Chapter 20

Art History Volume 2

Stokstad & Cothren

Pearson

Chapter 20
Renaissance Art in Fifteenth–Century Italy

An interest in scientific investigation
blossomed into the development and
use of linear perspective throughout
fifteenth-century Italian painting.

New focus on artistic competition and
individual achievement created a
climate for innovative and ambitious
works.

Humanism and the Italian
Renaissance

•  Cities grew in wealth as people migrated from the
countryside, and commerce became increasingly vital.

•  Italian humanists looked back to art and determined
that achievements of the Classical world were
followed by a perceived decline.
!  They sought to revive physical and literary records

of the ancient world.
•  Artists turned to antiquity for inspiration and emulated

what they saw in ancient Roman sculpture and
architecture.

•  Italian painters and sculptors increasingly rendered
the illusion of physical reality in a more analytical way
than that of northerners.

Florence

•  The fifteenth century witnessed the rise
of the Medici family, who made their
money through banking.

•  The competitive atmosphere fostered
both mercantile and artistic success.

•  Florence was considered a republic.
! Artists could look to the Church, state

(government and guilds), and
individuals for patronage.

Architecture
•  The defining civic project in Florence was the

cathedral.
!  Construction began in the late thirteenth century,

but architects did not yet have technology to
complete the designed dome.

•  Filippo Brunelleschi
!  Brunelleschi was a principal pioneer of Florentine

architecture.
!  The Dome of Florence Cathedral was a feat of

engineering, with an octagonal outer shell and
lower inner shell.
•  Each portion reinforced the next one as it was

built layer by layer with no external support.

Filippo Brunelleschi DOME OF FLORENCE CATHEDRAL (SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE)
1420-1436; lantern completed 1471. [Fig. 20-04]

Art and Its Contexts:
The Competition Reliefs

•  Florence Cathedral sponsored a
competition for the artist of the bronze
doors and chose the scene of
Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.

•  Surviving panels belong to assumed
finalists Lorenzo Ghiberti and
Brunelleschi.

Art and Its Contexts:
The Competition Reliefs

•  Brunelleschi’s composition is rugged,
explosive, and intense.

•  Ghiberti’s version is graceful with
controlled poses and harmonious
pairing of son and father.
! His work proved to be lighter and less

expensive when he was declared winner.
•  Brunelleschi withdrew his entry.

Filippo Brunelleschi SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
1401-1402. Bronze with gilding, 21″ × 17-1/2″ (53 × 44 cm) inside molding.

Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. [Fig. 20-02]

Lorenzo Ghiberti SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
1401-1402. Bronze with gilding, 21″ × 17-1/2″ (53 × 44 cm) inside molding.

Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. [Fig. 20-3]

Sculpture

•  The Gates of Paradise
! Rival to Brunelleschi, Lorenzo Ghiberti

labored on the bronze doors for
Florence’s baptistery, which were
installed in 1452.

! The story of Jacob and Esau
demonstrates his attention to one-point
perspective.

Lorenzo Ghiberti “GATES OF PARADISE” (EAST BAPTISTERY DOORS)
Formerly on the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence. 1425-1452.

Gilt bronze, height 15′ (4.57 m).
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. [Fig. 20-16]

Lorenzo Ghiberti JACOB AND ESAU, PANEL OF THE “GATES OF PARADISE”
(EAST BAPTISTERY DOORS)

Formerly on the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence. c. 1435.
Gilded bronze, 31 1/4″ (79 cm) square.

Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence. [Fig. 20-17]

Technique: Renaissance
Perspective

•  Linear perspective was a rational
method used to make realistic
architectural settings.

•  Imaginary lines called orthogonals met
at a single vanishing point on the
horizon.

•  Variations in color and clarity can also
convey the feeling of distance in a
painting.

Perugino CHRIST GIVING THE KEYS TO ST. PETER, WITH A SCHEMATIC DRAWING
SHOWING THE ORTHOGONALS AND VANISHING POINT

Fresco on the right wall of the Sistine Chapel (see FIG. 20-33), Vatican, Rome. 1481.
11’5-1/2″ × 18’8-1/2″ (3.48 × 5.70 m). [Fig. 20-20a]

Perugino CHRIST GIVING THE KEYS TO ST. PETER, WITH A SCHEMATIC DRAWING
SHOWING THE ORTHOGONALS AND VANISHING POINT

Fresco on the right wall of the Sistine Chapel (see FIG. 20-33), Vatican, Rome. 1481.
11’5-1/2″ × 18’8-1/2″ (3.48 × 5.70 m). [Fig. 20-20b]

Painting

•  After a tradition of fresco painting,
artists began to turn to oil paints.

