As Brunelleschi made no written record of his perspective findings, it remained for Alberti to be the first to put the theory

into writing, in his treatise on painting, Della pittura (1435)

Donatello1386 1466 He was born in Florence. He was the son of Nicolo di Betto Bardi. The earliest surviving use of linear perspective in art is attributed to Donato di Niccol di Betto Bardi (1386-1466), called Donatello, who is considered by many to be the greatest sculptor of the early Renaissance in Italy, and perhaps one of the greatest sculptors of all time.

DONATELLO: Relief: St. George and the Dragon

1411 He worked at a statue of St. Mark for the church of Orsanmichele until 1413

1417 - He completed a St. George for the confraternity of the Cuirassmakers

1. Like the other sculpture in the niches at Orsanmichele, St. George was commissioned by a guild (the Corazzai--the Armorer's guild) and depicts its patron saint.

2. The relief at the base of the tabernacle depicts St. George slaying the dragon.
3. It is noteworthy because of its new relief style, the so-called relievo schiacciato, misleadingly translated as "flattened relief. 4. Instead of a flat relief background out of which figures and details emerge, here deep space is depicted through optical qualities in the carving which emphasize light and shadow.

5. This kind of pictorial relief gives a sense of atmospheric perspective and the illusion of depth

Feast of Herod. This panel, made for the font of the Siena cathedral, The orthogonals are not very long or prominent, but what there is of them can be seen to intersect at a vanishing point near the elbow of the musician in the central window. The vanishing point would be at eye level for the figures seated behind the table, if they were sitting up straight.

The meaning of the word The word 'perspective' derives from the Latin (ars) perspectiva, The meaning of the word 1. The word 'perspective' derives from the Latin (ars) perspectiva, a term adopted by the Roman philosopher Boethius (d. AD 524) when translating Aristotle to render the Greek optiki (optics). 2. In the 15th century 'perspective' came to mean seeing through a transparent plane on which the scene is traced from a single fixed eye-point. It then became in Latin perspectiva artificialis or perspectiva pingendi to distinguish it from the older science perspectiva naturalis or communis.

The Velo 1. Alberti described how an artist could get a correct view of a scene by observing it through a thin veil, or velo. 2. The idea is that we can get a correct image of some object seen through such a veil or a window by tracing the outline of the object on the window glass. 3. Albrech Durer designed several such machines.

Paolo Uccello
Wireframe of a chalice Uccello created this wireframe perspective drawing of a Chalice around 1450

a. In the hunt everything is organised on a distant and almost unseen stag, placed on the vanishing point. b. The hunters on horseback, the hounds and beaters run from all sides among the slim bare trunks of a darkly wooded landscape each of them placed on a specific orthogonal (the trees form the function of a tiled floor by fixing specific perspective points as we see in a tiled floor) c. Uccello was one of the first Florentine to use perspective in painting. Brunelleschi was the first to demonstrate it Architectural design in 1413. d. e. Alberti was the first to pioneer its application to painting. Uccello means bird because he loved birds.

In 1450 he painted three enormous panels depicting the battle at San Romano in which the Florentine army defeated Siena some twenty years earlier

1. Three panelled painting that occupied the end wall of the Medici bed chamber in the Palace that was later occupied by Lorenzo the Magnificent. The one above is in London. 2. The event being illustrated occurred in 1432 and the subsequent painting probably around 1450. 3. The rearing horses seem to have been transplanted from a carousel the impression is one of a tournament not a military engagement. 4. This is partly due to Uccellos stylisation of contour and modelling in the houses and the armour, consistently reduced to brilliant ornament rather than grim reality. 5. The toy people do not really wound each other or bleed and furthermore the unreality of the scene derives from the rigidity of the perspective construction. 6. The broken lances fall in conformity with the orthogonals as have the pieces of armour ( In the Uffizi panel there is a shield in the corner with a scroll wrapped around it with the signature of the artist, all the letters receding in perspective.) 7. In the lower left, the soldier has conveniently died in perspective. 8. The background cut off from the foreground stage by a dark frieze of fruit trees, is an accurate rendition of the rolling hills of divided into narrow field strips that are still visible near San Romano in the Arno valley near Pisa. There in the background we see vestiges of combat in progress, 9. A dog chasing a rabbit as well as peasant workers unconcernedly carrying on with their activities.

