Baroque Painters

Judith Slaying Holofernes, Artemesia Gentileschi, photo
courtesy of Wikipedia CC

           Baroque painters of the 1600s adapted theatrical qualities on canvas through dramatic chiaruscuro, lighting and action.  The father of Baroque painting in Rome, Caravaggio (1571-1610), often painted a tight, intimate scene in which light played a major role.  Many painters began to follow the style of Caravaggio, such as Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1656), a female contemporary.  Gentileschi’s most famous piece, Judith Slaying Holoferness, from 1614-1620, is her version of a famous piece of the same scene by Caravaggio.  Some say this is her response to his painting.

            Gentileschi’s Judith is a strong woman, forcing the sword through Holoferness’ neck as she grasps his hair with her hand.  Blood spurts from the wound onto her chest and arms and runs down crisp white sheets.  The scene is dynamic with movement.  Gentileschi’s Judith is a powerful woman, which contrasts to the dainty feminine Judith in Caravaggio’s depiction.

Judith Slaying Holofernes (1598-99), Caravaggio,
photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            However, Gentileschi in heavily influenced by Caravaggio’s style: an attention to physical darkness and lightness to make up the composition.  As in Caravaggio’s paintings, Gentileschi’s scene is lit by a stark light, which comes from out of the canvas and gleams on only the three figures in the foreground.  The background is completely shaded in darkness.  The heightened drama creates a tone of concealed danger.  Gentileschi's painting reflects a darker side to femininity, just as Caravaggio's paintings reveal his own dark side.  

Pious Love

Ecstasy of St. Teresa, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

            Following the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the early 16^th century in Rome, religious art adopted a style that emphasized heightened drama, fluidity of movement and dynamic figures.  This style, known as Baroque, quickly took hold in Catholic architecture – many of the buildings, churches and fountains throughout Rome can be called Baroque.  The Roman artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the popular architect whose works epitomize the Baroque period in Rome.

            Architect of the Cornaro Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Bernini built the altar known as The Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647-1652).  The white marble statue, surrounded by polychromatic marble columns, depicts a scene from the writings of the famous saint in which she was pierced by an arrow and filled with the love and fulfillment of God.  The rather erotic depiction emphasizes the intense emotion after an angel has plunged and removed the arrow from her heart. 

                                                                                                                                                                   

Cornaro family depiction, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia CC

St. Teresa and angel, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            

This piece contains key aspects of Baroque sculptures.  The figures of St. Teresa and the angel are soft, seemingly alive as the drapery of the saint’s gown curves and folds in dynamic movement.  Bernini accents the figures by contrasting the softness of their skin and clothing with the rough texture of the rocks on which St. Teresa reclines, overcome with rapture.  Bernini also creates drama through the addition of a window directly above the sculpture, adding small golden beams that seem to be rays of light reaching down from the heavens.  Adding to the theatrics of his altar, Bernini depicted the commissioners, the Cornaro family, seated in box seats as if in a theater hall, straining to see the sight whilst talking amongst themselves.  These are all features that defined the Baroque period and made Bernini famous in his time.

Maniera

Joseph in Egypt, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Jacopo da Pontormo, who lived from 1494-1556, was the epotime of a Mannerist painter.  His compositions manipulate nature in figure and setting.  Pontormo’s compositions are often confusingly busy, with lack of harmony or traditional focal points.  Paintings such as Joseph in Egypt (1515) are meant to tell biblical stories, but do so in a befuddling manner with no traditional foreground, background or middle.  The story is not told chronologically, but instead laid out all at once before the viewer’s eyes.  The figures wear contemporary clothes while the architecture harkens back to Classical Antiquity.  The architecture itself serves no purpose other than to help create a sense of depth and to add an interesting complexity to the work.

Deposition from the Cross, photo courtsey
of Wikipedia CC

                 

            Although his paintings are a far cry from the symmetry of the Renaissance, Vasari states that “in every one of Jacopo’s works…there will not be something good and praiseworthy.  His figures are complex, twisted in dramatic movements, and display his understanding of manipulation.  His complex architectural structures, though out of place, are often interesting and distinctive.

Pontormo also utilizes color in an extroirdinary way, such as in his 1526-28 Desposition from the Cross.  This particular painting holds a beautiful array of pastel blues and reds.  Though the proportions and use of natural space are entirely manipulated, the color stands out most on his figures.  An interesting aspect of the composition of Ponrotmo’s Desposition is the subtle spiral the figures of the piece create.  Crowded into the front of the image and taking up the entire canvas, there is no traditional or defined setting for the painting.  Thus, the complexity and harmony of the way the figures relate to each other is a large part of what makes this painting remarkable.

