmine church, with its scene of the expulsion from Eden, and his lively character
studies, inspired an up-and-coming artist by the name of Michelangelo.
Michelangelo, along with Leonardo da Vinci, was the ultimate Renaissance
man. The former is celebrated for his lifelong creativity and production as a
painter, sculptor, and architect. His commissions came from princes and popes,
and the battle over his hometown of record continued after his death, as the
Medicis spirited his body from Rome and had it entombed in Florence's Santa
Croce church. Florence is also the site of Michelangelo's 1504 David statue, a cre-
ation about which historian Vasari declared, “Anyone who has seen [it] has no
need to see anything else by any other sculptor, living or dead.” But Michelangelo
didn't stop with sculpture; he painted the majestic Sistine Chapel in Rome, and
designed the dome above it for good measure. His first Pietà statue, done at the
age of 25, stands in St. Peter's Basilica as a soaring testament to the sorrow of
Mary. His final, almost modern-art version, in the process of completion when he
was 89, stands in Milan's Museum of Ancient Art, another example of the life-
long creative passion of one of the greatest artists ever.
Leonardo da Vinci added science and engineering to his masterworks. His
Mona Lisa is in the Louvre in Paris, and his splendid Annunciation painting of
1481 is on display in Florence's Uffizi Gallery. His famous Last Supper fresco, an
artistic icon in Milan's Santa Maria delle Grazie, has become almost unrecogniz-
able with the passage of time. Da Vinci's combination of perspective, soft colors,
innovative backgrounds, and realistic detail makes him one of the great painters.
His mechanical inventions, including a machine gun, parachute, tank, and glider,
are re-created in a series of “Leonardo Museums” across the country, a good place
for kids to play with the wooden models.
Other titans of the era include Titian and Raphael, who both flourished as
artists in the early 16th century. Raphael created a huge body of work featuring
vivid colors in epic compositions. His series of frescoes in the Vatican include the
famed School of Athens, with a who's who of artists of the era appearing in the
painting. Titian added a focus on light and shadow to the vivid colors of the time.
His 1538 Venus of Urbino, in the Uffizi, remains one of the most influential pieces
of art, with its combination of realism, symbolism, and tonal subtlety. The
churches and palaces of Venice are filled with Titian's works, including his battle
scene painted in the Ducal Palace, and the altarpiece of Santa Maria Gloriosa.
Renaissance architecture followed the sweep of artistic creation with works
by Brunelleschi (creator of Florence's Duomo—still the largest free-standing stone
dome in the world), Michelangelo (the dome of St. Peter's and the Medici Library
in Florence), Andrea Palladio (Villa Rotonda and Foscari of Vicenza), and Vasari
(the Uffizi in Florence, the loggia, and others in Arezzo). Most of these architects
studied the proportions of ancient monuments to create their own works. The
brutal competition for commissions was such that Brunelleschi (admittedly a bit