Spanish painting of the Renaissance: El Greco.

This artist’s work is easy to identify due to the deformation of his characters. This characteristic is controversial and while some people attribute it to his astigmatism, others consider that it is only due to his faith. This last theory is based on several points: to make longer images was a resource used in the Gothic; it is a way of underlining the remote and divine; all the masters from whom El Greco received influences used it (Byzantine school, Venetian school and Italian mannerists).

The theory of the astigmatism looks to be a bit weaker because El Greco does not use this deformation always. He prefers to restrict it to some images. For example, in the Burial of the Count of Orgaz terrene characters are normal while divine are deformed.

Being the explanations one or the other, it is true that this deformation was more marked as long as the artist was getting older.

Apart from the deformations El Greco’s work is know because of his colour. Formed in contact with the Venetian school, he introduced vivid colours in his palette. A majority of the times these brilliant images are reserved for just a part of the painting, while the rest is darker. This underlines the dramatic polychrome effect.

A good part of his work is constituted by his religious paintings, but he also realised several portraits, in which he managed to capsize the psychological characteristics of his models. These images are always represented in a neutral and dark background, as if they emerged from the darkness.

He also realised some mythological images, such as Laocoon. Other important work is his View of Toledo, a very personal interpretation of the city in which he spent a majority of his life in Spain.

Spanish sculpture of the Renaissance

Characteristics:
The pagan style of Italian sculpture was not followed in Spain. Anything that aimed at the exaltation the human forms in detriment of the expression was refused as something contrary to the Christian sculpture. Classical principles are accepted in decorative and funerary sculpture because these were made on commandment but the rest follow the medieval tradition, in which the work depicted some religious ideas, even if disgusting. It is not just a work for decorating altars but an expression of popular devotion. These ideas followed the ideas of Trento’s Council.

The image and the polychrome sculpture:
The favourite material was polychrome wood. When stone, marble or alabaster are used it is in a very scarce proportion respective to wood, that is considered as the ideal material to express devotion.

The most commonly used is pine. The artist works in it. Once he finished the work is “white” so his next work is to add the polychrome effects. The image is covered with wax, without eliminating any element of the carving. Over this are applied the colours of the skin and the clothes. For a better depiction of clothes other materials such as golden papers are used. Colours were added afterwards with the quilt technique. The result is a brilliant image that tries to represent popular devotion.

Evolution of the Spanish sculpture:
At the beginning of 16th century several Italian artist work in Spain (Torrigiano, Fancelli) or Italian works are imported. The most demanded works are tombs made in marble. In Spain artists such as Bartolomé Ordoñez or Diego de Siloé work in some sepulchres that continue, in some way, the Gothic tradition.

The two masters of the Spanish Renaissance work in Valladolid: Alonso Berruguete and Juan de Juni.

Alonso Berruguete travelled to Italy where he knew the work of Donatello and Michelangelo but in his work dramatist elements dominate over harmony and serenity. In some way he anticipates the Baroque. He is not interested in a perfect depiction but in an intellectual elaboration related to a transcendent idea. Signify dominates over sensuality and beauty. His style is dominated by dynamism, lack of symmetry in the faces and anatomies, non repetition of the images, gestures or attitudes, variety in the study of hands and special interest in the contraposto, creating a much curved image, sometimes helicoidally represented. He expresses anguish, dynamism and drama. He can recourse to establish a hierarchy of images, putting one over another, inverted perspectives. All in all, he renounces to beauty in benefit of the spiritual expression. Among his works we can find: San Sebastian, chairs of the Toledo Cathedral.

Juan de Juni has an slow a detailed way of working but his results are magnificent due to their tragic dimension and their brilliant polychrome effects. His images are big, with theatrical gestures. Compositions are too complicated due to the lack of space that announces the Mannerism. He received Michelangelo’s influences. He is not interested in representing physical sufferance, but the spiritual. Images are concentrated, with a bended profile, creating and helix in the space. He finishes the works perfectly, as can be seen in his Piety, Death Christ and Holy Burials.

Renaissance Architecture in Spain.

It is difficult to mark a strong division between the last Gothic and the Renaissance. Spanish society did not have a developed bourgeoisie and the group having a great power was the nobility. Any kind of attempt to break the established order was crushed so that the Spanish Renaissance is going to be limited to the institutions and people around the Court. This influenced a continuity Middle Ages-Renaissance. In architecture there is a combination of gothic and mudejar forms with Italian influences, that got to the country thanks to the intense commercial relation of Mediterranean ports with Italy and to the exchange of materials and artists between both territories.

Architectonical evolution.
The Renaissance forms arrived when the Dynastic Union took place. During the last period the last Gothic had an important development, at once with the mudejar influence. This last created civilian works comfortable and chip, with traditional materials such as brick and wood. These influences, at once with the technical tradition of working stone limited the Italian influences.

