Art History L 9 1 Italian Renaissance: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Jacopo and Luca della Robbia

The Renaissance, a revival of the cultural ideals of ancient Greece and Rome, flowered during the 15th and 16th centuries in Europe. Based on a new scientific spirit of observation, painting and sculpture became more naturalistic and artists used perspective to portray a three-dimensional world, rather than the spiritual space depicted by medieval artists. 15th and 16th The Renaissance started in Italy, where wealthy bankers and merchants commissioned paintings, sculptures, and frescoes for churches and palaces. Figures and paintings became more realistic, and sculptures of the nude were based on anatomical study. The development of oil paint freed artists from the limitations of egg tempera and enabled them to experiment with layers of color. In Flanders and Germany, artists produced masterful altarpieces and realistic portraits landscape became a new genre, with nature depicted in minute detail. In the 1520s, the classical harmony of the high Renaissance began to break down as mannerism emerged. This was a sophisticated style in which poses, colors, and perspective were exaggerated. Art also blossomed in the Far East during this period. Under the Ming dynasty in China, artists painted vast landscapes, flower and bird compositions and narrative paintings using ink wash and calligraphy. In Japan, evocative ink paintings and screens featuring scenes on gold backgrounds showed the influence of Zen philosophy. For the first time since classical antiquity, painting gave a convincing illusion of three dimensions, with solid-looking figures set in a unified space. The figures have noble proportions and features and show believable emotions. While Florentines approached art intellectually, Venetians reveled in the luscious color of oil paint. Origins and influences Renaissance means, rebirth, and the idea stems from the 14th century Italian poet Petrarch. He divided history into ages, the golden age of classical antiquity, the dark age after the Roman Empire collapsed, and his own modem age, when the values of antiquity were reborn. Although classical texts had in fact been important throughout the Middle Ages, Petrarch believed that he and his contemporaries had revived Greek and Roman ideals and thought after a period of cultural stagnation. Alongside an intellectual rebirth, the economy in the Italian city-states flourished. By 1400 merchants and bankers were the most powerful citizens. Unlike aristocrats who inherited their wealth and position, the new middle classes had achieved their status themselves. Instead of bowing to inevitable death and focusing on the afterlife, they took pride in their contribution to society in this life. Part of this involved a good education in classical law, rhetoric, and philosophy. This cultural shift was labeled humanism in the 19th century. Subjects. Christianity remained as strong as ever and religious subjects were the most common themes in art. Some were highly critical of corruption in the Catholic Church, ultimately leading to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. From the mid-15th century, Cathedral dome Filippo Brunelleschi, the huge dome of Florence Cathedral, built from 1417 to 1436, was a remarkable feat of engineering and the most prominent symbol of the Timeline. Donatello's St. George looks like a purposeful young man, and his friend Massaccio's Holy Trinity has a powerful new sense of space Piero's dream added light for drama, while Botticelli's Venus reflected the culture of the Medici court. David, Mona Lisa, and the School of Athens of the high Renaissance giants Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael show the realization of the naturalistic aims of their predecessors. Titianus' Venus is a Venetian match for them. C1413-17, Donatello, St. George. C1425-28, Massaccio, Holy Trinity. C1430-32, Fare Angelico, the Annunciation. C1460, Piero della Francesca, The Dream of Constantine. 1485, Botticelli, The Birth of Venus. Schools Throughout the 15th century Florence was Italy's most innovative and productive art center, but in the 16th century Rome and Venice rivaled height in importance. Several other leading cities, including Mantua, Milan, and Padua, had impressive artistic traditions, and numerous smaller places were significant, notably Urbino, which had a brief but brilliant cultural flowering. Florence Florence is often described as the cradle of the Renaissance. In the early 15th century it was home to a remarkable group of artists who brought about a revolution in style, and set the agenda for much of what followed. Massaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, and Brunelleschi in architecture were the most influential of these figures. Brunelleschi revived the decorative vocabulary and lucid harmony of ancient Roman architecture, decisively breaking with the Gothic style, see page 82, while his friends Donatello and Massaccio brought a new naturalism to their respective arts. They and their successors flourished in a stimulating environment, for Florence was extremely prosperous and the bankers and merchants who created its wealth were often generous, and competitive, patrons of art, helping to create a constant flow of major commissions. The city was a republic, but from 1434 it was, in effect, ruled by the Medici family. Its members included several of the leading patrons of the age. Sandro Baricelli, Michelangelo, Benvenuto Salini, and Agnolo Bronzino are among the host of illustrious artists who worked for them. Adam and Eve banished from Paradise Massaccio Adam and Eve look like real people, distraught at being thrown out of Garden of Eden. Previously the fall from grace had been presented more symbolically. See 1425-28, Fresco, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy. Rome. For much of the early Renaissance Rome was of secondary importance. Because of anarchic political conditions there, the papacy transferred its court to Avignon in France from 1309-1377 and it was not until the reign of Pope Martin V 1417-31 that Rome began to stabilize and emerge from this bleak period. His successors included some notable patrons, who started rebuilding Rome and attracted major artists to the city. Giulio Romano is the only portraits reflected the new sense of self-worth. Patrons also collected art with mythological themes to enjoy at home. The Holy Family with a Lamb Raphael his early works included intimate and tender religious images like this. In Rome, his style became grander. 