Renaissance Art
Proto Renaissance – Late Gothic Art of Italy
13th & 14th C
Centres- Pisa/ Siena/Florence/ Lucca
Siena –
Florentine School – Florence
The Death of the Virgin (The Dormition)
Workshop of Tilman Heysacker
German
late 15th century On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 16
This high-relief sculpture, once painted, was the central scene of an altarpiece, the wings of which depicted the Birth of the Virgin and the Nativity.
Gothic artists wanted to understand the ancient formula for draped bodies, which had been handed down to them. Perhaps they turned for enlightenment to the remnants of Pagan stonework, Roman tombstones, and triumphal arches, of which several could be seen in France.
Thus they regained the lost classical art of letting the structure of the body show under the folds of the drapery.
The way the Virgin’s face and hands and Christ's hands appear under the cloth shows that these sculptors were no longer interested only in what they represented, but also in the problem of how to represent.
Proto-Renaissance
Under the frozen solemnity of a Byzantine Painting, how the face is modelled in light and shade, and how the throne and the footstool show a correct understanding of the principles of foreshortening.
With methods of this kind, a genius who broke the spell of Byzantine conservatism could venture out into the new world and translate the lifelike figures of Gothic Sculpture into painting.
This genius Italian art is found in the Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone.
The Nativity by Giotto
Giotto had helped to revive the arts in general by combining his talent (ingegno) with a sound knowledge of the doctrine (teachings) of the masters from antiquity, that is the ability to accurately and dramatically represent the proportions and anatomical details of the human body.
Giotto has a reputation as the 'first Renaissance artist’.
Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 CE), Michelangelo (1475-1564 CE), and Raphael (1483-1520 CE) studied Giotto's work, continued his approach, and then added such new techniques as chiaroscuro (the contrasting use of light and shade) and mathematical perspective to their work.
Giotto had begun these first steps toward achieving a greater reality in art, and his shadow was so large over early Renaissance art that historians have labeled countless similar style artists as 'Giotteschi'.
Lamentation; Giotto
The concern for realism
Expression of Emotions
Dramatic Effect
The Emergence of the New Age
During the Middle ages, The Church was the center of existence, guiding people over the rough road of life to salvation. So people in western Europe thought of themselves as being helpless and unimportant. But by the beginning of the fifteenth-century people were beginning to rediscover the world around them and realize that they were an important part of that world. The idea that life in this world was little more than a preparation for heaven slowly gave way to an interest in the world of here and now. This change of view and the period in which it took place is referred as the renaissance.
The fifteenth century was a time of great growth and discovery. Commerce spread, wealth increased, knowledge multiplied, and the arts flourished. In Italy, a number of cities grew to become important trading and industrial centers. Among these was Florence which rose to become the capital of the cloth trade and boasted of having the richest banking house in Europe.
In the North of Italy were the duchies of Savoy And Milan. The cities of Florence, Venice, Genoa, and Siena were powerful republics. Most of the central Italy formed Papal States. In the South was the kingdom of Naples and Sicily.
Sometimes the rich powerful families overcame republics. These often became patrons of arts and each tried to get the best artists, art collections, and libraries. The most renowned were Visconti and Sforza of Milan, The Gonzaga of Mantua, The Montefeltre of Urbino, The Malatesta of Rimini, The Est of Ferrara, and the Medici of Florance.
The Renaissance Movement started with what is known as Humanism, or admiration for ancient Greek and Roman Literature. These books were now eagerly sought in the libraries of monasteries and cathedrals, where they had been prepared and copied during the middle ages. Many people now learned Greek. This literary movement was stimulated by the poet Petrarch (1304-1374). He also saw in the old Roman ruins the glory of Italy’s past and roused the interest of his fellow citizens in them.
During this period scholars and artists began to show an interest in the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Artists greatly admired the lifelike appearance of classical works and tried to capture the same quality in their artworks. They turned to a study of nature and the surviving Classical sculptures in an effort to make their art works more realistic.
During this period artists began to assert their individuality. In contrast to medieval anonymity, individual artists now became more important.
Characteristics of Renaissance Art
The onset of technology and new discoveries led artists and learners to seek more. While the Western world saw simultaneous discoveries and innovations, the artists in Italy became more and more curious to explore the world and all the possible aspects of nature. The discoveries in Europe included new sea routes, continents, and colonies along with new innovations in architecture, sculpting, and painting. They believed that revival of the classical antiquity could lead to a much more worthy and standardized stake in that era.
2. Faith in the nobility of man- Humanism
Humanism was a major offshoot, and characteristic of the Renaissance period. While the Renaissance Humanism was an intellectual movement that began in the 13th century. The major ideal of philosophy was tied around the study of classical texts, and the alteration of these classical thinkings by more contemporary ones. As in the 15th century, Renaissance Humanism had become the dominant form of education. It was so popular that it was divided into a range of sub-developments. Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) is regarded as the Father of Italian Humanism, his contribution to the philosophy was quite huge.
Renaissance Humanism was very instrumental to the reign of the Renaissance. It was popular and predominant during the period. This was to the extent that the church had to support and even “patron” it.
Through humanism, Art especially enjoyed the support of the church. The church began to finance and sponsor creative ventures and education. And with the high-rate of patronage from the wealthy royals, there was always a ready market for the paintings that were made.
Intellectuals, artisans and common men concluded that the Church was never a responsible source for their behavior and beliefs towards God and fellow men and that they themselves are responsible for the actions.
The parallel vision between religion and humanism was cleared and the esteem related to self-importance was thought upon. The magnificent Procession of the Magi, portrayed by Gozzoli along with companies, seeks a more regal face rather than a religious one.
3. The discovery and mastery of linear perspective
The revival in math and proportions led to the innovations of two major systems: the use of linear perspective and the introduction of the vanishing point – This is considered to be one of the revolutionary characteristics of renaissance art.
This was created by the famous architect of that time, Filippo Brunelleschi.
He used the innovations in math to create a linear perspective using parallel lines, a horizon line and a vanishing point to realistically portray space and depth in art.
Since painting is a two-dimensional activity, the advent of linear perspective created a three-dimensional look through practice.
To achieve this, artists took a horizon line at eye level and marked a vanishing point on it. A receding checkerboard of intersecting lines was created that converged and met the vanishing point. This created a sense of distance and depth.
With constant practice, artists managed to create a three-dimensional effect in their paintings.
Not only did the art with linear perspective shoot high, but the ability to portray convincingly naturalistic figures in illusionistic spaces was praiseworthy too.
The mastermind behind the developments was the author of three mathematical treatises and a wonderful artist, Piero Della Francesca, whose perspective paintings and impressive figures showed technique and finesse. One such classic example of his work is The Flagellation of Christ.
4. Rebirth of Naturalism
This is another characteristic of Renaissance Art that brought about a change in world patterns.
During the period, there was the rise of anatomical drawings and paintings. The Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci pioneered this move. He set the standard for drawing and painting anatomically correct bodies. He birthed this out of his quest to thoroughly understand the human body. He did this by performing 20 autopsies while drawing all that he found in the human body, the way he saw them. He then incorporated what he learned of bone structures, musculature, and organ placement (from the bodies he drew or painted), into the body of knowledge.
Italian Renaissance artists integrated figures into complex scenes that permitted a broader perspective and a glimpse into the lives of the wealthy or rich. Both light, shadow, and perspective were used effectively to draw attention to figures in paintings.
Leonardo Da Vinci was considered to be a scientist as well as an artist.
Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo observed cadavers being dissected.
This was for them to study how human muscles lay underneath the skin.
In Medieval days, the human body was regarded as being sinful, smelly, and disgusting. And therefore, it was to be covered at all times.
But then, during the Renaissance period, this changed. Renaissance thinkers considered the human body to be a beautiful thing. And in fact, a model for God’s universe.
