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Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
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PRECURSORS OF THE RENAISSANCE
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Renaissance
When you hear the word “RENAISSANCE” what comes to mind?
B. Italy – The geographic setting
1. A look at the map of Renaissance Italy, Gardner’s 19-1
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Italy as a nation-state does NOT exist
Instead the area we call Italy was divided into a number of
AUTONOMOUS (self-governing) regions.
2. Urban centers
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By 1350, northern Italy was a highly urban region.
Three cities had populations of about 100,000 people, a huge figure by the
14th century standards
Genoa
Venice
Florence
COSMOPOLITAN (worldly, sophisticated, urbane) centers of trade and
commerce. Fertile place3s for new ideas.
3. Rise of Wealthy Merchant Families
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As trade grew, a new class of merchants and bankers rapidly arose
As you will see, this new class of wealthy and powerful merchants had a
powerful impact upon the Renaissance
New patrons of the arts
The Church is still very important
For the first time in centuries, a new class of art patrons emerges
4. Important Point - The Renaissance was noticed in Italy first. However, major
artistic developments began to occur simultaneously in Northern Europe. We
will study the Northern Renaissance after our investigation of the Italian
Renaissance.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
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C. Political/Religious
 1305, Clement V became pope and settled in Avignon (France).
 Eventually lead to Great Schism: Two popes, one in Avignon, one in
Rome
 Absence of pope in Italy lead to rise in influence of monastic orders.
 Two new monastic orders, Franciscan and Dominican, were mendicant
orders stressing poverty and good works.
 SLIDE: Santa Maria Novella, Florence was the Dominican basilica; Santa
Croce, Florence was the Franciscans.
i. How is Sta. Maria Novella like Northern European Gothic
churches and how is it different>
 Monks wanted to include laity more in religious life. Took down screen
that separated monks’ service from service for lay people.
 Confraternities formed: Organizations of religiously minded lay people
performed good deeds like tending to the sick, burying the dead.
Commissioned artworks and monasteries.
D. Humanism
1. A code of civil conduct, a theory of education, the chief concerns of which
revolve around human values and interests.
a. Humanism means the rediscovery of the art and literature of ancient
Greece and Rome
b. Humanists were scholars, writers, and artists who rediscovered and
then studied the cultural heritage of Greece and Rome.
c. Concerned with human values and interests vs. religious otherworldly
values
2. “Man is the Measure of all Things”
a. This rediscovery of the Greco-Roman heritage sparked a renewed
interest in HUMANS including
b. Human form
c. Human emotions and personalities
d. Human potential
e. Human achievements – especially heroic deeds
3. Natural world
a. Curiosity about the natural world
b. Detailed observation of nature
c. Accurate representation of nature – will lead to important
breakthroughs in art
4. Individualism
a. What is the reward for heroic achievement?
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
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Fame
Wealth
Artists have names from now on
Portraits
Of patrons
Of themselves – self-portraits
Autobiographies
5. A Historically Self-Conscious Age
a. Rediscovery of Classical Civilization
b. Middle Ages sometimes called the “Dark Ages”
c. The Renaissance or “rebirth”
E. Three Stages of the Renaissance
1. Precursors of the Renaissance (1200-1350)
 Also known as Proto-Renaissance artists because their work preceded the
Early Renaissance by more than 50 years.
 These artists demonstrated qualities that would also be seen during the
Early and High Renaissance. In other words, the Proto-Renaissance
artists foreshadow the Renaissance.
 Their seminal work influenced the Renaissance artists
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Cimabue
Giotto
Duccio
Nicola Pisano
Lorenzetti (x2)
2. The Early Renaissance (1400s)
 A.k.a. – The Quattrocento
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Masaccio
Donatello
Botticelli
Ghiberti
Brunelleschi
Alberti
3. The High Renaissance (Late 1400s – early 1500s)
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Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Raphael
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
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Titian
II. SCULPTURE
Sculptors: Nicola Pisano (1220 – 1284)
A. Let’s go to Pisa
1. Leaning Tower of Pisa – actually a campanile or bell tower
2. Cathedral is Romanesque
3. Baptistery – Romanesque on the bottom and Gothic on top
B. Pulpit – Gardner
1. Carved by Nicola Pisano – he proudly signed and dated it March 25, 1259 to
March 24, 1260 and added an inscription proclaiming himself the greatest
sculptor of his time.
i. Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery by Nicola Pisano, 1259 - 1260: Pisa,
Pulpit, Pisano
1. Had some medieval elements: trefoil arches on columns
supported by lions
2. Classical elements:
a. Gothic version of Corinthian capital
b. Round (Roman) not pointed (Gothic) arches
c. Reliefs on panels modeled after Roman
sarcophagi.
