11. Renaissance in Italy

Early Renaissance in Italy

In the beginning of the 15th century, people started to note the intellectual movement known as the Rebirth of Classics (rediscovery of Ancient Greek civilization) in Florence. The movement lasted about two centuries and was named the Renaissance a couple hundred years later. During the Early Renaissance, the Italians faced many cultural shifts. Art during this period become a symbol of class and not the crafts. As H. W Janson and Anthony F. Janson stated in History of Art, “When Renaissance artists gained admission to the select group of humanists , they were viewed as people of ideas rather than mere manipulators of materials.” ( page 408).

Formal break down of Masaccio, Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors. 1425 Fresco.

Masaccio. Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors. 1425 -1428 Fresco. Sta. Novella, Florence

Composition: It uses one point perspective to define the 3-dimensional space. The vanishing point is at Jesus’ feet which is the normal eye level in this painting. It has symmetrical layout. Christ is on the Cross in front of God in the barrel vaulted interior which is foreshortened. Below the chamber is a tomb.

Color: The fresco painting uses up-modeling technique. The shadow is saturated color and as the value moves to the highlights, more white color is added. Red color is identical in this painting for the draperies and part of the architecture.

Form and shape: The halo on Jesus turn to perspective. Unlike Giotto’s painting, Jesus in this painting is nude with a piece of cloth covering the low body. The anatomy of the figures defines the beneath structure. Drapery is like real fabric that falls with gravity and is rendered with great details.

Pattern and texture: The Romanesque architecture style in this painting has coffer on the ceiling and grids on the engaged pillars. Fabrics are rendered smoothly.

Line: Lines are softly reddened. They are used to help outlining the forms architecture structure, figures and draperies.

Early Renaissance in Italy _Commonalities for the region across the time

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned, from the
Church of Ognissanti, Florence, Italy, ca. 1310. Tempera
and gold leaf on wood, 10’ 8” x 6’ 8”. Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.

Still affected by Byzantine art at beginning of this period, artists such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello,and Masaccio, create their art and architecture styles by bringing the Christian contents to the classic form.

GIOTTO’s Madonna Enthroned has the trace of Byzantine style. It has symmetrical composition. Background has golden color with no space. Both Mary and Jesus have halo over their heads. However, the patterns and architecture has a Gothic trace. Other than Mary and Jesus, other figures are posted sideways. Similar to Early Northern Renaissance, there are pills of heads in the background. Heavy draperies are another sign that demonstrated the influence of Early Northern Renaissance painting.

Sculpture: The sculptures first appeared on the doors of Baptistery church. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Nanni Di Branco, and Donatello are well known sculptors from this period. Human body to classic antiquary.

According to H. W Janson and Anthony F. Janson (History of Art page 413), Donatello’s David is the first free-standing, life-sized nude bronze statue since antiquity. The contrapposto reminds us the classic appearance.

LORENZO GHIBERTI, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors, baptistery, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402. Gilded bronze relief, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”. Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

Donatello. David. c. 1425-30. Bronze, height62 1/4″ (158cm). Museco Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Architecture:

: Florence Cathedral (Sta, Maria del Fiore), begun by Arnolifo di Cambio, 1296, dome by Filippo Brunelleschi, 1420-36, Author: MarcusObal

Filippo Brunelleschi went to Rome to study ancient architecture construction and search for an accurate way to build the dome structure. He and Ghiberti built the Florence Cathedral dome (begun by Arnolifo di Cambio, 1296, dome by Filippo Brunelleschi, 1420-36) with the help from Nanni Di Branco and Donatello. The dome consists of two shells. He used a skeleton system of 24 ribs, an idea from Pantheon to build the dome. The two shells are connected and together made the structure stronger.

The dome of the Florence Cathedral contains some Gothic elements. It has pointed arch, ribs, and octagonal outer shell from Gothic trace.

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, Arena Chapel, (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco, 6’ 6 3/4” x 6’ 3/4”

Painting: Early Italian Renaissance painting appears in the mid -1420s. Masaccio is a remarkable painter from this period. His first major work is Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors. (1425 Fresco. Sta. Novella, Florence). Compared to the art of Giotto di Bondone’s (such as Lamentation, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco) which brings mind to the figures, Masaccio’s has correct anatomy with body and drapery as one unit and shows solid 3-dimension perspective for shortening. Sometimes the back of the human figure can be seen, which implies the space and landscape. Masaccio also uses up modeling technique for fresco painting.

