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The Changing Status of Artists in the Italian Renaissance 1400 – 1500

Part 1: Contracts and Conditions of TradePublic ExpectationsGesture

The Italian Renaissance

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The Italian Renaissance - Timeline

1350 1400 1450 1500 1550

Italy

England

Tomb of Black Prince 1376

Peasants Revolt1381

Wars of the Roses 1455 - 1485 Tudor Dynasty 1485 - 1601

Mary Rose sinks 1545Wilton Dyptich 1399

Lorenzetti 1342

Medici Dynasty 1434 - 1492

Sack of Rome 1527

Hampton Court 1514

Sistine Ceiling 1512

Leonardo VM 1488David 1504

Bodiam Castle 1385

Masaccio 1428

Botticelli 1486

Brunelleschi’s Dome 1436

Kings College Chapel 1460

Agincourt 1415

The Italian Renaissance

• Italian city states – small, independent, competitive and rich• The wealth of the city states is based on commerce, not

land-ownership. • Several generations of merchant and mercenary princes

foster a culture of new learning and intellectual accomplishment - ‘humanism’• The Church retains huge authority and importance in all

aspects of public and private life•Most art is public, sacred art, made for a mixture of

spiritual, political and social reasons• The commissioning of artworks demonstrates the power of

rulers, civic pride and proclaims the wealth, culture and virtue of the community

The Italian Renaissance

“...and never having found any memorial of the masters, and many times not even what date (their works of art) were made. I cannot but marvel at the lack of sophistication and little desire for glory of the men of that age.”

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, Florence , 1550

Domenico GhirlandaioThe Adoration of the Magi, Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence,1488

Contracts and Conditions of Trade

Antonio VenezianoVirgin and Child, Florence?, c. 1380

Contracts and Conditions of Trade

Sandro BotticelliThe Virgin and Child, Bardi Chapel, S. Spirito, Florence,1485

Contracts and Conditions of Trade

Piero della FrancescaMadonna della Misericordia, San Sepulcro, Florence,1445- 62

Contracts and Conditions of Trade

Skill and Difference

Skill and Difference

Sandro Botticelli, The Punishment of Korah,Sistine Chapel, Rome, c.1483

Skill and Difference

Domenico Ghirlandaio, The Calling of Peter and Andrew,Sistine Chapel, Rome, c.1483

Skill and Difference

Pietro Perugino, Moses Leaving to Egypt,Sistine Chapel, Rome, c.1483 *

Simone Martini and Lippo MemmiAnnunciation with Saints, Siena Cathedral, 1333

Public Expectations

Public Expectations

Fra Filippo LippiThe Annunciation, Florence, c.1460

Public Expectations

Sandro BotticelliThe Annunciation, Florence, c.1490

Public Expectations

The Function of Sacred Art

Master of the Barbarini PanelsThe Annunciation, Florence, c.1460

Alesso BalovinettiThe Annunciation, Florence, c.1460

Public Expectations

Domenico VenezianoThe Annunciation, Florence, c.1445

Public Expectations

The Function of Sacred Art

Antonello de MessinaVirgin Annunciate, Sicily, c.1473

Carlo CrivelliThe Annunciation with St Emidius, SS. Annunziata in Ascoli, c.1486

Public Expectations

*

Istorie

In 1435 Leon Battista Alberti wrote a hugely influential treatise callled ‘On Painting’ (De Pittura).

Alberti argued that artists should be ‘as learned as possible in all the Liberal Arts’ .

He therefore emphasised the inclusion of mathematical and rhetorical ideas, derived from Roman authors, in painting.

Narrative paintings with figures were called Istorie

Ambrogio LorenzettiPresentation in the Temple, Siena Cathedral,1343

‘Istorie’

Antonio Masaccio, Raising of the Son of Theophilus, and St.Peter Enthroned, Branacci Chapel, Florence1427

‘Istorie’

Pietro Perugino,Lamentation over the Dead Christ, Convent of Santa Chiara, Florence, 1495

Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysus and the Four Seasons. Roman, Late Imperial, c. C.E. 260-270.

‘Istorie’

Apollo, Athena and the Muses, Imperial Roman sarcophagus, 1st-2nd c. CE. Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire ,

Andrea Mantegna, The Family of Ludovico Gonzaga, Duke of Manuta, Castle of Mantua, c.1470

Pietro Perugino,Lamentation over the Dead Christ, Convent of Santa Chiara, Florence, 1495

Pinturicchio,The Return of Odyssus, 1509

The Language of Gesture

The Language of Gesture

Affirmation: Lift your arm gently...so that the back of the hand faces the beholderDemonstration: A thing one has seen may be noted by opening the palm of the hand in that directionGrief: pressing the breast with the palm of the handShame: Covering the eyes with the fingers

Antonio Masaccio, Adam and Eve Expelled from the Garden of Eden, Branacci Chapel, Florence1427

The Language of Gesture

The Language of Gesture

“When thou spekest of a solenpne mater to stande vp ryghte with lytell mevynge of thy body, but poyntnge it with thy fore finger.And when thou spekyst of any cruell mater or yreful cause to bende thy fyst and shake thyn arm.And whan thou spekyst of any heuenly or godly thynges to loke vp and pointe towards the skye with thy finger.And whan thou spekest of any gentilnes, myldeness or humylyte, to ley thy hands upon thy breste.And whan thou spekest of any holy mater or devocyon to holde vp thy hands.”

The Mirror of the World, London, 1527

Fra Angelico,The Coronation of the Virgin, Convento di San Marco, Florence, 1445

The Language of Gesture

Pietro Perugino, Christ Giving St. Peter the Keys,Sistine Chapel, Rome, c.1483

The Language of Gesture

The Language of Gesture

Michelangelo, God Creating Adam, Sistine Chapel, Rome, 1512

The Language of Gesture

Jacobus de Cessolis, Queen’s Bishop’s Pawn (the Innkeeper), from The Book of the Game of Chess, 1493

The Language of Gesture

Pinturicchio,St Anthony Abbot and St Paul the Hernit, Vatican, 1494

The Language of Gesture

Domenico GhirlandaioThe Adoration of the Magi, Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence,1488

The Language of Gesture