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USC AHIS 120g - Early Renaissance in 15th century Italy

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AHIS 120g 1st Edition Lecture 20Current LectureEarly Renaissance in Fifteenth-century Italy- Rinascimento: Italian for “rebirth”. Its original users defined it as the rebirth of classicallearning, literature, and art. o Early Renaissance: fifteenth century. o High Renaissance: a period of exceptional achievement.o Late Renaissance: a chronological term.- Neither the definition of the Renaissance as the revival of classical forms nor thechronological limits apply outside Italy.o In northern Europe, scholars and artists did not have the same dedication to revivingthe ancients, though they did study the past.- The Renaissance was fundamentally an intellectual movement. o They dedicated to the studia humanitatis—the study of human works, emphasizingrhetoric, literature, history and moral philosophy. o Humanists’ analytical approach and empirical observations inspired new thinking inmany fields, including mathematics and natural science. o Roots of humanist education lay in the medieval university. - Humanist ideas affected artists as well as the patrons who hired them. o Artists studied ancient artworks to understand the principles by which ancientbuildings were designed and ancient sculptures achieved their naturalism.  Devised techniques such as perspective to further their goal of reproducingthe natural world and to spread their ideas. Florence in the 15th century- One reason for the prominence of Florence in histories of the Renaissance is that many earlyhumanists were Florentines who patriotically praised their hometown.- Florence was an important manufacturing center, a key for center for trade, and a majorcenter for international banking.o Bankers and merchants controlled the government.- The Baptistery Competitiono Filippo Brunelleschi vs. Lorenzo Ghiberti—The Sacrifice of Isaac.o The subject both artists were assigned as from the Book of Gensis, recounted howGod ordered Abraham to sacrifice his only son. o For the artists, the challenge was to fill the four lobes of the quatrefoil, yet at thesame time to convey the narrative succinctly and naturalistically. o Brunelleschi organized the forms to focus on the dynamic figure of Abraham whosearm is grasped by an angel coming from the left.  The lamb that replaced Isaac stands next to the altar. Subsidiary figures of shepherds fill the lower portions of the quatrefoil;though their postures are complex they do not contribute much to the maintheme.  Brunelleschi gives his figures great naturalism and composition of greatdrama.o Ghiberti’s relief reveals the strength of his composition, his skill at rendering thehuman form, and his observation of natural details.  Solved the problem of the quatrefoil field by placing narrative details in themargins and the focal point at the center. At the center, Abraham gestures dramatically as he moves to sacrifice his son. Isaac, his impressive naked torso contrasts with his father’s robes, seems toheroically accept his fate. Ghiberti successfully combines movement, focus and narrative. - Architecture and antiquity in Florenceo Brunelleschi was a central figure in Renaissance art and architecture.  Studied ancient structures and sculptures in Rome. Discovered linear perspective, a product of his research for an accurate wayof recording the appearance of ancient buildings. o Dome of the Florence Cathedral (1420-36) Brunelleschi’s design proposal were the fruit of his study of Gothic, Roman,Byzantine and Persian buildings, but the building of the dome was as much afeat of engineering style.  The dome came to symbolize Florentine inventiveness, piety, ambition andskill.  Soaring hundreds of feet above street level, the dome dwarfs all otherstructures in Florence.  Ribs of the dome’s eastern end rise upward dramatically, terminating in amarble cupola. - Ghiberti and later Florentine sculptureo Gates of Paradise (1425) These two doors each contain five large panels in simple square frames,creating a larger field for each image.  The panels depict scenes from the Hebrew bible. Ghiberti completely gilded the masterfully crafted bronze reliefs and framedthe panels with figures of prophets in niches, portrait heads in roundels, andfoliate decorations.  Significance was achieved through the selection of themes and legibility ofthe narratives.  Each panel defines deep space through its architectural features,accommodating the figures as they appear and reappear throughout thesculpture in a continuous narrative.-Painting in Florentine Churches and Chapelso Well-funded guilds oversaw sculptural adornment of public buildings and greatfamilies often sponsored building programs in churches. o Many of the elite families of Florence, having patronage rights in chapels,commissioned paintings rather than sculpture. o The stimulus of fresco and panel commissions led to many innovations in the art ofpainting. o Masaccio, The Holy Trinity (1425)Fresco in Santa Maria Novella.The fresco originally stood above a tomb slab for the Lenzi family (thecommissioners).The lowest section depicts a skeleton lying on a sarcophagus with theinscription—“What I once was,, you are; what I am, you will become”—anexample of memento mori, or reminder of death. Masaccio’s figures are “clothed nudes”, whose drapery falls in response to thebody underneath.The setting reveals the artist’s awareness of Brunelleschi’s system ofperspective—the tall pilasters next to the painted columns recall the pilastersthat define the arch and entablature of this fictive chapel. Use of perspective gives the spectator all the data needed to measure thedepth of this painted interior, to draw its plan, and to envision the structurein three dimensions. The picture space is independent of the figures; they inhabit the space, butthey do not create it.The vault is subdivided by square coffers, an echo of the dome of thePantheon; the space seems measurable, palpable. Masaccio further expresses the theme of the Trinity by the triangularcomposition that begins with the donors and rises to the halo of God. o The Tribute Money


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