Early Italian Renaissance
1300s – 1400s
Giotto
Masaccio
Fra Angelico
Botticelli
• Renaissance means “rebirth.”
• The term refers to the period in which Europe emerged
from the Middle Ages and began to value the aesthetic
traditions of classical Greek and Roman culture.
• There was a renewed interest in the arts, in science, and
in the natural world.
• There was a renewed focus on the human world, in
contrast to the medieval preoccupation with the spiritual
world.
• Artists sought to depict the human figure in a natural and
realistic manner as the Greeks and Romans did in
ancient times.
What factors triggered these
changes?
• The Black Plague swept through Europe in
the mid 1300s, killing about one third of
the population and paving the way for a
shake up of the hierarchical power
structure of European society.
• The invention of the printing press in 1450
allowed ordinary people to see printed text
and pictures for the first time, which led to
an explosion of literacy and knowledge.
Giotto di Bondone
• Giotto painted almost a century before the
Italian Renaissance truly began, but he
was a brilliant innovator, who broke away
from the traditions of medieval art and
provided a jumping off point for the Italian
Renaissance.
• To understand how revolutionary and comparatively modern Giotto’s
work was, compare his paintings with the work of Byzantine artists
who preceded him.
• These figures seem to float in undefined space. They are two
dimensional and their faces are expressionless.
• Byzantine artists were not concerned with realism or with
decoration. Their purpose was to aid people in understanding their
faith.
A Byzantine Christ
• Here is another
Byzantine work, with
the gold background,
the symbolic
proportions of the
figures, and the
flattened space that
were typical of
paintings from this
earlier period.
Giotto di Bondone – The Arena
Chapel Frescoes – 1303 - 1306
• Painters in Italy
continued to cover the
walls of churches by
painting into fresh
plaster (fresco means
fresh) even while light
filled cathedrals of
stained glass were
being built in more
northerly European
countries.
Giotto - Nativity
• Giotto’s Arena Chapel
frescoes tell, in
pictures, the story of
Jesus’ life. Here, we
see the Nativity
scene, with the infant
Jesus and his mother
in a symbolic stable.
Giotto – Adoration of the Magi
• Plaster dries quickly,
so only the essential
details of the story
can be included.
Thus Giotto’s images
have a stark and
elegant simplicity.
Giotto di Bondone – The Flight into
Egypt
• Jesus, Mary and St.
Joseph are all
depicted with halos,
as is the angel.
Giotto was still
painting according to
some of the traditions
of the Byzantine and
medieval periods that
preceded his own
time.
Giotto di Bondone – The Betrayal
• Jesus is betrayed by
Judas in the Garden
of Gethsemane on
the evening before his
crucifixion. Judas
kisses Jesus while
Peter cuts off the ear
of one of the Roman
soldiers who has
come to arrest Jesus.
Giotto di Bondone – The
Lamentation
• The dead tree here
represents Jesus’
own death and the
promise of his rebirth;
Jesus will rise to new
life, just as leafless
trees put forth new
leaves each spring.
• Note how all
compositional lines
lead the viewer’s eye
to the faces of Mary
and Jesus.
Giotto’s new style
• Instead of flat gold backgrounds, Giotto placed
his figures in landscape settings.
• Instead of lining up his figures across the picture
plane, he overlapped them, suggesting 3
dimensional space.
• Instead of stylizing and flattening his figures, he
modelled them in 3 dimensions, using light and
dark values, and he gave them more natural
poses and expressions.
Massaccio 1401 - 1428
Masaccio – The Holy Trinity - 1427
Massaccio is
considered the first
important painter of
the Renaissance. He
was one of the first to
make brilliant use of
the rules of
perspective, to create
the illusion of 3
dimensional space.
Masaccio – The Tribute Money 1425
• Linear perspective is used in the depiction of the building
at right.
• Note how Aerial Perspective is used here to create a
sense of endless space receding behind the figures.
Find 3 depictions of St. Peter in this work.
• Massacio – The
Expulsion from the
Garden of Eden
• 1425
• Adam and Eve express
their anguish and
shame in a very direct
and dramatic way. Both
their bodies and their
expressions are wholly
human, reflecting the
Renaissance focus on
mankind.
