Roman Renaissance
Encyclopedia
The Renaissance in Rome
was a season that goes from the late 15th to the mid-16th centuries, when the Papal city was the most important place of artistic production of the entire continent with masters who left an indelible mark on Western figurative art, such as Michelangelo
and Raphael
.
, was a century of neglect and misery for the city of Rome, which dropped to its lowest level of population. With the return of the papacy to Rome repeatedly postponed because of the bad conditions of the city and the lack of control and security, it was first necessary to strengthen the political and doctrinal aspects of the pontiff. When in 1377 Gregory XI was in fact returned to Rome, he found a city in anarchy because of the struggles between the nobility and the popular faction, and in which his power was now more formal than real. There followed four decades of instability, characterized by the local power struggle between the commune and the papacy, and internationally by the great Western Schism
, at the end of which was elected Pope, by mutual agreement between the parties, Martin V of the Colonna family
. He managed to reduce to order the city, laying the foundations of his rebirth .
The first sites to be open about essentially the two poles of the Lateran
(with frescoes - now lost - in the Basilica di San Giovanni where between 1425 and 1430 employees Gentile da Fabriano
and Pisanello
) and Vatican
, where he was transferred to the papal residence, beginning the transformation of the area beyond the Tiber
from a suburban area enormous project.
Meanwhile, the city had begun to be a magnet for artists wishing to study and compare with the classical tradition of its ruins. The earliest reports of a journey made by foreign artists to try and study the forms and techniques of ancient Rome is that of 1402 when you went to the Florentines Brunelleschi
and Donatello
, who returned several times to find inspiration for what was the Renaissance art .
Pisanello and his assistants also frequently takes its inspiration from ancient remains, but their approach was essentially cataloging, interested in acquiring the most varied repertoire of models to be exploited later in different combinations and compositions, without an interest in understanding the essence of ancient art .
The pope, who had stayed in Florence
, called to participate in its program Florentine artists such as Masaccio
and Masolino, although the contribution of the first innovation was panned by premature death . In 1443-1445 Leon Battista Alberti wrote theDescriptio urbis Romae, where he proposed a system for a geometric arrangement of the city centered on the Capitol
.
In any case one can not yet speak of a "Roman school" because the actions of artists, almost exclusively foreigners, were still largely tied to their cultural matrix, without specific contact information or addresses common .
, which ended in 1445 The bronze doors of St. Peter, where there is an early antiquarian taste linked to the capital and the its vestiges .
Shortly after they arrived in town Beato Angelico, which began a series of lost frescoes in St. Peter and French Jean Fouquet
, which testifies to its presence of the nascent interest in Italy Flemish painting
and Nordic generally . Although the duration of the pontificate of Eugene IV did not allow to fully implement his plans, that Rome began to become fruitful meeting ground between artists of different schools, which soon would spread in a common style, and for the first time, defined as "Roman ".
The intent was to obtain a citadel of religion on the Vatican Hill
, outside the city that had its focal point in the Capitol Hill. The project's arim was to exalt the power of the Church, clearly demonstrating the continuity between the Imperial and Christian Rome .
Due to the brevity of the pontificate of Nicholas, the ambitious project could not be completed; however, it made converge in the city artists of different schools (especially the Tuscan and Lombard ones), who shared an interest in the antiquity and the charm of the classic ruins, which will eventually result in a certain homogeneity of their work.
The presence of Leon Battista Alberti, although not directly related to actual construction sites (to which proved highly critical), it was important to reaffirm the value of the heritage of ancient Rome and its connection with the papacy. In 1452 he dedicated to Nicholas V the TreatyDe re aedificatoria
, where he theorized the foundation for reuse of the lesson of the ancients, updated with a complete renovation, including elements derived from the medieval tradition.
A paradigmatic example of the style that developed in that period in architecture is Palazzo Venezia
, started in 1455 by incorporating existing buildings. In a courtyard of the annexed Palazzetto (whose author is known) are taken from Roman elements combined but without philological rigor, focusing functionality rigid adherence to the model. It incorporates the model of the viridarium and is inspired by the Colosseum
in the architectural orders overlapped and in cornice
with ornament
in brackets. The width of the arches, however, is reduced and simplified so they will not look too impressive compared to the spaces they enclose. In the building itself (built from 1466), there was a more faithful revival of ancient models, which shows a gradual understanding deeper: for example, the hall was once a lacunar in concrete
(taken from Pantheon or the Basilica of Maxentius
) or in the loggia of the courtyard, with overlapping orders and semi leaning on the pillars as in the Colosseum or in the Theatre of Marcellus
.