•  Masaccio
! Masaccio (1401–1428) painted the

Trinity fresco to give the illusion that a
stone funerary monument and alter
receded into a deep aedicula niche.

! The figures progress into space.
! A skeleton evokes mortality in viewers.

Masaccio TRINITY WITH THE VIRGIN, ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, AND DONORS
Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. c. 1425-1427/1428.

Fresco, 21′ × 10’5″ (6.4 × 3.2 m). [Fig. 20-18]

SECTION DIAGRAM OF THE ILLUSIONISTIC SPATIAL WORLD PORTRAYED IN
MASACCIO’S TRINITY

After Gene Brucker, Florence: The Golden Age, Berkeley, 1998. [Fig. 20-19]

Painting

•  The Brancacci Chapel
! The Tribute Money marks early use of

linear and atmospheric perspective.
• Foreground figures have bold highlights
and long shadows on the ground.

Masaccio THE TRIBUTE MONEY
Brancacci Chapel, church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. c. 1427.

Fresco, 8’1″ × 19’7″ (2.46 × 6 m). [Fig. 20-22]

Painting in Florence After Masaccio

•  Fra Angelico
! The pious Fra Angelico worked in

Florence as early as 1417.
! His Annunciation uses linear perspective

to extend the corridor of the monastery
where it was painted into an imagined
portico and garden.
• Graceful figures render the scene with
contemporary details.

Fra Angelico ANNUNCIATION
North dormitory corridor, monastery of San Marco, Florence. c. 1438-1445.

Fresco, 7’1″ × 10’6″ (2.2 × 3.2 m). [Fig. 20-23]

Painting in Florence After Masaccio

•  Uccello
! Paolo Uccello emerged as an eccentric

painter specializing in the study of linear
perspective.
• An example is seen in The Battle of San
Romano.

Paolo Uccello THE BATTLE OF SAN ROMANO
1438-1440. Tempera on wood panel, approx. 6′ × 10’6″ (1.82 × 3.2 m).

National Gallery, London. [Fig. 20-24]

Painting in Florence After Masaccio

•  Castagno
! Andrea del Castagno is best known for

The Last Supper, a fresco showing Jesus
and his followers at a humble-looking
house.

! Judas takes a traditional position on the
viewer’s side of the table.

Andrea del Castagno THE LAST SUPPER
Refectory, convent of Sant’Apollonia, Florence. 1447.

Fresco, width approx. 16′ × 32′ (4.6 × 9.8 m). [Fig. 20-25]

Rome

•  Botticelli and Ghirlandaio were some of
the first famous artists summoned to
paint the Sistine Chapel, but art
historians believe Perugino supervised
the project.

•  Perugino
! Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter

detailed figures with perfect scale,
modeling, and perspective.

VIEW OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL SHOWING PAINTINGS COMMISSIONED FOR THE SIDE
WALLS BY POPE SIXTUS IV

Vatican, Rome. At lower right, Perugino’s Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter,
c. 1480-1482. 11’5-1/2″ × 18’8-1/2″ (3.48 × 5.70 m). [Fig. 20-41]

Florence

•  Ghirlandaio
! Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds

was the altarpiece of the chapel, still in
its original frame.
• It was heavily influenced by the Portinari
Altarpiece, but also draws upon Classical
references to Rome.
• Aerial perspective creates a seamless
transition of color.

Domenico Ghirlandaio NATIVITY AND ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
Altarpiece in the Sassetti Chapel, church of Santa Trinità, Florence. 1485.

Panel, 65 3/4″ square (1.67 m square). [Fig. 20-33]

Florence

•  Botticelli
! The overall appearance of Primavera

recalls Flemish tapestries.
• It is a complex allegory of Neoplatonic
philosophers’ conceptions of Venus as
having two natures.
• It was painted at the time of the wedding
of Lorenzo de’ Medici and Semiramide
d’Appiano in 1482.

A CLOSER LOOK: Primavera
by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1482. Tempera on wood panel.

6’8″ × 10’4″ (2.03 × 3.15 m). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.