Mannerism

Madonna with the Long Neck, photo courtesy

of Wikipedia CC

Mannerism, a painting style of heightened drama based on imitating the ideas and figures of the High Renaissance while manipulating the images, came about in the 1520s and lasted only until the 1580s. Mannerist painting is most notably recognized for attention to artificiality.  Francesco Parmigiano's Madonna with the Long Neck (1534-40) typifies the unique style of the Mannerist era.  Though a traditional subject, Parmigiano’s painting differs drastically from the High Renaissance Madonna and Child depictions.

The unbalanced and asymmetric composition rejects the harmonious paintings of Raphael and Michelangelo.  The figures in this piece crowd to the front left of the composition, so much that the artist later added a small figure in the bottom right to add a sense of depth and balance  The heads of five women overlook the Madonna, who towers over them.

Madonna profile, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

The man in the far right, unfinished,

photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

There is little architecture to provide a sense of space, depth, or size.  The Madonna’s cloak fills the entire center of the piece, hiding whatever throne she sits on.  The only architecture is a line of columns in the background, which serve no substantial architectural purpose but add an odd illusion of never ending depth.

The elongated baby Jesus, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Lastly, the Madonna and Child are strangely out of proportion.  The body of baby Jesus is childlike yet elongated, so he drapes over his mother’s lap, while the body of Mary is also largely out of proportion.  Her elongated body also stretches to tower over the figures in the painting, while her legs are too large, in order to account for her large son. 

The painting, ultimately, represents the artist’s reaction to the High Renaissance.  Artists of the mannerist era were reacting not only to the style of High Renaissance painting, but also to the Catholic Church, which was undergoing a great deal of turmoil at the time.

The Charmer

           Raphael of Urbino, according to Vasari, was born in 1483 on Good Friday.  Whether truth or not it provides an interesting comparison between the Savior and the artist on Vasari’s part – an artist who apparently possessed the “moral habits” that those of his talented counterparts did not. 

close of up Michelangelo's portrait, School of Athens
photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Raphael first studied under Pietro Perugino in Perugia as a youth.  Quickly surpassing his master’s style, he moved onto other towns before arriving in Florence.  Vasari writes that Raphael extolled the city, as well as its two great masters – Leonardo and Michelangelo.  Leonardo, born in 1452, was too old to be contemporary with Raphael, unlike Michelangelo.  Much opposite in demeanor, charming Raphael worked for Pope Julius II on a room in his apartment while Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel.  His famous fresco School of Athens exemplifies his keen ability to improve his techniwue through observation.  In this one piece alone, there is one figure more beautiful than the rest – the figure of Michelangelo.  Raphael added this portrait after viewing Michelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel as homage to his talent.  In this last addition Raphael adapted Michelangelo’s lifelike fresco style with color and shading, causing it stand out from the fresco as a whole.

School of Athens, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Vasari writes that as an adult, Raphael strived to alter his style to match that of Michelangelo’s.  He abandoned the style of Pietro to study the human body as Michelangelo did.  However, Raphael realized he would never surpass the master in that style, and instead “began to attain great versatility in all those other aspects of painting.”

            At the youthful age of 37, Raphael died and was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, where he gained great fame and was beloved by its people.

Harmony in Symmetry

Tempietto, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            In the 1490s, Italy moved swiftly into the High Renaissance with artists who were inspired and influenced by Classical Roman techniques and architecture.  While the first truly Renaissance building is thought to be the Odpedale degli Innocenti in Florence – designed by architect Filippo Brunelleschi and built between 1419 and 1445 – the first High Renaissance building exists in Rome, in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio.  Constructed in 1502 by Donato Bromante, the Tempietto is based on the classic Roman central plan temples, and influenced by such buildings as the Pantheon.

            

detail in Tempietto, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            The Tempietto, built on the exact spot where St. Peter was supposedly crucified around 67 CE, contains such Roman influences as a hemispherical dome, Doric columns supporting marble capitals, and entablatures.  The perfectly symmetrical building harkens back to Classical Antiquity temples in its shape and construction. 

drawing of Tempietto, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

            

    

          

          Bramante’s greatest achievement with his design is the illusion of size created by the building.  The grandeur of the outside, as well as the decreasing of size with each level, causes the building to seem much larger.  The Tempietto, not meant for large congregations, contains little space inside; and thus was perhaps more built as a majestic homage to Chrstianity – and its link to antiquity’s architectural harmony.  

