Italy Art And Architecture

In Italy, great works of art and architecture seem to spring from every street corner. In Rome, the Colosseum hovers above a city bus stop; in Florence, couples flirt in front of the duomo ; in Sicily, diners sit beneath Greek columns. Modern Italians may seem immune to this stunning visual history, but to anyone who hasn’t grown up amid ancient ruins and medieval fortresses, it’s a feast for the senses.

Greeks. In the eighth century BC, the Greeks established colonies in southern Italy, covering the region with magnificent temples and theaters. The best-preserved examples of Greek ruins are in Sicily—not Greece!—in the Valle dei Templi at Agrigento and Taormina . Italy is also home to Roman copies of Greek statues and original Greek bronzes; the prized Bronzi di Riace, recovered from the Ionian Sea in 1972 after 2500 years underwater, are now in Reggio di Calabria’s Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia .

And Etruscans. The history of native Italian art begins with the Etruscans, a people who lived on the Italian peninsula before the Romans. Loosely influenced by Greek art and inspired by both the everyday and the afterlife, Etruscan artwork is best known for its narrative quality; beneficial, as the Etruscan language is largely undeciphered. The Etruscan works that remain today include decorated funeral statues, tomb paintings, and ceramic ash burial urns, all of which depict Etruscan scenes and legends. However, because the Romans either destroyed or melted down a large portion of Etruscan sculptures and bronzes, our modern perception of Etruscan art as solely funerary is skewed. Just like their art, the Etruscans mysteriously disappeared in the third century BC. The Museum at the Villa Giulia in Rome houses many Etruscan gems.

And Romans (Oh My!). Roman art (200 BC-AD 500) is known for its vivid portrayal of the political aims and cultural values of Imperial Rome. Sculptures, architecture, and other masterpieces fall into two principle categories: private household art and art in service of the state. Although art historians have traditionally used Greek statues as benchmarks for beauty and artistic skill, the sculpted portraiture developed by the Romans deserves separate recognition. Portraits of the Republican period (510-27 BC) were brutally honest, immortalizing wrinkles, scars, and even warts. The later Imperial sculpture (27 BC-AD 476) tended to blur the distinction between mortal and god in powerful, idealized images like Augustus of Prima Porta (Vatican Museums). Later in the period, Roman art developed a flattened style of portraiture, with huge eyes looking out in an “eternal stare.” The government sponsored statues, monuments, and literary narratives to commemorate leaders, heroes, and victories. Augustus was perhaps the best master of this form of self-promotion, as evidenced by his impressive mausoleum and Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), both gracing the Piazza Augusto Imperatore in Rome . Roman monuments evolved into decorated concrete forms with numerous arches and columns, like the Colosseum and the Pantheon .

Upper-class Romans had an appetite for sumptuous interior decoration. Scenes depicting gods and goddesses, exotic beasts, and street entertainers decorated villas, courtyards, and shops. Some wealthy patrons had their walls adorned with frescoes, which used the Greek technique of painting onto wet plaster walls to create a time-resistant effect. It was also popular to hire craftsmen to fashion wall and floor mosaics, works of art created using thousands of finely shaded tesserae (geometrically-shaped fragments of colored pottery, tile or glass) cemented with mortar. The luxurious Villa Romana del Casale , just outside Piazza Armerina, holds 40 rooms of stone mosaics, making it the world’s largest work of intact artistic mosaics of the Late Roman period.

Early Christian And Byzantine Art

Fearing persecution, early Christians in Rome, Naples, and Syracuse hid inside haunting catacombs to worship their Christian God. But following Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan (AD 313), the religion quickly became Rome’s faith du jour. Even the Roman magistrate’s basilica was altered to accommodate Christian services. Transepts were added to many Roman churches, creating crucifix-shaped architecture. Except for a few sarcophagi and ivory reliefs, Christian art slowly transitioned from sculpture to pictorial forms in order to depict religious narratives for the illiterate. Ravenna is a veritable treasure trove of the first Byzantine Golden Age, which ran from AD 526 to 726. Examples of these “instructional” mosaics can be seen in Ravenna’s octagonal Basilica of San Vitale , a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is one of the first churches to boast a free-standing campanile (bell tower).

Middle Ages

Romanesque. Although true classical Roman style was not revived until the Renaissance, rounded Roman arches, heavy columns, and windowless churches came back into style in the period from AD 800 to 1200. The earliest Italian example of Romanesque architecture is Milan’s Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio , notable for its squat nave and groin vaults. In Tuscany, competition among Italian cities (particularly Florence and Pisa) resulted in great architectural feats, most notably San Miniato al Monte and the Duomo in Pisa with its famously leaning campanile . In the south, most notably in Cattedrale di Monreale , sculptural detailings and intricate mosaics reflect Arab, Byzantine, and Norman influences on the Romanesque style.

