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ART 102 Gardners - Chapter 19

Jean Thobaben

Instructor

From Gothic to Renaissance:

The 14th-Century in Italy

PROTO RENAISSANCE

PROTO RENAISSANCE

HINTS of RENAISSANCE

PRE ~ ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

PROTO ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Siena

Assisi

Florence

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The City States:

Politics and Economics• Beginning in the 13th century, a combination of political, social,

economic, religious, and cultural factors contributed to a shift that

began to occur in European culture in the period known as the

Renaissance.

• These changes occurred first in Italy, where the growth of a new

secular culture fueled an interest in the classical past.

• Amid the social, economic, and religious upheavals of the 14th

century, there emerged a new interest in human values and the

everyday world, inspired and guided by classical examples.

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• In the 14th

century, Italy

consisted of

numerous city-

states, each

functioning

independently.

• Each city-state

consisted of a

geographic

region, varying in

size, dominated

by a major city.

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The

Black

Death:

• The eruption of the

Black Death in the

late 1340s

devastated

Europe and

created

economic turmoil.

• It also encouraged the commissioning of devotional images and

stimulated the construction of hospitals.

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• Italy's intellectual and cultural life was dramatically affected by the

development of an Italian vernacular literature, which, because

of its accessibility, greatly expanded the audience for philosophical

and intellectual concepts.

• Humanism, which was rooted in the study of the Latin classics,

developed models of civil conduct, education, and scholarly

discipline that underpinned the principles of the self-governing

republics.

• Humanism resurrected the spirit and ideals of classical antiquity

and, through the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature,

promoted the importance of the individual by focusing on human

virtues and values based on reason rather than religious dogma.

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The Birth of a New Artistic Culture:

• The transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance period

occurred in the 14th century.

• The medieval preoccupation with otherworldly values was

gradually modified to include a new interest in the natural world.

• This was coupled with a revival of interest in the art of classical

antiquity (ancient Roman sculpture and architecture), examples

of which were available for artists to study.

• The result was a new more naturalistic art in which both figures

and their surroundings are made to appear more as they might

in the real world.

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• Berlinghieri's Altarpiece of Saint Francis is painted in the Italo-Byzantine style, which is characterized by a strict formality, a linear flatness, a shallow space, and an emphasis on the spiritual.

Bonaventura Berlinghieri(active 1235-1244)

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Artist’s Names in Renaissance Italy

• Today’s traditions of family surnames did not yet exist during this

time period.

• Often individuals adopted their home towns as one of their names;

for instance Leonard da Vinci was from the small town of Vinci. -

Such artists are most often referred to by their given names such

as Leonardo.

• Nicknames were also common. Guido di Pietro is better known as

Fra Angelico – the “Angelic Friar” and Cenni de Pepo is

remembered as Cimabue - “Bulls Head.” Perhaps a reference to

his appearance.

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• Nicholas Pisano used

classical elements in the

marble reliefs he carved for the

medieval-type pulpit (1235) in

the baptistery of Pisa

Cathedral.

• The pulpit's shape and the

geometrical organization of its

reliefs have been allied to the

harmonious proportional ratios

- associated since Pythagoras

with the divine proportion of the

cosmos - established by the

contemporary Pisan

mathematician Leonardo

Fibonacci.

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detail of Pisa baptistery pulpit, 1259–1260. Marble relief, approx. 34" x 45".

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• In the relief panels carved for the pulpit in Sant'Andrea at

Pistoia, Nicola Pisano's son Giovanni Pisano carved more

naturalistic figures whose supple and slender bodies, clothed in

sinuous draperies, twist and bend with greater animation and

emotional expression.

Massacre of the Innocents, detail from the pulpit, 1301Marble, 84 x 102 cm, Sant'Andrea, Pistoia

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• In his fresco of the Last Judgment in the church

of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome, Pietro

Cavallini abandons Byzantine conventions and

paints more sculpturally solid figures.

Seated

Apostles,

detail of the

Last Judgment,

ca. 1291.

