Module 3: Courtiers and Burghers: The 14th Century (1300s)

Ifluence of Byzantine art The influence of Byzantine art on art from Western Europe in the 1300s is most evident in gold backgrounds symbolizing a heavenly and otherworldly realm. Emergence of Naturalism in Gothic Sculpture "Naturalism" in Gothic sculpture refers to how artists looked to nature/the natural world for models for art Influence of Classical sculptures The influence of Classical sculptures on late medieval/Gothic art is most evident in the depictions of human bodies that have proportions and volume as well as relaxed postures similar to human bodies in the natural world 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

Sculptures of Ecclesia and Synagoga, South Portal of Strasbourg Cathedral, c. 1230, with mid-nineteenth century restorations 

The Prato Haggadah (Spain), c. 1300 with later additions

Master of the Bardi Saint Francis, Altarpiece with scenes from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi (Bardi Dossal), c. mid 13th century, Santa Croce, Florence

Nicola Pisano, pulpit of the baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260

Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, (Maestà of Santa Trinita,) 1280-1290

St. Francis Master, Francis Preaching to the Birds, ca. 1290-1300

• Röttgen Pietà, c. 1300-25

  • The artist(s) who made the Röttgen Pietà, c. 1300-25 most likely wanted viewers to identify with the human emotions of grief and suffering that these figures from the Bible felt

• Aquamanile (ewer), 1250-1300 (Hildesheim) (Legion of Honor)

Chasse with the martyrdom and entombment of Saint Thomas à Becket, 1200-1210 (Legion of Honor)

• Arnolfo di Cambio, Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio), Florence, 1299-1310

• Arnolfo di Cambio and others, Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (“Duomo”), Florence, construction began c. 1296

Duccio di Buoninsegna, Maestá, 1308-11

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

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

• Images has a secular and humanist message and purpose 

• Stokstad posits that the dancers in the foreground are “probably a professional troupe of male entertainers masquerading as women as part of a spring festival” (Marilyn Stokstad and Michael W. Cothren, Art History, Pearson, 6th ed., 2016, p. 561)

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

• Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, Italy, 1288-1309

Cimabue, Maestá of Santa Trinita, 1280-1290

Giotto, The Ognissanti Madonna, 1306-10

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

• Illusion of three dimensionality

• Figures offer the impression that they can create shadows

• Modeling of figures and drapery

• Figures look like living humans 

• Overall result is a naturalism similar to that celebrated in classical Greece and Rome 

• 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, reverse: Justice, ca. 1380-1400 (Legion of Honor, Gallery 4)

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