3. Thick, stolid (Calm, dependable, and showing little
emotion or animation) presentation
2. Christian subjects and symbolism
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Lions refer to Solomon’s throne and here denote the foundation on which
the teachings of Christ are built
Panels portray scenes from the New Testament
Figures represent seven virtues
3. But the forms are clearly based upon Classical models
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ANNUNCIATION and NATIVITY scene (Gardner 526)
Remind us of sculpture on a Roman sarcophagus
What kind of narrative is used?
“Niccolo Pisano… freed sculpture from limitation to ecclesiastical motives,
and subservience to architectural lines, by uniting a sturdy naturalism with
the physical idealism of the Greeks.”
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
--- Will Durant, The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304
– 1576
4. Key Points to Remember
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Pisano was in important sculptor in Italy
Pisano is known for his strong interest in Classical forms
Pisano is an important forerunner of the Renaissance
Work had an impact on Giotto (introduced later)
Pulpit in Pisa exemplifies Fredrick II, King of Sicily, and great humanist
and his fascination with Roman sculpture; the relief panels echo Roman
sarcophagi.
5. Giovanni Pisano
i. Nicola’s son
ii. Pulpit of Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 1297 – 1301
I. Style derived more from French Gothic
II. More animated and emotional
III. Figures are more slender, sinuous
IV. Less crowded
III. PAINTING: THE BYZANTINE STYLE
A. Into the beginning of the 1200’s the dominant painting style was maneria greca
(Greek manner or style). Example: Bonaventura Berliggheri, panel from Saint
Francis Altarpiece, 1235
a. Also called Italo-Byzantine style
b. Influenced by illuminated manuscripts
B. Characteristics
1. It is important to remember that the Byzantine style dominated Italian art
during the Middle Ages. The style featured:
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Stiff, linear, and flat figures
A lack of human emotion
Gold background – emphasizes the “other world” and thus lacks
naturalism
Figures don’t occupy real space. They seem to float above the ground
C.
IV. CIMABUE (1240 – 1302)
1. Challenged some conventions, a new naturalism
i. Close observation which is core of new classicism
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Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
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ii. Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, from Santa Trinita,
Florence, 1280 – 90
I. Like Byzantine because:
 Relied on Byzantine models
 Gold Background
 Gold embellishments (highlights) on Madonna’s robes\
II.
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Unlike Byzantine because:
Folds of Madonna’s robe no longer decorative: 3D
Deeper space for subjects to occupy
Created a massive, spatially believable structure
Overlapping of subjects reinforces depth (but also used in
many Byzantine mosaics and paintings).
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BIG HISTORICAL NOTE: Black Plague:
 Had been around before causing havoc (Constantinople, 6th and 7th C.)
 End of 13th C. end of Medieval Warm Period, beginning of “Little Ice Age.”
 Poor crops
 BLACK PLAGUE REAPPEARS IN 1340’S AND WIPES OUT UP TO 50% OF
EUROPEAN POPULATION IN 5 YEARS.
 Imagine what our society would be like if we had that kind of mortality.
 Impact on Art
o Increased Devotional Images
o Stimulated religious bequests (money donated or willed to religious
organizations)
o Increased construction of hospitals.
___________________________________ ______________
V. Francesco Traini or Buonomico Buffalmacco, two details of Triumph of Death,
Fresco, 1330s, Camposanto, Pisa
1. Shows horrors and inevitability of death
2. Influence of Dominicans who depict revelers as unprepared for death and
salvation.
i. Warning against greed and lust
3. Rendered with naturalism and emotive power.
4. Perception of perishability of life as examination of nature intensifies.
VI. Arnolfo di Cambio
1. Giotto's style draws on the solid and classicizing sculpture of Arnolfo di
Cambio who was a student and assistant to Nicola Pisano. Tomb of Cardinal
de Braye
2. Better known as the architect of the Florence Duomo.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
VII.
