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Chapter 19From Gothic to

Renaissance:14th Century Italian Art

Gardner’s Art Through the Ages,

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Italy Around 1400

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Renaissance – 14th Century Italian• European Renaissance – Religion continued to occupy a primary

position, but a growing concern with the natural world, the individual and humanity’s worldly existence began

• Renaissance extends roughly from the 14th through the 16th centuries

• Renaissance derived from French word “renaissance” and the Italian word “rinascita”, both meaning “rebirth”

• Central to rebirth: revived interest in classical (Greco-Roman) cultures

• Italy divided into city-states and republics/ established a thriving international trade and held commanding position in Mediterranean world by the beginning of the 14th century

• Guilds (associations of master craftspeople, apprentices and tradespeople) became prominent

• Black Death (bubonic plague) – originated in China/hit in late 1340’s/eliminated between 25% to 50% of Europe’s population in about 5 years/ effect on art: stimulated religious bequests and encouraged the commissioning of devotional images

• The Great Schism – conflict between French and Italians resulted in election of 1378 of two popes (Clement VII in Avignon and Urban VI in Rome)

• Development of a vernacular (commonly spoken) literature which affected Italy’s intellectual and cultural life/ creation of Italian vernacular literature (based on the Tuscan dialect common in Florence)/ Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio were among those most responsible for establishing this vernacular literature

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Reviving Classical Values

•Fundamental to the development of the Italian Renaissance: HUMANISM

•HUMANISM: emerged during 14th century and became central component of much of Italian art and culture in 15th and 16th centuries

•HUMANISM: more a code of civil conduct, a theory of education, and a scholarly discipline than a philosophical system

•HUMANISTS had enthusiasm for antiquity/classical cultures and art – they wanted to emulate Roman civic virtues (self-sacrificing service to state, participation in government, defense of state institutions, etc.)

•CLASSICAL CULTURES PROVIDED to humanists a model for living in this world/ primary human focus that derived from REASON, not authoritative and traditional religious dogma

•Sole reward for heroes of civic virtue – FAME/ humanist cult of fame emphasized the importance of creative individuals and their role in contributing to the renown of the city-state and all of Italy

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Figure 19-1 BONAVENTURA BERLINGHIERI, panel from the Saint Francis Altarpiece, San Francesco, Pescia, Italy, 1235. Tempera on wood, approx. 5’ x 3’ x 6”.

Italo-Byzantine Style or Maniera Greca (Greek Style)

•Middle Ages – Byzantine style dominated Italian painting

•Subject – St. Francis, wears clerical garb of the order he founded (Franciscans)/ displays stigmata/ flanked by angels/ panels show scenes from his life

•Byzantine characteristics: formal composition/ frontal pose/ halos/ lack of modeling - linear flatness/ golden background/ shallow space

• Panels look like Byzantine illuminated manuscripts/ panels show more emotion and activity

•Shows prominent role of religious orders in Italy/ Franciscan order demonstrated commitment to teaching and to alleviating suffering

•Berlinghieri’s altarpiece is earliest known signed and dated representation of St. Francis

Panel from St. Francis Altarpiece

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Artist’s Names in Renaissance Italy

•14th and 15th centuries- individuals adopted their hometowns as one of their names- Example: Nicola Pisano was from Pisa, Giulio Romano was from Rome, Leonardo da Vinci was from Vinci

•Artists were referred to by their given names only such as Leonardo, Giotto or Duccio

•Nicknames were also common- Masaccio was “Big Thomas”, Cenni di Pepo was Cimabue (meaning bull’s head)

•Names were not only nonstandardized but also impermanent and could be changed at will

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Figure 19-2 NICOLA PISANO, pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259–1260. Marble, approx. 15’ high.

Figure 19-3 NICOLA PISANO, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of Pisa baptistery pulpit, Pisa, Italy, 1259–1260. Marble relief, approx. 2’ 10” x 3’ 9”.