The renewal of the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter was assigned to Bernardo Rossellino
and provided for the continuation of the body by covering it with five aisles longitudinal cross vaults on pillars that were to incorporate the old columns, while the apse was rebuilt with the expansion of the transept, the addition of a choir, which was the logical continuation of the nave and a domed room at the intersection of the transept and choir. This configuration may affect in some way on the next plan by Bramante for a total overhaul of the building, which have retained what is already built.
Work began around 1450, but with the death of the pope had no further development, and were nearly stagnant during the next papacy until Julius II who decided for a complete reconstruction .
The papal commission exerts an amalgam even stronger in painting, where the traditional models did not include binding. The renewal of the Apostolic Palace
was a first step in the decoration of the private chapel of the pope, the Niccoline Chapel
, which worked Fra Angelico
and aid, including Benozzo Gozzoli
. The decoration included stories of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, which were interpreted by Angelico in a style rich in details, erudite and wide variety of reasons, where his "Christian humanism" touches a expressive of its vertices. The scenes are set in majestic architecture, born from the suggestions of ancient Rome and early Christian times, but not linked to citations slavish, perhaps mindful of the projects that then circulated in the papal court for the restoration of St. Peter. The figures are solid, calm and solemn gestures, the tone was generally more stately of the usual brevity meditative artist .
In view of the Jubilee
of 1450 were undertaken numerous jobs and revenue that ensured the celebrations in the city allowed him to draw a large number of artists including much verse together. The pope does not affect the consistency of style, in fact called to work for him Vivarini
, Bartolomeo di Tommaso
, Benedict Bonfigli, Andrea del Castagno
, Piero della Francesca
, a Luke said "German", perhaps Rogier van der Weyden, etc.. This wealth of ideas prepared the ground for the synthesis towards the end of the century, led to the creation of a language properly "Roman" .
worked under Pius II from 1458 to 1459, leaving some lost frescoes in the Apostolic Palace
, probably destroyed to make room for the Raphael's Rooms.
Pope Sixtus IV
created the Vatican Library
and entrusted it to major Humanist
. Melozzo da Forlì
, named Papal painter, frescoed one of the emblems of the Roman humanist culture of the time, Pope Sixtus IV Appoints Platina as Prefect of the Vatican Library (1477), in which the pope is portrayed among his relatives in an opulent classical architecture. A few years later, under Giuliano della Rovere, Melozzo painted the apse of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli with Ascension of the Apostles between Playing Angels, considered the first example fully aware of view "from down to top".
Around 1480 the Sistine Chapel
was built: it was originally to be decorated by artists from Umbria and Marche. Through Lorenzo de' Medici
of Florence's intercession, the commission of the wall decoration was instead entrusted to the best Florentine artists of the time (Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio
and others), showing a first example of political use of the work of artists such as cultural ambassadors of their supremacy. The boxes are characterized by a broad monumental, with many quotations from classical architecture (triumphal arches, buildings with a central plan), and the calm pace and secure the scene.
The Sistine Chapel, now the seat of the most important ceremonies of the papacy, looked, well before the intervention of Michelangelo
, point of reference for Renaissance art, setting milestones for the character developments of the late fifteenth .
, from the Spanish family Borgia
. The artist of this era was Bernardino Pinturicchio, the author of the frescoes' in the Borgia Apartment
in the Vatican palace.
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
was a season that goes from the late 15th to the mid-16th centuries, when the Papal city was the most important place of artistic production of the entire continent with masters who left an indelible mark on Western figurative art, such as Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
and Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
.
Historical background
The fourteenth century, with the absence of the popes during the Avignon PapacyAvignon Papacy
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France. This arose from the conflict between the Papacy and the French crown....
, was a century of neglect and misery for the city of Rome, which dropped to its lowest level of population. With the return of the papacy to Rome repeatedly postponed because of the bad conditions of the city and the lack of control and security, it was first necessary to strengthen the political and doctrinal aspects of the pontiff. When in 1377 Gregory XI was in fact returned to Rome, he found a city in anarchy because of the struggles between the nobility and the popular faction, and in which his power was now more formal than real. There followed four decades of instability, characterized by the local power struggle between the commune and the papacy, and internationally by the great Western Schism
Western Schism
The Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. Two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance . The simultaneous claims to the papal chair...
