Department of History
The Fieldston School
History of Art through the Renaissance- Power, Patronage, Propaganda, Production and Perception
Andrew Meyers
U4 D2-3
High Middle Ages to Early Renaissance
Italian painting: Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto
Ghiberti on Giotto in A&A
Early Renaissance Painting in Siena and Florence: Birth of Rebirth
Early Renaissance Europe
The International Style
Franco-Flemish, end of 14th C
intricate, elegant, renewed realism
Gothic classicism
Italy
drama, emotion, space
Byzantine connection: the “Greek manner”
Gothic and Greek synthesis: Gothic content with Greek means
media: tempera, fresco
Florentine severity/grandeur/ emotional depth v. Siennese lyricism/intimacy/spatial depth
Renaissance preview:
merchant capital
capitalists, guild merchants, artisans
crusades and trade
political stability
rise of cities
humanism
scholastic tradition
“humanities:” rhetoric, history, poety, politics
individual dignity and achievement
temporality
Cimabue (1250-1300s)
Florence
the ‘Greek manner’
comp: Byz Madonna Enthroned, late 13th C
Madonna Enthroned, ‘Maesta,’ Ufizzi, 1280-90
iconic: strict rules, fixed patterns, abstraction, flattening, timeless
severity, humanity
illumination with gilt (shading in reverse) ‘pinstripes’
Maesta with St. Francis, Basilica di S. Fran., c 1300
warrior: compassion
vision in 1206
“Francis, go repair my house that thou seeist is all in ruins”
renounces wealth of his father/ bishops cloak (cloak, skull, lily, wolf, lamb
Franciscan Order: chastity, humility, obedience, poverty (marriage to poverty)
battles and miracles (stigmata)
Duccio(1255-1319?) at Siena (Opera del Duomo)
Virgin and Child, 1300 (Met, missing)
Madonna Enthroned, ‘Maesta,’ Siena, 1308-11
Madonna Enthroned detail
three-dimensions
articulated drapery/ realistic shading
influence of gothic Classicism
emotion/ humanity of Jesus
Jesus off the cross
(Re-) Birth of perspective
floating perspective
“It’s the way they draw these wretched tables”
Last Supper
Temptation of the Devil
comp to Cimabue, Maesta, Ufizzi, 1280-90
Entrance into Jerusalem
detail
Visitation of St. John, 1308
Annunciation of Mary’s Death, 1308
architectural interior/ enclosure
Roman illusionism
portraying space- painting ‘taking over’ from architecture (ie photography and painting)
Giotto (1267-1336)
Florence- Cimabue apprentice
Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, Florence,1310
Giotto, Madonna and Child, 1320-30
severity (Cimabue)
wholistic space/ stage
unity and grouping/ composition
weight and volume
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel at Padua, frescoes, 1305-6
View of exterior
murals
gound-plane perspective
limited space/ bodily perspective
sculptural reality
Wedding at Cana/ Pieta (Lamentation)
Roman mural influences/ Classical sculpture
(Annunciation and visitation, 1211-90, Reims)
Annunciation
Ghislibertus, Flight into Egypt, Autun, 1120
(Duccio, Last Supper, Siena, early 1300s )
Cimabue, Maesta, Ufizzi , 1280-90
comp to Cimabue and Duccio
interior, Last Judgement
Annunciation
Flight into Egypt
Last Supper
Lamentation, or Pieta,
detail
Basilica of S. Francesco, frescoes, Sta. Croce, Florence, 1317-20
St. Francis receiving the stigmata
Pope Innocent III approving rules of St. Francis
Death of St. Francis, 3 details