nora, ella

Chapter 20

Art History Volume 2

Stokstad & Cothren

Pearson

Chapter 20 Renaissance Art in Fifteenth–Century Italy

An interest in scientific investigation blossomed into the development and use of linear perspective throughout fifteenth-century Italian painting.

New focus on artistic competition and individual achievement created a climate for innovative and ambitious works.

Humanism and the Italian Renaissance

•  Cities grew in wealth as people migrated from the countryside, and commerce became increasingly vital.

•  Italian humanists looked back to art and determined that achievements of the Classical world were followed by a perceived decline. !  They sought to revive physical and literary records

of the ancient world. •  Artists turned to antiquity for inspiration and emulated

what they saw in ancient Roman sculpture and architecture.

•  Italian painters and sculptors increasingly rendered the illusion of physical reality in a more analytical way than that of northerners.

Florence

•  The fifteenth century witnessed the rise of the Medici family, who made their money through banking.

•  The competitive atmosphere fostered both mercantile and artistic success.

•  Florence was considered a republic. ! Artists could look to the Church, state

(government and guilds), and individuals for patronage.

Architecture •  The defining civic project in Florence was the

cathedral. !  Construction began in the late thirteenth century,

but architects did not yet have technology to complete the designed dome.

•  Filippo Brunelleschi !  Brunelleschi was a principal pioneer of Florentine

architecture. !  The Dome of Florence Cathedral was a feat of

engineering, with an octagonal outer shell and lower inner shell. •  Each portion reinforced the next one as it was

built layer by layer with no external support.

Filippo Brunelleschi DOME OF FLORENCE CATHEDRAL (SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE) 1420-1436; lantern completed 1471. [Fig. 20-04]

Art and Its Contexts: The Competition Reliefs

•  Florence Cathedral sponsored a competition for the artist of the bronze doors and chose the scene of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.

•  Surviving panels belong to assumed finalists Lorenzo Ghiberti and Brunelleschi.

Art and Its Contexts: The Competition Reliefs

•  Brunelleschi's composition is rugged, explosive, and intense.

•  Ghiberti's version is graceful with controlled poses and harmonious pairing of son and father. ! His work proved to be lighter and less

expensive when he was declared winner. •  Brunelleschi withdrew his entry.

Filippo Brunelleschi SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 1401-1402. Bronze with gilding, 21" × 17-1/2" (53 × 44 cm) inside molding.

Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. [Fig. 20-02]

Lorenzo Ghiberti SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 1401-1402. Bronze with gilding, 21" × 17-1/2" (53 × 44 cm) inside molding.

Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. [Fig. 20-3]

Sculpture

•  The Gates of Paradise ! Rival to Brunelleschi, Lorenzo Ghiberti

labored on the bronze doors for Florence's baptistery, which were installed in 1452.

! The story of Jacob and Esau demonstrates his attention to one-point perspective.

Lorenzo Ghiberti "GATES OF PARADISE" (EAST BAPTISTERY DOORS) Formerly on the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence. 1425-1452.

Gilt bronze, height 15' (4.57 m). Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence. [Fig. 20-16]

Lorenzo Ghiberti JACOB AND ESAU, PANEL OF THE "GATES OF PARADISE" (EAST BAPTISTERY DOORS)

Formerly on the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence. c. 1435. Gilded bronze, 31 1/4" (79 cm) square.

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence. [Fig. 20-17]

Technique: Renaissance Perspective

•  Linear perspective was a rational method used to make realistic architectural settings.

•  Imaginary lines called orthogonals met at a single vanishing point on the horizon.

•  Variations in color and clarity can also convey the feeling of distance in a painting.

Perugino CHRIST GIVING THE KEYS TO ST. PETER, WITH A SCHEMATIC DRAWING SHOWING THE ORTHOGONALS AND VANISHING POINT

Fresco on the right wall of the Sistine Chapel (see FIG. 20-33), Vatican, Rome. 1481. 11'5-1/2" × 18'8-1/2" (3.48 × 5.70 m). [Fig. 20-20a]

Perugino CHRIST GIVING THE KEYS TO ST. PETER, WITH A SCHEMATIC DRAWING SHOWING THE ORTHOGONALS AND VANISHING POINT

Fresco on the right wall of the Sistine Chapel (see FIG. 20-33), Vatican, Rome. 1481. 11'5-1/2" × 18'8-1/2" (3.48 × 5.70 m). [Fig. 20-20b]

Painting

•  After a tradition of fresco painting, artists began to turn to oil paints.