In Da Vinci’s 1487 drawing; “Vitruvian Man,” which meant “universal man”, he expressed how a spread-eagle human body, fits into a perfect circle. And he did this with its arms stretched out into a perfect square.
Michelangelo’s nude statue, “David” is a prime example of the Renaissance’s fascination with the human body. And its belief that the human body is the apex of God’s creation.
Michelangelo painted so many nude characters in his “Last Judgement”. He did this on the wall of the Sistine Chapel. And after a while, the Vatican had to hire another painter to paint modest clothes around his drawings, to cover many of the nude paintings.
Vitruvian Man
5. Secularism
Secularism; which is the last characteristic I’ll dwell on, was also a useful force. It is the transition of predominant beliefs and thought patterns from religious themes to broader themes. And also the incorporation of practices such as architecture and sculpture. Renaissance artists portrayed non-religious themes, meanwhile, Medieval Art was exclusively religious in nature.
During Medieval times, most people believed the world would end in the year 1,000 A.D., so they believed that any other art subject was inappropriate.
Renaissance art focused on religious subjects, and Bible characters. So the trend gradually shifted toward the painting of scenes that were not religious.
The interest in Classical Roman culture was rekindled during this period. Then, the Renaissance put forward artworks that often portrayed scenes from Greek and Roman mythology.
One of the evidence of the rebirth of the Greek and Roman culture was the revival of sculpture works.
In classical times, only the important cities were filled with statues and sculptures. But during the Renaissance, there was an increased interest in archeology, to rediscover the Classical culture. Michelangelo was present when the Laocoon; carved in the 1st century, was discovered in Rome.
Michelangelo was not only a painter and sculptor of great talent. He also served as the architect of the Dome for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. And this church building is acclaimed to be the largest church building on earth.
Early Renaissance – 15th C
The florentine school continued. (centre- Florence/ Umbria)
Masaccio
FLORENTINE PAINTER
Born: December 21, 1401 - Castel San Giovanni di Altura, Italy
Died: 1428 - Rome, Italy
Masaccio is often credited as the first truly Renaissance artist. A tragically early end to his life cut short his progress, yet his outstanding work altered the course of Western art. The Early Renaissance was a time of cultural flourishing in Florence, and Masaccio was able to take advantage of the significant patronage of the arts among the nobility, who were keen to show off their wealth and prestige in the form of alter-pieces and friezes decorating private chapels. Little is known about his life; what we do know is that his work was unlike that of any other artist working in Florence at the time, following a rational approach that would come to characterize the broader Renaissance.
Accomplishments
1422
San Giovenale Triptych
This is the earliest known work by Masaccio, dated April 23rd 1422 in the inscription running along the bottom edge of the three panels. It was commissioned by the Vanni Castellani family of Florence and originally resided in the church of San Lorenzo, before being moved to San Giovenale. It was designed as an altarpiece, presumably for a secondary chapel of the church, with the customary scene of the Virgin and Child on its central panel. On the left wing are Saint Bartholomew and Saint Blaise, and on the right are Saint Antony and Saint Juvenal (or San Giovenale), all of whom are identified by name labels in the inscription below.��The way the figures are depicted shows the profound influence of Giotto, the artist who had been at the forefront of the Renaissance a century earlier. However, the way the Virgin's throne recedes into the background, placing the figures in a realistic space behind the picture plane shows an innovative use of perspective, which was distinctly modern for the time. The simplicity of the forms and composition, along with this realistic space, show that Masaccio was already moving away from the International Gothic style, rejecting the elaborate decoration and implausible pictorial space favored by artists such as Lorenzo Monaco and Gentile da Fabriano. This early painting contains elements of the linear perspective and compositional unity that would come to characterize his future works. The inscription at the bottom is the first known example of the use of modern letters, as opposed to gothic script.
Tempera on panel - Museo Masaccio, Florence
1424-25
Madonna and Child with St Anne
This panel, again showing the Virgin and child, this time with her mother sitting behind her, is thought to have been a collaboration with Masolino. According to Giorgio Vasari, it originally stood in the church of San Ambrogio in Florence right next to the entrance of the nuns' quarters. This seems a suitable setting for this painting focusing on the Virgin and her mother St Anne, as they were considered to be models for an ideal Christian woman. The intricate damask fabric held behind St Anne may reference the likely patron of the panel, Nofri Buonamici, who was a weaver of silk.��Whilst some parts of this painting still show the more Gothic hand of Masolino, Massacio's innovative painting style is nonetheless evident. It is visible particularly in the Christ child, who has been depicted not as a Gothic cherub but as a realistic infant. One can also see how Masaccio painted the figures as if they were illuminated by one real light source to the left, rather than the all-encompassing glow found in Gothic painting. Whilst the rounded figures show some influence from Donatello, one can also see in this panel the development of Masaccio's own individual style.
Tempera on panel - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
1425-27
Payment of the Tribute Money
This fresco scene is one of several depicting scenes from the life of St Peter, painted by Masaccio in collaboration with the painter Masolino in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. Masolino, who had already been working on the chapel for a few years, eventually abandoned the work, as did Masaccio when he left for Rome, where he died in 1428, and it was eventually completed by Filipino Lippi between 1481 and 1485. Although disastrous fires and additions by later artists have caused serious losses, the frescoes that survive are recognized as some of the most important in Florence.��This section shows Christ and his disciples in Capernicum, where they are required to pay tax. In the centre Christ and his disciples are confronted by the tax collector, on the left the fisherman Peter collects gold from the mouth of a fish, as instructed by Christ, and on the right Peter hands over the money.��
This painting exemplifies Masaccio’s skillful use of perspective - atmospheric perspective in the mountains to the left, and linear perspective in the building to the right,a technique that would have a significant influence on later Renaissance artists such as Piero della Francesca and Paolo Uccello. The technical excellence of this painting has been studied and sketched by countless artists, from Michelangelo to Philip Guston. Masaccio was one of the first artists to use naturalism and perspective in this way, creating a space so realistic that the picture plane appears more as a window than a flat surface. The figures' poses emulate classical statues, and their draped clothing is reminiscent of that worn by classical philosophers. Though the painting has a narrative subject, Masaccio has focused on the harmonious arrangement of figures rather than the storyline. Art Historian Richard Offner suggests that the meaning of the painting is found "in the degree in which [the figures] reflect a universal order"; in other words, the composition reflects the balance and organization bestowed on nature by God.
Fresco - Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence
c. 1424-27
The Holy Trinity
This fresco, painted on the walls of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, is considered to be Masaccio's masterpiece. The patrons who commissioned the work are shown kneeling at the forefront of the painting, however they cannot be identified with certainty. The painting depicts the crucifixion of Christ, with the customary figures of the Virgin and St John at the foot of the cross. However, the scene defies Renaissance convention in so many ways that it has remained an enigma, despite being studied by scholars for hundreds of years. The painting is known as The Holy Trinity (Santa Trinità) due to its depiction of Christ with God behind him, and the white dove of the Holy Spirit hovering between their heads. Although a figurative depiction of God was not a religious taboo at the time, he would usually have been depicted in a non-earthly realm, representing the heavens, rather than in the concrete space of the church.
The rendering of three-dimensional space in this painting is often considered to represent the pinnacle of Masaccio's technical mastery. The perspective is so accurate that modern scholars have been able to digitally construct the fictional space depicted in the painting as a 3D model. The fine draughtsmanship that allowed Masaccio to create such a realistic space gives the sense that the crucifixion is taking place right in front of the viewer's eyes, in the church itself. This lends the image an immediacy that instantly connects the viewer with Christ's suffering, not only as a God but as a fellow person.