Fresco. Santa

Cecilia in

Trastevere,

Rome.

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Cimabue(c. 1240-1302)

• In his altarpiece of the

Madonna Enthroned with

Angels and Prophets,

Cimabue moves beyond the

strict conventions of the Italo-

Byzantine style towards an

increased naturalism in the

treatment of space and in the

solid three-dimensionality of

the Virgin's throne.

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• The Italo-Byzantine style

was abandoned altogether

by Giotto, who adopted a

more naturalistic approach

based on the observation of

nature.

• In his Madonna

Enthroned, forms are

foreshortened and modeled

in light and shade to create

figures that have sculptural

solidity and weight.

Giotto di Bondone(ca. 1266-1337)

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• Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel at Padua include 38 framed pictures peopled with sculpturesque, weighty, emotionally expressive, quietly dramatic figures arranged in convincing spatial depth on a shallow stage.

Interior of the Arena Chapel (Capella Scrovegni), Padua, 1305–1306.

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Giotto,

Lamentation,

1305. Fresco,

78 3/4" x 72

3/4". Arena

Chapel,

Padua.

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• The composition of Giotto's panel of The Meeting of

Joachim and Anna is simple and compact, with the

figures related to the architecture of the Golden Gate.

The

Meeting of

Joachim

and Anna,

ca. 1305.

Fresco, 6' 6

3/4" x 6'

3/4". Arena

Chapel,

Padua.

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• Taddeo Gaddi's version of the same scene in the Baroncelli

Chapel in Santa Croce in Florence is more complex as a

composition, and shows a more profound and subtle exploration

of the effects of light and shade as a means of producing both a

sense of volume and a sense of a time of day.

Meeting of Joachim and Anna, 1338. Fresco.

Baroncelli Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence.

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The Republic of Florence

• At the forefront of artistic change was the republic of Florence.

• Through the construction and embellishment of magnificent

churches, the government and citizens of Florence sought both to

honor God and to make apparent the economic and cultural

superiority of the city.

• Two large churches built in Florence in the 14th century exhibit

Gothic features (pointed arches and rib vaults) but are otherwise

unlike Gothic buildings in northern Europe in both design and

decoration.

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Florence

Cathedral

• The cathedral of

Florence, begun by

Arnolfo di Cambio, has

an exterior surface

ornamented in the

Tuscan fashion with

marble-encrusted

geometric designs.

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• Emphasis is placed on

the design's horizontal

elements, and the

building rests firmly and

massively on the ground.

• The Cathedral's façade

was not completed until

the 19th century.

22In contrast, the dome, built later in the 15h century, rises magnificently as a

crisp, closed, ogival silhouette against the sky behind it.

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• The Florence

campanile

(bell tower),

designed by Giotto,

stands apart from

the cathedral in the

Italian tradition.

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• It is

subdivided

into cubic

sections.

• The

spacious

nave of

Florence

Cathedral is

divided into

bays

separated

from the

shallow

aisles

by wide

arcades.

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The Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella was

designed to hold large congregations.

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• Simple compound piers

support the rib-vaults of

the nave and aisles.

The ribs,

arches,

and the small oculi

(round openings) that

pierce the nave wall are

striped.

Nave of Santa Maria Novella,

Florence,

ca. 1246-1470

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• The gentle curvilinear

shapes and Gothic

sentiment of Bernardo

Daddi's painting of the

Madonna and Child

are offset by the sparkling

patterns of geometric

decoration that ornament

the pinnacled façade-like

design for the architectural

frame of the tabernacle in

Florence's Or San

Michele.

Andrea Orcagna, tabernacle, 1350–

1360. Mosaic, gold, marble, lapis

lazuli. Or San Michele,

Florence.

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The Republic of Siena

• In the rival city of Siena, examples of painting also exhibit

humanized figures in more naturalistic settings. Increasing attention

is paid to textures and to the modeling and placement of forms

within the pictorial space of the picture.

