Renaissance sculpture
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Sculpture in the Renaissance
Renaissance means rebirth and this period takes its name from the renewed interest in secular, classical art and literature developed among the ruling and mercantile elites of Northern Italy in the 15th Century. Michelangelo, Donatello, and Verrocchio are three of the best known Italian sculptors of this period, while Tilman Riemenschneider's name stands out among those north of the Alps.
The first appearance of the free-standing, erotic, young male nude connects this period to the ancient Greeks and Romans - but the sculptural style borrows equally, if not more, from the late Gothic masters like Lorenzo Ghiberti, Tullio Lombardo, Jacopo Della Quercia, and Andrea Pisano. Donatello is usually singled out as the first master of the Renaissance - with dazzling complexity in his deep perspective reliefs and virtuosity everywhere in his large body of work. The Renaissance period ends with the beginning of the 17th century, as sculpture is primarily called to serve a revived and militant Roman Catholicism.
But its many great sculptural monuments continued to make the cities and churches of Northern Italy important tourist centers through the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries - and up to the present day.
Michelangelo's great rival Leonardo Da Vinci designed an equine sculpture "The Horse" for Milan-but only succeeded in a Template:Convert clay model which was destroyed by French archers.
