Chapter Seven

The RenaissanceThe RenaissanceFlorence, Rome, and Venice

Renaissance

• The word “Renaissance,” from the Italian rinascita, “rebirth,” became widely used in the nineteenth century

• The Renaissance was an age of intellectual exploration, in which the humanist strove to understand in ever more precise and scientific terms the nature of humanity and its relationship to the natural world

• Beliefs and values of the medieval world were transformed in Italy

• Three of the main city-states that became centers of culture during this period were Florence, Rome, and Venice

Major Italian City-States During the Renaissance

Florence• Florence, the preeminent Italian city-state in the fifteenth century,

was home to the powerful Medici family, whose wealth derived from their considerable banking interests

• Although the Medici never ruled Florence outright, over the course of 76 years (1418-1494), they molded and manipulated, controlled and cajoled, persuaded and provoked the citizens of Florence

• No better event exemplifies the nature of the Italian Renaissance and anticipates the character of Florence than a competition held in 1401 to choose a designer for a pair of bronze doors for the city’s baptistery, a building standing in front of the cathedral and used for the Christian rite of baptism

Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistery)

• Legend about site is that a Roman temple to Mars had stood at that location, subsequently rededicated to Saint John the Baptist

• The original doors had fallen into disrepair, so the “Arte della Lana” (Cloth Merchants Guild) was determined to create a new set of doors hoping to bring God’s favor on the city that had been devastated by plague and siege

• Seven artists were charged with creating a bronze relief panel depicting the Hebrew Bible’s story of the Sacrifice of Isaac (Gen. 22) in a 21 17½-inch quatrefoil (a four-leaf clover shape set on a diamond)

• All but two designs, both by little-known 24-year-old goldsmiths—Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti—were eliminated

The Two Finalists

Brunelleschi’s Ghiberti’s

The Gates of Paradise

• The judges selected Ghiberti’s design, and for the next 22 years, he worked on the designs for the north doors, creating 28 panels illustrating the New Testament

• Upon those doors’ completion in 1424, the Cloth Merchants Guild commissioned a second set of doors for the east side, these consisting of ten square panels depicting scenes from the Hebrew Bible; they would take Ghiberti another 27 years to complete

• The east doors are known as the Gates of Paradise because they open onto the paradiso, the area between the baptistery and the entrance to its cathedral

• Ghiberti meant to follow the lead of the ancients in creating realistic figures in realistic space

The Story of Adam and EveEast Doors of the Baptistery, ca. 1425-37

• The first panel depicts four episodes: the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Temptation, and the Expulsion

• The influence of classical antiquity is clear in the portrayal of Eve, a Venus of recognizably Hellenistic origin

• Adam resembles the recumbent god from the east pediment of the Parthenon

Solomon and ShebaEast Doors of the Baptistery, ca. 1425-37

• The only panel to represent a single event in its space

• The reunification of the eastern Orthodox church (Sheba) and the western Catholic church (Solomon)

• Reunification of the two branches of the church would have restored symmetry and balance to a divided church just as Ghiberti had achieved balance and symmetry in his art

Brunelleschi’s Dome

• Brunelleschi, who had left Florence for Rome following his loss in the Baptistery doors competitions, produced the winning design in another competition, this one to create a dome for the Florence Cathedral

• He based his design on his studies of ancient buildings, including the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the remains of the Baths of Caracalla, and the Domus Aurea (Golden Palace)

• Brunelleschi’s design eliminated the need for temporary wooden scaffolding. Eight large ribs, visible on the outside, alternating with eight pairs of thinner ribs beneath the roof, all tied together by only nine sets of horizontal ties, would be able to support the dome. Additional support could be achieved through the use of lightweight bricks set in an interlocking herringbone pattern

Brunelleschi’s Dome and LanternDome, 1420-36; lantern, after 1446

Principles of Brunelleschi’s One-Point Perspective

• All parallel lines in a visual field appear to converge at a single vanishing point on horizon

• These parallel lines are realized on the picture plane as diagonal lines called orthogonals

• Forms diminish in scale as they approach along these orthogonals

• The vanishing point is directly opposite the eye of the beholder, who stands at the vantage point

"Perspective: 15th Century Techniques"

From Perspective (length: 4:02). Item #7767 © 1997

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Masaccio, The Tribute Money Fresco, 8' 1¼" 19' 7", 1420s

The vanishing point of the painting, which decorates the Brancacci family chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, is behind the head of Christ, where the orthogonals of the architecture on the right converge.

