mfv ren ch.4
TRANSCRIPT
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.
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.
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
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.