Slide Show of Fall Cultural Trip to Florence

1. 1) The Renaissance consists of mostly religious works of art, until you hit the
Botticelli Room. Try to identify the stories and protagonists in these pieces.
How are stories COMMUNICATED to the viewer? Is there a clear
narrative in these works? How do you know – or not know – what is going
on?
2) Thematically, start thinking about comparing works a) between different
periods or artists; b) of the same subject matter. Look closely at, say, two
“Annunciations” or two portraits, and think about their similarities and
differences.
Florence 2011
The Uffizi Guide

2. The “Rebirth” of Italian Culture
The spread of humanism and the growing interest in classical antiquity contributed
significantly to the remarkable growth and expansion of artistic culture in 15th-century
Italy. Also important were political and economic changes that contributed to the rise of a
new class of wealthy patrons who fostered art and learning on a lavish scale.
A new artistic culture emerged and expanded in Italy in the 15th century.
The Spread of Humanism: Humanism flourished in the 15th century. Emphasis was
placed on education and every form of knowledge, the exploration of individual potential
and a desire to excel, and a commitment to civic responsibility and moral duty.
Encouraging Individual Achievement: Humanism also fostered a belief in individual
potential and encouraged individual achievement.
Good Citizens: Humanism also encouraged citizens to participate in the social, political,
and economic life of their communities.
Of Wealth and Power: Shifting power relations among the numerous Italian city-states
fostered the rise of princely courts and control of cities by despots. Princely courts emerged
as cultural and artistic centers. Their patronage contributed to the formation and character
of Renaissance art.

3. Sculpture and Civic Pride in the Early Renaissance
The republic of Florentine cultivated civic pride and responsibility in its
citizens, which resulted in projects to embellish the city's buildings. The
competitive and public nature of these projects, which were usually sponsored
by civic or lay-religious organizations, promoted innovation and served to
signal official approval of the new, classically inspired style. The emulation of
antique models, however, was also supplemented by a growing interest in the
anatomical structure of the human body (though often classically idealized)
and the desire to show a naturalistic illusion of space (which resulted in the
development of linear perspective). Human life and experience was acutely
observed by artists such as the sculptor Donatello, who sought to convey
through gesture, pose, and facial expression the personality and inner
psychological condition of his figures.

4. he 14th Century in Italy
Arnolfo di Cambio
Florence Cathedral (view from the South)
The “Most Beautiful” Tuscan Church 19-12
Figure Florence, Italy. begun 1296
The Florence Cathedral was
recognized as the center of the
most important religious
observances in Florence. It was
begun in 1296 by Arnolfo di
Cambio and was intended to be
the “most beautiful and honorable
church in Tuscany.”
It certainly was a visual delight as
it towered over the city and
gleamed in the sunlight of
Florence. Businessmen traveling
to this city saw this cathedral, and
the impression was made.......Any
city with such a work of art had to
be wealthy!
The building’s surfaces were The Cathedral focuses on horizontal aspects, rather than lifting itself off the
ornamented in the old Tuscan ground much like the Cologne Cathedral. The top dome has a crisp, closed
fashion, with marble-encrusted silhouette that sets it off emphatically against the sky behind it.
geometric designs matching it to
its eleventh-century Romanesque The interior was kept minimal in order to remain “humble” to God.
Baptistery of San Giovanni.

5. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Filippo Brunelleschi, dome of Florence
A Crowning Achievement Cathedral
Florence, Italy; 1420-1436
Brunelleschi’s broad knowledge of Roman construction
principles and his analytical and inventive mind permitted
him to solve an engineering problem that no other 15th-
century architect could have solved. The challenge was the
design and construction of a dome for the huge crossing of
the unfinished Florence Cathedral.
The space to be spanned was much too wide to permit
construction with the aid of traditional wooden centering.
Nor was it possible [because of the crossing plan] to
support the dome with buttressed walls.
In 1420, officials overseeing cathedral projects awarded
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti a joint commission. Ghiberti later
abandoned the project and left it to his associates.
Figure 21-14

6. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Filippo Brunelleschi, dome of Florence
A Crowning Achievement Cathedral
Florence, Italy; 1420-1436
Brunelleschi not only discarded traditional building
methods and devised new ones, but he also invented
much of the machinery necessary for the job.
Although he might have preferred the hemispheric
shape of Roman domes, Brunelleschi raised the
center of his dome which is inherently more stable
because it reduces the outward thrust around the
dome’s base.
To minimize the structure’s weight, he designed a
relatively thin double shell--the first in history--around
a skeleton of 24 ribs. The eight most important are
visible on the exterior. The structure is anchored at
the top with a heavy lantern, built after his death but
from his design.
Figure 21-14 *on ArtStudy CD

7. Brunelleschi
A Father's Emotional Sacrifice:
Filippo Brunelleschi's competition
panel shows a sturdy and vigorous
interpretation of the Sacrifice of
Isaac.
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, Sacrifice
of Isaac, competition panel for east
doors, baptistery of Florence
Cathedral, Italy, 1401-1402. Gilded
bronze relief, 21" x 17". Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

8. Ghiberti
A Sacrifice in Relief: Lorenzo
Ghiberti's competition panel
emphasizes grace and
smoothness.
LORENZO GHIBERTI, Sacrifice of
Isaac, competition panel for east
doors, baptistery, Florence Cathedral,
Italy, 1401-1402. Gilded bronze relief,
21" x 17". Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence.

9. Donatello
Keeping Perspective: Early
Renaissance artists
employed linear perspective
to make a picture measurable
and exact.
A Feast in Perspective:
Donatello's bronze relief of
the Feast of Herod employs
pictorial perspective to
create an illusion of space.
DONATELLO, Feast of Herod,
from the baptismal font of
Siena Cathedral, Italy, ca.
1425. Gilded bronze relief,
approx. 23" x 23".

10. Ghiberti’s Gates of
Paradise
Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise"
are comprised of ten gilded
bronze relief panels depicting
scenes from the Old Testament.
In Isaac and His Sons, Ghiberti
creates the illusion of space
using perspective and sculptural
means. Ghiberti also persists in
using the medieval narrative
method of presenting several
episodes within a single frame.
LORENZO GHIBERTI, east
doors ("Gates of Paradise"),
baptistery, Florence
Cathedral, Italy, 1425-1452.
Gilded bronze relief, approx.
17' high.

11. LORENZO GHIBERTI, Isaac and His Sons (detail of FIG. 21-4 ), east doors, baptistery,
Florence Cathedral, Italy, 1425-1452. Gilded bronze relief, approx. 31 1/2" x 31 1/2".

12. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Lorenzo Ghiberti, east doors (”Gates of
Paradise”), baptistery, Florence Cathedral,
Admiring the “Gates of Paradise Florence, Italy,
1425-1452
Ghiberti, who demonstrated his interest in perspective
in his Sacrifice of Isaac, embraced Donatello’s
innovations. Ghiberti’s enthusiasm for a unified
system for representing space is particularly evident
in his famous east doors.
Michelangelo later declared these as “so beautiful that
they would do well for the gates of Paradise.”
Each of the panels contains a relief set in plain
moldings and depicts a scene from the Old
Testament. The complete gilding of the reliefs creates
an effect of great splendor and elegance.
Figure 21-4

13. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Isaac and his sons
(”Gates of Paradise”), baptistery, Florence Cathedral,
Florence, Italy,
Admiring the “Gates of Paradise 1425-1452
The individual panels clearly recall painting
techniques in their depiction of space as
well as in their treatment of the narrative.
In this panel, the group of women in the left
foreground attends the birth of Esau and
Jacob in the left background; Isaac sends
Esau and his hunting dogs on his mission in
the central foreground; and, in the right
foreground, Isaac blesses the kneeling
Jacob as Rebekah looks on.
Viewers experience little confusion because
of Ghiberti’s careful and subtle placement
of each scene. The figures gracefully twist
and turn, appearing to occupy and move
through a convincing stage space, which
Ghiberti deepened by showing some
figures from behind.
The beginning of the practice of collecting
classical art in the fifteenth century had
much to do with the appearance of
classicism in Renaissance humanistic art.
Figure 21-5

14. Characteristics of
Renaissance Art

15. Realism & Expression
 Expulsion from
the Garden
 Masaccio
 1427
 First nudes since
classical times.

16. 2. Perspective
The Trinity
First use Masaccio
of linear
perspective! 1427

17. Perspective

18. 3. Classicism
 Greco-Roman
influence.
 Secularism.
 Humanism.
 Individualism 
free standing
figures.
The “Classical Pose”
 Symmetry/Balance
Medici “Venus”

19. 4. Emphasis on
Individualism
 Batista Sforza &
Federico de
Montefeltre: The
Duke & Dutchess of
Urbino
 Piero della
Francesca, 1465-
1466.

