Chapter Seven
The Renaissance
Florence, Rome, and Venice
Renaissance
•
The word “Renaissance,” from the Italian rinascita, “rebirth,”
became widely used in the nineteenth century
•
The Renaissance was an age of intellectual exploration, in which
the humanist strove to understand in ever more precise and
scientific terms the nature of humanity and its relationship to the
natural world
•
Beliefs and values of the medieval world were transformed in Italy
•
Three of the main city-states that became centers of culture
during this period were Florence, Rome, and Venice
Major Italian City-States
During the Renaissance
Florence
•
Florence, the preeminent Italian city-state in the fifteenth century,
was home to the powerful Medici family, whose wealth derived
from their considerable banking interests
•
Although the Medici never ruled Florence outright, over the course
of 76 years (1418-1494), they molded and manipulated, controlled
and cajoled, persuaded and provoked the citizens of Florence
•
No better event exemplifies the nature of the Italian Renaissance
and anticipates the character of Florence than a competition held in
1401 to choose a designer for a pair of bronze doors for the city’s
baptistery, a building standing in front of the cathedral and used for
the Christian rite of baptism
Battistero di San Giovanni
(Baptistery)
•
Legend about site is that a Roman temple to Mars had stood at
that location, subsequently rededicated to Saint John the Baptist
•
The original doors had fallen into disrepair, so the “Arte della
Lana” (Cloth Merchants Guild) was determined to create a new set of
doors hoping to bring God’s favor on the city that had been devastated
by plague and siege
•
Seven artists were charged with creating a bronze relief panel depicting
the Hebrew Bible’s story of the Sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22) in a 21 
17½-inch quatrefoil (a four-leaf clover shape set on a diamond)
•
All but two designs, both by little-known 24-year-old goldsmiths—
Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti—were eliminated
The Two Finalists
Brunelleschi’s
Ghiberti’s
The Gates of Paradise
•
The judges selected Ghiberti’s design, and for the next 22 years, he
worked on the designs for the north doors, creating 28 panels
illustrating the New Testament
•
Upon those doors’ completion in 1424, the Cloth Merchants Guild
commissioned a second set of doors for the east side, these
consisting of ten square panels depicting scenes from the Hebrew
Bible; they would take Ghiberti another 27 years to complete
•
The east doors are known as the Gates of Paradise because they
open onto the paradiso, the area between the baptistery and the
entrance to its cathedral
•
Ghiberti meant to follow the lead of the ancients in creating realistic
figures in realistic space
The Story of Adam and Eve
East Doors of the Baptistery, ca. 1425-37
•
The first panel depicts
four episodes: the
Creation of Adam, the
Creation of Eve, the
Temptation, and the
Expulsion
•
The influence of classical
antiquity is clear in the
portrayal of Eve, a Venus
of recognizably Hellenistic
origin
•
Adam resembles the
recumbent god from the
east pediment of the
Parthenon
Solomon and Sheba
East Doors of the Baptistery, ca. 1425-37
•
The only panel to
represent a single event in
its space
•
The reunification of the
eastern Orthodox church
(Sheba) and the western
Catholic church (Solomon)
•
Reunification of the two
branches of the church
would have restored
symmetry and balance to a
divided church just as
Ghiberti had achieved
balance and symmetry in
his art
Brunelleschi’s Dome
•
Brunelleschi, who had left Florence for Rome following his loss in
the Baptistery doors competitions, produced the winning design
in another competition, this one to create a dome for the
Florence Cathedral
•
He based his design on his studies of ancient buildings, including
the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the remains of the Baths of
Caracalla, and the Domus Aurea (Golden Palace)
•
Brunelleschi’s design eliminated the need for temporary wooden
scaffolding. Eight large ribs, visible on the outside, alternating
with eight pairs of thinner ribs beneath the roof, all tied together
by only nine sets of horizontal ties, would be able to support the
dome. Additional support could be achieved through the use of
lightweight bricks set in an interlocking herringbone pattern
Brunelleschi’s Dome and Lantern
Dome, 1420-36; lantern, after 1446
Principles of Brunelleschi’s
One-Point Perspective
•
All parallel lines in a visual field
appear to converge at a single
vanishing point on horizon
•
These parallel lines are realized
on the picture plane as diagonal
lines called orthogonals
•
Forms diminish in scale as they
approach along these
orthogonals
•
The vanishing point is directly
opposite the eye of the beholder,
who stands at the vantage point
"Perspective: 15th Century Techniques"
Video will play automatically.
From Perspective (length: 4:02). Item #7767 © 1997
Masaccio, The Tribute Money
Fresco, 8' 1¼"  19' 7", 1420s
The vanishing point of the painting, which decorates the Brancacci family chapel in the church of
Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, is behind the head of Christ, where the orthogonals of the
architecture on the right converge.
