Humanism and the Allure of Antiquity: 15 th Century Italian Art

Renaissance Florence

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI (Italian), Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors, baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401– Gilded bronze relief, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. French Gothic Quatrefoil frame

LORENZO GHIBERTI (Italian ), Sacrifice of Isaac, winning competition panel for east doors, baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401– Gilded bronze relief, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Compare Ghiberti’s Sacrifice of Isaac ( left) with Brunelleschi’s (right). Which one won the competition? Which one is more active and naturalistic?

LORENZO GHIBERTI, second pair of doors (“Gates of Paradise”), baptistery, Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1425–1452. Gilded bronze relief, approx. 17’ high. Modern copy, ca Original panels in Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. Ghiberti’s self portrait On the “Gates of Paradise”

LORENZO GHIBERTI, Isaac and His Sons, panel from the east doors (“Gates of Paradise”), baptistery, Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1425–1452. Gilded bronze relief, approx. 2’ 7 1/2” x 2’ 7 1/2”. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. “rationalization of sight” – Return of the Platonic view of beauty as measure. Brunelleschi is credited with the “invention” of linear perspective.

DONATELLO (Italian ca ), Feast of Herod, from the baptismal font of Siena Cathedral, Siena, Italy, ca Gilded bronze relief, approx. 1’ 11” x 1’ 11”. The picture as a window on the world - Perspectival illusionism, the “rationalization of sight.” “Mathematical truth and formal beauty conjoined in the minds of Renaissance artists.” The return of Ancient Roman illusionism.

NANNI DI BANCO ( ), Four Crowned Saints, San Michele, Florence, Italy, ca. 1408– Marble, figures approx. life-size. Modern copy in exterior niche. Original sculpture in museum on second floor of San Michele. Compare 3 rd C.E. Roman portrait of Emperor Macrinus

San Michele, Florence Italy, street view showing Renaissance sculptures of patron saints of Florentine guilds

Compare (left) 13 th century statues from the façade of Reims (Gothic) Cathedral in France, with (right) Nanni di Banco’s early 15 th century Renaissance architectural sculpture, San Michele, Florence. Does the Nanni show more interaction among the figures?

DONATELLO, Saint Mark, San Michele, Florence, Italy, 1411–1413. Marble, approx. 7’ 9” high. Modern copy in exterior niche. Original sculpture in museum on second floor of San Michele. Reintroduced contrapposto POLYKLEITOS Doryphoros, Greek, ca B.C., marble, life size, source of contrapposto (weight shift)

DONATELLO, Prophet Habbakuk (Zuccone), from the campanile of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1423– Marble, approx. 6’ 5” high. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. Detail: note expressionism of face and body

Compare the expressive realism of (left) Donatello’s Prophet Habbakuk with (right) ancient Roman portrait sculpture of Cato the Elder

MASACCIO ( , 27 years), Tribute Money, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, a private chapel, Florence, Italy, ca Fresco, 8’ 1” x 19’ 7”. What “tricks” of illusion are evident in this fresco?

Detail of Betrayal of Christ, fresco by Giotto, c. 1305–06; in the Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy Detail from Masaccio’s Tribute Money, 1427 Compare Masaccio and Giotto

Tourists studying Masaccio’s frescos in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, a private chapel

(right) MASACCIO, Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy, ca Fresco, 7’ x 2’ 11”. Compare Adam & Eve from 1432 Ghent Altarpiece by Jan Van Eyck in oil paint with fresco by Masaccio

Masaccio’s Expulsion of Adam and Eve (1425-6) before and after restoration in the 1980s

MASACCIO, Holy Trinity, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca Fresco, 21’ x 10’ 5”. “The works made before his [Masaccio’s] day can be said to be painted, while his are living, real, and natural.” - Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 1550 Perspectival scheme

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, dome of Florence Cathedral (view from the south), Florence, Italy, 1420–1436. Brunelleschi’s (losing) competition panel for the doors of cathedral Baptistery,

Compare the Pantheon, Rome (left and center) begun in 27 BCE, completely rebuilt c.118–128 CE, with (right) the Florence Cathedral with Brunelleschi’s dome,

Interior of Florence Cathedral showing imposing (140 ft) width beneath the dome, and (right) cutaway view of dome by Brunelleschi

Cutaway view of dome of Florence Cathedral

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, facade of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, begun ca Compare with Pantheon, Roman architectural source, above Images of ancient Roman Pantheon in cross section

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, plan of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, Italy.

FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, interior of the Pazzi Chapel (view facing northeast), Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, begun ca Glazed terracotta medallions represent the Four Evangelists and 12 Apostles.

MICHELOZZO DI BARTOLOMMEO, facade of the Palazzo Medici- Riccardi, Florence, Italy, begun Compare heavy ancient Roman Cornices that were Michelozzo’s model

MICHELOZZO DI BARTOLOMMEO, interior court of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, Italy, begun 1445.

DONATELLO, David, late 1420s – late 1450s. Bronze, 5’ 2 1/4” high. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, the Palazzo Medici courtyard. First freestanding nude since antiquity. David was the symbol of the Florentine Republic. Contrapposto. Compare Praxiteles and Donatello Praxiteles, Hermes and Infant Dionysus, Marble, Greek 4 th century

SANDRO BOTTICELLI ( ), Birth of Venus, ca Tempera on canvas, approx. 5’ 8” x 9’ 1”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Andrea Mantegna, interior of the Camera degli Sposi (Room of the Newlyweds), Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, Italy, Fresco. Commissioned by Ludovico Gonzaga

Comparison for Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi: Roman frescos from Pompeii, Italy, 1 st century CE, preserved because of the eruption of nearby Vesuvius volcano in 79 CE

Andrea Mantegna, ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi (Room of the Newlyweds), Palazzo Ducale,Mantua, Italy, Fresco, 8’ 9” in diameter. The first to create a view from below. Trompe l’oeil (deceives the eye)

ANDREA MANTEGNA, Saint James Led to Martyrdom, Ovetari Chapel, Church of the Eremitani (largely destroyed, l944), Padua, Italy, ca Fresco, 10’ 9” wide.

ANDREA MANTEGNA, Dead Christ, ca Tempera on canvas, 2’ 2 3/4” x 2’ 7 7/8”. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Mantegna’s line is an “engraver’s line,” hard and clear, because he was a printmaker. His influence spread through his prints.

Girolamo Savonarola, portrait painted by Fra Bartolomeo, c. 1498, wood, 47 x 31 cm, Florence, Museo di San Marco. Italian Dominican priest-dictator of Florence from 1494 until his execution in Denounced humanism and encouraged the “bonfire of the vanities” for citizens to burn their classical texts, scientific treatises, and philosophical publications.

LUCA SIGNORELLI, Damned Cast into Hell, San Brizio Chapel, Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy, 1499–1504. Fresco, approx. 23’ wide.