, at the end of which was elected Pope, by mutual agreement between the parties, Martin V of the Colonna family
Colonna family
The Colonna family is an Italian noble family; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders...
. He managed to reduce to order the city, laying the foundations of his rebirth .
Martin V (1417-1431)
Martin V, in the Apostolic reinsediatosi in 1420, was the first pope who could care for a revitalization of the city in terms monumental and artistic. In 1423 was called a jubilee to celebrate the rebirth of the town. His plan was to restore that luster to the city that also had a clear political purpose: to recover the glory of Imperial Rome he also proclaimed his successor and direct heir .The first sites to be open about essentially the two poles of the Lateran
Lateran
Lateran and Laterano are the shared names of several architectural projects throughout Rome. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the former Roman Empire...
(with frescoes - now lost - in the Basilica di San Giovanni where between 1425 and 1430 employees Gentile da Fabriano
Gentile da Fabriano
Gentile da Fabriano was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic style. He worked in various places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany. His best known works are his Adoration of the Magi and the Flight into Egypt.-Biography:Gentile was born in or near Fabriano,...
and Pisanello
Pisanello
Pisanello , known professionally as Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento...
) and Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, where he was transferred to the papal residence, beginning the transformation of the area beyond the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
from a suburban area enormous project.
Meanwhile, the city had begun to be a magnet for artists wishing to study and compare with the classical tradition of its ruins. The earliest reports of a journey made by foreign artists to try and study the forms and techniques of ancient Rome is that of 1402 when you went to the Florentines Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...
and Donatello
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
, who returned several times to find inspiration for what was the Renaissance art .
Pisanello and his assistants also frequently takes its inspiration from ancient remains, but their approach was essentially cataloging, interested in acquiring the most varied repertoire of models to be exploited later in different combinations and compositions, without an interest in understanding the essence of ancient art .
The pope, who had stayed in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, called to participate in its program Florentine artists such as Masaccio
Masaccio
Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense...
and Masolino, although the contribution of the first innovation was panned by premature death . In 1443-1445 Leon Battista Alberti wrote theDescriptio urbis Romae, where he proposed a system for a geometric arrangement of the city centered on the Capitol
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
.
In any case one can not yet speak of a "Roman school" because the actions of artists, almost exclusively foreigners, were still largely tied to their cultural matrix, without specific contact information or addresses common .
Eugene IV (1431-1447)
Eugenius IV was, like his predecessor, a cultured and refined man, who traveled widely, knowing the new art of Florence and other cities and calling famous artists to decorate Rome. The Council of Basel had sanctioned the defeat of the thesis conciliarists and reaffirmed a monarchical structure of the papacy. Appendix A Florence had also been repaired, though in very short-lived, the age-schism of the East. In this context, it could continue its work to rebuild in the Roman basilicas. In the early forties was called the humanist FilaretFilaret
Filaret is a male name of Greek origin, commonly used as a monastic name in the Orthodox Church, and may refer to:-People:* Patriarch Filaret , patriarch of Moscow from 1612-1633, father of Tsar Michael I of Russia...
, which ended in 1445 The bronze doors of St. Peter, where there is an early antiquarian taste linked to the capital and the its vestiges .
Shortly after they arrived in town Beato Angelico, which began a series of lost frescoes in St. Peter and French Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet
Jean Fouquet was a preeminent French painter of the 15th century, a master of both panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience at first hand the Italian Early...
, which testifies to its presence of the nascent interest in Italy Flemish painting
Flemish painting
Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence...
and Nordic generally . Although the duration of the pontificate of Eugene IV did not allow to fully implement his plans, that Rome began to become fruitful meeting ground between artists of different schools, which soon would spread in a common style, and for the first time, defined as "Roman ".
Nicholas V (1447-1455)
Was with Nicholas V that the transformations of his predecessors took a sporadic features organic, paving the way for ambitious subsequent developments. The plan for the city focused primarily on five key :- Restore the walls
- Restoration or reconstruction of the forty churches in the city
- Reset the Borgo district
- Expansion of St. Peter
- Restoration of the Apostolic PalaceApostolic PalaceThe Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...