Gothic. Beginning in the late 13th century, the Gothic movement filtered into Italy from France. Artists and architects rejoiced at the fantastic spaces and light created by the new vaulted technology and giant, multi-colored rose windows. The most impressive Gothic cathedrals include the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi, the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, and the Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Secular structures like Florence’s Ponte Vecchio followed this stylistic trend too. The Palazzo Ducale in Venice, spanning several canals with ornate bridges, represents the brilliant marriage of airy, lace-like Islamic stonework and Gothic style. In sculpture, Nicola Pisano (c. 1220-78) created pulpits at both Pisa and Siena that combined Roman reliefs, Gothic form, and early Byzantine mosaics. By the end of the 13th century, Italians were bored by the emaciated torsos of suffering martyrs. Cimabue (c. 1240-1302) and Duccio (c. 1255-1318) introduced new dimensions and brighter colors to their works, though bleeding Christians remained their subject of choice. Straddling the late Gothic and early Renaissance, Giotto (c. 1267-1337) is credited with noting that humans—not giants—look at pictures. He placed his work at eye level, putting the viewer on equal footing with his realistically rendered holy subjects. His masterpieces are on display at the Basilica di San Francesco and the Scrovegni Chapel .

Renaissance

Early Renaissance. Donatello’s (1386-1466) David (c. 1430; at the Bargello in Florence), a now-world-famous free-standing nude, marked the “rebirth” of sculpture without boundaries. His wooden Mary Magdalene in Florence similarly represents a departure from earlier, restrained traditions, emphasizing the woman’s fallen and repentant side, depicting her in rags and with a sorrowful facial expression. Just as Donatello’s expressive portraiture became a model for artists to come, Brunelleschi’s (1377-1446) mathematical studies of ancient Roman architecture became the cornerstone of Renaissance building. His engineering talent allowed him to raise the dome over Santa Maria del Fiore and showcase his mastery of proportions in the Pazzi Chapel . Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1381-1455) designed two sets of bronze doors for the baptistry in Florence , defeating Brunelleschi’s doors in the contest of 1401. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72), a champion of visual perspective, designed Florence’s Santa Maria Novella and Rimini’s Tempio Malatestiano , prototypes for future Renaissance palaces and churches. In painting, Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510) and his The Birth of Venus , depicting the goddess floating on her tidal foam, epitomize the Italian Renaissance. Masaccio (1401-28) filled chapels with angels and gold-leaf and is credited with the first use of the mathematical laws of perspective. His figures in the Brancacci Chapel of Florence served as models for Michelangelo and Leonardo. An unlikely artist, Fra Angelico (c. 1400-55) personified the tension between medieval and Renaissance Italy. Though a member of a militant branch of Dominican friars which opposed humanism on principle, Fra Angelico’s works, seen at the Museo della Chiesa di San Marco in Florence, exhibit the techniques of space and perspective endorsed by humanistic artists.

High Renaissance. From 1450 to 1520, the torch of distinction passed between two of art’s greatest figures: Leonardo and Michelangelo. Branching out from the disciplines of sculpture and painting, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) excelled in subjects ranging from geology, engineering, and musical composition to human dissection and armaments design. The Last Supper, or Il Cenacolo , in Milan, pays a level of attention to the individuality of its figures previously unrivalled for that particular biblical subject. His experimentations with chiaroscuro, or contrasts between light and shadow that highlight contours, and sfumato, which is a smoky or hazy effect of brushwork, secured his place as the century’s great artistic innovator.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was an artistic jack of all trades, despite what he told Julius II after painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling: “I am not a painter!” Julius was so fond of the artist’s work on the ceiling that he commissioned The Last Judgment for the wall above the chapel’s altar. Michelangelo painted like a sculptor, boldly emphasizing musculature and depth, and sculpted like a painter, with lean, smooth strokes. The artist also completed architectural designs for the Laurentian Library in Florence and the dome on St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Classic examples of his sculptures include the Pietà in St. Peter’s and the David and unfinished Slaves in Florence’s Accademia .

Other prominent Renaissance artists include Raffaello (1483-1520), a draftsman who created technically perfect figures. His frescoes in the papal apartments of the Vatican, including the School of Athens , show his debt to classical standards. In addition to Michelangelo, the Venetian Renaissance school of artistic thought produced Giorgione, known as “The Great” (1478-1510); Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430-1516), the pre-eminent teacher within the school; and Bellini’s protégé, the prolific Titian (1488-1576). Titian’s works are notable for their realistic facial expressions and rich colors. In the High Renaissance, the greatest architect after Michelangelo was Donato Bramante (1444-1514), famed for his work on the Tempietto of St. Peter in Rome.

Mannerism

A heightened sense of aestheticism led to Mannerism, the style that dominated the High Renaissance from the 1520s until the birth of the Baroque style around 1590. Starting in Rome and Florence, Mannerist artists experimented with juxtapositions of color and scale. For example, Parmigianino (1503-40) created the Madonna of the Long Neck, a piece emblematic of the movement’s self-conscious distortions. Another painter, Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-94), a Venetian Mannerist, was the first to paint multiple light sources within a single composition. The Mannerist period is also known for its architecture, designed by artisans such as Giulio Romano (c. 1499-1546) who rejected the Renaissance deal of harmony. The villas and churches of architect Andrea Palladio (1508-80) were also remarkably innovative, particularly the Villa Rotonda outside Vicenza. His other lasting contribution, the Four Books of Architecture, promoted his work and influenced countless architects.