The Artist as Genius: da Vinci and Painting

Baptism of Christ, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Leonardo da Vinci, who lived from 1452-1529, became one of the most celebrated artists of his time.  According to Giorgio Vasari, from childhood da Vinci easily mastered every subject he sought to learn, though he often grew bored before moving on to another.  Most well known for painting, da Vinci tired of or grew frustrated of many projects, as with the subjects he abandoned, and became most well known for rarely finishing a commission.  Vasari writes that da Vinci’s “understanding of art [caused him to begin] many projects but never finish any…feeling that his hand could not reach artistic perfection in the works he conceived, since he envisioned such subtle, marvelous, and difficult problems that his hands, while extremely skillful, were incapable of ever realizing them”(pg 287, The Lives of Artists).  It is for this reason that da Vinci was the first artist of the Renaissance to alter the traditional power of patron over artist, in turn for artists’ power over patrons.  

Madonna of the Rocks, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia CC

During his youth da Vinci painted in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio.  At the time, Verrocchio worked on a painting of Saint John baptizing Christ, and though da Vinci only painted a small angel carrying garments, the figure stands out so superbly that according to Vasari “this was the reason why Andrea would never touch colors again”(287).  This is a notable point, most poignant when the painting, The Baptism of Christ (1475) is viewed in person because da Vinci's work with color here is far superior when compared to the entire painting.  Even as a young man da Vinci’s keen eye for observation added so much to his skill with painting that he was able to create images like none before.  His eye for observation is obvious when any one of his paintings is compared to one of his contemporaries.  When others painted hazy mountains in the distance, da Vinci created realistic atmospheric perspective.  Sfumato in paintings such as Madonna of the Rocks (1480) and Mona Lisa (1503-1505) adds a tonal mysterious and emotional impact.

Mona Lisa, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Da Vinci was, however, not only a forrunner of advancing painting; he was also one of the first men to study correct human anatomy extensively.  Creating a book filled with drawings of cadavers and dissections of his own hand, he sketched the inner workings of the human body so as to accurately understand it.  He also filled notebooks with drawings of inventions far beyond his time – so far beyond that there was no technology to keep up with his ideas. 

Ultimately, Leonardo da Vinci was a conceptual genius, loved in his time and in the modern world.  Best known in his day for advancing the art of painting, he has also never been truly surpassed in this art.  However, more like the modern artist, da Vinci was more concerned with the concept of his art than the presentation, and when carried out his perfectionism caused him frustration and grief.

The Artist as Genius: Michelangelo and Sculpture

            Michelangelo di Buonarotti, one of the most successful and influential artists of the Renaissance, was both a master of brush and chisel.  His works in the Sistine Chapel exemplify his brilliance in fresco painting, while works such as the David and Roman Pieta evoke his emotional and striking power over marble.  The Roman Pieta, commissioned in 1498 for the tomb of the French cardinal, Jean de Billheres, now rests in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome. 

Roman Pieta, photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            The marble sculpture has three key elements: realistic depth, subdued yet dramatic emotion, and exquisite detail.  For Michelangelo sculpture allowed for a level of depth that he felt painting lacked, and thus allowed him the freedom of physicality to create works of art.  The folds in the Madonna’s drapery appear soft, while the body of Christ hangs limply over her lap so realistically that he seems truly lifelike.

            Interestingly, Michelangelo manipulates proportion in this sculpture (as with many of his prolific works) in order to heighten the dramatic element.  The hands and size of the Madonna’s lap are much too big to be proportionally accurate, but this actually adds power to her presense.  Christ seems small and frail compared to her.

            The detail in this work is perhaps what allows it to stand out most.  Most notably is the body of Christ, on which every limb appears smooth and toned, muscled and vein filled.  Each finger on his hand hangs limply, bones showing underneath skin.  His forearm and bicep falling past the Madonna’s lap is taut with muscles, his torso thin, muscle and bone showing through the skin.  The face of Christ sags lifelessly, while the serene face of his mother peers down on him.  

