EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE NORTHERNITALIAN Realism through excessive details Realism through...

EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

NORTHERN ITALIAN

Realism through excessive details Realism through mathematics and linear perspective

Comparing the styles…


NORTHERN ITALIAN

Realism through excessive details

Intentional references to Gothic Architecture

Realism through mathematics and linear perspective

Intentional references to Classical Architecture and figure studies



NORTHERN ITALIAN



Intuitive Perspective



Linear Perspective



NORTHERN ITALIAN




Great art in the form of Oil Paints, Altarpieces and smaller paintings



Linear Perspective

Great art in the form of Frescoes and larger Temperas



NORTHERN ITALIAN




Great art in the form of Oil Paints, Altarpieces and smaller paintings

Van Der Goes, Van Eyck, Van Der Weyden, Campin



Linear Perspective

Great art in the form of Frescoes and larger Temperas

Masaccio, Donatello, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Botticelli


EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Brancacci Chapel, Florence


Masaccio, Tribute Money, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Italy, ca. 1427.

Masaccio presented this narrative in three episodes within the fresco. In the center, Christ, surrounded by his disciples, tells Saint Peter to retrieve the coin from the fish, while the tax collector stands in the foreground, his back to spectators and hand extended, awaiting payment. At the left, in the middle distance, Saint Peter extracts the coin from the fish ’s mouth, and at the right, he thrusts the coin into the tax collector’s hand.

Masaccio realized most of the figures not through generalized modeling with a flat neutral light lacking an identifiable source but by a light coming from a specific source outside the picture.


MasaccioExpulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, Brancacci Chapel, Florence, Italy, ca 1425

This was painted in an awkwardly narrow space at the entrance to the Brancacci Chapel. It displays the representational innovations of Tribute Money. For example, the sharply slanted light from an outside source creates deep relief, with lights placed alongside darks, and acts as a strong unifying agent.

Masaccio also presented the figures moving with structural accuracy and with substantial bodily weight. Further, the hazy, atmospheric background specifies no locale but suggests a space around and beyond the figures. Adam’s feet, clearly in contact with the ground, mark the human presence on earth, and the cry issuing from Eve’s mouth voices her anguish.

The angel does not force them physically from Eden, rather, they stumble on blindly, driven by the angel’s will and their own despair. The composition is starkly simple, its message incomparably eloquent.


Masaccio, Holy TrinitySanta Maria Novella, Florence, Italy

ca 1428

Masaccio’s fresco embodies two principal Renaissance interests--realism based on observation and the application of mathematics in the new science of perspective. The composition is painted on

two levels of unequal height.

In the coffered barrel-vaulted chapel reminiscent of a Roman triumphal arch, the Virgin Mary and St. John appear on either side

of the crucified Christ. God the Father emerges from behind Christ, supporting the arms of the cross. The Dove of the Holy

Spirit hovers between God and Christ.

Also included are portraits of the donors of the painting, who kneel in front of the pilasters.

Below the altar-- a masonry insert in the depicted composition--the artist painted a tomb containing a skeleton. An Italian inscription above the skeleton reminds spectators that “I was once what you

are, and what I am you will become.”


Baptistry of San Giovanni,Florence, Italy, ca 1059


Brunelleschi’sSacrifice of Isaac

Ghiberti’sSacrifice of Isaac


Lorenzo Ghiberti”Gates of Paradise”,

baptistery, Florence Cathedral1425-1452

Ghiberti, who demonstrated his interest in perspective in his Sacrifice of Isaac,

embraced Donatello’s innovations. Ghiberti’s enthusiasm for a unified system for

representing space is particularly evident in his famous east doors.

Michelangelo later declared these as “so beautiful that they would do well for the

gates of Paradise.”

Each of the panels contains a relief set in plain moldings and depicts a scene from

the Old Testament. The complete gilding of the reliefs creates an effect of great

splendor and elegance.


Lorenzo GhibertiIsaac and his sons

(”Gates of Paradise”), baptistery, Florence Cathedral, Florence

1425-1452



Filippo Brunelleschidome of Florence Cathedral

Florence, Italy1420-1436

Brunelleschi’s broad knowledge of Roman construction principles and his analytical and

inventive mind permitted him to solve an engineering problem that no other 15th-century

architect could have solved. The challenge was the design and construction of a dome for the

huge crossing of the unfinished Florence Cathedral.

The space to be spanned was much too wide to permit construction with the aid of traditional

wooden centering. Nor was it possible [because of the crossing plan] to support the dome with

buttressed walls.

In 1420, officials overseeing cathedral projects awarded Brunelleschi and Ghiberti a joint

commission. Ghiberti later abandoned the project and left it to his associates.


Brunelleschi not only discarded traditional building methods and devised new ones, but

he also invented much of the machinery necessary for the job.

Although he might have preferred the hemispheric shape of Roman domes,

Brunelleschi raised the center of his dome which is inherently more stable because it

reduces the outward thrust around the dome’s base.

To minimize the structure’s weight, he designed a relatively thin double shell--the

first in history--around a skeleton of 24 ribs. The eight most important are visible on the

exterior. The structure is anchored at the top with a heavy lantern, built after his death but

from his design.



EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Climbing the stairs inside the Duomo




Note the people on the lantern!


