Art History Final

When was Firenze founded?

59BC, aka approx. 0 AD

0-500AD: Roman Fiorentia

• Land of Flowers - name inspo

• Founded 59BC as military castrum with intent to grow into Roman town

• height was 1,000 people (100-200AD)

• 476AD Roman emperor was killed, end of Roman Fiorentia

• Know that Duomo was in original Roman city gridplan (we know Roman infustructure bc it’s under city)

500-1,000AD: Early Medieval Period

• 400-500: Gothic Invasions (Northern European tribes)

• 500-600: Byzantine Invasions

• 600-700: Longbeard Invasions (this community is still in Lombardi, region with Milan)

• 700-800: Frankish/Carolingian Invasions

  • Charlemagne = King of Franks who forcibly invades Europe

    • Resurrects the idea of the Roman Empire: 1st Holy Roman Emperor (HRE) crowned in year 800 on Christmas day

    • Ends a century of massive invasions and reorganizes europe, now safe for travel

• 900-1,100: Age of the Pilgrimage

  • Pilgrims are religious tourists, drawn to the holiest relics

  • Easiest spot of Christians to reach is in Vatican City, St. Peter’s Basilica where Peter is buried

  • As people travel N to Vatican, Florence has opportunity to attract pilgrims

  • Relics in Firenze: SJB fingers in the Baptistery (created 890, consecrated 1059)

  • Need to create lodging, infastructure (roads), attractions, shops, food, protection, healthcare (provided by religious orders)

  • Churches on the outskirts of town to provide help to the poor

  • Catalyst for jumpstarting medieval economies

1,000-1,400AD: Late Medieval Period

• Population drop to 5k

• Mini warming period (more crops + increased population) and population boom → migration to city center

• 1,000: New Class - Urban Poor (Factory Workers) live in borgi (neighborhoods)

• Land-owning nobility are upper class: have land with agriculture, and names/titles from HRE

• Upper class rebuilds city (Clans by family)

• Family clans in close confines → political tension from 1,000-1,1000

• 1138: Cast off count and become an autonomous city state → Founding of Florentine Republic

• 1200: 40-45k people

• Golden Age of Florence end of 1200s and beginning 1300s

  • When lots of building happens

• 1300: 100k people

  • Industries: textiles (wool especially) and banking

  • Textile industry by water for easy transport

  • Banking is considered inherently bad because loaning any amount of money for interest is called usery

  • Creation of urban middle class (Merchant Banking Class) who clashes with nobility

  • Late 1300s Bubonic Plague 40% of pop. die

Duomo: Santa Maria de Fiore

• Cathedral has the seat of the bishop

• Original church called Santa Reparata (405AD in Roman Fiorentia)

• Duomo made of brownstone with marble facade on top, no facade until 1860-1880 when fully finished

• Facade drawing done by Bernado Bucetti

• Roman Sarcophagus columns and column capitols

• Important Works: Chair Pope, Madonna of the Glass Eyes, and multiple versions of Porta del Paradiso (Gates of Paradise)

• Different windows on the side show how it was built at different times

  • 1296 started building, but left old church. Started work on sides

  • Took break in 1330 for Bell Tower

  • 1360 resume building cathedral, but now on a bigger scale

• Design of Cathedral:

  • Colors and geometric shapes suggest Eastern influence

• Architect: Arnofo di Cambio

Chair Pope

• Creator: Arnofo di Cambio

• Meant to go on facade of Duomo

• Stylized: flat and abstracted. Figure is elongated so it looks correct from below. Perfect drapery

Madonna of the Glass Eyes

• Creator: Arnofo di Cambio

• Meant to go on facade of Duomo

• More naturalistic than Chair Pope: drapery has natural weight and folds

  • Naturalism: artists inspired by what they see in the natural world

Baptistery of Santa Maria de Fiore

• Consecrated 1059 to SJB the Patron St. of Firenze

  • originally built to match with Santa Reparata Church

• Style: Romanesque (1000-1300)

  • Reuse original material from Roman Fiorentia

    • Fill in the OG foundation and build on top (was originally a wealthy Roman home, still window to below today)

  • Inspired by Roman design

    • Engaged Pilasters (square and attached to wall, not in the round)

    • Columns (round) with golden capitols (column head)

    • Columns are Spoglia (leftover from Roman times) so don’t all match

  • Columns by the church are most precious and do not match - Showing off the mismatch conveys how much they valued Roman past which helps legitimize the town

• Shape:

  • Centrally-planned structure based on Roman nymphaium (pool of water in the middle)

  • Octagon: 8 means 8th day of judgement

    • Mural - Christ in Judgement

      • Iconographic elements of Christ

        • Stigmata

        • Halo containing a cross

        • Red and Blue

        • Huge size → Hierarchy of Scale

• Scenes tell story of the bible

  • Genesis and Creation

  • Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors: civic duty

  • Scenes of SJB

  • End with the flood to connect to Baptism (cleansing)

