AP Art History - The Early Italian Renaissance

All right, we're moving on to an area of art history that is pretty well known amongst the laymen. We are beginning to enter the Renaissance in Italy. So at this point in time, Italy is divided into several different city-states. When we look at this map of Italy from around 1400 to 1500, you can see that the modern kind of like boundaries of Italy have been separated into several smaller regions. So each of these regions is revolving around one or more major cities, and each of these cities is typically under the rule, at least kind of politically speaking, by a famous ruling family. So Florence, for example, is ruled by the Medicis, who are this family that dominate politics. So they have all the money and all the power, and as a result, they're commissioning a lot of the artwork. Usually the artwork is to decorate their houses or to show their wealth in some way, shape, or form. Another thing that a lot of these rival families are doing is that they're commissioning art in these vast quantities as kind of symbols of their patronage to the arts, and then also just to outdo each other and see who can commission the largest and most extravagant thing. So there's all these petty rivalries that are emerging, and of course the end result, which is kind of a good thing, is all this awesome art that is happening. A lot of the art that is emerging out of the early Italian Renaissance initially focuses on religious, at least like Christian religious subject matter, but subjects also began to include elements of Italy's pagan past as time went on. So we see a revival of including subjects like Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Interestingly, as time goes on, we see biblical figures depicted in a more secular and humanized way, and this very much goes into play with this concept of humanism, which was this artistic and intellectual movement that encouraged secular and religious subjects to coexist. So we will see this manifest many different ways in the early Renaissance. We will oftentimes see imagery where we see gods and people from the Bible coexisting. We will see that reflect most explicitly in the Sistine Chapel when we get to the High Renaissance. Interestingly, we will also see biblical figures depicted as more human and less kind of otherworldly and godly. In terms of artistic trends, we are seeing a massive revival of Greco-Roman trends in both 2D art and 3D art and architecture. The term Renaissance actually means rebirth, and that is very much referring to the rebirth of these Greco-Roman trends that have been popular in Italy during the ancient times, during the Roman Empire and Republic. So what we see in sculpture is this reintroduction of contrapposto, this kind of relaxed, naturalized, S-shaped form. We also see idealized bodies and nudity. So for several hundred years, we have not really seen nudity in art, with the exception of images of Adam and Eve. So this is really quite a shift, especially when it comes to depicting biblical figures. This is something that we have not really seen before in art. Another thing that we see starting to emerge is the use of linear perspective and trompe l'oeil, which is basically an optical illusion. So in this image up here, this painting of Madonna, Child, and Two Angels, this frame is actually painted onto the canvas. And you can see that Mary, her figure, is casting a shadow onto the frame. So this painted-on image is intended to fool the eye and create a sense of three-dimensionality. We also have figures that are grounded in space and within realistic environments. We're not just operating under flat gold backgrounds anymore. The figures aren't floating with their feet overlapping. There's complex relationships between the space that the figures are occupying and the figures themselves. Sometimes it's just like one spot, like in Donatello's David right here, we have some sort of elaboration on this three-dimensional space that he is occupying. And then in other times, we are seeing figures that are situated in like a window space, and you can see a complex background. In terms of architecture, we see a lot of similarities with architecture when it comes to the revival of these Greco-Roman trends. A lot of the architecture that is happening at this time includes these palaces and palatial complexes, usually for rich patrons, as well as chapels that they are commissioning to demonstrate their wealth, as well as their patronage to the arts and the church. A lot of these buildings are utilizing idealized proportions, just like we saw in Greco-Roman buildings like the Parthenon and the Pantheon. And the walls of a lot of these buildings contain frescoes, which, as a reminder, are images that are painted into wet plaster. A lot of these buildings are also beginning to include glazed tiles, which was an art form that was probably influenced by a lot of the Islamic tile work that was being used in the Ottoman Empire to the east at the time. We also have the rediscovery of domes. So domes are alive and well in Eastern Europe. We saw with the Hagia Sophia, for example, that massive dome with these glittering windows. We haven't seen domes in Western Europe in a very long time. So what is actually happening is that a lot of artists that are from Western Europe actually travel to the east, and they see places like the Hagia Sophia, and they're like, oh, we can actually build these again. So they begin to figure out how to build domes again and incorporate them into artwork and architecture. Oftentimes, too, the architecture of the early Renaissance is a lot lighter and airier than the very heavy and dark Gothic cathedrals that we were seeing in previous eras. And this is in large part due to the rediscovery of domes and these other ways to create these large interior spaces without lots of columns and these very heavy stone roofs. Our first work of architecture in the early Renaissance unit is the Pazzi Chapel. This was a family chapel attached to the Santa Croce Church. It's in Florence. So as I mentioned previously, at this time, wealthy families in Italy are commissioning family