MODULE 2: Early Renaissance Art in europe, Chapter 17

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 Modules: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

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Late medieval Europe’s contact with Muslim Spain and with the cultures of the Muslim Levant initiated a secular examination of the tangible world as opposed to the restrictive dogma of the Catholic Church. Feudalism and city-states began the slow process of ‘nation building.’ Humanist philosophy, a merchant class, world exploration, a ‘flowering’ of the arts and sciences, all signaled a fundamental change in the way the world was viewed. If late Gothic Art was a ‘coarse imitation’ of nature, the Renaissance was an act of abstraction, of a poetic ideal. This process led to a cult of personality, an attribution of genius was applied to the 6 significant artists of the late 15th century; these artists were the first to sign their work. Other factors precipitating the Renaissance was an interest in the visible world and knowledge derived from concrete sensory experience.

From some perspectives the period of the Renaissance was a dramatic change in the way the world was viewed. It was the beginning of Modernist thinking. The Protestant Reformation may be seen as merely more ecclesiastical bindings on the dogmatic yoke of religion or as an explosion of positive, new ideas creating a new world lived in a new way.

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SLIDE:
Giotto “Interior of the Arena Chapel” (1306) Pl. 17-2

The frescos on the walls of the Arena Chapel are said to be Giotto’s finest achievement. The function of Giotto's painting was to convey the biblical story to an illiterate population. The panels on the walls represent specific episodes, the blue ceiling represents the sky, moon and stars. Giotto's innovation was to represent religious dogma with a greater sense of natural reality.

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SLIDE:
Limbourg “The Book of Hours-February” (1416) Bros. Pl. 17-6

These prayer books and monthly calendars were primarily the possessions of pious aristocracy. What distinguishes the illustrations of the Limbourg Bros. is the rich detail of the imagery (cast shadows and foot prints in the dirt) and candid view of peasant life.

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SLIDE:
Campin “Merode Altarpiece” (1428) Pl. 17-11

Robert Campin (the Master of Flemalle) (1378-1444) is one of many artists of the transition period between late Gothic and pre-Renaissance who portrayed social piety and religious passion. His ‘altarpiece,’ like so many before, expresses an intense religious event, the Annunciation. At the same time, Campin presents a moment in time, a real experience of the physical environment in the early 1400’s.

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SLIDE:
Van Eyck “The Annunciation” (1436) Pl. 17-12

 Comparing Van Eyck’s interpretation with Campin’s, one is struck by the more ‘natural’ quality of Campin’s work relative to the intense Flemish fascination with detail and gothic stylization seen in Van Eyck’s work.

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SLIDE:
van Eyck “Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride” (1434) Pl. 17-14

Increasingly, secular imagery intrudes into the picture plane. This reflects social/cultural changes in general. The worth of the individual and the details of individual lives increasingly become the subject of the art. This is evident in van Eyck’s “Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride.” This painting, one of the earliest examples of oil painting, expresses the mundane symbols of marriage. The iconography of many of the objects in the painting suggests an effort to record religious faith.

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SLIDE:
Donatello “David” (1432) Pl. 17-53

A dramatic example of stylistic innovation may be seen in Donatello’s (1386-1466) “David,” the first life-sized male nude sculpture since Greek antiquity. The impact of this sculpture is apparent in the fact that it was 30-50 years before another artist would attempt the same subject.

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SLIDE:
Donatello “Mary Magdalen” (1440) Pl. 17-54

A perfect example of the stylistic interpretations that were entering into the repertoire of artists may be seen in the expressive difference between Donatello’s David and Mary Magdalen. Where the David is portrayed with idealized pagan sensuality, the Mary Magdalen is an expression of pathos and pain.

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SLIDE:
Brunelleschi “Dome of Florence Cathedral” (1436) Pl. 17-33,34

As dramatic as Donatello’s contributions were, Filippo Brunelleschi’s (1377-1446) development (from ideas stolen from Muslim scholar, Abu Hassan ) of linear perspective would change the look of art for 500 years. Additionally, his unique solutions to architectural engineering would establish new methods of construction. His method of solving the dome problem for the Florence Cathedral was said to derive from the strength in structure of an up-ended egg.

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SLIDE:
Brunelleschi “Church of San Lorenzo, Florence” (1428) Pl. 17-36

Here Brunelleschi uses the lines of one-point perspective to enhance the visual experience of the structure, leading the eye to the primary site of liturgical action - the altar.

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SLIDE:
Masaccio “Holy Trinity” (1428) Pl. 17-61

In Masaccio’s (Tommaso Guidi)(1401-1428) fresco “Holy Trinity” the religious content of great spiritual gravity is supported by an intellectual’s curiosity of the ‘cutting-edge” technology of the time- linear perspective. Developed by Brunelleschi in 1424, linear perspective would dramatically change the function of art in Western Culture. The ‘deep space’ created by one-point perspective in “Holy Trinity” heralds a larger new issue of the observation of nature. In addition, Masaccio used the lines of perspective to bring the viewer to the foot of the cross.

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SLIDE:
Fouquet “Etienne Chevalier and Saint Stephen” Melun Diptych (1450) Pl. 17-28 “Virgin and Child”

This diptych reminds us of the intensity of Flemish painters and their slavish adherence to detail description. As such, it is safe to assume that the persons pictured appeared in real life much as the portraits portrayed them. Although the image of Virgin and Child is clearly more symbolic and illustrative, the image of Saint Stephan (the figure on the right) is tangible even down to the trickle of blood seen on his shaved head.

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SLIDE:
van der “Portrait of a Lady” (1460) Weyden Pl. 17-17

The most common response by people faced with the alien view of others from a different world or a different time is to stare into their face, looking for some sign of a shared experience of life. So it is with Rogier van der Weyden’s (1400-1464) “Portrait of a Lady”. A probable aristocrat, the ‘Lady’s portrait may have been, as was often the case, the first entreaty of a marriage proposal.

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