From Gothic to Renaissance in 14th
cent. Italy, pp. 204-214
Statuary:
pulpit
Nicola and Giovanni Pisano a generational shift
14th cent. Humanism
Painting:
Breaking the Byzantine canon
- Cimabue and Giotto
chiaroscuro
linear perspective
review
Late 13th cent. Italy. A
generational shift:
2 similar works by a father
and a son exemplify a shift
in culture and in the arts
2 pulpits, one in the
Baptistery of Pisa, one in a
church in Pistoia
Pulpit: a raised platform or
lectern in a church or chapel from
which the preacher delivers
a sermon
Nicola Pisano, pulpit of Pisa
Cathedral baptistery, Pisa,
Italy, 1259-1260, marble
Giovanni Pisano, pulpit of
Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 12971301, marble
Late 13th cent. Italy. A
generational shift:
2 similar works by a father
and a son exemplify a shift in
culture and in the arts
2 pulpits, one in the
Baptistery of Pisa, one in a
church in Pistoia
Pulpit: a raised platform or
lectern in a church or chapel from
which the preacher delivers a
sermon
Nicola Pisano, pulpit of Pisa
Cathedral baptistery, Pisa,
Italy, 1259-1260, marble
Nicola Pisano, The
Annunciation and the
Nativity, detail of the pulpit
of Pisa Cathedral baptistery,
Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260,
marble relief, p.205
Annunciation
Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the
pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble
relief, p.205
Nativity
Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the
pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble
relief, p.205
Bath (prefiguration
of Baptism)
Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the
pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble
relief, p.205
Nicola had identified Roman
art as a powerful model to
represent Christian scenes in
a new way
Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the
Nativity, detail of the pulpit of Pisa
Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 12591260, marble relief, p.205
Roman Sarcophagus (stone coffin), 180 CE,
marble relief, Camposanto Pisa
Nicola Pisano, Fortitude (Christian
Virtue), detail of pulpit of Pisa
Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy,
1259-1260, marble
Nicola’s representation of the Fortitude
Model?
Polykleitos,
Doryphoros
(Spear Bearer),
Roman copy
after a bronze
original of ca.
450-440 BC
Saint Theodore, Chartres
Cathedral, Chartres, France,
ca. 1230
While St.Theodore
contrapposto pose was
clearly Christian (Crusader
dresses)
Nicola’s Fortitude adopted
directly the iconography of
the Greek/Roman hero
Hercules
Nicola Pisano, Fortitude,
Baptistery, Pisa, Italy,
1259-1260
Michelangelo
would later take
Nicola’s
fortitude as a
model for his
David
Giovanni Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of the
pulpit of Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 1297-1301, marble relief
Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation
and the Nativity
Stronger relief: more
dramatic dark/light
contrast
Giovanni Pisano, The Annunciation and
the Nativity
More dynamic composition: diagonal
rather than horizontal
Focusing on the human relationship
between the Virgin and Christ Child
Nicola Pisano, The Virgin, detail
Giovanni Pisano, The Virgin, detail
Humanization
Nervous agitation
Giovanni Pisano, The
Annunciation, detail
Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation,
detail
Intense gaze:
psychologic drama
Nicola Pisano, The Bath, detail
Giovanni Pisano, The Bath, detail
Humanity of
the characters
14th cent. Humanism
Humanism: system of thought attaching prime
importance to human rather than
divine or supernatural matters.
Humanist beliefs emphasize common human
needs and seek rational ways of solving
human problems.
A cultural movement that revived
interest in ancient Greek and Roman
thought.
Religion continued indeed to occupy a
primary position in the lives of people,
but it is now a more humanized religiosity:
-direct involvement of the faithful
-growing concern with the natural world
and humanity’s worldly existence
-progressive rationalization of the religious
thought
Christianity and Classical legacy are no
longer perceived as mutually exclusive
In painting, the
shift is slower but
even more radical:
against a more
deeply rooted
tradition
Cimabue, Madonna
Enthroned, ca.
1280-1290 Uffizi,
Florence, p. 206
Cimabue’s Madonna
follows the Byzantine
iconography and
formal characteristics:
- figures’ features
- gold background and drapery
Virgin and Child,
icon (Vladimir
Virgin) 11th-12th
century. Tempera
on wood, Tetyakov
Gallery, Moscow, p.