Titian of Venice

Venus of Urbino, 1538, photo courtesy of WCC

          The Venetian artist Titian attained great fame in his day through born talent for observing and painting realistically the natural world.  The painter’s exact birth year eludes art historians to this day, due to his own desire to create a mystery about himself.  He created this confusion for future generations by drastically changing his age in many paintings.  However, through ardent research, historians placed his birth year at somewhere between 1487-90, and the year of his death (something that artist could not befuddle) at 1576.

            Vasari’s biography of Titian, the last in The Lives of Artists, describes him as a man with so much natural talent that had he been given rigorous stylistic schooling, he could have reached the heights of Michelangelo, Leonardo or Raphael. 

Danae Receiving the Golden Rain, 1553, photo courtesy of WCC

            Titian began his studies with Giovanni Bellini, a prominent Venetian painter in his day, and learned the style of Venice at the time.  According to Vasari, in the year 1507, Titian discovered the new technique adopted by Giorgione of Castlefranco and began to emulate it.  Giorgione painted with softer lines and colors; and throughout his career, Titian became known for this chiarascuric style of painting.  His paintings were often mistaken for those of Giovanni. 

            Throughout the beginning of his career, it seems Titian was commissioned many times to finish paintings and portraits by Bellini, who had weakened with age.  He arose to prominence during this time, and received many commissions of both religious paintings and portraits – for which he is best known.  Titian painted many nudes, women who are so ethereal that even Michaelangelo noted (according to Vasari) that “If Titian…had been assisted by art and design as greatly as he had been by Nature…no artist could achieve more or paint better, for he possesse[d] a splendid spirit and a most charming lively style”. 

Boy with Dogs in a Landscape, 1576, photo courtesy of WCC

            In his later career, Titian’s style shifted from his meticulous detailed works to broad and bold brush strokes; and though they seem to be effortless, Vasari writes that “his paintings [we]re reworked and that he ha[d] gone back over them with colors many times, making his effort evident”.  Toward the end of his life, the biography states that Vasari visited the aging artist, who still had brushes in his hands.

Artistic Perspective

          Andrea Mantegna was a prominent Italian Renaissance artist who lived from 1431-1506.  His most famous work, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, is distinguished by its mastery of perspective and foreshortening.  Mantegna’s skill with this quality of realism make his works both intricately intruiging and difficult to recreate.

St. James Led to His Execution, photo courtesy of WCC

                   The Italian city of Padova houses some f Mantegna’s early frescoes in the Ovetari Chapel (dedicated to the lives of Saint James and Christopher), which lies close to Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel.  Regrettably, during the second World War the Allies destroyed many of his frescoes here during an air strike; however, during the 1920s they had been photographed in black and white, and are now in the process of restoration.

St. James Before Herod Agrippa, photo courtesy of WCC

     These frescoes provide an excellent example of Mantegna’s early experimentaion with foreshortening and complicated perspective.  In one example, St. James Led to His Execution, Mantegna creates two point perspective – in the foreground he creates a v-shaped line of people who recede into the background, and in the upper portion he mimics this with the tops of the buildings and an arches hallway.  Mantegna’s precise attention to this scientific pattern adds a dimension of reality receding into space, as if there is no end to his image.  The artist was a master of three dimensionality, even in his early career.  Mantegna’s complicated frescoes create an illusion of reality.  They are not as spacially balanced as some images from contemporary artists, yet they harmoniously work together because of his attention to perfecting linear perspective and foreshortening.

Botticelli's Transformation

The lives of eccentric artists are often wrought with poverty and misunderstanding.  Appreciation comes to them after their deaths, when the rest of the world has caught up with their vision.  For Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), it seems that his career began in fame, but through his own lifestyle spiraled downward into destitution.

Birth of Venus, (1486), photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

Primavera, (1482), photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Throughout his early career, Botticelli was most often commissioned by the Medici family.  He worked on many projects in the home of Lorenzo di Medici, most notably his Birth of Venus (1486), Primavera (1482) and Pallas and the Centaur (1482).  These paintings exemplify a whimsical painter, less concerned with the Christian ethereal than the mythical.  A student of Fra Filippo Lippi, the influence from his master is apparent in much of his painting, though it is less realistic than that of Lippi.  Botticelli’s figures often portray a style somewhat similar to Lippi, with exquisite detail in facial expression and structure, as well as small details such as strands of hair.  