• All murals made with gold mosaic - tiny pieces of glass called tesserae placed in wet plaster at angles

  • Space originally lit by candles, light would have danced across mosaic tesserae

Bell Tower of Santa Maria de Fiore

• Detached Bell Tower

• Built: 1330-1360

• Creators Giotto di Bondone, Andrea Pisano, and Francesco Talenti

• Geometric design shows Eastern influence

Original Baptistery Doors → SJB Baptizing Jesus panel

• Created by Andrea Pisano

• Patron: Arte di Calimala (wool merchant guild) who financed all 3 doors

• Year: 1330s

• South Door

• 28 quatrefoil panels

• Material: Guilded bronze

• Show life of SJB

• Style: Late Gothic (style the merchant banking class likes)

• “Wool Blanket Jesus” Panel (5 down, 2 over)

  • quoting from Giotto

  • SJB elongated appearance with outstretched arm and leg back

  • Extra drapery (expensive look)

  • The water looks like a wool blanket around Jesus

  • Jesus body naturalistic

  • Dove = Holy Spirit diving down toward Jesus

2nd Set Baptistery Doors → SJB Baptizing Jesus panel

• Created by Lorenzo Ghiberti

• Patron: Arte di Calimala (wool merchant guild) who financed all 3 doors

• Year: 1402

• Now the North Door

• Quatrefoil shape

• New Testament Scenes: life of Christ and Mary

• Style: Late Gothic (even though in Early Ren time)

• Baptism Panel (4 down, 1st one)

  • SJB Drapery “Swoosh”, he is elongated

  • Christ not in naturalistic pose

  • Angel drapery is symmetrical like SJB Swoosh → Looks expensive

Final Set Baptistery Doors → David and Goliath + Meeting of Sheba and King Solomon

• Created by Lorenzo Ghiberti

• Patron: Arte di Calimala (wool merchant guild) who financed all 3 doors

• Year: 1424/1425

• East Door toward the Piazza del Paradiso → Known as the Gates of Paradise

• 10 Old Testament Scenes

• Material: Bronze covered in gold

• Style: Renaissance, no longer Gothic

• David and Goliath Panel (bottom left)

  • David and Goliath foreground, armies in background

• Meeting of Sheba and King Solomon (bottom right)

  • Uses 1 point linear perspective

  • Shows interior of cathedral

History Behind Basilica of Santa Croce

• Creation info

  • Architect: Arnofo di Cambio

  • Started building in 1294

  • Facade is from 19th century

• History

  • Franciscan Church of greater Mendicant Order (begging and preaching)

    • Can tell Order of Franciscans was very popular because the piazza outside of the church is huge

  • 1200-1300: population and economy boom, and political peace

    • lots of people, shops, and construction

    • Around 1299 these things built: town hall, city walls, duomo, Church of Santa Maria Novella

    • Located here because would have been where lot of poor people were

    • Wealthy people donate to build the church (in exchange they hope to go to Heaven in spite of their usery)

  • This Church called Pantheon of Florence because it is a burial site for many great people

  • The church got bigger and the frescos on walls were convered in white during the Counter-reformation

Background on St. Francis of Assisi

• Died 1226

• From merchant-banking class family

• Has vision where crucifix asks him to rebuild His Church

  • originally thinks means rebuild physical church, but actually meant addressing social concerns like people focusing on money

  • SF renounces money and commits to living a Christ-like life

• Starts a movement with the lower class and changes rhetoric around God → He is a “Just God”

  • If you suffer on Earth, you will be rewarded in Heaven

• Creates Franciscan Order

  • Values: Poverty, Chastity, Obedience to God

  • Got many followers and known for preaching in vernacular = local tongue

Bardi Altarpiece

• Location: Basilica of Santa Croce

• Creator: Coppo di Marcovaldo

• Year: 1250

• Style: Byzantine Romanesque (Eastern Roman)

  • stylized

  • 2D: drapery and face shape like triangles

  • Gold background suggests Heaven

  • (this is the style Giotto trains in)

• Medium: Tempera on Panel

• Condition: Good, missing frame

• Subject: St. Francis (SF), iconographic attributes are brown habit, rope belt, tonsure haircut, and stigmata

Crucifixion

• Location: Basilica of Santa Croce

• Creator: Cimabue (Ghiotto’s teacher)

• Year: 1270-1280

• Style: Byzantine Romanesque

  • More naturalistic than Marcovaldo: this has shading (Chiaroscuro), eyes with human emotion, body form has weight and mass (way slumped), drapery, head and halo pushed out into space