Donatello, David
Bronze, 62¼", 1440s
•
Stood in courtyard of the Medici
palace bearing the following
inscription: “The victor is whoever
defends the fatherland. Allpowerful God crushes the angry
enemy. Behold a boy overcame the
great tyrant. Conquer, o citizens”
•
Soft, elegant, refined young man in
a feminine contrapposto pose might
represent the virtue of the
Florentine republic as a whole
•
First life-sized freestanding male
nude sculpted since antiquity
Sandro Botticelli, Primavera
Tempera on panel, 6' 8"  10' 4", early 1480s
Primavera captures the spirit of the Medici court—celebrating love, not only in a
Neoplatonic sense, as a spiritual, humanist endeavor, but also in a more direct, physical
way.
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa
Oil on wood, 30¼"  21", 1503-15
•
For generations viewers have
asked, Who is this woman?
What is she thinking about?
What is her relation to the
artist?
•
Leonardo fuses his subject with
the landscape behind her by
means of light. He called this
technique sfumato
(“smokiness”)
•
The painting’s hazy effects could
only be achieved by building up
color with many layers of oil
paint—a process called glazing
Leonardo da Vinci,
The Last Supper
•
This monumental fresco was commissioned by Lodovico Sforza,
duke of Milan, to decorate the north wall of the refectory of the
Dominican monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie. The intent was
that at every meal the monks would contemplate Christ’s last meal
in a wall-sized painting
•
What is unique in this painting is the psychological realism—each
apostle reacts in a characteristic way to Christ’s announcement that
one will betray him (Peter grabs knife, Judas turns away, John faints,
Thomas points upward as if questioning)
•
Leonardo utilizes perfect one-point perspective—the vanishing
point is directly behind Christ’s head, focusing the viewer’s attention
and establishing Christ as the most important figure in the work
Leonardo, The Last Supper
Fresco, oil, and tempera on plaster, 15' 1-1/8"  28'' 10½"
ca. 1485-98
Rome at the Beginning
of the 15th Century
•
In the early 15th century, Rome seemed a pitiful place. Its population
had shrunk from around 1 million in 100 CE to under 20,000 as the
result of the Black Death
•
The ancient Colosseum was now in the countryside, the Forum was a
pasture for goats and cattle, and the aqueducts had collapsed
•
The popes had even abandoned the city when in 1309 Avignon was
established as the seat of the Church. When Rome reestablished
itself as the titular seat of the Church in 1379, succeeding popes rarely
chose to visit the city, let alone live in it
Anonymous, View of Rome
Oil on canvas, ca. 1550
Donato Bramante, Tempietto
1502
•
Bramante’s Tempietto (Little
Temple), built directly over what
was revered as the site of Saint
Peter’s Martyrdom, is modeled
after a classical temple
•
The 16 exterior columns are
Doric, their shafts original
ancient Roman granite columns
•
Diameter of the shaft defines
the entire plan. Each shaft is
spaced four diameters from the
next, and the colonnade they
form is two diameters from the
circular walls
Michelangelo, David
Marble, 17' 13", 1501-04
•
Michelangelo represents David
before, not after, his triumph,
confident, ready to take on
whatever challenge faces him
•
Each night, as workers installed
the statue in the Piazza della
Signoria, supporters of the exiled
Medici hurled stones at it
•
Others objected to the statue’s
nudity, and before it was even in
place, a skirt of copper leaves
was prepared to spare the
general public any possible
offense
Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel
• While working on Julius II’s tomb, Michelangelo was
commanded by Julius to paint the 45- by 128-foot ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel. At first he refused, but in 1508 he reconsidered
and began the task
• Michelangelo designed an ambitious plan—nine scenes from
Genesis, surrounded by prophets, Sibyls, the ancestors of
Christ, and other scenes, narrating events before the coming of
the law of Moses
• To paint the ceiling, Michelangelo had to construct a scaffold
that moved down the chapel from the entrance to the altar.
Thus, the first frescoes painted were the Noah group, and the
last, the Creation
Sistine Chapel Ceiling
Fresco, 45'  128', 1508-12
Creation of Adam
•
With the Creation of Eve serving as the center panel, Michelangelo
planned the ceiling as a pairing of opposites, with the scenes before
Eve representing Creation before the knowledge of good and evil
entered the world, and everything after her showing the early history
of fallen mankind
•
In the Creation of Adam, Adam is lethargic, passive; God flies through
the skies carrying behind him a bulging red drapery that suggests both
the womb and the brain, creativity and reason
•
Adam, father of humankind, and God the Father are posed along
parallel diagonals, and their right legs are in nearly identical positions.
The fluttering green ribbon in God’s space echoes the colors of the
earth upon which Adam lies
Michelangelo, Creation of Adam
Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome, 1510
Michelangelo, Studies for
the Libyan Sibyl
Michelangelo, Libyan Sibyl
Fresco, 1512
Red Chalk, 11-3/8"  8-7/26", ca. 1520
A virtuoso display of technique mastery, the Libyan Sibyl underwent dramatic
changes between Michelangelo’s preliminary sketches and the final painting.
