Florence Cathedral – Renaissance Architecture

Pazzi Chapel, Brunellechi

Exterior Vault

Two of Alberti’s best known buildings are in Florence, the Palazzo Rucellai and at Santa Maria Novella. For the palace, Alberti applied the classical orders of columns to the façade on the three levels, 1446–51. At Santa Maria Novella he was commissioned to finish the decoration of the façade. He completed the design in 1456 but the work was not finished until 1470. The lower section of the building had Gothic niches and typical polychrome marble decoration. There was a large ocular window in the end of the nave which had to be taken into account. Alberti simply respected what was already in place, and the Florentine tradition for polychrome that was well established at the Baptistry of San Giovanni, the most revered building in the city. The decoration, being mainly polychrome marble, is mostly very flat in nature, but a sort of order is established by the regular compartments and the circular motifs which repeat the shape of the round window.[13] For the first time, Alberti linked the lower roofs of the aisles to nave using two large scrolls. These were to become a standard Renaissance device for solving the problem of different roof heights and bridge the space between horizontal and vertical surfaces.[22]

High Renaissance Bramante Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Donato Bramante, (1444–1514), was born in Urbino and turned from painting to architecture, found his first important patronage under Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for whom he produced a number of buildings over 20 years. After the fall of Milan to the French in 1499, Bramante travelled to Rome where he achieved great success under papal patronage.[15] Bramante’s finest architectural achievement in Milan is his addition of crossing and choir to the abbey church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan). This is a brick structure, the form of which owes much to the Northern Italian tradition of square domed baptisteries. The new building is almost centrally planned, except that, because of the site, the chancel extends further than the transept arms. The hemispherical dome, of approximately 20 metres across, rises up hidden inside an octagonal drum pierced at the upper level with arched classical openings. The whole exterior has delineated details decorated with the local terracotta ornamentation. In Rome Bramante created what has been described as "a perfect architectural gem",[13] the Tempietto in the Cloister of San Pietro in Montorio. This small circular temple marks the spot where St Peter was martyred and is thus the most sacred site in Rome. The building adapts the style apparent in the remains of the Temple of Vesta, the most sacred site of Ancient Rome. It is enclosed by and in spatial contrast with the cloister which surrounds it. As approached from the cloister, as in the picture above, it is seen framed by an arch and columns, the shape of which are echoed in its free-standing form.

Donatello Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi; c. 1386 – December 13, 1466) was a famous early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in basso rilievo, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism. While undertaking study and excavations with Filippo Brunelleschi in Rome (1404-1407), work that gained the two men the reputation of treasure seekers, Donatello made a living by working at goldsmiths' shops. Their Roman sojourn was decisive for the entire development of Italian art in the 15th century, for it was during this period that Brunelleschi undertook his measurements of the Pantheon dome and of other Roman buildings. Brunelleschi's buildings and Donatello's sculptures are both considered supreme expressions of the spirit of this era in architecture and sculpture, and they exercised a potent influence upon the painters of the age.

In 1443, Donatello was called to Padua by the heirs of the famous condottiero Erasmo da Narni, who had died that year. Completed in 1450 and placed in the square facing the Basilica of St. Anthony, his equestrian statue of Erasmo (better known as the Gattamelata, or "Honey-Cat") was the first example of such a monument since ancient times. (Other equestrian statues, from the 14th century, had not been executed in bronze and had been placed over tombs rather than erected indepedently, in a public place.) This work became the prototype for other equestrian monuments executed in Italy and Europe in the following centuries.

Daniel DavidWith Donatello’s David, we see that the relaxed classical contrapposto stance has been rediscovered; also his proportions are of Greek origin. Most importantly is that David is the first nude figure since ancient times. This specific nudity is seen as bold and heroic, not frail and vulnerable like before. His body shows hints of anatomical interest. While the story of David and Goliath is biblical, David is also a symbol of the independent Florentine republic. This statue shows many of the details and expression of the renaissance, artists were once again using art to evoke the senses, while still having political and religious value. In the High renaissance Michelangelo’s David, is as captivating as Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman sculpture. Although larger than life his nude body shows understanding of movement and anatomy. His emotion is in his body and his Hellenistic looking face. This evokes the senses and awareness of what he is doing and what he might be seeing. Around 1430, Cosimo de' Medici, the foremost art patron of his era, commissioned from Donatello the bronze David (now in the Bargello) for the court of his Palazzo Medici. This is now Donatello's most famous work. At the time of its creation, it was the first known free-standing nude statue produced since ancient times. Conceived fully in the round, independent of any architectural surroundings, and largely representing an allegory of the civic virtues triumphing over brutality and irrationality, it was the first major work of Renaissance sculpture. Donatello did not marry, choosing instead to live with other artists and his many young workshop assistants. According to some historians, Donatello made no secret of his homosexuality, and his behaviour was tolerated by his friends;[1] certainly Cosimo is known to have played a part in patching up at least one lover's quarrel between Donatello and one of his young assistants.

1455 Statue of Mary Magdalene, detail 1455 Statue of Mary Magdalene, detail. Was probably placed on the south-western side of the Baptistry of Florence, Italy. Painted and gilded wood Donatello returned to Florence in 1453. Until 1456, he worked on a wooden Mary Magdalene now in the Duomo's museum, an unusually expressionistic work depicting the saint in her late, hermetic period and characterized by meagerness of body and a face marked by fatigue, pain, and intense asceticism.