�The image mirrors an earlier painting, The Virgin and Child with St Anne, in which the Mother of God is shown with her own mother standing behind her. The depiction of God as a Father, standing behind his son, allows the viewer to relate to the Holy Trinity on a more human level, a radical act at a time in which the Catholic Church had a strict hierarchy that insisted the public could only connect with God through priests chosen by the Church. It is suggestive of the new humanist phase in art and philosophy that was beginning to be ushered in with the Early Renaissance.
The fictional architecture of the space does however incorporate degrees of separation. God is above and behind Jesus, who is above the saints, the donors are close to God by virtue of their generosity to the church, and the viewer stands below the scene looking in. At eye level, and 'beneath' the paintings fictional ground, is a naturalistic image of a tomb with a skeleton lying on top of it. Carved into the tomb in Italian is the phrase "I was once what you are, and what I am you shall be". This speaks directly to the viewer of their mortality, as they gaze up at the image of Christ dying for their salvation.��Called "one of the groundbreaking works of the early Renaissance" by Art Historian Richard Viladesau, this work has continued to captivate artists since it was first painted, with Francis Bacon taking inspiration from its composition for his Painting (1946).
Fresco - Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Linear perspective discovered by Filippo Brunelleschi -
This was a geometric system that showed artists how to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.
Slanting the lines of buildings and other objects in the picture inwards make them appear to extend back into space. If these lines are lengthened, they will eventually meet at a point along an imaginary horizontal line representing eye level. The point at which these lines meet is called the vanishing point.
Donatello
ITALIAN SCULPTOR (Early Renaissance)
Born: c. 1386 - Florence
Died: December 13, 1466 - Florence
Donatello would become known as the most important sculptor to resuscitate classical sculpture from its tomb in antiquity, through an invigorated style that departed from the Gothic period's flat iconography. He broke ground by introducing new aesthetics in line with the time's flourishing move toward Renaissance Humanism - a movement that emphasized a departure from medieval scholasticism and favored deep immersion into the humanities, resulting in art that no longer focused solely on the secular realm of religion but explored man's place in the natural world. Donatello's signature lifelike and highly emotional works would place him as one of the most influential artists in 15th-century Italy, and an early forefather to the Italian Renaissance.
Accomplishments
Between 1408-1415 Donatello worked on this large-scale marble figurative sculpture depicting Saint John the Evangelist. Typically depicted as a young man, Donatello decided to portray the apostle as an aging prophet, holding the Bible, which was a departure from legend toward a more humanizing rendition.
While the top half of the sculpture still represents an idealized point of view, the subject's facial expression is carefully considered, and the sculpting of the legs and hands points to a more realistic figuration.
Donatello pays attention to the anatomy of the saint's legs, even though they are hidden under his robes, demonstrating a new preoccupation with representing the body with accuracy and naturalism.
The work was displayed in a niche in the façade of the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, a project that brought together works by some of the city's most important artists over the course of two centuries.
This sculpture is seen as an important step away from the Gothic style that predominated in Florentine (and European) art at this point. Moreover, Donatello shows a new understanding of the requirements of perspective, compensating for the fact that viewers would see the sculpture from below and therefore making the body disproportionately longer than the legs.
Saint John the Evangelist
St. George
Donatello was commissioned by the swordmakers' and armorers' guild to carve this sculpture of their patron saint, St. George, for a niche on the exterior of the church of Orsanmichele in Florence. The work is a life-sized depiction of the saint standing atop a marble panel which is carved to illustrate the famous mythical moment when George slayed the dragon. Although the work was meant to reflect the Florentine spirit of holding strong against all adversaries, Donatello's meticulous rendering of the emotionality of the face also betrays a distinct vulnerability and softness. This expertise in portraying emotion, as is also seen in his equestrian statue of condottiero Erasmo da Narni, was a signature technique of the artist toward humanizing subjects that would traditionally be presented in a more idealized fashion.
The work marks an important moment in the development of sculpture because Donatello brought back the ideals of classical sculpture and married them with a new realism, departing boldly from the prior Gothic mannerism. The marble panel at the base is also an important work of art in its own right. It is a key early example of a bas-relief made using the principles of linear perspective, which was infiltrating painting at the time. The shift from an empirical perspective to a linear perspective is one of the key discoveries that contributed to the development of Renaissance art. Donatello would have been familiar with the experiments with perspective drawn by his friend Brunelleschi, and his skill was to apply them to the challenging medium of bas-relief carving.
David
This small but exquisite bronze is one of Donatello's most famous works. It is a five-foot, the freestanding bronze sculpture of David, from the classic story David and Goliath. He stands in contrapposto, a traditional classical stance of bearing more weight on one leg than the other. Instead of being depicted as a powerful man, he is presented as a young, nude boy wearing an unusual hat wreathed with laurels (a motif of victory), and a pair of elaborately gilded boots. This unconventional arrangement, combined with the figure’s long hair, delicate features, and slim figure make the work a provocative, coquettish, and effeminate piece. Another strange factor is that one wing of Goliath's helmet is considerably longer than the other, and points up the figure's leg to the groin.
These speculations aside, Donatello's David is important both in technical terms and in terms of the artist's treatment of his subject matter. It was the first free-standing male nude sculpture produced since antiquity, and controversial for a non-pagan, biblical figure. Beyond the bold reintroduction of the nude in art, art historian Dr. Beth Harriet also pointed out about this Early Renaissance period, "sculpted figures have finally been detached from architecture and are once again independent in the way that they were in ancient Greece and Rome. And because he's freestanding, he's more human, more real. He seems able to move in the world, and of course the contrapposto does that too. It's easy to imagine this figure in the Medici palace garden, surrounded by the ancient Greek and Roman sculpture that they were also collecting." Indeed, due to its small stature and location, the statue was designed to evoke an intimate experience for visitors of the family.
Magdalene Penitent
Donatello's life-size depiction of Mary Magdalene wandering through the desert in penitence is one of his most moving works. The level of realism and emotionality achieved by the artist was unprecedented. Like with many of his works, Donatello veered from legend and preconceived notions about his subject and depicted Magdalene as an old, starving woman rather than the more common young and beautiful nude fed by angels. He cloaked her in either her own hair or a hair shirt, emphasizing her complete renouncement of her former life as a prostitute. Even though, art historian Bess Bradfield points out, "The bare flesh of the saint is exposed as much as it is hidden by this hair..."��In this work, Donatello emphasizes the humanity of biblical characters, presenting Mary Magdalene as a relatable figure to be pitied and admired on a human level as a well as idolized on a saintly level. The use of wood demonstrates Donatello's facility with multiple materials, and in this stunning choice, the grain of the wood helps to create the agonized texture of the saint's skin. The work was also painted, adding an unprecedented level of detail and realism, especially seen in the whites of the eyes and the pupils.
Paolo Uccello
ITALIAN PAINTER AND MOSAICIST
(EARLY RENAISSANCE)
Born: 1397 - Florence (possibly Pratovecchio), Italy
Died: December 10, 1475 - Florence, Italy
Uccello's legend rests on his pioneering work in visual perspective and his skill at blending this precise mathematical approach to compositions with more decorative qualities. He was a lifelong friend of Donatello and was instrumental in establishing the convention of foreshortening within the Renaissance movement.
But despite his progressive (some would say, radical) work in this field, Uccello's painting remained true to his training in the late Gothic tradition; especially in the way he continued to prioritize color and pageantry over the predilection for classical realism as practiced en-masse by his humanist contemporaries. History positions Uccello thus, as a vital, if somewhat paradoxical, figure within the ascendency of Renaissance art.
Accomplishments
Uccello’s most famous paintings - including the Renaissance masterpiece The Battle of San Romano (c. 1456) - are exemplars of the artist's studious, almost devotional, studies in perspective. For some, however, his fixation on exploring the mathematical properties of picture composition came at the high cost. The famous Renaissance biographer Giorgio Vasari, for instance, argued (a little harshly according to some) that artists "who devote more attention to perspective than to figures develop a dry and angular style because of their anxiety to examine things too minutely".