The intent was to obtain a citadel of religion on the Vatican Hill
Vatican Hill
Vatican Hill is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome...
, outside the city that had its focal point in the Capitol Hill. The project's arim was to exalt the power of the Church, clearly demonstrating the continuity between the Imperial and Christian Rome .
Due to the brevity of the pontificate of Nicholas, the ambitious project could not be completed; however, it made converge in the city artists of different schools (especially the Tuscan and Lombard ones), who shared an interest in the antiquity and the charm of the classic ruins, which will eventually result in a certain homogeneity of their work.
The presence of Leon Battista Alberti, although not directly related to actual construction sites (to which proved highly critical), it was important to reaffirm the value of the heritage of ancient Rome and its connection with the papacy. In 1452 he dedicated to Nicholas V the TreatyDe re aedificatoria
De Re Aedificatoria
De re aedificatoria is a classic architectural treatise written by Leon Battista Alberti between 1443 and 1452. Although largely dependent on Vitruvius' De architectura, it was the first theoretical book on the subject written in the Italian Renaissance and in 1485 became the first printed book on...
, where he theorized the foundation for reuse of the lesson of the ancients, updated with a complete renovation, including elements derived from the medieval tradition.
A paradigmatic example of the style that developed in that period in architecture is Palazzo Venezia
Palazzo Venezia
The Palazzo di Venezia is a palazzo in central Rome, Italy, just north of the Capitoline Hill. The original structure of this great architectural complex consisted of a modest medieval house intended as the residence of the cardinals appointed to the Church of San Marco...
, started in 1455 by incorporating existing buildings. In a courtyard of the annexed Palazzetto (whose author is known) are taken from Roman elements combined but without philological rigor, focusing functionality rigid adherence to the model. It incorporates the model of the viridarium and is inspired by the Colosseum
Colosseum
The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
in the architectural orders overlapped and in cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
with ornament
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
in brackets. The width of the arches, however, is reduced and simplified so they will not look too impressive compared to the spaces they enclose. In the building itself (built from 1466), there was a more faithful revival of ancient models, which shows a gradual understanding deeper: for example, the hall was once a lacunar in concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
(taken from Pantheon or the Basilica of Maxentius
Basilica of Maxentius
The Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine is an ancient building in the Roman Forum, Rome, Italy...
) or in the loggia of the courtyard, with overlapping orders and semi leaning on the pillars as in the Colosseum or in the Theatre of Marcellus
Theatre of Marcellus
The Theatre of Marcellus is an ancient open-air theatre in Rome, Italy, built in the closing years of the Roman Republic. At the theatre, locals and visitors alike were able to watch performances of drama and song. Today its ancient edifice in the rione of Sant'Angelo, Rome, once again provides...
.
The renewal of the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter was assigned to Bernardo Rossellino
Bernardo Rossellino
Bernardo di Matteo del Borra Gamberelli , better known as Bernardo Rossellino, was an Italian sculptor and architect, the elder brother of the sculptor Antonio Rossellino...
and provided for the continuation of the body by covering it with five aisles longitudinal cross vaults on pillars that were to incorporate the old columns, while the apse was rebuilt with the expansion of the transept, the addition of a choir, which was the logical continuation of the nave and a domed room at the intersection of the transept and choir. This configuration may affect in some way on the next plan by Bramante for a total overhaul of the building, which have retained what is already built.
Work began around 1450, but with the death of the pope had no further development, and were nearly stagnant during the next papacy until Julius II who decided for a complete reconstruction .
The papal commission exerts an amalgam even stronger in painting, where the traditional models did not include binding. The renewal of the Apostolic Palace
Apostolic Palace
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...
was a first step in the decoration of the private chapel of the pope, the Niccoline Chapel
Niccoline Chapel
The Niccoline Chapel is a chapel in the Vatican Palace, Rome. It is especially notable for its fresco paintings by Fra Angelico and his assistants, who may have executed much of the actual work...
, which worked Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"...
and aid, including Benozzo Gozzoli
Benozzo Gozzoli
Benozzo Gozzoli was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. He is best known for a series of murals in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi depicting festive, vibrant processions with wonderful attention to detail and a pronounced International Gothic influence.-Apprenticeship:He was born Benozzo di...
