Compare and Contrast Papal Projects by Raphael, Michelangelo, and Bramante

This essay compares and contrasts the different papal projects executed by Raphael, Michelangelo, and Bramante under Pope Julius II. It discusses the function of their imagery/vision in/for the different spaces and the constraints faced by the artists. It also explores why the papacy considered the need to transform Rome into a beautiful city and center of art in the early 1500s.

RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
Art History
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
Essay topic is Compare and contrast the different papal projects executed by Raphael,
Michelangelo and
Bramante under Pope Julius II. Discuss the function of their imagery/vision in/for the
different
spaces. How much, if at all, were the artists constrained by the demands of the various
commissions? Why did the papacy considered the need to transform Rome into a beautiful
city
and center of art in the early 1500s
Introduction
Beginning in the thirteenth century another logic of Humanism developed, concentrating on the
"investigation of man with regards to social life, nature, expressions of the human experience,
legislative issues, art and the spiritual world."i The humanistic accentuation on the individual
potential and need to exceed expectations raised the respect of the human experience to reason
and to settle on free decisions and this prompted the Renaissance, a time of reestablished
enthusiasm for antiquated and traditional learning.1 Individuals were presently ready to settle on
their own spiritual choices and, along these lines, there was a lessened need to request the
profound direction of the ministry. The Church needed to rehash itself to draw in again its
faithful followers and, as an outcome, Pope Julius II chose to bring back the wonder of
magnificent Rome under the umbrella of Christianity. 2This paper will quickly cover the
humanistic works and difficulties experienced in the revamping of St. Peters by Bramante, the
artwork of the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo, and the painting papal project involving
School of Athens by Raphael. It compares and contrast the different papal projects, their vision
and imagery aspects and also their constraints that they faced by requirements of various
commissions.ii
1 Adams. Italian Renaissance Art,American publishers123.
2 Ames-Lewis. Reactions to the master: Michelangelo's effect on art and artists in the sixteenth
century,34
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
Julius II required significant exertion to introduce himself as a second Julius Cesar and, truth be
told, he was known as the Warrior Pope as he battled to broaden the papal state projects. In this
manner, when his esteemed architect, Bramante demonstrated to him the arrangement to remake
St. Peters and have another congregation which would have been greater than the Augustus'
Pantheon in Rome and greater than Justinian's 6th century church of Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople, he highly led to the commissioning of the revamping of the papal. 3
Fig.1Rebuilding of St.Peters Basilica by Bramante
The conventional Christian basilica was arranged along a longitudinal pivot, much the same as
the disregarded and broken down St. Peters that Julius II chose to re-construct. In this halfway
arranged church for St. Peter's, Bramante conveyed forward, on a monstrous scale, his structure
and idea of the Tempietto, a dedicatory tomb that accommodated the Christian and Humanist
goals.4 There are no structural records of St.Peters plan, anyway the structure can be
acknowledged from the decoration that Julius II authorized when the establishments were laid. iii
3 Baker-Bates. "Sebastianello Nostro Venetiano: The Career of Sebastiano del Piombo and the
Concept of a,‘Court Artist’in Renaissance Rome."Cambridge University,21.
4 Burke. Rethinking the High Renaissance: The Culture of the Visual Arts in Early Sixteenth-
Century Rome,89
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
Julius II laid the main stone of the new church on the eighteenth of April, 1506. The focal marker
of the new church was the indicated tomb of St. peter, and its development not just needed to
conquer the delicate ground underneath it yet in addition the way that piece of the old church
needed to oblige the continuous religious administrations.5 Michelangelo highly brought
complains to the Pope that Bramante was utilizing less expensive material to design the church
building and that its old sections could have been spared instead of decimated as Bramante had
done.iv The pursuing of wars by the Pope was likewise a constraint issue, as the existing papal
chest would sporadically end up depleted.6 Further, the expense of remaking St. Peters was
enormous to the point that Julius needed to approve the selling of existing indulgences in order to
fund its development, and accordingly, the motivation behind reconstructing St. Peters to pull in
increased faithful people to the congregation turned into the very purpose behind the Protestant
Reformation.