13th Century – NICOLA PISANO – Classical Revival•Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II – humanistic culture in Sicily due to this king/ he fostered the revival of Roman sculpture and decoration in Sicily and S. Italy before the mid-13th century

•Pulpit of Pisa Cathedral- Medieval characteristics are trilobed arches, lions supporting columns/ Classical elements are the column capitals, rounded arches, large rectangular relief panels (like ROMAN SARCOPHAGI)

•Panel- Annunciation and the Nativity: inspired by classical relief sculpture (face types, beards, hair styles, draperies, weight of figures)

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ART TO ORDER – Commissions and Patronage

•Historically, artists rarely undertook major artworks without a patron’s concrete commission

•Patron could be civic group, religious entity or private individual

•Guilds contributed to their city’s religious and artistic life by subsidizing the building and decoration of numerous churches and hospitals

•Religious groups (monastic orders) were major art patrons/ papacy important patron (pope)/ today the Vatican museums hold one of the world’s most spectacular art collections

•Art was commissioned for propagandistic, philanthropic or commemorative purposes

•Artworks were a product of a service contract – in looking at the art we must consider the patrons’ needs or wishes/ artists were asked to submit drawings or models to their patrons for approval

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Figure 19-4 GIOVANNI PISANO, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the pulpit of Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 1297–1301. Marble relief, approx. 2’ 10” x 3’ 4”.

Giovanni Pisano (son of Nicola) – Pulpit of Sant’ Andrea•40 years after his father’s rendition of the same subject – Giovanni’s pulpit is more dynamic and figures are loosely arranged (animated, twisting and bending)/ shows more motion/ emotion = new interest in classical antiquity and naturalism

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Figure 19-6 CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, ca. 1280–1290. Tempera on wood, 12’ 7” x 7’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Cenni di Pepo known as CIMABUE

•Inspired by NATURALISM

•Modeled his large image on Byzantine examples (structured and symmetrical)/ also used gold to embellish

•What’s new: constructed deeper space (overlapping, furniture)

Altarpiece

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Figure 19-7 GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on wood, 10’ 8” x 6’ 8”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

GIOTTO – Naturalistic approach based on observation•Influenced by Roman school of painting and his teacher, Cimabue, French Gothic sculptors and ancient Roman art

•Considered by some scholars are the father of Western pictorial art

•His true teacher was nature – the world of visible things/ this artistic approach displaced the Byzantine style, established painting as major art form for next 7 centuries and restored the naturalistic approach developed by the ancients

•He inaugurated a method of pictorial expression based on observation and initiated an age that might be called “early scientific”

•Giotto and his successors contributed to the foundation of empirical science/ the visual world must be observed before it can be analyzed and understood

•With Giotto, Western artists turned toward the visible world as their source of knowledge of nature

•Altarpiece – Madonna Enthroned: sculptural solidity and weight/ stability/ her body is not lost but asserted/ the throne is deep enough to contain the monumental figure, it projects and encloses her (creates depth)

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Figure 19-8 Interior of the Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, 1305–1306.

GIOTTO – Muralist – Arena Chapel

Frescoes•Arena Chapel – built for Scrovegni (wealthy Padua merchant)/ for family’s private use

•Rectangular, barrel vaulted hall/ presents one of the most impressive and complete pictorial cycles of Christian Redemption ever rendered

•38 framed pictures, arranged on 3 levels (lives of Virgin and her parents (top), life and mission of Christ (middle), his Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection (bottom)

•Very bottom section- imitation marble veneer/ painted in grisaille (monochrome grays used for modeling in painting) to imitate sculpture

•Last Judgment covers most of west wall above chapel’s entrance

•Hall’s vault is blue- symbolic of Heaven/ medallions with images of Christ, Mary, prophets

•Blue is repeated in background of panels = unifying element

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FRESCO PAINTING

•Fresco = Italian for “fresh” – has long history – Minoans used it as early as 1650 BCE

•Mural painting technique – applied permanent limeproof pigments, diluted in water, on freshly laid lime plaster, pigments absorbed into surface of wall as plaster dried

•Most permanent painting technique

•Also called “buon fresco” (true fresco)

•It is time-consuming and demanding and requires several layers of plaster

•Steps: prepare wall with rough layer of lime plaster called arriccio (brown coat), artist transfers composition to wall by drawing on arriccio with burnt-orange pigment called sinopia or by transferring a cartoon (full-sized preparatory drawing), intonaco (painting coat) is laid smoothly over drawing in sections called giornate (Italian for days) – the artist had to paint fairly quickly because the plaster could not dry

•In areas of high humidity (like Venice) fresco was less appropriate because of moisture

14Figure 19-9 GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4” x 6’ 3/4”.