A student of Lorenzo Ghiberti, Uccello retained his master's love of late Gothic stylization and its focus on bold color schemes, pageantry, and luscious landscapes. He would, for instance, use gold leaf to highlight soldiers’ armor which meant his preference (leaned in part in his early career role as a mosaicist) for the "arbitrary use of color" (as Vasari put it) saw him favor aesthetic effect over historical accuracy.
Uccello brought his influence to bear on some of the greatest names in Renaissance art through his fastidious pursuits in picture perspective and his use of vanishing points. In particular, his sublime handling of foreshortening techniques was such that it provided the stimulus for treatises by such luminaries as Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, and Albrecht Dürer.
Although he had earned a reputation as a reclusive figure, and while he was condemned as something of a "radical" by the public, Uccello still earned considerable fame in his own lifetime by securing many high-profile commissions; not least for the two most important institutions in Florence: The Court of the Medici, and the Duomo (Cathedral of Florence).
Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood
Uccello's fresco gives all the appearance of an equestrian statue. Akin to actual equestrian statues that act as funerary monuments, the fresco honors Sir John Hawkwood, an English born mercenary who became a military hero to Florentines following his efforts in the fourteenth-century battle at Cascina. The fresco stands in the Florentine Cathedral (the Duomo) and was completed the same year as the Cathedral's completion (in 1436).��The artist uses a variety of techniques to accomplish his trompe l'oeil ("trick of the eye") effect. To develop the sturdy, structural appearance of the monument's base, Uccello was likely inspired by his contemporary, Masaccio, who had employed linear perspective to represent the illusion of three-dimensionality when creating his masterpiece, The Holy Trinity (1427-28).��Giorgio Vasari noted that Uccello was "gifted with a sophisticated mind, enjoyed investigating complex mechanisms and the strange products of the art of perspective". Here, for instance, Uccello used "complex" foreshortening brushwork techniques as a way of "humanizing" Hawkwood's horse. Uccello also makes the horse's legs shorter than they would be in nature to give the animal the impression of movement. Meanwhile, the green tint, meant to evoke a copper statute, is achieved using the terra verde (green earth) technique (the terra verde method in fact dates to the medieval age, and was more widely adopted amongst humanist Renaissance artists as a way of underpainting flesh tones in green to bring out the more naturalistic red and pink flesh tones).��
The Battle of San Romano (Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano)
The Battle of San Romano (Niccolò Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano)
Early in his career, Uccello worked in stained glass as a mosaicist in Venice, instilling in himself an appreciation for the dynamics of color. This is evident in The Battle of San Romano in which Uccello creates stark contrasts between brilliant reds, crisp whites, and ink black tones. Generally considered to be Uccello's magnum opus, The Battle of San Romano was originally presented as a triptych. Each of the three panels celebrate turning points from a significant battle in Florence's conflict with the Sienese concerning access to Pisa (which was a strategic port). This scene depicts the Florentine triumph of when the Sienese leader, Bernardino della Carda, is bested, and knocked to the ground with his horse.��The iconography of the scene is busy and complex: soldiers, horses, weapons, and nature take up almost every inch of the canvas. The cohesive feature of the painting is, however, Uccello's pioneering use of linear perspective. Each element is calculated so it can almost be traced with mathematical accuracy to meet at the vanishing point which is represented by the figure hunting a rabbit with a bow and arrow at the top of the composition. From there, the black lines in the earth lead the viewer's eye to the receding parallel lines in the scene. The lower half of the canvas resembles a grid of spears, soldiers, and horses, imposing an almost logical guide around the painting. Uccello uses the technique of foreshortening to trick the eye into believing the sense of space and scale. For instance, the rear legs of fallen Sienese leader Carda's blueish black horse are not anatomically accurate to the remainder of the horse's body. Rather, the rear legs are reduced to support the illusion that the horse's feet are closer to the viewer than the horse's head.��Uccello's figures look to us almost like puppets or dummies in a re-enactment of a medieval tournament. However, his figures - which feature fine decorative detail in the soldiers' armor, and on the horses - are fully in keeping with the "fairy-tale" iconography associated with the late-Gothic style. These features, when coupled with the naturalistic details of his receding three-dimensional background, confirms, more than any other work in his oeuvre, Uccello's status as the most important artist in the transition from late Gothic to early Renaissance art.
The Crucifixion
The Crucifixion
In this work, Uccello depicts the Crucifixion of Jesus, an eminent scene in art history by this point in time. Constructed in a three-paneled triptych, the artist includes many significant figures present at the Crucifixion as noted in the New Testament and of particular significance to the triptych's patron, Sister Felicity, a Bridgettine nun who lived at the convent, Santa Maria del Paradiso, close to Florence.��In the center panel, Christ is on the crucifix with the Virgin Mary standing to her son's right (our left). The work's current custodian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, notes that the kneeling woman at the Virgin Mary's feet is likely Sister Felicity herself, for whom the work was made for her private devotional purposes. The woman in the white habit on the left panel is likely Saint Bridget of Sweden, the founder of the Bridgettine order of nuns and monks. Saint Bridget is also significant to the Crucifixion scene as she is known for having visions of Christ on the cross as a child (as well-as visions of the Nativity). The Nativity is in fact depicted in the right-hand panel in which the Virgin holds the infant Christ. The upper register of panels on both the right and left depict the Annunciation: the Angel Gabriel (on the left, winged, with red robes) tells the Virgin (seated in dark shroud on the right) that she would give birth to the Son of God. Depictions of the Virgin Mary and Christ featuring multiple times in a single work is not unusual in Early Renaissance artwork where asynchronous scenes were accepted practice.��Living and working in Florence most of his life, Uccello transferred some of the characteristics seen in other works. Notably, this work prioritizes symmetry. On each side of Christ, there is a figure on either side: two angels directly below his arms collect blood in chalices, the Virgin Mary and a male figure stand below. Two women kneel on either side of the cross: Sister Felicity the patroness and, likely, Mary Magdalene (who was also present at the Crucifixion in the New Testament). While these pairs of figures mirror one another, the figures do not appear to interact with one another. Rather, each gazes at Christ and acts in relation to his presence. This isolation from their surroundings demonstrates Uccello's choice to prioritize each figure's spiritual communication and connection to Christ.
Tempera on wood, gold ground - Metropolitan Museum of Art
Andrea del Castagno
Italian painter
pseudonym of Andrea di Bartolo di Simone, (born c. 1419, Castagno d’Andrea, near Florence [Italy]—died August 19, 1457, Florence)
Castagno was an influential figure in 15th Century Florentine Art, whose depictions of the human physique were regarded as masterful. He is regarded as a highly skilled artist who acquired the secret of Oil Painting from Domenico Veneziano. He is best known for the emotional power and naturalistic treatment of figures in his work.
He is considered as one of the most powerful Florentine painters in the generation after Masaccio. Nothing is known of his training, and the first recorded episode in his career dates from 1440, when he painted frescos at the Palazzo del Podestà depicting rebels against Cosimo de' Medici who were sentenced to be hanged by the heels, earning him the sobriquet ‘Andreino degli Impiccati’ (Little Andrew of the hanged men). These have been destroyed, and Castagno's earliest known surviving works are frescos in the church of S. Zaccaria in Venice (1442). By 1444 he was back in Florence, designing a stained-glass window for the cathedral, and soon after he began his greatest work, a series of frescos on Christ's Passion for the monastery of S.Apollonia (now a Castagno museum), dominated by one of the most celebrated of all portrayals of the Last Supper (1447). In their emotional vigour and sinewy realism these paintings have been regarded as the pictorial equivalent of the sculpture of Donatello, but they also have something of Masaccio's monumentality.