Donatello, David Bronze, 62¼", 1440s

• Stood in courtyard of the Medici palace bearing the following inscription: “The victor is whoever defends the fatherland. All-powerful God crushes the angry enemy. Behold a boy overcame the great tyrant. Conquer, o citizens”

• Soft, elegant, refined young man in a feminine contrapposto pose might represent the virtue of the Florentine republic as a whole

• First life-sized freestanding male nude sculpted since antiquity

Sandro Botticelli, PrimaveraTempera on panel, 6' 8" 10' 4", early 1480s

Primavera captures the spirit of the Medici court—celebrating love, not only in a Neoplatonic sense, as a spiritual, humanist endeavor, but also in a more direct, physical way.

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa Oil on wood, 30¼" 21", 1503-15

• For generations viewers have asked, Who is this woman? What is she thinking about? What is her relation to the artist?

• Leonardo fuses his subject with the landscape behind her by means of light. He called this technique sfumato (“smokiness”)

• The painting’s hazy effects could only be achieved by building up color with many layers of oil paint—a process called glazing

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper

• This monumental fresco was commissioned by Lodovico Sforza, duke of Milan, to decorate the north wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie. The intent was that at every meal the monks would contemplate Christ’s last meal in a wall-sized painting

• What is unique in this painting is the psychological realism—each apostle reacts in a characteristic way to Christ’s announcement that one will betray him (Peter grabs knife, Judas turns away, John faints, Thomas points upward as if questioning)

• Leonardo utilizes perfect one-point perspective—the vanishing point is directly behind Christ’s head, focusing the viewer’s attention and establishing Christ as the most important figure in the work

Leonardo, The Last Supper Fresco, oil, and tempera on plaster, 15' 1-1/8" 28'' 10½"

ca. 1485-98

Rome at the Beginning of the 15th Century

• In the early 15th century, Rome seemed a pitiful place. Its population had shrunk from around 1 million in 100 CE to under 20,000 as the result of the Black Death

• The ancient Colosseum was now in the countryside, the Forum was a pasture for goats and cattle, and the aqueducts had collapsed

• The popes had even abandoned the city when in 1309 Avignon was established as the seat of the Church. When Rome reestablished itself as the titular seat of the Church in 1379, succeeding popes rarely chose to visit the city, let alone live in it

Anonymous, View of RomeOil on canvas, ca. 1550

Donato Bramante, Tempietto1502

• Bramante’s Tempietto (Little Temple), built directly over what was revered as the site of Saint Peter’s Martyrdom, is modeled after a classical temple

• The 16 exterior columns are Doric, their shafts original ancient Roman granite columns

• Diameter of the shaft defines the entire plan. Each shaft is spaced four diameters from the next, and the colonnade they form is two diameters from the circular walls

Michelangelo, David Marble, 17' 13", 1501-04

• Michelangelo represents David before, not after, his triumph, confident, ready to take on whatever challenge faces him

• Each night, as workers installed the statue in the Piazza della Signoria, supporters of the exiled Medici hurled stones at it

• Others objected to the statue’s nudity, and before it was even in place, a skirt of copper leaves was prepared to spare the general public any possible offense

Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

• While working on Julius II’s tomb, Michelangelo was commanded by Julius to paint the 45- by 128-foot ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. At first he refused, but in 1508 he reconsidered and began the task

• Michelangelo designed an ambitious plan—nine scenes from Genesis, surrounded by prophets, Sibyls, the ancestors of Christ, and other scenes, narrating events before the coming of the law of Moses

• To paint the ceiling, Michelangelo had to construct a scaffold that moved down the chapel from the entrance to the altar. Thus, the first frescoes painted were the Noah group, and the last, the Creation

Sistine Chapel Ceiling Fresco, 45' 128', 1508-12

Creation of Adam

• With the Creation of Eve serving as the center panel, Michelangelo planned the ceiling as a pairing of opposites, with the scenes before Eve representing Creation before the knowledge of good and evil entered the world, and everything after her showing the early history of fallen mankind

• In the Creation of Adam, Adam is lethargic, passive; God flies through the skies carrying behind him a bulging red drapery that suggests both the womb and the brain, creativity and reason

• Adam, father of humankind, and God the Father are posed along parallel diagonals, and their right legs are in nearly identical positions. The fluttering green ribbon in God’s space echoes the colors of the earth upon which Adam lies

Michelangelo, Creation of AdamSistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome, 1510

Michelangelo, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl

Red Chalk, 11-3/8" 8-7/26", ca. 1520

Michelangelo, Libyan SibylFresco, 1512

A virtuoso display of technique mastery, the Libyan Sibyl underwent dramatic changes between Michelangelo’s preliminary sketches and the final painting.