chapels for personal worship and devotion. So remember that in the late Gothic era, we had the Scrovegni Chapel, which was commissioned as a form of penance in order to give money back to the church that the patrons saw as something that was obtained in a rather kind of like unfavorable way. This was also, again, a way for the family to put their mark on the city and show up their retrials saying, oh, look at this fabulous chapel that I commissioned. It's so beautiful. I dare you to do better. So the interior of the Pazzi Chapel contains these two parallel vaulted spaces right here and a dome at its center. The tiles on the interior of the Pazzi Chapel and these little roundels right here are glazed in blues and grays, and it utilizes this lighter restricted palette. So again, we're deviating away from those very dark and heavy interiors and going for something that's lighter and airier. You'll notice that in this central dome right here that there is an oculus, which is this hole in the center of the dome that is allowing light to come into the building. We also saw an oculus in the Pantheon. There's also a series of windows going around the base of the dome, which is very similar to what we saw in the Hagia Sophia. So this building served as a chapel, but it also served as a chapter house or meeting and education place for monks. Here are a couple of architectural terms that you should remember with regard to the Pazzi Chapel. We have a set of pendentives right here. These little triangular bits that are supporting the dome and inside each of the four pendentives that are supporting the main dome are these roundels right here. Remember that roundels are these roundish frames that are being used to centralize an image. There are four roundels, one in each pendentive around the central dome, and each of these roundels depicts one of the four evangelists. One of the other architectural terms that we'll see a lot in the Renaissance is pilaster. So a pilaster is a rectangular column, usually one that is engaged or attached to a wall. So these kinds of columns right here are not really providing any real structural support, but rather they are decorative in nature. So of course these pilasters right here have Corinthian column capitals on them, so this is another way that classical architecture is coming back into play in this early Renaissance artwork. When we look at the Pazzi Chapel ground plan as well as the elevation, we can see lots of these repeating forms. We see lots of circles, squares, and rectangles in these nested proportions. You have probably noticed similar patterns and motifs when we've looked at other works of architecture from the classical eras, for example, or from antiquity. The Pantheon, for example, from Rome is incorporating lots of these nested circles and squares, particularly in the tile work on the floor, and then also has this interplay of squares, rectangles, and circles. Same thing with the Temple of Athena in Nike. So we have this perfect geometry, this mathematically and aesthetically pleasing arrangement of shapes that is being used to create a work of art. So this mathematical arrangement is another way that these classical styles and motifs are manifesting in Renaissance artwork and architecture. All right, this is our next work of architecture. This is the Palazzo Ruccoli. So this is a very domineering, lavish facade for a building. This was actually commissioned by the head of the Ruccoli family, Giovanni Ruccoli, who was an extremely wealthy merchant. You're probably noticing some similarities immediately between this work and the House of the Vedi. We have a house in a wealthy, bustling metropolitan area that was commissioned by a merchant. We'll see similarities in the next slide as well. We have three floors to this building that are visible from the outside. There's actually a fourth floor as well that contains servants' quarters, but it's not visible from the street. And these three floors are separated by string courses, which are these horizontal bands that project from the facade and create these little mini porches. So this building was really intended to accentuate horizontality, and the Palazzo Ruccoli in particular was inspired by the Medici Palace, which was similarly large and imposing and had this horizontality to it, moving left to right rather than up and down. So there's various friezes on the facade of the Palazzo Ruccoli that bear various symbols and motifs. The Ruccoli seal is typically represented as a diamond ring with three feathers or sails. So here are two different representations of Ruccoli seals right here. So what you'll notice is that the first floor is very geometric. We're not really seeing any curved lines in the facade here. We have pilasters, these engaged columns right here, and square windows. But when we get to the second and third floors, we're starting to see these more rounded forms. We have these mullion windows, which are divided in the center right here, and then they're centralized between these keystone arches right here. So the first floor of this complex was typically used to receive guests and conduct business. There are guest rooms on the second floor, and then the family's quarters were on the third floor. So the further up you went, the more private and intimate the building became. This building was really intended to convey harmony, stability, and order, essentially something that the family would have wanted to parallel in the way that they carried themselves in society. This is something that is a constant, something that has always been here and always will be here. So this is something that you can imagine would be very ideal for a family to convey, especially to the outside world, especially to convey their wealth status and importance. When a family builds a gigantic building like this in the middle of a very urban, bustling city, they're essentially flexing. They say, I have enough money to build this gigantic building in this very expensive area with very expensive materials. So this is the ground plan of the Palazzo Rucoli. There's a lot of startling similarities to the House of the Veti