Dome, Cathedral, Florence. 1420-1436; lantern completed 1471

Early Ren. in Italy

• Filippo Brunelleschi turned to Pantheon in Rome for inspiration and guidance
• unfinished - not sure why
• Latin - Cross ground plan
• Basilica - nave is higher than side isles; campanille - belltower
• He invented a new kind of dome and a new way of building one: architects normally used centering; too big & expensive, no beams long enough for this huge dome
• competition for architects; Brunelleschi used scaffolding and cranes
• normal dome was solid; Brunelleschi came up w/ idea of ribs - some visible, some not, cage like dome, used diff. kinds of stones so it was higher and wouldn't crush the walls
• smaller semi-circular domes on outside are more reinforcement

Santo Spirito, Florence. Begun 1446

Early Ren. in Italy

• entryway: was going to have 4 entrances; normally 3 (Father, Son & Holy Spirit)
• studied gothic architecture and incorporated it into his architecture
• Brunelleschi - used flat ceilings to give sense of height
• it's modular - has good proportion and opposite for Gothic no tusing it well
• believed in universal harmony - can be expressed in many ways (math, music, proportion)
• 8 exposed ribs

Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, begun 1445

Early Ren. in Italy

• Architect: Michelozzo; was a follower of Brunelleschi
• extended in the 18th century
• Arches were open in 15th century, filled in 16th
• 3 stories - typical of gothic and renaissance; Lower - business was done here, storage; 2nd - where main family lived; 3rd - servants or strangly family members
• courtyard in center
• Rustication: rough stones or blocks (bottom)
• Ashlar: smooth stones or blocks (top)
• encrustation; rounded arches
• Michelozzo didn't understand proportion as well, except in courtyard

Palazzo Rucellai, Florence. ca. 1452-1470

Early Ren. in Italy

• Architect: Leon Battista Alberti
• not built from ground, pre-existing rooms
• 3 stories; encrustation not finished; 3: corinthian, 2: ionic, 1: doric
• exterior: flat shapes = pilaster (pillar looking thing) for support
• lookds back at the Roman Colosseum
• Rounded arch on windows flanked by pilasters

Four Crowned Martyrs. Orsanmichele, Florence. ca. 1410-1416

Early Ren in Italy

• Architect: Nanni di Banco
• put to death for refusing to follow ?
• Lookds back to ancient sculptures, more naturalistic, proportion

St. Mark. Orsanmichele, Florence. ca. 1411-1413

Early Ren. in Italy

• filled niche with St. Mark, sontrapposto (weight, pose)
• use naturalism - veins in hand, way cloth falls, illusion that we're looking at something with human presence
• use proportion - everything measure by head, observed proportion at a 45 degree angle

David. bronze. ca. 1440-1460

Early Ren. in Italy

• Donatello is responsible for the 1st nude sculpture since antiquity
• David vs. Goliath; standing on giant's head
• feminity/weakness - God was working through him; doesn't look like a soldier or someone that could successfully fight

Isaac and His Sons East doors, Baptistery, Florence. 1425-52

Early Ren. in Italy

• Architect: Lorenzo Ghiberti
• Rebecca on right: out of place
• 3 scenes - kids being born, Isaac telling them to hunt and them getting baptized
• made the people in higher relief because they're up front
• architecture is a little too big
• 1 point perspective

Lamentation. fresco, Scrovegni (or Arena) Chapel, Padua. 1305-6

Proto Ren.

• Architect: Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) (Proto-Renaissance)
• family chapel, privately funded
• scenes from lives of Christ, Mary, and crucifiction
• expensive blue paint
• Enrique Scrovegni - patron to chapel
• scene from wall - Lamentation - Jesus died, used landscape with rock/tree pointing towards Jesus' head

Tribute Money. fresco. Brancacci Chapel, S. M. del Carmine, Florence, ca. 1427

Early REn. in Italy

• Architect: Masaccio
• continuous narration; Jesus asks Peter to get coin from fish's mouth, pays off tax man; Peter is shown 3 times
• 1 point perspective and atmospheric perspective
• Masaccio noticed light and shadow and found a way to imitate it; illusion of 3D
• in family chapel; may have been a statement that taxpayers are wrong

