Early Renaissance in Italy: Fifteenth Century

- rectangular chapel attached to church of Santa Croce, Florence

- two barrel vaults on interior, small domes over crossing

- interior w/ restrained sense of color, muted tones, punctuated by glazed terracotta tiles

- Chapter House

- attribution to Brunelleschi has be questioned

- revival of classical columns and motifs

- finished after death of Brunelleschi, so other architects made some parts (eg frame)

Pazzi Chapel

- three horizontal floors of equal height separated by strongly articulated stringcourse

- pilasters rise vertically and divide spaces into squarish shapes

- strong classical cornice caps building

- rejects rustication of earlier Renaissance palaces; instead uses beveled masonry joints

- first floor pilasters Tuscan (derived from Doric); second are Alberti's own invention (derived from Ionic); third Corinthian

- friezes contain Rucellai family symbols: billowing sails

- square windows on first floor; windows w/ mullions on second and third floors

- original building w/ five bays on left, w/ central door; second doorway bay and right bay added later; eighth bay fragmentary: owners of house next door refused to sell

- patron: Giovanni Rucellai, wealthy merchant

Palazzo Rucellai

- Mary seen as young mother

- model may have been artist's lover

- landscape inspired by Flemish painting; symbolic: rock formations indicate the Church; city near Madonna's head is Heavenly Jerusalem

- motif of a pearl seen in headdress and pillow as products of the sea (in upper left corner); used in scenes of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Incarnation of Christ

- depicted as if in a window in a Florentine home

- humanization of a sacred theme

- detailed drapery and halos

Madonna and Child with Two Angels

- Venus emerges fully grown from foam of the sea; faraway look in eyes

- roses scattered before her; created at the same time as Venus: love can be painful

- left: zephyr (west wind) and chloris (nymph)

- right: handmaiden ruses to clothe her

- figures float, not anchored to ground

- crisply drawn figures; pale colors

- landscape flat and unrealistic, simple V-shaped waves

- a Medici commission

Birth of Venus

- first large bronze nude since antiquity

- exaggerated contrapposto of body

- life-size work probably meant to be housed in Medici Palace, not for public viewing

- androgynous figure

- stance: nonchalance, contemplating victory over Goliath; Goliath's head at David's feet; David's head lower to suggest humility

- Laurel on hat: David was a poet; refers him as author of a book in Bible

- nudity = refusal to wear armor?

David