REN. CH.6

PALACE & CHURCH

FRA ANGELICO

• 1437, The Dominicans appealed to Cosimo

de’ Medici…who lived nearby in the Palazzo

Medici…to fund the complex renovation.

Cosimo had a cell at the convent for his

personal retreat.

• Patron: Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464)

• Architect: Michelozzo

• Artist: Fra Angelico

San Marco is the name of

a religious complex in

Florence, Italy.

It comprises a church and

a convent. The convent,

which is now a museum,

has three claims to fame.

During the 15th century it

was home to two famous

Dominicans, the painter

Fra Angelico and the

preacher Girolamo

Savonarola.

• Convent cloister Church of San Marco

Michelozzo, Library begun 1437, San Marco, Florence (under the reign of Lorenzo)

The favorite meeting place for Florentine humanists…texts in Latin and Greek.

Michelozzo, Library begun 1437, San Marco, Florence (under the reign of Lorenzo)

Followed a simplified version of Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital

Fra Angelico, 1433-36

Fra Angelico, San Marco Alterpiece, 1438-43 tempera on panel 7.5x7.2’

New pictorial science of Brunelleschi

Rejection of the traditional polyptych…rectangular format…response to Michelozzo’s

architecture in the library.

Fra Angelico, Cosmas and Damian Healing a Lame Man, predella from

Sand Marco altarpiece, c.1438 tempera and gold on panel

Cosmos (Cosimo) looks out…doctor brothers

In the 1440's, a Dominican Friar, Fra Angelico painted the interior of the

Monastery San Marco in Florence with frescoes. He decorated each of his

fellow monks' cells with a holy image for their contemplation (the

Dominicans were committed to work and prayer). At the top of the stairs

leading to their quarters he painted this large-scale Annunciation.

His Madonna is clearly set in a real world of Classical (complete with

Corinthian columns) and Renaissance architecture. It recedes convincingly in

space. On the far wall of the interior room behind the Virgin's head, is a small

window that opens into deeper space. She is also set in the natural world with

a flowered lawn, fence and distant woods and the angel Gabriel's wings are

brightly colored like an exotic bird's. The Madonna's interaction with the Angel

is direct. They are looking at each other and mirror each other's gestures. It is a

tender and beautiful representation of the Annunciation, and one in which the

characters seem more human than divine.

FRA FILIPPO LIPPI

(CARMELITE ORDER)

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Lippi.html

Lippi, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Francis, Cosmas,

Damian, and Anthony, 1445, temprea, 6.5x6.5’

Santa Croce novitiate (Franciscan)

Patron: Cosimo de’ Medici dedicated to Cosmas and Damian

Unified space like Fra Angelico

Nuturing mothehood…more physical than Fra Angelico

Madonna and Child (1440-1445)

Filippo Lippi, (1406 – 1469)

National Gallery of Art,

Washington, DC.

Lippi, Portrait of a Woman and a

Man at a Casement, c.1444

Earliest double portrait in Italy

1st…to show sitters in domestic

setting

1st…with a view onto a

landscape

Lippi restricted to the Italian

preference for the profile view.

DOMENICO VENEZIANO

Venetian trained by Gentile da Fabriano

Show influence of Fra Anglico

Olivetan Benedictines of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli

Domenico, S. Lucy altarpiece, 1445, tempera on panel

Note:

Rectangle

Perspective

Architectural space

Simple proportions

Tripartite loggia (older format)

Hierarchy…Virgin and Child

Influences:

Light…Masaccio

Color…Florence Cathedral (pink, white,

green)

Lucy…derived from Latin word light

ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

Convent of Sant’Apollonia…Benedictine community…largest and richest

female cloister in Florence

Florentine native

ANDREA DEL CASTANGO. LAST SUPPER, fresco, 1447

Castagno’s Last Supper projects rather than recedes

MICHELOZZO, PALAZZO

MEDICI

Friend of Cosimo

Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici, begun 1444 Florence

Patron: Cosimo

• Attributed to

• Michelozzo di Bartolomeo,

• Palazzo Medici-Riccardi,

Florence, begun 1446

• Courtyard

with

sgraffito

(decoration

produced

by

scratching

through

plaster or

glaze).

The Medici recognized Donatello’s great talent and

commissioned him to sculpt a statue of David.

The Florentines identified with David. As David had

conquered Goliath, so had Florence overcome the

boastful Duke of Milan when he attempted to conquer

their city in 1402.

Donatello’s David marked a milestone in Early

Renaissance art.

Donatello portrayed David as a nude youth…the first

freestanding, life-size nude statue cast since antiquity.

The Medici installed David in the courtyard of their

Florence palace.

MICHELOZZO,

SANTA CROCE

The Chapel of the Noviciate, which Michelozzo built around 1445 for

Cosimo de’ Medici, has a glazed terracotta altarpiece by Andrea della

Robbia, of the Madonna and Child with Saints.

Bardi S. Francis Santa Croce and Giotto, S. Clare

Basilica of Santa Croce, built

1294, is the principla

Franciscan church in Florence

and the largest Franciscan

church in the world

Michelozzo, Medici Chapel,

Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel located in the 1st cloister of the Basilica de Santa

Croce, 1441…Pazzi Chapel was a meeting room and a statement of wealth

by the Pazzi family

Discuss 15th century Italian Architecture.

Discuss 15th century Italian Sculpture.

Discuss 15th century Italian Painting.