The Florentine Renaissance
A date often given for the start of the Renaissance is 1401, when the Florentine authorities announced a public competition for the right to make a second door for the baptistry. Candidates had to submit a trial piece of The Sacrifice of Isaac , a stiff test presenting problems of narrative, expression, movement and spatial arrangement, in which scenery, animals and both nude and draped figures had to be adequately depicted. The most audacious solution, which can be seen in the Bargello, was provided by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), who in the process fully mastered the science of perspective. He failed to win, and in disgust gave up sculpture in favour of architecture, but the new possibilities opened up by his command over visuals, and the impetus they provided for other artists to experiment and discover, mark the transition from medieval art to modern. Brunelleschi's mantle was taken over by Donatello (c1386-1466), who began his long career by creating a new kind of freestanding statue to adorn Florence's churches, which became the artistic symbol of the city. These heroic, larger-than-life figures are shown with their feet planted firmly on the ground, displaying facial expressions of great energy and concentration. A typical example is the St George made for Orsanmichele, below which was placed an extraordinary carving of the saint slaying the dragon which uses the art of perspective for the first time in stone sculpture, as well as pioneering the technique of very low relief. With the bronze David , now in the Bargello, Donatello helped bring the nude - the ultimate figurative challenge - back into the mainstream of art; and he also revived another lost art, the bronze equestrian statue, with the Monument to Gattamelata in Padua. The victor of the baptistry door competition was Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), who thereafter devoted almost the rest of his life to the project. Ghiberti initially showed no interest in perspective, and remained loyal to most of the old Gothic formulas, his first set of doors merely refining Andrea Pisano's techniques. However, his second set of doors, known as the Gates of Paradise , show how his style evolved under the influence of classical antecedents, creating a sense of space and illusion, and imbuing the grouping and characterization of the figures with a gently lyrical touch. Donatello's collaborator Nanni di Banco (c1384-1421) was another to achieve an individual mix of the Gothic and Renaissance idioms, notably in The Four Saints on Orsanmichele. Another architect-sculptor, Bernardo Rossellino (1409-64), created in the Monument to Leonardo Bruni in Santa Croce the prototype of the sort of niche tomb that was to prevail for the rest of the century. Luca della Robbia (1400-82) began his career as a sculptor of marble and bronze, working in a classically derived style, but a very different one from the essentially serious approach of his contemporaries. However, after Luca invented the art of glazed terracotta, he abandoned other forms of sculpture, laying the foundation for a highly lucrative family business which was continued by his nephew Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525). The painter Masaccio (1401-28) belongs with Brunelleschi and Donatello as a key figure of the early Renaissance. His Trinity fresco in Santa Maria Novella must have startled his contemporaries, its perfect sense of depth and perspective giving the illusion of peering into the solid wall on which it was painted. Masaccio collaborated with Masolino, most notably in the fresco cycle in Santa Maria del Carmine. In this, the scenes are pared down to the essentials; the figures have a heroic quality and dignity, with their gestures depicted at the moment of maximum intensity. A single source of light is used, with shadows cast accurately. Fra' Angelico (1387/1400-55), like Ghiberti in sculpture, combined new techniques with the Gothic tradition. A devout Dominican monk, his pictures show a rapt, heavenly vision. Colour is a telling ingredient: Angelico's ethereal blue was inimitable, the rest of his palette hardly less fetching. Frescoes in the cells of his own monastery of San Marco, intended as aids to contemplation, rank as his most important body of work. Late in his career, Angelico was called to the Vatican, where he frescoed the Cappella Niccolina, employing a style which had by then lost all Gothic traces. Fra' Filippo Lippi (c1406-69) gradually moved away from the style of his master Masaccio to develop a greater sense of drama, seen to best effect in the frescoes in the cathedral at Prato. His later panels show a highly personal, mystical vision, characterized by wistful Madonnas, playful children and poetic landscapes. Fra' Angelico's only follower of note was Benozzo Gozzoli (c1421-97), whose work lacks any sense of profundity, but possesses undeniable decorative charm, best seen in the frescoes in the Palazzo Medici-Ricardi in Florence. The city's most eccentric painter was Paolo Uccello (1396-1475), who was obsessed by the problems of perspective and foreshortening. His Sir John Hawkwood in the duomo was a deliberate piece of trompe l'oeil, though its effect is marred by the use of different vantage points, a characteristic common to his paintings, in which he tried to find as many lines as possible to lead the eye inwards. Domenico Veneziano (1406-61) was one of the most admired artists of the day, but only a few works by him survive, notably the serene St Lucy Altar in the Uffizi, which shows his talent for spatial arrangement and gentle, pastel-like colouring. Andrea del Castagno (c1421-57), in contrast, favoured harsh, strong colours, and an exaggerated dramatic pose for his figures, as can be seen in The Last Supper in Sant'Apollonia. In the series of Famous Men in the Uffizi he initiated a Florentine trend by vividly translating onto canvas the late sculptural types of Donatello. Halfway through the century, a new versatility was brought to Florentine art by Antonio Pollaiuolo (c1432-98), who was active as a painter, sculptor, engraver, goldsmith and embroidery designer. Pollaiuolo was renowned for the advances he made in the depiction of anatomy and movement; he was also one of the first to grapple with the next great challenge facing Renaissance painters, namely how to move beyond making all parts of a picture accurate and realistic, while at the same time creating a satisfying compositional whole. Another painter-sculptor was Andrea del Verrocchio (c1435-88), whose fame as a teacher has unfairly drawn attention away from his own wide-ranging achievements. His Christ and St Thomas on Orsanmichele shows crafty compositional skills in fitting two statues into a space intended for one, and marks a move away from classicism, as does his equestrian Monument to Bartolommeo Colleoni outside San Zanipolo in Venice. Other Florentine sculptors of this period preferred a much softer approach. Desiderio da Settignano (1428-64) made sensitive busts of women and children, and used Donatello's technique of low relief to create scenes of the utmost delicacy. Mino da Fiesole (1429-84), Antonio Rossellino (1427-79) and Benedetto da Maiano (1442-97) showed broadly similar preoccupations, all concentrating on grace and beauty of line. Subjects drawn from classical mythology became an increasingly important part of the repertoire of Florentine painters in the second half of the fifteenth century, in large part owing to the humanist culture fostered at the court. One of Italy's most distinctive artists, Sandro Botticelli (c1445-1510), created the most famous and haunting images in this field, notably The Birth of Venus and Primavera , both now in the Uffizi. His late work shows a deliberate archaism, perhaps as a result of the religious fanaticism of the time. Filippino Lippi (1457/8-1504), the result of Fra' Filippo's affair with a nun, came to fame with his completion of Masaccio's frescoes in Santa Maria del Carmine. He developed a style based on that of Botticelli, though with a more consciously antique feeling. Another painter with pagan tastes was the reclusive Piero di Cosimo (c1462-1521), who was at his best in enigmatic mythological scenes. Meanwhile, vivid new frescoes were created for Florence's churches by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-94), whose works are now chiefly remembered for their documentary interest, being filled with portraits of contemporary notables and vivid anecdotal details.
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