in Pompeii. And this is probably not a coincidence. Pompeii and Florence are geographically pretty close to one another. They're both in Italy. So you can imagine that a lot of these stylistic architectural conventions from this period are going to be carrying over into early Renaissance architecture, especially within the context of seeing items like the Pazzi Chapel, which are deliberately incorporating these classical elements. When you look at one of the most prominent aspects of the Palazzo Rucoli in terms of comparing it to the House of the Veti is this atrium area, this open air atrium that is leading to the sky. The space on the inside is very intimate. You're not really seeing any windows to the outside world. There's a couple of very small reserved spots, but it's very similar to what we're seeing in the House of the Veti, where it's very closed off from the rest of the world. It's creating this very lavish private interior space for the family. So this is the interior right here. Again, we can see the use of arches, which is a very Roman convention, and then Corinthian columns right here. And here's our mullion windows again. Our next work is the Madonna and Child with Two Angels by the artist with perhaps the best name to ever exist, Fra Filippo Lippi. So what you'll notice about this image is that it depicts a holy subject, the Madonna and Child. So this is an image that is typically the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus. We've seen Madonna and Child images before, notably with the Virgin Theotokos and Child with the saints. That image was very stoic and rigid, you'll probably recall. Whereas when you look at this image, it's a lot more casual. You see a halo around Mary's head, but it's very, very subtle. The divinity of these figures is very understated. Interestingly, you could look at these figures in this painting, and like in the absence of this very faint halo and the wings on these little cherubic figures, you'd probably think that this was a normal family, albeit a very healthy one. So this is something that a lot of artists are really endeavoring to do during the early Renaissance, is to secularize these holy subjects and to make them a lot more human, to make them appealing to the masses. We also see this in the Baroque era as well, which we'll cover in a couple of classes. So interestingly, Mary, even though she is depicted as this young mother, and she's a lot more humanized than we've seen in previous images, she's still very solemn. Her eyes are downcast. She's not really smiling. She kind of has this faraway look in her eyes. This is very common in Madonna and Child images, and is usually a method of foreshadowing, basically suggesting that Mary knows that her son will die for people's sins. She has this premonition she knows. Interestingly as well, baby Jesus actually more or less looks like a baby. This is pretty unusual within the context of other early Christian works, where he typically looks more like a small man than an actual baby. So this is one of the most obvious things that is happening in the early Renaissance, is that artists are seeing that, oh, babies are round and chubby, and they don't look like small men, and maybe we should depict Jesus in this way as well, to make him a little bit more identifiable and human. So Fra Filippo Lippi, in addition to having one of the most interesting names in art history, was also a very, we'll call him an interesting person. He had a lot of stuff associated with him that is not appropriate for this class, but he claimed to at one point to have been enslaved by pirates, and then he oftentimes had to be locked up in a room to complete his work because he was very easily distracted. He was also a priest and a chaplain, and he actually kidnapped a nun and had a child with her. It is actually theorized that the Mary in this painting is that nun, which is very ironic. So there's a lot of funky stories around Fra Filippo Lippi if you're interested. So moving on to a couple of the other elements of this painting, you'll notice that there's a complex background here. There is a series of mountains right here. This was something that art historians typically refer to as a set, like a natural element that was intended to reflect the facade of a church, and indeed looks like a gothic church. There's also a city at left center here, which is meant to represent Jerusalem. There's also a couple of other symbols in the foreground. So there's pearls in Mary's headdress and in her clothes and on the pillows right here. Pearls are typically representative of the Immaculate Conception, which is something that's associated with the Virgin Mary. And then, as I mentioned previously, the entire scene is within this window frame right here. This is painted on by the artist, and this is full in the eye of the trompe l'oeil, this optical illusion that the artist is using to create a sense of three-dimensionality in the painting. Our next work is another very well-known artwork from the early Renaissance, The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. So Venus is a pretty well-known figure in Greek and Roman mythology. Venus, aka Aphrodite, is the goddess of love and romance. There is a fairly interesting story that describes her conception. There is one god, I believe it was Janus, who was castrated, and then his bits fell into the ocean, and then met with the sea foam, and then Venus emerged fully formed from the ocean as this young woman floating on a clam. So clams and other shells are oftentimes used as Ionic symbols. They represent images of, like, vulvas or female genitalia. So you'll probably notice that we're seeing mythological imagery here, which is something that we have not seen in a while. Remember, we had lots of Nikes, for example, when we were studying ancient Greek and ancient Roman art and architecture. However, this is the first time that we're really starting to see it come back in the Renaissance. So this is really referencing that departure from a purely Christian subject matter in art to something that is looking at Italy's pagan past, its polytheistic past. It was also very bold