15th. c italy final

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Warm-Up 12/06
• Compare and
Contrast the
use of
proportion
and realism,
as well as
Contrapposto
15 c. Florence: The New Athens
• 1400 Florence's independence
was threatened by Gian
Galeazzo Visconti (1351-1402)
Duke of Milan.
– Visconti dies, son is assassinated
– Medici Family takes control
• Florence sets itself up as “the
New Athens”
– Milan = Unchecked tyranny
• Ambitious renovations and
completion of artistic contracts
begun in the time of Giotto.
Florence baptistry
• Sta. Maria del Fiore
Completed in 1401
– The dome costs the
equivalent of the rebuilding
of the Acropolis in Athens
– New Freedom with huge
investment in Art
• Main Fact: Important
innovation in Dome
construction
– Two domes separated by
buttressing and masonry
– Metal bands around drum
base
The Competition, Who Won?
Brunelleschi – Sacrifice of Isaac – 1400
Drapery, flying Issac’s throat, knife
Ghiberti – Sacrifice of Isaac -1400
S Curve, posed, Roman?, nude male

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Ghiberti – the doors are lighter, more illusion
Florence Cathedral – Dome – Brunelleschi -
1420
• Brunelleschi turned to arch after loosing the baptistery
commission. His was heavily influenced by Roman
architecture.
• Solve engineering problems, Used new building methods,
made new machinery, made the dome a pointed arch

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Medici as Patrons
• Medici’s had a fortune
• Cosimo intended to build his
palace
• He had political power as well
• Wealthy families struggled for
power, Medici’s got kicked out
of Florence
• Hired Bartolommeo to work on
his palace( Bart- worked with
Donatello)
Santo Spirito – Basilica Church
Brunelleschi 1436
Rhythmic harmony , clarity no room for murals
Cruciform shape
Private Chapels - Brunelleschi
Pazzi family gift to the
church of Santo spirito,
medallions serve on the
corners as pendentives.

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Medici Palace 1445 - Bartolommeo
• Building looks higher as
you look up
• Roman Rusticated
masonry
• Independence from the
antique
• Early Renaissance style
Di Banco – Four Crowned Saints - 1408
• More space to work
with
• Drapery
• Roman faces of dignity
(with hit of anxiety)
• Saints who refuse to
sculpt pagan statues
Donatello – Feast of Herod 1425
• Each character has a
different face
• King Herod receives the
head of John the Baptist.
• Horror
• Children move back
• Perspective- Ancient
Roman illusionism
returned
Donatello – St. Mark 1413
• Movement
• Drapery
• Doryphoros
• Shifting weight
• Outside niche?
St. George Tabernacle, 1415-1417

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Zuccone, 1423-25
• He was commissioned to execute a statue for one of the niches of
the Campanile, and chose for his model an old and singularly ugly
man. His figure was ungainly, his head absolutely bald, and the
features forbidding. All this was scrupulously re produced in the
statue; Donato made an unflinching and uncompromising study of
his model. At last it stood completed, a living likeness; such as the
model was, so had Donato made his copy, and with the same
impetuousness with which he had in his boyhood hailed
Brunellesco to come and see his crucifix, he now was heard to
apostrophise his work, which seemed to him but to lack breath : "
Speak, speak ! " he cried. " Plague take thee, why dost thou not
speak?" The statue was indeed a marvel of realism, and obtained
the name, by which it is still known, of " II Zuccone," the big
pumpkin reference thus being made to its bald ness. Donato
seemed to consider it in its own line one of his most satisfactory
achievements, and was wont even to swear by its excellence. "By
the faith which I have in my c Zuccone ' I " became his accustomed
expression. The fifteen years during which Donato was for the
most part employed by the Opera of the Duomo and the
authorities of Or San Michele gave him his oppor tunity for
practice and discipline in that special line
Habbakuk – Seer aka Pumpkin Head by Donatello
Donatello – David Late 1420s
• Classically inspired
• Commissioned by the
Medici’s
• First free standing
sculpture since ancient
times
• Classical nude
• Biblical David slaying
Goliath
Verrocchio - David
• Important sculptor
during the late 15th
century
• Very realistic, quiet,
classic
• Hunter stance

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Warm-Up 12/08 Describe what makes this work
unique? How does it show Renaissance Ideals?