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GIOTTO (1267 – 1337)
A. Introduction
1. “I am he through whose merit the lost art of painting was revived; whose
hand was as faultless as it was compliant. What my art lacked nature herself
lacked; to none other was it given to paint more or better… But what need is
there for words? I am Giotto, and my name alone tells more than a lengthy
ode.”
2. Considered the first Renaissance artist. Clear break with Byzantine style.
a. Who possibly influenced Giotto to make this radical break with
Byzantine style?
i. Pietro Cavallini, Seated Apostles, detail of The Last Judgment, ca.
1291, Fresco, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome
1. Cavallini, active ca. 1273 – 1308.
2. Great interest in the sculptural rendering of form.
3. Perhaps influenced by Roman paintings (now lost)
4. Abandons Byzantine hieratic dignity with impression of
solidity and strength.
5. Roman school of painting that replaced Byzantine stylized
dignity with the careful depiction of light?
3. Born near Florence
4. Discovered by an artist (Cimabue) who instantly recognized the genius of the
young shepherd, who was drawing pictures of sheep on a rock. This is
probably a fairy tale as this sort of story is often told about a lot of artists.
5. Giotto went beyond the Byzantine style and painted what he observed in
nature. His interest in the natural world resurrected an aspect of Classical
antiquity.
6. Restored the naturalistic approach invented by the ancients and
lost/abandoned in the Middle Ages.
7. Inaugurated pictorial experimentation through observation.
8. “Early Scientific”
9. Reveals nature through observation
10. Outward vision: visible world is a source of knowledge. Replaced inward
vision that searched for union with God not
B. Compare and Contrast Cimabue’s and Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned:
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Drapery
Background
Physical presence of Madonna
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
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Recession of figures
Overlapping
Any problems with perspective?
C. Giotto Italian, Madonna and Child, probably 1320/1330
tempera on panel, MMA
D. The Arena Chapel, Scrovengi Chapel – background
1.
2.
3.
4.
Padua, a small town 25 miles southwest of Venice
An AVARICIOUS (greedy) father – Reginaldo SCROVEGNI
A somewhat REPENTENT son – Enrico Scrovegni
A new chapel built on the site of an old Roman arena and thus called the
Arena Chapel
5. The walls needed art!
E. Inside the Arena Chapel (Gardner 520 for overview)
1. One of the most remarkable fresco cycles in Western Art
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Displaced the Byzantine style
Established painting as a major art form for the next 600 years
Restored the naturalistic approach invented by the ancients and largely
abandoned in the Middle Ages
2. Three registers of scenes dedicated to the life of Mary and the life of Christ
3. Last Judgment on the western wall
F. Examples
1. The Kiss of Judas
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Narrative – Judas, one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles, has betrayed him for
thirty pieces of silver. He leads the authorities, who are angry with Christ
for his teachings, to arrest Jesus while he is alone with the other apostles
in the Garden of Gethsemane
Judas told the authorities that he would greet Christ with a kiss in order
to identify him for arrest
Giotto has the startling power to organize the excitement of a scene
around a central image. For example, torches blaze and weapons whirl.
But at the heart there is only a tragic stillness as Jesus looks into the
mock-friendly eyes of his PERFIDIOUS (treacherous) disciple Judas.
“Judas, must you betray me with a kiss?”
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400
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The betrayer and betrayed confront each other in a moment suspended in
time. Note Jesus’ searching gaze. He silently communicates both
foreknowledge that he is being betrayed and understanding of Judas’
heart
Notice how the gesticulating priest on the right is counter-balanced by the
apostle Peter on the left, who, in his anger, has cut off the ear of the
servant of the high priest
2. The Lamentation (Gardner 19-9)
1. Real People, Real Emotions
“Giotto appeared and drew what he saw.” --- Leonardo da Vinci
2. Mary’s almost fierce despair
3. Mary Magdalene looks solemnly at the wounds in Christ’s feet
4. Saint John makes a wild gesture of despairing grief as he flings back his
arms
5. Philosophical resignation of two disciples at the right
6. And in the sky, 10 wildly passionate angels express their overwhelming
grief
7. Real space
8. The canvas or wall is a flat space. The artist’s task is to create a
convincing illusion of real people occupying real space
9. The rocky ledge forms a long diagonal plane that leads the viewer to the
painting’s focal point – the heads of Christ and the Virgin
10. Note the tree in the background; Its barrenness and isolation suggest that
all of nature shares in the sorrow of the Savior’s death. Yet, it also carries
a symbolic message: it refers to the Tree of Knowledge, which the sin of
Adam and Eve had caused to wither and would be restored to life
through the sacrificial death of Christ
11. First step toward the development of CHIAROSCURO – the use of
dramatic contrasts of light and dark to produce the illusion of fully
rounded or sculpted figures
3. Joachim Among the Shepherds
1. Joachim and Ann (parents of Virgin Mary) were childless. Joachim was
expelled from temple because priest thought his childlessness was a sign
of displeasure of God. Here is Joachim humbly asking for lodging from
shepherds. Shepherds have their doubts. All the emotions are shown
very convincingly. Giotto was a master at conveying emotions through
his realism.