San Marco, Florence, 14361445 1. Michelozzo built for Cosimo de' Medici a sober, though comfortable, Renaissance edifice, including the elegant cloister and, above all, the Library, which, under the reign of Lorenzo il Magnifico became one of the favourite meeting points for Florentine humanists such as Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, who could conveniently consult here texts in Latin and Greek

language.
2. In 1436 Fra Angelico was one of a number of the monks from Fiesole who moved to the newly-built monastery of San Marco in Florence. 3. This was an important move which put him in the centre of artistic activity of the region and brought about the patronage of one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the city's Signoria, Cosimo de' Medici, who had a large cell (later occupied by Savonarola) reserved for himself at the monastery in order that he might retreat from the world.

San Marco The Dominican order of which Fra Angelico was a member move to the convent of San Marco in Florence in 1436. Funded by Cosimo de Medici who also donated 400 classical texts. It was here that Fra Angelico worked on the Annunciation and other famous works

Fra Angelico - The Annunciation

Instead of being separated into individual hierarchical panels along a common frontal plane depicted in individual niches. The saints are now moving together in real space. They now form a group and converse around the virgin. Popular versions were the marriage of St Catherine to Christ and were often depicted as thanksgivings for victory.

The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels and Saints c. 1438 - 40

a. The Virgin and Child . . . looks at first glance, like any other Gothic painting with its graceful sinewy lines and its decorative- background filled with patterns. b. A closer look reveals the awareness of perspective and especially of the play of light and the sculptural influence on his representation of physical space. c. There is a special arrange of figures standing in relation to each other in real space. d. The design in the carpet is deliberately played off against the standing representation of the crucifixion in the foreground. e. Past the extraordinarily abstract design behind the throne to the landscape in which we see a convincing play of light upon the trees.

a. He has tried to link the foreground with the background by using a road that moves into the distance and is then hidden behind a hill. b. He has tried to paint the full horror of martyrdom and the heads of the fallen saints lie in a pool of their own blood. c. The problem for Fra Angelico is to render the realism of the scene and still persist in the pictorial convention of the halo still attached to the decapitated heads.

a. Fra Angelico was the model of a good monk Lippi was not.
b. Angelicos contemporaries called him the Reverend Angel in the 19th C he was thought to be a saint. c. Lippi was left as and orphan and brought up by the Carmine monks in Florence. c. He was not able to live a life of frugal chastity. He eventually met a nun who, like him was living a life totally unsuited to her temperament.

d. Both were dispensed from their vows and by all accounts had a happy marriage.

Fra Filippo Lippi. Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels with St. Frediano and St. Augustine (The Barbadori Altarpiece). 1437.

Virgin and Child Filippo Lippi 1. Lippis version was influenced by Masaccio's Brancacci chapel. 2. But the monumentality of Masaccio was tempered by a sweetness and delicacy found in Fra Angelicos paintings, the mystical quality of later works show Netherlandish influence growing at the time in Italy. 3. Lippis Virgin has a rounded physical presence the picture is not suited to his character and tends to weigh heavily on the eye the gravity of the scene tends towards a claustrophobic effect.

Annunciation and seven saints Here the true personality of Lippi is seen in a composition that sits comfortably in the new conventions of space yet still uses the Gothic design and patterning in a satisfying way.

The Annunciation and Seven Saints about 1450-3 LIPPI, Fra Filippo about 1406 1469

Giovani di Bicci, increased the

wealth of the family through his creation of the Medici Bank, and became one of the richest men in the city.

