Module 4: Courtiers and Burghers: The 14th Century (1300s), cont; The Conquest of Reality: The Early 15th Century (early 1400s)

Courtiers and Burghers: The 14th Century (1300s) Cross-cultural influences Merger of Byzantino-Gothic and Greco-Roman Style Art patronage and secularism International courtly style of the Limbourg Brothers Cross-cultural influences Spread of Renaissance influences north of the Alps Influence of Gothic style on the development of the Renaissance The Conquest of Reality: The Early 15th Century (early 1400s) Filippo Brunelleschi Deliberate break with the immediate past Creation of a new art form modeled on classical art Rediscovery of illusionistic techniques in painting Demonstration of linear perspective by Brunelleschi Atmospheric effects in paintings by Brunelleschi and Masaccio Revival of Classical art in Florence

• Duccio di Buoninsegna, Maestá, 1308-11

  • Maestá= majesty. Shows Mary enthroned.

• Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, Annunciation, Made for Siena Cathedral, 1333

  • Byzantine inspiration background, Gothic influence in pointed arches

• Luca di Tomme, The Crucifixion, ca. 1365 (Legion of Honor, Gallery 2)

  • Black Death/Black Plague in Siena

• Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1288-1309

  • City Hall and center of government; humanist ideas that good government leads to a good life

• Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Peaceful City, detail from Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country, east wall of the Sala della Pace in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1338-1339

• Giotto, The Ognissanti Madonna, 1306-10

• Cimabue, Maestá of Santa Trinita, 1280-1290

  • Maestá= majesty. Shows Mary enthroned. Byzantine influence in gold background. Classical (Greco-Roman) influence in modelling of body that has shadows and

• Bernardo Daddi, A Crowned Virgin Martyr (Saint Catherine of Alexandria?), ca. 1334-1338, Legion of Honor, Gallery 2

• Ugolino di Nerio, Saint Mary Magdalene, ca. 1320, Legion of Honor, Gallery 2

Ugolino di Nerio, Saint Louis of Toulouse, ca. 1320, Legion of Honor, Gallery 2

Giotto, Betrayal of Judas (Kiss of Judas), fresco cycle, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua, c. 1305

• Giotto, Enrico Scrovegni assisted by a priest, presents the chapel to the Virgin Mary and two other figures, (detail, Last Judgment), fresco cycle, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua, c. 1305

Lorenzo di Niccolò, Childbirth tray (desco da parto); obverse: Diana and Actaeon (Legion of Honor, Gallery 4)

• Small scale

• Private devotion and contemplation

• Intended for elite

• Donated by Queen Jeanne d’Évreux to the abbey church of St. Denis

• Jeweled box is reliquary for locks of Mary’s hair

The Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux, 1324-39

Herman, Paul and Jean de Limbourg, January, from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1413-16

hich design should win the competition for the baptistery doors of San Giovanni (St. John) in Florence? 

3 groups: 

1. cloth merchants guild (=jury, task is to develop criteria for evaluating winning door design. You already decided on subject, quatrefoil frame, and size)

2. team Brunelleschi (task is to defend own design and achieve fama)

3. team Ghiberti (task is to defend own design and achieve fama)

Filippo Brunelleschi, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401-3.

hich design should win the competition for the baptistery doors of San Giovanni (St. John) in Florence? 

3 groups: 

1. cloth merchants guild (=jury, task is to develop criteria for evaluating winning door design. You already decided on subject, quatrefoil frame, and size)

2. team Brunelleschi (task is to defend own design and achieve fama)

3. team Ghiberti (task is to defend own design and achieve fama)

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401-3.

• 1367 builders wanted a dome over the crossing of the Cathedral

• 1407 new interest

• Brunelleschi goes to Rome to study ancient architecture

• 1412 octagonal drum completed 

• 1417 Brunelleschi designs dome

• 1420-1436 dome built

• Filippo Brunelleschi, Dome of Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), 1420–1436

• Commissioned by the guild of silk manufacturers and goldsmiths

• Portico and arcade with round arches on Corinthian columns that are 10 braccia (c. 20 ft) high, 10 braccia apart, and 10 braccia from the wall

• Pietra serena (gray sandstone from Tuscany region)

• Domical vaults

• Columns have Brunelleschi’s version of corinthian (ancient Roman) capitals

• The result is a rational pattern of equally-spaced columns enclosing equal volumes; shows principle of harmony

• Filippo Brunelleschi, loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Foundling Hospital), Florence, Italy, begun 1419.

• Filippo Brunelleschi (continued by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo) Interior of Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, c. 1421–1428; nave (designed 1434?) 1442–1470.

cornice= “the molded and projecting horizontal member that crowns an architectural composition”

architrave= “the lowest division of an entablature resting in classical architecture immediately on the capital of the column”

Corinthian pilaster

• Masaccio (Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone Cassai), Holy Trinity, c. 1427, fresco, 667 x 317 cm (Santa Maria Novella, Florence)

• Often regarded the first Renaissance-era use of linear perspective in painting

• Notice also monumental figures

• Architectural setting that is painted

  • painted an aedicula (framed niche) 

• painted from a low viewpoint

• orthogonals in the ceiling

• the vanishing point is on the lower ledge

Linear perspective can help move the eye through a painting to help tell a story. 

1. Christ tells Saint Peter to go to the water

2. Peter finds money in the mouth of a fish

3. Peter gives the money to the Roman tax collector

• Masaccio, Tribute Money, 1427, fresco (Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence)

Naturalism is also created with

• Atmospheric perspective

• Modelling/chiarcoscuro

• Contrapposto (S-curve of body inspired by Classical Greek sculpture)

Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, c. 1438-47

Fra Angelico, The Meeting of Saint Dominic and Saint Francis of Assisi, ca. 1427-1429 (Legion of Honor, Gallery 4)

• Lorenzo di Niccolò, Saint Paul, 14th-15th century (Legion of Honor, Gallery 4)

• Bicci di Lorenzo, Saint Anthony and Saint Stephen, ca. 1400 (Legion of Honor, Gallery 2)

• Bicci di Lorenzo, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Miniato, ca. 1400 (Legion of Honor, Gallery 2)

• Giovanni dal Ponte, Virgin and Child with Angels, ca. 1434-1435 (Legion of Honor, Gallery 2)