The Last Supper
The Last Supper
His first notable works were a Last Supper and, in a single composition above that, a Crucifixion, a Deposition, and a Resurrection—all executed in 1447 for the refectory of the former Convent of Sant’Apollonia in Florence, now known as the Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia. These monumental frescoes, revealing the influence of Masaccio’s pictorial illusionism and Castagno’s own use of scientific perspective, received wide acclaim.
The painting depicts Jesus and the Apostles during the Last Supper, with Judas, unlike all the other apostles, sitting separately on the near side of the table, as is common in depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art.
The detail and naturalism of this fresco portray the ways in which Castagno departed from earlier artistic styles. The hand positions of the final pair of apostles on either end of the fresco mirror each other with accomplished realism. The colors of the apostles' robes and their postures contribute to the balance of the piece. The highly detailed marble walls hearken back to Roman "First Style" wall paintings, and the pillars and griffon statues recall Classical sculpture and trompe-l'œil painting. Furthermore, the color highlights in the hair of the figures, flowing robes, and perspective in the halos foreshadow advancements.
The Assumption with Saints Julian and Miniato
The Assumption of the Virgin Between St Minias and St Julian is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance master Andrea del Castagno, executed around 1449–1450.
The painting portrays Mary in a wide blue cloak, while she is lifted up from a sepulchre depicted in perspective. The cloak, as typical in Andrea del Castagno, is painted with a heavy use of chiaroscuro. The sepulchre contains roses, a flower usually associated with the Virgin. She is carried within a brilliant mandorla by four angels.
At Mary's sides are St. Julian (left, with a sword) and St. Minias of Florence (right, with a stick and a crown). While the Virgin is portrayed in a realistic posture, the two saints have a more static appearance. Both men are elegantly dressed in the most expensive of contemporary costumes.[2] Not only the damask fabrics, but also the saturated red color indicate the costliness of their garments.[3]
The background is in gold leaf.
In 1449–1450 he painted the Assumption with Saints Julian and Miniato for the main altar (in the St. Julian Chapel) of the church of San Miniato fra le Torri in Florence (now in Berlin).
In the same years he collaborated with Filippo Carducci to paint a series of Illustrious People for the Villa Carducci at Legnaia. These include Pippo Spano, Farinata degli Uberti, Niccolò Acciaioli, Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, the Cumaean Sibyl, Esther and Tomiri.
Also from around 1450 is the Crucifixion in London, as well as the David with Goliath's Head and the Portrait of a Man, both in Washington.
Between January 1451 and September 1453 he completed the frescoes with Scenes of the Life of the Virgin left unfinished by Domenico Veneziano in the Florentine church of Sant'Egidio, Florence (now lost)
Piero della Francesca
ITALIAN PAINTER
Born: c.1420 - Borgo San Sepolcro, Italy
Died: October 12th, 1492 - Borgo San Sepolcro, Italy
Piero della Francesca harnessed mathematical theory and geometry, combining them with Renaissance Humanism, to create some of the most arresting religious paintings of the early Renaissance. His use of linear perspective and foreshortening brought biblical scenes and legends to life, and his emulation of classical figures and compositions lend his paintings stability and gravitas even if their subjects are often mysterious.��Now celebrated as one of the most important Italian painters of the quattrocento (15th century), Piero della Francesca languished in obscurity for several centuries. While he did not inspire many artists during the Renaissance, the quiet grandeur and precision of his paintings spoke to a host of 20th-century avant-garde artists from Georges Seurat and Giorgio de Chirico to Balthus and Philip Guston.
Accomplishments
Polyptych of the Misericordia
Polyptych of the Misericordia
Commissioned in 1445 by a Catholic confraternity, this polyptych was one of Piero della Francesco's earliest commissions; however, despite the three year goal set by his patrons, Piero took 17 years to complete the painting, slowly working on it as he took on other projects. Given its large size, the polyptych was probably intended to be used as an altarpiece. At the center of the polyptych is the Madonna della Misericordia (Madonna of Mercy), to which the commissioning confraternity was dedicated. This iconography of the merciful Madonna sheltering the faithful under her cape was extremely popular in medieval Italy and can be traced back to the 13th century. Often the kneeling figures under her cape would represent the patrons of the work, and in this case members of the confraternity are shown. To her right and left are Sts. Sebastian, John the Baptist, Andrew, and Bernadino. The tympanum above includes Christ's crucifixion in the center flanked by St. Benedict, the angel Gabriel, the Madonna of the Annunciation, and St. Francis. The predella at the bottom of the altarpiece contains scenes from the life of Christ and was painted by assistants.
One can see the influences of Masaccio, especially in the crucifixion scene, as well as Brunelleschi, but this polyptych encapsulates the stark simplicity and geometrical exactitude for which Piero della Francesca is most known. The form of the Madonna is almost perfectly symmetrical and is in itself formed of a series of geometrical shapes: her head is a perfect oval, her neck is cylindrical, and the folds of her robes are comprised of triangular forms and parallel lines. The gold background, a specific request of the confraternity, forced Piero to abandon the landscaped backgrounds, of which he was so fond. In a response to this restriction, Piero created space with the figures themselves. For example, the Madonna's curved robes echo an apse, an architecturally significant part of church designs, and Piero foreshortened the feet of the four saints on either side of her, suggesting that they are standing in a physical space instead of the featureless gold field. The use of limited colors as well as simple geometrical shapes give the polyptych an almost modern sense of "unreality" that prompts solemn contemplation on the part of the spectator.
Oil and egg tempera on panel - Museo Civico di Sansepolcro
The Baptism of Christ
A serene, classically posed Christ stands in the center of the painting with his hands in a gesture of prayer while St. John the Baptist pours water from a shell onto Christ's head, thus baptizing him. A group of three angels stands to the left behind a slender tree, and to the right, slightly further in the background, one sees another figure disrobing, preparing for baptism. The background landscape calls to mind the area around Piero's Tuscan hometown of Borgo San Sepolcro. Piero's trademark landscapes, simplified forms, and symbolic geometry can all be found in this early work.��The Baptism of Christ was originally the central panel of an altarpiece commissioned for the chapel of St. John the Baptist in an abbey in Borgo San Sepolcro and flanked by two other panels painted by Matteo di Giovanni. It is likely that above the central panel there was a roundel that depicted God, thus completing the symbolism of the Trinity: God the Father, the Holy Spirit (depicted as a dove), and Christ. During the Christian rite of baptism, the Holy Spirit enters the individual, marking him or her as a child of God.��The statuesque poses of the figures and the separation of the groups lends a sense of stillness and quiet to the panting, captivating viewers since its relocation to London in the late 19th century. American artist Philip Guston wrote in 1965, "In The Baptism of Christ, we are suspended between the order we see and an apprehension that everything may again move.“
Egg tempera on panel - The National Gallery, London
The Death of Adam
The Death of Adam
The Death of Adam forms part of a large fresco cycle, The Legend of the True Cross, painted by Piero in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. He was commissioned to complete the fresco after the artist Bicci di Lorenzo died before finishing the original commission. On the right, an old, dying Adam, the first human created by God, implores his son Seth to visit the archangel Michael to acquire an oil that will prevent his death. In the center of the composition in the far background, we see that Michael instead gives Seth a seed of the Tree of Sin to place in his dying father's mouth in order to save his soul. Eventually, the Tree of Good and Evil would sprout from him, perhaps represented by the large tree in the center of the fresco. On the left, Adam's family bury him. In medieval times, Adam's death was in many ways seen as the beginning of Christ's story, as it was believed that the wood for the cross that Jesus was crucified on came from the Tree of Good and Evil. The story of the True Cross of Christ, and its rediscovery by the mother of Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great, was particularly important in this period when efforts were being made to unite the Western and Eastern churches.