Holy Trinity. fresco. Sta. Maria Novella, Florence. ca. 1428 by Masaccio

Early Ren. in Italy

• Patrons in the pic (paid for the painting); private fam. chapel
• momento mori: "I was what you are, you will be what I am" - writing at bottom, skeleton of Adam
• crucifiction; St. John, Virgin Mary, Father, Son and Holy Ghost (dove aroung God's neck)
• one point perspective, vanishing point, orthogonals: diagonal lines that project from the edges of the picture to the vanishing point
• symbolic path of salvation: bottom: tomb; Middle: live people at eye level; top: Jesus and Holy Trinity

Merode Altarpiece (Annunciation) ca. 1425-1428. Robert Campin (Master of Flemalle)

Early Ren. in Northern Europe

• Left wing: donors/patrons kneeling in garden; enclosed garden - virgin's purity; gate open let donors in; on ground
• Center: Annunciation; white lilies and cleaning hands w/ water rep. purity; candle - Jesus; window and sun rays - signs of light; descending upon Virgin Mary; look out back window into heavens, rep divinity
• Right wing: Joseph making a mousetrap - ref St. Augustine of Hippo wrote "The cross of the Lord was the devil's mousetrap, that bait by which he was"; in middle story - see cityscape out window
• perspective isn't systematically organized
• tripytch (3 wings)

Man in a Red Turban. 21 October 1433. Jan van Eyck.

Early ren. in northern europe

• headdress - chaperon, not turban
• self portrait?
• frame - often carry enscription; Bottom: "Jan van Eyck made me" (like the figure is speaking to the viewers); Top: "Als ich kan"/"As I can, but not as I would" (you want to do something ambitious, but you can't so you do what you can

Giovanni Arnolfini (?) and his wife, Jeanna Cenami (?). 1434. Jan van Eyck

early ren. in northern europe

• great detail to light and shadow
• oil medium is how he can create such detail like the dogs hair; gives it warmth and illuminosity
• marraige arrangement, could be the wedding, could be record of marraige
• mirror in the background w/ "Jan van Eyck was here" above it; looks like a legal signature, this could be marraige certificate
• little circle around mirrors - through God's eyes
• in mirror - can see 2 extra people (1 is Jan van Eyck), prayer beads hanging
• dogs mean fidelity
• people are standing upright, stiff w/ no emotion on face

Deposition. ca. 1435. Rogier van der Weyden

early ren. in northern europe

• great deal of movement; realistic, dynamic and emotional composition
• Virgin's face - can see anguish on her face; witnessed her son's death; she fainted
• another Mary has cloth to her face with tear running down her face, grief stricken
• oil paint - great details in clothing, etc.
• backgroung - not realistic
• lowering body into enclosed metallic space makes viewers emotion more powerful; symbolic of lowered from cross to tomb
• Mary fainted, we know she'll become conscious again; parallels resurrection; similar posture w/ Jesus, eyes closed

St. Anthony of Egypt Tormented by Demons (engraving) ca. 1480-1490. by Martin Schongauer

early ren. in northern europe

• becomones hermit in dessert, practices self denial; becomes able to levitate/float so devil/demons attack him to bring him back to earth
• uses line for texture

Melun Diptych ca. 1450-1451 by Jean Fouquet

early ren. in northern europe

Portrait of Etienne Chevalier (w/ St. Stephen) 1450

• patrons who worked for the French king and St. Stephen carrying book w/ stone on top - attribute (he was stoned to death, wound in head w/ blood coming out)
• in a church; architecture reminds of Alberti/Italian Ren.
• flemish details on stone and face; oil painting

Virgin and Child (Agnes Sorel?) ca. 1451

• portrait of the King's mistress - she was the model for virgin Mary
• crown - king of heaven
• red and blue angels in background - she's in heaven