In mid-1508, Michelangelo was given the commission to paint the Sistine Chapel roof, despite
the fact that he begged Julius II not to do as such since he was most importantly a stone worker.
Julius II initially authorized Michelangelo to paint only the twelve huge figures of the apostles
on the pendentives of the roof. Michelangelo remarked that such a plan was a poor decision,
vsignificantly the Pope, having full trust in the ability and duty of Michelangelo, gave him the
decision to do anything he desired. 7
The house of prayer has a rectangular arrangement of around 41 by 13 meters, similar
components of the Solomon sanctuary, has six curved windows on the more extended side
dividers, and its roof has a barrel vault. Michelangelo began painting the Sistine Chapel roof in
5 Barnes, Michelangelo in print: reproductions as response in the sixteenth century,34.
6 Burke. "Inventing the High Renaissance, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd 67
7 Haas, Robert. "Raphael's School of Athens,Havard printers89
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
June 1508, and when he completed it in October 1512 he had painted a surface region of around
650 square meters containing a sum of 343 figures. 8
Since the designed walls of the main chapel officially included canvases and paintings that
usually stood in for Covenant of the Children of Israel through the Life of Moses, and of the
New Covenant through the Life of Christ, it was intelligent that Michelangelo decided to
represents the Salvation of mankind with its Covenant with God. The improvement of the
general plan decoration focused about the auxiliary design of the roof with its pendentives,
windows, lunettes and spandrels, alongside an awning and gaudy reenacted established
architecture. There is an understanding that since Michelangelo, around then, had little practice
in engineering and illusionistic painting, he drew on the experience of his kindred craftsman and
planner Donato Bramante despite the fact that the two specialists were never cordial to one
another. In comparison the components and the arrangement of the existing architecture of their
papal projects are highly comparable or similar. In both there are two extensive platforms topped
by an expansive connecting shaping which goes around their edges and over the space between
them."
The vision and knowledge regarding the reconciliation of mankind with eternality is one precept
of Renaissance Humanism and Michelangelo carried on this humanistic plan by isolating the
roof in three areas: the Ancestors of Christ, the Prophets and Sibyls, and the Histories from the
Book of Genesis. 9The Ancestors of Christ portray normal families confronting the changes of
life and speak to the association "between the fall of mankind and its recovery realized by the
introduction of Christ." The Prophets and Sibyls symbolize the Coming of Christ and with their
8 Calvillo. "Authoritative Copies and Divine Originals: Lucretian Metaphor, Painting on Stone,
and the Problem of Originality in Michelangelo’s Rome,45
9 Hickson, Sally. "Gian Cristoforo Romano in Rome: With some thoughts on the Mausoleum of
Halicarnassus and the Tomb of Julius II.",10
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
momentously delineated figures appear to speak to the best satisfaction of ourselves." The
Biblical scenes from the Fall of Man to the Creation of Adam and Eve to the Creation of Heaven
and Earth accommodate the individual respect of man and human involvement with the profound
being of God through the intervention of Christ.10
Michelangelo confronted overpowering difficulties and constraints from the commission in
painting the Sistine Chapel roof. He needed to manufacture his own framework since he didn't
care for what Bramante had constructed, and he needed to languish much agony over painting
staying strong with his neck kept down. 11
Fig.2 Painting of the Sistine Chapel roof by Michelangelo
There is a theory that it was Bramante who proposed to Julius II to convey Raphael to Rome, and
ideally to paint the Sistine Chapel roof. Once in Rome, Raphael was given the commission to
paint four rooms that were the open piece of the ecclesiastical loft. One of the rooms was La
Stanza della Segnatura, a room where the Pope had his private library, got open authorities and
marked reports. Raphael painted four frescos on every one of the four dividers of the Stanza
della Segnatura and the School of Athens is the fresco that customizes Philosophy, one of the
parts of learning at the time.