Raphael
•
As Michelangelo was beginning work on the Sistine ceiling, the young
painter Raphael arrived in Rome and quickly secured a commission
from Julius II to paint the pope’s private rooms in the Vatican Palace
•
The first of these rooms was the Stanza della Segnature, Room of the
Signature, which Julius used as a library
•
On each of the four walls Raphael was to paint one of the four major
areas of human learning: Law and Justice, to be represented by the
Cardinal Virtues; the Arts, to be represented by Mount Parnassus;
Theology, to be represented by the Disputà, or Dispute over the
Sacrament; and Philosophy, to be represented by the School of Athens.
Two scenes had classical themes, the other two Christian
Raphael, School of Athens
Fresco, 19'  27', 1510-11
Raphael, Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’
Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi
Panel, 60½"  47", 1517
•
After Julius died in 1513, the new
pope, Leo X, son of Lorenzo the
Magnificent, quickly hired
Raphael for other commissions
•
His portrait of Leo suggests a new
direction in Raphael’s art. The
lighting is more somber, and
there is greater emphasis on the
material reality of the scene
•
The painting creates a sense of
drama, as if the viewer is witness
to an important historical
moment
Michelangelo,
Laurentian Library Staircase
Designed beginning 1524; completed 1559
•
Michelangelo’s most original
contribution to the library,
which was designed to house
the Medici’s book collection,
is the large triple stairway
•
The cascading waterfall effect
suggests that Michelangelo
was becoming increasingly
interested in exploring realms
of the imagination beyond
the humanist vision of a
rational world governed by
structural logic
Santi di Tito, Niccolò Machiavelli
ca. 1510
•
A humanist scholar, Machiavelli
(1469-1527) had studied the
behavior of ancient Roman rulers
and citizens at great length
•
In 1512, Machiavelli was dismissed
from his post as second chancellor,
wrongfully accused of being
involved in a plot to overthrow the
new heads of state, imprisoned,
tortured, and finally exiled
permanently to a country home in
the hills above Florence
•
There, beginning in 1513, he wrote
The Prince, his essay on political
power
The High Renaissance in Venice
•
Of all the Italian cities, Venice alone could claim invincibility because
it possessed the natural fortification of being surrounded on all
sides by water
•
Venice considered itself blessed by Saint Mark, whose relics resided
in the cathedral of Saint Mark’s
•
A center of fashion, Venice provided the continent with satins,
velvets, and brocades
•
During the Renaissance, an elaborate, sensuous style of architecture
would develop in Venice
View of the Doge’s Palace, with
Saint Mark’s Cathedral to the Left
Masters of the Venetian High Renaissance:
Giorgione and Titian
•
The two great masters of painting in the Venetian High Renaissance
were Giorgione da Castelfranco, known simply as Giorgione (ca. 14781510), and Tiziano Vecelli, known as Titian (ca. 1489-1576)
•
Giorgione especially had been inspired by Leonardo’s visit to Venice in
1500. As did Leonardo in his landscapes, Giorgione and Titian built up
color on their canvases by means of glazing
•
Their paintings, like the great palaces of Venice whose reflections
shimmered on the Grand Canal, demonstrate an exquisite sensitivity
to the play of light and shadow, to the luxurious display of detail and
design, and to an opulent variety of pattern and texture
Giorgione, Tempest
Oil on canvas, 31¼"  28¾", ca. 1509
•
Nothing about this painting
could be called controlled.
The landscape is overgrown
and weedy—just as the man
and woman are disheveled
and disrobed
•
Lightning has revealed to the
viewer a scene not meant to
be witnessed
•
Sensuality, even outright
sexuality, would become a
primary subject of Venetian
art
Pastoral Concert
•
A harmony of opposites: male and female, clothed and nude, the
nobleman and the peasant, court music and folk song, city and
country, and so on
•
Musical instruments (the lute and the flute)—metaphors for parts
of male and female anatomy, a usage common in both the art and
the literature of the period
•
Narrative presents a purposefully mysterious dream world, giving
the viewer’s imagination the freedom to play
Giorgione, Pastoral Concert
Oil on canvas, 43¼"  54-3/8", ca. 1510
Titian, Sacred and Profane Love
Oil on canvas, 46½"  109-7/8", ca. 1514
Two female figures—nude is sacred love and luxuriously clothed is earthly or profane love—
probably represent two aspects of the same woman.
Titian, Reclining Nude
(Venus of Urbino)
Oil on canvas, 47"  65", ca. 1538
More real woman than ethereal goddess, this “Venus” stares out at the viewer
with matter-of-factness, suggesting she is totally comfortable with her nudity.