• Medium: Tempera on Panel

• Condition: Bad due to 1966 flood, had 23 feet of water

• Subject: Jesus during crucifixion, looks like he’s sleeping

St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata

• Location: Basilica of Santa Croce, Bardi Family Chapel

• Creator: Ghiotto

• Patrons: Bardi Family

• Year: 1317

• Style: Proto-Ren not just Gothic

  • More naturalistic, paints almost like it’s in the vernacular, uses shading (Chiaroscuro)

  • Naturalistic movement and reaction (gives narrative)

  • Mountain is foreshortened in space (perspective)

• Medium: Fresco - watercolor on fresh wet plaster

• Condition:

• Subject: St. Francis, iconographic elements: halo on SF and Jesus

  • Mountain shows it happens out of the city

• Notes: Bardi family were bankers, required by Francisans to show SF scenes

Renunciation of Worldly Goods

• Location: Basilica of Santa Croce, Bardi Family Chapel

• Creator: Ghiotto

• Patrons: Bardi Family

• Year: 1317

• Style: Pretty naturalistic

• Medium: Fresco

• Condition:

• Subject: St. Francis (halo), outside (corner of building, also draws eye to SF). Holy people on R side, merchant-banking on L side. Facing father in yellow who looks like wants to smack him

• Notes: shows anthropocentric society (centered on people) → humanism

Crucifix in Church of Santa Maria Novella

• Location: Church of Santa Maria Novella

• Creator: Ghiotto

• Year:

• Style: More naturalistic

• Medium:

• Condition:

• Subject: Jesus

• Notes: Dominican Church follows St. Dominic (more learned/intellectual branch)

  • Values: Discipline, Structure, and Learning

The Trinity

• Location: Church of Santa Maria Novella

• Creator: Masaccio

• Patron: Lenzi family

• Year: 1425-27

• Style:

  • Earliest surviving painting using 1 point linear perspective

    • Single greatest invention of the 14th cent and Early Ren

    • Created a 3D space that was chapel like for a family that only got a wall

• Medium: Fresco

• Condition: Good

• Subject: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit (dove necklace), St. John the Evangelist (SJE), Mary, the patron and his wife

  • Hierarchy: God > Holy Spirit > Jesus > Mary = SJE > Patrons > Viewer

    • Patrons are outside holy space and the viewer is family outside of chapel

  • Crypt body has “memento mori” saying in 1st person “I am what you are”

  • Composition has hierarchy going up and triangles and 3 colors (would have all been understood by Dominican friars)

Techniques: Gold-Ground Panel Painting

• carpenter built the panel, carved frame, and panel coated in animal hide glue before linen is laid down

• gesso surface - smooth surface

  • gypsum mixed with animal skin glue then brushed on

• preliminary drawing made in charcoal (can erase with feather)

• Artist applies bol - brown undertone beneath gold leaf

• Water guilding - Gold sheets (4 fingers wide) dropped onto wet bol

  • Burnishing - Gold polished with wolf tooth

• Mordant guilding - thin lines of oil applied and then gold leaf added while drying

  • used for Venus painting

• Paint

  • Water added to pigment and ground on marble slab

  • Mixed with adhesive: oil or egg yolk (tempera)

  • tempera can’t be blended before drying, so layers of underpaint are used to create blended tones (green underpaint)

  • lapis lazuli is blue pigment more expensive than gold

Techniques: Michelangelo Fresco Painting

• Plaster: lyme, water, and potsalana ash

  • Applied to the surface: oricio if day prior, antonico if applied fresh

  • Plaster can only be applied little by littke

  • Bright colors → apply thin white plaster layer that is extra rich in lyme (lighter)

  • Cartoons drawn previously used to exise the lines in plaster, can also make holes through cartoon and apply charcoal

• Paint

  • Only used 7 colors

  • Colors had transluscent appearance at first, then as carbonization happens during drying (carbon dioxide stabilizes colors) they become more opaque

  • Pigments encased in the stone of the wall

  • To take off, have to remove whole fresco plaster layer

Techniques: Bronze Sculpture → Direct Lost-Wax Method

Used in the Early Renaissance

Step 1: Modeling

• Inside middle is iron frame over which wet clay added until the form is complete

• wax skin over clay core

• Add core pins through the wax into the core

• Add network of sprues and the pouring cup

• apply investment to protect from heat

• Whole investment placed upside down in the kiln and heated

• Wax melts out

• Bury investment in sandpit

Step 2: Casting in Bronze

• Takes place in a foundery

• Bronze melted in a crucible which is then clamped into pouring ring

• Molten bronze poured into investment (fills the space where wax once was)