• Under the influence of French Gothic art and refined aristocratic

taste, the Siennese painter Simone Martini developed an elegant

and intricately ornamented manner which, because of its similarity

to other examples elsewhere in Europe, is called the "International

Style".

• Other painters, meanwhile, sought to enhance pictorial realism

through the depiction of convincing spatial illusions.

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Duccio di Buoninsegna (active 1278-1318)

• Duccio’s altarpiece of the Maestà is a polyptych in which the

main panel on the front side represents the Virgin enthroned in

majesty (Maestà) as Queen of Heaven.

Duccio shows relaxed, naturalistic figures modeled in light and dark and

painted with considerable sensitivity to color and texture.

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Drapery falls and curves

convincingly.

Virgin and Child Enthroned with

Saints, principal panel of the Maestà

altarpiece, 1308–1311. Tempera on

wood, panel 7' x 13'.

Museo dell'Opera

del Duomo, Siena

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In other panels, Duccio reveals his skills as a narrative painter, showing

figures who react to the central event with appropriate physical gestures

and expressions of emotion.

The rear side of the multi-paneled Maestà.

32Duccio, Betrayal of Jesus, detail from the back of the Maestà altarpiece, 1309–1311.

Tempera on wood, detail approx. 221/2" x 40". Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena.

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Simone Martini (ca. 1285-1344)

• Martini was a student of Duccio’s and a close writer of the

poet Petrarch who praised him for his portrait of Laura

(now lost to us), The woman for whom Petrarch dedicated

his sonnets.

• Martini adapted the luxuriant patterns of the French Gothic

manner to Siennese art and helped form the so-called

International Style.

Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi (?), Annunciation, 1333

(frame reconstructed in the 19th century).

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• Martini's Annunciation altarpiece is

characterized by elegant shapes, radiant color,

flowing and fluttering line, and weightless figures

placed in a spaceless setting.

• The painting is enhanced by the intricate tracery

of the richly tooled Late Gothic frame.

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• Pietro

Lorenzetti's

The Birth of

the Virgin

shows pictorial

realism and

convincing

spatial illusions.

Pietro Lorenzetti(active 1320-1328)

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• The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena is a symmetrical design abutted

by a lofty tower with galleries built out on corbels.

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• The interior of this town hall is filled with frescoes by 14th

century artists.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Pietro’s brother created these allegories

on good and bad government.

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Ambrogio Lorenzetti (active 1319-1348)

• Lorenzetti painted carefully observed and particularized views of

contemporary life in and around Siena.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful City, detail from the fresco Effects of Good Government in

the City and the Country, Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, 1338–1339.

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• Peaceful Country represented one of the first appearances

of landscape in western art since antiquity.

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• Lorenzetti also shows

us images of bad

government……

• Crumbling buildings.

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• And satanic rulers…

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• Ruined crops and soldiers on the hillsides.

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Summary:• The ideas that gained momentum in the 14th century:

Humanism, direct observation, solidity of form

and interest in illusion became prominent in the following

centuries-the period known as the Renaissance.

• These changes occurred first in Italy, where the growth of a new

secular culture fueled an interest in the classical past.

• Italy's intellectual and cultural life was dramatically affected by

the development of an Italian vernacular literature.

• Cimabue moves beyond the strict conventions of the Byzantine

style towards an increased naturalism in the treatment of space

and in the solid 3-dimensionality of figures.

• His student Giotto adopted an even more naturalistic approach

based on the observation of nature.

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• In Siena,Duccio reveals his skills as a narrative painter,

showing figures who react to the central event with appropriate

physical gestures and expressions of emotion.

• Simone Martini adapted the luxuriant patterns of the French

Gothic manner to Siennese art and helped form the

International Style.

• In the frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Ambrogio

Lorenzetti painted carefully observed and particularized views

of contemporary life in and around Siena.

• Italian architects abandon the fanciful Gothic in favor of a more

restrained and geometric regularity.

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Links:

• Art Gallery

http://www.christusrex.org/www2/art/gallery.htm

• Art of the Italian Renaissance

• Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi

• National Gallery of Art (D.C.)