Early Renaissance Art in Europe

• Renaissance refers to rebirth or revival
• The concept of such rebirth gained traction in Italy since Giotto's time
• Praising artists and poets involved equating their work to that of the ancients
• Giotto was celebrated for a true revival of art. Meaning his art was comparable to famed masters praised by ancient Greek and Roman writers
• The idea resonated in Italy due to its past prominence, with Rome as the center of the civilized world
• Italy's power diminished after Germanic tribes (Goths and Vandals) invaded, leading to the Roman Empire's breakup
• Italians linked the idea of revival to 'the grandeur that was Rome'
• The period between the classical age and the anticipated rebirth was considered a mere 'time between'
• The concept of rebirth or renaissance led to terming the intervening period as the Middle Ages
• Italians blamed the Goths for the Roman Empire's fall, associating the art of the Middle Ages with the term Gothic, implying barbaric
• These Italian ideas lacked factual basis and oversimplified actual events
• Art revival after the Dark Ages was gradual, with the Gothic period contributing significantly
• Italians may have been less aware of this gradual growth compared to those farther north since they lagged during the Middle Ages causing Giotto's achievements to appear as major innovations or a rebirth of art
• Italians believed art, science, and scholarship flourished in the classical period, were destroyed by northern barbarians, and needed revival for a new era
• This sentiment was especially strong in Florence, the city of Dante and Giotto
• In the fifteenth century, Florentine artists aimed to pioneer a new artistic movement breaking away from past conventions

Filippo Brunelleschi

• (1377-1446): A prominent architect leading the new Florentine artists
• Brunelleschi worked on Florence cathedral's completion, mastering Gothic technical inventions
• Brunelleschi's fame rests partly on his construction and design achievements, utilizing Gothic vaulting techniques
• Tasked with crowning the cathedral with a dome, Brunelleschi devised a solution to span the space between pillars
• Brunelleschi discarded traditional styles for new churches and buildings, adopting the revival of Roman grandeur
• Brunelleschi measured ruins in Rome, sketching forms and ornaments, but did not directly copy ancient buildings
• Brunelleschi aimed to create a new building style using classical architecture to create new modes of harmony and beauty
• Brunelleschi succeeded, influencing European and American architects.
• Classical forms (columns, pediments) are found in cities and villages
• Architects questioned the Renaissance tradition in the present century, revolting against it like Brunelleschi had done against the Gothic tradition.
• Buildings still retain classical form remnants in door and window frame moldings, building measurements and proportions today
• Brunelleschi succeeded in creating the architecture of a new era

The Cappella Pazzi

• Filippo Brunelleschi built the façade of a little church for the powerful family of the Pazzi in Florence
• The church has little in common with any classical temple, but less with the forms used by Gothic builders
• Brunelleschi combined columns, pilasters and arches to achieve an effect of lightness and grace
• Framing of the door showed that Brunelleschi carefully studied the ancient ruins, and buildings such as the Pantheon
• Within the bright interior, there is features which the Gothic architects valuesd so highly
• There are no high windows, no slim pillars and the blank white wall is subdivided by grey pilaasters
• Pilasters convey the idea of a classical order
• Pilasters serve no real function in the construction of the building, but only the emphasize the shape and proportion of the interior
• Brunelleschi was not only the initiator of Renaissance architecture

Masaccio

• Wall-painting shows the Holy Trinity with the Virgin and St John, and the donors
• Artist Masaccio (1401-28), meaning 'clumsy Thomas' who brought about a revolution in painting
• The revolution was the technical trick of perspective art Amazed Florentines felt wall-painting had made a hole to look into a new burial chapel in Brunelleschi's style
• Florentines were amazed at the simplicity and grandeur of figures framed by new architecture
• Instead of delicate grace, Florentines say massive heavy figures, instead of easy flowing solid angular forms and a stark tomb with a skeleton placed on it instead of flowers and precious stones
• Masaccio's art was sincere and moving and less pleasing to the eye
• Masaccio admired Giotto's dramatic grandeur, the Holy Virgin points to her crucified Son and figures look like statues.
• Masaccio heightened by perspective frame making people feel they could almost touch them and brings them and message nearer
• Masaccio’s new devices and discoveries were not an end but they always used them to bring the meaning of their subject nearer

Donatello

• Donatello (1386-1466): greatest sculptor of Brunelleschi's circle
• Commissioned to create St George, for niche on Florentine church outside, by the guild of the armourer
• Donatello broke with how the Gothic statues hovered at the side of porches in calm solemn rows
• Donatello's St George stands firmly on the ground, his feet planted resolutely.
• Donatello face has none of the vague and serene beauty of medieval saints, but all energy and concentration figure 150. He seems to watch the approach with defiant determination
• The statue has remained famous as an unrivalled picture of youthful dash and courage
• Knightly saint's imagination is admired along with fresh sculpture visualizing
• The whole approach to the art of sculpture shows a completely new conception.
• The statue provides an impression of and remains clear in outline and solid as a rock
• Sculpture has gentle refinement with Vigorous observation of nature. Details show independence from traditional models.
• Proves a fresh and determined study of human body’s features
• Florentine masters did not repeat old formulas handed down by medieval artists
• Like the Greeks and Roman, Florentine masters began to study the bodies by asking models or fellow artist to pose for them
• This new method and interest makes Donatello’s work look so strikingly convincing

Donatello Bronze Relief

• Donatello accquired great fame in his lifetime and was called to other Italian cities to add to their beauty and glory
• After the St George, Donatello made a bronze relief, illustrating a scene from the life of St John with a gruesome moment
• Look into the royal banqueting hall, beyond it is the musicians gallery and sequence of rooms behind
• The king shrinks back, children cry and run away after the princess had asked the king for the head of St John as a reward for dancing
• They all were new details to people who are accustomed to clear and graceful narratives of Gothic art
• People have no desire to form a need and pleasing pattern, but rather to produce the effect of sudden chaos
• Figures are harsh and angular in their movements and contemporaries felt that the scene must have looked almost uncannily alive
• Figure has violent gestures and there is no attempted to mitigate the horror of the story
• New art of perspecive further increases the illusion of reality

Claus Sluter

• Claus Sluter (1380-1405) worked at Dijon, the capital of the Duchy of Burgundy
• Sluter's famous work consists of group of prophets at the fountain of a pilgrimage place/
• The prophets words were interpreted as the predication of the Passion
• Claus Sluter men are no longer solemn ad rigid figures that flanked the porches of the Gothic cathedrals
• Man with the Turbin is Daniel and the bare-headed old prophet, Isaiah
• Sluter has created massive figures with dignity of sweep
• People look leas like statues and more like characters about to recite their parts

Jan van Eyck

• Jan van Eyck (1390?-1441) Most famous work is a huge altarpiece with many scenes of which begun with Hubert

• With differences there are number of similarities between Masaccio's fresco

• Both show the pious donor at the sides

• Above, god the father as majestic as Masaccio but enthroned in splendour like a Pope, who called Jesus

• Like the altar, with the image, show happens when feast days, when are revealed

• Above we are shown the familiar scene of the Annunciation His most striking demonstration was his figures of Adanm and Eve after the fall with no parallel with masters of the Renaissance as they never abandoned the traditions of Greek and Roman art.

• Ancient had ‘idealized’ the human figure while Jan Van Eyck did have it.

• Van Eyck artists made their images to evoke the splendour of Heaven