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Chapter 14 Florence and the Early Renaissance: Humanism in Italy Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. How did sculpture and the use of scientific perspective contribute to the “rebirth” that is the Italian Renaissance? Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. • Florence, Italy, was the center of a more than 150year-long cultural revival in Europe that we have come to call the Renaissance • The word Renaissance comes from the Italian rinascita or “rebirth” • It indicates that the beliefs and values of the medieval world were transformed in Italy • The Middle Ages had been an age of faith, in which the salvation of the soul was an individual’s chief preoccupation • 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 Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. • The 1401 competition for Florence’s new Baptistery doors on the north side exemplified the Renaissance spirit in sculptural decoration • The competition was not merely about artistic talent, but also about civic pride and patriotism, and about appeasing an evidently wrathful God who had sent repeated outbreaks of the Plague • Lorenzo Ghiberti’s winning design stood out due to its figurative naturalism, to his inventive use of foreshortening, and his creation of an overall more vivid sense of real space • Both finalists, Ghiberti as well as Filippo Brunelleschi, valued the artistic models of antiquity and looked to Classical sculpture for inspiration • Both artists created artworks that captured human beings in the midst of a crisis of faith Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. The Gates of Paradise • In his commission for the Gates of Paradise, the east doors of the Florence Baptistery, Ghiberti took the idea of the Renaissance spirit a step further • His included self-portrait reflects an extreme naturalism that underscores the spirit of individualism that characterizes the Renaissance Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. Scientific Perspective and Naturalistic Representation • No aspect of the Renaissance better embodies the spirit of invention than scientific, or linear, perspective • Linear perspective allowed artists to translate threedimensional space onto a two-dimensional surface, thereby satisfying the age’s increasing taste for naturalistic representations of the physical world • The architect Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1474) codified Brunelleschi’s findings about the one-point perspective, providing instructions for artists and a diagram in his treatise On Painting Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. Perspective and Naturalism in Painting: Masaccio • According to Alberti, Masaccio was one of the truly talented artists to employ perspective • Masaccio’s masterpiece of naturalistic representation is his fresco The Tribute Money in the Brancacci Chapel • While the architecture is presented in linear perspective, the mountainous landscape in the background follows the principle of the atmospheric perspective • Perhaps the greatest source of naturalism can be found in Masaccio’s figures, which provide a good imitation of life through their dynamic gestures and poses including contrapposto, their individuality, and their emotional engagement Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. The Classical Tradition in Freestanding Sculpture: Donatello • Masaccio probably learned about the Classical disposition of the body’s weight from the sculptor Donatello • Donatello’s David reflects the Classical tradition with an almost exaggerated contrapposto • Donatello seems to celebrate not just the human body, but its youthful vitality, a vitality that the figure shared with the Florentine state itself • It is as if Donatello portrayed David as an unconvincing hero in order to underscore the ability of virtue, in whatever form, to overcome tyranny Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. How did the Medici family help shape humanist Florence? Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. • The Medici were the most powerful family in Florence for 76 years, from 1418, when they became banker to the papacy, until 1494, when irate citizens removed them from power • The Medici never ruled Florence outright, but managed affairs from behind the scenes • The control of Florentine politics was secured by Cosimo de’ Medici (1389–1464), who surrounded himself with humanists • He sought their guidance about which books and manuscripts of the ancients to collect, and he commissioned translations of Greek philosophy and literature • Cosimo de’ Medici supported the translation and interpretations of the works of Plato by the young priest Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. Lorenzo the Magnificent: “…I find a relaxation in learning.” • Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo “the Magnificent” (1449– 1492), continued the Medici tradition • While Lorenzo de’ Medici did not have his grandfather’s wealth, he saw to it that the artists and architects he attracted to Florence received ample commissions from other patrons • His own circle of acquaintances included many of the greatest minds of the day, including the composer Heinrich Isaac, the poet Poliziano, the painter Botticelli, the philosopher Pico della Mirandola, and the young sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti, whom he invited to live in the Medici palace • By the time of his death, Lorenzo de’ Medici had created a model humanist city, the envy of all Italy Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. How did the art and literature created in the ducal courts of Italy reflect Florentine humanist values? Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. • The humanist philosopher Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), who shared Lorenzo de’ Medici’s deep interest in the search for divine truth, proclaimed the message of individual free will and of humanity’s ability to choose a path of virtue and knowledge • This message inspired Lorenzo’s circle as well as the courts of other Italian city-states • Unlike the Medicis, almost all other leaders were nobility Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. The Montefeltro Court in Urbino • In Urbino, Duke Federigo da Montefeltro (1422– 1482) championed the use of scientific perspective in the painting of Piero della Francesca (ca. 1420– 1492) • Baldassare Castiglione’s (1478–1529) The Book of the Courtier was written during the time of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (1472–1508) • In the form of a dialogue, eloquent courtiers at Urbino compete with each other to describe the perfect courtier—the man (or woman) whose education and demeanor are best fashioned to serve the prince Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. The Gonzaga Court in Mantua • In Mantua, the court of Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga (1414–1478) commissioned the painter Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) to decorate his palazzo with highly illusionistic frescoes • Mantegna’s extremely accomplished realization of illusionistic space, presented with panache and wit, became famous instantly • That Ludovico had been able to attract such a skilled artist as Mantegna to his employ added to the Gonzaga prestige Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. The Sforza Court in Milan and Leonardo da Vinci • In Milan, Ludovico Sforza (1451–1508) commissioned Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) to paint the Last Supper for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie • Leonardo’s restless imagination inspired him to the study of almost everything: natural phenomena like wind, storms, and the movement of water; anatomy and physiology; physics and mechanics; music; mathematics; plants and animals; geology; and astronomy; as well as painting and drawing • Leonardo was a humanist and was deeply swayed by Neoplatonic thought • He saw connections among all spheres of existence Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. How did Michelangelo’s David symbolize the new Florentine republic? Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. • In 1494, a Florentine mob drove the last of the Medici rulers from the city • The Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola (1452– 1498), abbot of the monastery of San Marco, stepped into this power vacuum • Savonarola preached a moralistic brand of fire and brimstone, condemning humanist values • At first wielding great political power, Savonarola was finally tried as a heretic in 1498 and burned at the stake • A relieved city council sought to reassert republican values in visual terms Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. • The city council moved Donatello’s David from the Medici palace to the Palazzo della Signoria, and they commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to create another freestanding sculpture of David • Michelangelo represents David before, not after, his triumph • His sculpture appears sublimely confident, ready to take on whatever challenge faces him—just as the republic itself felt ready to take on all challenges • When the statue was moved from the Michelangelo’s workshop to the Piazza della Signoria, supporters of the exiled Medici hurled stones at it • They understood correctly that the statue was a symbol of the city’s will to stand up to any and all tyrannical rule—including that of the Medici Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2008 by Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.