10 Kaborycha, Lisa. A Short History of Renaissance Italy, Prentice Hall 98
11 King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Bloomsbury Publishing USA ,56
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
The School of Athens speaks to the exemplification of Philosophy as considered in Renaissance
Humanism. Under a bombastic arch of a basilica with dashed vaults and coffered roof, there is a
collection of masterminds of antiquated Greece.12
Fig.3 School of Athens by Raphael
"The fifty-eight figures who consume this structural space noteworthy for its loftiness,
extravagance, and balance are on the whole hectically doing accurately what rationalists
dependably do when they are going about as key philosophers.They are reading, composing,
addressing, contending, illustrating, addressing, tuning in, contemplating, respecting,
questioning." vi
Why did the papacy considered the need to transform Rome into a beautiful city
and center of art in the early 1500s
No other city in Europe matches Rome in its customs, history, inheritances, and impact in the
Western world. Rome in the Renaissance under the papacy not just went about as watchman and
transmitter of these components originating from the Roman Empire yet in addition expected the
job as artificer and translator of its fantasies and implications for the people groups of Europe
from the Middle Ages to current occasions. viiAt the time the popes left Rome for Avignon in
12 Lazzaro, Claudia. "River gods: personifying nature in sixteenth‐century Italy." ,Cambridge
university,70.
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
1308, the number of inhabitants in the once-famous city of Rome and focal point of domain had
contracted in populace to close to thirty thousand from one of in excess of a million and a half at
its stature; its noteworthy landmarks and texture generally lay in remnants.13 However, in the
perspective on Western Europe, its significance lay in the relics of its Christian saints, most
importantly in those of Saints Peter and Paul, the two mainstays of the Christian confidence.viii In
1420, when the popes came back to the city to live there for all time, and particularly starting
with the pontificate of Nicholas V (1447– 1455).Rome started at initial a moderate yet before
long quickening procedure of urban, social, and financial recharging that impelled it even past
the extraordinary urban communities of Renaissance Italy—Naples, Venice, Milan, and
Florence. ixUnder the support of the popes, whose riches and salary were surpassed just by their
desire, the city turned into a social community for ace planners, artists, performers, painters, and
artists of each sort. By the mid sixteenth century,Rome had turned out to be perceived as the new
focal point of culture and beautiful artistic accomplishment.xIn its beauty it would hold this
power of spot all through the seventeenth century.xi In its legend and message, Rome had turned
into the hallowed city of the popes, the prime image of a triumphant Catholicism, the focal point
of customary Christianity.xii As a result of wealth and other abundant reaches in Rome, social
history, economic patterns, political conflicts, the papacy considered to transform it into a
beautiful city center of art and paintings.
Conclusion
The revamping of St. Peter's, the work of art of the Sistine Chapel roof and the artwork of the
School of Athens are the most elevated masterful articulations of the Renaissance and of its
13 Temple, Nicholas. "Gesture and perspective in Raphael’s School of Athens.Routledge",112.
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
precept to accommodate Humanism and Christianity.14 In charging such works, Julius II sought
after his fantasy to restore the Church at the focal point of human undertakings and abandon an
inheritance of amazing magnificence which outperformed any past sovereign or Pope. xiii
Typically, people live in a consistently evolving world, and in spite of the fact that the Church
may not be at the focal point of human undertakings today, the imagination/creativity of
Bramante with St. Peter's, Michelangelo with the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael with the four
Stanze is valued by the 25,000 world guests who visit the Vatican regularly.xiv
Bibliography
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Italian Renaissance Art. Routledge, 2018.
14 Temple, Nicholas. Renovatio urbis: architecture, urbanism and ceremony in the Rome of
Julius II,Routledge,89
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RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
Ames-Lewis, Francis. Reactions to the master: Michelangelo's effect on art and artists in the
sixteenth century. Routledge, 2017.
Baker-Bates, Piers. "Sebastianello Nostro Venetiano: The Career of Sebastiano del Piombo and
the Concept of a,‘Court Artist’in Renaissance Rome." The Court Historian 16, no. 1 (2011): 7-
23.