High Italian Renaissance

Formal Breakdown for Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) – The Last Supper (1495-1498)

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Last Supper, ca. 1495 -1498. Oil and tempera on plaster, 13’ 9” x 29’ 10”. Refectory, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

Composition:

Composition is symmetric and there is linear perspective with Jesus’ head as the vanishing point. There are three windows in the background with the middle one framed Jesus. All thirteen figures are all on the backside of the table. This exposes their faces to the viewers. It is a large scale painting about 15’2″x 28’10”. The white doorway is located in the center beneath the table. There is a landscape outside of the window. The layout on the table gives a still-life setting.

Form and shape:

Architectural elements such as the coffer ceiling and the rectangular hall way create the geometric shape. Jesus’ arms outstretched forms a triangular shape. Jesus and his twelve apostles all have different gestures and some of them show sign language. There is no halo over Jesus. All the figures are demonstrating some strong facial expressions.

Symbolism:

There is bread on the table that represents the body and the red wine represents blood. The three windows in the background and Jesus in a triangular shape imply the Holy Trinity.

Color:

Jesus is the only figure in red and blue cloth. The rest of the figures are wearing blue, pink, yellow, white and dark green.

Line:

Line is rendered soft and the edges are hazed.

Material: This is a true fresco painting. Leonardo first sealed the stone wall surface and then painted over it with tempera, a fast dry painting material mixing with colored pigment, egg yolk and water.

High Italian Renaissance_Commonalities for the region across the time

High Renaissance in Italy is a brief moment in art history. It lasted about 30 years from the last decade of 15th century to early 16th century. During this period, Leonardo, Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian were the genius artists that represented Renaissance art and architecture with perfection and classic affection. Although oil painting was popular, fresco was still used for paintings. Large scale paintings become possible. Interesting human psychology, gesture and sign language can be seen in many paintings. Color rendering was soft with haze edges.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)

As an engineer, Leonardo painted this half-length portrait (Mona Lisa) with the design of a pyramid pose in a spaced landscape. He built the form with thin layers of glazes on a white poplar panel, which glows with even a small light. The color is rendered softly with hazed edges. The figure has perfect facial feature and shows personality.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, Mona Lisa, ca. 1503–1505. Oil on wood, 2’ 6 1/4” x 1’ 9”. Louvre, Paris.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, Pieta, ca. 1498-1500. Marble, 5’ 8 ½”high. Saint Peter’s, Vatican City, Rome

Amount all the genius artists in high Italian Renaissance, many historians believe that Michelangelo was the best. Michelangelo treated sculpture as carving the man. The subject matter of his marble sculpture has connections to the classical period, yet the form including the geometry order, anatomy, the facial feature and the weighted draperies is perfect.

Pieta displays Virgin Mary with her dead grown-up son on her lap. She looks beautiful and young (too young for a mother of a fully grown man, yet her scale is larger than Jesus. Michelangelo successfully made this pyramidal shaped sculpture.

High Italian Renaissance Character:

Name: Molleggiato

Birth: 1500

City: Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Occupation: Wife of a businessman, craftswoman.

The background story:

Once upon a time during early 16th century, there was a young woman named Molleggiato in the city of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Molleggiato was married to a businessman. Everyday she stayed at home knitting and taking care of accounting for her husband’s business. Until one day, Molleggiato’s husband disappeared. Ever since then, Molleggiato had to knitting very hard and try to sell her products to make some money for living. Years after years, she saved some money and went to Venice to only find the tomb her husband was buried to.

Research for character Reference:

Mona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_from_C2RMF_retouched

Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503–1506, perhaps continuing until c. 1517, Oil on poplar, Musée du Louvre, Paris

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Portrait of Maddalena Strozzi Doni, circa 1506-1507, oil on panel, Pitti Palace, Florence, Ital

1506 Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483–1520), Portrait of a Pregnant Woman La Donna Gravida

This portrait is mostly based on Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, Portrait of Maddalena Strozzi Doni’s color palette. Because Molleggiato is a craftswoman and her husband is gone, I decided to take off the rings from her so they would not bother her when she is netting. I choose Mona Lisa’s hands simply because I think her hands posed more calmly and more reserved which fit to Molleggiato’s personality. I added La Donna Gravida’s hat to Molleggiato to emphasize her craftswoman’s status (while she is working, she does not want to be bothered by hair fell in front of her face).

High Italian Renaissance Environment:

Tomb

ZBrush Document