GIOTTO – Lamentation – Arena Chapel Panel

•Subject: angels darting about in grief, congregation mourns over dead body of Savior before entombment, Mary cradles her son, Mary Magdalene looks solemnly at wounds on his feet, St. John throws arms back dramatically

•Giotto arranged a shallow STAGE for the figures: thick diagonal rock provides visual support for the figures and helps to draw the viewer’s eye toward the focal point at lower left (head of Christ which is dynamically off center)

•Figures are sculpturesque, simple and weighty – we see a broad spectrum of grief

•The combination of compositional complexity and emotional resonance was rarely attempted in art before Giotto

•Grouping of figures: sets up foreground and background = spatial depth/ foreground figures with back to us help to draw our attention to Christ as does other body/facial direction

•Management of light and shade/ direction of light, shadows = volume/ first step toward development of chiaroscuro (dramatic contrast of dark and light)

Early Innovator of Perspective and Lighting – Creates Dramatic Narratives

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Figure 19-10 DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, principal panel of the Maestà altarpiece, from the Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308–1311. Tempera on wood, panel 7’ x 13’. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

The Republic of Siena - DUCCIO•14th century Italian city-state – Republic of Siena strong commitment to art, urban center of bankers and merchants

•Sienese believed the Virgin Mary sponsored their victory over the Florentines in 1260

•Maesta Altarpiece, Siena Cathedral, 1308-11, 7 ft. high central panel: Byzantine characteristics = composition’s formality, symmetry, figures and facial types

•What’s different: relaxed the strict frontality and rigidity of figures – they turn to each other in quiet conversation, individualizes faces of four saints kneeling in foreground, drapery is not so stiff (Duccio and others prized fabrics from China, Persia, etc. and created the glistening and shimmering effects of textiles)

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Figure 19-11 DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Betrayal of Jesus, detail from the back of the Maestà altarpiece, from the Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1309–1311. Tempera on wood, detail approx. 1’ 10 1/2” x 3’ 4”. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

DUCCIO – Back of Maesta Altarpiece•Betrayal of Jesus by Judas’s false kiss/ disciples flee in terror/ Peter cutting off the ear of high priest’s servant

•Byzantine traditional style: golden background

•What’s changed: position of bodies/ modeling on bodies (lights and darks)/ emotion is shown with gestures and facial expressions/ seem as actors in religious drama/ humanizing a religious subject

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Figure 19-12 SIMONE MARTINI AND LIPPO MEMMI(?), Annunciation, 1333 (frame reconstructed in the nineteenth century). Tempera and gold leaf on wood, approx. 10’ 1” x 8’ 8 3/4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

The International Style – Simone Martini

•Came in contact with northern painters/ adapted patterns of French Gothic manner to Sienese art/ instrumental in forming the International style

•International style swept Europe in late 14th and early 15th centuries / appealed to aristocratic taste for brilliant colors, lavish costumes, intricate ornamentation and themes involving splendid processions

•Annunciation Altarpiece: elegant shapes and radiant color/ flowing, fluttering line, weightless figures in spaceless setting

•Intricate tracery of richly tooled late Gothic frame enhances the painting/ inspired by French

•Lippo Memmi (assistant) painted the two outer figures (saints)

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Mastering a Craft – Artistic Training in the Renaissance

•14th-16th Century Italy – earning membership in appropriate guild was laborious and lengthy process

•Artists started training at 7 to 15 years old/ youths lived with masters for a specified number of years, usually 5 or 6/ served as apprentices to masters/ this was a problem for females!

•Guilds supervised the rigorous training

•After completing apprenticeships, artists entered appropriate guilds

•Once “certified”, artists often affiliated themselves with established workshops as assistants to master artists

•Assistants could: work on gilding frames and backgrounds, complete decorative work, render architectural settings and paint less important figures

•This apprentice system- passing of knowledge from one generation to the next- accounts for the sense of continuity people experience when reviewing Italian Renaissance art.

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Figure 19-13 PIETRO LORENZETTI, The Birth of the Virgin, from Altar of Saint Savinus, Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1342. Tempera on wood, approx. 6’ 1” x 5’ 11”. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena.

