Renaissance Art 67

Stories of Saint John the Evan­

gelist: Vision on the Island of
PatmoSy fresco by Giotti,

Peruzzi Chapel in the Basilica

of Santa Croce in Florence.

supreme compliment to say of a Renaissance painter that his work had sur­

passed nature in beauty. Leonardo put it this way: “Painting... compels

the mind of the painter to transform itself into the mind of nature itself

and to translate between nature and art.” During the Renaissance, nature

ceased to be mere background. Painters now faithfully depicted the beauty

of mountains, rocks, and gardens for their own sake.

Objects of everyday life increasingly appeared in paintings, reflecting a

greater preoccupation with realistic depiction. Take, for example, Raphael's

painting of the pudgy Pope Leo X, staring off into space while fiddling with a

magnifying glass with which he has been examining a book (see p. 64).

Beauty could be portrayed with extraordinary richness. The memorable

figures of the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone (c. 1266-1337) in the chapels

of Holy Cross Church in Florence, particularly their facial expressions,

reflect humanity, deeply personal emotion, and naturalism, unseen since

the classical age. The fame of Giotto, who is usually considered the first

great painter of the Renaissance, spread rapidly throughout much of Italy,

and his style greatly influenced his successors. Raphael, who admired and

learned from Michelangelo, eight years his senior, wrote of trying to paint

a beautiful woman, “I use as my guide a certain idea of the beautiful that

I carry in my mind.” Raphael's figures reflect a softness and inner beauty