Transcript Early Renaissance

Early
Renaissance
1400-1450
“The Artist as Idea-maker”
•Early Renaissance began in Florence because of specific circumstances.
•At the beginning of the 15th C., Florence was threatened by Duke of Milan
•Put up defenses, including intellectual ones, to rally the people.
•Propaganda in the form of writing, art, music championed Florence as the
“new Athens”
•Began a campaign to finish and decorate Florence Cathedral- opportunity
for the emergence of new artistic talent
•Art was raised from a craft to a liberal art (like writing, mathematics,
philosophy)- a necessity for a gentleman’s education
•The artist became the manipulator of ideas rather than just a craftsman-and
the artist began to be educated and respected.
•New style began with Ghiberti’s Baptistry doors.
•Life-sized figures
•Mass and volume
much more realistic
than Medieval
•Heads based on Roman
sculpture
•This time form and
content are not
separated like in
Medieval
Nanni di Banco, Four Saints, c.1410-14
•Attitude of the human body is much
like classical antiquity
•Donatello- greatest sculptor of his time
(1386-1466)
•Spent early years working on Cathedral
commissions
•Brought back Contrapposto!
•In same architectural niche like Banco,
but different feeling
•Elastic limbs, lifelike, ready for battle
(right hand originally held a sword)
•Renaissance version of the brave
Christian soldier but now redefined as
the defender of the “new Athens”
Donatello, St. George Tabernacle, 1415-17
•Donatello learned bronze
sculpture from Ghiberti
•He ended up with a more
expressive quality than his
teacher.
•Acts as a window of
reality
•Earliest example of linear
perspective (invented by
Brunelleschi)!!
•Linear perspective made
art empirical- a reason to
include as a liberal art
Donatello, Feast of Herod, 1425
Ghiberti has learned from his student!
Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, c.1435
•David is based on Classical proportions and is
symbolic of the struggle between Florence and
Milan (David v. Goliath)
•Note Greek-like wreath on his helmet
•Not based on the Greek athletic type
Donatello, David 1425-30
Niccolo Dell’Arca, The Lamentation, 1485-90
•Integration of motion and emotion
•Life-sized
•Figure on the right is reminiscent of Nike of Samothrace (forward rush)
•Brunelleschi created the
early Renaissance,
Architecturally
•First to study the exact
measurements of ancient
monuments
•Invented linear
perspective
•Won the building of the
Florence Cathedral
Dome- created a new
way of distributing
weight and a new
hoisting machine for
construction
Brunelleschi, S. Lorenzo 1421-69
Commissioned by the Medici to add on to the Romanesque building and then to redo
the entire thing
Interior- order rather than Passion. Precise and mathematical
•New emphasis on the regular and
symmetrical
•Whole design based on square
units
•Ushered in the Renaissance’s
search for order and uniformity
•Helped to organize the disorder
of the Middle Ages- in art as well
as language
Plan, S. Lorenzo
•Drawn to classical architecture because of its inflexibility
•Everything had to be the correct proportions- and completely integrated
Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel, 1430-33
•Completely unrelated to any Gothic structure that came before
•Central arch that links two classical colonnades is an innovation
•Surfaces are decorated
•First example of roundels- sculpture
is not really needed like Gothic
sculpture- its added on, but
architecture now stands on its own.
Interior, Pazzi Chapel
•Brunelleschi was rejected by his
patrons because of his very
innovative ideas- this commission
was given to a lesser-known architect
•Very fortress-like
•Stone is in a graded sequence
(smooth, rusticated, and rough)
Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici 1444
•Death of Brunelleschi allowed
for the rise of Alberti
•1400-1472
•didn’t start designing until he
was OLD (40)- wrote a lot
about Renaissance art
•This is a critique of the
Medici Palace- more of a strict
design
•Reminiscent of the Colloseum
•Dealt with how to put a
classical scheme on a nonclassical building
Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai, 1146-51
•Alberti was able to meld classical and
contemporary
•Triumphal arch from Rome
•Classical temple front
•Pilasters instead of columns
•Complete continuity in the interior of
the church- the façade is a preview of
the order of the entire interior
No clerestory, designed as one long
nave w/o transcept- reminiscent of
Roman basilicas
Alberti, S. Andrea, 1470
•New style was single-handedly launched
by Masaccio (died at the age of 27)
•Renaissance style already established in
sculpture and painting
•Inscription reads “What you are, I once
was; what I am, you will become.”
•Realm of monumental grandeur, not
everyday life
•Drapery is real- figures are “clothed
nudes”
•Shows linear perspective
•Deliberately painted to be seen from the
viewer’s perspective
Masaccio, The Holy Trinity 1425
•Fresco from the Brancacci Chapel, showing continuous narration
•Figures merge the weight and volume of Giotto with new precision of the
Renaissance
•Most figures are very static and sculptural
Masaccio, The Tribute Money c. 1427
How do we know this is
Renaissance and not Medieval?
Masaccio, Madonna Enthroned, 1426
Duccio
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, 1440-50
Paolo Ucello, Battle of San Romano, 1455 (tempera and silver foil)
•Shows preoccupation with depicting space- ground is very gridlike
•Ordered space in a very disordered painting
Castagno, The Last Supper, 1445-50
•Depicts an alcove of real space- reminiscent of Masaccio
•Almost too ordered- imprisons and silences figures- uses medieval pose of
Judas separated
•From the city of Padua (near
Venice) 1431-1506
•2nd most important painter of
the early Renaissance
•Fresco destroyed in 1944
•Worms-eye view perspective
based on viewer’s eye-level
•Devotion to classical remainsdesire for accuracy (soldier’s
costumes)
•Great emotional content (fight
breaking out on the right)
Mantegna, St.James Led to his
Execution, 1455
•Painting is set in the apse of a church
•Very gentle, diffused light
•Very spacious and calm
•Colors have rich depth
•Meditative rather than static (like
medieval)
Bellini, Madonna and the Saints, 1505
Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1480
•1444-1510- Florentine-favorite of the Medici from the Masaccio style-stable
and monumental
•Lack of concern for deep space, ornamental
•Does not follow precise anatomy- bodies are deflated looking, never touching
the ground
•Why was mythological subjects allowed in a very religious society?
•Very Flemish in nature- realism and
facial detail but filled with emotion
like the Italians
Ghirlandaio, An Old Man and his
Grandson, 1480
Perugino, The Delivery of the Keys, 1482
•Roman- a fresco from the Sistine Chapel-story of Peter being named the first Pope
•Very symmetrical design, vast expanse of the background
•Mathematically exact perspective
•Became Raphael’s teacher (poor guy!)