20. 5. Geometrical Arrangement
of
Figures
 The Dreyfus
Madonna
with the
Pomegranate
 Leonardo da Vinci
 1469
 The figure as
architecture!

21. 6. Light & Shadowing/Softening
Edges
Sfumato
Chiaroscuro

22. 6. Artists as
Personalities/Celebrities
Lives of the Most
Excellent Painters,
Sculptors, and
Architects
Giorgio Vasari
1550

23. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Donatello, David
Museo Nationale del Bargello, Florence
A Classically Inspired David 21-23
Figure 1428-1432
The Medici family commissioned Donatello to create
this bronze statue for the Palazzo Medici courtyard.
This was the first freestanding nude statue
created since ancient times.
This statue portrays the biblical David, the young
slayer of Goliath and the symbol of the independent
Florentine republic. David possesses the relaxed
classical contrapposto stance and the proportions and
beauty of Greek Praxitelean gods.
The Medici family chose the subject of David, perhaps
because they had seen Donatello’s previous statue of
David which is located in the center of political activity
in Florence. This shows that the Medici family
identified themselves with Florence, and the
prosperity of the city.

25. Room #2
Room 2: Giotto, Cimabue, and Duccio: Please look carefully at the three large
altarpieces in this room. Take the time to compare them and start to see the
differences between them. Which one do you think was done latest? Which one
best expresses depth and the human form?
Cimabue Maesta Giotto’s Maesta

26. he 14th Century in Italy
Giotto Di Bondone,
Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310,
Monumental Figures Galleria degli Uffizzi, Florence
Giotto’s new form of painting displaced the Byzantine style and
established painting as a major form of art form for the next six
centuries. He is often credited as the father of Western pictorial
art.
He restored the naturalistic approach invented by the Romans,
that was abandoned in the middle ages, and established a
method of pictorial expression based on observation that might
be called “early scientific”.
Madonna is depicted in representational art with sculptural
solidity and weight. Madonna, enthroned with angles, rests
within her Gothic throne with the unshakable stability of an
ancient marble goddess. His technique for such an aesthetic is
called chiaroscuro.
This art was aimed to construct a figure that had substance,
dimensionality, and bulk. Works painted in this new style
portray figures, like those in sculpture, that project into the light
and give the illusion that they could cast shadows.
In this painting the throne is deep enough to contain the Figure 19-7
monumental

27. History has long regarded Cimabue as the last of an era
that was overshadowed by the Italian Renaissance. In
Canto XI of his Purgatorio, Dante laments Cimabue's
quick loss of public interest in the face of Giotto's
revolution in art:[2]
O vanity of human powers,
how briefly lasts the crowning green of glory,
unless an age of darkness follows!
In painting Cimabue thought he held the field
but now it's Giotto has the cry,
so that the other's fame is dimmed.

28. In his Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari relates that Giotto was a shepherd
boy, a merry and intelligent child who was loved by all who knew him. The
great Florentine painter Cimabue discovered Giotto drawing pictures of his
sheep on a rock. They were so lifelike that Cimabue approached Bondone
and asked if he could take the boy as an apprentice. [2] Cimabue was one of the
two most highly renowned painters of Tuscany, the other being Duccio, who
worked mainly in Siena.
Vasari recounts a number of such stories about Giotto's skill. He writes that
when Cimabue was absent from the workshop, his young apprentice painted
such a lifelike fly on the face of the painting that Cimabue was working on,
that he tried several times to brush it off. Vasari also relates that when the
Pope sent a messenger to Giotto, asking him to send a drawing to
demonstrate his skill, Giotto drew, in red paint, a circle so perfect that it
seemed as though it was drawn using a compass and instructed the messenger
to give that to the Pope.[2]

