15TH CENTURY ART IN EUROPEThe Early Renaissance

1400—1499 CE

Geography of Focus

City-States are growing more stable and more in contact with international cultures, i.e. Arabic culture

Republican States (led by the “people”) are forming—Venice, Florence

Florence, The Center of the Renaissance

A focus for trade as you have to intersect it to get W-E and N-S

Guiding Events and FiguresThese may be political, scientific, literary, philosophical, religious

Johan Gutenberg invents the printing press in 1455

Between 1456 and 1500, more books published than had been copied in the previous thousand years

ca. 1495, Savonarola takes control of Florence

Reflections of the Age

Petrarchan Sonnet 14 lines of sestet

and octet based on mathematical proportion and harmony Reducible ratios of

4:4 and 3:3 (each 1:1)

Niccolo Machiavelli’s

The Prince Emphasizes the

need to be feared rather than loved, if one cannot be both

LITERATURE PHILOSOPHY

What makes man great?Power (the Medici)

Humanism

Imitation (the Guilds and Apprentices)

Reason and Mathematical Harmony

Religious Piety through Portraiture

How people answer this question depends on their social status, profession, political position, and philosophical point of view.

Guiding Question…

Political Power

What makes man great?

Civic Duty One’s responsibility is to give

back to the community From everyone who has been given

much, much will be required –New American Standard Bible 1995

Much of what is commissioned is propogandic—serves the agenda of the patron first and foremost

Secular corporations that controlled city tradeArte di Calimala (wool)Arte del Cambio (banking)Arte della Seta (silk and bronze)

Social networks that provided public services Ospedale Degli Innocenti

Political engines that run civic government

Guilds or Arti

Many artists of the early Renaissance will be responsible for filling the niches with commissioned works of art.

Or San Michele, Florence, Italy

The MediciFamily

Portraits of Cosimo and Lorenzo by Bronzino and Vasari, respectively

De facto rulers of Florence (they are not elected or royal)

Bankers to the Papacy

Commission architecture, paintings, and sculpture to present an identity of an educated, powerful, and religiously pious family

The Medici

Petrarch, 1304—72

Father of Humanism

Humanism

What makes man great?

That he is an individual.

Emphasis on Reason Emphasis on his ability to

observe the natural world as a manifestation of the DIVINE

Emphasis on individual achievements (rather than on the collective)

Education key to righteousness Classical Education

Greco-Roman arts and texts

Donatello’s David

First male nude since ancient history Based on proportion

Heroic, idealized figure Biblical character used

to personify individual triumph

Stance is the contropposto Balanced Natural stance

Greco-Roman Influence

DONATELLO,

David,

EARLY RENAISSANCE

POLYKLEITOS,

Canon,

CLASSICAL GREEK

Influenced by Brunelleschi’s travels to Rome with his friend Donatello

Inspired by the Pantheon

Based on mathematical formulae

Brunelleschi’s Florentine Duomo, ca. 1400

Roman Influence

Duomo, Florence, Italy Pantheon, Rome, Italy

Mathematically Reasoned

Based on the ratios 6:4:2:3

Compare to Guillaume Dufay’s musical composition, Nuper Rosarum Flores

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus

Secular image of Roman mythological figures Venus, the Greek

Aphrodite Venus, the

Goddess of Love and Beauty

Reference to Venus Pudica

Venus Pudica, Massimo, Italy

A Type

A Modest Venus

Goddess acting humanly—the divine made material

Alberti’s, Sant’Andrea, Mantua, Italy

Façade informed by Greek and Roman Temples Fluted Columns Corinthian

Capitals Pediment Rounded arc h Triumphal Arch

Interior based on the Roman Forum where legal proceedings occurred

Barrel Vault of the Romans

Coffered Ceilings of the Pantheon

Rejects the aisled basilica plan of the past 1,000 years

Imitation

What makes man great?

Guilds and apprenticeship What the master teaches, the

apprentice should imitate exactly One’s talent lies in how well one

masters the technique Little to no self-expression

What is observed in nature should be represented in art

Masaccio’s Trinity, at Santa Maria Novella

Faithfully represents a 3D chapel on a 2D surface

Rules of Linear Perspective codified now Allows the donors to present a pious identity to

the community

In subsequent work, you will learn more about:

The often ruthless politics of the Medici, who very much follow Machiavelli’s rules of power The Medici as Humanists

Pious Identities of Women in Art

This work will prepare you to incorporate the information in the assignments and assessments for the week