            

Christ Crowned with Thorns, (1500),
photo courtesy of Wikipedia CC

According to Giorgio Vasari’s biography of the painter, Botticelli squandered all of his money, so that in his later life he had acquired no savings.  During the 1490s, Botticelli became greatly influenced by the friar Savonarola and his infamous “Bonfire of the Vanities”.  Though it is not recoreded that Botticelli actually took part in this destruction of books and paintings, he did alter his style and subject matter so significantly that is became vastly difficult for him to find work.  For the remainder of his life, Savonarola’s influence affected Botticelli so that he “abandon[ed] painting; unable to make enough to live on, [so that] he fell into the direst of straights.” 

            Although his later life left him impoverished and indisposed, Vasari describes Sandro Botticelli as a painter who “ deserved high praise for all his paintings, because he put all of his energy into his works and did them with loving care.” 

References: Giorgio Vasari's The Lives of Artists

The Youthful Master

            The Brancacci Chapel in Florence was commissioned by Felice Brancacci, begun by the painter Masolino and his twenty-one year old student, Masaccio, in 1386 and later completed Filippino Lippi in 1481-82.  The Chapel was part of the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, which burned almost completely in 1771.  Amazingly, the Brancacci Chapel remained unharmed, allowing the frescoes of an artist who lived a short but talented life to be preserved.

Baptism of Neophytes, Masaccio, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia Creative Commons

Expulsion from Paradise
Masaccio, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia Creative
Commons

        Masaccio’s frescoes here consist of The Expusion from Paradise, The Tribute Money, Baptism of Neophytes, St. Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow, The Distribution of Alms and Death of Anias, as well as parts of Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned and Healing of the Cripple and Raising of Tabitha.  The most famous of his frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel is The Tribute Money, most well known for its precise realism in perspective and figures.  The painting depicts the scene from the gospels in which Jesus directs St. Peter to fetch a coin out of the mouth of a fish with which to pay a tax collector, and is divided into three segments – on the left St. Peter crouches by the water to catch the fish, in the center Jesus stands with the apostles and tax collector (who wears a short tunic and faces the group) and on the right St. Peter delivers the coin to the   tax collector. 

The Tribute Money, Masaccio, photo courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons

            In this fresco, Masaccio utilizes his single-point perspective for the entire painting, so that even though it is divided into three segments, the painting exists harmoniously as one whole piece.  Another technique attributed to Masaccio is atmospheric perspective, which is seen in the slight blueing of the mountains in the distance.  Lastly, Masaccio was the first to create a specific light source, creating a unique three-dimensionality, especially in the figures.  Altogether, Masaccio’s techniques form a realism previously unseen in painting; and this is the reason why Masaccio is known as one of the forerunners of the Renaissance.

The Mathematical Artist

Funerary monument to Sir John
Hawkwood, 1436, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia Creative Commons

            A most interesting biography in Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of Artists, the life of Paolo Uccello, recounts a somewhat downtrodden life for the artist.  Vasari writes at length about what he calls Uccello’s preoccupation with perspective, who spent less time on his figures, which often come out stiff.  He admires Uccello’s talent, but writes that “anyone who does violence to his nature with fanatical study may well sharpen one corner of his mind, but nothing that he creates will ever appear to have been done with the nature ease and grace of those who place each brush-stroke in its proper place”.  According to Vasari, Uccello lived a rather impoverished and lonely life, locking himself in his home due to his own embarrassment and lack of praise.

Uccello's Mazzochio drawing, photo courtesy of
Wikipedia Creative Commons

            Though Paolo Uccello was perhaps distracted with the mathematical perfection of his art, it allowed for a great improvement in the techniques of perspective – a fact which presents itself in his artwork.  Mazzochios, a wicker headdress fashionable for men in his day, are found in many of Uccello’s paintings.  While many artists would focus on the humanity and realism within an artwork, Uccello did extensive drawings on these mazzochios, striving to understand their structural complexity and perspective.

Vasari's fresco for the Earth element in
Palazzo Vecchio, photo by Tessa B.

        Uccello also often employed the terra verde (generally, earth toned) style of painting in many of his pieces.  This sometimes frustrates Vasari, who states that it is an error “because things that appear to be made from stone cannot and should not be tinted with another color”.  In other words, Uccello often painted buildings or nature in unnatural colors, a practice that Vasari does not quite understand.

            In all, Vasari seems to have admired Uccello for his talents.  Interestingly enough, it seems he borrowed an idea from Uccello’s frescos in the Peruzzi home for one of the rooms commissioned by Duke Ferdinand in the Palazzo Vecchio: the four elements painted with animals representing them, a mole for the earth, a fish for water, a salamander for fire, and a chameleon for air.

