Movement · 1400–1550

Italian Renaissance

Egg tempera gives way to oil. Natural ultramarine, ground from Afghan lapis lazuli, is so costly that contracts spell out where it may be used.

Across 30 works, the colors are mostly brown (51%), black (20%) and gray (11%). On average the canvases are mid-toned, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: dark muted azure blue, bistre, dark taupe, warm black and dark amber brown.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 222 charcoal 7.9% of canvas
• MG 219 bistre 7.3% of canvas
• MG 223 soot 6.4% of canvas
• MG 177 dark taupe 6.0% of canvas
• MG 176 taupe 3.5% of canvas
• MG 218 graphite 3.4% of canvas
• MG 220 warm black 3.2% of canvas
• MG 221 blue black 3.0% of canvas
• MG 175 stone 2.6% of canvas
• MG 168 dark amber brown 2.6% of canvas
• MG 173 putty 2.5% of canvas
• MG 172 oatmeal 2.4% of canvas
• MG 174 warm grey 2.4% of canvas
• MG 181 light sand 2.4% of canvas
• MG 185 dark golden umber 2.3% of canvas
• MG 098 dark muted azure blue 2.2% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.47

Contrast

0.55

Vividness

0.038

Warmth

+0.83

Complexity

187 cells

Hue range

0.46

Focus

0.11

Composition

Averaged over 30 works: 51% of the visual weight in the right half, 54% in the lower half; symmetry 0.43; 20% calm space; half of the detail in 31% of the canvas. Measured from each image, not a rule the painters followed.

Artists

• Fra Angelico 1395–1455
• Piero della Francesca 1415–1492
• Giovanni Bellini 1430–1516
• Andrea Mantegna 1431–1506
• Sandro Botticelli 1445–1510
• Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519
• Raphael 1483–1520
• Titian 1490–1576

Works

• Annunciation, 1425
• Adoration of the Magi, 1430
• The Baptism of Christ, 1448
• Madonna della Vittoria, 15th century
• San Marco Altarpiece, 15th century
• Flagellation of Christ, c. 1459
• Death of the Virgin, 1462
• Madonna and Child with Saints, Angels and Federico da Montefeltro (San Bernardino Altarpiece), 1472
• Adoration of the Magi, c. 1475
• Ginevra de' Benci, c. 1476
• Lamentation of Christ, 1483
• Primavera, 1480s
• The Birth of Venus, 1485
• Venus and Mars, 1485
• Lady with an Ermine, 1490
• The Last Supper, 1490s
• Salvator Mundi, 1500
• Mona Lisa, c. 1503
• The Marriage of the Virgin, 1504
• Madonna del Prato, 1500–1509
• Madonna of the Goldfinch, c. 1505
• Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, 1500–1509
• Sistine Madonna, c. 1512
• Sacred and Profane Love, c. 1514
• The Feast of the Gods, 1514
• Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1517
• La fornarina, c. 1518–1520
• Venus of Urbino, 1538
• Equestrian Portrait of Charles V, 1548
• Sleeping Venus, 16th century