Artists Worth Remembering

Most people are familiar with art from the Italian Renaissance. Still, many people aren’t aware that one of the period’s most influential artists was a part of the Northern Renaissance. His name was Jan van Eyck (born in the late 1300s and died around 1441). Van Eyck was born in or near modern-day Belgium, and historical documents show that he was the painter of the Count of Holland while in his 20s. Afterward, he joined the court of the Duke of Burgundy. When he was around 34, van Eyck completed the Ghent Altarpiece, a set of biblical stories painted on 12 foldable wooden panels that measure an enormous 11 feet by 15 feet (3.4 meters by 4.6 meters). He used oil paint for the piece and, though oil paint had only just been invented, van Eyck liked how slowly it dried as it allowed him to pay close attention to the details.

Using oil paint, he could take his time and blend stunning colors like never before. He got so good at this technique that people began to ask him to paint their portraits! By the end of van Eyck’s life, he had helped to make portraiture a popular art form. The Arnolfini Portrait by the artist shows why—finished two years after the Ghent Altarpiece, it presents an Italian merchant and a woman in the merchant’s home. Art historians debate over what this scene is trying to show us. Have the man and the woman just gotten engaged? Is this their wedding? Or are they performing some other legal agreement? Looking at the woman’s jewel-green dress and the curved mirror in the background, historians can all agree on one thing—this painting is spectacular. Today, van Eyck is considered the first master of oil painting.

At the height of his career, everyone
in Florence, Italy knew about Sandro
Botticelli (born around 1445 and died
in 1510). When he was born, his parents
named him Alessandro Filipepi. Botticelli, the name we know him by today, was a childhood nickname that means “little barrel.” This nickname stuck with the artist throughout his life. Historians do not know very much about the beginning of Botticelli’s career. What they do know is that he had artistic training, and, by around the age of 25, he had a studio of his very own. Early in his career, Botticelli painted The Adoration of the Magi, a work that took him two years to complete.

Art historians suspect that one of the faces in that painting is his self-portrait, and three of the other figures in the scene are members of the Medici family. The Medici’s were impressed by Botticelli’s work and commissioned him to paint portraits of the family. In fact, he painted a famous piece of art called the Birth of Venus for a member of the Medici family. Many of his paintings featured religious images, but he chose to do something different for this particular painting. Like many Renaissance authors, philosophers, and artists, Botticelli admired ancient Greek and Roman culture. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty, and he created a scene worthy of her in “Birth of Venus.” He painted her with blonde hair gilded with gold, scattered flowers in the air around her, and sent her sailing to shore on a perfect floating seashell. This work became one of the most recognizable and famous paintings of the Early Renaissance.

The last decades of the Renaissance are called the High Renaissance. Three famous artistic masters dominated this time: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raffaello Sanzio (born in 1483 and died in 1520). Sanzio, better known as Raphael, was only 37 years old when he died. In his short life, however, his brilliance as a painter earned him as much fame as da Vinci and Michelangelo.He was born to a painter in Urbino, Italy, and likely learned the skills of the craft from his father as a child. By the age of 17, Raphael was already considered a master in some circles. By the age of 21, he had moved to Florence and met da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Although the three artists were rivals, Raphael’s style was unique. He preferred painting, and his subjects were more serene than those of da Vinci and Michelangelo. While Raphael was in Florence, he painted the biblical Virgin Mary (often called the Madonna) multiple times. Eventually, he attracted the attention of Pope Julius II, who asked him to move to Rome and decorate the walls of the Vatican. The Pope was one of the most significant figures in Europe, so Raphael agreed. He looked at the blank walls of the four rooms and had an idea. He decided to create a painting that he called the “School of Athens.” Using vibrant colors, Raphael painted ancient Greek thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Euclid. Although Raphael created many other works of art, The School of Athens remains his most well-known painting and one of the best representations of Renaissance art.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (born in 1475 and died in 1564) was born in Tuscany, Italy. At the age of 13, he began training to be an artist in Florence. Michelangelo did so well that his teacher chose him as one of only two students to attend the Medici family’s humanist academy. As a young man, Michelangelo showed a special talent for sculpting, and soon the members of the Medici family were not his only admirers. When he was 23, a Frenchman commissioned him to sculpt a pietà—the biblical scene of Mary mourning over Jesus’ body. Michelangelo spent less than two years working on this sculpture. When he was finished, he stepped away from what most art historians agree is his finest piece of art. But he wasn’t done. Michelangelo’s career had only begun! Only three years after crafting the pietà, a committee from the Cathedral of Florence gave him a piece of bad marble that was three times as big as most grown men. They asked him to sculpt the form of the biblical character David out of this marble. He agreed and began work. One year went by. Then another. Then a third. Finally, Michelangelo triumphed! He had created a beautiful sculpture that was 17 feet (5.2 meters) tall and made of pure white marble. Today, this sculpture, called the David, is one of Europe’s most recognizable pieces of art. Later in his life, Michelangelo accepted another challenge: to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He didn’t enjoy this particular job and even wrote a poem complaining about it! Although Botticelli and Raphael also helped to decorate the chapel, Michelangelo’s multicolored ceiling attracts tourists to the chapel to this day.

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (born around 1386 and died in 1466) —nicknamed Donatello —was born to a Florentine wool carder. As a young man, Donatello was apprenticed to a goldsmith, where he eagerly learned everything he could. At only
15 or 16 years old, he entered a competition to design the massive doors of the Florence Baptistery. Although he lost the competition, the winner saw Donatello’s skill and decided to mentor him. From then on, Donatello’s fame as a sculptor grew and, eventually, he attracted the notice of the Medici family, the most wealthy and important artistic family in Italy.

While working for the Medici family, he sculpted the biblical character, David. Since he had studied classical Greek and Roman statues, he followed their example and cast his sculpture in bronze. This was a favorite metal of the Greeks and the same material that was used for the Florence Baptistery doors. Donatello’s David was special. While the Greeks and Romans had cast many freestanding bronze statues (which means that they could stand up on their own), other artists of Donatello’s time did not use this technique. In fact, Donatello’s David made history because it was the first freestanding statue created in at least 400 years! His classical education also came in handy when he did another bronze project: a statue of the nearby warlord Gattamelata on his horse. Equestrian monuments used to be Rome’s way of praising their rulers, and just like freestanding statues, they hadn’t been made since the fall of Rome hundreds of years earlier. Although Donatello died before the peak of the Renaissance, his focus on antiquity set the stage for the artists who followed him.