144
Cimabue, Madonna
Enthroned, ca.
1280-1290 Uffizi,
Florence, p. 206
Cimabue’s Madonna
follows the Byzantine
iconography and
formal characteristics
- figures’ features
- gold background and drapery
- symmetry
- frontal poses
Miracle of the loaves and
fishes, mosaic from the
nave wall of
Sant’Apollinare Nuovo,
Ravenna, Italy, ca. 504,
p. 129
Cimabue, Madonna
Enthroned, ca.
1280-1290 Uffizi,
Florence, p. 206
Cimabue’s Madonna
follows the Byzantine
iconography and
formal characteristics
- figures’ features
- gold background and drapery
- symmetry
- frontal poses
- hierarchical
proportions
Ti Watching a
Hippopotamus Hunt,
painted relief, Saqqara,
Egypt, c. 2510-2460 BC,
p. 39
Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and
Prophets, ca. 1280-1290 Uffizi, Florence, p.206
Cimabue’s Madonna
follows the Byzantine
iconography and formal
characteristics:
- figures’ features
- gold background and drapery
- symmetry
- frontal poses
- hierarchical proportions
However, Cimabue’s
scene is dominated by a
solid threedimensional throne
Instead of appearing as a
Byzantine mystic vision
Virgin and Child, icon
(Vladimir Virgin) 11th12th century. Tempera
on wood, Tetyakov
Gallery, Moscow, p.
144
Volume of the
figures
modernity of
architecture
Not only
frontal poses
Clear position
of figures in
space
Natural
superimposition
of figures standing
in different levels
of dept
Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned, ca.
1280-1290 Uffizi, Florence, p.206
Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on
wood, Uffizi Firenze, p.206
Giotto had rediscovered the
art of creating the illusion of
the third dimension on a
flat surface (2 ways):
1) his figures look like
statues, through the use of
chiaroscuro technique
Chiaroscuro: in drawing
and painting, the use of light
and dark. The gradations of
light produce the effect of
modeling
2) the architectures create
three-dimensional stages
where these figures can act
device:
linear perspective
Cityscape, Second Style wall
painting, from Boscoreale, Italy,
50-40 BC, Metropolitan Museum,
New York, p.99
chiaroscuro
Diagonal
lines
Invented in the 1830s,
photography is still now the
main means that we have to
record our lives and the world
around us
Scholars have identified Giotto’s
and Renaissance perspective as
the origins of the process that would
bring to the invention of
photography
Being perspective at the very base
of our visual culture, we tend to
give it for granted
This makes it harder for us to
understand the radical implications
of Giotto’s art in his time
Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on
wood, Uffizi Firenze, p.206
2 implications of linear
perspective:
1) Things are shown as they
are seen (preeminence of
sight for gaining knowledge
of the world):
----> foundations of
empirical science
2) Things are shown
according to their position in
relation to the viewer
(above, below, near, far
away):
----> involvement of the
faithful in the sacred scene
Giotto, Lamentation, Cappella
Scrovegni, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305.
Fresco, p. 208
Giotto, Interior of the Arena
Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni),
Padua, Italy, 1305-1306, fresco,
p.207
Last
Judgment
Story of
Christ
Giotto, Lamentation, Cappella
Scrovegni, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305.
Fresco, p. 208
The subject matter is the
mourning over the dead body of
Christ
With the Virgin embracing her
son for the last time
Giotto, Lamentation,
Cappella Scrovegni, Padua,
Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, p.
208
Humanization:
hysterical grief of
the angels; nature
Theatricality:
congregation mourns,
showing different
manifestations of
despair
Involvement of
the viewer:
figures seen from
the back:
Giotto, Lamentation,
Cappella Scrovegni, Padua,
Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, p.
208
These figures show how
entirely new Giotto’s art
was in every respect
Early Christian art had
reverted to the Egyptian
idea
that in order to tell a story
clearly, every figure had
to be shown completely
Giotto radically abandoned
this idea:
his strategy is the
emotional and visual
involvement of the viewer