Medieval & Early Renaissance Art – Comprehensive Bullet-Point Notes

INTRODUCTION

• Medieval art aimed at conveying messages understandable even to the illiterate ("Biblia Pauperum")
• Patronage crucial: self-celebration, didactic intent (esp. the Church)
• Context (historical, geographical, chronological) decisive in shaping an artwork
• Sources for the art historian: written records, monuments, artworks, stylistic comparison

LATE ROMAN & EARLY CHRISTIAN ART

• Historical frame
  • $313\,\text{CE}$ Edict of Milan – Christianity legal
  • $380\,\text{CE}$ Edict of Thessalonica – Christianity state religion
  • $402\,\text{CE}$ capital moves to Ravenna
  • $476\,\text{CE}$ fall of Western Empire → gothic rule, Theodoric (493-536), Bizantine reconquest (527-565 Giustiniano)
• Artistic shift 3rd c.-> symbolism > naturalism
  • From Boscoreale/Pompeii naturalism to symbolic “Tetrarchs” & impersonal imperial portraits
• Catacombs
  • San Callisto, Priscilla: rapid strokes, pagan domestic motifs, Christian symbols (chi-rho, fish, $\mathit{XP}$, Good Shepherd)
  • Sarcophagi: Santa Maria Antiqua, Dogmatic, Giunio Basso – classical motifs re-interpreted, emphasis on plastic narrative > perfect proportion
• Christian iconography pre/post $313\,\text{CE}$
  • Pre: hidden, symbolic (fish, vine, Good Shepherd)
  • Post: public, monumental churches, narrative cycles
• Constantinian art (IV c.)
  • Arco di Costantino 315: classical reliefs + new hierarchical scenes, reuse of Antonine spolia
  • Basilica adopted (civil basilica > liturgical space): atrium-narthex, five/nave plans (S. Giovanni in Laterano), orientation E-W
  • Central plans for baptisteries/mausolea (Mausoleo di S. Costanza)
• Ravenna monuments
  • Galla Placidia: austere brick ext., lavish mosaics (Good Shepherd – depth & naturalism)
  • Battistero Neoniano vs. Ariani – increasing abstraction, gold grounds, isocephaly
  • S. Apollinare Nuovo: 3 mosaic registers – late Roman plasticity (upper), Bizantine abstraction (lower)
  • S. Vitale (547): octagon, Giustiniano & Teodora processions – frontal, gold, symbolic colour, luxurious tesserae
• Byzantium & Longobards VI-VIII c.
  • Lombard art: abstract, geometric, metalwork; later dialogue w/ classical forms (Cividale “Tempietto”)
  • South (Longobardia Minor): Benevento S. Sofia, S. Vincenzo al Volturno – narrative frescoes w/ Bizantine echoes

CAROLINGIAN ART (VIII-IX c.)

• Ideology: renovatio Imperii Romanorum – classical revival + Christian legitimation
• Architecture
  • Aquisgrana Palatine Chapel (inspired by S. Vitale): octagon, westwork
  • Lorsch Torhalle: arch of triumph + N-European roof; Corvey westwork
• Manuscripts
  • School of Treves (Ada), Reims (Ebo, Utrecht Psalter) – blend of antique illusion + graphic dynamism
  • Lorsch Gospels ivory cover, Coronation Gospels – classical drapery, shallow space
• Goldsmith
  • Milan Altare d’Oro (Vuolvinio 824-860): Christ in majesty, narrative symmetry, austere classical body types

OTTONIAN ART (X c.)

• Shift to hieratic Bizantine style, abandonment of neo-hellenism
• Architecture: St. Cyriacus Gernrode, St. Michael Hildesheim – double-apse, alternating support system, heavy masses
• Bronze works
  • Hildesheim doors & column (Bernward 1015-20): Genesis + Passion relief cycles, isocephaly
  • Reliquary crosses (Gerone): sculpture legittimated by embedded relics
• Manuscripts: Registrum Gregorii, Gospels of Otto III – iconic power, gold grounds

ROMANESQUE (ca. 1000-1150)

• Socio-economic revival, growth of communes, pilgrimage churches
• Structural novelties: barrel/cross vaults, compound piers, small windows, often crypt
• France
  • Cluny III monumentality; Vézelay tympanum (Pentecost) – dynamic drapery, rich iconography
  • Autun (Gislebertus) – expressive reliefs (Last Judgement, Eve)
  • Moissac tympanum – Christ in Majesty + Apocalyptic elders
  • Bernardus Gelduinus (St-Sernin) – marble reliefs hybridising ivory style
• Germany / Low Countries
  • Reiner de Huy font (Liège 1107-18) – classical plasticity revival
• Italy
  • Lombardy: S. Ambrogio (vaults emphasised), S. Michele Pavia – façade relief bestiaries
  • Modena Duomo (Lanfranco & Wiligelmo): Genesis reliefs – plastic, narrative, classicising foliage
  • Verona S. Zeno (Niccolò): bronze door reliefs, Genesis bands, German foundry influence
  • Pisa complex: polychrome marble; Bonanno Pisano bronze doors; Nicola & Giovanni Pisano pulpits – antique models + gothic vitality
  • Siena Duomo façade (Giovanni Pisano): autonomous sculpture, gothic drama
  • Umbria (Spoleto, Castelseprio): advanced fresco cycles anticipating Renaissance spatiality
• Southern Italy / Sicily (Norman)
  • Cefalù, Monreale mosaics – Byzantine iconography + arabic muqarnas ceilings (Cappella Palatina)
• Proto-classical hints: Orcagna tabernacle (Orsanmichele), Andrea Pisano Baptistery doors