4. Last Judgment
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 10
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Probably painted by some of his students
A traditional scene with very distinctive touches:
Christ the Judge is in the center surrounded by a rainbow mandorla or
oval of light
The saved are to his right and the damned to his left
Let’s take a close look at Satan and Hell
Who is the tiny white-robed figure?
Let’s also take a close look at the figures at the base of the cross
5. Giotto was a celebrity throughout Italy
 Florence was his main city
 He also worked in Rome, Assisi, Ferrara, Ravenna, Rimini, Faenza, Pisa,
Lucca Arezzo, Padua, Verona, Naples, Urbino, and Milan
 He designed the campanile for Florence’s main cathedral
VIII. Duccio’s Maesta (Gardner’s 19-10)
A. Background
a. Duccio (1278 – 1318) was a prominent SIENESE painter who was a
contemporary of Giotto.
b. SIENA was Florence’s leading commercial and artistic rival.
c. In 1308, officials of the Siena Cathedral commissioned Duccio to paint a
Madonna in Majesty or “Maesta” surrounded by prophets, apostles, angels,
and episodes from the lives of the Virgin and Christ.
a. After 12 months of devoted labor, Duccio finished the painting. The
completed work was 13 feet high and 14 feet wide. It included more than
60 individual panels on its front and back.
b. This artist recognized the devotional function of his work by limiting his
experimentation with depicting the narrative action and producing
illusionistic effects. He then modeled the forms and adjusted their
placement within the pictorial space.
c. Was splendid and rich with great colors and captured the textures of
textiles.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 11
d. Duccio’s fee of 3,000 gold crowns was the highest ever paid for a work of
this kind.
e. The result was a triumph for Duccio and Siena. A contemporary chronicler
wrote: “On the day when the Maesta was brought to the Duomo, all shops
were closed and the Bishop ordained that there should be a great procession.
All the townspeople flocked together to see the Maesta. The bells rang out a
festive peal to welcome in this most noble altarpiece.”
f. A signature – “Grant peace to Siena, grant life to Duccio because he painted
thee thus.”
B. Art Techniques and Types
1. Altarpiece – a devotional panel painting placed in front of the altar in order
to engage viewers in the sacred drama of Mass.
2. Tempera on wood
 The wooden panels are glued and braced together. Apprentices sanded
the wood until it was smooth.
 They sealed it with several layers of glutinous material to fill in the pores
in the panel.
 The last step in the preparation of the panel was the addition of several
layers of gesso, a water-based paint thickened with chalk.
3. PREDELLA – the base of an altarpiece. It contains smaller paintings.
C. Let’s take a look at the main panel.
1. Byzantine tradition
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Gold background
Traditional composition – Mary and Christ are given a central position
Symmetrical
Figure of Mary is very formal as appropriate for her importance
2. New Naturalism
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Figures turn to each other in quiet conversation
Saints in the foreground have individualized faces
The drapery, particularly that of the female saints at both ends of the
panel, falls and curves loosely.
D. Key points to remember
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 12
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Technique is tempera on panel (Egg yolk binding pigment)
Date is early 1300’s
Shows strong Byzantine influence
Part of an altarpiece
Made for Cathedral in Siena
Siena was a rival of Florence
Virgin is surrounded by the patron saints of the city
E. Duccio’s Madonna and Child is at the MET!
1. Now that you know more about Duccio, do you think that it was worth it for
the Met to purchase his painting?
