Cosimo de' Medici funded the complex renovation of the Dominican convent and church of San Marco in Florence in 1437, hiring architect Michelozzo and painter Fra Angelico to carry out the work. Fra Angelico decorated the convent cells with religious frescoes for the monks' contemplation. Other artists like Domenico Veneziano, Filippo Lippi, and Andrea del Castagno were also active in Florence during this time, receiving commissions from patrons like the Medici family.

1. FRA ANGELICO
REN. CH.6
PALACE & CHURCH

3. • 1437, The Dominicans appealed to Cosimo
de’ Medici…who lived nearby in the Palazzo
Medici…to fund the complex renovation.
Cosimo had a cell at the convent for his
personal retreat.
• Patron: Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464)
• Architect: Michelozzo
• Artist: Fra Angelico

4. San Marco is the name of
a religious complex in
Florence, Italy.
It comprises a church and
a convent. The convent,
which is now a museum,
has three claims to fame.
During the 15th century it
was home to two famous
Dominicans, the painter
Fra Angelico and the
preacher Girolamo
Savonarola.

5. • Convent cloister Church of San Marco

6. Michelozzo, Library begun 1437, San Marco, Florence (under the reign of Lorenzo)
The favorite meeting place for Florentine humanists…texts in Latin and Greek.

7. Michelozzo, Library begun 1437, San Marco, Florence (under the reign of Lorenzo)
Followed a simplified version of Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital

8. Fra Angelico, 1433-36

9. Fra Angelico, San Marco Alterpiece, 1438-43 tempera on panel 7.5x7.2’
New pictorial science of Brunelleschi
Rejection of the traditional polyptych…rectangular format…response to Michelozzo’s
architecture in the library.

10. Fra Angelico, Cosmas and Damian Healing a Lame Man, predella from
Sand Marco altarpiece, c.1438 tempera and gold on panel
Cosmos (Cosimo) looks out…doctor brothers

11. In the 1440's, a Dominican Friar, Fra Angelico painted the interior of the
Monastery San Marco in Florence with frescoes. He decorated each of his
fellow monks' cells with a holy image for their contemplation (the
Dominicans were committed to work and prayer). At the top of the stairs
leading to their quarters he painted this large-scale Annunciation.

12. His Madonna is clearly set in a real world of Classical (complete with
Corinthian columns) and Renaissance architecture. It recedes convincingly in
space. On the far wall of the interior room behind the Virgin's head, is a small
window that opens into deeper space. She is also set in the natural world with
a flowered lawn, fence and distant woods and the angel Gabriel's wings are
brightly colored like an exotic bird's. The Madonna's interaction with the Angel
is direct. They are looking at each other and mirror each other's gestures. It is a
tender and beautiful representation of the Annunciation, and one in which the
characters seem more human than divine.

13. http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Lippi.html
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
(CARMELITE ORDER)

14. Lippi, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Francis, Cosmas,
Damian, and Anthony, 1445, temprea, 6.5x6.5’

15. Santa Croce novitiate (Franciscan)
Patron: Cosimo de’ Medici dedicated to Cosmas and Damian
Unified space like Fra Angelico
Nuturing mothehood…more physical than Fra Angelico

18. Madonna and Child (1440-1445)
Filippo Lippi, (1406 – 1469)
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, DC.

21. Lippi, Portrait of a Woman and a
Man at a Casement, c.1444
Earliest double portrait in Italy
1st…to show sitters in domestic
setting
1st…with a view onto a
landscape
Lippi restricted to the Italian
preference for the profile view.

24. Venetian trained by Gentile da Fabriano
Show influence of Fra Anglico
Olivetan Benedictines of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli
DOMENICO VENEZIANO

25. Domenico, S. Lucy altarpiece, 1445, tempera on panel

27. Note:
Rectangle
Perspective
Architectural space
Simple proportions
Tripartite loggia (older format)
Hierarchy…Virgin and Child
Influences:
Light…Masaccio
Color…Florence Cathedral (pink, white,
green)
Lucy…derived from Latin word light

29. Convent of Sant’Apollonia…Benedictine community…largest and richest
female cloister in Florence
Florentine native
ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

30. ANDREA DEL CASTANGO. LAST SUPPER, fresco, 1447

31. Castagno’s Last Supper projects rather than recedes

34. Friend of Cosimo
MICHELOZZO, PALAZZO
MEDICI

35. Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici, begun 1444 Florence
Patron: Cosimo

36. • Attributed to
• Michelozzo di Bartolomeo,
• Palazzo Medici-Riccardi,
Florence, begun 1446

38. • Courtyard
with
sgraffito
(decoration
produced
by
scratching
through
plaster or
glaze).

39. The Medici recognized Donatello’s great talent and
commissioned him to sculpt a statue of David.
The Florentines identified with David. As David had
conquered Goliath, so had Florence overcome the
boastful Duke of Milan when he attempted to conquer
their city in 1402.
Donatello’s David marked a milestone in Early
Renaissance art.
Donatello portrayed David as a nude youth…the first
freestanding, life-size nude statue cast since antiquity.
The Medici installed David in the courtyard of their
Florence palace.

45. The Chapel of the Noviciate, which Michelozzo built around 1445 for
Cosimo de’ Medici, has a glazed terracotta altarpiece by Andrea della
Robbia, of the Madonna and Child with Saints.
MICHELOZZO,
SANTA CROCE

46. Basilica of Santa Croce, built
1294, is the principla
Franciscan church in Florence
and the largest Franciscan
church in the world
Bardi S. Francis Santa Croce and Giotto, S. Clare

47. Michelozzo, Medici Chapel,

48. Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel located in the 1st cloister of the Basilica de Santa
Croce, 1441…Pazzi Chapel was a meeting room and a statement of wealth
by the Pazzi family

52. Discuss 15th century Italian Architecture.
Discuss 15th century Italian Sculpture.
Discuss 15th century Italian Painting.