italy, 1200-1400 gardner chapter 19-2 pp. 502-509
TRANSCRIPT
ITALY,1200-1400
GARDNER CHAPTER 19-2
PP. 502-509
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
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
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
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
1. Displace the Byzantine style
2. Established painting as a major art form
3. Restored the naturalistic approach the ancients developed
4. Method of pictorial expression based on observation -> foundations of empirical science
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
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
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
Arena ChapelFlashcard
employees.oneonta.edu/.../arenachapel.html Last Judgment
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
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
Giotto Di Bondone, Lamentation, Arena Chapel Flashcard
Joachim's Dream
teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/ltrupe/ART%20Histor...http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/images/articles/nativity_giotto_fig5.jpghttp://www.wga.hu/art/g/giotto/padova/3christ/scenes_4/chris21.jpgwww.wga.hu/tours/giotto/padova/cycle/chris23.html
Ascension
Predecessor to chiaroscuroperspective
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
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
Flashcard
Duccio, Maesta altarpiece,
Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints
Predella
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
www.oneonta.edu/.../arth/Arth213/Duccio.htmwww.abcgallery.com Gardner’s Art Through the Ages
Duccio,
Maesta altarpiece,
Betrayal of
Jesus
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
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
Orvieto Cathedral
main portal
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/italy/orvieto/cathedral/duomo.htmlinstructional1.calstatela.edu/.../
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
1. brilliant colors
2. Lavish costumes
3. Intricate ornamentation
4. Themes involving splendid processions