#renaissanceartists

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Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1498, 52 x 41 cm, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

He was a very original artist, who enlarged the expressive possibilities of image-making. He was also the first Northern European artist to have a deep and first hand knowledge of the Italian Renaissance.

Dürer had a very high opinion of himself and portrayed himself often. Here we see him not as an artist, but fashionably outfitted, with expensive clothes. Even though artists and artworks were highly appreciated by princes, there was a strong prejudice against them in many circles, especially among the aristocracy. Dürer fought hard against this.

This portrait, where he shows himself not as a painter but as a gentleman, is an example. The fame that he attained would be used by later painters in their own struggle for recognition.

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Caravaggio, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602-1603, 295 x 195 cm, Rome, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Contarelli Chapel

One of the legs of the bench it's not leaning on the floor. The man could fall at any moment into the place where we stand. This is a trick by Caravaggio, to make the scene seem real. The first version of this picture was rejected by the church for which it was made, because the saint seemed too common; almost brute, the second version; he had to make it less radical for the painting to be accepted.

In this picture something unexpected; in spite of this reputation for being a non-idealist, in spite of his taste for common types, the search for beauty is a key aspect of his art. Here, in the beautiful contrast between the dark background and the orange drapery and also in the figure of the angel and the swirl of the white cloth around him. 

In many paintings by Caravaggio there is a peculiar combination of a raw directness and a very subtle sense of beauty. The result is a kind of beauty that's new to painting.

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Raphael, The Disputa, c. 1510, Rome, Vatican Place, Stanza della Segnatura In the painting are groups of figures contemplating and debating the mystery of the Eucharist. Along this axis, there are diminishing size of the golden discs, from the largest one behind God at the top, through the ones behind Christ and the dove, and down to the Host. This provides geometric structure, but it also has a meaning. The downward movement, emphasized by the diminishing discs and also by the dove, says that the word of God is delivered down to Earth.

The high standards of Raphael´s drawings, have very rarely been matched in the entire history of art.

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Peter Paul Rubens, The fall of Phaeton, c. 1605, 98 x 131 cm, Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art

Rubens painted many mythological scenes throughout his entire career. It was one of his specialties. The Sun God Helius, who rode his chariot every day lighting up the skies, had a son, Phaethon, who, after much insistence, persuaded him to let him drive the golden chariot. Phaeton was not prepared to gear the car. As he was driving through the skies he lost the reins.

The chariot fell from Heaven setting the Earth on fire. You can see it on the lower right of this image. Zeus, ruler of the Gods, was forced to destroy the chariot with a thunderbolt to avoid destruction of the Earth.

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Caravaggio, Beheading of Saint John, 1608, 361 x 520 cm, Malta, Cathedral of St John The painting painted in 1608, in Malta, just two years before Caravaggio died. In the painting, blood spills from the cut throat onto the ground, and becomes the letters of Caravaggio´s signature. 

The empty space around the figures creates a strange quietness, a sense of isolation.

In his most successful years in Rome, Caravaggio's paintings were somewhat less stark.

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Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus c. 1486, 172 x 279 cm,   Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Venus comes to life as love and beuty by the blow of the man holding spring into flora's arms to earth. 'Botticelli transforms reality at the service of his message' he draw Venus’s neck longer and her with narrow sholders to show her grace and delicate nature.

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Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Don Pedro de Barberana, c. 1631, 198 x 111 cm, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum

This portrait of a member of the Court in Madrid is from about 1631. There are no columns or draperies in the background here. A somber black dress is adorned only with a cross of the Order of Calatrava which distinguished this man as a member of this aristocratic organization. The illusion of physical presence is amazing. This is a quality that we always find in Velázquez.

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Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656, 318 x 276 cm, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

This painting shows an actual room in the Royal Palace in Madrid in the year 1656 when the picture was made. You see Velázquez himself painting on a canvas.  What he is drawing is not visible to viewer.

The girl is Margarita. She's the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain. The King and his wife Isabella Bourbon are reflected in the mirror hanging from the back wall. It could be them that Velázquez paints. This is known as 'Las Meninas' after a Portuguese word used for the noble women who acted as maids of honor to the King's daughter.

A limited range of colors, a light that enters through the side windows and the back door and the sense of a three-dimensional volume all contribute to the realism of the scene. Most surprising perhaps is how you can feel the air in the picture. As the example at the space between the figures and the wall behind them shows. The painter's ability to make people feel the atmosphere is referred to as aerial perspective.