Renaissance Art and Architecture

Leon Battista Alberti

First theorist of the Renaissance; first treatises on art after antiquity

Giorgio Vasari

First biographer of Italian artists, mid-1500s

Arnolfo di Cambio

First architect of the Florentine cathedral, 1296; one of the biggest Christian churches. Today: 4th largest. Decision to build dome 1367, only built first half 15th century

Competition panels

Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Issac. Seven participants, two finalists, Ghiberti wins

Ghiberti’s Sacrifice of Issac

Bronze, 1402-03

Brunelleschi’s Sacrifice of Issac

Bronze, 1402-03

Second set of doors: Ghiberti’s first doors

28 panels: Life of Christ (Annunciation, Adoration of Magi, Baptism of Christ, Last Supper, Crucifixion)

Third set of doors: Ghiberti’s second doors

Gates of Paradise, 10 panels Old Testament Scenes, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel

Orsanmichele

Originally building served as granary for Florence – also meeting place for guilds. Each guild had to commission statue of respective patron saint

Ghiberti: St. John the Baptist (1412-17), bronze

First life-size bronze statue since antiquity, guild skeptical. Patron saint of Florence and wool guild

Donatello, St. Mark (1411-13), marble

Donatello’s works

David (1443), bronze

Gattamelata (1445-53), bronze

Mary Magdalene (1450), painted wood

Judith and Holofernes, 1460, bronze

Masaccio’s frescoes in Brancacci

Expulsion from Paradise

Tribute Money

Healing with His Shadow

Masolino’s frescoes in Brancacci

Temptation

Healing a Cripple and Raising of Tabitha

Masaccio, Trinty (1425), fresco

First use of linear perspective in a wall painting

Fra Angelico, Crucifixion (1441-42), fresco

Fra Angelico, San Marco Altarpiece (1438-43), tempera on panel

Filippo Lippi, Coronation of the Virgin (1439-47), tempera on panel

Fillipo Lippi, Annunciation (1440), tempera on panel

Man, lion, bull/ox, eagle

Symbols of the four evangelists, Mt Mk Lk Jn

Church, cloister, refectory, chapter room, dormitory cells, gardens, kitchen

Features of a convent or monastery

White dove

Holy Spirit

White lily

Virginity

Closed garden

Virginity

Cypress tree

Death

INRI

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews

Pelican

Self-sacrifice