Chapter 14: Late Medieval Italy
Chapter Sheet
Preview: This chapter surveys art and architecture in Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries, a period that
witnessed great changes in modes of representation in sculpture and painting. Artists in the 13 th
century such as Cimabue work in the Italo-Byzantine style, characterized by a flattening of
representational space and less naturalistic, more schematic renderings of figures. In the 14th
century, Giotto is recognized for painting scenes and figures based on observations of the natural
world. His naturalism is seen as a return to the classical manner, which had been nearly
abandoned in the Middle Ages. Giotto is recognized as the first Renaissance artist, his work
signaling the rebirth of Greco-Roman naturalism, the emphasis on empirical knowledge, and the
development of humanism that are the hallmarks of the Italian art and culture in the 15 th and 16th
centuries.
List of Artworks (7 Cards Total):
1. Late Medieval Context Card
2. Giotto de Bondone, Madonna Enthroned, from the Church of Ognissanti, Florence, ca. 1310—
Pg. 407
3. Giotto de Bondone, interior of the Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, 1305-1306—Pg. 400-401, Pg.
408
4. Giotto de Bondone, Lamentation, Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, ca. 1305-Pg. 400-401, Pg. 408
5. Duccio di Buoninsegna, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, principal panel of the Maestá
altarpiece, from Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308-1311—Pg. 411
6. Duccio di Buoninsegna, Life of Jesus, 14 panels from the back of the Maestá altarpiece, from
Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308-1311—Pg. 411-12
7. Duccio de Buoninsegna, Betrayal of Jesus, panel on the back of the Maestá altarpiece, from
Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, 1308-1311-- Pg. 411-12
Key Figures: Giotto de Bondone, Leon Battista Alberti, St. Francis
Key Cultural & Religious Terms: Great Schism, monastic orders, mendicants, confraternities, citystates, humanism, stigmata, Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Shepherds, Lamentation,
Renaissance, humanism, guild, commission, florin, Black Death
Key Art Terms: pulpit, trefoil arches, ogival, sarcophagus, Italo-Byzantine style, maniera greca,
tempera, altarpiece, gold leaf, mural, fresco painting: buon fresco & fresco secco, arriccio, sinopia,
cartoon, grisaille, perspective, foreshortening, mystery plays, sacre rappresentazioni, pinnacle,
predella, punchwork, International style, terracotta, tracery, triptych
Key Architectural Terms: cathedral, façade, rose window, pinnacle, bay, basilica, nave, elevation,
arcade, clerestory, chancel arch, apse, campanile, battlement, parapet, machicolated gallery, corbel,
Duomo, revetment, pointed arches, ogee arches
Exercises for Study:
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Explain how the plague affected artistic production in fourteenth-century Italy.
Describe the role humanism played in fourteenth-century Italian art.
Discuss the art and architecture created for monastic orders.
Describe the material, formal, and technical characteristics of fourteenth-century Italian
architecture.
Explain the crucial role of Giotto in the development of Italian painting.
Explain how massing (illusion of weight and solidity) was crucial to the search for a new kind of
space in the painting of "Proto-Renaissance" artists.
Explain the reintroduction of the optical experience in the art of the fourteenth century.
What were the major centers of innovation in fourteenth century Italian art