Renaissance in Italy &
the North
1400 – 1500
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/1400-1500-Renaissance-in-Italy-and-the-North.html
Competition Panels of the Florence Baptistery
Eastern Doors
Filippo Brunelleschi & Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of
Isaac, competition panels, Baptistery doors, gilded
bronze relief, 1401-2 (Bargello, Florence)
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/brunelleschi-ghiberti-isaac.html
Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401-3.
(winning design)
Panel is the “quatrefoil” or Gothic shape
The competitors were expected
to submit panels representing
the Old Testament story of the
Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac. It
depicts the moment when
Abraham, ordered by God to
sacrifice his only son, is about
to plunge the knife into Isaac's
neck, but his hand is stayed at
the last moment by an angel.
This story of divine delivrance
would undoubtedly have
resonated with Florentines,
whose city had been delivered
by the sudden death Gian
Galeazzo Visconti in September
of 1402.
Ghiberti in his account of the
competition records the name
of seven competitors, all from
Tuscany: Filippo Brunelleschi,
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della
Quercia, Simone da Colle,
Niccolò d'Arezzo, Niccolò di
Pietro Lamberti, and Francesco
di Valdambrino.
Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac
• Designed for the second set of Florence Cathedral Baptistery
• Competition used the same number of figures, same scene and
quotation from the Bible
• Gothic, Sienese in design: curve to the body of Abraham, fluttering of
Abraham’s drapery behind arm
• Idealized forms (vs. Brunelleschi’s expressiveness)
• Polished effect
• Decorative lines
• No particular focus
• Classical figure of Isaac inspired by Roman art
• Abraham’s face taken from Roman model of Jupiter
• Graceful poses
• Made in two pieces, thus less expensive
Brunelleschi, Sacrifice of Isaac
• Commission given to Ghiberti after the success of the second set
of doors
• Doors use a more neutral and modern rectangular shape instead
of more Gothic quatrefoil
• Expansive and harmonious use of space
• Elegant bodies
• Creation of a precise spatial depth
• One dense group of forms
• Composition divided into two main tiers: upper and lower
• Weighty figures
• Great variety of poses
• More dramatic, tense, sense of urgency
• Youthful Isaac
• Figures overlap boundaries of quatrefoil pattern
• Figures inspired by Roman models
• Made in eight pieces, much heavier than Ghiberti’s
Brunelleschi, Dome of Florence Cathedral
Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/brunelleschis-dome.html
Italian Quattrocento Architecture
Brunelleschi, Dome of Florence Cathedral
• Dome is raised on a high drum, meant
to be seen from the outside more than
the inside, unlike the Pantheon or the
Hagia Sophia
• Semi-pointed, eight-sided dome
• Built with no centering devices
• Really two domes, the interior does
the structural work, and the exterior
gives it a soaring quality
• Extremely wide width of 140’ to vault
• Octagonal lantern on top: 8 buttresses
with supports at the angles, each
having a Corinthian pilaster; each
buttress pierced by a classicizing
portal-like opening
Filippo Brunelleschi, Santo Spirito, Florence, 1428-81
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/brunelleschis-santo-spirito.html
Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici, Florence
Italian Quattrocento Architecture
Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici, Florence
• Three horizontal levels
• 1st story: rough cut, rusticated
stone, Roman fortress like, used
for shops and businesses; later
the arches were filled in;
fortitude of inhabitants implied
• 2nd story: smooth cut blocks,
family quarters
• 3rd story: smooth surface
• Heavy cornice to limit vision
and imply sense of strength
• Façade does not support
building, working towards a
curtain wall
• Modern bank image comes
from this building
10
Italian Quattrocento Architecture
Brunelleschi, Santo Spirito,
Florence
•
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Early Christian basilica
Unfluted Corinthian columns
Flat coffered ceiling
Floor has square patterns that divide
up the space mathematically
Added impost blocks for height
Width of nave equals height of nave
arcade
Florentines thought geometric
precision could decode the mysteries of
the universe
Light, airy, open
Italian Quattrocento Architecture
Alberti, Sant’Andrea, Mantua
•
Combination of Roman triumphal arch with antique temple front
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Pairs of giant pilasters, topped by Corinthian capitals, support pediment
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Large barrel vault that rises above the façade
•
Size of façade dictated by the small plaza in front of church: Alberti could not change width—bell tower on one side, the
plaza on the other
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Alberti sought to create identical proportions of width and height
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“Ombrellone” seems awkward, but it creates a powerful barrel vault inside building, largest since antiquity
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For Homework please view this architecture on
Smarthistory, Pazzi Chapel
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/brunelleschispazzi-chapel.html