Barnes, Bernadine. Michelangelo in print: reproductions as response in the sixteenth century.
Routledge, 2017.
Burke, Jill, ed. Rethinking the High Renaissance: The Culture of the Visual Arts in Early
Sixteenth-Century Rome. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012.
Burke, Jill. "Inventing the High Renaissance, from Winckelmann to Wikipedia: An Introductory
Essay." In Rethinking the High Renaissance, pp. 17-40. Routledge, 2017.
Calvillo, Elena. "Authoritative Copies and Divine Originals: Lucretian Metaphor, Painting on
Stone, and the Problem of Originality in Michelangelo’s Rome." Renaissance Quarterly66, no. 2
(2013): 453-508.
Haas, Robert. "Raphael's School of Athens: A Theorem in a Painting?." Journal of Humanistic
Mathematics 2, no. 2 (2012): 2-26.
Hickson, Sally. "Gian Cristoforo Romano in Rome: With some thoughts on the Mausoleum of
Halicarnassus and the Tomb of Julius II." Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et
Réforme (2010): 3-30.
Kaborycha, Lisa. A Short History of Renaissance Italy. Prentice Hall, 2011.
King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2014.
10

RUNNING HEADER: Sociology
Lazzaro, Claudia. "River gods: personifying nature in sixteenth‐century Italy." Renaissance
Studies 25, no. 1 (2011): 70-94.
Temple, Nicholas. "Gesture and perspective in Raphael’s School of Athens." In Renaissance
Theories of Vision, pp. 147-160. Routledge, 2016.
Temple, Nicholas. Renovatio urbis: architecture, urbanism and ceremony in the Rome of Julius
II. Routledge, 2011.
END NOTES
11

i Adams, Laurie Schneider. Italian Renaissance Art. Routledge, 2018.
ii Ames-Lewis, Francis. Reactions to the master: Michelangelo's effect on art and artists in the
sixteenth century. Routledge, 2017.
iii Baker-Bates, Piers. "Sebastianello Nostro Venetiano: The Career of Sebastiano del Piombo and the
Concept of a,‘Court Artist’in Renaissance Rome." The Court Historian 16, no. 1 (2011): 7-23.
iv Burke, Jill, ed. Rethinking the High Renaissance: The Culture of the Visual Arts in Early Sixteenth-
Century Rome. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012.
v Barnes, Bernadine. Michelangelo in print: reproductions as response in the sixteenth century.
Routledge, 2017.
vi Burke, Jill. "Inventing the High Renaissance, from Winckelmann to Wikipedia: An Introductory
Essay." In Rethinking the High Renaissance, pp. 17-40. Routledge, 2017.
vii Calvillo, Elena. "Authoritative Copies and Divine Originals: Lucretian Metaphor, Painting on Stone,
and the Problem of Originality in Michelangelo’s Rome." Renaissance Quarterly66, no. 2 (2013): 453-
508.
viii Haas, Robert. "Raphael's School of Athens: A Theorem in a Painting?." Journal of Humanistic
Mathematics 2, no. 2 (2012): 2-26.
ix Hickson, Sally. "Gian Cristoforo Romano in Rome: With some thoughts on the Mausoleum of
Halicarnassus and the Tomb of Julius II." Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et
Réforme (2010): 3-30.

x Kaborycha, Lisa. A Short History of Renaissance Italy. Prentice Hall, 2011.
xi King, Ross. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2014.
xii Lazzaro, Claudia. "River gods: personifying nature in sixteenth‐century Italy." Renaissance
Studies 25, no. 1 (2011): 70-94.
xiii Temple, Nicholas. "Gesture and perspective in Raphael’s School of Athens." In Renaissance
Theories of Vision, pp. 147-160. Routledge, 2016.
xiv Temple, Nicholas. Renovatio urbis: architecture, urbanism and ceremony in the Rome of Julius II.
Routledge, 2011.