The Italian fashion was limited to decorative aspects, with elements such as grotesques, candelieri or garlands. With the time some pieces were imported as is the case of chimneys, columns capitals and shafts, altars, sepulchres.

Plateresque
At the beginning of the 16th century the term was coined because this architecture was similar to the work of goldsmith and silversmiths. Decoration primes over construction. The medieval influences still being important: in the outside walls are padded; columns are abalustraded, with Corinthian or composite capitals and a base full of leaves; pilasters are covered with grotesque decoration; semicircular arches are used but segmentalis more common; at arches sides and in freezes medallions are used; the covers continue being crossing vaults with medallions but barrel vaults with lacunaria (caseton) also appear; buildings are frequently ended with crests; in general the proportions are not classical.

Significant works are: The Santa Cruz college in Valladolid, the Golden Stair of Burgos Cathedral, Salamanca University’s door, the House of the Shells in Salamanca, the Façade of Alcala University, work of Gil de Hontañon.

The Classicist Renaissance
At the same time that the former style other works traditionally Renaissance were built. Both styles developed at the same time and even some architects made works in both of them. Examples of this works are the interventions in Granada Cathedral, made by Diego de Siloe. Other architect is Andres de Vandelvira who worked in Ubeda and Baeza. His works are based on architectonical elements, not in decoration.

Herrerian style.
It is during the last part of the 16th century that the Monastery of Saint Lorenzo in the Escorial is built. The style is named after the architect of this work, Juan de Herrera, whose style is influence by the purity of forms of Bramante and Michelangelo, characterised by: solid architectonical structures, lack of decoration, beauty of the building based on the monumentality of the work and the correct use of the elements.

Renaissance Painting

It is influenced by the Humanism, the same as the rest of the Arts. In some authors’ opinion, the beginnings of this painting are the Flemish painters such as Van Eyck and Italian painters such as Masaccio.

Characteristics
· Supports:
Wall painting continued being used in Italy. In Venice, due to the mosaic tradition, it tended to lose importance and they began painting on canvas for conservation reasons.
Canvas became common but wood continued being the most used support. Polyptics were frequently produced in Europe and in Spain, while in Italy it was more common an altarpiece of just one level.

· Techniques:
Italian painters maintained the use of the fresco.
Book illumination was loosing importance due to the apparition of printed books.
From the last decades of 15th century, the engraving on wood and later on copper became common to reproduce and expand painted works. Some watercolours belong to this period too.
The drawing acquired more importance and was not considered any longer as a secondary job linked to painted works.
The most revolutionary element was the substitution of the temple by the oil. This new technique had been developed by Van Eyck and was spreading to the rest of Europe.

· Subjects:

Religious paintings were important and almost exclusive in some Northern countries and in Spain. New saints or new ways of portraying the traditional ones were introduced as a reflection of the worries of the time. It is frequent to find saints devoted to the studies, for instance.

In Italy mythological subjects were taken from the classical authors or from their contemporary.

History was other subject and the description of the conflicts between cities led to the development of war subjects.

Portrait was developed.
Landscape, without being a subject in itself, gained more importance in the paintings, especially in Venice and in Flanders.

· Composition:
The space was organised through lineal and atmospheric perspective.
In the painting organization, the centre is more important than the periphery. Symmetry was commonly used. Sometimes the images are organised depending of simple shapes (circumference, pyramid).
For the background traditional motives were used (half point vaults, sarcophagus) or architectures that were modelled following the Roman tradition.

· Drawing, colour and brushstroke:
Gold was eliminated progressively. Light colours tended to disappear from strategic point of the painting. The palette was diversified. In general, it is light, even when some painters experiment with unusual lighten effects such as storms or nights broken by lights.
The use of oil paining made it possible the introduction of more delicate nuances, especially in landscape and flesh depiction. In addition to this, it made possible the creation of effects such as bright, transparency and luminosity.
The sfumato technique gave the opportunity of unifying the image with the surrounds instead of delining its contour.

· Images:
A new realism inspired the faces’ depiction, particularly in Flemish painting. The painters made an effort to diversify the characters: bodies should be convenient thanks to their simility to real images.
At the same time, and mainly in Italy, there is a worry about idealization that affected specially the nudes, inspiring the use of some cannons. These new models were inspired in classical images.
The normalization of beauty resulted in the apparition of some stereotypes that were considered their antagonists. Ridiculous images, sometimes close to caricatures, were created in this period.

Renaissance Sculpture

The discovery of the nature and the human body were more important than the imitation of Antiquity. The polychromes, the gilding and the various techniques employed emphasize the pictorial quality of the works. An innovation was that the artist was no longer content to be a mere craftsman, but he had the mission of adorn. Sculpture and painting are going to be together many times. Projects were important in cities such as Florence were competitions were hold when they had to command an important work, as in the case of the Doors of the Baptistery.

