From Medieval to Renaissance:Italy, 1200-1400

Compare Byzantine (left) style and content with High Renaissance (right) (left) Bonaventura Berlinghieri, Saint Francis Altarpiece, 1235 and

(right) Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione, ca 1514, mastered illusionism

Compare (left) High Italian Renaissance Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione, ca 1514, mastered illusionism with Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Modernist, Portrait

Dedicated to Paul Gauguin, 1888

Compare Van Gogh (1888) Expressionism with Pablo Picasso (Spanish) Portrait of Vollard, 1910, “School of Paris” Cubism

http://www.moma.org/audio_file/audio_file/82/411e.mp3 Andy Warhol, (US Pop Art), Gold Marilyn, 1962

Map of the Word in 2009

Italy Around 1400

Roman Forum. Italian Renaissance humanists – artists, writers, architects – were inspired by Greco-Roman literature and art, evident in ruins of

classical culture that were part of their landscape.

BONAVENTURA BERLINGHIERI, panel from the Saint Francis Altarpiece, San Francesco,

Pescia, Italy, 1235. Tempera on wood, approx. 5’ x 3’ x 6”. A leading painter in the Italo-

Byzantine style. Frontal pose and use of gold leaf show his

Byzantine sources.

Byzantine icon, St Nicholas, early 13th C. Greece

NICOLA PISANO, pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259–1260. Marble, approx. 15’ high. This is a hybrid medieval (trefoil arches, lion

bases), and classical (relief sculptures drawing from Roman and Greek

sources).

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

Compare Nicola Pisano’s Late Gothic/Early Renaissance marble relief (above) with Roman relief sculpture of the myth of Orestes, ca. 140–150 CE. Marble, 2’ 7 1/2” high.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland.

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”.

CIMABUE (“Bull’s Head”), Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, ca.

1280–1290. Tempera on wood, 12’ 7” x 7’ 4”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. One of the first artists to break with the Italo-Byzantine style. A summary of Byzantine style, but the

throne recedes into space. Spatial illusionism is a hallmark of Renaissance

representation.

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on wood, 10’ 8” x 6’ 8”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Called the "Father

of Western Painting” why?

Empirical art: “[Giotto’s] trueteacher was nature.”

Compare Cimabue and Giotto. Is Giotto’s style more empirical?

Roman maternal goddess, panel from the east facade of the Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome, Italy, 13–9 BCE. Marble, approx. 5’ 3” high. Compare Giotto (1310) for solidity of the

body, a body that has weight.

Giotto, Interior of the Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni),

Padua, Italy, 1305–1306. Fresco panels of the life of the Virgin

(top) and the life of Christ (center and lower)

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4” x 6’ 3/4” What is fresco (method and medium)? Illusionism and expression

Anonymous Byzantine artist, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, wall painting, Saint Pantaleimon, Nerezi, Macedonia, 1164.

Compare Byzantine Lamentation (above)with Giotto’s early Renaissance Lamentation on the right, ca 1305

Sculptor ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO and others, Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore, view from the south), Florence, Italy, begun 1296. Campanile (free-standing bell

tower) by Giotto. Dome by Filippo Brunelleschi was built in the early 15th century.

Compare Florence Cathedral (above) begun 1296 with the Cologne cathedral (left) begun 1248.

Nave of Amiens Cathedral (view facing east), Amiens, France, begun

1220.

Nave of Florence Cathedral (view facing east), Florence, Italy, begun 1296.

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1288–1309

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1288–1309

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, 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. The first “real” (empirical) landscape painting – a portrait of a place.

Siena was decimated by the Black Death in 1348. Approximately half the population died in the plague. The republic's economy was destroyed and the city-state quickly declined from its position of prominence in Italy.

The Triumph of Death, 1325-50, Fresco, 18’6”x49’2”, Camposanto, Pisa

The Camposanto (sacred field), cemetery, Pisa, Italy

Francesco Traini (?) or Buonamico Buffalmacco (?), The Three Living, detail from The Triumph of Death,

fresco, 1325-50, 18’6” x 49’2” Camposanto, Pisa

Corpses, detail from The Triumph of Death fresco, Camposanto, Pisa

Detail from The Triumph of Death, c. 1325-50, Camposanto, Pisa

Detail from Triumph of Death, c. 1348, Santa Croce, Florence. The Catholic Church intensified preaching of guilt and penance following the Black Death.