•  Masaccio ! Masaccio (1401–1428) painted the

Trinity fresco to give the illusion that a stone funerary monument and alter receded into a deep aedicula niche.

! The figures progress into space. ! A skeleton evokes mortality in viewers.

Masaccio TRINITY WITH THE VIRGIN, ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, AND DONORS Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. c. 1425-1427/1428.

Fresco, 21' × 10'5" (6.4 × 3.2 m). [Fig. 20-18]

SECTION DIAGRAM OF THE ILLUSIONISTIC SPATIAL WORLD PORTRAYED IN MASACCIO'S TRINITY

After Gene Brucker, Florence: The Golden Age, Berkeley, 1998. [Fig. 20-19]

Painting

•  The Brancacci Chapel ! The Tribute Money marks early use of

linear and atmospheric perspective. • Foreground figures have bold highlights and long shadows on the ground.

Masaccio THE TRIBUTE MONEY Brancacci Chapel, church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. c. 1427.

Fresco, 8'1" × 19'7" (2.46 × 6 m). [Fig. 20-22]

Painting in Florence After Masaccio

•  Fra Angelico ! The pious Fra Angelico worked in

Florence as early as 1417. ! His Annunciation uses linear perspective

to extend the corridor of the monastery where it was painted into an imagined portico and garden. • Graceful figures render the scene with contemporary details.

Fra Angelico ANNUNCIATION North dormitory corridor, monastery of San Marco, Florence. c. 1438-1445.

Fresco, 7'1" × 10'6" (2.2 × 3.2 m). [Fig. 20-23]

Painting in Florence After Masaccio

•  Uccello ! Paolo Uccello emerged as an eccentric

painter specializing in the study of linear perspective. • An example is seen in The Battle of San Romano.

Paolo Uccello THE BATTLE OF SAN ROMANO 1438-1440. Tempera on wood panel, approx. 6' × 10'6" (1.82 × 3.2 m).

National Gallery, London. [Fig. 20-24]

Painting in Florence After Masaccio

•  Castagno ! Andrea del Castagno is best known for

The Last Supper, a fresco showing Jesus and his followers at a humble-looking house.

! Judas takes a traditional position on the viewer's side of the table.

Andrea del Castagno THE LAST SUPPER Refectory, convent of Sant'Apollonia, Florence. 1447.

Fresco, width approx. 16' × 32' (4.6 × 9.8 m). [Fig. 20-25]

Rome

•  Botticelli and Ghirlandaio were some of the first famous artists summoned to paint the Sistine Chapel, but art historians believe Perugino supervised the project.

•  Perugino ! Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter

detailed figures with perfect scale, modeling, and perspective.

VIEW OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL SHOWING PAINTINGS COMMISSIONED FOR THE SIDE WALLS BY POPE SIXTUS IV

Vatican, Rome. At lower right, Perugino's Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, c. 1480-1482. 11'5-1/2" × 18'8-1/2" (3.48 × 5.70 m). [Fig. 20-41]

Florence

•  Ghirlandaio ! Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds

was the altarpiece of the chapel, still in its original frame. • It was heavily influenced by the Portinari Altarpiece, but also draws upon Classical references to Rome. • Aerial perspective creates a seamless transition of color.

Domenico Ghirlandaio NATIVITY AND ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS Altarpiece in the Sassetti Chapel, church of Santa Trinità, Florence. 1485.

Panel, 65 3/4" square (1.67 m square). [Fig. 20-33]

Florence

•  Botticelli ! The overall appearance of Primavera

recalls Flemish tapestries. • It is a complex allegory of Neoplatonic philosophers' conceptions of Venus as having two natures. • It was painted at the time of the wedding of Lorenzo de' Medici and Semiramide d'Appiano in 1482.

A CLOSER LOOK: Primavera by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482. Tempera on wood panel.

6'8" × 10'4" (2.03 × 3.15 m). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.