Early Italian Renaissance Painting I

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Early Italian Renaissance Painting I

• Masaccio
• Fra Angelico
• Mantegna
• Perugino
• And others

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Remember Simone Martini?

• Gothic painter
• Sienese
• Gold Leaf
• Punchwork

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From Gothic to Renaissance

• Even in Italy, the new Renaissance style in
  painting- with its solid volumetric forms,
  perspectively defined space, and references to
  classical antiquity- did not immediately displace
  the International Gothic Style.
• One of the important painters who retained
  elements of the Gothic style, while bridging the
  gap to the Renaissance was Gentile da Fabriano.

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Gentile da Fabriano

• Michelangelo said of him that his works resembled
  his name, meaning noble or refined.
• They are full of a quiet and serene joyousness,
  and he has a naive and innocent delight in
  splendor and in gold ornaments, with which,
  however, his pictures are not overloaded.

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Gentile da Fabriano

• Gentile di Nicco di Giovanni Massi, born in
  Fabriano in Northern Italy, was the son of a
  cloth merchant.
• Major Italian figure in the International Gothic
  style.
• He must have encountered Sienese, (Duccio), art
  at an early age, but all evidence suggests that
  he was trained in the great cultural centers of
  Milan and Verona. ?
• Gentile was, in fact, the most sought-after and
  famous artist in Italy during the first quarter
  of the 15th century.
• This can be seen from his travels to great
  cities, such as Venice, Florence, and Rome. It
  can also be deducted from the large number of
  pupils he attracted, including Jacopo Bellini,
  and Fra Angelico, his greatest heir.

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Fabriano

• The Adoration of the Magi is a large altarpiece
  commissioned by the Strozzi family, who was the
  wealthiest family in Florence at the time.
• Among the International Gothic elements are the
• steeply rising ground plane
• graceful figural poses
• brightly colored costumes and textile patterns
• gold accents
• naturalistic rendering of the details of the
  setting.

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• Gentile da Fabriano
• Adoration of the Magi
• 1423
• Tempera on wood
• Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

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How are they different?

• Martini c. 1333
  Fabriano c. 1423

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detail of The Adoration

• What do you think when you look at this detailed
  section?

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• Fabriano

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Masaccio

• In the 1420s. Vasari said, He may be ranked
  among the first who freed themselves of the
  imperfections and difficulties of the art ...
  giving figures a natural relief that no painter
  had succeeded in obtaining before.

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Masaccio (1401-1427?)

• First great painter of the Italian Renaissance,
  whose innovations in the use of scientific
  perspective inaugurated the modern era in
  painting
• Masaccio, originally named Tommaso Cassai, was
  born near Florence, in 1401.
• His remarkably individual style owed little to
  other painters, except possibly the great
  14th-century master Giotto.
• He was most strongly influenced by the architect
  Brunelleschi and the sculptor Donatello both of
  whom were his contemporaries in Florence.

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• From Brunelleschi, Masaccio acquired a knowledge
  of mathematical proportion that was crucial to
  his revival of the principles of scientific
  perspective.
• From Donatello he gained a knowledge of classical
  art that led him away from the prevailing Gothic
  style.
• He inaugurated a new naturalistic approach to
  painting that was concerned less with details and
  ornamentation than with simplicity and unity,
  less with flat surfaces than with the illusion of
  three dimensionality.
• Together with Brunelleschi and Donatello, he was
  a founder of the Renaissance

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The Trinity

• The Trinity was meant to give the illusion of a
  stone funerary monument and altar table set below
  a deep aedicule, a framed niche in the wall.
• The praying donors in front are probably Domenico
  Lenzi and his wife.

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• Massacio created the unusual trompe loeil effect
  of looking up into a barrel vaulted niche through
  precisely rendered linear perspective.
• The painted architecture is an unusual
  combination of classical orders.
• The Trinity is represented by Jesus on the Cross,
  the Dove of the Holy Spirit poised in downward
  flight above his halo, and God the Father stands
  behind the Cross

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• Whats the difference?
• Left Fabriano Right
  Masaccio

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The Brancacci Chapel Frescos

• Masaccios brief career reached its height in his
  collaboration with a painter known as Masolino on
  the fresco decoration of the Brancacci chapel in
  the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in
  Florence.
• Unfortunately, the painters never finished their
  work and the frescos were never finished.
  Eventually another Florentine painter, Filippo
  Lippi, finished the paintings.

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Top Masaccio
Bottom Masolino
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The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden1426-27

• The scene has been compared to Masolino's fresco
  of the Temptation in the same chapel.
• Masaccio's concrete and dramatic portrayal of the
  figures, his truly innovative Renaissance spirit,
  stand in striking contrast to Masolino's late
  Gothic scene, lacking in psychological depth.
• In Masaccio's painting man, although a sinner,
  has not lost his dignity he appears neither
  debased nor degraded, and the beauty of his body
  is a blend of classical archetypes and innovative
  forms of expression.

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Masaccio 1426
Masolino 1426
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Florence versus Flanders

• Masaccios fresco has also been compared to Jan
  van Eycks painting of Adam and Eve from the
  Ghent Altarpiece.
• A comparison of Masaccios figures with those of
  van Eyck clarifies the differences between the
  artists of Florence and Flanders, and between
  15th century Italian and Flemish painting in
  general.