Piero's famous geometry is crucial to the painting's composition. The tree forms a column at the perfect center of the painting, branching out into the clear sky. The monochromatic handling of color and triangular compositions in the groupings of figures give the painting a sense of visual unity. Even though three narrative stages are shown in the painting, Piero managed to make each scene seamlessly fit together in one continuous landscape. The pale and monochromatic palette of this painting, along with the geometrical shapes created by the bodies of figures, influenced several 20th-century artists, particularly Balthus.
Fresco - Cappella Maggiore in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy
The Resurrection
The Resurrection
Originally painted on the wall of the civic hall in Piero's hometown of Borgo San Sepolcro, this fresco was hailed a century later by Giorgio Vasari as Piero's best work. It shows four soldiers sleeping in front of the tomb of Christ, as he climbs up onto it after his resurrection. This painting was particularly important to the town, since it is connected to its founding myth. Two pilgrims from the Holy Land supposedly fell asleep by a tree, much like the soldiers in the painting, and upon awakening they found that the stone they had brought back from the tomb of Christ had miraculously risen up into the tree. They decided to found a town at that spot, named Borgo San Sepolcro after the Holy Sepulchre (tomb of Christ). Piero's Christ was eventually incorporated into the town's coat of arms.
The use of space in this painting is particularly captivating. Piero creates a realistic space with a landscape of a Tuscan village that extends behind Christ, but the figures before the tomb are pressed right up to the surface of the picture plane, giving the illusion that Christ, whose foot rests upon the top of the tomb, is about to step out of the picture itself. This illusion makes the viewer feel she is present at this frozen moment in time, and it is heightened by Christ's direct gaze. To further place the scene in the original viewers' present space and time, Piero dresses the Roman soldiers in contemporary, 15th-century dress.
For many years this painting was largely unknown to those who had not visited Borgo San Sepolcro, but it began to receive attention in the late 19th century. The pyramidal compositions of the soldiers and the stillness of the scene inspired Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnières (1884), and in particular Seurat posed one of the bathers to echo Piero's leftmost figure. A few decades later, writer Aldous Huxley called it "the greatest picture in the world."
Fresco - Museo Civico, Sansepolcro, Italy
Fra Angelico
ITALIAN PAINTER AND MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATOR
Born: c. 1395 - Vicchio di Mugello, Florence
Died: c. 1455 - Rome
Known posthumously as the "Angelic Painter," Fra Angelico helped usher in a revolution in Italian painting. Steeped in the new spirit of Renaissance Humanism, Angelico and young painters such as Masaccio insisted on painting religious subjects in a rational, illusionistic space and with all of the solidity of the human body. A friar in the mendicant Dominican order, Angelico fused piety and artistic innovation to create some of the most deeply moving frescoes and altarpieces of the Early Renaissance period.��His transformation of late medieval painting influenced later Renaissance painters, and his religious devotion and feeling for humanity inspired artists centuries later who were searching for ways out of stale academicism.
Accomplishments
The Last Judgement
Distinctive in its shape, The Last Judgement fulfilled a unique purpose as a seat backing for the priests and attendants during high mass in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. Depicting the narrative in which Christ decides whether the deceased should go to heaven or hell, it is a visually complex composition that shows Fra Angelico adapting traditional Last Judgment prototypes with new innovations. Christ sits elevated in the heavenly skies encircled by a mandorla and a host of angels; to his left and right are the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist who are flanked by rows of Saints. Below the heavenly scene, is a long row of opened tombs, signifying the dead to be judged. To the left of the tombs, one sees abundant vegetation, and angels blissfully dancing around the gateway to heaven and gazing towards the skies. Conversely, on the right the damned are forcibly dragged by devils to the depths of hell to incur various punishments.
It is possible that Fra Angelico took over this commission after his teacher Lorenzo Monaco died. The raised halo around Christ's head is a detail more common to older depictions, and the scenes of hellish punishment are copied from another Last Judgment fresco found in Pisa, suggesting that perhaps Fra Angelico did not design the entirety of the composition. What was uniquely his, though, was his innovative use of illusionistic perspective to create a captivating narrative. Likely influenced by the works of Lorenzo Ghiberti that also employed linear perspective, Fra Angelico depicts the tombs receding towards the horizon, creating depth on the flat surface of the panel, and he arranged the Saints in a concave semicircle above, giving the impression that they are seated at different distances to the viewer.
Also unprecedented is the depiction of dancing angels before the gates of heaven. Art historian Chreigton Gilbert suggests that this detail might come from part of a 15th-century hymn based on newly discovered patristic texts that describe how "a wheel is formed in heaven of all the saints in the garden...they all dance for love...they are dressed in particolors, white and red"
Tempera and gold on panel - Museo del Convento di San Marco, Florence
The Deposition of Christ
The Deposition of Christ
The wealthy Florentine banker Palla Strozzi commissioned Lorenzo Monaco to create an altar for his family's funerary chapel, and it was installed in 1432. Scholars agree that the pinnacles above the Gothic arches of The Deposition of Christ were completed by Monaco and that the central panel is undoubtedly the hand of Fra Angelico, but there is considerable debate as to whether the altarpiece was left unfinished at Monaco's death or if Angelico was commissioned later to rework the central panel painted by his teacher. In either instance, Angelico created an innovative scene of serenity and drama within the confines of an old-fashioned Gothic frame.
Positioned centrally, Christ's body is lowered from the cross that fills the space below the middle arch, and as is traditional in these scenes, Christ is surrounded by mourners, including Mary Magdalene, who kisses Christ's feet, and the Virgin Mary, who kneels in prayer. To the right of Christ stand John the Evangelist, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, but there is also a contingent of men dressed in contemporary Florentine dress, one of whom holds nails and a crown of thorns, relics of Christ's crucifixion. In the foreground, opposite of Mary Magdalene, a friar (perhaps a portrait of Alessio delgi Strozzi, Pallo's recently deceased son) kneels before the scene and gestures towards the viewer, inviting the viewer to mourn Christ's sacrifice.
Despite the restrictive Gothic-style frame, Angelico paints a panoramic view that recedes far into the distance. To the left, we see the towers and buildings of Jerusalem, and to the right the rolling hills and trees of the Tuscan landscape. The juxtaposition of the historical and the contemporary were designed to draw the viewer in and elicit prayerful devotion. Additionally, Fra Angelico's meticulous attention to detail - the blood running down the cross, the grain of the wood, Christ's greenish pallor, and the foliage on the trees - allow the viewer to feel closer to the events unfolding. His use of bright reds and blues enliven the composition, but the respectful, undramatic reactions of the mourners underscore the gravity of the scene. Originally placed across from Gentile da Fabriano's International Gothic Adoration of the Magi, Angelico's Deposition of Christ pointed a new way forward for Italian Renaissance painting.
Tempera and gold on panel - Museo del Convento di San Marco, Florence
The Annunciation
Executed for the cloth merchant Giovanni di Cola di Cecco for the church of San Domenico in Cortona, The Annunciation conveys the moment in which the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would become the mother to the Son of God. Set in a simple columned loggia with a minimal landscape to the left, Fra Angelico creates a dramatic scene. While the words of Gabriel's announcement (translated as "The Holy Spirt shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee") and Mary's response ("Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to thy word") are written on the surface of the painting, Fra Angelico followed his contemporary Massacio's lead in creating weighty, solid figures situated in a rationally designed space. The two figures bow inward toward each other, each responding to the other, as they embark on a journey that will be the salvation of humankind. To underscore this theological connection, in the far distance, Angelico depicted the expulsion from Eden of Adam and Eve, whose sin made Christ's salvation necessary. The loggia and garden are symbolic of Mary's chastity and seclusion, and the predella below represents various events in Mary's life.��While the component parts of the scene are minimal, Angelico's training as a manuscript illuminator is evident in this work. The intricate details of Gabriel's robe and the delicate flowers in the grass belie the simplicity of the work. Angelico excelled at presenting different textures; the marble floor of the loggia appears smooth against the ruffles of Gabriel's robe, and the feathered texture of his wings contrast greatly against the polished finish of their haloes. The Cortona Annunciation's masterful display of fine details and illusionistic space set the stage for Angelico's more mature work in the decades that follow.