2. While Cimabue painted in a manner that is clearly Medieval, having aspects
of both the Byzantine and the Gothic, Unlike those by Cimabue and Duccio,
Giotto's figures are not stylized or elongated and do not follow set Byzantine
models. They are solidly three-dimensional, have faces and gestures that are
based on close observation, and are clothed not in swirling formalized
drapery, but in garments that hang naturally and have form and weight.
(Wikipedia.com, Giotto, 2/11/12)
IX. THE SIENESE SCHOOL OF ARTISTS
A. Simone Martini
1. Student of Duccio
2. Painted in the new “INTERNATIONAL STYLE”
 Aristocratic taste for brilliant colors
 Lavish costumes
 Intricate ornamentation
 Splendid processions
3. Annunciation – Gardner’s 19-13
4. The Annunciation has elegant shape, radiant color and flowing line and
becomes a metaphor for the courtly style of the French Gothic painter Refer
to Gothic courtly style.
5. He worked for the French kings in Sicily and Naples. During his last years he
worked for the papal court at Avignon, where he came into contact with
Northern painters. He adapted the insubstantial but luxuriant patterns of
French Gothic painters with Sienese figural mass and controlled narrative.
His work is a blend of elegant shape and radiant color with flowing line.
6. The Met’s Robert Lehman Gallery has a Simone Martini Madonna and
Child
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 13
a. Pietro Lorenzetti (Ambrogio’s brother), Birth of the Virgin, 1342, Siena
Cathedral
 Shows a revival of pictorial illusionism of ancient Roman murals. Note
that the framing of the panels are extended back into the painting.
 Strongly influenced by Duccio
C. Ambrogio Lorenzetti
a. In 1338, the Siena city council commissioned Ambrogio Lorenzetti to paint in
fresco a room called the Sala della Pace in the Palazzo Pubblico (city hall) –
Gardner’s 537
b. Lorenzetti chose to portray the effects of good government as well as bad
government on people’s lives.
c.
Gardner’s 19-16 and 19-17
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Panoramic in style and profuse in detail. The first realistic CITYSCAPE
in western painting
The cityscapes and landscapes Ambrogio painted were of specific places
depicted through careful observation.
Look in the upper left hand corner. You can see the cathedral dome!
Everything is visible – palaces, markets, towers, streets
Note that the city’s traffic moves peacefully. We can even see a cluster of
radiant maidens, hand in hand, performing a graceful circling dance.
Such dances were part of festive springtime rituals. Their presence serves
as a metaphor for a peaceful community.
A class is in session in a small school room and construction workers
work on the rooftops. Both are signs of the prosperity of a good
government.
The countryside is also peaceful. The peasants move to and fro with their
grain among verdant fields.
Note the figure in the upper left corner on Gardner 538. It is an allegory
for security. She holds a scroll in one hand bidding those entering the city
to come in peace. She also holds a gallows as a reminder of the
consequences of violating the peace.
d. Let’s look at the effects of bad government
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Lorenzetti chose to use the same view of the city and countryside but they
look dramatically different under a bad government.
The city is in shambles with dilapidated buildings, dead people in the
street, and soldiers grabbing one of the maidens. No classes are in session,
no business is happening in the market, and no new construction is taking
place.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 14
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In the countryside, the fields look scorched and barren.
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e. Whatever happened to Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti?
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Only a few years after completing the Effects of Good and Bad
Government on Town and Countryside, Siena lost about two-thirds of its
population to the Black Plague. Pietro and Ambrogio were among the
victims.
X. Patronage: List the various patrons (people or organizations who commission
artwork) discussed so far. Are the church and nobility the only patrons
anymore? What does this imply about the society and economy of protoRenaissance Italy?
XI. ARCHITECTURE
1. THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO
A. Purpose
1. Town hall and political center
2. Inspired respect for the city’s power and success
3. Note the campanile (bell tower). Combination bell tower and look out
B. Style and Art
1. Late Gothic
2. And don’t forget… Lorenzetti’s Allegory of God and Bad Government is
inside!
3. Florence
A. Florence Cathedral, begun 1296
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Designed by ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO
Bell tower designed by GIOTTO
Huge: can hold 30,000 people
Sense of competition with Siena and Pisa
Outside decorated with revetment (decorative wall paneling)
Interior has fewer and wider bays than Northern Gothic
1. Still remains essentially a basilica structure: low and
wide.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 15
vii. Northern European Gothic vs. Italian Gothic Architecture:
Northern Gothic has organic integration of parts to whole.