Gothic Transformation

Facade of Santa Maria Novella, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia Creative Commons

            The architect Leon Battista Alberti was commissioned in 1456 to redesign the façade of the Gothic style Church of Santa Maria Novella by the Florentine Rucelli family.  Alberti’s design reflected the high Renaissance classical spirit both physically and mathematically; but was also considered Romanesque in style, mainly in the arch and capitals.  The architect was influenced by the Church of San Minato al Monte for his Romanesque design.  The façade of Santa Maria Novella originally had six marble encased tombs, which were immovable, and are now situated under the six arches, located on each side of the entrance.

            Alberti’s plan borrowed classical techniques for design, including the pilasters, Corinthian capitals and a large tympanum.  As the first to seriously study the Treatise of Vitruvius from ancient Rome, Alberti became the first architect in the Renaissance to fully understand classical architecture, utilizing this knowledge to create a mathematically balanced façade.  Completely symmetrical, the dimensions of the different sections in this façade are bound together by the ratio of 1:2.  Each section can be broken down individually, but Alberti’s goal was for them to only exist harmoniously together. 

The bottom section, a rectangle, is twice the length of the square above it, and boasts four Roman pilasters and six Romanesque arches.  Reflecting classical temples, the square and tympanum sit atop a pediment.  The sun, which sits inside the tympanum, is the emblem of the convent of Santa Maria Novella.  

Masters of Pen and Bronze

            Giorgio Vasari: master biographer.  Lorenzo Ghiberti: master of sculpture.  The two men have both contributed a vast wealth of long lasting culture to the world - a wealth that has not diminished with time and has only added to our understanding of the history of mankind and his accomplishments. 

Gates of Paradise, photo
courtesy of Wikipedia CC

            Vasari recounts in his biography of Ghiberti (1378-1455) the exact point at which his talent was eclipsed into country-wide fame – at his creation of the great bronze panel for a competition in 1401.  Vasari's biographic tale casts a light of perspective onto Ghiberti's prized work.  Without background, the Bronze Gates of Paradise are awe striking, but the depth of this accomplishment is not fully understood.  In his description of Ghiberti and his competitors, Vasari recounts that Ghiberti allowed artists and townspeople alike to view and critique his panel, while his competitors guarded them with secrecy.  It was perhaps because of this that his panel so far surpassed the others.  With great care and consideration, Ghiberti worked and reworked his panel in wax, finally casting it in Bronze.  Vasari allows the humanity behind Ghiberti’s masterpiece to surface with his tale, relating the care and affection both Ghiberti and his father, Bartoluccio, gave to the panel which depicts the Old Testament story.  

Though the doors do not stand in their original spot at the baptistery, residing only some hundreds of feet away in the museum of Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral, they are as wondrous now as they were during the Renaissance.  Though the relief does not reach more than two inches, some figures stand in almost full relief, while the architecture and backgrounds protrude less than a centimeter and still seem to recede with perspective.  The figures themselves seem to sway with movement.  Wholly, his mastery with sculpture adds a dimension of reality to the panels that is not present in the panel of his competitor, Filippo Brunelleschi.

What is most important about Vasari's biography is its reminder that these Gates of Paradise are not mythical objects, but were created in a specific time, at a specific place.  If one stands in front of the doors to the baptistry, one stands where centuries ago, Michelangelo supposedly gave these doors their infamous name.

Moving Towards Modernization

Triumph of the Church, photo courtesy
of Wikipedia Creative Commons

The Proto-Renaissance, a most pertinent period in history, became the fundamental base for modernizing art.  Once masters like Cimabue, Giotto and Duccio brought artists out of the middle ages, painters and sculptors alike began to find the techniques for true realism in their arts.

Andrea da Firenze (1343-1377) was one of these men, working in style a similar to the masters before him.  A Florentine fresco painter, his best known works still exist today in the Spanish Chapel in Santa Maria Novella.  A prime example of his frescos there, Triumph of the Church, (1366-68) displays the artist’s keen eye for observation.  The fresco, commissioned by Buonamico Giudalotti, depicts a scene in which Jesus looks down upon the city of Florence, along with the Church Triumphant.  Those residing on earth, or the Church Militant, talk or kneel in prayer, while dogs (a symbol of the Dominican monks) dutifully stand guard. 