Filippo Brunelleschiwest facade of the Pazzi ChapelFlorence, Italy begun ca. 1440

The chapel that was the Pazzi family’s gift to the church of Santa Croce in Florence presented

Brunelleschi with the opportunity to explore this interest in a structure much better suited to such

a design than a basilican church.

The chapel was not completed until the 1460s, long after Brunelleschi’s death, and thus the

exterior does not reflect Brunelleschi’s original design. The narthex

(the entrance hall leading to the nave of a church.) seems to have been added as an

afterthought, perhaps by the sculptor-architect Giuliano da Maiano.

It is suggested that the local chapter of Franciscan monks who held meetings in the

chapel needed the expansion.

Applying Roman Mathematical Logic


This chapel was the Pazzi family’s gift to the church of Santa Croce in Florence. The artist is

Filippo Brunelleschi, who began to design this chapel in 1440 and it was not completed until

after his death.

The interior trim is in gray stone or pietra serena (serene stone). Medallions with glazed terracotta are featured on the inside representing the Four

Evangelista and decorated wall panels represent the Twelve Apostles.

Brunelleschi used this opportunity to create a structure more suited to a compact and self-contained “central floor plan” as seen in the

Pantheon. He used a basic unit that allowed him to construct a balanced, harmonious, and

regularly proportioned space.

Filippo Brunelleschiwest facade of the Pazzi ChapelFlorence, Italy begun ca. 1440



Plan and section of the Pazzi Chapel, Florence


EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Donatello, David 1428-1432

The Medici family commissioned Donatello to create this bronze statue for the Palazzo Medici courtyard.

This was the first freestanding nude statue created since ancient times.

This statue portrays the biblical David, the young slayer of Goliath and the symbol of the independent

Florentine republic. David possesses the relaxed classical contrapposto stance and the proportions

and beauty of Greek Praxitelean gods.

The Medici family chose the subject of David, perhaps because they had seen Donatello’s

previous statue of David which is located in the center of political activity in Florence. This shows

that the Medici family identified themselves with Florence, and the prosperity of the city.

EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Donatello, David 1428-1432


Sandro BotticelliPortrait of a Youth, early 1480s

This full face portrait was created by Botticelli in the last decade of the fifteenth century.

Italian painters adopted the 3/4 and full face views believing that such poses increased information available to viewers about the

subject’s appearance.

These poses also permit greater exploration of the subject’s character. This is evident in this

portrait where he is highly expressive psychologically. He has a delicate pose, a graceful head tilt, sidelong glance, and an

elegant hand gesture. The subject seems to be half-musing, half-insinuating.

Botticelli merged feminine and masculine traits to make an image of rarefied beauty.


Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1484-86. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Sandro Botticelli was one of the best known artists who produced works for the Medici. He painted

this tempera on canvas for the Medici family.

A poem on the theme of the famous Birth of Venus

by Angelo Poliziano was what inspired Botticelli to create this lyrical image.

Zephyrus (the west wind) blows Venus, born of the

sea foam and carried on a cockle shell to her sacred

island, Cyprus. The nymph Pomona runs to

her with a brocaded mantle.

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, 1484-86. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Comparing d’Medici’s Venus with Botticelli’s


Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, c 1482. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi, c 1475.


Sandro Botticelli,Adoration of the Magi, c 1475.

Botticelli painted himself in the picture as he looks back at the viewer !


Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi, c 1481-82.


Fra Angelico, AnnunciationSan Marco, Florence, Italy 1440-1445 EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Leon Alberti

San Andrea, 1470-76


Leon Battista Alberti worked as an architect from the 1450s onward,

principally in Florence, Rimini, and Mantua. As a trained humanist and true

Renaissance man, Alberti was as accomplished as an architect as he was a

humanist, musician, and art theorist. Alberti's many treatises on art include

Della Pittura (On Painting), De Sculptura (On Sculpture), and De re Aedificatoria

(On Architecture). The first treatise, Della Pittura, was a fundamental handbook for

artists, explaining the principles behind linear perspective, which may have been

first developed by Brunelleschi. Alberti shared Brunelleschi's reverence for

Roman architecture and was inspired by the example of Vitruvius, the only Roman

architectural theorist whose writings are still in existence.

EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Interior and Elevation of San Andrea


Piero della Francesca, Battista Sforza & Federico da Montefeltro(Duke & Duchess of Urbino), 1472-1473. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Andrea Mantegna, Calvary, 1457-60. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Andrea Mantegna, Camera Degli Sposi, (the Gonzaga family), Mantua, Italy, 1465-74.


Andrea Mantegna, Fresco. Camera degli Sposi (Bridal Chamber), Mantua, Italy. 1465-74.


Andrea Mantegna, Lamentation Over Dead Christ, c1490. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Andrea Mantegna St. Sebastianc1480.


EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Andrea Mantegna, St. Sebastian. c1480.


Antonio Pollaiolo, Battle of the Nudes, 1470s. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Antonio del Pollaiolo was a notable sculptor and

painter, but this engraving (which was the only

known one he created) was an exceptional piece

for this century.

Like many Italian works, this reference to Classical Greek bodies attempts to

show the tension and balance that the male

warrior would exhibit from various poses.

Antonio Pollaiolo, Battle of the Nudes, 1470s. EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


Perugino, The Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter. Fresco, 1481–2.EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE


I love Florence. It’s a beautiful city!

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