GOTIC (ca. 1140-1500)

• France origins: Saint-Denis (Suger) – rib vault + pointed arch + flying buttress → walls dissolved into stained glass
• High Gothic cathedrals: Notre-Dame, Chartres, Reims (portals with statues-columns, “smiling angel”), Sainte-Chapelle (radiant style)
• Germany: Marburg Elisabethkirche hall-church; Bamberg Rider (classical revival + gothic pose); Naumburg choir statues (Uta)
• Cistercian sobriety: Fontenay, Fossanova, S. Galgano – pointed but austere
• Italy: moderate adoption
  • Arnolfo di Cambio: S. Maria del Fiore beginnings; sculpture (Carlo d’Angiò, monument de Bray) combines classical naturalism & gothic ornament
  • Giotto (1267-1337)
  • Break with maniera greca: volumetric bodies, spatial coherence, emotional naturalism
  • Cycles: Assisi S. Francesco (Life of St Francis ≈1290); Padua Scrovegni Chapel (1303-05) – fresco narrative grid, single-vanishing compositions, pigment innovations
  • Crucifixes (S. Maria Novella, Rimini, Padua); Ognissanti Maestà (Uffizi)
  • Later: Bardi & Peruzzi chapels (Santa Croce); Campanile design
• Siena school
  • Duccio di Buoninsegna: Madonna Rucellai (1285); Maestà altarpiece (1308-11) – softer modelling, brilliant colours
  • Simone Martini: Maestà (1315, Palazzo Pubblico), Cappella S. Martino Assisi, Annunciation (1333) – courtly elegance, linear grace, international gothic
  • Lorenzetti brothers
  • Pietro: Passion frescoes (Assisi transetto sx): daily-life details, nightscape
  • Ambrogio: Allegory of Good & Bad Government (Sala dei Nove 1338) – urban & rural panoramas, moral inscriptions

INTERNATIONAL GOTHIC (late XIV c.)

• Features: blend of vivid natural detail + lyrical stylisation, elongated figures, sumptuous costumes, bright palette, narrative profusion
• Key Italian exponents
  • Gentile da Fabriano: Adoration of the Magi (Strozzi Altarpiece 1423) – gold, pastiglia, continuous landscape
  • Pisanello: S. Giorgio & la Principessa (Verona 1433-38) – costume細節, fauna/flora realism
  • Giovanni da Milano: Pietà (1365) – pathos + soft chroma
  • Giottino, Matteo Giovannetti in Avignon – refined linearity, proto-natural shading

1401 COMPETITION – DAWN OF RENAISSANCE

• Sacrifice of Isaac panels
  • Lorenzo Ghiberti – winning entry: elegant curves, antique nude Isacco, unified composition
  • Filippo Brunelleschi – dramatic diagonals, figures break frame, foreshadows renaissance tension

TECHNIQUES & MATERIALS

• Mosaic gold tesserae, punctured backgrounds for candle sparkle (Simone Martini)
• Polychrome pastiglia relief, sgraffito on gold leaf (Gentile da Fabriano)
• Lost-wax bronze casting (Hildesheim, Ghiberti)
• Fresco “a giornata” method: daily plaster areas; white-lead blacks over time (Assisi vault)

THEMATIC & ICONOGRAPHIC NOTES

• Christus triumphans vs. Christus patiens – shift to human suffering (Italian croci dipinte)
• Allegories in civic art: Temperance, Justice (Lorenzetti), Virtues (Ghiberti Baptistery), theological virtues atop Fontana Maggiore
• Classic revival cycles: Months & Zodiac (Parma Battistero, Ferrara Duomo, San Marco)

CHRONOLOGICAL QUICK-REF

• $8^{\text{th}}$–$9^{\text{th}}$ c. Carolingian
• $10^{\text{th}}$ c. Ottonian
• $1000–1150$ Romanesque
• $1140–1300$ Gothic (Early–High)
• $1300–1350$ Proto-Renaissance / International Gothic in Italy
• $1401$ competition → Early Renaissance begins

KEY FORMULAE / NUMBERS

• Basilican orientation typically E-W: $\text{apse} \rightarrow E$ (inverse in old St Peter’s)
• Romanesque vault thrust: $T = w\,l/2$ (qualitative: weight transferred to piers)
• Gothic rib vault force resolution: $F<em>r = F</em>v \cos\theta$ lateral $F<em>h = F</em>v \sin\theta$ (buttress counters $F_h$)