• Allow to cool and knock off investment

Step 3: Chasing

• Remove bronze sprues and core pins

• Patch holes left by core pins

• Sharpen details with iron tools

• Polish

• Choose patina: surface finish of various colors

Techniques: Bronze Sculpture → Indirect Lost-Wax Method

Step 1: Modeling

• Wax model

• Make mold by cutting wax model into parts and embedding it into clay and filling with plaster

• Makes a wax duplicate which is hollow

• Fill hollow duplicate with core material that can resist heat

Rest follows same steps as above, but use the wax duplicate as model instead of OG clay core with wax on top

• Allows art to be recreated

  • reduced cost

  • allows people all over to see and own the same art

  • more exchange of knowledge (coincides with printing press creation)

Techniques: Marble Sculpture

Tools

• Point Chisel: big stone removal of very rough shape

• Tooth Chisel: comb chisels remove stone and make model form

• Rasp: fine metal teeth grind (file) stone to help emphasize forms

Process:

• drawing provides diagram for shape and grid

  • Grid maps out main form

• remove as much extra as possible

• Can bruise or stun stone if you have dull chisels as it damages the crystals

• Work from your biggest tool to your smallest tool

• “Trapping shadows” use claw tool

  • Relief sculpture gives illusion that it comes around the back by developing shadows, using angles and light

• Use rasp to remove fine marks

• Can leave different parts with different textures

Techniques: Gold Mosaic

• Glass broken, covered in gold leaf, and enclosed in more flass

  • Can also color glass while its molten

• Gold mosaic starts with transparent glass, shape into thin bubble

• Bubbles cut into small swuare pieces

• Gold leaf on glass, then more molten glass on top

• Flatten

• Score plates and split

• Tiny pieces are called tesserae and are placed into wet plaster at angles to make mosaic

Historical Context of Pisa

• Founded by Romans in 200 BC

  • Used to be port city on the coast

  • River Arno carried silt over time, so no longer on coast

• Height of Pisa was 11th century: was a coastal town with important navy

  • In 1000s of late medieval period, powers are Pisa, Genoa, Venice, Saracens (Islamic) in Palermo

• 1064: Pisa sacks Palerma and takes back treasures and artisans, start constructing new duomo

Duomo of Pisa

• Style: Romanesque with these Roman elements

  • Roman arches (rounded) not Gothic (pointed)

  • Engaged columns and pilasters with Corinthian column capitols

  • Gallery/Arcade

  • Some columns are different and stones have letters: Spoglia from Roman history shown off

  • Note: Same style as Florentine Romanesque Baptistery

  • Islamic Influence: Rhombus, colors, flowers

    • Idea of detached skinny prayer tower like Islamic mineratte (Bell/Leaning Tower)

  • facade has pedimented Roman triangles, Broken Up - Pisan Romanesque, 3D galleries

• Location: Pisa - built here because town was already pretty set up, they added walls around it. Was originally a Roman cemetery

• Note: 100-1100 are when city states are forming

  • Bell tower and duomo competition between cities

Bell Tower → Leaning Tower of Pisa

• Year: Early 1300s

• Got few levels up and realized not working well

  • Foundation isn’t sturdy because there is too much moisture in the soil

  • Only big problem for tower bc all pressure onto small point of land

  • Cathedral also leans but is over a much greater SA

• Tried to build top sections a little more straight up

• Had to be corrected in 1990: from 16ft to 13ft difference between sides

• Famous for Galileo doing experiments here

Doors to Duomo of Pisa

Year: 1180

Artist: Bonanno

Style: Byzantine Romanesque

• Stylistic and 2D figures (2D palm trees)

• St Ranieri: patron St of Pisa

Scene of SJB baptizing Jesus “1990s sleeping bag jesus”

• start trandition of bronze doors in Tuscany

• labeled this panel “Baptizas” even though not all could read, bc the wealthy and priests/friars could

Pulpit in Duomo of Pisa

Aps Mosaic in Duomo of Pisa

Baptistery of Pisa

Year: 1153 (after duomo)

Style: Mixed Romanesque Rounded arches toward bottom, then Pointed Gothic arches higher (shows transition over time)

• Green and white colors from serphentine and marble

• Early dome system

  • Inner= pointed arch

  • Outer = Islamic arch

  • Pointed dome is a safer structure bc minimizes the effect of horixontal forces from gravity (think of pressing down on balloon)

  • Rounded dome to pointed is safer because directs forces out and down

Pulpit in Pisa Baptistery

Camposanto History

Triumph of Death

Final Judgement Painting

Medici Family Background

New Sacristy of San Lorenzo

History on Michelangelo

Bacchus

The Prisoners

The David

Church of San Lorenzo

Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo

Museum of the Convent of San Marco

San Marco Altarpiece

Chapter House → Crucifixion

The Annunciation

Medici Palace

Chapel of the Magi