During the Quattrocento there is an intention to define an idealized, perfect bur naturalistic representation of the human body.
The novelty is the concept of beauty embodied by youth, whereas the gerontocracy in power strove to relegate the young and adolescent to the sidelines of social life.
The sculptures have three characteristics:
-Gothic tradition
-Renewal of Antiquity
-Resource to the single point of view that underlines frontality.

Typology

·Tomb sculpture.
The wall tomb was the favourite framework used by the Renaissance sculpture.The backed tombs were contaminated by the successive forms taken by altarpieces: the recess was surrounded by statuette aligned vertically on the pilasters.Artists adopted a tripartite structure, contrasting the central arcade, which emphasized the image of the deceased with lateral niches containing statues of saints or virtues.The development of the representation of the dead denoted a new conception of the portrait. Depiction of faces was often dictated by the concept of the ideal.

·Revival of the equestrian statue
Life-size representation of a horse and rider was and attractive subject for sculptors but did not become possible until the second half of the century, due to the cost of execution and technical problems to cast the bronze. The monuments were reserved to the representation of the civic and secular virtues of illustrious men and took as a model the Marcus Aurelius. Previously other models in short-lived materials were used. The best examples are the Condottiero Gattamelata made by Donatello, and the Condottiero Colleoni, work of Verrochio.

·The portrait
The art of medallist developed. They tended to specify and define the natural features of an individual, with attention to physiognomy and its psychological bearing, and without forgetting the course of the time. Female portraits implied a searching focus on the beauty of woman, and inspired the artist to a celebration of beauty, with a softer and tenderer treatment.

·Nude
There is a predominance of male nudes. They follow the Gothic tradition. Female nudes appear in small bronze statues, imitating the antique statuary. Male nude kept the workshops especially busy. Some of the models are those made by Michelangelo: Bacchus and, later on, David.

Materials and technique
Bronze substituted other precious materials. It was casted and finished by chisel. At the beginning it was not highly polished.Extensive use of marble and fine calcareous stones
Details of images are sometimes gilded.Backgrounds can be coloured.

Renaissance Architecture

15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Classical Greek and Roman thought and material culture.
The Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of Ancient Rome, of which many examples remained.
Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.

Architectonical elements
Plan: The plans of Renaissance buildings have a square, symmetrical appearance in which proportions are usually based on a module. Within a church the module is often the width of an aisle. Central plans are commonly used, combined with basilical models, and frequently buildings are a combination of both.
Façades: Façades are symmetrical around their vertical axis. Church facades are generally surmounted by a pediment and organized by a system of pilasters, arches and entablatures. The columns and windows show a progression towards the centre.
Domestic buildings are often surmounted by a cornice. There is a regular repetition of openings on each floor, and the centrally placed door is marked by a feature such as a balcony, or rusticated surround.
Columns and pilasters: The Roman orders of columns are used:- Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. The orders can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters.
Arches: Arches are semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental. Arches are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals.
There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch.
Vaults: Vaults do not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular. The barrel vault, is returned.
Domes: The dome is used frequently, both as a very large structural feature that is visible from the exterior, and also as a means of roofing smaller spaces where they are only visible internally.
Ceilings: Roofs are fitted with flat or coffered ceilings. They are not left open as in Medieval architecture. They are frequently painted or decorated.
Doors: Door usually have square lintels. They may be set within an arch or surmounted by a triangular or segmental pediment. Openings that do not have doors are usually arched and frequently have a large or decorative keystone.
Windows: Windows may be paired and set within a semi-circular arch. They may have square lintels and triangular or segmental pediments, which are often used alternately. Windows are used to bring light into the building and in domestic architecture, to give views. Stained glass, although sometimes present, is not a feature.
Walls: External walls are generally of highly-finished ashlar masonry, laid in straight courses. The corners of buildings are often emphasised by rusticated “quoins”. Basements and ground floors were often rusticated. Internal walls are smoothly plastered and surfaced with white-chalk paint. For more formal spaces, internal surfaces are decorated with frescoes.

Building typology
As it is a more profane art religious buildings are not exclusive.
Churches: Continue being one of the most important buildings. They tend to be of central plan and they are full of classical elements.

Palaces and villas: They acquire special importance. Two types can be distinguished:

· Palaces are urban buildings. They tend to be three-storey and they are very closed, with walls treated in different ways depending on the floor. They are symmetric and have several windows. Internally they are organised around a courtyard and they have a loggia.

· Villas: They are in the countryside. They loose their defensive character to become just a place for living in contact with Nature. They consist of a central cube standing on a strong base and they are surrounded by gardens.