Chapter 21: The Renaissance in Quattrocento Italy Chapter Sheet
Preview: The “Renaissance” is the term historians use to describe the flowering of art and the rediscovery of classical culture that occurred in the 15th century in Italy. The center of the Italian Renaissance was Florence, where the powerful Medici family patronized artists who were brilliantly innovative in their interpretations of classical forms and themes. Artists such as Donatello, Ghiberti, and Masaccio were inspired by antiquity in works that upheld Catholic faith and celebrated secular figures. Humanist classical themes inform the work of the painter Sandro Botticelli, while architects also adapted classical forms in such buildings as Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti. Works such as Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter manifest the use of linear perspective, a system codified in the 15th century. The inventor of linear perspective was Filippo Brunelleschi, though the theory was also expressed in written form by Leon Battista Alberti and Piero della Francesca. The artistic developments in 15th century Italy laid the groundwork for the artists of the High Renaissance and Mannerism in Cinquecento Italy, the subject of Chapter 22.
List of Artworks (19 Cards Total)
1. Chapter 21 Florentine Renaissance Context Card
2. Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, ca. 1482
3. Filippo Brunelleschi, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, 1401-1402
4. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panel for east doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, 1401-1402
5. Donatello, Saint Mark, Or San Michele, Florence, Italy, ca. 1411-1413
6. Lorenzo Ghiberti, east doors (Gates of Paradise), Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, 1425-1452
7. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Isaac and His Sons, detail of east doors (Gates of Paradise), Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, 1425-1452; and perspective diagram
8. Donatello, David, ca. 1440-1460
9. Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Hercules and Antaeus, ca. 1470-1475
10. Donatello, Gattamelata (equestrian statue of Erasmo da Narni), Piazza del Santo, Padua, Italy, ca. 1445-1453
11. Masaccio, Tribute Money, Brancacci chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy, ca. 1424-1427
12. Fra Angelico, Annunciation, Can Marco, Florence, Italy, ca. 1438-1447
13. Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with Angels, ca. 1460-1465
14. Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, ca. 1484-1486
15. Filippo Brunelleschi, facade of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, begun 1433
16. Filippo Brunelleschi, plan of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, begun 1433
a. Filippo Brunelleschi, interior of the Pazzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, begun 1433
17. Leon Battista Alberti and Bernardo Rossellino, Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, Italy, ca. 1452-1470
a. Leon Battista Alberti, west façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, 1456-1470
18. Perugino, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter, Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome, Italy, 1481-1483
19. Andrea Mantegna, Foreshortened Christ (Lamentation over the Dead Christ), ca. 1500
Key Figures: Medici family, Dante, Leon Battista Alberti, Leonardo Bruni, Cennino Cennini, Girolamo Savonarola
Key Cultural & Religious Terms: Neo-Platonism, condittieri, prefiguration, covenants, Signoria, princely court
Key Art Terms: linear perspective, atmospheric/aerial perspective, horizon line, vanishing point, orthogonals, putti, ponderation, contrapposto, International Style, écorché, di sotto in sú, trompe l’oeil, foreshortening, bottega
Key Architectural Terms: transept, triumphal arch, portico, cloister, refectory, pediment, module, braccia, pietra serena, cruciform, crossing square, central plan, barrel-vault, tondi, pendentives, ogival, rustication, stringcourse, cornice, Tuscan order, engaged columns, Romanesque
Learning Objectives:
· What impact did Renaissance humanism have on art in Florence?
· What are the major formal developments in Quattrocento sculpture?
· What are the major formal developments in Quattrocento painting?
· Discuss the formal and material characteristics of 15th-century Italian architecture.
· Describe the first public demonstration of perspective.
· Describe the role and influence of patrons.
· Identify and describe the integration of sacred and secular concerns.
· Explain the relationship of science, humanism, and artistic production.
· Explain the role of princely courts on innovations in and support of art.
· Describe the materials and techniques of Renaissance painting, sculpture, and printmaking