Fra Angelico 1395- 1455
• Fra – “brother”
• Angelico – “angelic”
• The painter Fra Angelico came to be
known by this name because he was a
devout Dominican monk.
• It is said that he never began a painting
without a prayer and never painted a
crucifix without weeping.
Two styles of Fra Angelico
• In his early work, Fra Angelico painted in the
Gothic style, crowding his compositions with
figures and using plenty of gold and lapis lazuli
(a brilliant blue pigment that was rare and
expensive).
• Wealthy patrons who commissioned works of art
preferred this kind of display of wealth.
• However, when he painted in the cells of the
monastery of San Marco, in Florence, his work
showed simplicity, devotion, humility and charm.
His admirers described these paintings as “like
the products of heaven and not man.”
Fra Angelico – The Annunciation –
1438 - 1445
Fra Angelico - The Annunciation
• This is one of several “Annunciations” that Fra
Angelico painted in the San Marco Monastery of
Florence, Italy.
• Adam and Eve are seen at left, in sin, fleeing the
Garden of Eden. On the right, Mary receives the
news from the angel Gabriel that she will
conceive Jesus, who will save humanity from
sin.
• The grace of the Holy Spirit, represented by the
dove, shines on Mary.
The Annunciation
• Note how the artist has framed Mary and
the angel in the arches of the porch.
• The shapes of their halos are repeated in
the architecture.
• Mary is traditionally shown wearing blue.
Sandro Botticelli – 1444 - 1510
• Sandro Botticelli began his art career as a
decorator for the powerful Medici family of
bankers and wool merchants, painting on bed
fronts and chests.
• This work influenced the development of his
highly decorative style of flowing lines and
graceful forms.
• Botticelli was forgotten for centuries but is now
ranked among the most admired painters of the
Renaissance period.
Botticelli – The Birth of Venus 1486
The Birth of Venus - 1486
• The subject here comes from ancient Greek and
Roman mythology. Venus (or Aphrodite), the
goddess of love and beauty, was born on a
seashell.
• Gentle winds, (zephyrs) represented by the
figures on the left, blew her to shore.
• The figure on the right is a nymph, a
mythological creature usually associated with
some aspect of nature (there were wood
nymphs, river nymphs etc.)
Interpretations of The Birth of
Venus
• There are many competing interpretations of this
painting. A Christian interpretation sees Venus’
nakedness as the innocence of Eve, newly born
and not yet arrived on the shores of the world
where she will be corrupted by sin and clothed
to cover her shame.
• A Neoplatonic interpretation suggests that
contemplating earthly beauty will allow one’s
mind to better understand spiritual beauty.
• Still another interpretation suggests that this
painting was commissioned as a wedding
painting.
Botticelli – Primavera (Spring)
1478
• Botticelli’s swirling forms and exaggerated
gracefulness of line are apparent here.
• Prima – “first”
• Vera – “green” (think “vert” or “viridian”)
• Primavera means springtime, when the first
green growth appears
• Botticelli has filled this painting with dozens of
species of flowers and plants to present an
image of fertility and verdant growth.
Primavera
• Primavera is one of the most popular
paintings in Western culture. It has often
been reproduced by advertisers.
• It was likely commissioned to celebrate a
marriage in the Medici family, and thus has
a theme of fertility.
Primavera
• An interpretation of the painting begins on the
right, with the wind, represented by the male
figure on the right, who captured the nymph
Chloris, then married her and made her into the
goddess Flora, the figure in the flowery dress.
• Chloris is shown with flowers falling from her
mouth, a symbol of the transformation she is
undergoing.
• The figure at the centre is Venus, the goddess of
love and marriage.
• Above her is Cupid, the winged child with the
bow and arrow aimed at the dancing figures.
• These dancers are the three graces,
representing the female characteristics of
beauty, love and chastity.
• At the far left is Mercury, the messenger of the
gods, who is parting the clouds in the sky and
allowing the spring sunshine to arrive.
Botticelli – Primavera – detail: The
Three Graces
Botticelli – Primavera (detail)
Botticelli – Primavera (detail)
• Flora, crowned and
bedecked with
flowers, throws more
of them in her path.