at the time for Botticelli to paint Venus nude. At this point in time, there were basically two accepted reasons for artists incorporating nudity in art. One, if it was educational in some way, and then the second, if it was mythological. So this was very much a statement on his part to say, like, let's incorporate women, like naked women, and other naked human beings in artwork. There's a couple of allegorical figures in here as well. We have the west wind and a nymph who are blowing the shell to shore right here, and then we have a handmaiden that is swooping in to clothe her because she has to be modest. You'll notice that she is attempting to cover her chest and her bits with her hands and hair, so this is kind of like this illusion of modesty that we see a lot in Venus sculptures, where she's like, I'm naked, but I'm trying to cover myself because I'm modest, and that's a large part of her appeal, and one of the reasons that her nudity is seen as okay, quote unquote. Interestingly, there's actually a statue called the Medici Venus that Botticelli very likely used as a reference for this painting. You'll notice that while Botticelli has really mastered the facial structure, like the way that he's painting facial structure and hair, and then in certain instances foliage, it seems like he's never seen an ocean before. When you look at the way that the water is depicted in the way that the space is explored, it's relatively flat in comparison to some of the spaces that we'll see depicted in the high renaissance, particularly by artists like Raphael and Michelangelo. So this is something that is still a work in progress. There are still growing pains that are happening in art in terms of developing three-dimensional spaces. So this piece, along with many others, was commissioned by the Medici family to contribute to their vast stores of art and to decorate all of their fancy walls. This is Donatello's David right here. So David is a biblical figure, and you'll notice that he's nude, which is again pretty unusual before this time. So for those of you who don't know, the narrative of David and Goliath is from the Old Testament. Basically, there is Israel, like old Israel, and then there's this dude Goliath and his army that are coming in and they're like, fight me. And everybody's super afraid of Goliath because he's like 10 feet tall and his army has lots of weapons and nobody wants to fight him. And then David, this very scrawny, like slight young man, is like, I'll fight him. And everyone's like, okay, have fun dying. So instead of using brawn to fight Goliath, he uses brains as well as his faith and belief in God. And then from a distance, uses a sling and casts a stone at Goliath's head, striking him dead. And then he, to kind of like add insult to injury, then beheads him and then Israel is saved. We see a similar kind of narrative with Judith and Holofernes in a couple of units as well. There's lots of beheading in the Bible. So what you'll notice is that this piece is made out of bronze. We have not seen bronze sculpture in the Western world since the seated boxer. So this is another kind of revival that is happening during the Italian Renaissance in terms of the use of materials. So bronze casting is coming back into fashion and is being used a lot more frequently by artists. So this was probably something that was intended for private viewing in the Medici Palace. What you'll notice is that the body is in this very exaggerated contrapposto. And the figure is actually quite sassy. He has an arm on his hip and he's holding the stone that he's used to kill Goliath. And then he's also standing on Goliath's severed head. So there's a lot of information in this sculpture that has led to two different schools of thought when it comes to art historians. There are some art historians that are like, no, he's proud. How can he not be proud? He is naked and unafraid. He has a crown of laurels. He's stepping on an enemy's severed head. He has a hand on his hip. He's sassy and he's proud. But there's some art historians that are like, no, he's showing signs of humility. His head is lowered. His eyes are downcast. He looks contemplative. There's also the context of this narrative from the Bible where David defeated Goliath, not because of his brute strength, but because of his belief in God. So there's these two contrasting narratives when you look at commentary from art historians on this piece. Personally, if you are going out into battle wearing a hat with some flowers and your boots on and nothing else, that to me seems a little bit more proud than humble. It could just also be the artist's taste. We don't really know what Donatello was thinking when he sculpted this. In any case, the David is a very popular subject in Renaissance art. We, of course, have Michelangelo's David, which is perhaps the most famous of them right here. Interestingly, this David seems a lot more fit and a lot less scrawny than a lot of the other Davids that we see in art history. Also, a lot of people don't realize that Michelangelo's David is massive. It was this massive and unruly piece of marble that was given to Michelangelo to snub him and to challenge him. He was like, fine, I'll sculpt this beautiful sculpture out of this garbage piece of marble. Today, it's one of the most famous sculptures in existence. This is a scale image. This is a worker that is restoring the statue next to it. It's absolutely magnificent in person. If you ever have a chance to go to Florence, I highly recommend that you go to the Uffizi Gallery and see it. There's another depiction of David right here from Bernini, who was a Baroque artist. You'll notice that this pose is a lot more action-oriented. He's basically right about to sling the stone at Goliath's head. There's different narrative moments in each of these sculptures here. We have the before casting the stone, during casting the stone, and then directly after. You could probably teach an entire class just on David's from the early Renaissance and beyond because there's so many different renditions and so many different ways that artists are viewing this narrative moment.