ITALY, 1200-1400

1. ITALY,1200-1400 GARDNER CHAPTER 19-2 PP. 502-509

2. THE 14TH CENTURY • 14th century Italy -> numerous independent city-states • Most city-states were republics -> constitutional oligarchies • Period of prosperity in Italy • Maritime trade, banking, manufacture of arms or textiles • The Black Death(bubonic plague) erupts in the late 1340’s -> came from China -> kills 25-50% of Europe’s pop in 5 years • The blossoming of vernacular(commonly spoken) literature in 14th century Italy • Dante’s – The Divine Comedy • Boccaccio’s - Decameron

3. RENAISSANCE HUMANISM • The rise of vernacular lit was a sign that the essentially religious view of the world that dominated medieval Europe was about to change -> the Renaissance • concern w/ the natural world, the individual, and humanity’s worldly existence • Renaissance = 14th-16th centuries • French word meaning “rebirth” • The rebirth of art and culture -> revived interest in classical cultures • HUMANISM

4. HUMANISM • A central component of Renaissance Italian art and culture 1. A code of civil conduct 2. A theory of education 3. A scholarly discipline • Humanists were concerned with human values and interests as distinct from religion’s otherworldly values • Enthusiasm for antiquity • The study of Latin literature • Emulation of Roman civic values • Revival of interest in and knowledge of Greek • Classical cultures as a model for living in this world -> a model of human focus derived from reason

5. GIOTTO • Giotto di Bondone of Florence is considered the first Renaissance painter -> pioneer of a naturalistic approach to representation based on observation • Some scholars describe Giotto as the father of Western pictorial art • His true teacher was nature -> the world of visible things Giotto’s revolution in painting • Displace the Byzantine style • Established painting as a major art form • Restored the naturalistic approach the ancients developed • Method of pictorial expression based on observation -> foundations of empirical science

6. MADONNA ENTHRONED • Giotto di Bondone, Madonna Enthroned, from the Church of Ognissanti, Florence, Italy, ca. 1310, tempera and gold leaf on wood, 10’8”x6’8” • Seen against traditional gold background -> resting w/in her Gothic throne -> unshakable stability of a marble goddess -> a weighty queenly mother • The body is asserted -> her figure has substance, dimensionality, and bulk • Marks the end of medieval painting in Italy and the beginning of a new naturalistic approach to art

7. FRESCO PAINTING • FRESCO (Italian for “fresh”) = a mural painting technique that involves applying permanent limeproof pigments diluted in water onto freshly laid lime plaster • One of the most permanent painting techniques • Buon fresco -> time consuming and demanding • Arriccio – brown coat • Sinopia – orange pigment for underdrawing • Cartoon – full sized preparatory drawing • Intonaco – painting coat of plaster applied in sections for each session’s painting Giotto, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305, fresco. Lower left - Lamentation

8. ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA • Finest examples of Giotto’s art are his murals in the Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni) • Chapel was built for the wealthy Paduan banker Enrico Scrovegni -> for family’s private use and to expiate the sin of usury • Rectangular barrel vaulted hall w/six narrow windows and blank wall opposite -> Giotto presents one of the most impressive and complete Christian pictorial cycles ever rendered • 38 framed pictures arranged on 3 levels -> images of the life of Christ • West wall -> the Last Judgment • Vaulted ceiling -> azure blue sky dotted w/stars and various medallions of Christ, Mary, and prophets -> the same blue is used in the backgrounds of the narrative panels on the walls

9. Flashcard Arena Chapel employees.oneonta.edu/.../arenachapel.html Last Judgment

10. GIOTTO – LAMENTATION • Lamentation reveals the essentials of Giotto’s style • Boldly foreshortened angels darting about in hysterical grief • Congregation mourns over the dead body of the Savior -> Mary cradles her son’s body -> Mary Magdalene looks at the wounds in Christ’s feet -> Saint John the Evangelist throws back his arms dramatically • Figures are sculpturesque, simple, and weighty but show movement and emotion

12. FORMAL DESIGN OF THE LAMENTATION FRESCO • The way the figures are grouped with the constructed space • Strong diagonal of the rocky ledge w/the single dead tree of the knowledge of good and evil -> concentrates the viewers attention to the group around the head of Christ • Seated mourner on left arrests and contains all movement beyond this group • Figures seen from back represent a innovation away from the frontal formal Italo-Byzantine style • Figures in the foreground aid the visual placement of intermediated figures further back in space • New devices for depicting spatial depth and body mass • Management of light and shade

13. Flashcard Giotto Di Bondone, Lamentation, Arena Chapel Joachim's Dream Ascension Predecessor to chiaroscuro perspective teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/ltrupe/ART%20Histor... http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/images/articles/nativity_giotto_fig5.jpg http://www.wga.hu/art/g/giotto/padova/3christ/scenes_4/chris21.jpg www.wga.hu/tours/giotto/padova/cycle/chris23.html

14. SIENNA • Among 14th century Italian city-states the most powerful were the Republics of Sienna and Florence • Both were urban centers of bankers and merchants • Money available for the commissioning of artworks

15. DUCCIO • Duccio di Buoninsegna, Virgin and child Enthroned with Saints, principal panel of the Maesta altarpiece, from Siena Cathedral, Italy, 1308-1311, tempera and gold leaf on wood, 7’x13’ • Virgin enthroned as Queen of Heaven amid choruses of angels and saints • The artist relaxed the strict frontality and rigidity of the figures -> they turn to each other -> individualized the faces of the 4 saints in the foreground -> softening of body outlines and drapery • A miracle of color composition and texture manipulation

16. Flashcard Duccio, Maesta altarpiece, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Predella

17. Duccio, Betrayal of Jesus, detail from the back of the Maesta altarpiece, from Sienna Cathedral • A religious drama in which the actors display a variety of human emotions • A decisive step toward the humanization of religious subject matter

18. Duccio, Maesta altarpiece, Betrayal of Jesus www.oneonta.edu/.../arth/Arth213/Duccio.htm www.abcgallery.com Gardner’s Art Through the Ages

19. ARTISTS’ GUILDS, COMMISSIONS, AND CONTRACTS • GUILDS = associations of master craftspeople, apprentices, and tradespeople • Guilds protected members’ common econ interests and regulated their internal operations • Artists’ Guilds • Patrons -> a civic group, religious entity, private entity, guild • Guilds were patrons of numerous churches and hospitals • Patrons normally asked artists to submit drawings or models for approval and contracts insisted that the artists adhere to the approved designs

20. ORVIETO CATHEDRAL • Lorenzo Maitani, west façade of Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy, begun 1310 • Pointed gables, rose window, large pinnacles -> derived from French Gothic • The façade is merely a Gothic overlay masking a timber roofed Tuscan Romanesque basilica

21. Orvieto Cathedral main portal http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/orvieto/cathedral/duomo.html instructional1.calstatela.edu/.../

22. SIMONE MARTINI • Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, Annunciation altarpiece from Sienna Cathedral, Italy, 1333, tempera and gold leaf on wood, 10’1” x 8’9” • Martini was the successor of Duccio in the Siennese school • Martini was instrumental in creating the so-called INTERNATIONAL STYLE which swept Europe in the late 14th and early 15th century • brilliant colors • Lavish costumes • Intricate ornamentation • Themes involving splendid processions