Baroque And Rococo

A 17th-century stylistic hybrid born of the Counter-Reformation and monarchy, Baroque composition combined Mannerism’s intense emotion with the Renaissance’s grandeur to achieve a new expressive theatricality. Heavy on drama, emotion, and richness, Baroque art attempted to inspire faith in the Catholic Church and respect for earthly power. Painters of this era favored naturalism, a commitment to portraying nature in its raw state. Caravaggio (1573-1610), the epitome of Baroque painters, relied heavily on chiaroscuro and naturalism to create dramatically unsettling images. It is even rumored that he used the corpse of a prostitute recovered from Rome’s Tiber River as a model for the Virgin Mary’s body in Death of the Virgin (1606). Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), a prolific High Baroque sculptor and architect, designed the overwhelming colonnade of St. Peter’s Piazza and the awesome baldacchino inside. Drawing inspiration from Hellenistic works, Bernini’s sculptures were orgies of movement, portraying violent interactions of light and space. Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), Bernini’s rival, was even more adept than his rival at shaping the walls of his buildings into lively, serpentine architectural masterpieces, as in his San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane . Toward the end of the Baroque period, however, this grand style began to give way to the delicacy and elaborate ornamentation of Rococo, a light and graceful method originating in 18th-century France. Rococo motifs include seashells, clouds, flowers, and vines carved into woodwork and stone edifices. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770), with his brilliant palette and vibrant frescoes, was a prolific Venetian painter of allegories and the premier exemplar of the Italian Rococo style.

Nineteenth-Century Art

With the decline of Rococo came French-influenced Neoclassicism, which abandoned the overly detailed Rococo and dramatic Baroque methods in favor of a purer, more ancient construction. At first, the shift was almost too subtle to notice, primarily because the Neoclassical artists had no new materials on which they could base their Neotraditional works. With the early 17th-century discovery and excavation of Herculaneum and Pompeii, however, Neoclassical artists quickly found their ancient muses in the forms of recovered artifacts. One such Neoclassical artist was the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) who explored the formal Neoclassical style in his giant statues and bas-reliefs. His most famous work is the statue of Pauline Borghese, which displays Neoclassical grace and purity of contour. Rebelling against the strict Neoclassical style, Telemaco Signorini (1835-1901), Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908), and Silvestro Lega (1826-1895) spearheaded the Macchiaioli group in Florence (c. 1855-65)—a group anticipating French Impressionism that believed a painting’s meaning lay in its macchie (spots) of color rather than in its narrative. A technique called “blotting,” which abruptly juxtaposed patches of color through manipulations with a dry paint brush, was used to depict politicized scenes of battle and outspoken responses to everyday life.

Twentieth-Century Art

The Italian Futurist painters, sculptors, and architects of the early 20th century brought Italy to the cutting edge of art. Inspired by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s (1876-1944) Futurist Manifesto of 1909, these Italian artists loved to glorify danger, war, and the 20th-century machine age. With pieces displayed in the 1912 Futurist exhibition in Paris, painters Gino Severini (1883-1966) and Carlo Carrà (1881-1966) and sculptor Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916) went beyond Cubism to celebrate the dynamism and energy of modern life by depicting several aspects of moving forms. The work of Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), some of which is currently on display at the Collezione Peggy Guggenheim in Venice , depicts eerie scenes dominated by mannequin figures, empty space, and steep perspective. Although his mysterious and disturbing style, called Pittura Metafisica, was never successfully imitated, de Chirico inspired early Surrealist painters. Other 20th-century Italian artists include Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920), a sculptor and painter who was highly influenced by African art and Cubism, and Marcello Piacentini (1881-1960) who created fascist architecture that imposed sterility upon classical motifs. In 1938, Piacentini designed the looming EUR in Rome (Esposizione Universale Roma) as an impressive reminder of the link between Mussolinian fascism and Roman imperialism.

In the Postwar Era, Italian art lacked unity but still produced noteworthy artists. Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) started Spatialism, a movement to bring art beyond the canvas towards a synthesis of color, sound, movement, time, and space. His taglio (slash) canvases of the mid-1950s created a new dimension for the 2D surface with a simple linear cut. Conceptual artist Piero Manzoni (1933-63) created a scandal in 1961 when he put his feces in 90 small cans labeled Artist’s Shit, setting the price of the excrements at their weight in gold. In May 2007 Sotheby’s sold a can for €124,000. In the late 1960s Arte Povera bridged the gap between art and life by integrating cheap everyday materials into pieces of art. Michelangelo Pistoletto (1933-) caused a clamor with his Venus in Rags (1967), a plaster cast of a classical Venus facing a pile of old rags, on display at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin. While eclipsed by its Renaissance past, contemporary art in Italy thrives in select museums and at the bi-annual Venice Biennale , showcasing the recent work of artists from Italy and around the world.