Italian is more modular (individual parts that can exist on
their own). A more rational than emotional concept behind the
structures.
viii. Façade of cathedral not completed until 19th century! Italian
architects conceive of façade as not being integral to design of
churches. Can be added any time.
ix. Note: Florence Baptistery (San Giovanni), 11th century, located
directly in front of west façade of cathedral is covered in
Romanesque unit.
B. Doge’s Palace, Venice, begun ca. 1340 – 45; expanded and remodeled
1424 – 1438
i. Venice very wealthy due to trade with Far East
ii. Oligarchy of families
iii. Doge = Duke’s Palace
iv. Low: Piercings on bottom, solid on top. Opposite of N.
European Gothic cathedrals
v. Heaviness reduced by revetment.
vi. Arches are pointed = gothic.
vii. Ogee arches (double-curving lines), flame-like tips
viii. Quatrefoil medallions
C. Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy, Designed by Sienese architect
LORENZO MAITANI, begun 1310.
i. Some French Gothic elements on façade but the rest of the
cathedral is mostly Tuscan Romanesque or Early Christian.
ii. Round arches
iii. Timber roof
iv. Façade looks like an altar screen
D. Milan Cathedral, Milan, Italy, begun 1386
i. Northern Gothic influence felt more strongly
ii. Designed by French, German, and English experts
iii. A compromise
iv. Gothic but with wide Italian proportions.
v. Some classical elements in style of Renaissance added to façade
before it was complete.
vi. Took centuries to build and its design changed so there is no
photo of how it looked in the 14th C.
XII.
Summary of Precursors of the Renaissance
A. Precursors of the Renaissance exhibit several important features that will be
expanded upon during the Early Renaissance.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 16
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Great interest in human anatomy – proportions are more accurate, more
interest in the human form
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Greater amounts of naturalism – they model figures and objects with
shadow to convey the illusion of mass. Artists attempt to convey the
direction of the light source and use shading accordingly.
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Greater sense of depth/ recessional space – the artists begin to create the
illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two dimensional surface. Early
Renaissance artists will take this interest in pictorial illusionism even
further.
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Greater expression of human personality and emotion
B. 11 Key Points
1. The great Precursors of the Renaissance were working in Italy during the
early 1300’s or 14th century.
2. Giotto painted the Arena Chapel. It was the first great fresco cycle since the
end of Classical Civilization.
3. Giotto restored an interest in naturalism to the depiction of the human
figure. Giotto is famous because his paintings depict REAL PEOPLE
OCCUPYING REAL SPACE (meaning that they look like they are firmly on
the ground and there is a sense of foreground and depth) and showing REAL
HUMAN EMOTION.
4. Duccio was a contemporary of Giotto and is also considered an important
Precursor of the Renaissance. Duccio was also interest in including
naturalism in his paintings.
5. Duccio painted La Maesta for Siena Cathedral.
6. Not all artists demonstrated such an interest in naturalism. These artists
developed a style that painted people in splendid processions with lavish
costumes in bright colors and with intricate detail. This style was started by
Simone Martini, another artist from Siena, and spread throughout Europe
becoming known as the INTERNATIONAL STYLE.
7. The coexistence of the INTERNATIONAL STYLE at the same time as the
work of Giotto and Duccio reveals even more clearly why they are considered
Precursors of the Renaissance.
Precursors of the Renaissance: Italy 1200 - 1400 17
8. 3 P’S – PISANO sculpted a famous PULPIT for the baptistery of PISA.
Remember PISANO’S PULPIT at PISA!
9. The Palazzo Pubblico of Siena was a town hall and its architecture including
its campanile (which was both a bell tower and watch tower) are LATE
GOTHIC.
10. Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Effects of Good and Bad Government on Town and
Countryside is a fresco cycle on the inside of Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico.
11. Pietro Cavallini’s Seated Apostles from his Last Judgment (19-7 in Gardner’s
10th edition) fresco showed an early interest in the sculptural rendering of
figures similar to Classical Roman frescoes and sculpture. This was
appropriate because Cavallini worked in Rome. Cavallini’s work even
preceded Giotto’s Arena Chapel frescoes.