Tempera and gold on panel - Museo Diocesano, Cortona
Coronation of the Virgin
A subject depicted many times by Fra Angelico, the Coronation of the Virgin illustrates the crowning of the Virgin Mary as the Queen of Heaven. Possibly commissioned by a group of nuns for the church of Sant'Egidio, the painting depicts an event that takes place on heavenly clouds, where Christ crowns Mary with a diadem. Surrounding the scene are groups of figures, many of whom gaze towards the skies, basking in the heavenly rays; at the front of the crowd, angels swing incense, and in the upper portion of the golden sky, angels plays instruments. In the bottom left corner stands bishop Sant'Egidio dressed in blue, and beside him an archbishop, presumed to be Zenobius, gestures outwards toward the viewer; Saint Dominic, dressed in white with a black robe and holding lillies, directs his glance towards the viewer. To the right are Mary Magdalene and Saints Margaret, Agnes, Lucy, and Cecilia.��Perhaps a request from the nuns who commissioned the painting, the gold background recalls earlier medieval altarpieces that employed gold leaf to suggest a divine space. Fra Angelico's use of it here hindered his usual deep, panoramic backgrounds, but he was still able to create the illusion of some space. Rays of light, incised in the gold leaf emanate from the center point between Mary and Christ, draw out a curve, creating the sought after depth. Additionally, the cloud on which the two sit curves in a concentric shape, also creating the illusion of distance. While still containing a plethora of details, from wisps of clouds to spectacularly illuminated robe hems, there is more of a classicizing symmetry present here than in earlier works.
Tempera on panel - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The Annunciation
The Annunciation
Fra Angelico and his assistants created over fifty works for the convent at San Marco. The majority were frescoes, and this Annunciation painted in the north corridor is perhaps one of his most famous. Here, Angelico simplified the scene even further than his previous versions; there is no background scene of Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise, the setting is more austere, and the figures more modestly dressed. We can focus completely on Gabriel and Mary at the moment the angel announces that she will miraculously give birth to the Son of God. The loggia remains the setting, but the garden is now fenced. We can see into a sparse room behind Mary that has a small window. These new details further symbolize her chastity and seclusion.
Despite the simplicity of the composition, the fresco exhibits a surprising level of realism. The drapes and folds in Gabriel's and Mary's garments elicit a sense of fluidity, and the plants and trees flourish beyond the columns. Importantly, its placement in the corridor at the top of a staircase would have added to its realism. The indistinct light source in the painting would have appeared to be coming from a nearby window in the stairwell, thus integrating this vision in the monks' physical space as they climbed the stairs to their dormitories. Appearing oversized for the space, Gabriel and Mary are positioned diagonally to one another, creating depth and further drawing the viewer into their interaction. While The Annunciation does not possess the same ornate details as many of Angelico's previous works, it is no less striking in its emotive value.
Fresco - Museo del Convento di San Marco, Florence
Fra Filippo Lippi
ITALIAN PAINTER
Born: c. 1406 - Florence
Died: October 8, 1469 - Spoleto
Fra Filippo Lippi was perhaps the most important Florentine painter of the second half of the fifteenth century, and one of the great masters of the Early Renaissance. He was an artist of tremendous skill and dexterity who manged to strike a fine balance between the traditions of devotional art and current humanist influences. Notwithstanding a reputation for sexual scandal and eccentric living, he produced intricate religious parables that brought an element of psychological realism to compositions of irregular perspective and fine coloring and detailed ornamentation. Lippi painted Florentine masterpieces such as The Annunciation and the Seven Saints before moving to the cities of Spoleto and Prato where he produced his career defining monumental works, respectively, Stories of St John the Baptist and St Stephen and Scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary.
Accomplishments
Madonna and Child with Saints
Madonna and Child with Saints
This picture is part of the altarpiece commissioned by (the childless) Gherardo di Bartolomeo Barbadori who, having died in 1429, bequeathed his fortune to the Church of Santo Spirito for an altarpiece to be painted in dedication to Saint Fridianus. Lippi accepted the commission around 1437. The interior scene is packed with the figures of angels, two saints, and the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.��The two saints are oriented by Lippi in different ways: Augustine, while venerating on his knees, is half-turned towards the viewer; Fridianus, the sixth-century Irish pilgrim and hermit, is turned towards the Madonna and Child. This alerts us to Augustine's role in the early church as promulgator of the Christian faith. Fridianus is, by contrast, exclusively concentrated on devotion, reflecting his life of solitary asceticism. The Virgin is a powerful figure in a painting which is divided architecturally in the form of a triptych. In the central arch, Mary stands above all other figures, as if about to give her blessing to the kneeling saints. It was unusual at the time to portray Mary standing and, in what would have been a Virgin Enthroned picture, Lippi paints a commanding femininity striding away from the obscured throne in the niche in the background.��Almost impossibly rich in its interior detail - from the streaked marbling of the columns, the warm texture of the floor to the gilt floral patterns in the spandrels of the arches - the scene opens out through the left-hand window onto a landscape. This is noted to have been a borrowing from contemporary Flemish painting, but it also offers a connection to the faithful. That is, piety is achievable in the real world and that the people of the real world can strive for and attain the state of beatitude exhibited on this panel. Leaning backwards in the humble habit of a monk on the extreme left is said to be the likeness of Lippi himself. He looks out at us disengaged from the scene around him. This could be an invitation to us to pay attention to this scene of sanctity or, perhaps, it could relate to his own waywardness as he had left the Carmelite order without being released from his vows.
Louvre Museum, Paris
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
The Virgin Mary in the deep shadow of her seated lower half, is only withheld from the viewer by the sumptuous arm of her chair; she is unapproachable; her saintliness beyond question. She gazes lovingly, with her hands in the gesture of prayer, on the smiling angel who offers up the infant Christ to her.��It has been said that Lippi's picture here had a profound effect on the Madonna and Child paintings of his pupil Botticelli and certainly the soft and placid femininity of this Mary can be detected in much of Botticelli (in his Venus for example). A possible further note of influence is in the background landscape and shore which Lippi likely borrowed from the Flemish tradition. In Lippi's particular rendition of the landscape with its dark irregularity, we could even project forward by half a century toward Leonardo's Mona Lisa. The present picture of Lippi's itself has an enigmatic quality of its own and a delicately balanced allegory.��On the face of it, we see the haloed Virgin with an elaborate and translucent headdress that speaks of the spirit. She is receiving her child Jesus who reaches for his mother. This is the Holy Family. Beneath this surface are elements of another story, however. It has been speculated that the model for this Mary was Lucrezia Buti, Lippi's lover, and that the jovial angel of the foreground is actually a portrait of their son Filippino. Indeed, the Virgin's gaze and bodily disposition is angled towards the angel whose gleeful expression humanises him. The Virgin's body is also heavy and darkly and solidly coloured which leaves no doubt that we are looking at an earthly woman. At the same time her headdress and halo are so delicate that they seem to melt. This tells us of the Madonna's otherworldly spirituality and status, and Lucrezia's terrestrial and real maternal love. The painting amounts to both a veneration of the Madonna and Child and of the Lippi family which explains our proximity to the figures. Filippo extols and idealises his family by association with the devotional image but also makes them natural and human.