. The decoration included stories of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, which were interpreted by Angelico in a style rich in details, erudite and wide variety of reasons, where his "Christian humanism" touches a expressive of its vertices. The scenes are set in majestic architecture, born from the suggestions of ancient Rome and early Christian times, but not linked to citations slavish, perhaps mindful of the projects that then circulated in the papal court for the restoration of St. Peter. The figures are solid, calm and solemn gestures, the tone was generally more stately of the usual brevity meditative artist .
In view of the Jubilee
Jubilee (Christian)
The concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Biblical Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year is mentioned to occur every fifty years, in which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly...
of 1450 were undertaken numerous jobs and revenue that ensured the celebrations in the city allowed him to draw a large number of artists including much verse together. The pope does not affect the consistency of style, in fact called to work for him Vivarini
Vivarini
Vivarini is the surname of a family of painters from Murano , who produced a great quantity of work in Venice and its neighborhood in the 15th century, leading on to that phase of the school which is represented by Carpaccio and the Bellinis....
, Bartolomeo di Tommaso
Bartolomeo di Tommaso
Bartolomeo di Tommaso was a painter who flourished in the early part of the 15th century, and was of Umbro-Sienese education. He painted a 'Virgin and Saints,' in 1430, for the church of San Salvadore, at Foligno. There also exist other paintings by him in the churches of that city.-References:...
, Benedict Bonfigli, Andrea del Castagno
Andrea del Castagno
Andrea del Castagno was an Italian painter from Florence, influenced chiefly by Tommaso Masaccio and Giotto di Bondone. His works include frescoes in Sant'Apollonia in Florence and the painted equestrian monument of Niccolò da Tolentino in the Cathedral in Florence...
, Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its...
, a Luke said "German", perhaps Rogier van der Weyden, etc.. This wealth of ideas prepared the ground for the synthesis towards the end of the century, led to the creation of a language properly "Roman" .
Pius II (1458-1464)
Piero della FrancescaPiero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its...
worked under Pius II from 1458 to 1459, leaving some lost frescoes in the Apostolic Palace
Apostolic Palace
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...
, probably destroyed to make room for the Raphael's Rooms.
Sixtus IV (1471-1484)
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...
created the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
and entrusted it to major Humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
. Melozzo da Forlì
Melozzo da Forlì
Melozzo da Forlì was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. His fresco paintings are notable for the use of foreshortening. He was the most important member of the Forlì painting school.- Biography :...
, named Papal painter, frescoed one of the emblems of the Roman humanist culture of the time, Pope Sixtus IV Appoints Platina as Prefect of the Vatican Library (1477), in which the pope is portrayed among his relatives in an opulent classical architecture. A few years later, under Giuliano della Rovere, Melozzo painted the apse of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli with Ascension of the Apostles between Playing Angels, considered the first example fully aware of view "from down to top".
Around 1480 the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
was built: it was originally to be decorated by artists from Umbria and Marche. Through Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists and poets...
of Florence's intercession, the commission of the wall decoration was instead entrusted to the best Florentine artists of the time (Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Among his many apprentices was Michelangelo.-Early years:Ghirlandaio's full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi...
and others), showing a first example of political use of the work of artists such as cultural ambassadors of their supremacy. The boxes are characterized by a broad monumental, with many quotations from classical architecture (triumphal arches, buildings with a central plan), and the calm pace and secure the scene.
The Sistine Chapel, now the seat of the most important ceremonies of the papacy, looked, well before the intervention of Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
, point of reference for Renaissance art, setting milestones for the character developments of the late fifteenth .
Alexander VI (1492-1503)
The last part of this century was dominated by the figure of Pope Alexander VIPope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
, from the Spanish family Borgia
Borgia
The Borgias, also known as the Borjas, Borjia, were a European Papal family of Italian and Spanish origin with the name stemming from the familial fief seat of Borja belonging to their Aragonese Lords; they became prominent during the Renaissance. The Borgias were patrons of the arts, and their...
. The artist of this era was Bernardino Pinturicchio, the author of the frescoes' in the Borgia Apartment
Borgia Apartment
The Borgia Apartment is a suite of rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.-History:The Borgia Apartment was adapted for personal use by Pope Alexander VI ....
in the Vatican palace.