Although Andrea took influence from Giotto, his composition still resembles those from the Byzantine era.  Though there is a slight sense of depth, the fresco is very much based in hierarchy of scale, and has a frontality to it that does not allow for true realism. 

Close up of Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, photo
courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons, cropped

However, what is most impressive about this fresco is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.  Although Brunelleschi’s dome for the cathedral had not yet been completed, Andrea’s depiction of the dome is decently accurate; and the detailing, architecture, shading and perspective is impressive.  The cathedral is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Triumph of the Church.

Altogether, Andrea’s fresco demonstrates the forward movement of the time.  Though artists were still only moving out of the Byzantine style, modernization was quickly spreading as more artists took influence from the masters.

Cimabue: Jump Starting the Proto Renaissance

Giorgio Vasari’s The Lives of the Artists begins with the biography of Cimabue, who was raised in Florence and lived from 1240-1302.  Vasari describes the artist as the first since antiquity to improve upon the traditional style of art today known as Greco Byzantine.  Vasari praises Cimabue for this forward movement, noting the tonal humanity presented in Cimabue’s works throughout the Tuscan region.

Wooden Cross (1265), Cimabue, Photo courtesy
of Wikipedia Creative Commons

A particular work exemplifying his style is the Wooden Cross (1265), which can be seen in the Basilica of Santa Croce.  Cimabue’s Christ hangs from the cross with more lifelike features – his legs and torso dangle limply to one side, while his arms and head droop in death.  Most notably is the expression of anguish and sorrow on Christ’s face.  When closely observed, it is found that the lines of his face sag in pain.  His mouth and eyes slope downward, giving him a dimension of humanity unseen works by previous artists. 

Although Cimabue was only the precursor of what was to come – quickly surpassed in fame by his successor, Giotto di Bondone – Vasari notes that without his spark of ingenuity, it may have been many more years before art began to transform.  Perhaps (and Vasari notes this as well) Cimabue was in the right place at the right time, a mixture of painting master and creative mind, much unlike his predecessors.

The Key to Modernizing Byzantine Art: Influence and Improvement

            During the early trecento in Italy, painters took influence from masters such as Cimabue and Giotto – though Giotto far surpassed the former in style and color – in order to improve upon and modernize the field of art. 

Lorenzetti, Presentaion of Jeus in the 

Temple (1348), Photo courtesy of 

Google Art Project

One such artist by the name of Ambrogio Lorenzetti came from the Sienese School of painters, living from 1290-1348.  His Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, painted in 1348, demonstrates both his influence from Giotto and his impelling need to further the realistic and humanistic style of painting becoming ever more popular in the Italian Proto Renaissance. 

Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is characterized by great attention to depth and three dimensionality, as seen in the folded draperies of the figures, as well as the remarkable architecture which recedes into the background; which also exemplifies Lorenzetti’s conscious observation of the world around him.  Though the traditional use of linear perspective would not come to existence for another two hundred years, Lorenzetti clearly recognized that in order to create three dimensionality on a two dimensional space, the world must gradually become smaller as it recedes into the background.  Lorenzetti’s traditional Byzantine influence is clear in the long faces of his figures, as well as the gold trimming and common subject of his 

Close up of Presentaion of Jesus, Photo courtesy
of Google Art Project

        painting; but like Giotto he adds a tone of humanity to the faces – the men talk to one another with somewhat more animated expressions and the women look placidly upon the baby Jesus, who more resembles a human baby than in Byzantine portrayals. 

All together, the altar piece is a remarkable example of the painter’s ability to further expand the style of painting during his time, through both the setting he paints his figures within and the figures themselves.  Lorenzetti was one of the first     artists to truly create a three dimensional space on a flat surface.

Giorgio Vasari: Art and Genius

            Giorgio Vasari is known today as the father of art history, many believing that he created the discipline, due to the fact that none other before his time chronicled the lives or work of artists in extensive biographies.  Vasari’s love of Roman art and architecture provides insight into his love of art as a whole – though a devout Catholic himself, he recognized the value of the art of the “pagan” peoples, describing in detail the tragedy of its destruction.  Vasari states that the destruction of Roman art actually set humanity back in time, and that the advanced styles and techniques were, though not in accordance with the Catholic Church, valid and beautiful.  He believed that artists of the time should be remembered for the ages, and lamented that there existed many artists and creations that will be forever lost to the world because of this purging of pagan gods. 

