Beginning the Renaissance

• Renaissance = rebirth• Emergence of Humanism• Transition from medieval to early modern:

– Increasing urbanization– Increasing international trade– Growing internal economies– Rise of secular powers

• City-states (local areas governed by aristocratic families) rather than ‘nations’

• Important city-states: Florence, Venice, Milan, Siena, Rome• Political alignment with the Pope (papal states) or with

other aristocrats• Mixture of Secular and Sacred

Italy ca. 1300

European society ca. 1300

• Mixture of secular and religious governments (papal states)

• Emergence of trade guilds (like unions) regulating industries, crafts, art

• Upheaval & change: “Black Death,” fracturing of papal authority, rising economic power of merchants

Humanism

• The focus on the world of human beings; the idea that the human is important, and interest in ways of investigating the human world (philosophy, history, science, the arts, the body, medicine, etc.)

• Bonaventura Berlinghieri, St. Francis altarpiece, 1235– Gilding and tempera

on wood panel– ‘Greek’ or Byzantine

style• Flat picture space• Emphasis on line• Decorative patterning• Otherworldly• Emphasis on clear

storytelling

http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8CJGczI9NzldLS1WEDhzTnkrX3kvfl56fyc%3D&source=ppt

Egg tempera

• Egg temperaa

• Details, St. Francis Altar• L: St. Francis heals a lame man• R: St. Francis gives alms to the poor

Duccio, Maesta (Virgin Enthroned), 1308-11

• Cathedral of Siena

• Measurements: over 12 by 12 feet

• Media– tempera (egg)– Gilding (gold leaf)

• Altarpiece made from wood panels

• Function: to stand behind altar (most sacred spot in church)

• Details of altarpiece, in restoration process

Duccio’s Maesta

• Secular (for town of Siena)• Sacred (altarpiece for church)• Virgin is patron saint of Siena• Altarpiece celebrates victory over Florence

http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8CJGczI9NzldLS1WEDhzTnkrX3kpeFp7eyo%3D&source=ppt

• Back panels of altarpiece

• Duccio, Betrayal• Continuous narrative

• Lamentation, back of altarpiece

• Siena (city-state), Town Hall

• Public meeting room of Town Hall• Good Government in the City & Country,

Lorenzetti Bros

• Lorenzetti Brothers, Effects of Good Government in the City

                                                                                                     

                   

• Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned, (aka Maesta), 1270-80

• Modeling, chiarascuro (light and dark)

• Giotto

• R: Berlingheri, c. 1270• L: Giotto, c. 1310• Medium = tempera w/gilding

Arena Chapel, aka Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy

• Enrico Scrovegni = donor• Arena = area of town next to

Roman ruins where chapel was built

• Built for private patron, to help save soul of his money-lending dad

• A merchant, not an aristocrat

• (Enrico giving the chapel to the Virgin, det. Of Last Judgment)

• Interior, toward Altar

• Interior, toward entry/exit (last judgment)

• Medium = Fresco (fresh plaster)• cycle or program: lives of Mary’s parents,

Mary, Christ• Narrative plan

• Betrayal of Christ (peter cuts off ear, judas’ kiss)

• Contrast Giotto and 13th Century version of same scene

• Contrast Duccio w/Giotto (both about 1310)

• The Lamentation

• Lamentation, det. Mary w/body of Christ

• Foreshortening

Sculpture in 14th C Italy

• Same trends: toward humanism, new patrons, etc.

• Looking at classical Greek & Roman models

• Trying to blend classical antiquity & contemporary piety

• Nicola Pisano (“Nick from Pisa”)

• Baptistery pulpit, 1260 (late Gothic)

• Shape based on classical geometry of ‘proportional harmonics’

• Style: quoting from classical sarcophagi

http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=4iFCeTg4NCciJy8laCt2KngqXXgqdVN%2BfSM%3D&source=ppt

• Presentation at the Temple (old priest = Dionysus)

• Christian Fortitude (adapted from Hercules)

Hercules, Roman copy of Greek original (125 CE)First labor of Hercules = kill the Nemean Lion

• Christian Fortitude (adapted from Hercules)

Saint Peter, from Moissac (12th C)