1507, Oil and Panel, 29x21 cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain. Style and Techniques Painting and sculpture became realistic, representing the living, visible world rather than, as in medieval art, symbolically portraying the heavenly realm. Discovery of the laws of perspective put art on a rational footing that showed mathematically calculated depth and one proportion. Technically, the use of oil paint freed artists from the constraints of quick-drying egg tempera. The dead Christ supported by an angel Antonello de Messina the Sicilian artist's use of full paint to give a strong sense of atmosphere made an impact in Venice. 1475-78, Oil and Panel, 74x51 cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain. Detail he angels' sorrowful face with eyes cast down and tears running down his cheeks makes a expression of bereavement. 1492, Florentine ruler Lorenzo de Medici dies. Preacher Girolamo Savonarola takes advantage of the power vacuum, possibly influencing Michelangelo among others. Pagan, works of art are burned in street bonfires. 1498, Savonarola is executed. After a spell as a republic, the Medici, absent since 1494, return to power in Florence in 1512. 1527 in the sack of Rome, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's troops and Protestant mercenaries loot the city's art treasures and murder many inhabitants. 1490, Lini San Giobbe Peace. 1501-2004, Michelangelo David. C1503-05, Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa. C1509-11, David Raphael, The School of Athens. C1530, Correggio, Jupiter and Lo. C1538, Titian, Venus of Urbino. Outstanding artist of the period who was born there. The greatest of these papal patrons was Julius II, 1503-13, who began the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, with Donato Bramante as his architect, and employed Michelangelo and Raphael on frescoes in the Vatican. These three artists, together with Leonardo da Vinci, were largely responsible for creating the grand, noble High Renaissance style. The Golden Age it represented ended when Rome was sacked by troops of the Emperor Charles V in 1527. By the end of the 16th century the city had recovered and was the most important art center in the country. Venice. Venice was enormously wealthy because of maritime trade, but it lagged behind as an art center until the late 15th century, when it was transformed, largely through the work of Giovanni Bellini. He matched the skill of his Italian contemporaries, and also gave Venetian art a particular character, showing a concern with color and light that contrasted with the Florentine emphasis on light. Bellini ran a busy workshop and passed on his methods and ideals to his pupils and other painters of the next generation, including Giorgione and Titian. Other artists, notably Giacoppo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese, continued this age of Venetian painting almost to the end of the 16th century. Pieta Giovanni Bellini Bellini put Venice on the artistic map with the strength of his color and atmosphere, contrasting with the Florentine emphasis on light. C 1505, oil and panel, 65 by 87 centimeters, Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice, Italy. Diné-Titian loose brushwork and mellow color make Titian's retelling of classical myths soft and sensuous. Here Zeus seduces Diné in the guise of a shower of gold. C 1554, oil and canvas, 135 x 152 centimeters, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Lorenzo Ghiberti. B. Florence, C. 1380, D. Florence, 1455. Lorenzo Ghiberti sprach When Asa Young and little-known goldsmith he defeated Brunelleschi, opposite, and five others in a competition set by the Cloth Importers' Guild of Florence. The prize was a commission to decorate the north doors of the city's baptistry, situated in front of the cathedral. The reliefs for the pair of bronze doors took him 23 years to complete. The result closer to international Gothic than Renaissance in its elegant lines, rhythmic drapery, and detailed landscape, was so successful that the Guild commissioned a further pair of doors for the east entrance. Dubbed the Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo, they were ahead of their time for their clever spacing of figures within varying depths of relief. Ghiberti moved on from his Gothic roots in his designs for the second pair of doors. His later reliefs put him in the vanguard of the Renaissance use of perspective. While the doors took up most of Ghiberti's career, he claimed that, few works of importance were made in our city that were not designed or devised by my hand. Indeed, some of the best artists of the day trained in his workshop. Lifeline 1401 In his early twenties, Wynne's commission to decorate the north doors of the baptistry in Florence. 1413-17 makes first of three large bronze statues of saints for the Orsonish. 1424 The completed north doors are hum. 1425 Embarks on second pair of doors for the baptistry's east entrance. 1440 Writes Commentarii. One of the first art history books and the first surviving autobiography of an artist. 