            However, Vasari seems to have great faith in humanity, going so far as to say that humans may even be similar to God in our intellect.  He states in his preface to The Lives of Artists that God made us out of imperfection, molding human beings into what He believed to be perfect beauty, and that out of that likeness we look to nature to create perfect beauty and harmony.

            Though his biographies of artists are wrought with both small and large factual errors, Vasari’s Lives of the Artists is still the only extensive biography written contemporary with artists such as Michelangelo; so in this way it provides invaluable insight which can not be found any where else in history. 

            

Giotto and the Renaissance

         The painting style of the Renaissance differed drastically from Byzantine art of the Roman Empire.  Focus shifted from the purely ethereal to the human (though subjects remained mainly religious); and painters desired to create a sense of depth and life to their figures.  

       

       The forerunner of this new style, Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), became widely known for his realism, which he achieved through multiple techniques.  One of these was to create the illusion of mass in his figures through the folded drapery of their clothes.  He also often worked with a specific light source, giving his figures a realistic setting that at the same time added to the illusion of depth.  

Giotto's Madonna Enthroned with
Angels and Saints, photo courtesy
of flckr creative commons

      

        Giotto’s panel Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints is a perfect example of the stray from the Byzantine style.  As compared with Cimabue’s panel of the same subject, Giotto’s has a great amount of life to it.  Painted from 1306-1310, the tempera on wood panel stands at an alarming 128 x 80 inches.  In person, Giotto’s work with light, drapery, and architecture all work together to create depth and space.  Giotto also used perspective to create depth, seen in the throne (an architecturally painted masterpiece), as well as in the angels, who over lap one another as they recede into the background.  

      

          Giotto's style paved the way for a new era, focusing on the realism of humanity and emotion.  His attention to light, perspective, and depth does not seem new or extraordinary today, but in the 14th century it was an advanced technique, new to all.

Giorgio Vasari: Artistic Genius or Eradicator

Giorgio Vasari, self portrait.  Photo
by lhwilkenson, courtesy of flikr
creative commons.

From the height of the cinquecento to present day, the art biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) has been fundamental to historians for Renaissance art and its budding artists.  His biography The Lives of Artists was, and is still, integral for studying the Renaissance style (how it came to be and why).

However, as the years have passed, art historians have actually found many of Vasari’s facts to be false – bits and pieces of information have been either misleading or completely off target.

Another poignant part of Vasari’s life, after the creation of the Council of Trent

(1545-1563), seems to contradict his vehement recordings of the Renaissance.  He, along with infamous artists such as Sandro Boticelli, took part in the massive destruction and recreation of paintings, murals, frescos and sculptures straying from the strict ideals of the Catholic Counter Reformation.

            Interestingly enough, today Vasari is still thought of as the most iconic art biographer in historic times; and though there are gaps in truth, The Lives of Artists does provide direct and invaluable insight into the Renaissance.  

Early Beginnings and The Power of "Denaro"

Il Duomo (designed and built by Filippo Brunelleschi
in 1436) photo by McPig, courtesy of Flickr
creative commons.

We begin in the early 15^th century, when Italy existed not as one unified country, but as divided city-states governed independently of one another.  Around this time the city-state of Florence began to flourish through the production of cloth, and forwent the traditional bartering of goods and services for a currency of silver coins, called "Denaro".  The creation of a currency in Florence made it possible to grow in wealth and status for the first time in history, a radical but economical idea; and Florence swiftly transformed into a prosperous city-state crowded by bankers and merchants.

Equestrian statue of Ferdinando dei Medici (constructed

by Pietro Tacca 1602-1608), photo by Simone Ramella, 

courtesy of Flickr creative commons.

Most of the wealthiest families residing in the city desired to showcase their affluence – and the best way to do so was to commission an art piece.  Families such as the Medici paved the roads for countless others with commissioned paintings and sculptures for private and religious use. 

As Florence grew in wealth during the Baroque and Renaissance periods, so too did its artistic community.  Commissioned art became a fundamental source of income for painters and sculptors; but while many commissioners were wealthy bankers, the subjects and ideals remained mainly religious.

Entering the Baroque period, the Catholic Counter Reformation reared its omnipotent head by commissioning cathedrals, sculptures, altar-pieces and more.  These were to be seen by the public in order to advise them to reform to the ways of the Catholic Church in piety and humility. 

Ultimately the commissioning of art by wealthy families allowed for an abundance of artists, all exploring new concepts and styles while painting and sculpting for the richest of Florence’s citizens.