Tempera on panel - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Adoration in the Forest
Adoration in the Forest
In this unusual scene (that is also known as Mystical Nativity) Lippi confounds conventional depictions that place the Adoration in a stable surrounded by animals and the wise men. The setting is a deep pine forest with five figures. This is a tribute to the monastery of Camaldoli located outside Florence on a steep forested hillside, to which the Medici family had connections. The composition has two structural elements linking the figures. A standing ovoid links Mary, Jesus, John the Baptist, St. Romuald, and God the Father who is common to both compositional devices. The second structural element runs downward from God the Father in a straight line that bisects the oval, through the Holy Spirit to the new-born Christ.��Mary dominates the picture frame and as usual is bedecked in ultramarine. Her expression and demeanour is one of awestruck devotion. Jesus lies amongst the grass and blooming flowers of the forest floor, gazing out at us and inspiring in the contemporary devotee a similar adoration to that of Mary. John the Baptist is identifiable by his animal skin hidden beneath his robe. He too looks out at us with his staff's ensign bearing the inscription "Ecce Agnus Dei" or "Behold the Lamb of God". God the Father, with his splayed arms and hands, releases the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove on its path to the infant. This path is marked by Lippi with golden lines that sweep laterally with exquisite skeins of gold that make these lines nebulous, and seem to make even more miraculous the immaculate conception. It is the doubling of this "path" - the lines stretching downward and the sideways obscuring of them - that simultaneously makes the biblical story comprehensible to the believer and makes it mysterious, a matter of faith.��Secluded as the scene is, and therefore humble, God the Father is girded in the heavenly stars of the spheres of the universe. This makes all of time and space converge on this remote place and epochal event. As art historian Paul G. Komody wrote of Lippi's art: "Fra Filippo loved the world in which he found so much beauty. For all that, his art reveals neither sensuality nor worldliness". Only Jesus and John the Baptist break the illusionistic spell of the painting's world by looking to us. Jesus seems to invite faith while John's expression is troubled, seeming to the viewer to bear a foreboding of his own fate and the sacrifice of the Lamb.
Oil on panel - Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Sandro Botticelli
ITALIAN PAINTER
Born: c.1445 - Florence, Italy
Died: May 17, 1510 - Florence, Italy
Accomplishments
Adoration of the Magi
Adoration of the Magi
This important early work by Botticelli was commissioned by Guaspare di Zanobi del Lama, a banker who had built a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novelli in Florence. It is possible that del Lama chose this subject to decorate his chapel because one of the Magi, traditionally known as "Caspar", or "Gaspare", is his namesake. According to Vasari's Lives of the Artists, the work depicts several members of the Medici family, including Cosimo the Elder, and his sons Piero and Giovanni, who were all deceased at the time the painting was made, as the three Magi. The Medici family often associated themselves with the Magi or Three Kings from the Nativity story, even riding through the streets of Florence dressed as them every Epiphany. The Medici were friends of the del Lama family, and important patrons for Botticelli himself. Although del Lama's intentions in commissioning these portraits as part of the painting are not known, it was common for religious scenes painted at the time to contain portraits of nobility, and points to the important connection art had with money and power in Renaissance Florence.��Botticelli was probably the first artist to depict the Adoration of the Magi with the holy family at the center, set back "deep" into the painting, with the other characters arranged symmetrically on either side. Previously, the scene had always been depicted as a linear narrative flowing across the space of the canvas, as in the Gothic painting by Gentile da Fabbriano (1420) or Benozzo Gozzoli's famous fresco in the Palazzo Medici (1459).��Intriguingly, the painting also contains a self-portrait of Botticelli - the only one known to be in existence. The artist stands on the right edge of the painting and looks directly out at the viewer. Although he was probably only around 30 years old when this was painted, Botticelli depicts himself as confident and masterful, and his confidence is justified by the accomplished style of this work, which compares to some of his more mature masterpieces.
Tempera on panel - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Primavera
Primavera
One of the most famous paintings in Western art, the Primavera depicts a series of figures from classical mythology in a garden or woodland. Rather than representing a scene from a specific story, it is believed that Botticelli either presents the figures in this arrangement purely for aesthetic reasons, or if there was a narrative, it is unknown to us today. Either way, the mysteriousness of the painting is part of its great appeal.��It is generally agreed that the painting is an allegory about the season of Spring, as suggested by its title, but there is no agreement as to the exact message being conveyed. It is likely that the central character is Venus, the goddess of love, while the three graces dance beside her, and Chloris, the goddess of flowers, is chased by the figure of the West Wind before transforming into Flora, echoing a myth described in Ovid. The messenger god Mercury stands to the left, as the figure of Cupid floats above the scene, about to fire an arrow.��The Primavera is particularly significant as it is one of the earliest examples in Western post-Classical painting of a non-religious scene. As The Guardian's senior art critic Jonathan Jones puts it, "Botticelli's Primavera was one of the first large-scale European paintings to tell a story that was not Christian, replacing the agony of Easter with a pagan rite. The very idea of art as a pleasure, and not a sermon, began in this meadow." To see this in a painting of this scale (80 x 124 inches) makes Primavera a particularly exciting milestone for the development of Western art.
Tempera on panel - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The Birth of Venus
This painting is one of the best-loved works of art in the world. Although Botticelli lost favor after his death, his reputation was revived in the late 19th century and since then The Birth of Venus has risen to international fame. The painting depicts the goddess of love, Venus, sailing to shore from the sea on a giant shell. She is blown into land by Zephyr, the god of the west wind, while a female attendant waits with a cloak.��Like the slightly earlier Primavera, The Birth of Venus is groundbreaking for presenting a non-religious scene from classical mythology on such a large scale. Moreover, the inclusion of such a prominent female nude at near-life-size was virtually unprecedented in Western painting. The work plays an obvious homage to classical art, emulating the "Venus Pudica" style of a nude female figure attempting, but not quite succeeding, to preserve her modesty with her hands and in this case her erotically charged long hair.��Botticelli's reference to classical sculpture in Venus' pose is overt, as she stands in the contrapposto stance with her weight on one foot, which was favored by Greco-Roman art and emulated by early Italian Renaissance artists. Intriguingly, the stance is so exaggerated that it is anatomically impossible, and the figure stands improbably on the edge of the floating shell. In this way, Botticelli also refers back to the Gothic tradition that preceded the Renaissance, where emphasis was placed on symbolism and status rather than on realistic depiction. It is interesting, therefore, that Botticelli's most famous work has come to stand for Italian Renaissance art in the popular imagination, even though it eschews many of the key tenets of the later movement in favor of aesthetic beauty and an overall idea.
Tempera on canvas - The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Domenico Ghirlandaio
�Domenico Ghirlandaio was born in 1449 under the birth name of Domenico di Tommaso di Currado Bigordi (quite a mouthful). His father traded as a goldsmith and was given the name "Ghirlandaio" or garland-maker in honour of a specific fashion he started.
Domenico was apprenticed to a goldsmith and then to Alessio Baldovinetti to study painting.
He painted a large number of frescoes in various Florentine churches and in 1481 he was one of several painters summoned to Rome with the task of decorating the Sistine Chapel. He painted his "Vocation of Peter and Andrew" on the right wall of the Chapel.
The artist was very skilled in the art of fresco painting and it was in his workshop that the young Michelangelo was taught the technique of painting and draughtsmanship.
Ghirlandaio depicted sacred scenes in a pleasant manner as if they had just happened among the rich and famous of Florentine society. Eventually, he became so overwhelmed with commissions that he could only complete his works with the help of assistants from his formidable workshop. These works mirrored the life of the period and also pleased his Medici patrons.
He painted a life-sized Last Supper in the refectory of the Church of Ognissanti in Florence and also Saint Jerome in His Study both in 1480. Ghirlandaio was one of several artists who were chosen to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel.
The banker Francesco Sassetti commissioned Ghirlandaio to paint frescoes in the Sassetti chapel in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence. This is considered to be the artist's masterwork. The theme is the life of St Francis.
This painting contains several of the artist's patrons and includes:- On the right, in the foreground, are Sassetti's brother-in-law, the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia Antonio Pucci; Sassetti's employer, Lorenzo de' Medici; Francesco Sassetti himself and his son Federico.�
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The Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule.
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