Raphael

• As Michelangelo was beginning work on the Sistine ceiling, the young painter Raphael arrived in Rome and quickly secured a commission from Julius II to paint the pope’s private rooms in the Vatican Palace

• The first of these rooms was the Stanza della Segnature, Room of the Signature, which Julius used as a library

• On each of the four walls Raphael was to paint one of the four major areas of human learning: Law and Justice, to be represented by the Cardinal Virtues; the Arts, to be represented by Mount Parnassus; Theology, to be represented by the Disputà, or Dispute over the Sacrament; and Philosophy, to be represented by the School of Athens. Two scenes had classical themes, the other two Christian

Raphael, School of AthensFresco, 19' 27', 1510-11

Raphael, Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi

Panel, 60½" 47", 1517

• After Julius died in 1513, the new pope, Leo X, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, quickly hired Raphael for other commissions

• His portrait of Leo suggests a new direction in Raphael’s art. The lighting is more somber, and there is greater emphasis on the material reality of the scene

• The painting creates a sense of drama, as if the viewer is witness to an important historical moment

Michelangelo, Laurentian Library Staircase

Designed beginning 1524; completed 1559

• Michelangelo’s most original contribution to the library, which was designed to house the Medici’s book collection, is the large triple stairway

• The cascading waterfall effect suggests that Michelangelo was becoming increasingly interested in exploring realms of the imagination beyond the humanist vision of a rational world governed by structural logic

Santi di Tito, Niccolò Machiavellica. 1510

• A humanist scholar, Machiavelli (1469-1527) had studied the behavior of ancient Roman rulers and citizens at great length

• In 1512, Machiavelli was dismissed from his post as second chancellor, wrongfully accused of being involved in a plot to overthrow the new heads of state, imprisoned, tortured, and finally exiled permanently to a country home in the hills above Florence

• There, beginning in 1513, he wrote The Prince, his essay on political power

The High Renaissance in Venice

• Of all the Italian cities, Venice alone could claim invincibility because it possessed the natural fortification of being surrounded on all sides by water

• Venice considered itself blessed by Saint Mark, whose relics resided in the cathedral of Saint Mark’s

• A center of fashion, Venice provided the continent with satins, velvets, and brocades

• During the Renaissance, an elaborate, sensuous style of architecture would develop in Venice

View of the Doge’s Palace, with Saint Mark’s Cathedral to the Left

Masters of the Venetian High Renaissance:Giorgione and Titian

• The two great masters of painting in the Venetian High Renaissance were Giorgione da Castelfranco, known simply as Giorgione (ca. 1478-1510), and Tiziano Vecelli, known as Titian (ca. 1489-1576)

• Giorgione especially had been inspired by Leonardo’s visit to Venice in 1500. As did Leonardo in his landscapes, Giorgione and Titian built up color on their canvases by means of glazing

• Their paintings, like the great palaces of Venice whose reflections shimmered on the Grand Canal, demonstrate an exquisite sensitivity to the play of light and shadow, to the luxurious display of detail and design, and to an opulent variety of pattern and texture

Giorgione, TempestOil on canvas, 31¼" 28¾", ca. 1509

• Nothing about this painting could be called controlled. The landscape is overgrown and weedy—just as the man and woman are disheveled and disrobed

• Lightning has revealed to the viewer a scene not meant to be witnessed

• Sensuality, even outright sexuality, would become a primary subject of Venetian art

Pastoral Concert

• A harmony of opposites: male and female, clothed and nude, the nobleman and the peasant, court music and folk song, city and country, and so on

• Musical instruments (the lute and the flute)—metaphors for parts of male and female anatomy, a usage common in both the art and the literature of the period

• Narrative presents a purposefully mysterious dream world, giving the viewer’s imagination the freedom to play

Giorgione, Pastoral ConcertOil on canvas, 43¼" 54-3/8", ca. 1510

Titian, Sacred and Profane LoveOil on canvas, 46½" 109-7/8", ca. 1514

Two female figures—nude is sacred love and luxuriously clothed is earthly or profane love—probably represent two aspects of the same woman.

Titian, Reclining Nude (Venus of Urbino)

Oil on canvas, 47" 65", ca. 1538

More real woman than ethereal goddess, this “Venus” stares out at the viewer with matter-of-factness, suggesting she is totally comfortable with her nudity.