29. What sets Giotto Apart
Giotto's depiction of the human face and emotion sets his
work apart from that of his contemporaries. When the
disgraced Joachim returns sadly to the hillside, the two
young shepherds look sideways at each other. The soldier
who drags a baby from its screaming mother in the Massacre
of the Innocents does so with his head hunched into his
shoulders and a look of shame on his face. The people on
the road to Egypt gossip about Mary and Joseph as they go.
Of Giotto's realism, the 19th century English critic John
Ruskin said "He painted the Madonna and St. Joseph and
the Christ, yes, by all means ... but essentially Mamma, Papa
and Baby."[6]

30. Room 5-6
Room 5-6: International Gothic. Looking at the two largest works in this room,
Lorenzo Monaco’s Coronation of the Virgin and Gentile da Fabriano’s Adoration of the
Magi (1423) – what do you conclude are the characteristics of this international
gothic style?
Gentile Fabriani “Adoration of the
Monaco’s “Coronation of the Magi”
Virgin

31. he 14th Century in Italy
Simone Martini (and possibly Lippo
Memmi)
Creating an “International Style” 19-18
Figure Annunciation, 1333
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Martini’s own style did not quite reach the full
exuberance of the developed International
Style, A style of 14th- and 15th-century painting
begun by Simone Martini, who adapted the French
Gothic manner to Sienese art fused with
influences from the North. This style appealed to
the aristocracy because of its brilliant color, lavish
costume, intricate ornament, and themes involving
splendid processions of knights and ladies.
Image goes here
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image here.
Elegant shapes and radiant color: flowing,
fluttering line; and weightless figures in a
spaceless setting characterize the Annuciation.
The complex etiquette of the European
chivalric courts dictated the presentation. The
angel Gabriel has just alighted, the breeze of
his passage lifting his mantle, his iridescent
wings still beating. The gold of his sumptuous
gown heraldically represents the celestial
realm whence he bears his message. The
Virgin, putting down her book of devotions, Lippo Memmi’s contribution is questioned and a matter of debate.
shrinks demurely from Gabriel’s reverent
genuflection, an appropriate gesture in the
presence of royalty.

32. he 14th Century in Italy
Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi
Annunciation, 1333
Creating an “International Style” Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Luke 1:26-56 (New International Version)
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in
Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a
descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her
and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary,
you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a
son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of
his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his
kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power
of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be
called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child
in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.
For nothing is impossible with God.”
Figure 19-18
“I am the Lord's servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have

33. The panel portrays the path of the three Magi, in
several scenes which start from the upper left corner
(the voyage and the entrance into Bethlehem) and
continue clockwise, to the larger meeting with the
Virgin and the newborn Jesus which occupies the
lowest part of the picture. All the figures wear splendid
Renaissance costumes, brocades richly decorated with
real gold and precious stones inserted in the panel.
Gentile's typical attention for detail is also evident in
the exotic animals, such as a leopard, a dromedary,
some apes and a lion, as well as the magnificent horses
and a hound.

34. Room 8
. Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with Angels: consider the tenderness of
expression, look at how volume is heightened using a black outline (Lippi taught
this trick to Botticelli). Piero della Francesca, double portrait of the Duke of
Urbino and his wife: what can you guess about gender differences in this period,
just by looking at this painting? Whose world is more closed, and why?
Duke of Urbino and His Wife -
Filippo Lippi, Francesca
Madonna and
Child with
Angels

35. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Fra Filippo Lippi,
Madonna and Child with Angels
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
A Humanized Madonna and Child 1455
Painted by Fra Filippo, this painting shows his skill in
manipulating line. A wonderfully fluid line unifies the
composition and contrubutes to the precise and smooth
delineation of forms.
Few artists have surpassed Fra Filippos skill in using line. He
interpreted his subject here in a surprisingly worldly manner.
The Madonna, a beautiful young mother, is not at all spiritual
or fragile, and neither is the Christ Child, whom two angels
hold up.
The angels have mischievous looks of children refusing to
behave. All the figures reflect the use of live models. Fra Fillipo
replenished the charm of youth and beauty.
Figure 21-40

37. Botticelli Room
Room 10-14: Botticelli’s Primavera, Birth of Venus,
Mystic Nativity, Madonna del Magnificat. Also of
interest, all the religious paintings by Botticelli

38. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Visual Poetry 1482
Sandro Botticelli was one of
the best known artists who
produced works for the
Medici. He painted this
tempera on canvas for the
Medici family.
A poem on the theme of the
famous Birth of Venus by
Angelo Poliziano was what
inspired Botticelli to create
this lyrical image.
Zephyrus (the west wind)
blows Venus, born of the sea
foam and carried on a cockle
shell to her sacred island,
Cyprus. The nymph Pomona
runs to her with a brocaded The wind is portrayed as light and bodiless, which moves all the figures with out
mantle. effort. The more accommodating Renaissance culture gave way for the portrayal
of Venus nude, on a large scale.
Figure 21-27

39. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Visual Poetry 1482
Botticelli’s nude presentation of the Venus figure was in
itself an innovation. The nude, especially the female nude,
had been proscribed during the Middle Ages. Its
appearance on such a scale and the artist’s use of an
ancient Venus statue of the Venus pudica (modest Venus)
type- a Hellenistic variant of Praxitele’s famous “Aphrodite
of Knidos”- as a model could have drawn the charge of
paganism and infidelity. But the more accommodating
Renaissance culture and under the protection of the
powerful Medici, the depiction went unchallenged.
The Medici family did not restrict their collecting to any
specific style or artist. Their acquisitions often incorporated
elements associated with humanism, from mythological
subject matter to concerns with anatomy and perspective.
Collectively, the art of the Medici also makes a statement
about the patrons themselves. Careful businessmen that
they were, the Medici were not sentimental about their
endowment of art and scholarship.
Figure 21-27

40. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Visual Poetry 1482
Upper-Left: The West Wind
Zephyr and Chloris fly with limbs entwined as a twofold entity:
the ruddy Zephyr (his name is Greek for ``the west wind'') is
puffing vigorously; while the fair Chloris gently sighs the warm
breath that wafts Venus ashore. All around them fall roses--
each with a golden heart--which, according to legend, came
into being at Venus' birth.
Upper-Right: The Wooded Shore
The trees form part of a flowering orange grove--
corresponding to the sacred garden of the Hesperides in
Greek myth--and each small white blossom is tipped with gold.
Gold is used throughout the painting, accentuating its role as a
precious object and echoing the divine status of Venus. Each
Center: The Shell
dark green leaf has a gold spine and outline, and the tree
Botticelli portrays Venus in the very first suggestion
trunks are highlighted with short diagonal lines of gold.
of action, with a complex and beautiful series of
twists and turns, as she is about to step off her
Right: Nymph
giant gilded scallop shell onto the shore. Venus
The nymph may well be one of the three Horae, or ``The
was conceived when the Titan Cronus castrated
Hours'', Greek goddesses of the seasons, who were
his father, the god Uranus--the severed genitals
attendants to Venus. Both her lavishly decorated dress and
falling into the sea and fertilizing it. Here what we
the gorgeous robe she holds out to Venus are embroidered
see is actually not Venus' birth out of the waves,
with red and white daisies, yellow primroses, and blue
but the moment when, having been conveyed by
cornflowers--all spring flowers appropriate to the theme of
the shell, she lands at Paphos in Cyprus.
birth. She wears a garland of myrtle--the tree of Venus--and a Figure 21-27
sash of pink roses, as worn by the goddess Flora in Botticelli's

41. Room 15: Leonardo
da Vinci’s Annunciation, unfinished Adoration of the Magi
(examination reveals how he planned and built up painting); the early
Baptism of Christ with his teacher Verrocchio (guess which part
Leonardo did here).

43. Room 25
Room 25: Don’t miss Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo:
think about the position the figures are in – is this
natural? That is an original frame, incidentally.

44. How do Raphael Raphael
and his school
construct portraits?
His
contemporaries
said he did
everything with
such ease you
could not see the
art in it.

