Week Four: The Renaissance

    Hello, everyone. For this post, it took me a while of perusing various works of Renaissance art that fulfilled the requirements. Mostly because I didn't want to just go for something obvious like the Sistine Chapel, which isn't bad by any means, I just wanted to look for something, perhaps, less well known. And I came up with...

Ezekiel's Vision

By Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino

     Painted circa 1517-1518 by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known more often as Raphael, it is an expressive piece that depicts the Biblical story of Ezekiel and his vision of God's glory. "Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." (Ezekiel 1:28)

    The first thing that this painting tries to inspire is a feeling of awe or power. As it is meant to depict a divine vision of God himself, this is not surprising. You get this feeling, as the viewer, that you are standing with Ezekiel and basking in the sheer holiness before you as it descends. There are several things we can touch on, but let us first talk about the many different subjects in the painting.

Analysis

    There are seven subjects in the center of the painting, but one is clearly more important than the others. Inspired by depictions of Jupiter, the Roman king of the gods, here Raphael depicts God himself descending from the heavens accompanied by two angels on either side of him. Below him are an ox, a lion, an eagle, and an angel wearing pale blue. These represent each of the evangelists, and are common symbols to associate with them in religious art (Ox = Luke, Lion = Mark, Eagle = John, Angel = Matthew). But, if you look closely, there is one more person here. Down in the corner, basking in rays of gold light, is a silhouette of a man, commonly thought to be Ezekiel himself.

    Ezekiel being so small in this painting, not even being depicted as anything but a shadow, is a clear choice to contrast the sheer glory that stands before him. You could interpret it as the difference in importance between man and God. The gazes of the evangelists also show a sense of deference toward God. Behind them in the clouds are the faces of angels littering the sky, allowing for a sense of movement in the painting, but also another form of reverence for the Father as he descends.

    The use of composition and color is what initially intrigued me about this piece. The use of warm colors behind God and his entourage draws your eye to them, especially with the dark clouds and sea in the bottom right corner. God himself having his arms outstretched not only further solidifies his grandness, but it also makes him the most visually eye-catching subject. This, of course, is also helped by the fact that he's right in the middle of the painting, front and center, for largely the same reason. Another use of color to draw the eye is the relatively subdued browns, blacks, and grays of God's entourage, But God himself is wearing a bright red cloth, continuing this trend of contrast denoting visual hierarchy.

Background

    The history of this piece is somewhat interesting. Raphael was inspired by classic Greek and Roman art, and used some ideas from those sources to paint this painting. There is also supposedly some inspiration from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, as Raphael was known to take such inspiration from his fellow Renaissance artist. There is some contention on whether Raphael actually painted this. This is based on the fact that it was painted at a time when Raphael's workshop was very busy, and he had several collaborators who he would instruct on how to fulfill his artistic visions. 

    There is evidence to suggest that Ezekiel's Vision was sold to a Bolognese nobleman named Vincenzo Ercolani. However, the painting made its way to Florence in just a few decades, falling into the hands of none other than the Medici Family. Specifically, Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany at the time. It was displayed at the Uffuzi Gallery, which finished being constructed for the Medici's in 1581. Now days, however, the painting is housed in the Palazzo Pitti, a former palace bought by the Medici's in 1549 that is now a massive museum of art.

If any of you are interested, there were a few other works of Renaissance art that I found while researching that I enjoyed.

Madonna della Pieta, Michelangelo, c.1498-99

Triumph of Galatea, Raphael, 1512

Annunciation, Leonardo da Vinci, c.1472-26

References:

“Bible Gateway Passage: Ezekiel 1 - New King James Version.” Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+1&version=NKJV. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

“Ezekiel’s Vision by Raphael.” Uffizi Galleries, 22 Nov. 2023, www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/ezekiel-raphael.

“Ezekiel’s Vision (Raphael).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 July 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezekiel%27s_Vision_(Raphael).