History of Art

Since our meeting about improving our content for our museum’s website, I have given this a lot of thought and decided that our new timeline theme should evolve around sculptures of the High Renaissance in Italy. I chose this period because it was the time where classical art of antiquity was recaptured . I started with a marble sculpture by Tullio Lombardo from 1490 which was the start of the High Renaissance. The artists that I chose are Tullio Lombardo, Michelangelo, Lorenzetto, Bandinelli, Cellini, and Domenico Poggini. I ended the timeline with a marble sculpture by Domenico Poggini from 1554, which was around the end of the High Renaissance. I choose marble sculptures from this period because marble has a surface, once carved, that adds realism to these sculptures. The many iconic works in sculptures seems to have influenced successive generations of artists, an influence that continues to this present day.

http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/es/web-large/DT245572.jpg
Fig. 1
1490-95
Adam
Tullio Lombardo
Marble
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Adam is a life-size marble sculpture by Italian sculptor Tullio Lombardo. Here we see Adam carved out in a classical nude contrapposto pose. Adam was actually the first monumental classical nude carved following antiquity ("Adam", 2000). Lombardo does a great job at making Adam look younger here with the smoothness of his body and facial features. He gives him a very delicate glance without a smirk as if he is making him think about the apple that is in his hands. The apple in Adam’s hand symbolizes the apple from the forbidden tree . Adam also has in his other hand the tree trunk adorned with a serpent and a grapevine which symbolizes the temptation of sin.

http://www.wga.hu/preview/m/michelan/1sculptu/1/4bacchus.jpg
Fig. 2
1497
Bacchus
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Marble
Museo Nazionale Del Bargello, Florence

Here we see a classical sculpture of Bacchus carved out of marble by