FLORENCE 1420-1430

CH. 4

GHIBERTI…GATES OF PARADISE, 1425-52

GENTILE DA FABRIANO

The Adoration of the Magi (Strozzi altarpiece) 1423 tempera on panel

Church of Santa Trinita, Florence may have been designed by Ghiberti

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renai

ssance-reformation/early-renaissance1/painting-

in-Florence/v/gentile-adoration#!

Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise Doors, 1425-

52

• Organization comparable to Gentile’s

Adoration of the Magi

• Figures against hilly landscape…allows for

multiple characters…covering entire surface

• “I was permitted to execute the commission

in whatever way I believed would result in

the greatest perfection, the most

ornamentation, and the greatest

richness…In the stories that called for

numerous figures, I strove to imitate nature

as closely…with all the perspective I could

produce.”

Ghiberti, Gates of

Paradise, Florence

Baptistry, 1425-52

Note:

Square format…geometric

simplicity

Three-dimensional figures

in three-dimensional

space

Architecture no longer

frames the figures

Ghiberti, Lorenzo (1378-1455),

one of the most important early

Renaissance sculptors of

Florence; his work and writings

formed the basis for much of the

style and aims of the later High

Renaissance.

Adam/Eve and Cain/Abel

Noah and Abraham

Jacob/Esau and Joseph/Bros.

Moses/Sinai and Joshua/Promised Land

David/Goliath and Soloman/Q of Sheba

Ghiberti. Jacob and Esau, 1425-52

On the rooftop…God tells Rebecca “Two nations are in thy

womb, and two peoples shall be divided out of they womb,

and one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall

serve the younger.”

Ghiberti. Jacob and Esau, 1425-52

Rebecca in bed…Jacob and Esau confront each other

(center)…Isaac instructs Esau to go hunting (meat for

blessing)…Rebecca (holds meat) conspires with Jacob

The use of architecture, scaled figures, gridded

pavement…allows Ghiberti to show different chapters of

Genesis in one frame.

Story of Jacob and Esau

DONATELLO IN SIENA

PERSPECTIVE AND NARATIVE

Donatello, Feast of Herod, c.1425, baptismal font, Siena Cathedral

Donatello…first to demonstrate Brunelleschi’s new perspective.

The marble slab below S. George explored illusionistic

devices…atmospheric perspective. Now he created an interior

layered with hard edges

Donatello, Feast of Herod,

c.1425, baptismal font,

Siena Cathedral

Narrative:

R…Salome danced to induce her

stepfather to give her anything she

wanted (musician in center arch)

L…head presented to king

E.Renaissance Painting in Florence

Massaccio (Big Tom) established a new

direction in Florentine painting (Giotto) by

integrating monumental and consistently

scaled figures into rational architectural

and natural settings using linear

perspective.

We see a change of feeling from an

interest in purely decorative naturalism to

a new and vivid realism.

Chiaroscuro…artistic use of light and shade: the

use of light and shade in paintings and drawings, or

the effect produced by this

MASSACCIO. TRINITY WITH THE

VIRGIN, SAINT JOHN THE

EVANGELIST AND DONORS, fresco,

1425- 27/28

Sta. Maria Novella, Florence

• Renaissance interests:

• Realism based on observation

• Application of mathematics to pictorial organization of perspective

• Where is the vanishing point?

• Holy Trinity provides a vivid example of a

pyramid or triangular composition. Rather

than placing his figures along a horizontal

line, Masaccio linked them in a series of

interlocking pyramids.

• First used by Masaccio, the pyramid

configuration became one of the hallmarks

of Renaissance art.

Masaccio’s Trinity and van Eyck’s Ghent altarpiece are

contemporary.

Compare and contrast the two works.

http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-

renaissance1/painting-in-Florence/v/masaccio-holy-trinity-c-1427

• In 1427 Masaccio painted his Holly Trinity

for the Santa Maria Novella church in

Florence. This fresco is considered to be

one of his finest masterpieces and was

rediscovered in 1861 after being hidden by

a stone altarpiece in the sixteenth century.

http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-

renaissance1/painting-in-Florence/v/masaccio-the-tribute-money-1427

Brancacci chapel, Sta. Maria del Carmine, Florence

TRIBUTE MONEY, c.1426-28, fresco

Masaccio’s figures represent a revolutionary step in Western art—

solid three-dimensional figures, all standing in balanced

contrapposto. A constant light source creates a realistic blend of

light and shade. This chiaroscuro give each figure the illusion of

volume.

http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-

renaissance1/painting-in-Florence/v/masaccio-expulsion-of-adam-and-eve-

from-eden-brancacci-chapel-c-1424-1427

• Masaccio…Explusion…Brancacci Chapel

• Fall from grace

MASACCIO.

THE EXPULSION FROM

PARADISE, fresco

Masaccio based

his Eve on this

ancient statue of

the Modest

Venus

• In about 1428 the artist left Florence and travelled

to Rome where he died at the age of 27.

• During his short life he did not enjoy the popular

esteem given to some of his contemporaries, his

fame was confined to other painters, but his

influence on successive generations of artists is

profound.

• It is said that all the Florentine artists studied his

work, including Michelangelo. His legacy was to

direct Italian Painting way from the Gothic style

and towards a more realistic and natural

interpretation of the world.