Painting description

Fashion and history of Art Politecnico di Milano Design for the Fashion system 2019/2010 Prof. Rodolfo Maffeis & Prof.ssa Rita Capurro Personal assignment Debora Ferrara

Tondo Doni

by Michelangelo Buonarroti

year: about 1507 type: oil and tempera on panel dimensions: 120cm diameter location: Uffizi, Florence

The painting “Holy Family with St. John the Baptist” is better known as Tondo Doni because of its circular shape and the person who commissioned the work, Agnolo Doni, in 1504 on the occasion of his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi.

The Doni Tondo portrays the Holy Family (the child Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) in the foreground, along with John the Baptist in the middle-ground, and contains five nude male figures in the background.

The composition is, most likely, partially influenced by The Virgin and Child with St. Anne of Leonardo da Vinci. Michelangelo’s figures seem to be compacted into very little pictorial space and a similar bilaterally symmetrical triangular composition is employed. Distinctive details include Mary’s lack of veil and her bare, muscular arms, as Michelangelo wanted to emphasize the Madonna’s great moral strength through physical vigour. The Virgin Mary is the most prominent figure in the composition, taking up much of the center of the image. Mary sits directly on the ground without a cushion between herself and the ground, to better communicate the theme of her relationship to the earth. Saint Joseph has a higher position in the image compared to Mary, perhaps as the head of the family, although this is an unusual feature in compositions of the Holy Family. Mary is located between his legs, as if he is protecting her. There is some debate as to whether Mary is receiving the Christ child from Joseph or vice-versa. Mary’s clothing consists of a vivid primary red dress and blue mantle complimented by a strip of green. The yellow-orange of Joseph’s garments are covered by a deep blue tunic. The tempera pigment has retained the brightness so typical of that medium.

why Perspective and Proportion

The entire composition is based on a geometric grid in which there are a foreground and a background. In Renaissance painting the observation of the nature concerns in particular human anatomy, in order to create harmony, rhythm and simmetry in the compositions: concinnitas. In Michelangelo’s clever composition the three heads form an inverted triangle balanced and supported by the positioning of the arms.

The development of linear perspective encourages depiction of detailed landscapes in the background.

The Nude

Light

Motion and transformation

Istoria

During the Renaissance of the 1400s and 1500s, artists across Europe used the nude to explore religion, nature, human relationships, and beauty itself. In Tondo Doni the nude male figures in the upper right detail are a precursor to Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel.

The contrast between light and shade exist in the Renaissance paintings in order to create depth.

Chiaroscuro is the modelling of apparent surfaces within a picture by the suggestion of light and shadow. It became increasingly important to painters of the 15th century, transforming the depiction of threedimensional space, it’s an operation for depth. In the painting the depth is underlined by the use of black and white creating an intense contrast that allows figures to seem tridimensional.

This is a relevant theme in Renaissance paintings in which movement is explored through bodies in its actions, as if they were dancing. In Tondo Doni the characters have precise profiles in order not to create any relationship with the background around them and the reversed movements of the figures create a rotating movement, which starts from the Virgin Mary’s twisted position and ends with the family embracing. The image fixes in a frame an action that is taking place or is about to take place, so the picture is not static.

Ekphrasis, a term that describes a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art. The observation of nature meant that set forms and symbolic gestures which in Medieval art, were used to convey meaning, were replaced by the representation of human emotion as displayed by a range of individuals. Tondo Doni is the most tender grouping of figures ever produced

by Michelangelo. The figures interact in an intense and intimate way, the action flows from Joseph’s eyes, which are firmly fixed on the child, who in turn looks at his mother with head tilted downwards.

In particular, Mary’s face is a picture of adoration and love as her eyes roll upward to meet the gaze of her son.