45. Room 28: Titian and
Venetian art.
. Observe the languid pose
of Titian’s Venus of Urbino
(who is she waiting for? Her
husband or her lover?).
Consider how the Venetian
style (and subject matter) of
the early Cinquecento is
different than Quattrocento
Florentine style;

46. Madonna of the
Long Neck
The End of the
Renaissance
Mannerism

47. The High Renaissance
Michelangelo
“David”
Subduing a Giant 1501-1504
In 1501, the city of Florence asked Michelangelo to work a great block
of marble, called “The Giant,” left over from an earlier aborted
mission.
From this stone, David was sculpted, the defiant hero of the
Florentine republic and, in so doing, assured his reputation then and
now as an extraordinary talent.
David’s formal references to classical antiquity appealed to Julius II,
who associated himself with humanists and with Roman emperors.
Thus, this sculpture and the fame that accrued to Michelangelo on its
completion called the artist to the pope’s attention, leading to major
papal commissions.
Michelangelo used the themes of Donatello and Andrea del
Verrocchio, but with his own original resolution.
The artist chose to depict David not after victory, but turning his head
to his left, sternly watchful of the approaching foe. His whole muscular
body, as well as his face, is tense with gathering power.
Figure 22-9

48. The High Renaissance
Michelangelo
“David”
Subduing a Giant 1501-1504
David exhibits the characteristic representation of energy in
reserve. His rugged torso, sturdy limbs, and large hands and
feet, alerting viewers to the strength to come, do not consist
simply of inert muscle groups, nor did the sculptor idealize them
by simplification into broad masses.
Each swelling vein and tightening sinew amplifies the
psychological energy of the monumental David’s pose.
The artist, without strictly imitating the antique style , captured
the tension of Lysippan athletes and the psychological insight
and emotionalism of Helenistic statuary.
This larger than life sculpture reaches over 13 feet in height.
Sculpted in perspective (top heavy), this image retains
perfection when viewed from below, as the figure looks
proportional from the vantage point of the onlooker.
Contrapposto (weight shift), yet another allusion to antiquity, is
also apparent in this sculpture.
This sculpture became the immediate symbol of Florence, a
wealthy but small nation at war with a much larger foe. Figure 22-9

49. Renaissance Florence
Gardner’s Art History

50. Fra Angelico
Annunciation
San Marco,
Florence, Italy
ca. 1440-1445
fresco
7 ft. 1 in. x 10 ft. 6 in.

52. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Fra Angelico, Annunciation
A Visual Call to Prayer San Marco, Florence, Italy 1440-1445
This fresco painting by Fra
Angelico appears at the top of
the stairs leading to the friar’s
cells.
Appropriately, Fra Angelico
presented the scene of the Virgin
Mary and and Archangel Gabriel
with simplicity and serenity.
The two figures appear in plain
loggia, and the artist painted all
the fresco elements with a
pristine clarity.
As an admonition to heed the
devotional function of the
images, he included a small
inscription at the base of the
image that reads “As you Like most of Fra Angelico’s paintings, Annunciation’s naive and
venerate, while passing before it, tender charm still has an almost universal appeal and fully
this figure of the intact Virgin, lest reflects the artist’s simple and humble character.
you omit to say to say a Hail Figure 21-38
Mary.”

53. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Masaccio, Tribute Money,
Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine,
Momentous Changes in Pictorial Style Florence, Italy, ca. 1427.
This painting by
Masaccio depicts a
story from the
Gospel of Matthew.
The tax collector
confronts Christ at
the entrance of
Capernaum (a large
Galilean fishing village
and busy trading
center. This place is of
special interest to
Christians because of
its frequent mention in
the history of Jesus
Christ.)
Masaccio presented this narrative in three episodes within the fresco. In the center, Christ,
Christ directs Saint surrounded by his disciples, tells Saint Peter to retrieve the coin from the fish, while the tax
Peter to Lake Galilee. collector stands in the foreground, his back to spectators and hand extended, awaiting
There Peter finds the payment. At the left, in the middle distance, Saint Peter extracts the coin from the fish’s
half drachma (formerly mouth, and at the right, he thrusts the coin into the tax collector’s hand.
the basic unit of
money in Greece) Masaccio realized most of the figures not through generalized modeling with a flat neutral
tribute in the mouth of light lacking an identifiable source but by a light coming from a specific source outside the
Figure 21-11
a fish and returns to picture.

54. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Masaccio, Tribute Money,
Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine,
Momentous Changes in Pictorial Style Florence, Italy, ca. 1427.
The light strikes the
figures at an angle,
illuminating parts of
the solids that
obstruct its path
and leave the rest
in shadows: gives
illusion of sculptural
relief.
Light has its own
nature, and the
masses are visible The individual figures are solemn and weighty, but also express bodily structure and movement.
only because of its They do not appear as a stiff screen in the front planes. Instead, the artist grouped them in circular
direction and depth around Christ, and he placed the whole group in a spacious landscape, rather than in the
intensity. confined stage space of earlier frescoes.
Although ancient Roman painters used aerial perspective, medieval artists had abandoned it. It
disappeared from art until Masaccio and his contemporaries rediscovered it. They realized that
light and air interposed between viewers and what they see are parts of the visual experience
Figure 21-11 called “distance.”

55. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Masaccio, Holy Trinity
A Vision of the Trinity Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy; ca.
1428
Masaccio’s fresco embodies two principal Renaissance interests--realism
based on observation and the application of mathematics in the new
science of perspective. The composition is painted on two levels of
unequal height.
In the coffered barrel-vaulted chapel reminiscent of a Roman triumphal
arch, the Virgin Mary and St. John appear on either side of the crucified
Christ. God the Father emerges from behind Christ, supporting the arms
of the cross. The Dove of the Holy Spirit hovers between God and Christ.
Also included are portraits of the donors of the painting, Lorenzo Lenzi
and his wife, who kneel in front of the pilasters (A rectangular column with
a capital and base, projecting only slightly from a wall as an ornamental
motif.).
Below the altar-- a masonry insert in the depicted composition--the artist
painted a tomb containing a skeleton. An Italian inscription above the
skeleton reminds spectators that “I was once what you are, and what I am
you will become.”
Figure 21-13

56. Fifteenth Century Italian Art
Masaccio, Holy Trinity
A Vision of the Trinity Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy; ca.
1428
The illusionism of Masaccio’s depiction brilliantly demonstrates the
principles of Brunelleschi’s perspective; in fact, the work is so much in the
Brunelleschian manner that some historians have suggested that
Brunelleschi may have directed Masaccio.
Masaccio placed the vanishing point at the foot of the cross. With this
point at eye level, spectators look up at the Trinity and down at the tomb.
Above the floor level, the vanishing point pulls the two views together,
creating the illusion of an actual structure that transects the wall’s vertical
plane. While the tomb projects, the chapel recedes visually behind the
wall and appears as an extension of the spectators’ space.
This adjustment of the pictured space to the position of the viewers was a
first step in the development of illusionistic painting, which fascinated
many artists of the Renaissance and the later Baroque period. Masaccio
was so exact in his metrical proportions that it is possible to actually
calculate the dimensions of the chapel.
Figure 21-13

57. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Masaccio, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from
A Picture of Sinners’ Anguish 21-12
Figure Eden, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Italy, ca
1425
This was painted in an awkwardly narrow space at the entrance to the
Brancacci Chapel. It displays the representational innovations of Tribute
Money. For example, the sharply slanted light from an outside source creates
deep relief, with lights placed alongside darks, and acts as a strong unifying
agent.
Masaccio also presented the figures moving with structural accuracy and with
substantial bodily weight. Further, the hazy, atmospheric background
specifies no locale but suggests a space around and beyond the figures.
Adam’s feet, clearly in contact with the ground, mark the human presence on
earth, and the cry issuing from Eve’s mouth voices her anguish.
The angel does not force them physically from Eden, rather, they stumble on
blindly, driven by the angel’s will and their own despair. The composition is
starkly simple, its message incomparably eloquent.

58. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Filippo Brunelleschi, west facade of the
Pazzi Chapel
Applying Roman Mathematical Logic 21-17
Figure Florence, Italy; begun ca. 1440
The chapel that was the Pazzi family’s gift to the
church of Santa Croce in Florence presented
Brunelleschi with the opportunity to explore this
interest in a structure much better suited to such a
design than a basilican church.
The chapel was not completed until the 1460s, long
after Brunelleschi’s death, and thus the exterior does
not reflect Brunelleschi’s original design. The narthex
( the entrance hall leading to the nave of a church.)
seems to have been added as an afterthought,
perhaps by the sculptor-architect Giuliano da Maiano.
It is suggested that the local chapter of Franciscan
monks who held meetings in the chapel needed the
expansion.

59. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Filippo Brunelleschi, plan of the
Pazzi Chapel
Applying Roman Mathematical Logic Florence, Italy; begun ca. 1440
Although the plan is rectangular, rather
than square or round, the architect placed
all emphasis on the central dome-covered
space. The short barrel-vault sections
that brace the dome on two sides is done
in gray stone, the so-called pietra
serena [”serene stone”], which stands
out against the white stucco walls and
crisply defines the modular relationships
of plan and elevation.
As in his design for Santo Spirito,
Brunelleschi used a basic unit that alowed
him to construct a balanced, harmonious,
and regularly proportioned space.
Medallions with glazed terracotta reliefs
representing the Four Evangelists in the
dome’s pendentives and the Twelve
Apostles on the pilaster-framed wall
panels provide the interior with striking
color accents. Figure 21-18

60. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Youth
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
A Psychological Profile early 1480s
This full face portrait was created by Botticelli in the
last decade of the fifteenth century. Italian painters
adopted the 3/4 and full face views believing that such
poses increased information available to viewers
about the subject’s appearance.
These poses also permits greater exploration of the
subject’s character. This is evident in this portrait
where he is highly expressive psychologically. He
has a delicate pose, a graceful head tilt, sidelong
glance, and an elegant hand gesture. The subject
seems to be half-musing, half-insinuating.
Botticelli merged feminine and masculine traits to
make an image of rarefied beauty.
Figure 21-28

61. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Domenico Ghirlandaio, Giovanna Tornabuoni (?)
An Elegant and Cultured Woman Madrid, Spain 1488
Domenico Ghirlandaio produced this portait of an aristocratic young
woman, probably Giovanna Tornabuoni, a member of the powerful
Albizzi family and wife of Lorenzo Tournabuoni.
Though artists of this age had moved away from employing the
profile pose to convey a character reading, this portrait reveals the
proud bearing of a sensitive and beautiful young woman.
It tells viewers much about the advanced state of culture in Florence,
the value and careful cultivation of beauty in life and art, the
breeding of courtly manners, and the great wealth behind it all.
The painting also shows the powerful attraction classical liaterature
help for Italian humanists; in the background an epitaph quotes the
ancient Roman poet Martial.
Although Domencio Ghirlandaio did not develop a very inovative
style, his art provides viewers with significant insight into artistic
developments.
This summarizes the state of Florentine art toward the end of the
fifteenth century. His works expressed his times to perfection, and,
because of this, he enjoyed great popularity among his
comtemporaries. His paintings reveal a deep love of FlorenceFigure 21-30
, with
its spectacles and pageantry, its material wealth and luxury.

62. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Andrea Del Castagno, Last Supper,
monastery of Sant’ Apollonia,
Dining in the Presence of Christ Florence, Italy, 1447
Andrea del
Castagno, like
Fra Angelico,
accepted a
commission to
produce a series
of frescoes for a
religious
establishment.
His Last Supper
painted in the
refectory (dining
hall) of
Sant’Apollonia in
Florence, a
convent for
Benedictine
nuns, manifests The lavishly painted space Christ and his 12 diciples occupy suggests Castagno’s
both a absorption with creating the illusion of three-dimensional space. However, on scrutiny,
commitment to inconsistencies are apparent, such as the fact Renaissance perspectivial systems make
the biblical it impossible to see both the ceiling and the roof, as Castagno depicted. Further, the two
narrative and an side walls do not appear parallel.
interest in
Figure 21-39

63. ifteenth Century Italian Art
Andrea Del Castagno, Last Supper,
monastery of Sant’ Apollonia,
Dining in the Presence of Christ Florence, Italy, 1447
The artist chose a conventioal compositional format, with the figures seated at a
horizontally places table. Castagno derived the apparent self-absorption of most of the
disciples and the malevolent features of Judeas from the Gospel of Saint John, rather than
the more familiar version of the Last Supper recounted in the Gospel of Saint Luke. The
prevalent exploration of perspective clearly influenced Castagno’s depiction of the Last
Supper, which no doubt was a powerful presence for the nuns during their daily meals.
Figure 21-39