Although never held any political office, he gained a strong popular support to the family when he supported the introduction of a proportional taxing system. His grandson was Lorenzo the Magnificent who took the helm of the Medici family in 1469 and is famous for being the patron of Leonardo as well as Michelangelo.

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (September 27, 1389 August 1, 1464),

was the first of the Medici political dynasty, rulers of Florence during most of the Italian Renaissance;

also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'"

Medici family members placed allegorically in the entourage of a king from the Three Wise Men in the Tuscan countryside in a Benozzo Gozzoli fresco, c. 1459.

Medici rule stagnated until his grandson Lorenzo took over. Lorenzo de' Medici the Magnificent

The incompetent Piero II

Cosimo I de' Medici in Armour by Agnolo Bronzino. Cosimo I (1519-1574) became Duke of Florence in 1537. A skilled but who annexed their rival town Sienna to Florence in 1555 ruthless soldier. A patron and collector of the arts.

Leo X

Clement VII. Sebastiano del Piombo. c.1531

Antonio del Pollaiuolo 1. Born in Florence. 2. His brother, Piero, was also an artist, and the two frequently worked together. Their work shows both classical influences and an interest in human anatomy; reportedly, the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject. 3. They took their nickname from the trade of their father, who in fact sold poultry (pollaio meaning "hen coop" in Italian). 4. Antonio's first studies of gold-smithing and metalworking were under either his father or Andrea del Castagno: the latter probably taught him also in painting. 5. He only produced one surviving engraving, the Battle of the Nude Men, but both in its size and sophistication this took the Italian print to new levels, and remains one of the most famous prints of the Renaissance.

1. A monumental work and his most ambitious made for the Pucci family finished in 1475 (the year Michelangelo was born). 2. He was obsessed with the anatomy of the figure and how best to display it in the most challenging positions. 3. The St. being martyred is really incidental and not the concern of the artist. He is a painter of action not merely placing figures in a composition the vigorous action poses are what he is chiefly known for. 4. The archers are the focus of his concerns and their actions display all that Antonio knew about muscular tension. 5. In reality there are only three poses for the six archers. Antonio has turned each figure around for his counterpart on the other side of the tree as if he has reversed the clay model instead of reversing the cartoon (as was common practice). 6. This is likely since he was a sculptor and his painting leads towards Michelangelo who was definitely influenced by this.

The Extent of anatomical knowledge in the 15th C

"Disease Man. This drawing serves as a diagram of the diseases that affect different parts of the body and is a famous example of Renaissance anatomical realism. Four columns on either side of the figure list diseases alphabetically, generally without relation to logic or pathology. Some diseases, on the other hand, are recognized as local: these are listed from head to toe, from quinsy of the throat and bad fingernails, to gout in the feet; in between, we see "running of the chest," arthritis in the arms, "passion" of the heart, cramps in the legs, and most strikingly, cancer of the testicles.

Johannes de Ketham. Fasiculo de medicina. (Venice: Gregori, 1493).

"Zodiac Man.
Medical astrology was based on the belief that the body's "microcosm" corresponded to the "macrocosm" of the planets and stars and gave order to the seemingly random course of life and health. Thus, it assisted the physician in prescribing treatment, in predicting the course of a disease, and in casting horoscopes. This woodcut shows which constellation, symbolized by a sign of the zodiac, governs each region of the body.

Aries governs the head as well as March (which was once the first month of the year), and so on.
Consequently, the table advises that a region of the body should not receive medication when the corresponding sign is dominant. Thus, it is bad to treat the head in March, and "anyone who does so will cause a concussion or die."
Johannes de Ketham. Fasiculo de medicina. (Venice: Gregori, 1493).

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl - c 1508

The later innovators in the field, Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) and Michelangelo (14751564),
who are known to have undertaken detailed anatomical dissections at various points in their long careers, set a new standard in their portrayals of the human figure

(Studies for the Libyan Sibyl, 24.197.2).

