Transcript Florentine Renaissance

Florence Creates a Renaissance
Filippo Brunelleschi
1377-1446
Cathedral of Florence
Santa Maria del Fiore
Begun in late 13th century but left unfinished
Did not know how to span 140 foot wide octagonal space
Solution to the dome problem came from Filippo Brunelleschi--Brunelleschi’s Dome, Il Duomo
cupola
•Massive ribs arch 100
feet up to create dome.
•Has two dome shells
concealing 24 ribs …3x
the Gothic 8
•Brunelleschi studies
geometry, creating
architecture based on
the circle and the
square
quatrefoil design
Baptistery Doors, 1401
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Filippo Brunelleschi
Lorenzo Ghiberti--the winner
Crowded, Gothic verticality
Horizontal, simple, elegant
Brunelleschi describes and uses
one-point perspective
sometime between 1413-1425
….and Ghiberti quickly follows
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Horizon line
the VANISHING
POINT
is the place on the
horizon line where
our eye focuses
and all lines
converge
Ghiberti’s East Doors
1425-52
No more quatrefoil
One-point perspective
Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72)
another Italian artist and philosopher, further defines perspective
Alberti’s window, around 1435
What are other ways to deal with perspective?
Attempt it….
Gaddi, fresco, 1327,Presentation of Mary
Ignore it…
Perfect it….
Mantegna, fresco, oculus, 1473
Pontormo, oil, 1515, Joseph in Egypt
Play with it…
Bend it…
Hogarth, etching, 1754, Perspectival Absurdities
Escher, lithography, 1938, Day and Night
Dream it….change the rules
Flatten it…
Oil, 1937
Miro, 1926, oil, Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird
“ I have painted feet, more or less realistically, outrageously enlarged or distorted. The foot has
always been intensely interesting to me—its form, its function. Isn't it the foot that allows man to
make contact with the earth? And there's irony in it, too. We talk about putting our foot in our
mouth, don't we? No matter, during those years [1925] my paintings no longer showed the pull
of gravity; I wanted to give it an astral quality. My preoccupation with dreams became mixed up
with eroticism, whereas my open writing was enhanced by the addition of dotted lines. I also
made poem-paintings, with written texts. My last work from this dream period were painted on
white backgrounds. Their sharper linear quality reminds some people of frescoes.” Miro, 1962
Fra Angelico (1387-1455)
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Dominican monk
Name means “Brother
Angel”
Only painted religious
subjects
Favorite subject was angels
Knew perspective, studied
Masaccio
Paintings are a blend of
Gothic and Early
Renaissance styles
Died in Rome while painting
for the pope
Annunciation
c. 1445-1450, fresco
Donatello
(1386-1466)
• The Prophet (Lo
Zuccone), 1423-25
• “Pumpkinhead”
• Marble
• Seen 55 feet above
ground
• Commissioned for the
Florence Cathedral
Donatello
• David, c 1430-32
• First life-size
bronze nude in
the round since
antiquity
• Medici Palace
Donatello’s David, c. 1430
First classical nude in the
round since antiquity
How does it resemble the
classical Roman sculpture on the
left?
Masaccio (1401-1428)
• Lived in Florence
• Friends with Brunelleschi and Donatello
• Nickname means “sloppy” (Giorgio
Vasari)
• First to use perspective and
atmospheric perspective in painting
• Works are considered the first
monument to Humanism
• Rumored to have been poisoned by a
rival painter
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The Holy Trinity, ca. 1425, fresco
Linear or one-point perspective
Vanishing point at feet; triangular composition
Science and religion
“What you are, I once was; what I am, you will
become.”
Memento mori—Adam’s skeleton
Masaccio
• Expulsion from the
Garden, c. 1425
• Brancacci Chapel
• Adam and Eve being
banished from the
Garden of Eden
• shows that moment
that they realize their
mortality
Masaccio
• The Tribute Money, c. 1427, fresco
• St. Peter appears 3 times
• Linear and atmospheric perspective
Andrea Mantegna
• Dead Christ, c.
1500
• Tempera on
canvas
• foreshortening
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The Birth of Venus, c. 1482
Commissioned by the Medicis
Tempera on canvas
Commissioned by the Medicis
The first fully nude female since antiquity
Dual nature of love--- both sensuous and chaste
Botticelli
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Botticelli
Allegory of Spring, c. 1478
Tempera on wood
Chloris, the nymph of springtime, is chased by the south wind; she turns into
a flower girl, symbolizing Florence
Cupid shoots Chastity
Beauty and Passion are at her side
Mercury is both leader of the 3 graces and god of the winds, driving away
winter and making way for spring
Venus and Mars,
1485
egg tempera on
board
Botticelli
•Baby satyrs are having a great time playing while the mighty warrior sleep
•The goddess of love looks both skeptical and protective
•Can the power of love defeat war?
Savonarola, 1452-98
chases away the Renaissance in Florence…and the
Medicis…and art and music
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this fire-and-brimstone monk is
against luxury and excess, immoral
art
1494: the Medicis are chased out of
Florence and Savonarola becomes
head
1497: Savonarola begins Bonfires of
the Vanities, throwing art, books,
mirrors, games into the fire at the
town square
Botticelli masterpieces are lost to
the flames
1498: Savonarola is charged with
heresy and thrown into the flames--at the same location as his bonfires