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• Masaccio worked in fresco Van Eyck in oil. Why
  is that significant?
• Both studied nude human figures and worked in a
  realistic style.
• BUT, Jan captured every detail, every nuance of
  the surface of the figures, while Masaccio
  represented the mass of the bodies formed by
  their underlying structure.

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• Both painters represented figures modeled by
  light.
• BUT van Eyck used an intense single light
  source, Masaccio a more generalized one, but
  still focused illumination.

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• Jan focused on traditional Christian wrongdoing
  and the forbidden fruit.
• Masaccio, however, was concerned with the
  psychology of individual humans, who have been
  cast mourning and protesting out of paradise.

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• Van Eyck painted Adam and Eve as ordinary people
  he might have seen in the market.
• Masaccio focused more on capturing the essence of
  humanity, thrown naked into the world.

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MasaccioThe Tribute Money1426-27, Fresco
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Masaccios The Tribute Money

• Another famous work by Masaccio, The Tribute
  Money, is on the same wall in the Brancacci
  Chapel as The Expulsion.
• It is considered one of his most innovative
  painting because it is rendered in a continuous
  narrative made up of three scenes within one
  setting.
• The story is about Jesus and Peter and the
  collection of taxes.
• It is significant because when it was painted the
  Florentines were in the middle of a controversy
  about raising taxes for military campaigns.

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• It is rendered in a continuous narrative made up
  of three scenes within one setting.
• The Tribute Money is remarkable for its
  integration of figures, architecture, and
  landscape into a consistent whole.
• Masaccio uses both linear perspective and
  atmospheric perspective.

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• Saint Peter challenging the Temple tax collector.
• What are some compositional devices used by
  Masaccio?

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• Masaccio modeled the foreground figures with
  strong highlights and cast their long shadows to
  the left.
• There was an actual window in the chapel, placed
  so that it implied an actual light source of the
  painting

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• The frescoes in the chapel were recently cleaned,
  and it revealed that it in fact Masaccios work
  contained much more fine detail than originally
  believed, making the painting more similar to the
  work of van Eyck.

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• Because his style was so innovative, Masaccio was
  not overly popular in his day, but subsequent
  generations, like Michelangelo, truly valued him,
  and studied and sketched often at the Brancacci
  Chapel

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Paolo Uccello

• Battle of San Romano, 1438, Tempera on wood
• This is one of three panel paintings commissioned
  by the powerful Medici family for a room in their
  palace in Florence.
• Commemorates a battle between Florence and rival
  Siena.

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Fra Angelico

• The tradition of covering walls in paintings in
  fresco continued through the century. One of the
  biggest projects was the decoration of the
  Dominican monastery of Saint Marco in Florence in
  1435.
• The Dominican monk Fra Angelico, the angelic
  brother, led the painting. Each monks cell in
  the monastery had a painting to inspire
  meditation.

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• Fra Angelico
• The Entombment
• Altarpiece San Marcos

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• Fra Angelico
• Martyrdom of Cosmos and Damian
• Altarpiece San Marcos

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• Each monks cell in the monastery had a painting
  to inspire meditation.
• In one cell Fra Angelico painted The
  Annunciation.
• The arch frame echoes the curvature of the cell
  wall, and the plain white interior of the
  illusionistic space appears almost to be a
  niche-like extension of the cell space.

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Fra Angelicos, Annunciation, San
Marcos Monastery c. 1441-45
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• The effect is that of looking through a window
  onto a scene that was taking place in the
  cloister portico.
• The style of the portico in the painting is
  similar to a building technique that Fra Angelico
  would have known from the loggia of
  Brunelleschis Foundling Hospital.

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• Does this look Gothic to you?

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Andrea de Castagno

• The Last Supper
• 1445-1450
• Fresco in San Apollonia

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• Painted on the wall of a the dining room in a
  convent of cloistered nuns

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• Very interesting architectural space
• Individualized figures, very sharp focus, not
  much interaction
• Judas is on the opposite side of the table
• Check out the wild marbling above his head.

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• Judas is symbolically separated by his guilt from
  the others.
• Appears to be already eating before Jesus has
  blessed the bread.
• What do you think of the wild marbling above
  Judass head ?
• Some historians claim it represents lightening
  striking Judas.

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This fresco is mentioned in Dan BrownsThe da
Vinci code

• Andrea del Castagno does the same," said Sophie.
  
• "You can see how the picture continues the room.
  And you can see the same drama, with Judas, dark
  and menacing, over against Jesus. Andrea brings
  back the disciple whom Jesus loved. She is
  leaning affectionately, caressing Jesus' hand.
  Let's have a closer look.
• "There they are, the central actors in the drama
  Peter, Jesus, Judas, and the woman." Sophie
  turned to Teabing. "Have you noticed how Andrea
  del Castagno even labels two of them, down
  below?"
• Teabing squinted and then read "S. Petrus, St
  Peter and S Iohannes, St John. But ... but ...
  Surely that's Mary Magdalene?"