1452 Finishes east doors. Ion Context City guilds by 1400. There were seven main guilds in Florence, each representing a key trade or profession. They wielded great power, and only guild members could hold government office. Luckily for the arts, rivalry, equals meant that the guilds vied to commission the best sculptors to decorate their buildings. All the guilds competed to decorate the niches of Orsanmichel, a combined guild hall, granary, and church near Florence Cathedral. Ghiberti was commissioned to make larger-than-life bronze statues of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Matthew, and St. Stephen. Portal for the Tailors and Drapers Guild. Musio di San Marco. Florence, Italy. North doors surrounded by a frieze of foliage. The twenty-eight relief panels illustrate a cycle of new. Testament subjects. Ghiberti's panels were modeled on Andrea. Pisano's earlier doors for the baptistry. Each panel isi in the gothic shape of a catafal. Consisting of four lobes and points. A tricky space to fill. The decoration surrounding the panels incorporates the heads of prophets and sybils. And Ghiberti's self-portrait. 1424. Part gilded bronze. Baptistry. Florence, Italy. Cielo Asiaraic. The transfiguration. Ninth panel. The disciples are shown falling to the ground as Christ reveals his divine nature. Flanked by the prophets Moses and Elijah. Ghiberti uses the catafal's lower lobes as a dividing point between the standing and prone figures. The sacrifice of Isaac Ghiberti's winning entry for the design of the north doors was cast in one piece. Except for the naked figure of Isaac. This use of metal was economical and unified the sculpture. Ghiberti uses the diagonal of the rocky landscape to separate and balance the subordinate attendants and their donkey and the key characters. The turning figures of Abraham and his son Isaac gracefully echo each other's movements. 1401. Bronze. Bargello. Florence, Italy. Cain and Abel slash end this pain. From the east doors, Ghiberti uses subtle gradations of relief to suggest receding depth and represent different aspects of the story. Cain cudgels Abel to death with convincing brutality. Ghiberti has moved on from symbolic gothic gestures. Completed 1452. Gilded bronze. 52 by 45 centimeters. Baptistry. Florence, Italy. Filippo Brunelleschi. De Florence. 1377. De Florence. 1446. After Brunelleschi lost out to Ghiberti in the competition to design the doors to the Florence baptistry in 1401, he devoted himself mainly to architecture. A former goldsmith, he is credited with discovering the mathematical laws of perspective. His mathematical skills and knowledge of Roman construction enabled him to design the vast dome of the Florence Cathedral, which spans 45 and without supports. His revival of Roman architectural forms shaped the Renaissance, and his perspective laws were soon applied to painting. The sacrifice of Isaac in Brunelleschi's version. More dramatic but less graceful than Ghiberti's. An angel holds Abraham's arm away from the contorted Isaac. The elements were cast separately and pinned to a back plate. 1401 bronze. Bargello. Florence, Italy. Giacoppo della Quercia. B. Siena. C. 1374. D. Siena. 1438. Giacoppo hovers between the medieval and the classical. Heavy Gothic folds of drapery grow increasingly fluid, and the figures have a sense of volume and muscle that stems from Roman sources. The leading sculptor of the Sienese school. More conservative than trend-setting Florence. Giacoppo worked in many Italian cities, often moving on before completing a commission. Giacoppo was influenced by Donatello, and both contributed bronze reliefs for the marble font in the Siena baptistry. Giacoppo lagged behind schedule, and his Annunciation to Zacharias owed a debt to Donatello's already-completed Feast of Herod in its portrayal of space and depth. His last work was a commission for a series of relief scenes from Genesis and Christ's Nativity for the Doors of S. Petronio, Bologna. In the ultimate accolade, Michelangelo reinterpreted some of them on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Lifeline. 1401 enters competition for the Florence baptistry Doors. 1405 receives commission for first known work. 1408. Commission to carve the font Gaia in Siena. 1417-30. Works on reliefs for Siena baptistry font 1425. Begins the Portal of S. Petronio in Bologna. Creation of even most of the S. Petronio door panels. Giacoppo used only three figures. Interpreting them with individual character. Begun 1425. Marble. S. Petronio, Bologna, Italy. Font Gaia Giacoppo's sculptures for the fountain in Siena city square show a Renaissance solidity. The outer figures have a Gothic swaying axis and sweeping drapery. 1414-19. Marble. Siena. Italy. Lucca della Rabbia. B. Florence. C. 1399. D. Florence. 1482. Lucca della Rabbia was the leading proponent of this sweet style. Of sculpture. An alternative to Donatello's expressive style. His marble reliefs of children singing and dancing for the singing gallery in Florence baptistry were outstandingly original in their joy of life and exuberance. He was among the first to bring out the sentimental bond between the Virgin and Christ child. Lucca's greatest technical innovation was his use of glazed terracotta for sculptures. Adding color made statuary much more visible in the dim lighting of a church. The bright and permanent colors also made the terracotta suitable for use on the outside of buildings. Such as in coats of arms and niches. Lucca's workshop flourished on these commissions. His nephew, Andrea, and other members of his family carried on the tradition well into the 16th century. Lifeline. 1414. Probably apprenticed as a teenager to nanny Di Banco. 1431-38. First documented work. The singing gallery over the north doors of the baptistry in Florence. 1463-66. His workshop makes roundels of babies on the facade of Florence's foundling hospital. Virgin and child roundels of gently expressive, half-length Madonna groups and glazed white terracotta on a blue ground were the bread and butter of Lucca's workshop. 15th century. Terracotta. Bargello. Florence. Italy. Angel holding a candle. This is one of a pair of angels modeled in white terracotta for the cathedral in Florence. It was the first use of the medium for freestanding sculpture. 15th century. Glazed terracotta. Florence Cathedral. Italy. Cielo Asiaraic. Individually modeled, the two angels are unique, but both have similarly sweet faces and serene expressions. Later figures were mass-produced from molds, with an inevitable reduction in quality.