The Lorenzetti Brothers – Pictorial Realism

•Search for convincing spacial illusionism

•The Birth of the Virgin by Pietro Lorenzetti – panel painted for Siena Cathedral to honor the Virgin Mary

•Boxlike stage

•Real wooden column-like planks cut across one of the figures = strengthens the illusion of space

•St. Anne is reclining, midwives wash the child, women bring gifts

•Episode occurs in upper-class Italian house of the period/ look at architectural setting/ look from one space to another

•Figures to left wait outside to hear the news

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Figure 19-14 Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1288–1309.

Town Hall – Object of Civic PridePalazzo Pubblico

•Symmetrical in design with lofty tower

•Tower served as lookout over the city and as a bell tower for ringing signals

•Class struggle, feuds between rich and powerful families, uprisings of whole populace against city governors were constant threats

•Heavy walls and battlements were needed in the design to defend against own citizens

•Ambrogio Lorenzetti – frescoes located in the Palazzo Pubblico

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Figure 19-15 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful City, detail from Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1338–1339. Fresco.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti

•Leaders of Sienese government commissioned this fresco series (Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country)/ depicted the urban and rural effect of good government

•Peaceful City – panoramic view of Siena/ Lorenzetti observed the life of his city and its architecture gave him an opportunity to apply Sienese artists’ rapidly growing knowledge of perspective

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Figure 19-16 Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful Country, detail from Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, Sala della Pace, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1338–1339. Fresco.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti•Peaceful Country: Bird’s-eye view of Tuscan countryside/ allegorical figure of Security hovers above with scroll promising safety to all who live under the rule of the law

•First appearance of landscape in Western art since antiquity

•Lorenzetti particularized the landscape (like the city) by careful observation and portrayed a specific place and environment

23Figure 19-17 ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO and others, Florence Cathedral (view from the south), Florence, Italy, begun 1296.

The Republic of Florence•14th Century – Florence was dominant city-state/ Florentines prided themselves on what they perceived as economic and cultural superiority/ centrality to banking operations/ control of textile industry

•Florence Cathedral – begun in 1296 by Cambio/ holds 30,000 people/ exterior ornamented with marble-encrusted geometric designs (matched it to the Baptistery of San Giovanni)/ it clings to the ground/ emphasis on horizontal elements/ simple geometric volumes are defined clearly and show no tendency to merge either into each other or into the sky

• Dome is monument with which architectural historians usually introduce the Renaissance (built by Brunelleschi between 1420 and 1436)

•Florence Campanile – stands apart from the cathedral (Italian tradition) and designed by Giotto in 1334

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Figure 19-18 Nave of Florence Cathedral (view facing east), Florence, Italy, begun 1296.

Interior – Florence Cathedral

•Area beneath the dome is the design’s focal point and nave leads to it

•Nave bays are twice as deep as those of Ameins

•Wide arcades permit the shallow aisles to become part of the central nave = unmatched spaciousness

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Figure 19-19 Nave of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca. 1246–1470.

Santa Maria Novella

•Commissioned by the Dominicans around 1246

•Small oculi and marble striping along the ogival arches decorate the nave

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Figure 19-20 Orcagna, tabernacle, Or San Michele, Florence, Italy, begun 1349.Mosaic, gold, marble, lapis lazuli. Bernardo Daddi,Madonna and Child with Saints, painted panel insert, 1346–1347.

Memorial to the Black Death – Tabernacle of the Virgin Mary

•Tabernacle = shrine, place to worship

•Orcagna – produced the architecture and sculpture

•Daddi – painted the panel of the Madonna which the tabernacle enshrines

•Or San Michelle – was originally a grain market and transformed into a church (guild church), confraternity building, and center for city’s guild

•Construction of tabernacle was prompted by the plague/ considered a memorial to the dead and the survivors

•Entire tabernacle took 10 years to complete, cost = 87,000 gold florins

•Tabernacle design recalls elements from Florence Cathedral and campanile and typical Italian Gothic facades

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Discussion Questions

What spatial and illusionary devices were developed at that time? How are these examples of humanism?

Why are classical concepts of art more appealing than the Byzantine and Medieval examples? In what art do you see a transition?

How is the architecture of this period different from both the earlier Romanesque and Gothic periods?

Summation Humanism, direct observation, greater concern with the solidity of forms, and the interest in illusion (spatial) gained momentum in the 14th century and became prominent in the following centuries