The patrons commissioning art in this period also came to expect such anatomical mastery. In the words of the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (1488
1560), who was trying to impress a duke to hire him, and who also appears to have run an academy for the teaching of young artists, "I will show you that I know how to dissect the brain, and also living men, as I have dissected dead ones to learn my art" (The Academy of Baccio Bandinelli, 17.50.16).

Leonardo Da Vinci - Anatomical Drawings Leonardo da Vinci, who is without doubt the most significant artist-anatomist of all time, first undertook a series of detailed studies of the human skull in 1489, borrowing from the architect's rigorous technique of representing three-dimensional forms in plan, section, elevation, and perspectival view. He thereby invented a new vocabulary for the history of scientific illustration. Leonardo produced his most precisely drawn dissections of the human body in 151011, probably working under the direction of the young professor of anatomy, Marcantonio della Torre, from the University of Pavia.

1. None of Leonardo's discoveries were published in his lifetime. 2. However, his methods of illustrating the dissection of muscles in layers, as well as some of his "plan, section, and elevation" techniques, seem to have become widely disseminated, and were incorporated in the first comprehensively illustrated Renaissance treatise, 3. Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica, published in Basel in 1543 (53.682). 4. Some of Vesalius' images of partially dissected bodies, set dramatically in a landscape, appear to have been designed by Titian's pupil, Jan Steven van Calcar (1499?1546).

Andreas Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica, published in Basel in 1543

Pope Sixtus At the beginning of his papacy in 1471, Sixtus IV donated several historically important Roman sculptures that founded a papal collection of art that would eventually develop into the collections of the Capitoline Museums. He also re-founded, enriched and enlarged the Vatican Library. He had Regiomontanus attempt the first sanctioned reorganization of the Julian calendar and increased the size and prestige of the papal chapel choir, bringing singers and some prominent composers (Gaspar van Weerbeke, Marbrianus de Orto, and Bertrandus Vaqueras) to Rome from the North.

His bronze funerary monument, now in the basement Treasury of St. Peter's Basilica, like a giant casket of goldsmith's work, is by Antonio Pollaiuolo. The top of the casket is a lifelike depiction of the pope lying in state. Around the sides are bas relief panels, depicting with allegorical female figures the arts and sciences (Grammar, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Painting, Astronomy, Philosophy, and Theology). Each figure incorporates the oak tree ("rovere" in Italian) symbol of Sixtus IV. The overall program of these panels, their beauty, complex symbolism, classical references, and arrangement relative to each other is one of the most compelling and comprehesive illustrations of the Renaissance worldview.

Stoa of Attalus, Restored interior portico a. In Italy there was an interest in Greco Roman culture that was to characterise the renaissance. b . The Classical Greek systems of Plato and Aristotle and Pythagoras were combined. c. It was first established in the 3rd century but during the 15th C it was revised and made compatible with Christian belief. d. The view was that ideas were more important than things and the soul is endowed with virtues and is capable of an inner ascent to God e. Cosimo de Medici founded the Plato academy of Florence in 1459. f. He used the foremost theorist and classics translator of the time Marsilio E. Fecino.

Botticelli
The Art of Botticelli is characterised by the sinewy line and decoration seen in Filippo lippy and Fra Angelico combined with the draughtsmanship of Pollaiuolo. The stiff scientific formulas of the Pollaiuolo brothers are replaced by an elegant and lyrical approach that is graceful and refine. But also demonstrates an understanding not only of the new studies in anatomy but also the concerns of neo Platonism. The Primavera is an allegory on the harmony of nature and humankind and contains many mythical figures. An allegory of life, beauty, and knowledge united by love in the freshness of a Spring morning

Sandro Botticelli Primavera - 1482

Venus, at the centre of the painting the link between nature and civilisation and another form of the Virgin Mary, above her is Cupid. Who is blindfolded and shoots his arrows at the three Graces (The handmaidens of Venus) who were believed to represent the three phases of love beauty, desire and fulfilment. They are removed from the others in time. This is shown by the direction their garments move which is opposite to the flow of wind cause by Zephyr.