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Andrea Mantegna

• One of the most influential 15th century painters
  working outside of Florence was Andrea Mantegna
  of Padua.
• He entered the painters guild at age fifteen.
• The greatest influence on the young artist was
  the sculptor Donatello, who had worked in Padua
  for a decade.

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• By the time Donatello had left Mantua, Mantegna
  had fully absorbed the sculptors linear
  perspective system, which he pushed to the limit.
  
• He experimented in radical perspective views and
  the foreshortening of figures.
• In 1459, Mantegna went to work for the ruler of
  Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga, and pretty much worked
  there for the rest of his life.
• His mature style is characterized by the
  virtuosity of his use of perspective, his
  skillful integration of figures into their
  setting, and his love of naturalistic details.
• Left, The Family of Ludivico Gonzaga, by Mantegna

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• His finest works are the frescos of the Camera
  Picta, the painted room, which was a tower
  chamber in Gonzagas ducal palace.

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• On the dome ceiling he demonstrated his skill
  with a form of radical perspective called di
  sotto in su, which means seen from directly
  below.
• This painting began a long tradition of
  illusionistic ceiling painting.
• Can you see the classical influence?

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• Ceiling Oculus in the Camera degli Sposi,
  Mantova, 1465

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• Left, The Court of Mantua (detail)1471-74, Fresco
• Right, Villa of Mysteries, c. 50 CE, Pompeii,
  Fresco

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• Mantegna, Crucifixion, 1457-59, Tempera on panel
• Where is the viewer?
• What is the point of view?

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• Mantegna
• St Sebastian 1456-59

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Radical PerspectiveandForeshortening

• Mantegna, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ c.
  1490
• Tempera on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

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Pietro Vannucci, aka Perugino

• Not only was the Renaissance flourishing in the
  city of Florence, under the influence of Pope
  Sixtus the Fourth, Rome was also becoming a
  Renaissance center.
• The pope called for artists from across Italy to
  come to the city to decorate the walls of his
  newly built Sistine Chapel.
• This revival spread not only within the Vatican,
  but also to the city of Rome as a whole.
• Among the artists who went to Rome was Pietro
  Vannucci, known as Perugino.
• Perugino painted several frescoes in the Vatican,
  including some in the Sistine Chapel.

Saint Lucy, ca. 1505, Oil (?) on wood, 63 x 26
3/8 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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• Two frescoes by Perugino in the Sistine Chapel
• Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter and The Last
  Supper

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• Perugino, Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter
• 1481-82, Fresco, Cappella Sistina, Vatican

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• This painting portrayed the event that provided
  biblical support for the supremacy of papal
  authority.
• It depicts Christ giving the keys to heaven to
  the apostle Peter, who became the first bishop of
  Rome.

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• Delivery of the Keys is a remarkable work in
  carefully studied linear perspective that reveals
  much about Renaissance ideas and ideals.
• Note the geometric grid, placement of the figures
  like chess pieces on the squares, scaled and
  sized according to their distance from the
  picture plane, and modeled by consistent light
  source from the upper left.

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• Horizontally, the composition is divided between
  the lower frieze of massive figures and the band
  of widely spaced buildings above.

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• Vertically, it is divided by the open space at
  the center, between Christ and Peter, and by the
  symmetrical architectural forms on each side of
  this central axis.

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• Note how the triumphal arches inspired by ancient
  Rome frame the church and draw attention to the
  center of the composition.

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• The carefully calibrated scene is softened by the
  subdued colors, the distant idealized landscape
  and cloudy skies, and the variety of the figures
  positions.

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• What is going on with the two groups of figures
  in the background?

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• On the left, there is a scene reminiscent of
  Masaccios fresco, The Tribute Money

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Some art historians believe the scene on the
right depicts the stoning of a figure, perhaps
Christ.
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Domenico Ghirlandio

• Birth of the Virgin, 1485-90
• Freco, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

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• Religious scene set in a Florentine home
• Saint Anne is on the left in her Classically
  decoratd room
• Midwives are busy preparing for Marys birth
• The daughter of the patron is portrayed in the
  center
• Upper left corner, second scene illustrating the
  meeting of Anne and her husband Joachim

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Remember Antonio del Pollaiuolo the sculptor?

• Also a painter, engraver and goldsmith
• His brother, Piero, was also an artist, and the
  two frequently worked together.
• Their work shows both classical influences and an
  interest in human anatomy reportedly, the
  brothers carried out dissections to improve their
  knowledge of the subject
• An activity frowned upon by the Catholic Church

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Battle of Ten Nudes

• Pollaiuolo, c. 1465
• Engraving

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• Unknown subject matter, perhaps a study of nudes
  in action, Classical ideal
• Precise anatomy, evidence of dissections,
  Renaissance search for knowledge
• Very interested in muscles under tension

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• Works referenced
• Marilyn Stockstads Art History Second Edition
  (Volumes one and two)
• Metropolitan Museum of Arts Timeline of Art
  History. Available online at lthttp//www.metmuse
  um.org/toah/splash.htmgt
• The Web Gallery of Art. Available online at
  lthttp//www.wga.hugt