Art In the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Italy  (Proto-Renaissance Art)

AGE OF EXPLORATION TO POSTMODERNITY

CHAPTER 14

Important Points

  • Arrival of Gothic architecture in Italy (a very short-lived style in Italy)

  • Influence of art patrons

    • Art patron - support the artist(s)

  • Discover how the development of republican governments changes the subject matter of art

  • Discover the rich references to everyday life and human emotions that begin to permeate art—the beginnings of the Renaissance

    • Return to Roman-Greek ideas

Vocabulary

The Black Death - Arrived in Italy in 1347, continued into the 14th century. Also called the bubonic plague. Believed to come from somewhere in Asia. Thought to have been brought by rats that were bitten by fleas.

Proto-Renaissance—precursor to the Renaissance.

Basilica Plan—refers to an architectural design that is characteristic of Early Christian and Tuscan Romanesque churches, such as the Florence Cathedral. Some may say it is in the shape of a Latin cross.

Key features often associated with a basilica plan include:

• A timber-roofed nave.

• A two-story elevation within the nave, which typically consists of a columnar arcade and a clerestory.

• Round arches in the nave arcade.

Quatrefoil—A design motif that consists of four lobes and four points.

Maniera Greca—In the ‘Greek’ style (Byzantine style)

Patron - support the artist(s)

Tempera—Egg yolk is the binding agent. Artists must prepare a fine-grained wood panel—it must be very smooth. The surface of the panel is covered with linen strips soaked in gesso. The surface is then burnished. Paint - pigment is added to egg yolk and powdered clay, and allowed to dry. Gold leaf is then applied. The image is burnished and varnished.

Fresco (means fresh in” in Italian):

  • Buon Fresco—painting on wet plaster (true fresco)

  • Fresco Secco—painting on dry plaster

Annunciation - when the archangel Gabriel tells Mary she will give birth to the son of God.

Halo—golden aura indicating holiness

Piazza—an open space in a city

Central Plan—the same all around (square, round, or octagon)

Lapis Lazuli—from where the pigment blue arrives

Lament - means to mourn

ARTISTS AND WORKS OF ART:

Anonymous

  • Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi (Begun 1228, Consecrated 1253, Interior Design)

Anonymous

  • Palazzo della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio) [1299 - 1310] Architecture

Arnolfo di Cambio

  • Florence Cathedral (Santa Maria del Fiore), begun 1296, Architecture

Andrea Pisano

  • Baptistery Doors of San Giovanni – The Baptism of Christ

  • South Doors of the Florence Baptistery, 1330-36, Gilt Bronze

Cimabue

  • Virgin and Child Enthroned ( c. 1280. 12’ 7 in. x 7’ 4 in., Tempera and Gold on Panel )

Giotto di Bondone (father of the Renaissance in art)

  • Virgin and Child Enthroned (1305 - 1310. 10’ 8in. x 6’ 8 ¼ in. Tempera and Gold on Panel)

  • Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Padua (Commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni)

    • Christ Entering Jerusalem

    • Lamentation

Simone Martini

  • Annunciation

Ambrogio Lorenzetti

  • The Effects of Good Government in the City 

  • The Effects of Good Government in the Country