On the right the figure of Zephyr (the west wind of spring) is chasing Chloris, who is then transformed into Flora the Goddess of flowers. He initiates breathing love into and warmth into the winter he is transforming. Mercury is on the left another male counterpart to Zephyr he brings the hope of love to mankind and provides a link to the Gods as is seen by his pointing up through the clouds.

Next to Chloris is Flora or, her daughter Persephone who was caught by Hades she steps forward clothed in Blossoms holding blossoms in her dress she is about to throw them out to

start a new spring. Cupid shoots blindly demonstrating the pain of unrequited love; the Graces seem lost in their own world. There is a nostalgic atmosphere something seen later in the embarkation for the Isle of Cytherea by Watteau pg 424, perhaps with a Shakespearian atmosphere of midsummer
nights dream.

The Birth of Venus 1485 This sense of longing for and intangible sadness is even more clearly seen in the Birth of Venus. It was painted on Canvas which was less expensive than the wooden panels reserved for church or court pictures. The wooded shore. The trees form part of a flowering orange grove as per the sacred garden of the Hesperides. Each small blossom is tipped with gold. Gold is used throughout the painting as an indicator of divine status. Seen is the trunks and leaves. The West wind

Zephyr (Greek for west wind) and Chloris Fly with limbs entwined as a twofold entity, blow Venus ashore. Roses fall all around which according to legend came into being at Venus birth.

Venus and the half shell

Venus is portrayed with a pose of complex twists and turns that defy normal human beings bodies. The birth of Venus according to legend occurred when the Titan Cronus castrated his father Uranus. The severed genitals fell into the sea and fertilised it. Venus is depicted not at birth but at the moment when she is conveyed by the shell and is about to land at Pahpos in Cyprus. The Nymph May be one of the three Horae or the Hours, Greek Goddesses of the seasons who were attendants to Venus. Her dress and robe she holds out are embroidered with red and white daisies, yellow primroses and blue cornflowers all spring flowers appropriate to the theme of birth. She wears a garland of myrtle and a sash of pink roses as worn by Flora in Primavera.

Sources
The painting was one of a series which Botticelli produced, taking as inspiration written descriptions by the 2nd century historian Lucian of masterpieces of Ancient Greece which had long since disappeared. The ancient painting by Apelles was called Venus Anadyomene, "Anadyomene" meaning "rising from the sea"; this title was also used for Botticelli's painting, The Birth of Venus only becoming its better known title in the 19th century. 'The Birth of Venus' is very similar to Praxiteles' Aphrodite, a statue.

A mural from Pompeii was never seen by Botticelli, but may have been a Roman copy of the then famous painting by Apelles which Lucian mentioned. In classical antiquity, the sea shell was a metaphor for a woman's vulva.

The Aphrodite of Cnidus was one of the most famous works of the Attic sculptor Praxiteles (4th century BC). It and its copies are often referred to as the Venus Pudica (modest Venus) type, on account of her covering her groin with her right hand. Variants of the Venus Pudica (suggesting an action to cover the breasts) are the Venus de' Medici or the Capitoline Venus. The Venus de' Medici or Medici Venus is a lifesize Hellenistic marble sculpture depicting the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite. It is a first century BC marble copy, perhaps made in Athens, of a bronze original Greek sculpture, following the type of the Aphrodite of Cnidos, which would have been made by a sculptor in the immediate Praxitelean tradition, perhaps at the end of the century

Giuliano de' Medici - 1478

Girolamo Savonarola (September 21, 1452 May 23, 1498),

Italian Dominican priest and leader of Florence from 1494 until his execution in 1498

Girolamo Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo, c. 1498.