Last Supper. Fresco. Sta. Maria delle Grazie, Milan. 1495-1498 by Leonardo da Vinci

high ren. in Italy

• cut a doorway into the room then covered it
• in bad shape, Leo liked to experiment with paint, feet would've been quite visible
• 12 desicples w/ Jesus - Leo. placed Judas w/ the others, but he's the only one in shadow; usually on the other side of the table bcs he betrayed Jesus for 20 silver pieces; bag of silver in pic
• 1 pt. perspective - not continuous, have to look up into the painting; appears to be an ideal realm that rises above naturalism (transcendance)
• split into roughly 3 shapes connected by movement
• expresses emotion of figures - gestures; decorum - appropriate to age
• Judas reaching for bread - Jesus' body
• sky/heavens (trinity, 3 windows) - act as Jesus' halo

Tempietto. San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. 1502 by

Donato Bramante

high ren. in italy

• memorial marker; some Christians believe St. Peter was crucified here
• in a courtyard
• proportions/forms - borrowed from ancient architecture
• implied cylinder movement - doesn't seem as stable or steady; rectangle and squares = stability; steps seem to flow down

David. 1501-1504 by Michelangelo

high ren. in italy

• Michelangelo was commissioned to carve David
• it never reached the cathedral; it's copy is in front of Palazzo, real one is 13 ft. high and in a school
• David was an emblem of Florence
• pictorial sculpture - meant to be seen from the front
• brow is apprehensive
• perfectly proportioned - no blemishes, perfect anatomy, beauty - shows divinity/God's strength
• hand is big bcs thought it was going on top of church

Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Fresco. Vatican, Rome. 1508-1512 by Michelangelo

high ren. in italy

Creation of Adam and Fall of Mankind and Expulsion from Eden

• Michelangelo thought he was primarily a sculptor
• ceiling was originally blue w/ dots - rep. stars
• Pope Sixtus 4th asked him to paint the ceiling
• Mich. wasn't the first to paint here
• fresco painting at the bottom, middle: ?, portaits of Popes at top

Battle of Ten Naked Men. (engraving) ca. 1465 by Pollaiuolo

early ren. in italy

• no clear subject but portrays masculine violence
• gerat deal of attention to anatomy and human figure - may have been created to teach other artists how to paint figures
• engraving: using burins to cut into copper plate, then you fill the plate w/ ink, put it through the press and the press pulls the ink out of the plate onto the paper. invented by Germans
• parallel hatching
• all muscles are flexed
• 2 guys in center are mirrored images

Hercules and Anteus. ca. 1475 by Pollaiuolo

early ren. in italy

•  Anteus' mother was earth goddess
• Anteus can't be overcome by anyone whiile his feet are on the ground - Hercules has to pick him up to complete his task
• focus on muscles/anatomy
• commissioned by Medici family - associating themselves w/ Florence - Hercules was on city seal

Birth of Venus. ca. 1482 by Sandro Botticelli

early ren. in italy

• Venus stands in shell, blown along by wind god - Zephyr, who is embracing Flora - goddess of flowers; mythology
• spring is welcoming Venus ashore
• Figures are stretched out, not as strong of an understanding of anatomy
• no perspective
• focuses on beauty, right shoulder is misformed and elongated body but from a distance it looks beautiful
• classical reference to Venus de Medici

Gonzaga Family. Frescoes. Camera Picta, Ducal Palace, Mantua. 1474 by Andrea Mantegna

early ren. in italy

• first place to have a room where 1 pt. perspective works in all parts of the room
• had oculu on ceiling - looks like an opening - painted window
• theme of room is procreation, celebration of the Gonzaga fam.
• Anteros - in the oculus being crowned, symbolizes desire and married love
• medalions w/ portraits of Roman emporers; wouldn't have happpened in Republican Florence but it's ok in Mantua
• illusionism - ceiling looks vaulted - only painted that way
• ceiling - Anteros is the married cupid, peacock - Goddess Juno - marriage; pot is about to fall on your face

Donatello. Feast of Herod (relief sculpture). ca. 1423-1427

early ren. in italy

• 1 pt. perspective
•          On the baptismal font in Siena Baptistery
• ·         Salome on the right dances like a maenad (Greek woman follower of god Dionysos- usually in a frenzied state)

• ·         Head of John the Baptist being offered to King Herod- everyone recoils in horror

  ·         Rationalized perspective- opens the space (replaces flat space in medieval works)

  o   Romans also used this (painting in villa at Boscoreale)