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Warm-Up 12/09
• Describe how this
work uses a
composition that is
similar to Christian
Art. Where are its
departures? Describe
What Botticelli is
trying to celebrate.
Birth of Venus, 1484
• Retelling of the Greek myth,
Zephyrus blows Venus towards
Cyprus with Pomona ready to
clothe.
• The lightness and non-physicality
of the winds propel all the figures
without effort.
• Draperies move as if in free fall
• Pyramidal composition creates
emphasis and stability.
• Harmony of forms
• No Christian motifs, but an
elevation of truth and beauty
(neo-platonism)
SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Birth of Venus, ca.
1484–1486. Tempera on canvas, 5 9 9 2.
Galleria degli Uffi zi, Florence.
Gattamelata and Colleoni
• Portraitureenjoyed a revival.
Purely secular commissions
• Donatello leaves Florence to
Venice to create this equestrian
– First to rival mounted portraits in size.
– Full liberation of architecture
• What does the sphere symbolize?
• Verrocchio (the other David)
• Provides a comparison within a
few decades.
– Higher pedestal, Aggressive, prancing,
exaggerated tautness of form.
Imitation and Emulation
• Imitation is the starting
point for an apprentice
painter.
– You learn by copying
• The next step is to
model work after
another.
– You improve through
innovation
Primary source: Il Libro dell’Arte
(The Artist’s Handbook)
Early Renaissance Painting
• Still strong vestiges of
the international style,
with innovations in
chiaroscuro and
portraiture.
• Often depends on the
tastes of the patron (in
this case, lavish and
gaudily Gothic)
• Still, strikingly
naturalistic details. Gentile da Fabriano, Adoration of the Magi, altarpiece from Strozzi
Chapel, Santa Trinità, Florence, Italy,
1423. Tempera on wood, 9 11 9 3. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
Da Favriano- Adoration of the Magi - 1423
• Gentile, Gothic
• Frame over elaborate
• Experimental trends
• Naturalistic meets
inventive
• International style
• Elaborate costumed
styles
• Forshortened forms

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Nave of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca. 1246–1470.
The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint
John and donors, Masaccio, 1425
Masaccio – Holy Trinity - 1428
• Massacio breaks sharply from teacher.
Immediately picks up on Bruneleschi’s
perspective theory
• Two levels of unequal height
– A coffered barrel-vaulted chapel
reminscent of what?
– Tomb containing a skeleton reading “I was
once what you are, and what I am you will
become.” Vanitas/Macabre
• VP at foot of cross
• important innovation in illusionistic
painting that other artists of the
Renaissance and the later Baroque period
would develop further
• The ascending pyramid of figures leads
viewers from the despair of death to the
hope of resurrection and eternal life
through Christ’s crucifixion.
“Trinity” of Early Renaissance
• 1. Neo-Platonic view of
truth and the divine world
of beauty (which humans
endeavor within)
• 2.Emphasis on observation
as it relates mathematics
• 3. Pyramidal and circular
compositions as it relates
to harmony of form
Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine,
Florence, Italy, ca. 1424–1427
Masaccio – Tribute Money - 1427
• Obscure reference to Christ paying taxes using as caught fish.
– Perhaps a commentary on paying taxes on Florentine income
• Divided into three episodes (Starts center, goes left, then right)
• Strong use of outside light that is strong and crisp (with fading background)
• Use of circular depth around Jesus

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Masaccio –
Expulsion from Eden - 1425
• Hazy background
• Deep relief with light
• Rediscovery of
atmospheric perspective
• Adam’s feet on the ground
represent the decent into
the Earth
• They are stumbling in
blindly

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Annunciation, Fra Angelico
• Painted for Dominican
monks (reformational
monastic order during Great
Schism)
• Strong devotional image.
• Simplicity and serenity.
– As you venerate, while passing before
it, this figure of the intact Virgin,
beware lest you omit to say Hail Mary
• Reflecting the humble and simple
nature of the painter’s devotion to
the church. Unconcerned with
humanism
Fra Angelico, Annunciation,
San Marco, Florence, Italy, ca. 1438–1447.
Fresco, 7 1 10 6.
Pollaiuolo – Battle of the Ten Nudes - 1465
• Twisted
bodies
• Viewpoints
• Nude figure
• Slashing no
mercy
• muscles
Lorenzo d’ Medici
• 1449-1492
• Known as Lorenzo the
Magnificent
• Major patron to the Arts,
held together fragile
Florentine city states under
golden age
• Pazzi Conspiracy on Easter,
1478
– Pope wants more
land/philosophical control
Birth of Venus, 1486 Primavera, 1482
• Orange trees amongst classical
pagan depictions of the seasons.
• How is Venus related to depictions
of saints/mary?
• “Artists and poets at this
time did not directly imitate
classical antiquity but used
the myths, with delicate
perception of their charm, in
a way still tinged with
medieval romance.”
Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, ca. 1482.
Tempera on wood, 6 8 10 4. Galleria degli
Uffizi, Florence.

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